First meetings

The warm rays of the sun shined down on the sands of Tatawal Beach as the locals mingled with tourists and enjoyed a sunny Saturday. It was mid-afternoon and white fluffy clouds drifted lazily across the blue sky, unperturbed by the reasonably crowded beach that stretched all the way to the harbor. There were plenty of vendor stalls and equipment rental shacks lining the beach, all doing a solid business today.

A slim trail of cigarette smoke escaped his nostrils as his icy blue eyes scanned the scenery. Well, it would have been serene if there weren't so many goddamn people here. John frowned a bit, but tried not to let it get to him. He was here with his family, enjoying a well-earned day off, so he was going to make the most of it. And god help anyone stupid enough to try to spoil their fun. Pushing his long brown curly out of his face, he glanced over his family members.

His mother, unsurprisingly, had her hands full with little Joanna, who had recently learned to walk and tumble, and thus was racing around the area in a game of keep-away. Bobby, only a few years older, was sneaking extra snacks from the cooler and sharing them with his friends. Keith had let his mother braid his hair and was building something or another, but John had zero interest in whatever it was. Casey and Raph were pulling pranks on some kids their age, splashing about in the water.

John took another drag on his cigarette and glanced to his left, where Fred was lounging on a beach chair, surrounded by his lackeys from school. They were seeing to his every need, which kind of pissed John off, but he decided to ignore it in favor of the ice-cold beer Terry was handing him. He cracked open the seal and gulped down the cool amber liquid, sighing in relief.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Chuck and their dad chasing the twins around after getting ice down their backs. It was days like this when life wasn't so hard, and the Wilders could just relax and have fun.

After a long while, Terry nudged him with an elbow and nodded towards the harbor. Eyes narrowed with an "I don't give a shit about that" expression, Terry motioned towards the full ferry again. John huffed and begrudgingly looked over.

Was that... pink and dark pink hair?

"What the actual f*ck?" Confusion pulled the words from his mouth before he even thought about it. Two beautiful girls, one his age and one younger - probably sisters, if he had to guess - were disembarking from the ferry... with luggage. So they were moving to the island, were they?

This was going to be fun...

Standing from his spot near his family, John stretched languidly and set his beer down. Might as well welcome these two fresh faces to their new island home, he thought, sauntering towards the tree one of the sisters was waiting under. Or at least, he'd definitely make an impression on the older sister. Her dark pink hair was long, wavy and looked thick, even from the distance he was closing. Her clothing was sleek and stylish, and looked like nothing he had ever seen, much less had been able to afford, but more than anything else that caught his attention...

The expression on her pretty face was turning annoyed as her younger sister was chattering with seemingly everyone on the ferry, including a random cat. She looked like she was holding herself back from telling the younger girl to get a move on, as if they'd need to hurry up and get to their new house because they were on a tight schedule. If nothing else, he was absolutely certain he'd get some sort of reaction from her.

Giving her one last look from head to toe, his attention landed squarely on her posterior. The way she was standing made it jut out slightly and gave him an idea. An awful, terrible, hilariously inappropriate idea that made his lips curl in sadistic glee. He knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he absolutely should NOT do it.

...so of course he did it.

Faster than the blink of an eye, John's hand snaked forward and smacked her rear.

John had been expecting some sort of retaliation, particularly getting backhanded, but the fist connecting with his jaw was certainly a surprise. If the spitfire would've been taller, she might've broken his nose. As it was, his head jerked with the force of her punch and it actually made him take a step back. That was certainly something he'd never encountered before - a girl ready to wipe the floor with him. Well, color him impressed!

"Not bad, sweethea-ugh!"

What he wasn't expecting was the suitcase she hit him with, followed by an onslaught of blows that would spell disaster for a lesser guy. While John wasn't knocked to the ground, he wasn't exactly having an easy time trying to stop her from going full Tasmanian devil on him. The sound of Terry's laughter floated to his ear and annoyed him, the bastard. What kind of an older brother sat by and laughed his ass off while his closest brother was the victim of assault? Terry, that's who.

Eventually, Terry took mercy on John and walked over to the raging girl, tapping her politely on the shoulder. "Please excuse my dumbass brother. He deserved it, but you undoubtedly have better things to do." He said quietly.

