Chapter 11
"Please explain to me, why the hell I'm up at six in the morning?" I yawned out.
I was just stepping into the living room, after being woken up by a loud siren. For normal people, it would have been enough to send someone screaming out of the house. For me, it was the normal routine at home when my brothers were bored.
"Yeah, what she said." Debby muttered from my side.
She was still dressed in her PJ's just like me. Where I was in a boxer and t-shirt, she was in her night dress, which was black with red lace trimmings. It made me look butch while she was the beauty. I had to refrain from openly staring at her.
"Sorry, it was an accident..."
Across the living room we saw Frank and Matt in a heap with the hand siren in Matt's hand. I rolled my eyes at the red faced duo and silently wondered if they had some training from my brothers.
"Yeah, we didn't mean for it to go off y-" Matt cut his words off and swallowed rather loudly when Eloise stepped up behind me. "I mean, we didn't mean for it to go off, period."
A small giggle escaped Debby's lips before her hand closed over it and her eyes widened when Will came storming into the room.
"I swear I'm going to kill you, both of you." He muttered and almost made it to their heap when they were already up and running out the door.
They weren't even bothered by the fact that they were only wearing boxers with cartoon characters on it.
Eloise didn't waste any time following Will out the door.
Laughing silently, Debby and I made our way over to the couch and dropped into it together.
"I can't really believe that I like a guy who is willing to make a siren go off at six in the morning. I mean, really, doesn't he know what sleep is?" Debby stated with a tired smile.
I chuckled at her words and rolled my eyes.
"It doesn't really matter what men do, it's the way they treat you that really makes the difference."
She nodded in agreement before we settled into a comfortable silence. It didn't last long though, before Frank came running into the house and dove in behind the couch. It looked like these guys really thought behind a couch was the best hiding place. Next, Eloise came stomping into the house with Matt at her side, though she was dragging him in by the ear while he muttered the word 'ow' over and over again. Finally, Will came walking into the room with a wicked grin on his face that would make even 'the Grinch' hide in fear.
Honestly, seeing Will in only his black batman boxers, showing off his chest and abs this early in the morning was not helping with my stupid hormones. His hair wasn't even brushed! That was supposed to totally put me off his looks but even his unruly hair couldn't make him look bad.
"Watch out, you're starting to drool." I heard Frank mutter from behind me and my gaze snapped around while embarrassment was soon replaced by mild rage. Before Will or Eloise could even advance towards Frank, I was jumping over the couch and had Frank pinned to the floor. He was laughing rather loudly until I 'accidentally' pressed my knee into his stomach. He wheezed a little before my mild attack turned into a full out war. I don't know when or how it happened, but somehow we each got ourselves some ammo. Meaning we were each behind a couch and throwing each other with pillows the one second and the next, we each had a water gun and were flooding the living room. The others were standing to the side, watching us with amused or stunned expressions on their faces until I decided to become a war hero. I loaded my gun... admittedly with water, and then made a run for the porch. I could hear Frank behind me, probably thinking he could catch up to me until I went jumping over the side of the porch. I heard someone yelling my name, rather dramatically, before I landed in a crouch and turned around just in time to empty the water gun on Frank. He had run after me to lean over and got a face full of water. By the laughter that burst out from the steps beside me, I knew everyone had followed us outside.
"Damn, that was so ninja of you!" Matt exclaimed through his laughter.
Frank was grumbling about cheating while Debby started towelling his face down, chuckling the entire time. William was clutching at his stomach while his laughter didn't seem to be showing any signs of stopping anytime soon. Eloise had completely forgotten about Matt's hand in all of this, as even she was struggling to breathe through her laughter.
"How did you even jump like that? I mean, that was kind of a little awesome." Frank begrudgingly admired.
"It's called basketball camp and a hell of a lot of penalty drills for sneaking over to the football camp." I shrugged one shoulder and blushed when everyone gave me knowing looks. "It's not like that!" I exclaimed with both hands up. "We just liked showing up the guys and making them look bad. It was like a guilty pleasure and we never lost a single game. Mostly because I used to play football with my brothers before I left for London."
"So you didn't sneak over to them for a little one-on-one action?" Frank wiggled his eyebrows.
"Gross, don't do that." I pulled a face. "No, a few girls flirted and others were fond of snogging with the boys but mostly it was for a game of football."
"Snogging?" Eloise chuckled out. "Man, no movie will ever sound strange to me again."
