We built sandcastles that washed away

The teams were quickly decided. There were some… questionable pairs made.

Pair 1: Vivian and Kim

“Unbelievable,” Kim spat, shaking her head in disgust. “I have to work with you?!”

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Vivian grinned. “Don’t you want to make a sandcastle?”

“Yeah, but not with you,” Kim replied. “You’ll probably just make me do all the work!”

The fact that Vivian didn’t deny that was damning.

Pair 2: Gina and Ella

“Um… uh… w-well… I’ve never done this before,” Ella admitted sheepishly. She felt a little exposed after giving Gina back her jacket. “I’ll need a lot of help…”

“Eh, how hard can it be?” Gina shrugged. “It’s what, just mixing sand and some water? Sounds easy as spit to me.”

Ella admired the other woman’s confidence, but she didn’t feel that way herself.

“Oh, thanks for the jacket, by the way. Sorry if I got it dirty… I can wash it for you, if you like?” Ella offered, trying to be friends.

“Nah. Don’t bother. It’s no big deal,” Gina scoffed, waving her hand dismissively.

That made Ella feel better, but at the same time, it didn’t. Gina seemed friendly enough, but she was hard to deal with…

Pair 3: Morgana and Amelia

“I-I’ll do my best!” Morgana promised. “I’ve got all kinds of ideas for a castle! It’ll be really cool, with a moat, and tunnels, and a little drawbridge!”

“Keep in mind that you’ll need to make those things out of sand,” Amelia reminded the excited girl. “And we only have an hour.”

She didn’t mean to crush Morgana’s dreams like that. But Amelia was a ruthless pragmatist, and Morgana…

Morgana wanted to have fun.

She sighed and nodded glumly. “Um… okay… I’ll, I’ll follow your lead, then!”

In her research of Nick, she knew that his stepmother was from landed nobility. That would mean she knew more about castles than anyone!

Morgana was happy to follow her lead!

Which just left…

Pair 4: Dakota and Sylvia

Sylvia squirmed with tension as she looked furtively between the number “4” on her slip and the woman who’d pulled the other number.

Her creator, Dakota.

The woman in question had an expression on her face like she’d swallowed a shard of glass.

“Um… Dakota, we should-”

“Huh?” Dakota sneered contemptuously at Sylvia, making the other girl flinch.

“I-I just… I thought…” Why was it so hard for Sylvia to say anything? Why? Why couldn’t she just stand up to herself for once?

“I suppose this would make for a suitable handicap,” Dakota scoffed, turning and walking towards a section of the beach.

Sylvia’s heart wavered. She bit her lip, and cried out after her creator, “I… I’m really glad that we’re working together on this!”

It wasn’t even a lie.

Dakota turned back to look at her, nonplussed. “Are you coming?” She asked with a dismissive tone, like she didn’t care one way or the other.

And yet, that was enough to bring a smile to Sylvia’s face.

“I’m gonna be judging the contest with Nick.”

“Me, I’m going to be judging.”

“Not you, me.”

Nick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Rose…”

Mary’s eye twitched as the blonde hovered around her, crowing with triumph at her supposed “victory” over her so-called “rival”.

“Are you listening, Mary? I’m gonna be the judge!”

“Yes, Rose, I heard you,” Mary said, trying very, very hard not to shove her spatula into the blonde’s obnoxious mouth. “I’m a little busy right now seasoning the patties, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Rose said, taking a step back and holding up her hands.

Mary sighed in relief, glad that she could finally get back to cooking.

“…But I just wanted to say, I’m gonna be judging the contest with Nick.”

For a brief moment, Mary contemplated grabbing Rose and shoving her face into the grill. She never would, of course, that would be a horrible thing to do! But the blonde had a way about her that really made it sound like a reasonable idea.

“I’ll take care of her, don’t worry,” Nick said, looping his arms around Rose’s armpits and dragging her away through the sand. “You just focus on cooking, Mary.”

Mary looked down at the preheating grill, and the meat she was seasoning.

She was pretty much done anyway, right?

