Beached

Title: Beached
Who: Andy, Derek, Leigh, Linus, Timo
Where: The beach
When: August 3, 2010
What: Some discussion over the last few IC days, with various ideas and plans.

===< Beachfront >----------< OOC|#95 >===

The Beachfront boasts the largest geographical area of any district of San Angeles, a two mile wide, seventy mile long strip of public and private beaches, luxury hotels and posh restaurants. The area is choc-a-bloc full of every manner of tourist attraction one could think of, and some that many might consider unthinkably tacky. Still, the attraction of white sand beaches, sun and surf is hard to deny. The Disney Corporation is constructing a new Disney World in this area, slated for completion third quarter 2010.
The area is a blend of casual and pricey, and clearly targetted at the tourist trade.

PLAYERS
Derek 3s OOC
Leigh 5s OOC Adorable brunette teen — Just ask her!
Linus 47s OOC
Timo 12s OOC

EXITS
Boardwalk………………….<B> Waterfront…………………<WF>
Melting Pot………………..<MP> Residential District………..<RD>
Norton Station……………..<NS>

===---------------===

A lovely summer day in San Angeles, by which is meant sunny and hot. Very hot. So hot, Derek has taken off his hoodie, revealing skin which, while not exactly pale, isn't suntanned either. He's kneeling on the beach, far from the water, trying to build a sand castle. It looks more like a sand mound, with smaller mound-shaped towers at the corners, but he's trying. His backpack is nearby, along with his sweatshirt.

Sun and heat are things that draw Leigh Sunderland like a moth to flame. Her mother has taken her brother out for the day, and so the teenager is free to do as she pleases. What she pleases is a trip to the beach, driving her old Ford Taurus station wagon — the thing is older than she is, and has a habit of spewing smoke like one usually doesn't see outside Gary, Indiana, but she loves it all the same. She's wearing a light nylon jacket when she makes her way down to the beach, her legs bare but for the white foam flip-flops with blue plastic straps that adorn her feet. She's got a towel, a basket of beach supplies, and strolls down toward the shoreline, eyes scanning the weekday crowd for familiar faces.

There is nothing like a day at the beach for some serious fun in the sun. With the appropriate amount of SPF-Oh Damn sun block, as Linus Tate is wont to use. It's either that or burning out here in the San Angeles heat, and Linus is far less interested in that option. He did some research, and found that his sunblock isn't water soluble, so he can go for a swim, which he does with gusto, dunking himself, rising from the waves, and letting the beach breeze play across his bare skin to his delight. He's mostly in the shallows, lying on his back at times and looking up to the sky. At the edge of the beach is his own towel, shoes, and backpack that some might recognize.

Timo is later getting to the beach than the others, but he does show up, wearing a t-shirt and swim trunks. He comes running over towards where Derek is, spotting Leigh on the way and giving a wave. He looks to Derek as he pulls off his shirt and says, "Hey."

Derek looks up to Timo with a grin. "Yo, man, there you are. Think this looks like Buckingham Palace? Or Sleeping Beauty's castle? Or…uh, anything?" The bright sunlight reveals what his sweatshirt normally conceals — though a bit underweight, his arms and chest show the wiry muscles of someone who spends a bit of time in the gym. "S'pose you wanna splash around in the water, huh?"

After a while, Linus feels the burn across his shoulders a little, and starts wading his way towards shore. A small wave comes up from behind him, crashing over his head and spinning him around. Immediately, his hand goes to his chest, and the pendant and chain he wears around his neck. He breathes a sigh of relief once he notices it's still there. It's apparently important to him.

Leigh recognizes Timo as he runs past and flashes a smile in his direction, watching where he goes. In the process she spies Derek and Linus as well, and figures, hey, safety in numbers, right? A girl should not be alone on the beach. Even if she's got superhuman abilities, it's a draw for musclebound idiots. So she makes her way over toward the sand castle that's taking shape. "Buckingham Palace doesn't have turrets like that," she points out mildly as she spreads her towel nearby and sets down her basket to weigh the end, so it won't blow away in the breeze coming off the Pacific.

Timo nods to Derek and grins, "It looks like *something*. I don't know what though." He nods in agreement with Leigh and says, "Yeah. It's just a big square building with lots of windows, I think." To the question about swimming he says as he sits down, "In a few, anyway. Want to just enjoy the sunlight for a few minutes first." He doesn't seem to have any kind of sunblock with him, though.

Derek catches sight of Linus, saying to Timo, "Hey, isn't that the D&D guy? Uh…Schroeder? That's not right." Then Leigh is spreading her blanket, and Derek blushes a little and quickly lowers his eyes to the lump of sand in front of him. "Oh. Uh, yeah, no turrets. Maybe it's … um … a different castle." Instead of trying to work on it any further, he reaches down and begins flattening the sand once more. He's definitely wearing sunscreen, his skin gleaming with SPF-5000. Not previously mentioned were the mirrored sunglasses, hiding his gray eyes.

