CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Trip To The Beach (Part One)
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Nova awoke from a peaceful slumber for once; she'd dreamt of her sister and her mother playing together at the park (albeit the park was on the moon, but Nova knew she had a weird imagination). She lay in bed for a few blissful moments, reeling in the comfort of her blanket against her bare skin as she stared up at the ceiling. The peaceful moment was shattered when Nova remembered what day it was: Beach Day.
Mike had insisted that the residents of Elm Tree made the most of their summer holidays and the summer weather by going to the beach. Nova hadn't been to the beach in years as she never experienced day trips like this at Burnywood. The last time she'd been to the beach was after her dad's funeral; Nova had insisted his ashes were scattered the same place as her mother's, which happened to be the beach. They were in love after all.... at some point... and Nova figured they should be together even in death.
Before Nova could dwell on the memory of her last beach day- the last time she saw her little sister Liliana- Gina was knocking on her door making sure she was up so that Nova would be ready to meet everyone downstairs on time. Gina had even gone to the trouble of making Nova a cup of coffee, which the red head gratefully accepted as she dragged her tired body out of bed.
After downing the steaming hot coffee and changing into her beach wear (a long white sundress patterned with little pink flowers, paired with a light brown cardigan) Nova pulled her hair into space buns, grabbed her green bag, then made her way downstairs. She didn't need to pack much, just sun cream to stop her fair skin from burning, her book, headphones (to drown Carmen out when she inevitably became hyper) and some water. She wasn't going to go anywhere near the sea, so she didn't need a swimming costume or towel or anything like that. Nova sighed as she realised she didn't have any painkillers for the unavoidable headache she was going to get from being in the sun for too long. Oh, the joys of being ginger... Maybe Tracy could get her some? Or a hat at least.
Before Nova could make it down the stairs to silence Gina's hollering, a short, pubescent boy clumsily walked straight into the girl's small frame, shoving her backwards slightly.
"Watch it, squirt." she grumbled, not liking all the socialisation so early in the morning - and on a Sunday too!
"Shit, sorry there Nova." Liam said, looking up from inside his bag and into the girl's eyes. Nova darted her eyes down to see what was so important in the bag the boy was clutching so close to his chest.
"Nothing important in here I promise!" he smiled, "You're looking good there Supernova." He gave me his signature smirk of arrogance and it made Nova want to slap it off him. Instead, she chose to roll her eyes and scoff, "Don't I always, Leo?" Nova walked away knowing he was blushing and most likely checking out her ass. For some reason, Liam's crush on her didn't make Nova uncomfortable like it normally did; teasing Liam was fun. Maybe she was beginning to enjoy it too much?
Elektra greeted Nova at the bottom of the stairs, eyeing the ginger with a watchful scowl.
"You're blushing." she stated. "Who's Mr Lover Boy then?" her scowl deepened as Liam came down the stairs.
"Gross." Elektra groaned, pretending to barf as she sulked away.
Nova made her way outside, and climbed into the minibus alongside everyone else, the interaction with Liam and Elektra playing over in her mind so that she had completely forgotten to ask Tracy for a hat or paracetamol. She'd curse herself for that later.
Carmen insisted on taking an inflatable donut into the minibus, and half her wardrobe, even though they were only visiting the beach for a day. Nova also found out what was so important in Liam's bag; as much of the fridge's contents was crammed inside as physically possible, and anything Liam couldn't fit Frank had stuffed into his bag. Boys.
Nova took her seat behind Liam and in front of Johnny, who looked just about as unhappy as Nova felt. She put her headphones in and tucked her legs up into her chest, closed her eyes, and drowned out the chatter of the bus with Lana Del Rey, her many albums becoming the perfect soundtrack for a day at the beach. Or so Nova tried to drown the noise out; just as they were about to drive off, Tee was sick. Right behind Nova. And it smelled disgusting.
"Not to worry," Mike said, "we'll get you cleaned up quickly and then we can go. And look what I've got!" he awed, pulling out a video camera.
"I thought we could make a film on the beach! What does everyone think?"
Everyone talked over each other and Tracy took charge of the video camera, instantly panning it around the bus.
"Why don't you sort this sick out first Trace, before videoing us?" Elektra suggested.
Tracy sarcastically smiled at her before handing the camera to Lily and cleaning up. Then the van properly left The Dumping Ground.