“You know what? Maybe I’ll join after all,” she decided, walking out from behind the grill to join the two of them. “I can be a judge, too!”

“Really?” Nick asked, pleasantly surprised.

“What!?” Rose exclaimed, forcing herself not to smile. “Err… w-well, if you want to, then fine! But I’m gonna be a way better judge than you!”

“Rose, you don’t have to make everything a competition, you know!” Nick groaned, before remembering that this literally was a competition. “…With Mary, I mean.”

“It’s fine, sweetie, don’t worry about it,” Mary laughed, giving Rose a knowing look. “She’s just being friendly.”

Rose blushed, and then turned up her nose. “…Hmph!”

With that settled, Nick decided to check out how everyone was doing on their sandcastles. He was actually pretty surprised by what he saw.

“Is… is it lopsided?!” Ella wailed. Her hand slipped, and she accidently brushed off part of the tower. “Oh no! I’m sorry!”

“Eh, don’t worry about it!” Gina chortled. “You’re just giving the castle some character, that’s all! I like what you did!”

Ella was surprised to hear that. “R-really?”

“Sure!” Gina grabbed some sticks, and jammed them into the side of the half-collapsed tower. “It’s like a post-apocalyptic ruin! That’s exactly the kind of awesome castle I’d want to party in!”

Nick had to laugh. Leave it to Gina to appreciate a condemned building.

Meanwhile, Kim was working exceptionally hard on getting her castle looking absolutely perfect. She squinted hard, brushing the sand gently to shave a few scraps off the side, trying to get it as even as possible.

“Hey! Wow, looking really good there, Kim!” Vivian said in amazement.

Kim’s heart surged with pride, and she was about to thank the other girl for the compliment before she realized who she was talking to.

“Hmph, well, one of us has to- eh?”

She turned to Vivian, and was surprised by what she saw. The heiress was crouching beside her, carefully touching up the parapet on another tower to get it even with the other side. It was definitely not what she’d expected.

It was so confusing that Kim couldn’t help but ask, “Vivian, what are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Vivian looked up from her work with a confused expression on her face. “What do you mean? I’m getting the tower even.”

Well, yeah, that much was obvious.

“No, no, it’s just… surprising, that’s all,” Kim said, scratching her head with her sandy fingers. Because of her sweat, the sand was clinging to her skin a lot more than the other girls. “I didn’t think you’d put so much effort into this.”

“Attention to detail is crucial!” Vivian said firmly. “You need to make sure everything is exactly how it’s supposed to be! If even one part is out of place, then the whole thing looks lopsided! And we’re trying to make the best castle we can, right?”

Kim didn’t know what to say.

“Err… yeah, I-I guess you’re right,” she stammered, nodding in agreement. “That’s really diligent of you, Vivian. I’m… impressed?”

It sounded so weird to say that.

“Diligence pays the billigence,” Vivian said, laughing at her own corny joke. Kim gave her an exasperated expression and rolled her eyes, then went back to her own meticulous work.

The heiress wasn’t done, though. “So how did you get it in such a perfect square, anyway?” She asked curiously.

“Huh?” Kim looked up in confusion.

“I mean, most of the time, you gotta use, like, a special bucket or something, right?” Vivian pointed out. “Something to hold the sand in the right shape. But we don’t have any of those. And yet your walls they’re so… rectangly.”

“…‘Rectangly’ huh?” Kim rolled her eyes. “I mean, it’s just one of those things, you know? If you go at it from the side like this, and bend your fingers, it just kind of smoothes out into the right angle, I guess. I haven’t really thought about it.”

It wasn’t like Kim had any experience with beaches. She’d never made a sandcastle before in her life. But she had a delicate hand, and her years of working in meticulous jobs had led her to develop a great attention to detail, which she was making full use of.

She found it kind of unnerving that Vivian seemed so interested. Almost like she was being toyed with.

There’s no way she actually is interested, right? She’s just pretending to lead me on. I’m onto you, Vivian. And yet, Kim could shake the look of genuine interest Vivian seemed to have in her sculpting skills.

