Skylar’s first instinct was to find the brush, comb out her hair and then go on a “FIND ASHLEY” mission, but she decided she could brush her hair AS she was on said mission.

She was finished untangling her hair by the time she found Ashley in the restaurant sitting with Ian Thorpe. (The sight caused Skylar to drop the brush to the floor and proceed to step on it.)

“Hey Sky,” Ashley said brightly as she approached the table, wielding the brush like a sword.

“Hello,” Ian said, smiling and inclining his head to the chair on his right.

Skylar sank down into it and reached for the coffee cup Ian was passing her.

“I thought you’d been kidnapped,” Skylar said, after taking a hefty gulp to get her brain working.

Ashley laughed. “No. I got up and decided to eat early so I could go over to the first swim.”

“It’s Michael Phelps,” Ian said, as if this explained anything.

“Ah,” Skylar said, for lack of something better…or more intelligent.

“Ian’s going too,” Ashley elaborated, giving her friend the eyebrow signal they’d come to use in such situations.

This time, Skylar wasn’t clueless. “Ahhhhhh.”

“I was just about to invite Ashley to lunch, but she said you and she have been spending every waking hour together because you don’t see each other much at school.”

Skylar took a sip of coffee, glancing at Ashley inconspicuously to see what she should respond with.

Apparently, she needn’t have. “Didn’t you say you were having lunch with my brother?” Ashley gave her The Look.

Hesitantly, Skylar nodded. “Oh. Yeah. Right.”

“Brilliant,” Ian smiled, and pushed his chair back. “I’ll see you at noon, then. Good to see you, Skylar.”

“You too. Have a good…swim.” Skylar shook her head, feeling like an idiot while Ashley waved at him and told him she’d seem him later. Once he was gone, Ashley started squealing uncontrollably under her breath. “So. Good breakfast?”

“OH MY GOD!”

“Also, what the hell? I’m not having lunch with your brother.”

“OH MY GOD!”

“Ash…”

“OH MY GOD!”

“Calm down.” Skylar set her cup down and put a heavy hand on Ashley’s shoulder. “Breathe. Deep breath. Come on, Ash.”

After several moments of tense breathing, Ashley was able to speak. “I’ll ask Aaron to hang out with you so that I don’t feel guilty about leaving you all afternoon by yourself.”

“All afternoon? What lunch takes all afternoon?”

Ashley tried to look coy, but didn’t quite do it well enough. “It could be more than lunch. You never know.”

Skylar raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm.”

“Sky.”

“Don’t feel guilty about leaving me. You’ve wanted to date Ian Thorpe since…well…a long time.”

Ashley sighed dramatically. “I know. But I do feel guilty and if I get Aaron to be you for the day, then I won’t feel as bad.”

“Hasn’t he got better things to do than hang out with me?”

“Hardly,” Ashley responded, laughing.

Skylar shook her head. “I don’t a pity lunch, thanks. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“Yeah,” Ashley agreed sternly, “Studying.”

*

And this was how Aaron and Skylar ended up in her room after lunch; Skylar didn’t mention the fact that she’d rather be studying than be spending time with Aaron out of pity, and Aaron didn’t mention the fact that his sister had threatened to kick him in the groin if he didn’t hang out with her friend.

They were playing Scrabble, which Aaron had purchased (the travel version) downstairs in the giftshop.

“AH!” Aaron cheered, pointing to the board and his newest addition to it.

Skylar looked away from her score keeping. “Cat.”

“Take that,” Aaron remarked, grinning.

She cocked her head to the side, added his ‘cat’ earnings to his score, and put down all of her tiles at one time. “Twilight.”

Aaron stared at her across the board, where she was happily adding her score up. “Huh.”

Skylar looked up at him, shifting on the bed to sit cross-legged. “What?”

“You didn’t tell me you were a champion Scrabble player.”

“You didn’t ask,” she joked, smiling. “My dad and I use to play when I was little. If I beat him, he’d do my chores.” She shrugged, picking up seven new tiles and plopping them on her holder. “I didn’t get out of my chores at any point in time, but I certainly learned how to read the dictionary fast. I used to read it late at night.” She laughed wistfully, recalling the memory. “My dad, to this day, continues to kick my ass.”

Aaron chuckled, shaking his head. “I never really played Scrabble.”

