The Dorm Guard

*

As the day went on, the beach became busier. Families set up their equipment for the day, some with barbeques, others putting together a temporary volleyball net or soccer posts. The waves were too small for surfers, but that didn"t stop people from trying, occasionally one managing to ride a wave to the sh.o.r.e, but overall the water was dominated by swimmers.

Alexis seemed more alert now, sitting upright as she listened to the indistinct chatter of the people and the occasional yell from children as they sprinted past, throwing sand onto our towels. She didn"t seem to mind, even when a blow-up beach ball almost hit her in the face.

"There"s a lot of character here," she commented when I asked if she was okay. "Far more interesting than when there wasn"t anyone here."

"Most people don"t like busy beaches," I replied, keeping an eye on the girls as they swam on the edges of the water. Amia had joined them by this point, sitting on Ava"s shoulders to get taller in the water, several times getting pushed by Estelle who surprised them.

"It just shows that this place is alive," Alexis replied. She leaned back, stretching her hands out, her fingertips brushing against mine. I tensed up and went to move, but her hand held mine and started moving up my arm, eventually clutching my shoulder. "Did they seriously not know you had muscles?"

I scoffed, looking to Bonnie, with earbuds in and enveloped in a magazine, to make sure she wasn"t eavesdropping. "They aren"t as touchy-feely as you," I replied.

She laughed as she stretched her arms above her head. "Unlike them," she arched her back, "I use touch to see."

The chatter of the radio caught my attention, somewhere in the last two hours Mia had taken control of it and was in the middle of changing the channel while she read. She hadn"t moved from her place at the end of the towel.

"Mia, why don"t you go play?" I asked.

Mia acknowledged me with a sidewards glance but only answered with a shrug, returning her attention to her book. Mia"s interest had peaked when she saw other children playing on the beach, occasionally staring at a group of ten-year-olds making a deep hole to find water. She would look back to her book almost glumly. "I"ll be back in a second," I started getting to my feet and approaching the kids.

Two little girls noticed me at first and greeted me with loud h.e.l.los. "Hey," I started, "Looks like you guys are having a lot of fun." I kneeled to their size as I spoke, telling them to come closer to ask them to help me with something.

Alexis jumped when I returned to my spot, still not use to the soundscape of the beachgoers. "Where did you go?"

A second later, one of the little girls approached and asked, "Do you want to play?"

Mia jumped at the question, her fingers accidentally ripping the corner of her page as she sat up in a frenzied panic, opting to push herself away from the girl when she repeated her question. Bonnie took out her earbuds at seeing this reaction, "I think we"re fine, kid," she answered.

The little girl looked to me in confusion, as I had moments ago told her Mia wanted to play with them but was too shy to ask, before ignoring the mix-up as kids often did and returned to their little group.

The sudden panic in Mia subsided as she calmly stood up and approached her sister, with a shaky hand grabbing her by the sleeve and shaking her. Bonnie turned her sudden wrath to me, "What did you do?"

I was perplexed, had I read the situation wrong? "I thought Mia should play with those other kids," I replied.

"If she wants to, she will," Bonnie snapped as she went through her bag to hand Mia a water bottle. Mia clamped her teeth on the mouthpiece and hastily slurped it.

I was surprised by her sudden viciousness and apologised. "I didn"t know, I"m sorry."

My only indication Mia was upset by what I just did was from Bonnie"s reaction. Mia stood by her sister"s chair drinking her water and, when it was empty, handed it back to Bonnie and sat back down in the same spot, as if thirty seconds ago hadn"t happened.

Alexis leaned close to me, "Don"t take that personally."

I was too confused to take it personally.

As the day went on, Mia seemed to get more comfortable around other people, with my help at least. Estelle had convinced the group who had set up the volleyball net to let us play, with Mia and Bonnie being the point keepers. It was me, Ava, Robyn, Estelle and Amia verses, two girls and two guys. Amada stood on the sideline with Alexis, despite my attempts to get him to try playing.

Amia got into the game, diving against the sand to save the ball and let us spike it over the top more than once. "Nice save!" I complimented giving her a pat on the back.

"Thanks," she panted as she brushed away some of the sand. All down her shins were red as if she had been burnt or scratched.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned when I saw it travelled up her arms as well, "Maybe you should take it easy."

Amia scoffed at me, "Not gonna win that way," she said with a smile, apparently not affected by the apparent sand burn.

"Hey, are we playing?" one of the guys on the other team called out since it was our turn.

Amia nodded, accepting the ball and positioning herself to serve. "Here it comes!" She whacked the ball with a skilful swipe of her hand, sending it millimetres over the net and barely giving the other team a chance to return it.

"Wow, Amia really gets into this," I commented to Ava, who was on the front line with me.