Even over her music Nova could still hear Mike and Gina arguing over the satnav or the map, and they were all the way at the front of the bus. Nova closed her eyes again and tried to recall that time on the beach with her little sister Liliana.
About half an hour into the trip, Gus started questioning Mike over the air pressure in the tires. Nova groan inwardly and stretch out her legs, accidentally kicking Elektra's legs that were stretched out beside her.
"Watch it, Red." she snapped.
"Oi, cut it out you two. Be nice." Tracy spoke sternly, turning around in her seat. Elle rolled her eyes and Nova smiled an apology at Tracy before pulling her legs back into her chest. When Tracy looked away, Nova immediately turned to the girl beside her, who was smiling out of the window to her left. Elektra turned towards Nova, having felt the intense stare of the redhead burning a hole through her head, and locked eyes with the girl. As soon as Nova registered that she had been caught staring, she quickly turned back to her window and tried desperately to hide her blushing cheeks.
That's twice this morning Nov had been made to involuntarily blush, and the girl was not happy about it.
Before Nova could overthink her interactions with Elektra, Tracy broke her out of her thoughts by suggesting everyone told a story for the video camera.
"We'll go round and each say a couple of sentences and see where we get to." she instructed. "I'll start. It's called 'A Day At The Beach.' There's a group of kids that've just set off for the beach in a bus."
It was Lily's turn next. "There was a girl on the beach and she wanted to make sandcastles covered in shells."
Tracy asked if the girl was going to live there in the sandcastles, which caused both Nova and Elektra to roll their eyes, although Nova did pause her music as she wanted to listen to Lily's obviously personal story.
"Yeah!" Lily replied. "She's gonna live there."
"All by herself? Or were there gonna be other kids there too?" Tracy asked.
"Erm a yeah... there would be uhhh.... I don't know" Lily replied, suddenly looking downhearted. Liam could sense she was getting upset and stepped in, which Nova was grateful for as she wasn't sure she could sit through a road trip with Tee throwing up and Lily crying, especially since it was only half nine in the morning. Nova decided then and there that she'd walk back to The Dumping Ground before she'd allow herself to hear any more of Lily's crying.
At least she has sisters she can see... at least her dad's alive... Nova would give anything for that to be true for her, and she knew others like Liam or Frank or Johnny and Tee would do anything to have living parents and living siblings that they could see.
Liam then interrupts Lily's story by describing a boy who's an awesome footballer that scores loads of goals at the beach; "He shoots, he scores, and the crowd goes wild!" Liam exclaims, mimicking a football commentator. Sapphire saw her chance at completely the story and added: "Suddenly the boy realised he's got no trunks on. Then a crab comes along hunting for winkies. Nip nip nip!"
Nova couldn't help herself from giggling at Liam's sulking after Sapphire's ending, which earned a hurtful glare from the boy.
"You can shut it too, Supernova." he whined, causing Nova to smile even more.
Before Liam could sulk any longer, the minibus pulled up into a service station and Mike announced that they were stopping for "toilet breaks only" though they could have a look around the shops.
"Be back at the minibus in fifteen minutes, okay guys? And older ones, look out for the little ones okay?" Mike commanded. Nova thought it was very unlikely they'd only be stopped here for just fifteen minutes, given The Dumping Ground's reputation, but didn't say anything as she was happy at the chance to stretch her legs and find a quiet place to sit for a while.
Nova hopped off the bus and made her way into the service station, her steps falling in sync with Frank and Liam's.
"We have to buy some swimming trunks" Liam informed Nova and Frank. "I may have slightly forgotten mine." he winced.
"Can't you just go in the sea in your underwear?" Nova smirked, "or don't you want us all to see your pink unicorn boxers?"
"Oh I bet you'd love to see me in my boxers, eh Supernova?" he winked at the redhead, nudging her side. Nova rolled my eyes and replied smugly "dream on babes." before stomping on ahead to the toilets.
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As Nova was touching up her makeup in the toilet mirror, Elektra came out of a cubicle and washed her hands beside the girl. The two made eye contact in the mirror before NOva caved and looked away, focusing on washing her slender hands. They didn't say anything, until both girls reached for the paper towels to dry their hands with at the same time.
Why don't service stations have electric dryers like every other bathroom? Nova cursed.