Once he reaches shore, Linus' feet drag a little as he gets used to not being moved around by the water any longer. He stops, dressed in black swim trunks with blue trim, and raises an hand to shield his eyes from the sun, looking around. Where did I leave my stuff…?

"Linus," Leigh corrects mildly. "I hung out with him at the street festival the other day. We raced go-karts." The towel arranged to her liking, Leigh now unzips her jacket and reveals the bikini beneath — bright red and modest enough not to raise parental ire, while still letting her get a good tan. Something Timo has said tickles her mildly as she waves to Linus, and she sings quietly, "I… wanna soak up the sun…" as she settles down onto the towel.

Timo looks out, nodding to Leigh's correction as he waves to Linus as well. He then grins at Leigh's singing. He then says, "There was a street festival? I didn't hear about it. When was it?" He stays sitting where he was, for the moment. Not really acting like a tan-seeker, though. He doesn't seem quite capable of sitting still long enough for that, fidgetting as he does every now and then.

There it is! Linus is making a beeline towards the towel, along with his bag and anything he might have with him, when he spots someone waving. He actually recognizes the person, and he chuckles weakly before heading to his towel. A towel around hid waist, one of those packets of fruit punch in a hand, he heads over there. "Didn't know you all knew each other," he comments, looking in his backpack for a baseball cap to shield his eyes.$e

"Linus, right," Derek mumbles, snapping his fingers. "I'm awful with names. Try to associate them with stuff to help remember, but then I end up remembering the wrong name." Still not raising his eyes to see Leigh, he demonstrates just how awful his name-remembering technique is by muttering, "Uh, yo, Vivien. Nice day, huh?" And then Linus approaches as well, and he speaks rather more clearly than usual, saying, "Yo, Linus. It's a small school, I guess."

"Clever," Leigh says, gently teasing Derek as she props her head on her folded arms, gazing up at the sun. Sunglasses will protect her retinas — it's pretty much the only protection she needs, to be fair. "My mom loves that movie. 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.' How's it going, Linus?" she continues. "Better to be able to hang out with people than sunbathe alone, right?"

Timo nods to Linus and says, "Yep, we do." He glances between Derek and Leigh then and asks, "What movie are you talking about?" Curious, but not too much so. Then to Linus he asks, "How're things going?"

Derek looks confused for a moment, risking a glance toward Leigh. Then he jerking his head forward, knocking hair over his face. "Gone With the Wind," he mumbles to Timo. "Right, Leigh?" Hey, how about that, he remembered. "So uh, Linus, how did that game-thing go? Did you get your friends all, ya know, straightened out and stuff?"

Andy has arrived.

Once he reaches the others, Linus unfurls his beach towel and lays it out, settling his stuff before sitting down with a thud, and a shifting of sand. He's sitting at the edge of the beach, speaking with two guys and a girl. Linus has a packet of fruit-punch flavored drink he's trying to penetrate with the pointed end of a small plastic straw provided. "The game…went well." Sip. "That was easy. Just rolls dice and tell stories. But…the rest." He looks between the three of them, who all know what he was up to. "Robby, I'm writing off as insane. Or immune to clues, or being outright told what's right and wrong. Especially since he turned it back on me, saying I was kissing ass to be popular." The look on his face? Fear. "As for Larry Kim, he says he's willing to take a chance, and talk to Anna-Jean. I told him privately, but then he blabbed, which set off…everyone else." He looks to the water. "You know, if I kept going out there and floating, I'd be perfectly willing to learn Japanese."

"Starring Vivian Leigh," the brunette confirms, lips curving into a grin. A sigh is uttered as the name of her nemesis is mentioned. "I think you'd laugh in my face if I tried to get you to do something for the sake of being popular, Linus," she notes, frustration coloring her voice. "Robbie… will be Robbie. And I will be forced to kick his butt one of these days." And won't that be pleasant. Actually, for Leigh it might be.

Timo frowns at Linus' story and says, "Yeah, sounds pretty insane to me." He looks to Leigh and Derek again and says, "Oh, yeah, never seen that. I mostly watch newer movies." He then adds, "Except for Star Wars and the first and third Indiana Jones, those are great old movies."

And another girl is approaching, causing Derek to grab his hooded sweatshirt and pull it on quickly. Too quickly, it turns out, for he pulls it on inside-out. And leaves it that way, content simply to be partly hidden from female eyes. "I don't get it," he mumbles to Linus. "So a girl likes one of your friends. Why would that set off all the others?"

