Disclaimer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh!

An idea I came up with when I was watching the show. Rated T for some language (mostly from Yukari) and innuendos. (Mostly from Tomo.)

Enjoy!

"Nooo! Not again!"

Chiyo stared in dismay at the brown slush that used to be her sandcastle. The tide had gone and rushed in again before she could finally take a picture of it, and now all that remained of the sandcastle was a small pink and blue pinwheels and some seashells. She stared in dismay at the wave that had just destroyed her fourth castle. It seemed to be mocking her as it retreated, waiting for her to build her next castle.

"Chiyo-chan, the tide defeated ya," announced Osaka, patting Chiyo on the back. "Ya gotta show it who's boss."

"I thought it was low tide!" complained Chiyo. But Osaka, as usual, was already drifting off into a world of her own. She was staring at a blue spade that was wedged into the sand. Osaka's face broke out into a familiar, dreamy smile.

"Chiyo-chan, look!" Osaka cried, pointing at the shovel. Chiyo looked at it, before sniffing tearfully and saying,

"What, Osaka-san?"

"Say..." Osaka added, looking at the sand where the spade was wedged in, "What's the opposite of Japan?"

"What are you talking about?" broke in a new voice.

Chiyo looked over to see Yukari-sensei, her homeroom teacher, sprawled across a white deckchair, her sunglasses perched on her forehead, despite the fact that she was lying underneath a large beach umbrella anyway.

"If I dug a real deep hole...where would I end up?" Osaka said, apparently asking the question to the air in front of her.

"I dunno..." Yukari mused, staring contemplatively up at the inside of the parasol as though the answer might be written there. "Hawaii, maybe?"

"I'm gonna do it!" Osaka cried, nodding vacantly to confirm. "I'm gonna dig all the way to Hawaii!"

"Osaka-san, I don't think-" Chiyo started to say, but her protest was cut short by the tide suddenly rushing in again, taking Chiyo by surprise and causing her to shriek and fall over backwards with a feeble splash.

Osaka was, as usual, totally oblivious, as she padded over to the spade. She picked it up, staggering slightly as she pulled it out of the sand. She leant forward and poked the sand with the tip of the spade. The sand barely budged, since it was the feeblest poke in the world and the sand was thick and tightly compacted. Osaka did it again. The sand barely moved.

"What is she doing?" Nyamo asked, frowning at Osaka.

"Digging." snorted Yukari, peering up at Nyamo. "Say, Nyamo."

"What?"

"Go buy me an ice-cream."

"But the stand is right across the beach!" protested Nyamo, glaring at Yukari irritably. "Go get it yourself!"

"I'll get sunburnt!" Yukari yelled, startling Nyamo and a couple of nearby seagulls, who took off with some difficulty, "I have really fragile skin! Do you want to see me like a damn lobster, Nyamo? You're such a bad person!"

"Okay, okay, I'll get the stupid ice-cream!" Nyamo sighed. She turned toward the sea, "Hey! I'm getting ice cream! Who wants one?"

A number of different voices greeted this,

"Me! I want a twister!"

"I'll have a cone!"

"Cherry-flavour."

"Coach! Can I have an apple one?"

"Cola, please!"

"...Hawaii..."

"Okay, that's a twister, three cones, one cherry, one apple, one cola and a Hawaii." Nyamo recited, counting off the ice creams on her fingers. She set off, frowning to herself.

"What's flavour is a Hawaii, anyway?"

"Oi, Sakaki-san! I challenge you to a race!"

"No, thanks."

"Eh?"

Kagura stared in puzzlement at Sakaki, who was crouched over something and carefully kneading it with her fingers. Although her creation was better placed then Chiyo's, the sand she was sitting by was soft, pale and crumbly. Not very good for making sand-sculptures. Kagura walked over and crouched down, peering curiosly at it.

"What are you making?"

Sakaki pointed. To Kagura, it looked like two blobs with ears and a tail with a smaller blob sitting on top of it.

"Oh, that nekoko...thing." Kagura said, trailing off. She blinked at Sakaki. "I forgot what it's called."

"That's okay." replied with Sakaki, looking disappointed when her blobby cat-thing's head crumbled, making it look like the cat had a smashed pumpkin for a head.