"Would it make you feel better if we bought you a coffee?" Terry asked, unperturbed, "And perhaps an ice cream for your sister?" He made no move to physically help his brother, who now simply looked like he was ready to potentially make things worse.

"Deal."

Terry pointedly didn't bother helping his brother but turned and walked towards the spot where his mother was playing with Joanna and quietly filled her in on the situation. The matron leaned slightly to the side so that she could peek around her oldest son and take a look at the girl in question, seeing John start to detangle himself from her hold. He gave his mother a thumbs up and wiggled his eyebrows and Elaine immediately winced, but grinned at him anyway.

Christ, he was definitely interested in that poor girl.

As soon as John's attention left his mother's face, Elaine flashed an apologetic smile to Celi and mouthed "I'm sorry, dear" to the girl, before scrambling to keep her energetic toddler of a daughter from squirming away. Joanna squealed in delight as Terry patted her head, then returned to where John was grinning at Celi.

"Want a lift to wherever you're headed, sweetheart?" John asked, weirdly good-natured about Celi righteously assaulting him, "Least I can do for a girl that can actually punch."

John quirked an eyebrow at her and studied her for a long moment with his pale blue eyes. She sure was a little firecracker, that was for sure, but if he wanted to get anywhere with her, he would need to play his cards right. A corner of his mouth tugged itself into a smirk and he readjusted the cigarette with the motion. "Suit yourself." He said with a shrug, "I suppose you want to lug those suitcases around on your own then, too. Being an independent woman and all."

Pausing, he turned away from her to take a drag on the cigarette, then blow it away from them.

"Let me know if you change your mind." He shrugged his well-muscled shoulders nonchalantly, "Maybe I could make it up to you."

In truth, he wasn't expecting her to allow him that privilege, but he wasn't too worried about it. Even if she blew him off now, if she and her sister were new residents of the island they'd cross paths sometime. And there was a fifty-fifty chance John would see these girls at school. The thing about Rai Island was that eventually, all residents either knew or knew of each other. So unless these two planned on being hermits that never left their new house, they were pretty much guaranteed to run into him. Or one of his family members.

It'd be fine.

Turning back to the rosette, he quirked an eyebrow at her. "So... if you don't want me to call you sweetheart, what should I call you?" John grinned wickedly, "Honey? Baby? Or do you have a name you want me to call you?"

The temptation to call her some ridiculous pet name anyway danced in the back of John mind, but he decided to take mercy on her. "Alright, Celi it is." He nodded and, seeing her grimace and cover her nose and mouth, frowned. Damn it. With a slight huff, he pulled the cigarette from his lips and flicked the hot ash off the end. When it was out, he put the remainder of it behind his ear.

"Better?"

His surprised laugh came out as kind of a snort, but he shook his head and chuckled anyway. "I dunno... if you're that fond of the nickname, I'd hate to be the one to break your heart with my real name." He hooked his thumbs into the belt loops on his jeans and grinned down at her, "But if your heart's really set on it, you can call me John."

John cast his glance over to Celi's younger sister at the docks, still talking energetically to everyone who would listen. He watched her for a while - a grand total of two minutes and fifteen seconds - before turning back to Celi. "So... is she gonna be a while?" He jerked his thumb in the pinkette's general direction, "Should we go get her?"

"John it is then" And "dumbass" on regular occasion, she inwardly thought. Not really thinking just how regular those instances might be in the future, as the urge to lean away was strong as the dumbas- John, she meant John, decided to invade her personal bubble. Laughing good naturedly at her attitude, and doing an annoyingly smooth job of answering her prickly question in return. But she stubbornly held fast to her posture and position, not allowing herself to shrink away from him even though it seemed like he was far too comfortable being close to her and seemed to have no intention of moving until he was good and ready.

A good two minutes of dead silence from him later though, and she was just about ready to hit him again for just hovering over her without a word. Until he piped up about her sister that is. With a glance to her right, Celi could see Mimi, still happily chatting away with someone. But it wasn't even with her fellow passengers now that she was paying attention, but some random vendors that had gotten swept up in the sea of people around her dear sister and somehow got pulled into the conversation.

Poor things never stood a chance.