Rolling my eyes at her, I threw my water gun into Matt's hands and shoved my way up the steps.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to off-"
"You didn't offend me, Eloise." I offered her a reassuring smile. "I'm just really wet right now and would like to get dressed since there's no chance of sleeping more today." My eyes shifted over to Matt and Frank, narrowing a little. "Thank you for the wake-up call, by the way... I'll be sure to return the favour sooner or later." I didn't even wait for a response as I headed off to my room.
We were all finally dressed and ready for the day by eight that morning. Breakfast was going to be eaten at a diner on the beach so the guys could go out surfing while we waited for food. Once everyone was showered and dressed, basically awake, we all marched down to the beach buggies where, remarkably, we all managed to squeeze into two. Debby and Frank were seated in one, with Eloise sitting on the boot, while William and I shared one with Matt on the boot of ours. I attempted to shove him off about three times during the ride to the beach, while Frank tried his best to make Eloise slide off of theirs. It was fun and we were still laughing when we finally pulled to a stop on the beach beside the balcony of the diner. We caught the attention of more than a few locals and beach goers. The teenage waiters were standing at the steps to the balcony with eager smiles on their faces when we drew near. Frank had his arm thrown over Debby's shoulder while Eloise had her arm hooked around Matt's arm and Will was already holding onto my hand. We were just stepping up to the waiters when the brown haired teenage guy nudged his friend with his elbow.
"Isn't this the girl?" The brown haired guy asked the blonde.
"What girl?" The blonde hissed back while trying to maintain his friendly smile.
"You know! That girl on the video..." The brown haired guy whispered and grinned at me the moment we stopped in front of them. "You're that girl from the YouTube video, aren't you?" He asked bluntly, making me frown in confusion.
"That depends on the video..." I muttered while Will chuckled lightly.
"I'm guessing it's that entertaining one about you being piled on by your brothers and Suzanne." He then started laughing while trying to explain the video to his confused friends. Soon, everyone was grinning or chuckling but the guy quickly shook his head at my angry glare.
"No, I'm talking about this awesome mix where-" the guy paused and took a look around before shaking his head and pulling out his phone. "Let me just show you instead." He muttered and a few seconds later, he handed over his phone and a video started up.
It was a remix of my song I played that night. My eyes widened as the video started showing clips of me playing the guitar and singing, then clips of me surfing throughout the day and a clip of my brothers and I tripping each other up and the pileup was featured in the film. My face turned blood red when the shapes of Suzanne and I skinny dipping that night also came onto the screen until it finally finished with three words. "London Girl Returns".
"I think I'm going to die." I muttered with my eyes still frozen on the screen of the phone.
"Man, that video is awesome! It's already got around ten thousand hits." The brunette stated and I swear I felt a little of me dying on the inside. There's a clip of me streaking!
"Calm down Hope, it's just a video." Will said and started rubbing his thumb over the palm of my hand, making me relax just a little. "Besides, that was a pretty good remix." He added and my eyes snapped up to glare at him.
"Are you kidding me? Some pervert put a clip on there of me skinny dipping! I swear if I ever see this genius, I'm going to rip his guts out and feed it to him." I growled out, causing Will to burst out laughing. Soon, I couldn't help but chuckle with him and then his friends joined in.
After being seated and ordering some food, the video was soon completely forgotten. No one even mentioned it again, though they did manage to drag out the fact that I'm a really good singer. I didn't really take their complements to mind though, instead opting to focus on the delicious plate of spaghetti and bolognaise in front of me.
We spent the next two days doing the most random things they could think of. We broke into the town swimming pool at midnight on Saturday, even though there was a perfectly useable ocean barely ten feet from the front door. Then we somehow decided playing paintball on the beach, between all the beach-goers, was a completely respectable idea. We ended up being banned from the public beach for the rest of the weekend. Somehow, Debby and Eloise talked me into going shopping with them and all the guys where we ended up having a mini fashion show in the changing room of every clothing store. We actually ended up getting a free outfit in one of the stores because the owner decided it was good 'publicity' for his shop. The guys were bummed that it was a women's clothing store but felt a little chipper when they realized we were opting for swim suits. We had a barbeque on Sunday evening as a way of finishing off the weekend before we all had to head back to reality. Somehow, though, Debby managed to talk us into playing Twister that night and it was the weirdest game I had ever played with the weirdest group of people I have ever met. It was fun and by Monday morning, we all agreed to do it again the following weekend. Of course, I did manage to talk them into allowing my brothers and Suzanne to come along, while William promised to allow Lucas to join in as well. We were going to be a larger, crazier group but it was sure to be fun.