The female fort

If one of the young men outside happened to enter the guest room across the master bedroom at that exact moment, they certainly would have thought to be standing before the gates of heaven upon seeing the four young women prancing around the room in various stages of undress while putting on their swimsuits.

The fifth girl of that little group, Chloe, was the only one still wearing the clothes she used on the trip while sitting down on the edge of one of the twin-sized beds in the room. The young redhead’s eyes sadly followed her friends as she wondered what it could be like to just follow their example and try on one of the swimsuits she brought on her bag, even knowing there was a huge possibility of the garments never touching her body.

Heather, rocking a skimpy dark blue bikini that barely held her amazing chest, caught sight of the sulking redhead and frowned before moving to sit next to her, a sympathetic smile on her face. Chloe’s image issues were well known among their group, so everyone made it a point to not bother her about it, but the busty brunette admitted she was very curious as to what caused it in the first place. “You know you can go as you are now, don’t you?”

Chloe gave her a small smile in response. “Yeah,” she replied, trying to sound a bit more cheerful. “Don’t worry about me, I’m just being silly.”

Victoria tied her long golden hair in a ponytail as she walked over to her two friends, wearing a conservative, white one-piece swimsuit. “Hey Chloe, when did you get it, if you don’t mind me asking?” she inquired while sitting at the redhead’s other side. “I’ve always wondered.”

Chloe went silent at the blonde’s question, her gaze locking on her own feet. Only her mother, Lisa, and Taylor knew the reason why she started being uncomfortable with showing too much of her body, and she didn’t really want other people finding out even if they were her close friends. Don’t need people jumping to wrong conclusions like Mom did, she decided. “Uhn, Victoria, I don’t really want to talk about it, at least not right now, okay?”

The green-eyed blonde felt a bit ashamed of her prying. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…,”

“It’s okay,” Chloe interrupted, eager to get the spotlight away from her. “I’m not mad, really.”

Heather smiled and turned away to look at Lisa and Madison, the latter seemingly having a problem to tie up the former’s brown bikini at the back of her neck.

"Sure you didn't buy a size too small? Maybe two?" red bikini-clad Madison asked, finishing the task. "It looks tighter than it should be."

Lisa chuckled awkwardly. "Of course not, I wouldn't make a mistake like that," she said like it was obvious.

Unless it isn't a mistake at all, Lisa, you smart girl, Heather mentally grinned. One of the reasons for them to have invited Lisa was because she was Chloe and Madison's friend and because they wanted to see if she could get back together with Zack. The poor guy has been brooding and sulking too much lately, hope it works out, the head cheerleader thought. And if it doesn't, well, he'd be perfect to make Vicky finally get out of that Dustin-induced funk.

However, before they could go out there and have some fun at the lake, Heather felt a warning was in order. "Alright, girls," she stood up and faced her four friends. "As you saw earlier, my cousin can be a bit of a jokester, and sometimes he goes too far, so well, if it happens to one of you, tell me so I can keep him in line, okay?"

Madison raised a curious eyebrow. "Is he that bad?"

Heather didn't answer right away, she couldn't exactly tell them about Kurt's overly flirting and womanizing ways, seeing as she was pretty sure no one would get comfortable enough to enjoy their trip if they had to worry about her cousin all the time. She figured just a warning would keep her friends with their eyes open to whatever Kurt could try. "No, no, no, it's just his jokes, like I said, he goes over the top sometimes," she tried to keep them relaxed. "Just tell me if he bothers any of you and I'll talk to him."

The four girls nodded positively in response and Heather mentally sighed in relief, hoping Kurt wouldn't screw up her trip. Or everyone else's, for that matter.