Last Summer.

Southend-On-Sea was going to take a lot of adjusting to.

It was certainly no London, the smell of sea salt lingered in the air followed by the screams and splashes from the beach beside me. It was an unusual contrast from England’s capital - The busy skylines, the congested traffic and herds of people every direction you looked. I had lived there for almost seventeen years, it was my home. My mother had decided to move myself, and my younger sister near the sea to allow us to ‘get some fresh air, instead of the polluted environment which is London.’

Back in London, no-one would’ve took a second glance at me as they walked past me, but in Essex that was a different situation overall. As I stood in the line for the one ice-cream truck across the sea front, with my sister Ashlee jumping around ecstatically at my feet, saying something about going swimming with the mermaids after eating the ice-cream. I muttered an optimistic reply to keep her happy as I looked around the sea front from behind the shades of my black Armani sunglasses at the dirty looks the people were shooting my way. Within a mile radius, I was the only one in a dark band t-shirt and a pair of jeans that weren’t cut off above the knees. Sorry Southend-On-Sea, but I don’t do shorts.

“Ava!” Ashlee pulled on my iPod headphones, causing them to fall out of my ears, “Ava, the line!” I looked up from my sister, to the line, which had moved about 2 inches at the most, and it really wasn’t worth the exercise to move. She had inherited my mothers impatience, and worry about the simplest things which always stressed me out. To them, everything had to be perfect, whereas I acknowledged the fact that everything has its faults, and you can‘t help that.

“Ashlee, chillax. The line is going nowhere.” I said, putting my headphones back into my ears and continued to stare out at the blue sea, which was too blue for my liking. The line slowly moved along, which increased my sisters temper and gave me the mental note of to never do my mother a favour when it involves Ashlee. “Ashlee, if you don’t stop moaning, you’ll be getting nothing and we’ll be going back.”

“Siblings, eh?” A blonde haired guy from in front said as he turned around to face me. His eyes were almost as blue as the clear sea I’d previously been staring at moments before, and a few dark blonde strands of his hair fell into them. His hair fell just below his ears and above his shoulders, his fringe had a striking block of black hair running through it. He couldn’t have been any older than 18, and his smile was just adorable, and made me forget about the move away from London, and my sisters nagging.

“Tell me about it,” I said, finding myself giggling at the situation, and his smile stretched across his face even more at the laugh. “I’m Ava.” I introduced myself, a calm ease running through my bloodstream as he smiled at me. Plus he seemed cool, by the way he started the conversation, didn’t look at me like I was dirt, and that he wasn’t wearing lycra shorts. It made me think that he wasn’t like 99.9 percent of the population here. The only slightly worrying thing was that his socks were pulled up halfway up his legs, as if to show off how pearly white they were from one too many Daz washes.

“I’m James. Nice accent by the way, London?” James asked me, and I felt the colour rush to my cheek, an uncontrollable reaction to whenever someone commented my accent.

“Uh yeah.” I replied, lowering my head so that my auburn hair would cover my flushing cheeks. “I’ve just moved here, my mum thought all the ‘pollution’ was messing with my brain, and that it wasn’t a suitable environment for my sister… who she’s left me with for today.” I said and pointed down at my sister, who was looking up at James, her baby blue eyes open wide as she took in every detail of his appearance.

“Snap! I’m having to look after my little brother Chris… well, buy him an ice-cream.” He said, pointing at the small blonde boy beside him who had matching blue eyes to James. “My mums dragged the family to the beach because apparently we don’t spend enough time with each other. I mean, we totally spend loads of time with each other… but she won’t take eating as an answer.” A cough from behind us caught our attention, and turning around there was a gap between us and the ice-cream van was certainly more then 2 inches. I heard James mutter a swear under his breath before moving forward to the counter.

“Err, yeah. Can I have two Mr Whippy’s please?” James asked, before turning to me and Ashlee, “And what do you two want?”

“What? Oh its okay, I’ll get ours.” I said, rummaging through my pockets to find the loose change my mother gave me before shutting the door on us.

“I insist, you guys are new here after all. Least I can do is buy you an ice -cream. So what to you want?” We began to bicker over whether I should allow him to buy us an ice-cream or not, yet we were interrupted by the guy working in the ice-cream stall coughing informing us that there was a huge queue growing behind us that I caved in, and allowed him to buy the ice-creams that he seemed eager to purchase on our behalf.

“Thanks.” I said as he passed me one of the ice-creams, also handing the other to my younger sister. “Next time I’m buying.” We began walking back to the seafront, and soon there was the grains of sand below the soles of my vans, and several crowds of people around me lying down on beach towels, barely an inch of clothing covering their body, leaving their already tanned skin a target for the suns UV rays, or people running into the sea and small kids making sandcastles or collecting shells. It was crowded, but completely different to the crowds in London.

“Chris, why don’t you go introduce Ashlee to your friends?” James’ little brother Chris nodded, before walking off down the shore with my sister in tow. I looked over to James, who had a small smile upon his face as he stared out into the crowds of people jumping around in the sea in front of us. He slowly turned to face me, the smile still upon his face, his eyes glinting as the reflection of the sun hit them. “You wanna go sit down somewhere?” He asked me and I nodded.

“Sure, why not?” I said, and he proceeded in the opposite direction to where everyone else seemed to be congregating. In my mind, I was asking myself why I was walking away from the crowds with someone I had just met, who could be a complete freak and kidnap me or something, but I didn’t know the answer. James seemed so nice, and he was the only person who didn’t seem to mind me, and made an effort to talk to me. It was better hanging around with someone my own age than hanging around with Ashlee, and making sandcastles or whatever.

As we walked, he explained that there was a quiet spot, where hardly anyone went, and that he always went there whenever he was sick of the tourists taking up the beach, and the water whilst they tried to surf, and failed. As we walked, the sounds of the crowds faded, and our ears were filled with the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks, the seagulls screeching from above us, and the crunch of the sand below our feet. It was a peaceful silence, not at all awkward whilst we focused mainly at eating our ice-creams before they melted underneath the glowing suns heat. We soon reached a wall of huge rocks.

“Well, we’re here. And I guarantee we won’t be disturbed… well only by the odd mermaid begging to marry me and become human… I hate having to break their hearts.” James said, as we sat down on one of the rocks, facing the sea that stretched to the end of the horizon.

“Oh yeah, met a lot of mermaids then, Mr Serial Heartbreaker?” I asked him, giggling as I swung my legs upon the rock, and lay back resting my head on my arms and began to work out what shapes the clouds were forming. The sky was peaceful, undisturbed. It was beginning to amaze me what I’d been missing out in London.

“Yeah, there was this one girl called Ariel…” He said jokingly, smiling from above me. “So, why did your mum choose to move to Southend-On-Sea? Generally people only visit, not move here.”

“She’ll never admit it, but it’ll be that she wants to be close to London… It was either here or a place up north. I swear to god, that village up north was God’s Waiting Room. Couldn’t see someone my age anywhere.” I told him, which made him laugh out again.

“You’ll find that here, once you figure out which ones are tourists and which ones aren’t. Most people who live here have been here since they were kids, and their families before then.” James explained to me.

“So that means I’m gonna stick out like a sore thumb… great. I’ll be the freak.” I moaned. Just what I needed. To be the outcast in a new town. At least I was remotely popular in London.

He laid down beside me, and looking directly into my eyes he replied, “I wouldn’t be too sure.” and then looked back into the sky.