Zee and Todd

Zee:

Todd and Ben pounded on the bathroom door telling Zee to hurry up. She called though the door saying:
“Too bad! You guys should have got in here first!”
“Come on, Zee!” Todd yelled, “it doesn’t need to take twenty minutes for you to put on a bathing suit!”
Ben then made a smart alec comment about Zee being fat. Zee slammed the door open and gave Ben the most evilest glare ever. Todd then stepped far away from Ben as Zee gave her “I’m going to eat you” stance. Zee raised her hands as if she was a monster and then started to chase Ben around the small room. The door to the hotel room opened and Jack came in counting some money that he got from the ATM.
He looked up and saw Zee. She was wearing a bikini top with board shorts. Her short hair was up in mini pigtails and she had her contacts in.
“Zee!” Jack joked, “What would mom say about that?!”
Zee looked down to her bikini top and rolled her eyes. Mom never let her wear just the bikini and Zee didn’t like to wear it alone anyway. Especially after she got a horrible sunburn on her stomach a few years back. That was the only time she disobeyed Mom and she ended up falling asleep in the hot sun. Never again shall she make that mistake
“I have a tank top doofis! Besides, we’re on a California beach. Who knows what weirdos are out there who would want a piece of this.”
She playfully posed as a model.
“Ew,” Ben said sticking out his tongue.
She picked up the kid and tossed him the best she could onto the bed. Todd came out of the bathroom and after Ben made a quick wardrobe change, they were off down to the lobby. Their parents and Todd’s grandparents were waiting and soon they were off to enjoy the early afternoon sun. The beach was only ten minutes away by foot so they all decided to walk on down to the beach.
Zee enjoyed the fun experience and couldn’t wait to find some cool shells too. Rosie made her promise that she was going to find some shells for her collection. Rosie’s aunt was a big traveler when she was younger and used to always send her a few shells from her travels. Now Rosie has a huge collection of beautiful shells and Zee now needed to find a great one. Thankfully she had her trusty little cousin, who was planning to make the biggest sand castle ever, to help.
“Alright, kids, listen up!” Mom said as they got to the beach.
She had a stance as if she was a drill sergeant and had sunscreen in her hand.
“I expect you to have fun, put a lot of sunscreen on, and stay in groups of two. We don’t want an even that happened when we went to Chicago last year!”
Todd and Zee were partners, they somehow got split up from each other and their parents had to spend two hours to find Todd. Todd actually was in a comic book store the entire time and they both were scolded for losing each other. Zee and Todd rolled their eyes and Uncle York laughed.
“Let the kids have some fun, Mori!”
“I don’t want to hear them whining about getting burned though!” She tossed the sunscreen over to Jack, “put some on!”
The kids moaned and soon were placing the white paste of doom on their skin. Todd playfully helped Ben into too much sunscreen and he looked like he was going to be on the set of a monster movie. Ben and Todd then had a little fight with the sunscreen and Zee stole the bottle. When she was done, Jack was already on his way to the beach.
“Jack! You heard what Mom said!”
He was talking on the phone and Zee rolled her eyes. This was supposed to be a vacation, not a “talk on the phone to friends you’ll see every day” day. She then linked arms with Todd and Ben and they all skipped off down the beach chanting:
“We’re off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of oz!”