Ava nodded, running her hands over the frills in her swimmers to get rid of the sand. "Comes with the sibling territory I suppose," she replied, redoing her ponytail as Amia readied herself for the next serve. After three rounds of volleyball, the other team accepted defeat, too tired to continue.

With Estelle"s encouragement, that being her signature sudden piggyback, she told me to charge into the water for a swim. "All right," I said, grabbing hold of her legs so she couldn"t get off. She sensed the sudden danger and tried to get off me as I started sprinting for the water"s edge.

She squealed as I leapt into the water back first; we landed with a great splash. When I emerged, Estelle followed and, behind the shield of wet blonde hair that covered her face, she scoffed. She parted her hair and attempted to tackle me, failing as I caught her and tossed her back in the water.

"My Kingdom"s under attack!" she exclaimed, splashing me, "I need reinforcements!" She turned to the sh.o.r.e and started making large gestures so that everyone could see. After a quick glance at each other, Robyn, Ava and Amia ran into the water and collectively tackled me. I stood no chance against Estelle"s reinforcements.

As the day went on, the beach became less and less crowded as those who had been here for the whole day packed up and those, now bright red, woke from their slumber and decided to call it a day. Some were resort residents, leaving their umbrellas in the sand for staff to remove later. As the sun began to set, turning everything a deep yellow, we were the only ones on the beach.

"How"re you doing?" I asked Bonnie when I sat back down by the umbrellas. Bonnie hadn"t moved very much during the day, and when she did, she couldn"t partic.i.p.ate in anything, only sit there and get a sunburn.

Bonnie didn"t seem bothered. "I expected it when the twins invited us to a beach resort," she informed. She sighed, rubbing her red nose as she lifted her chin and closed her eyes, "I"ve always liked the afternoon sun though."

We were facing the sun as it set over the line where the sky met the water, it had been a long day, and I was getting tired. The others were still in the water, Alexis managing to coax Mia to the edges of the water to get in a small water fight. "Mia"s seems to be enjoying herself," I commented when I saw Mia smile, her giggle a happy tune on the otherwise quiet beachside, it reminded me of when we were at the park.

"Mia doesn"t usually like beaches," Bonnie commented, "Complains about the sand and small crabs and water rash. Can"t blame her, it always gets stuck in my wheels." To check, she leaned over her chair and peered into the mechanics of her modernised wheelchair, grumbling at how much work it was going to be to clean. "And my toes," she added looking down at her feet, despite not setting her feet on the ground there was sand on her feet.

I considered something, "Is there anything on your bucket list that"s beach related?" I wondered.

I wasn"t expecting Bonnie to have the list on her, but after some shifting around, she produced it from a pocket in her shorts. She unfolded it, "Umm…" her eyes scanned the bullet points, "Not really."

"Do you want to go down to the water?" I offered, "I can bring your wheelchair there, carry you to the edge of the water."

"I"m fine," she a.s.sured, "I"ve already spent too many hours in swimming pools turning into a prune."

I furrowed my brows, "pardon?"

"Water Rehabilitation," Bonnie informed, "A type of physiotherapy. For me, anything was helpful." She flexed her hands as if recalling something, but didn"t elaborate, "I use to like swimming when I was younger, but its hard to swim with just your arms." She made a flailed motion with her arms, mimicking what it must be like, "Granted, not impossible, but I don"t have the upper body strength to keep my head above water."

During her frantic motions, her bucket list fell from her chair. I scooped it up and reread it, double checking if there was anything we could do right now. I smiled at the different pens marks we had made over the past few weeks from accomplishing some of them. "We"re getting there," I eventually said, realising there wasn"t anything we could do now as I pa.s.sed it back to her.

All at once, everyone returned to the blankets, Ava looking particularly weary as she fell to her knees and allowed her body to follow as she laid on the ground. "Sand is soft," she muttered, "I"m tired…"

"Oh, it"s still early," Estelle stated, gently nudging Ava with her foot, "We haven"t even gone to the platform yet."

"Platform?" It was the first I had heard of it.

"It"s over there," Amia pointed further down the beach to the rockpools. There was a long stretch of rock that leaned over deeper pools of water, below waves crashed against the rockpool, occasionally licking the surface with its spray. "It"s like a mixture of natural and human-made. People go there for photos and stuff. It"s a great view!"

"Is it safe?" I asked, shading my eyes from the sun to get a better look at it, there weren"t any railings or fencing to stop people from falling off the edge.

"Yeah, it"s safe. People dive off it," Amada informed.

Mia wandered back to the towels holding a pink sh.e.l.l the size of her palm. She offered it to me to look at, compared to my hand, the sh.e.l.l wasn"t that big, but I was impressed it was still intact and shiny. "It"s very pretty, Mia," I informed handing it back.

She stared at it with her usual pa.s.sive expression, but a twitch of a smile curved on her lips as she ran her thumbs along the lumps and textures.

"Mia, wanna come to the platform with us?" Estelle asked.

Without looking up, Mia shook her head.

