*Spelling errors and language in this chapter. Please excuse them!*
"Cameron? Wake up dear," a soothing voice says, slightly shaking my left shoulder. I shrug the hand off sleepily, turning my body so that I am laying on my stomach. I begin to fall back asleep, that is until a large mass collapses on top of me.
"Oof!" I grunt into my pillow. A familiar laugh sounds in my ear. Ali.
"Get up, fat ass," I mumble loud enough for her to hear. She giggles again, picking her body off of me.
"Cameron, please do watch your language and comments," says the other older feminine voice. "They could end up hurting someone's feelings."
I turn my head and open one of my eyes to see my grandma standing with one hand on her hip. I should of known it was her.
"Whatever," I reply, sitting up and begin stretching my limbs. Granny lets out a long sigh.
"The proper saying is 'Yes ma'am'. Not 'whatever'. Do you understand?" She scolds, trying to be as calm as possible. It is way too early in the morning for this.
"Yes ma'am," I reply, rolling my eyes. That causes her to lose her cool.
"Please do not roll your eyes at me! I will not have this attitude in my house! Do you understand me, young lady?" She exclaims, pointing a short manicured finger at me.
"Yes ma'am. I will not roll my eyes anymore. I am truly sorry." I manage to say. I was tempted to say 'I am sorry but I cannot be the perfect little angel that you want me to be' but I was already frustrated with hearing her annoying and nasally voice this early in the morning. Better to make the red queen happy than to be beheaded on the spot.
"I am going to go make you girls breakfast," she sighs, exiting the room. The minute she is out of the room, I collapse back down on my mattress and roll my eyes. Ali sighs and laughs, laying down next to me on my bed.
"What are you thinking about?" Ali asks, staring at the ceiling and playing with a loose piece of her blonde hair.
I sigh. "Mom."
"Yeah, I have been thinking about her all night last night." We sat in silence.
"I miss her," I choke. Don't cry. Don't cry.
"Yeah, I know. I do too," she replies sadly but then turns her head towards me, looking me right in the eye. "But we are in California now! Don't you think it would be fun to get out and explore this state? I mean, it is one of the coolest states that we have ever been!"
I nod, knowing that she is completely right.
"My point is, you don't have to be sad forever. Our lives are so short that we should have fun while we still can. Mom is gone. It sucks. But don't let that tie you down for the rest of your life. There are places to go and people to meet. " She explains, sounding a lot older than she actually is. That is something to know about Ali; she always knows what to say. "There is a party at one of the beaches tomorrow night. I saw it in a billboard yesterday as we were on our way to grandma's house. We should go tomorrow! It will be fun and a great opportunity to meet some people our age!"
"I don't know," I mumble, not liking the idea of a party with tight crowds and a bunch of drunk teens. That's how most parties go in high school now a days.
"Remember, there are people to meet. Might as well try and make some friends now. Besides, you would get a break from grandma's constant correcting. " I think it over for a moment. It would be nice to get away from her.
"Fine," I finally say. She squeals and hugs me before letting me go and making a serious face.
"Don't say fine, say yes ma'am!" Ali proclaims, wiggling her a finger in the air and trying to imitate grandma's voice. I laugh at her failed attempt and she giggles with me. "I am going to go finish unpacking. I will see you at breakfast."
"See ya." I reply. Ali stands up, straitens her peach colored top, and exits my room, shutting the door behind her. I grab my suitcase that hasn't been touched since we got here and begin emptying it. I pull out t-shirts, shorts, jeans, undergarments, and other various articles of clothing and neatly put them in drawers by there type. I then hang up a few dresses and some sweatshirts in my closet, not needing more than 1/8 of the space. I unpack my toiletries and throw them on the counter in my bathroom. My shoes come out of another bag and are tossed into my closet.
After everything is the way I like it, I leave my bedroom and plod towards the kitchen, smelling the pleasant smell of homemade pancakes and tender, mouth-watering bacon. I enter the kitchen, hearing my grandmother hum a tune that I haven't heard before. I have to admit, she is a great singer. Mom had gotten that trait from her.
"Sleeping Beauty has awoken," she says giving me a warm smile. "You slept for at least ten hours!"
"What can I say, a princess needs her beauty sleep, " I reply with a shrug. I take the seat at the small breakfast table closest to the back door.
"Very funny, dear," she says, placing two pancakes and some bacon on a clear, blue plate and setting it down in front of me. I grab a fork and begin shoving food into my mouth. Granny looks at me in disgust.
"That is no way a lady should eat!"
"You always now how to ruin a good moment, don't you?" I mutter, continuing to eat my delicious food.
"What was that?" she questions, raising her eyebrows.
"Nothin," I say as innocent as possible.
"Cam isn't a lady, didn't you know that Grandma?" Ali barges in. I almost spit out my food at the look on granny B's face and Ali chuckles at my behavior. Grandma hands her a plate and Ali seats herself next to me. She puts a piece of pancake on her fork, leans over plate, and delicately puts it into her mouth.
"That is how you eat like a proper lady, Cameron," she points to Ali. "Maybe you should learn a lesson or two from her."
I scrunch my face up in annoyance and Ali just giggles. Grandma turns off the stove, puts the pan that she was using in the sink, and takes off her apron, hanging it on a peg next to the refrigerator. She then exits the room and climbs the stairs.
"Excuse me, Queen Ali, how on Earth do you eat like a primp?" I ask her in my best British accent.