"Hmm...If we leave her alone, she would probably be here all day" Celi said with a sigh, knowing just how her sister could be sometimes and it was apparent that this was one of those times when she wouldn't stop being a social butterfly until someone forcefully dragged her away. "Just give me a minute"

With the ease of a practiced veteran, Celi slipped into the crowd of people around her sister, grabbed her by the hood of her jacket, and started pulling her out of the crowd and back to the clearing by John's side. The younger girl not noticing the tug in the slightest as she simply started rolling away from her companions, still happily carrying on with her story, with one hand waving energetically in the air while the other held onto her suitcase.

Once the younger sister was safely out of the massive sea of people, Celi turned to her, tapped her on the head with a finger, and pointed to the nearby ice cream shop.

"Sorry to pull you away, but we're getting coffee and ice cream, courtesy of a dumbass. So I thought I'd better grab you so you could have some too"

Blinking in confusion as she was just in the middle of a crowd of her new friends, Mimi immediately perked up at the mention of ice cream. "Yay! Ice cream!" And without a moments hesitation, whipped around on her skates back towards her crowd of friends.

"Sorry guys I gotta go! I'll talk to you later though! Bye bye!" With waves all around, the sea of people dispersed, leaving a much emptier pier and a clear path to sweetness.

John watched in amusement as Celi dragged her little sister - skates and all - over to where he was still waiting patiently. Or as patiently as a hotheaded Wilder was capable or waiting. By this time, Terry had returned and was quietly speaking with John. The two of them watched the girls approach them and Terry grinned at Celi's explanation of their plans.

"Ready?" The older brother asked, getting straight to the point.

As if on cue, John tilted his head in a motion for them to follow, then started walking to a little shop along the beach. Upon reaching the shop, John held the door open for the girls and Terry motioned them inside.

The shop itself was a little cooler inside, with several different kinds of coffee - both hot and cold. There were also several flavors of ice cream listed on menu after menu, as far as the eye could see. The line was reasonably short, as if they'd been here often enough to know when to show up. As the customers placed their orders and the line shuffled along, Celi and Mimi were able to pick out what they wanted.

A cute blond girl with a lovely tan behind the counter began diligently scooping up the ice cream orders while the lone male employee in the shop got to work on Celi's latte.

His short-sleeved uniform was a bit rumpled, as if he either slept in it or hadn't bothered folding it, and his dark brown hair looked like he'd rolled out of bed mere minutes before work. He was average in height and slim, with long dark eyelashes and green eyes. Aside from the dark circles under his eyes and the lack of effort in his appearance, the barista was kind of cute.

Upon finishing up the iced hazelnut bianco latte with almond milk, he finally registered who the order was for. The rosette waiting for her coffee was damn cute and he was regretting not making himself more presentable before his shift. Nevertheless, he gave her a charming smile and winked at her.

"For the pretty lady with the nice outfit." He handed over the latte, the name tag on his uniform catching the glint of the light. It read 'Pal'. It looked more like a moniker than an actual name, but he was still leaning over the counter in a rather flirty way. "Let me know if you need anything else."

"Buster."

John's voice was sharp, clipped, and the barista immediately let go of Celi's hand when he realized that the larger teen was glaring at him with narrowed eyes. Worse though, was the fact that Terry was also here. And he didn't seem impressed with his flirting attempt either. The two oldest Wilder teens escorting a pair of pretty new girls made the barista frown. He turned sharply to Terry with an accusing glare, "Does your girlfriend know you're out with another girl?"

Terry didn't so much as flinch. "Patty knows I'm not that kinda guy. You should know better."

John was far less forgiving. "You shouldn't be flirting with the customers anyway, you little shit."

The barista, Buster, snapped his attention back to John. "Eat me." He muttered with a forced grin, "All you do is cause trouble anyway, and then we all get stuck cleaning up the mess afterwards." Annoyed, he rung up the order and jerked his thumb to the total.

John visibly looked like he wanted to drag the little punk over the counter and stuff him into the nearest garbage can (again), but instead reached into his pocket for his money. He plopped it onto the counter with an evil grin. When his hand pulled away it revealed the full amount... in pennies. Buster's face darkened as he glared up at John.

"...I hate you so much sometimes."

Satisfied, John left the barista to count the pile of pennies as he sauntered off to open the door back up for the two sisters they'd just treated. He waited until Celi and Mimi left, then turned to loudly call back over his shoulder, "Sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine... See you at school, buddy!"

The last noise heard before the door swung shut was a shout of frustration as Buster lost count and had to start again.