"Come and race, Sakaki-san!" Kagura chided, pulling on Sakaki's arm. "You're at the beach!"

"Okay." Sakaki shrugged, standing up. Kagura whooped and ran toward the ocean, where Tomo was splashing and shrieking at the top of her lungs.

"Tomo, shut up!" Yomi yelled at the Knucklehead from her towel. "I can't hear the music on my earphones because of you screaming!"

"Ahahaha!" Tomo cackled, turning to face Yomi, "I'm a water demon! You should show me some respect or I'll use my water powers and destroy you!"

"Yeah, whatever." grumbled Yomi, a large sweat-drop appearing above her head as she stared warily at Tomo.

"Yomi, Tomo, me and Sakaki-san are gonna race!" Kagura called, "Come watch so we have people to say who won!"

"Okay," sang out Tomo, waving one arm as Kagura and Sakaki headed over, "But we already know Sakaki's gonna win anyway!"

"What the-? Don't judge so easily!" Kagura huffed, annoyed, "I am on the swim-team!"

"Yeah, but you're also the Eternally-running-behind-Sakaki-girl!" Tomo laughed, bobbing tauntingly along the waves and poking out her pink tongue.

"Why you-!"

There was an almighty splash as Kagura lunged at Tomo, who yelled with surprise as the older girl suddenly threw herself into the ocean. For a second there was no sign of either of them, aside from a few bubbles. Then the two brunette's re-emerged, fingers pulling at each others mouths, making them resemble Jack-O-lanterns.

"...Are we going to race?" Sakaki asked softly. Kagura immediately let go of Tomo, who let out a disgruntled yelp and fell backwards.

"Oh, yeah!"

"Okay, okay." Yomi sighed, pulling her towel over and sitting down. "I'll watch from here."

"I'll go to the finish!" cried Tomo, setting off with her wildly thrashing swim. She reached a large rock, pointing to it and grinning like a Cheshire-cat.

"This can be the finish!" she called, as though the other three couldn't have worked it out for themselves.

"Get ready." yawned Yomi. Kagura and Sakaki both treaded steadily into the water until it went right up to their chins, Sakaki's long ebony hair flowing out behind her in a mermaid-like manner.

"And... GO!"

The two set off, a blur of white (Sakaki) and brown (Kagura.) It looked like a pretty close contest this time- the two were neck and neck; Kagura's expression one of determination, Sakaki's concentrating. Tomo was shrieking encouragement from the rock, waving her arms around wildly, though her shouts were difficult to distinguish over all the other noises. Then, without warning, Kagura suddenly stopped.

"GO, GO, YOU -Eh?"

Tomo suddenly stopped screaming, her expression slowly switching from enthusiastic to confused. "Kagura? Why did you stop?"

Sakaki, who had almost reached the finishing point and could hear Tomo, turned. Kagura's eyes were screwed shut and she was bobbing weirdly around on the surface of the water, only her head and shoulders visible.

"Tomo, Sakaki, get over here!" Yomi called, sounding worried as Kagura approached the shore. The two returned, Sakaki looking concerned and Tomo looking befuddled.

"Why'd you stop, Kagura?" repeated Tomo, peering at Kagura.

"It... My leg..." Kagura got out, between gritted teeth. "I think something bit me!"

"Ooh! A shark!" Tomo yelled, sounding insanely happy about the idea.

"Yes, Tomo, a shark in the middle of the day right next to the shoreline. Idiot." Yomi sighed, rolling her eyes. She knelt down and inspected Kagura's leg.

"Doesn't look like a bite to me." she said, turning Kagura's leg with way and that. "If your skin wasn't so brown, I'd probably be able to tell."

"...Jellyfish." Sakaki said. The other three turned to Sakaki, blinking.

"Jellyfish?"

"I got stung by a jellyfish?" whimpered Kagura, scratching near where the sting was. "Isn't that poisonous?"

"I don't think it's likely you'd find a poison one near here." Yomi reasoned, "Besides, you'd probably be rolling around in agony if it was."

Kagura looked nauseous.

"Let's get back to Yukari-sensei." Sakaki suggested. "And see if she has any stinging cream."

"I'll go tell her!" shouted Tomo, taking off, and startling several other beach-goers as she ran across the beach toward Yukari, flapping her arms and yelling very loudly,

"YUKARI-SENSEI! JELLYFISH ATTACK!"