Nice day? Check. Parental units occupied by Anniversary dinner? Check. Chores done? Well, no, but that can come later! Skateboarding down the boardwalk at the beach? Double check and plus. Andromeda "Andy" Peyton shifts her weight as she rolls along, slipping casually around a group of teens she recognizes as members of the basketball team at school. "Smile! It increases your face value!" she shouts over her shoulder as she passes them. A few catcalls follow after her trying to get her to stop and join them. Jocks. Hah. Eyes bright, she's just cruising along for the joy of it… not for flirting with boys who think sports are the center of the universe. If they only knew!
Nope, wind in her pink hair, breathing in the salt air, and enjoying what nature San Angeles has to offer. Oh. Look. More people from school out on the beach. This small gathering, however, has her slowing her skateboard to a stop and popping it up into her waiting hand. Off the boardwalk she goes, trudging out onto the sandy beach towards them, her sneakers leaving a trail behind her. "What's happenin' kiddos?"

"Robbie is also my problem now," Linus replies. "Apparently my new middle name is Benedict Arnold." He leans back, drinking the fruit punch. It's a preferred beverage. "Because the girl, Derek, likes one friend, and some of the others…well, Robbie mostly. Troy seems chill about it, Dan wasn't paying attention. Envy, and it's a whole psychological whirlpool, and we're all getting sucked in." The redhead pauses, considering what Derek had said about girls the other day. He doesn't dare repeat it though. But, the arrival of another gets his attention, and he blinks. It's the pink-haired girl! "Oh, we're hanging out…all of us seem to keep bumping into each other, so we're…I think Derek's got a sand castle going, and I just got out of the nice water." He flashes a grin at the new arrival. "Um…Abby, was it?" He's sometimes bad with names, too.

"Possibly also because Linus got the information from me," Leigh notes. "Since Robbie has been harassing me for a date since I moved here last year and I've turned him down cold every time." A little stoniness crosses the girl's features — she tries to be nice, she really does, but sometimes, every now and then, there's a bit of the popular girl stereotype that shows itself. Tilting her head back to see the new arrival, the coolness vanishes and she smiles warmly at Andy. "Hi there," she says. "Pull up a dozen square feet of sand and join the fun. We're ragging on Linus's friends." This is said with enough tease in her voice that Linus should realize she doesn't mean it. Mostly.

Timo looks up to Andy and gives a cheerful wave and says, "Hi." He's sitting near Derek, just in a pair of swim shorts, a shirt nearby. Unlike the others, he has no hat or sunglasses, but doesn't seem to be bothered by the sun either. "Yeah, come sit down."

Derek is surrounded by girls! Okay, there's only two, but that's one and a half more than he's normally comfortable with. "Why don't you just go out with him?" he mumbles to Leigh, though he doesn't look directly at any part of her. I mean, once, and have a really lousy time, and maybe he'll leave you alone? It's not like you hafta -marry- him, or even…uh. Whatever." He risks a glance at the pink-haired girl, but she's also too pretty, so he swings his gaze back around to Timo and Linus. "Weren't we gonna swim or something? Like, in the water?"

Andy grins and flips her skateboard over to settle in on a patch of sand on it's top side. This displays the vast number of stickers over the custom-painted bottom side of the transportation vessel just before she sits on it, hands resting on the wheels. "Andy," she corrects Linus, with a wink and a bright smile for Leigh and a grin for the boys. "But Abby works. Whatever. I've been called worse. And anything's better than Andromeda, right? You'd think my Dad was a sci-fi writer or something." Her eyes glint with a bit of mischief and she lifts a brow at Derek. If she hadn't already settled into her spot, she'd have scooted closer to him just for the amusement of his seeming discomfort.

"Nice to meet you, Andy. And I'm totally sorry that I screwed up the name. And it's short for Andromeda? That's so awesome!" And Linus' dork-ness rears its ugly head. He's leaning up on his elbows, and tries to explain. "A friend of mine, Robbie, likes Leigh, here. But, having discussed it with him, it's edging not towards so much liking her as a person but as a symbol of entitlement for being picked on a lot. Which is the wrong way to go about it; he's sliding away from wanting to make her happy, and it's become all about him. But, he's a friend of mine too." He explains to the group. "I don't even hate my friends, or think they're holding me back. I like what I do, and what I am." Indeed, if Andy's dad were, let's say, a sci-fi author, then Linus has probably read all his stuff by now. "But I've been taking less in Not Being Socially Malajusted." His lips quirk. "It's worth three credits from the local community college."

