"Let's go to the beach!" yelled Trey suddenly right next to Alyson's ear, which scared the hell out of her. So she whacked him in the arm playfully and ran upstairs with him to grab her beach stuff.

Dave raised his eyebrows. "Guess we're goin' to the beach," he said. He stood up and followed the other five upstairs. In a few minutes, they were all congregated back downstairs in their bathing suits.

"How do you get to the beach from here?" questioned Alison.

"Well, you could jump off the cliff," said Trey. "But then you might cut your arm and you'd have to come back and your brother would freak out cause he'd think we'd thrown rocks at you . . ."

Alyson stared at Trey, not believing he'd actually said that. "What the hell are you talking about?!?!?"

Trey shrugged and headed out the door. Alyson shook her head in amazement and followed.

Aaron grinned at the expression on Alison's face. "Don't worry. You don't have to jump. There's a path we take."

Alison sighed in relief and went out the door. The eight of them headed down the sandy trail. When they reached the bottom, they ran out onto the beach and threw their stuff down. The girls spread themselves out on beachtowels, putting on sunscreen. The guys waited impatiently nearby.

"You wanna hurry it up?" asked Christian, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

Courtney glanced up at him. "Just a minute! If you wanna look like a lobster later, that's your problem. I personally don't want to!" She finished applying sunscreen and ran into the ocean with Christian.

Erin stood up from putting on sunscreen and started rubbing some on Dave's back. She didn't want her baby getting sunburnt! Well, in actuality, she just didn't want to hear him complain later if he did get sunburnt, so she was taking all precautions. When she was done, Erin took Dave's hand and they headed for the ocean. Dave dove in and Erin started jumping over the waves.

Aaron sat down next to Alison and put sunscreen on her back. Then he stood and helped her up. They headed toward where Courtney and Christian were splashing each other.

Lastly, Alyson decided she just wanted to work on her tan. Trey decided he wasn't going to let her, so he grabbed her by the waist (she was screaming "no") and carried her into the ocean, throwing her down underwater. Alyson came up sputtering and proceeded to hit and yell at Trey. Trey just stood there, smiling at Alyson's drenched hair and scowling face.

"You stupid idiot! Why'd you do that?" she screamed.

Erin swam/waded over to Alyson and pretended to comfort her. "He's just a big jerk, Alley," she said, trying not to laugh.

Alyson gave Erin an evil look. "I'm glad you find this so humorous," she said dryly.

"Come on Alley, lighten up," said Trey, hugging her close. Alyson squirmed out of his grasp, not comfortable with being that close to him with so little clothing.

Trey gave her a funny look and swam over to Christian to help him splash Courtney and to flirt with a group of girls that had joined the boarding schoolers.

"Whatsamatter Alley?" asked Erin curiously.

Alyson looked over at Trey and then down at the sun reflecting in the water. "Nothing," she said quietly.

Erin scrunched up her eyebrows. "Come on," she said, making Alyson follow her out of the water and down the beach, away from the others. Then she stared Alyson straight in the eye.

"What's wrong? You're acting weird. Well, weirder than usual."

"It's nothing," repeated Alyson, not meeting Erin's eyes.

"You're not really that mad at Trey for throwing you in the water, are you?"

Alyson didn't say anything but instead looked at Trey, who now had his arm around one of the girls.

Erin raised her eyebrows. "Ohhhh....Trey's not just a friend anymore, huh?"

Alyson glanced at Erin. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you look like you wanna kill that slut," said Erin, grinning.

"I'm not sure how I feel," said Alyson. "All I know is that I felt funny when he hugged me two minutes ago."

Erin sighed. "Alley, if you like him, you have to tell him!"

Alyson looked at Erin like she was nuts. "How am I supposed to do that? Go up to him and say 'Hey, Trey, I know we're best friends, but now I wanna make out with you'? I can't do that!"

"Why not?" asked Erin.

"Because . . .well, I just can't!"

Erin threw her arms up in the air. "Fine. If you don't want him to know how you feel, even though he could quite possibly feel the same way, that's for you to deal with. As for me, I'm going back to Dave." She headed back down the beach and into the water near Dave. He picked her up and swung her around in his arms. Aaron, who was nearby, was not to be outdone. So he grabbed Alison and spun her around also, laughing all the while. Alison laughed as she hung onto Aaron, which wasn't really necessary because he had great upper body strength. Aaron set her down in the ocean, but still held her in his arms, smiling. Alison reached up and pushed a piece of wet hair out of Aaron's eyes so the water would stop dripping down his face. Aaron grinned at her and put his head near her ear.

"You wanna go out sometime?" he whispered. He pulled back and looked at her.

Alison smiled and put her head near his ear, whispering, "I'd love to."

Aaron grinned as big as he could grin. "Great!"

"What's great?" asked Courtney, coming over to the two of them.

"She's going out with me," said Aaron.

Courtney smiled but then suddenly frowned. "Uh oh."

"What's the matter?" asked Aaron.

"What's Ele gonna do?" asked Courtney, worriedly.

Aaron rolled his eyes. "She'll have to learn to cope." Dismissing the subject, he grabbed Alison's hand and kinda dragged her out farther into the ocean so they could talk privately. Which was kinda rude to Courtney, but oh well.:)