With a little difficulty, Yomi and Sakaki managed to get Kagura into a standing position and with her held between them they headed for the parasol.

"YUKARI-SENSEI! KAGURA'S BEEN POISONED!" Tomo called, even though she was barely a few feet from Yukari now, several beach-goers staring at Tomo with mingled looks of curiosity and alarm.

"You're so damn loud." complained Yukari, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Everyone on the beach can hear you, you know!"

Then she blinked.

"Poisoned?"

"Yeah! She was racing Sakaki and then Yomi said a shark bit her, but then Sakaki said it was a jellyfish!"

"Urgh, how annoying." groaned Yukari, flopping back down.

"And that medical kit Nyamo brought is ancient. Probably has leeches in it or something."

But Tomo wasn't listening. Squatting beside Osaka, who had managed to make a knee-deep hole despite her feeble pokes with the spade, she was staring down into the hole curiously.

"Osaka, where does this go?" Tomo asked, as though she was expecting for Osaka to pull out a blueprint.

"I'm diggin' to Hawaii." Osaka replied, smiling as she poked the sand with her spade. "I think I'm gettin' close."

"You're never get to it like that." Tomo scoffed, putting her hands on her hips.

"...Eh?" Osaka pondered, tipping her head curiously to one side.

"You need a bigger spade!" Tomo announced triumphantly.

"I haven't got one." Osaka sighed, looking about as though she expected one to pop out of the air. Tomo sat back, staring contemplatively at the sky. Then a huge grin appeared on her face and she sprang upward, alarming Osaka, who fell backwards into the hole with a 'clonk'.

"Wait right there!" Tomo instructed Osaka, pointing at her, "I'll be right back! Don't move!"

And Tomo raced off, disturbing several white seagulls, which took off grumpily into the air, bellies fat with food they had scrounged off the floor.

"...Okay..." shrugged Osaka dreamily, sitting down in the hole and staring at the inside of it, an oddly concentrating look on her face.

"Ow, Ow, Ow!" Kagura gasped, as Sakaki tightened the bandage and straightened up.

"Did we really need to put that on it?" asked Yomi, nodding at the bandage. Sakaki nodded once, putting a reassuring hand on Chiyo's head at Chiyo peered worriedly at Kagura from under her large straw hat.

"She'd probably rub off the cream if we didn't." Yukari added, staring with an expression of mild interest at Kagura's calf-muscle. Kagura immediately started scratching at the bandage.

"Stop that." Yomi scolded Kagura, "You'll pull it off!"

"But it itches!" complained Kagura, "Really bad!"

"Should we put on some itching cream too?" Chiyo piped up, kneeling down by the medicine kit, taking care not to get sand on her pink swimming costume.

"Haven't got any." shrugged Yukari, yawning. "Deal with it, Kagura."

Kagura groaned and Sakaki gave her a sympathetic look.

"I'm back!"

The girls looked up to see Nyamo hurrying toward them, holding a number of ice-creams in her hands.

"Ah! Nyamo-sensei!" cried Chiyo happily, running up to her teacher and relieving her of a few ice-creams, walking back to the others.

"Who wanted the cones?"

"Oh, here!"

Yukari and Yomi collected their ice creams. Yukari scowled at Yomi's- It was a tiny bit bigger. To compensate, she grabbed the flake out of Yomi's ice-cream while the bespectacled girl wasn't looking.

"And... An apple one?"

"Over here!" Kagura called from the floor, happily accepting her ice-lolly and licking it, temporarily forgetting about her itchy calf. Chiyo was already licking her cola-flavoured one happily.

"Cherry." Sakaki mumbled, which Nyamo passed to her. Sakaki gave hers an experimental lick, the tip of tongue turning slightly red.

"That just leaves the twister and the Hawaii." Nyamo said, looking around for Tomo.

The others all looked at her, looking confused. Nyamo blinked.

"What?"

"What's a 'Hawaii'?" pondered Chiyo, staring at the ice cream in Nyamo's left hand.

It was quite odd-looking. Coloured a reddish-orange, the lolly was shaped like what was presumably meant to BE Hawaii, with sugar sprinkled haphazardly on it, complete with a small umbrella wedged into the top.