Bonnie shrugged, "I"ll go."

Estelle cheered, "Sweet!"

Robyn kneeled to Ava and tapped her on the shoulder, signing to her to ask if she could go.

"You can go if you want," Ava replied with one hand, "I think I"ll sit this one out. The sun is nice on my back."

Robyn pinched Ava"s cheek before rising and offering a thumbs up to the Princess. "I"m going to sit this one out too," Alexis said plonking herself on the sand, out of everyone here she remained the palest, "Tell me how the view looks though."

"Got it." Estelle got behind Bonnie and lifted her chair, allowing her to drag it through the sand. "Landon, you coming?" she asked.

I shrugged, "Give me a minute to start packing up the stuff and sure," I answered.

Estelle made a long, piercing whine. "That"ll take forever."

I laughed, "Have some patience."

"Come on," Bonnie added, "You"ll be able to see us from the Platform. We"ll be fine on our own!"

I considered the Platform again, seeing how I would be able to see them from where I am. "It won"t take that long," I a.s.sured again.

Bonnie grunted, "Then it won"t take you that long to catch up with us."

I frowned, "Bonnie."

"Oh, come on, we"ll meet you up there!" Estelle added on.

"I"m your dorm guard, how am I supposed to guard you if you go wandering off."

"We aren"t wandering off," Amada said.

"We"re just over there," Amia finished, pointing to the rocks.

I sighed, "Not you guys too."

Ava lifted her head. "This is your holiday too, Landon. You don"t have to be serious all the time," she said, "Just let them go. They"ve got their whistles and phones."

I bit the inside of my cheek, looking at their excited faces before admitting defeat. "Fine. Make sure you wave, I"ll be up in a few minutes."

The twins had already started towards the platform by this point, dragging their feet in the sand to made random patterns as they walked. Estelle ran Bonnie up to the pathway, so it was easier to roll her, once Bonnie was able to move on her own Estelle challenged her to a race. One second they were behind me, the next they were already halfway down the path.

Robyn gave a small wave as she went to catch up with the twins.

Mia had already sat down but pushed herself to her feet when her sister started rolling away. Without a gesture or word, she started running after her, sh.e.l.l in hand.

Ava vibrated with a chuckle as she sat up, making a final stretch as she arched her back. "Today was fun," she commented.

"Good company always is," Alexis added, popping the lid of a can and taking a long slurp. She cringed at the grape, "Gross, I picked up a grape."

"I"ll have it." Ava took Alexis" outstretched drink.

I looked over to the platform, noting the now small figures of the others looking over the platform and into the water. Based on the colours the girls and Amada were wearing, I could tell who was who. Robyn started waving down to us and kneeled by a shorter Mia to get her to wave as well.

Ava chuckled as she waved back. "What?" Alexis only heard the giggle.

"Robyn and Mia are waving at us," Ava informed. Alexis started waving back as well.

"I hope they aren"t considering jumping in," I commented, watching Estelle lean over the edge to look down at the water.

"The Dorm Guard is worried," Alexis sang.

Ava rummaged through the bag closest to her and produced a purple phone, covered in rhinestones and sparkles. "Seriously?" I asked, watching the screen come alive with a blue colour. The phone wasn"t even new; it was barely newer than a flip-phone.

"Relax, it"s not my phone," Ava said, "It"s Alexis", and Estelle decorated it."

"I refuse to have anyone describe it to me," Alexis stated rubbing her eyes, "Also, why are you using my phone?"

"Because I left mine in my room," Ava informed. She pressed the phone against her ear, "Hey Estelle, it"s Ava. Don"t jump off the platform." I could hear Estelle"s indistinct chatter on the phone as Ava nodded and made some comments. "Yep? Great, bye-bye." She replaced the phone in the bag. "Estelle promises not to jump."

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks." I looked at our equipment we still needed to pack away, "All right." I stood up and started closing the umbrellas, after struggling with the first one I managed to pull down the second one, but just as I had laid them down and started with the third, there was a sudden trill. It was faint at first, like a dog whistle. At first, I thought I was hearing things, but Alexis started rubbing her ears and asked if anyone else could hear it.

Ava reacted differently. Her eyes widened as she stared at a point in the ground, for a moment there was silence, but the trilling began again. Ava kicked up sand as she sprinted from her place towards the platform. In a moment of confusion, I started calling out to her, but was interrupted by Alexis; "**** Whistle…" Her ringtone started blasting.

All at once, the same panic as Ava sat in my stomach as Alexis answered the phone and a yelling voice erupted from the other end. "No! Get off me!" It was Estelle.

I grabbed Alexis" shoulders, forcing her to face me. Despite her being blind, I looked her in the eye to make sure she was focusing on what I was saying. "I"m going to the platform," I started, but she clutched one of my arms, cutting me off.

"I"m fine. Go!" Alexis demanded.