“No, you were always swimming.”

He nodded and set a few tiles on the board. “Hat.”

Skylar held back the case of the giggles that were threatening to burst from her mouth. “That’s good,” she managed, jotting his score down.

“You’re not making fun of me, are you?” Aaron questioned, giving her a glare he’d practiced on when he was in High School to try and scare little kids.

“Of course not,” she answered quickly, surveying her tiles. “Ooh. Adipose.”

Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell?”

“Animal fat,” she replied, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. “I think I’m winning.”

He grumbled something incoherent and set more of his tiles down. “Snake. AH-HA! Four letters.”

“Snake has five.”

“Yeah, but I can only use four of my tiles, because I’m putting it on your ‘s.’ That’s how the game works, Sky.”

“Thank you, Aaron,” she remarked wryly, laughing a little under her breath. “Knavery.” She considered her score pad.

“You keep using all your tiles. Isn’t there a rule against that?”

Skylar glanced up doubtfully. “No.”

“Okay, but what’s knavery mean? It sounds like a made-up word to me.”

“I do not make up words. It means dishonesty.”

“Speaking of dishonesty, did your dad ever check to make sure you were using Scrabble-acceptable words?”

“Pretty much every time I set my tiles down.”

Aaron threw his hands up in the air. “I give up. There’s no way I can beat you at this.”

Skylar’s lips twitched. “You’re doing fine. If you come up with something longer than five letters, you’ll be way up there.”

Scowling, Aaron picked up some of his tiles and deposited them sourly onto the board. “Apple. There. Five letters.”

She nodded and set her score pad down to look closely at her new tiles.

“Try doing something with three letters,” Aaron suggested cheekily, leaning over the board.

She covered her letters up. “Don’t look. That’s cheating.”

“You’re cheating by using big words,” Aaron pouted.

Skylar laughed. “Oh, please. You sore loser.”

“I am not a sore loser.”

“You are; you always have been. I beat you in that impromptu soccer game that one time, remember, when you and your friend Matt ganged up on Ashley and I? We kicked your asses and you were soooooooo sulking about it for days.”

“You cheated then, too,” Aaron replied haughtily. “If I recall, Ashley kicked Matt in the groin and then you stole the ball from him and when I tried to stop you from reaching our goal, you kicked ME in the groin. It’s probably you fault if I can‘t have kids.”

Skylar frowned. “I doubt that. I don’t remember ever even kicking you, much less in the groin.”

“Oh, but you did,” Aaron assured her, nodding solemnly.

“Position.”

“You used them all again!”

She shrugged. “Can I help it if you suck at this game?”

“Oh, that does it,” Aaron stated evenly, grinning wickedly as he got up on his knees, holding a pillow out in front of him. “You’re going down now.”

Skylar only had time to squeal before a pillow had knocked her off the bed and onto the floor.

Aaron peered over the side of the bed worriedly. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

“You did, too,” she replied, attempting to sit up. “You’re such a boy.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” she stated seriously, standing up in front of him. “You messed up the board,” she pointed out, a hand on her hip. “We’ll have to start all over again.”

“No way.”

“But I was winning.”

“I think you’re too aggressive with your Scrabble. You should be in Scrabble rehab.”

Skylar bit her bottom lip to stop from smiling. “Shut up.”

“Make me,” he retorted, using the phrase he’d said often to Skylar and his sister many years ago.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to. He’d grabbed her shoulders and pressed his lips to hers so fiercely that she was caught off balance; she slipped, tumbling back down to the floor and bringing Aaron with her.

“Ow. You’ve bruised my ribcage,” she said, squirming beneath him. “Also, what the hell was that for?”

Aaron blinked down at her, and then rolled off to the side. “Sorry. Got…carried away.”

“Such a sore loser,” she reiterated, getting to her feet. Outside she was desperately trying to remain calm, while inside she was freaking out so completely that she was afraid she’d have a coronary.

“I should go,” Aaron muttered, running a hand through his hair; he grabbed his jacket from the nearby chair and went to the door. “I’ll see you later?”

Skylar was standing, breathing heavily by the window. “Um. Yeah. Bye.”

The door clicked shut behind him, and as soon as it did, Skylar dropped to the floor in a heap, wondering what the hell had just happened.