"There's only one person other then Tomo who'd ask for an ice-cream as stupid-looking at that."

Stated Yomi. Everyone turned and looked at Osaka, who was still sitting in her hole and gazing blankly ahead.

"Osaka-san, I guess this is yours..." Chiyo said, walking up at Osaka and holding out the Hawaii, which was starting to melt slightly. Osaka looked up at Chiyo as if she had only just noticed that Chiyo was there.

"Huh?"

"This is yours, Osaka-san!" Chiyo repeated, waving the ice-lolly at her.

"...I ordered an ice-cream?" Osaka asked, confused. But she took it anyway and licked the side of it. Everybody watched her, waiting to see her react.

"Nice..." hummed Osaka, her tongue now coated with sugar. "Thank you, Nyamo-sensei..."

"N-no problem." Nyamo answered, sweat-dropping. "So now that leaves the twister and my cone."

Nyamo looked around.

"Where'd she go, anyway?"

"I'M BAAACK!"

"Finally, Tomo, here's your ice-..." Nyamo started to say, turning around. Then she stopped, her mouth hanging open.

Tomo was running toward the group in possibly the weirdest looking bikini ever. It was a bright, acid green and had neon blue and pink dots going across it. It also had small triangular strips that hung down all around the edges of the bikini, which were in an eye-watering shade of purple. Her other bikini was nowhere to be seen. To complete this totally bizarre look, she was carrying a spade that was about the side of a walking-stick, which was made to look like a huge sweet, as it had a red-and-white striped handle and a big yellow shovel.

Tomo looked like a mutant jellyfish, brandishing a gigantic lollipop.

"Wow, ice-cream!" Tomo cried, breaking the stunned silence and grabbing her ice cream off Nyamo and plunging it into her mouth. She made a satisfied sound as she felt the cool sensation on her tongue. Then she looked up.

"Wha'?" she managed to gurgle, which was a considerable feat considering she had a large ice-lolly wedged in her mouth.

"Tomo, what the HELL are you wearing?" Yomi burst out, pointing at her. "You look like...like..."

"It's great, isn't it?" beamed Tomo, pulling her twister out of her mouth. "I saw it when I bought Osaka's new shovel!"

Osaka, Yukari and Kagura were all silent for a second.

"COOL!"

"It looks good, Chiyo-chan!"

"Yes!" Chiyo piped up, smiling; "I finally built it where the sand was the correct consistency but far enough not to be washed out by the tide!"

Kagura, Tomo and Osaka all blinked, but they looked happy enough all the same. Nyamo was holding up the camera, a green light on the front glowing,

"Okay, everyone, I'm going to time the camera, so get into position!"

"Don't you go and fall into it, Tomo." warned Yomi.

"As if I would!" scoffed Tomo, which made Yomi want to slap her own forehead.

"Chiyo-chan, can I stand next to ya?"

"Sure, Osaka-san!"

Osaka scuffled next to Chiyo, walking even slower then usual because she was dragging her giant lollipop-spade with her, which she leant against as she stood by Chiyo, almost hitting Kagura in the face with the end of it.

"Oi, watch it!" Kagura complained, but she smiled at her fellow knucklehead anyway.

She wobbled slightly as she corrected her position again, then reached down and scratched at her leg. Sakaki stood protectively behind the sandcastle, which just went up to her midriff, but almost, towered over Chiyo, who was standing in front and smiling perkily, looking insanely cute.

Yomi made an annoyed sound as Tomo yelled at Nyamo to hurry up. Normally, she wouldn't have minded, but Tomo had decided that in this picture she absolutely had to be up higher then Sakaki and insisted on using Yomi as a climbing frame to get on Sakaki's shoulders.

"Stay still, you idiot!" Yomi barked up at her. "I'm going to fall if you're not careful!"

"You're just annoyed because you're not up there." Kagura teased, poking Yomi. Tomo giggled lewdly.

"Yomi never gets to be on top!" she crowed, a smirk on her face as she settled comfortably on Sakaki, who merely smiled indulgently. Yomi resisted the urge to pull Tomo to the floor.

"Hurry up, Nyamo!" complained Yukari, putting a hand on her purple-clad hip. "I'm getting all sandy!"