So her hand and Elektra's can briskly touch before the latter pulls away, muttering a sorry under her breath before leaving, wiping her wet hands on her jeans, obviously.
Their hands touched, only briefly, but they still touched. Elektra's warm hands were a welcome contrast from Nova's always cold ones. Blue's skin was soft, and it only made Red want to touch her hands more. Nova was intrigued by Elektra, with their lingering stares, hidden smiles and accidental contact. Yet Elle acted so cold to Nova sometimes, which Nova admitted to herself that she probably acted the same way to Elektra too, but Nova found herself wishing that Elektra would let her in.
Nova left the toilets and walked over to Frank and Liam, who were stood by a photo booth.
"Got any change on ya, Nova?" Liam asked, to which Nova once again rolled her eyes at, but followed her fake annoyed expression with a mischievous smile. The three teenagers piled into the photo booth and Nova put the money in so they could have a series of photos taken together. They posed seriously for the first one- not smiling- as if they were posing for their passport photo. Then all hell broke loose, and the three didn't hold back. Nova let down her guard slightly, and allowed herself to have fun. All three of them made crazy pouting duck faces for the second photo: Nova laughed properly for the first time in a long time. Maybe having close friends wasn't so bad, Nova figured, as long as she kept some of her protective guard up and refrained from telling them anything too personal. Nova couldn't can't risk another incident like Burnywood.
For the third photo, Liam tapped Nova on the shoulder and pouted his lips, obviously asking for a kiss. Nova scoffed and rolled her eyes for the camera flash, trying to look as disgusted as possible, which wasn't hard considering the thought of kissing Liam was quite disgusting to Nova. Frank then poked Nova on her other arm, copying Liam's actions and closing his eyes expecting a kiss. Nova smirked, because luckily she was in between both the boys, so she ducked out of the frame, and for the last marvellous photo Nova had posed the boys to make out like they were, well, about to make out. Nova figured this was definitely worth a fiver. She hurried out the photo booth and grabbed the printed photos before Liam and Frank got the chance to. She hid them in her bra, knowing they'd never find it there, and swiftly disappeared from their view before they could catch her. Her blackmailing ability had just doubled with that precious photo.
Nova made her way towards Tee and Carmen singing "row row row your boat" whilst they sat in an inflatable dingy in the middle of a gift shop, jhoping to hide in plain sight.
"Oh Nova!" Carmen exclaimed, "Want to join us in our boat?" she asked.
"I think I'll pass on that one, thanks" she replied, before walking past their boat and looking at some of the tacky jewellery on display.
"Oi!" someone yelled from behind Nova. "What do you think you're doing?"
The redhead turned around to see the stern looking manager from earlier who scowled at the Elm Tree House residents as they walked into the services earlier.
"We were just..." Carmen began, but the manager cut her off.
"Where are you parents? Letting you run riot around here..." he spat, annoyed at the children for having fun. Nova winced at the question, knowing the mention of parents would not be good.
"We don't know where our parents are..." Tee replied quietly.
"Come on Tee I think we'll buy this one." Carmen said in an attempt to leave.
"Oh Carmen look at this!" Tee exclaimed, standing up and spinning hastily around, knocking over the sweet stand in the process.
"Oh now look what you've done!" the knob of a manager yelled, getting increasingly more angry at Tee, Carmen, and Nova by association.
"Haha look free sweets!" Sapphire exclaimed, walking over to the pile of sweets on the floor and picking a few up. Nova stood there awkwardly, hating being yelled at, or being around yelling people.
"Stand back, stand back give me those!" Knobhead commanded.
"It was a joke jeez..." Sapphire returned, her hands going into he air in surrender.
Luckily, Tracy was nearby and came over to try and help get the children out of the situation. "They're only helping!" she exclaimed, noting everyone's distressed facial expressions.
"I don't need that kind of help thank you! Can I have those please? Thank you thank you thank you." he said, taking everything out of Tee, Carmen, Sapphire and Tracy's hands before leaving.
"Come on guys, lets get you guys back in the van." Tracy said, motioning for them to leave. Tracy noticed the frown that had etched its way onto Nova's distressed face and waited until everyone else was in front until asking if she was okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He was really rude for no reason." Nova muttered, trying not to shrug off the supposedly comforting hand Tracy had wrapped around the girl as they walked to the minibus.