"Well, you pick up your silver fork, put a small bite onto it, stick your pinkie out, and lightly put it into you mouth, only chewing the bite 20 times," she replies in the same accent. We both burst out laughing. We hear feet descending on the stairs and we instantly stop laughing.
"I am off to work ladies. I shall see you later," Grandma tells us, grabbing a white Gucci purse and a pair of keys off of the kitchen counter.
"Goodbye!" Ali says at the same time I say "Later."
Granny B gives me a look but still smiles, obviously forcing it onto her face. Her heels click on the wooden floor as she strides toward the front entrance. We hear the door shut and lock. Ali stands up, grabbing her plate and putting it into the dishwasher. I follow what she does.
"Can we go check out the beach?" Ali asks, washing her hands. "The one that is holding the party tomorrow?"
"How far is it?" I wonder.
"Like five minutes, I think. I saw the sign on the way hear and it was awfully close."
"Alrighty, lets do it."
______________________________________
I turn my vehicle onto a large cement parking lot consisting of at least 50 cars. The sand is packed with hundreds of people. I spot a large group of teens that look to be around our age playing volley ball on the far left of the beach. Ali squeals like a little girl, squirming around in the passenger seat. But this is the first time we have been to a beach before, so I couldn't blame her.
I manage to find a parking space to the far right and put the vehicle in park and take the keys out of the ignition. Ali and I climb out of the car that grandma let me borrow, which is a blue Porsche, and I grab our beach bag. Eyes immediately land on us as we exit the vehicle and I suddenly become self conscious in my light blue bikini and see though cover up. A cute blonde guy makes his way over to us with a smile on his face.
"Nice car," he says, sticking his hand out in a kindly manner. "My name is Blake."
I reach for his hand and shake it, Ali doing the same. As he makes contact with her hand, a small blush appears across her nose and cheekbones. There is something to tease her about later.
"I'm A-Ali," she stutters, and I try not to giggle at the little crush that was already forming.
"Cam," I tell him and he smiles again. Maybe people aren't as bad as I thought they were in California.
"Want to hang with my friends and I?" He asks, looking at Ali and then at me.
"Y-yeah, s-sure. If t-that's alright with you, Cam." I give her a nod and her eyes brighten with excitement.
"Well, come on then ladies, I will escort you to our spot," he holds his arms like a gentlemen and Ali and I laugh, hooking our arms with his. He takes us towards the volleyball nets where a nasty game is going on. We release his arms and he calls over his friends.
"This is Cam, and this is Ali," Blake introduces. Most of the teens look at us with a smile, except for one guy.
"More friends of yours?" says the tall muscular boy with dark brown hair that didn't even look at us, putting quotes around the word 'friends'. I narrow my eyes at him slightly, moving away slightly from Blake's side.
"Shut up, you idiot," he says, eyeing the guy, and his face softens, as if he told him something. The guy looks at me suddenly with a smirk, but his smirk quickly fades. I raise an eyebrow, but look back at Blake, who turns to us. "Sorry for Josh, he can be an ass sometimes. Anyways, this is Jake, Bailey, Amara, Joanne, Kyle, Kaleb, and of course, Joshua." They all give a wave when their name is called except for Joshua, who continues to stare at me.
"You guys can get back to your game," Blake announces. The guy, Kyle picks up the white ball from the sand and nods upward.
"Would you like to play with us next game," Kyle asks.
"Maybe later," I reply and then look over at my sister. "What about you, Ali?"
"Sure," she says smiling and walking with Blake over to the net. I take my cover up off, exposing my bikini. I pull out my orange towel laying it down on the sand. I glance over at the group and see Joshua watching my every movement, his eyes roaming my body. Pervert.
My self conscience side comes out again and my cheeks get warm. I look away and speedily lay down on my stomach, grabbing a book called The Kite Runner out of my beach bag. I didn't think we would be here for long, but I knew my sister was a chatter box, so I came prepared.
After flipping my body for about twenty minutes, I decide to stand and stretch my legs. The minute I am on both of my feet, I am knocked back down by a large mass and we tumble to the ground, the person landing on top of me. The mass quickly climbs off of me, and I open one my eyes to see Joshua dusting his swim shorts off. He then holds out his hand out to me and I gladly take it. He pulls my body up as if I weigh nothing and I wipe the sand off of my arms and legs.
"You okay?" he asks, concern shooting through his eyes. I nod. "I believe that we got off to a rough start. I am Joshua."
"I'm Cam, nice to meet you," I reply, looking into his alluring eyes. His eyes, which are a radiant green, glimmer in the sun. I feel myself blush and I look away from him, embarrassed.
"Nice to meet you too," he replies with a sincere smile. "Would you care to join us for a game?"
"Um, sure I guess."
He motions for me to follow him to the volleyball nets. A surge of excitement travels trough my body when drapes an arm over my shoulder, bringing me in closer to his muscular body. A couple of the girls giggle while glancing at us, causing me to blush again.
"You finally decided to join us!" Blake exclaims, running over to Josh and I. "We call dibbs on you!"
"Fine, we will still beat your asses anyways. You'll need the extra player!" Josh taunts, causing Blake to give him a competitive smile .
"Game on!" Blake yells.
"You play?" Josh asks me, removing his arm from my shoulders.
"You know it!" I reply, smirking confidently. "You are about to get your butt kicked."
"We'll see." He says. And the ball is served.