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[bringnewjokes]

Like most teenagers during the summer, Sam, Danny and Tucker enjoyed going to the beach.

To a lesser extent, so did Jazz, who had agreed to drive them there and "supervise"; of course, that was quickly forgotten with the momentary cautions of Don't wander off! and NO GHOST FIGHTING!, and then Jazz was off to the marine biology museum with her notebook and trusty pink pen.

So they were left by themselves at the beach house to change. Sweet.

Except for the minute that Sam opened her backpack she could have sworn that tiny hearts erupted from it, along with a perfume so sickeningly sweet that she could have hurled.

"I. Am. Not. WEARING. THIS."

And so she grabbed her best friends' wrists, after closing her backpack ("Augh! The smell! How will I get it out?") and dragged them to the nearby swim shop. Then she deposited them on the benches while she went to go find something in something a little more dark.

Comments

[bringnewjokes]

Sam turned a vibrant shade of pink and retrieved her funnel cake. "Surfing... sounds cool."

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Rental surfboards were soon procured and so were lessons. Their instructors' names were Kiki and Katie, two down-to-earth 25-year-old brunettes, the former of with had a South Jersey accent; the latter had a slight Southern drawl.

They were good teachers, fun, goofy, but matter-of-fact and good at explaining things.

Tucker liked them a whooole lot.

Danny was slightly disappointed that they didn't have a "Yooo, duuuude," surfer accents, although Kiki said "dude" a lot.

"Dude, Sam, niiice," she called out as Sam caught the last wave of the afternoon. She'd been the quickest learned of the three--naturally good at balancing and all.

"Balls. It looks like the waves are dying down for now," said Katie, holding a hand over her eyes and looking out as she sat on her board.

"Freakin' hell, this is the third day in a row it's gone this flat. For some reason the waves have been really strong during the night-tides and really weak during the daytime lately. S'been a bummer." Kiki checked her watch. "Although your time's just about up anyway, guys. Didja have fun?"

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"That was awesome," Sam said breathlessly, tossing out her hair. Katie had insisted she leave her beloved veil and hat at the beach, and Sam had reluctantly agreed, after a lot of convincing. "We are so doing this tomorrow."

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"Yeah. That was great!" Tucker declared, eyeing Kiki and Katie appreciatively. "Deeefinitely going to do this again tomorrow."

Danny struggled to climb back on his board, cheeks pink and looking breathless with exhiliration.

"That was almost as good as flying," he declared.

A sudden pause.

"Uh. On a plane. I like planes."

Both the surfing instructors laughed.

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Sam laughed with them and pushed semi-long black locks out of her eyes and spit salt water from her mouth. Earlier she had gotten some in her nose, and it had stung.

"Thanks so much. This was great."

She gave a knowing look at Tucker, and grinned at Danny. "Ready to go to the beach yet, flier boy?"

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"Sure."

"That depends," Tucker said to Sam, and he turned and pointed to the two girls and said to them, "Where are you two going?"

"Tucker," Danny said with a roll of his eyes. "They're like, ten years older than us."

"Actually, I have a little sister about your age," Kiki said with a laugh. "She's on the boardwalk somewhere if you want to meet her."

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"Ewww," Sam said, obviously disgusted at the thought. "Tucker hitting on people."

She grabbed Danny's wrist possessively. Excuses, excuses! "We are going to the beach. Have fun being all geek-chic, Tucker."

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"Oh, I will," Tucker said and he stayed out as Sam and Danny paddled in and brought their boards back to the rental place, chatting with the giggling and friendly girls.

"So, what are we doing? Since I don't think it includes flirting with surfer girls."

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"No," Sam said, agreeably, "but it just might involve flirting..."

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Danny flushed, then stepped forward, slightly awkward, put his hands on her waist and gaver her a kiss.

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Sam grinned after a minute and pulled back, a slight pink flush over her nose that wasn't from sunburn.

"...Want to go skinny dipping?" She joked.

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Danny just sputtered.

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"That was a joke," Sam clarified.

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"Oh." He sounded vaguely disappointed.

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She laughed at him. Very loudly.

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"You got my hopes up!" he protested.

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Sam's laughter eventually calmed down to giggles, and she poked his nose cheerfully. Happy goth bird was she. "Sorry."

She so wasn't.

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Danny took her hand as they made their way up the boardwalk towards the beaches that were more private.

There were plenty of Sam's kind of people there--people who wouldn't be able to make it through airport metal detectors, they had so many piercings. Most of the teens were that way if they weren't the preppy, Aeropostale types, or the teens walking twenty feet in front of their families and pretending not to know them.

Danny was horribly mundane compared to both, he thought. Honestly, he was surprised that somebody hadn't kicked sand in his face yet, but then, he hadn't spent a whole lot of time on the beach itself yet.

In any case, every time they passed a pierced, even remotely attractive boy, he had this little niggling fear in the back of his head that she'd turn and oggle them.

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"Danny," Sam said after a minute, and stopped him. "Every time we past a boy, you squeeze my hand so hard my knuckles crack. Anything you feel like telling me?"

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"Um..." He sighed. "I'm the jealous type and I have low self-esteem?"

He paused and looked at someone in passing.

"You wouldn't...I mean, you wouldn't like me more if I looked like that--" He pointed. "--right?"

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"Danny," Sam said, and put her hands on his shoulders, shaking them gently. "Do we have to go through this again? Because if I have to, I will."

She paused. "I like you for you and I really don't care what you like. Goth, prep, geek, freak, ghost, human."

She tapped his forehead gently. "Okay?"

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Danny nodded and shuffled his feet.

"Okay." He nodded again. "Okay."

Then he clasped her hand in his own.

"Sorry, it's just--I'm not used to this."

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"Not used to what?"

Sam watched a seagull pick at a bun left on the beach, then a guy in Abercrombie wear almost run over it to catch a frisbee.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"Well, okay, let's see, the last girl who liked me was kind of set up by Technus to be a distraction so he could go through with his evil plan, and then dumped me because she knew she was going to be too busy trying to kill my other half. And the one before that was possessed," said Danny. "So I guess...I'm just not used to being...liked. Without mind control."

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"Hooooow do you knooooww I'm not being possesseeed?" Sam said, in her worst creepy goth voice.