Play it Again: Chapter Three:::

Even though it was loud sometimes, and old men stared at you awkwardly, the beach was my favorite place. When those things were absent, and it was quiet and everything was still, it was like you could hear the ocean breathe. Today wasn't like that though.

"Is that your brother?" Sarah asks with so much enthusiasm in her voice that her shoulders literally slump when she sees that it's not. Now that summer was coming to an abrupt halt, and the days were only going to get colder and wetter from here on out, every single high school age body seemed to be on the beach today. "Shall we tan or ask those strapping young men if we can join them in a game of soccer?" She wiggles her eyebrows at me. As if we aren't tan enough already.

"Well," I start, but she cuts me off with a squeal of delight as she grabs my hand and drags me toward the group of boys. I recognize some of them from our grade, or the grade above us, but don't know any of their names.

"Mind if we play?" Sarah calls to them as we get closer, taking off her huge sunglasses and squinting at them in a way that made even me want to drop my bottoms. They grinned at her, stopping their game, and then their eyes traveled to me and most of those smiles disappeared. "She's cool." She offers, seeing their unease.

"Didn't know I was that ugly." I whisper to her as we take off our sunglasses and throw down our towels next to where they're playing.

"I think they're more afraid of your brother." She tells me, though we both know he's harmless. She rolls her eyes and I huff with impatience.

"Let's go." I say to them all, louder this time, taking the ball from the hands of the tallest in the group. He was cute. Blue eyes, swooshing blonde hair, definitely not from La Push. I took a minute to wonder what he was doing hanging around with all these La Push boys.

"Sure you're ready for this?" He grins playfully, taking the ball back and tossing it to a friend further over on the beach.

~_.~_.~_.

After the game, Sarah began to walk away. I looked at her weirdly, wondering why she was just going to walk away after playing with these boys for over an hour without a word. As half of the guys run up to her, trying to get her to wait and get her number, I realize that she knows a lot more about the art of seduction than I do.

"So do you live in La Push?" A voice asks, and it takes a minute for me to recognize that it's talking to me.

"Oh," O say, spinning around and catching hold of those blue eyes, "Yeah I do. Over there." I point in the direction of my house though there's no possible way he could see it over the dunes of sand. I inwardly scold myself for being so embarrassingly stupid while talking to this boy. Maybe it was because he wasn't from La Push. Maybe that's what's made me so flustered.

"Well I live that way." He humors me, pointing in the opposite direction. So he didn't live in La Push. Of course he didn't. What was I thinking?

"Are you coming?" Sarah calls at me as she walks away. I give the boy a small smile and quickly turn to walk after her. I pick up my towel and glasses in one swift motion and continue along the beach beside her. "New boy in La Push." She says to me like it's already the latest gossip circling the school. I'm sure it will be by tomorrow. "I wonder what he's doing here."

"He lives in Forks." I tell her, like suddenly I'm the gossip queen and know everything that goes on around here.

"Bummer." She grunts in anger, and I can tell she wants to go back to school with something juicy to talk about. Then she looks at me, her brows raised, "he seemed to like you though."