Leigh's grin broadens at Andy's chosen position, and the brunette sits up, leaning on her elbows. The better to observe those around her. Mostly poor Derek, who is simply too much fun to tease. "I won't go out with Robbie because that's not how it'd work, Derek," she explains, and while she's grinning, her voice is not particularly happy. "Robbie… Robbie has not been appropriate in the way he's been asking me out. This isn't 'Oh, Leigh's the popular girl and Robbie is the geek.' This is 'Leigh's a girl and deserves a little more respect than one gets from leers, drooling and crude gestures.' Also entitlement, like Linus said. Most guys I'd give a chance." She pauses. "If I were allowed to date," she adds, grumbling darkly. "It's a class well worth taking," she adds, grinning at Linus. "Maybe you can convince some of your friends to go."

Timo grins, too, at Andy's name and says, "Well, hey, if you're named after a galaxy, I think that's pretty cool." Then he adds, "I'm Timo." He looks to Leigh and blinks, "You're not allowed to date? Your parents think it's the fifties or something?"

Derek gives his head another shake or two, but there's just no more hair available to hide behind from all this female attention. He shifts a little in the sand, edging closer to Linus, who isn't teasing him at all by being a girl. "Dating's dumb," he mutters. "Like, there was this freshman dance at my old school, and the boys all had to ask out a girl from Our Lady's, and I didn't know any, but my brother fixed me up with one. Her name was Valerie, and she thought just 'cuz I was taking her to the dance, that meant I was gonna take her to dinner first and dance with her and hold hands and kiss and ugh! Why can't girls just date each other, if they're so into all that stuff?" It takes him a moment to realize this wasn't exactly how he'd wanted to phrase it, and he suddenly pulls up his knees and tries to hide his deep blush behind them.

"I guess, but it was hell to learn how to write it back in Kindergarten, let me tell you," Andy says with a light laugh. "Nice to meet you all proper-like and not in the casual we-might've-had-a-class-together or passed-in-the-hall kind of way." Chances are, well, rather good that Linus /has/ read her father's books. The Therian Chronicals have topped the best sellers lists with each new title that's come out. "I think my Dad might possibly freak if I brought a boy home…" but then Derek speaks and Andy laughs, "Then again, he'd freak even /more/ if I brought another girl home in the dating sense. But he'd get over it. I've never been forbidden dating, I just haven't bothered so much with it. Too much else to do than to get all tongue tied and googly-eyed over some boy. So, what's your name, shy-guy?" That last, to Derek.

And at the moment, Linus has no idea who Andy's dad is. There would be a total geekout if he did, so he actually gets to be himself for the nonce. "Derek, you just proved my point. A lot of the…horror stories about dating, especially the ones I've heard in the last five days? It's all miscommunication, on multiple sides. Robbie aside, we need to talk more." He shakes his head. "I thought Saturday'd end it. My naivete shocks me sometimes. Dating? Heh. Not happening for me." He doesn't seem all too bugged by that. He sits up. "Look, I have some time, and I should apologize, again, for dropping my issues on folks. I'm going to spring for snacks or hot dogs, if anyone's interested?"

The real reason Leigh's not allowed to date is not subject for public conversation, so she shrugs helplessly at Timo. "Let's just say I was born only seven months after the ink dried on the marriage license and leave it at that," she says, and then grins at Derek. "Two reasons," she says. "First, wrapping a guy around one's little finger is one of the greatest joys in life, and second, most guys would be lost without us." She glances at Andy for confirmation. "They're helpless, right?" A smile at Linus. "In this case, your issues are my issues. But I won't say no to a frozen orange if they've got 'em."

Timo grins at Andy and says, "That's Derek. Best photographer on the school paper." Then he looks up to Linus, nodding quickly, "Yes, please, I'd love a hot dog! Relish and mustard, please."

"Then you should write us a guidebook," Derek mumbles, not looking at either girl. "I'm Dork…Derek! Aw, fu…dge. Yeah, Linus, get me something to stick in my mouth, 'sides my foot. Relish and mustard sound good. On a hot dog, I mean. By themselves, not as good. Want help carrying everything?" He starts to get up, then realizes he'd be abandonning Timo to the attentions of not one, but two hot chicks. A panicked look crosses his face, as he's torn between loyalty to his friend and the strong desire to flee. As neither side gains ground, he finds himself frozen in place. "And a Coke, maybe?" Yeah, asking for a cold beverage is sure to rescue him from his dilemma.

"Just a bottled water," Andy says, reaching down to pull her sneakers off so she can dig her toes into the sand. Despite wearing blue jeans, she doesn't seem to be hot out here. "Photography? Frigid. I'm into drawing and painting. My friend Corey keeps trying to convince me to do a comic strip for the paper, but I've got this thing where deadlines make me all nervous and then I get artist's block." She shrugs, grinning.