"Gosh, on a beach? How unusual." Nyamo snapped, fiddling with the dial on the camera. It let out a bleep, then a tiny number appeared on the screen.

"Oh, it's counting down!" cried Nyamo, placing the camera on the top of the deckchair and hurrying over, standing beside Yukari. "Smile, everybody!"

"CHEESE!" everyone shouted.

"Okay, okay, we've taken the stupid picture." Yukari grouched, "Can we go now?"

"Alright, hold on." sighed Nyamo, then as she took a step forward she suddenly slipped on the beach-towel Yukari had left on the sand. "Woah!"

"Nyamo-sensei!" cried Kagura, running forward to catch Yukari, but she slipped as well.

"Watch it!"

"AAAAH!"

One second, the girls had all been standing around the sandcastle, next second they all found themselves sprawled across it, in a large pile of arms and legs.

"OW, my leg!"

"Sorry, Kagura."

"I can't see!"
"Get your head out of Sakaki's hair, Tomo!"
"My sandcastle!"
"It's crazy! The town's in uproar!"

"Dammit, now I'm covered in sand! SHIT!"

"Calm down, already!"

Everyone eventually managed to untangle themselves, standing up. Sakaki helped Chiyo up, then started brushing the sand off her red bikini. Osaka and Kagura helped to retrieve the towels from under the pile of sand that was Chiyo's castle, while Yukari put down the parasol (still grumbling) and Tomo packed up the deckchair.

"Oh, my castle!" Chiyo groaned mournfully, staring at the sandy pile with a tearful expression.

"It's okay, Chiyo-chan!" Nyamo reassured her, patting Chiyo on the back. "At least we have a photo of it."

"Um, no we don't."

Nyamo and Chiyo looked up. Yukari was holding up the camera, a rather amused expression on her face, while Tomo and Kagura shrieked with laughter in the background.

"Look at this."

Chiyo and Nyamo peered at the screen. Nyamo saw that it depicted her and Kagura falling headfirst into the castle, both of them yelling in surprise. In the back, Tomo had a gleeful but shocked expression, as Sakaki appeared to topple to the side.

Chiyo's pose was clearly her trying to flee from the soon-to-be destruction of her sandcastle and her friends all landing on top of her. Yukari was apparently shouting as she fell backwards, halfway through walking away from the castle. Osaka was simply looking with mild interest at the panic behind her, her head tilted quizzically to one side.

"Doesn't exactly catch our best side, does it?"

"Ooh! I love this song! Turn it up!" gasped Yukari, as a random song come on the radio.

"We'll wake up Chiyo-chan." scolded Nyamo, sighing at Yukari.

"RASPBERRY HEAVEN! I PROMISE YOU'RE NOT ALONE!" screeched Yukari along with the song, in English, alarming Nyamo so much that she almost let go of the steering wheel.

"Okay, I'll turn it up!" amended Nyamo, hurriedly jabbing at the volume button, "Please don't sing!"

"They've gone to their stupid talkshow now anyway." Yukari sighed, annoyed. She leaned forward and snapped the radio off.

"Hey, I like that show!" Yomi piped up angrily from the back.

"What, about stupid people trying diets that obviously won't work?" scoffed Yukari, oblivious to the dark red blush appearing on Yomi's cheeks. Tomo sniggered, nudging Yomi irritatingly in the ribs.

"Yeah, REAL stupid, Eh Yukari-chan?" chuckled the knucklehead.

"DAMN RIGHT!" yelled Yukari. Nyamo shushed her, glancing nervously to Chiyo, but the prodigy hadn't woken up.

"Say..." Kagura said suddenly, "D'you think this is the jellyfish?"

She pointed at a picture of a small purple jellyfish on the page of a book she had resting on her lap.

"Might be." Yomi conceded, looking at it. "But we can't know for sure."

"You know..." Osaka piped up, looking at the jellyfish too, "It kind of looks like Tomo in her bikini."

"It does?" Tomo asked, looking thoroughly shocked, sitting up and jolting the seat. Sakaki, who had about to nod off, blinked sleepily. Tomo cackled.

"Watch out! For I am a water demon, and-"

"Just…shut up."

I wasn't intending for this to be so long, but I couldn't resist writing the car-journey bit, and describing Tomo's bikini was fun! (So was making the Hawaii an ACTUAL ice-cream.)

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