The day was fun. They attempted to build the largest sand castle that ended up to be about five feet high till it collapsed. Mom took a picture of the half ruined sand castle then the next shots were of Jack knocking the rest down. He some how got a surf board and was attempting to surf the large waves on the beach. Ben’s revenge was burying him in the sand when he took a nap. Mom’s pictures of him strangling to get out were hilarious!
The family got together and took one group shot before they all went off to have an early dinner at a beach side restaurant. Zee broke away after dinner and started to walk down the quiet beaches. It was seven and the sun was starting to set. Most families were leaving from the beach while a few were still having fun. The temperature dropped and Zee still hadn’t found the best shell yet.
The entire day was fun and she even became friends with a girl who was getting off of life guard work. She smiled as she placed her feet into the wet sand. It tickled her feet and she enjoyed the quiet time to herself. She sort of wished that she actually told her parents where she was going, but the sound of the tide and the atmosphere around her was just too perfect to go back.
Something told her to keep enjoying this moment. She didn’t know why, but it was like this moment, this vacation, was going to be the last break she has for a while. Zee pondered why she felt that way. She had a good job going for her, even if it was minimum wage, and she had many things planned with her friends this summer. It didn’t seem that stressful…
Zee then suddenly felt a thump on her head. She leaned forward from the hit and looked up suddenly to see Jack. He gave a goofy smile and mentioned that their Mom and Dad were mad.
“Sorry… it just got too loud in the restaurant.”
“Yeah… Uncle York and Dad’s karaoke singing gets bad very quick.”
“Why does Mom let Dad do stupid things?” Zee smiled.
“Because they like it when you nag them about embarrassing you.”
Zee punched her brother’s arm and he picked her up by the waist. She laughed and screeched to put her down. He was about to throw her into the water, but she grabbed his shaggy hair and pulled him down with her. They splashed down into the soft sand and the waves and laughed.
They laid there in the water for a few moments, staring at the purple sky. Zee looked over to her brother in the orange sunlight and smiled. His dark brown hair looked lighter like it did every summer when he was in the sun too long. He was also sunburned badly on his face and bare shoulders. She poked at his sunburn to make him cringe and nagged saying that Mom told him so. He rolled his eyes and sat up in the water.
Zee then spotted the tattoo that was hidden partially by his white tank top. No one knew where and when Jack actually got that tattoo. It was a beautiful tattoo that stretched across his upper back. It was designed a little like a tribal tattoo but flowed like vines. It was beautifully crafted and was identical to the one that the man Toby had. Zee wanted to ask about it, but in the past she was shut down by her brother. Mom was horrendous when she found out. She gave a two hour speech plus a two month grounding.
After that, Jack always covered his back. Today was probably the first time in a year since Zee saw her brother running around without a shirt. Zee figured that it was because that they were in California and there were plenty of hot girls. Zee found him talking to some of them earlier too. All guys were the same, it was funny.
“We should be getting back,” Jack said standing up.
Zee sighed and looked up to her brother who stuck out his hand to help her get up. She took it and she was instantly back on her feet. Zee found it funny how much Jack looked like Mom. It was scary how much they looked alike. They even acted alike when it came to a schedule.
“Come on! Already? But I still haven’t found the right shell for Rosie!”
He frowned, most likely wanting to get into his pajamas and sleep.
“Just use that shell over there and lets go.”
Zee hadn’t seen any big shells on the smooth beach. He started to walk away and she turned to see a large shell that was about as big as the palm of her hand. It was clean and even seemed to sparkle in the setting sunlight. It was as if it just appeared for her to take and so that Jack could leave. Zee took the shell anyway and she noticed that Jack was already a yard away. She ran after him with her bare feet and jumped on his sunburned back.
“ZEE! OW!”
“Attack of the flying monkeys!”
“You need to stop watching that movie!”
“Why? It reminds me of the fun we had before! Too bad you left before you could meet Mom and Dad when they were younger though.”
“Oh, I met them alright.”
Zee jumped off his back and stopped him, “since when did this happen!”
“Uh… when I was volunteering in the library that one day… I gave Mom your lunch for her to go find.”
Zee then thought back to that and smiled. That was a fun day. She was even having a horrible long hair day when her mom came to the club that day. Zee hated having that much hair and was glad to get rid of it all. She found it funny though why Jack wasn’t like “Jack and the bean stalk” or something. It was like he was unaffected to the curse of that town-
“Rapunzel Catherine Henderson!” Zee looked up to see her mom with a furious look.
“ooo your in trouble now!” Todd smiled standing close by her.
Zee lowered her head and saw a cocky smile from her brother. Well at least she wasn’t going to be grounded for two months like he was…