“…Why do you even care?” Kim asked finally.

Vivian blinked, and tilted her head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean?” She asked.

Kim shrugged. “Why do you care about making sandcastles? Don’t you live in a huge mansion or something? What made you come up with this competition?”

Vivian crouched back in the sand and stroked her chin. “Honestly? …I don’t know,” she admitted, shaking her head. “It just seemed fun, you know? A casual activity. I guess I saw it on TV once or something, and thought it looked cool. Building a sandcastle with your own two hands? That’s gotta be a blast!”

“I guess… I just never took you for the kind of person that would get your hands dirty,” Kim admitted. She’d expected Vivian to boss her around like a micromanaging boss, but the heiress was right there with her, doing the same thing, and she honestly seemed to be having a blast.

It struck her as completely out of left field.

“I’m full of surprises,” Vivian purred, and she hopped to her feet, grabbing the empty bucket. “I’ll go refill the water!”

Kim watched Vivian head off towards the waves, and found herself struggling to figure the other woman out. She slowly shook her head.

As Vivian went, Morgana was returning. She was walking carefully, making sure not to spill the bucket of water.

Again.

“I-I got the water!” Morgana said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

She’d wanted to make an awesome goth castle with all sorts of cool designs, but Amelia had calmly and coldly dismissed most of them, explaining how unfeasible they were.

“Yes,” Amelia said, not looking up from the thick wall she was sculpting. “The inner wall needs four entrances, one on each side. Make one big enough for a scale person to walk through. And when you’re done, you can make the moat.”

Morgana went a little pale.

She’d had some fanciful ideas.

But Amelia… Amelia had design schematics.

Morgana couldn’t quite be sure what sort of castle they were making, but it looked really impressive. The teacher approached it with a diligent eye, and she was fast, too! The goth girl was so lucky, getting to work with someone so knowledgeable and with such attention to detail!

Still… I wish I could do more than just be another set of hands. Morgana dug her finger into one of the inner walls, careful to make sure she wasn’t disrupting anything. The last thing any of them needed was for her to accidently tear half of the darn thing down on them!

Even if my ideas aren’t that good, I’m just glad I can be of help! That was enough to bring a smile to Morgana’s face. And besides, even if Amelia was a little strict, it could definitely be a lot worse.

She could be in Sylvia’s shoes.

“Is this good enough?” The blonde looked hopefully at Dakota, gesturing to the lopsided tower she’d made. She’d tried her hardest, she really had, but she just couldn’t manage to smooth out the bulges. Whenever she tried, the whole thing would come tumbling down!

“It’s unstable,” Dakota said, her tone just a note above disgust. She nearly shoved Sylvia out of the way to get to the shaky structure. “I’ll fix it.”

“B-but…” Sylvia looked pathetically at her tower, crestfallen that she’d disappointed Dakota. She’d really tried on this one!

As Dakota tried to smooth it out, the whole thing tumbled over into a pile of sand.

Sylvia flinched, freezing solid, expecting any number of scathing criticisms to come from Dakota’s lips.

Instead, the dark-haired girl just let out a disappointed sigh, and began piling the sand together again.

Nick watched the two of them, and his heart broke a little. He knew the kind of woman Dakota was. Ever since she was a little girl, whenever something would go wrong, it was always someone else’s fault. She had no issue with tossing around blame like a football.

And yet, Dakota hadn’t said a single word of criticism to Sylvia, no matter how many mistakes the other girl made, or how many times her towers and walls caved in.

The only explanation he could find for that behavior hurt even worse than the alternative. Rather than condemning and criticizing the poor girl… Dakota simply did not care.

It’s like Sylvia’s so beneath her notice that it doesn’t matter how badly she screws up. Nothing she does will ever matter.

And knowing that… it really stung. And he could tell that Sylvia was hurting too.

But she kept trying.

“Is… there something I can do? Please?” Sylvia pleaded.

Dakota bit back and exasperated sound, and sighed.

“…Water.”

“Huh!? You want water? Yes, yes, I can get you water!” Sylvia was so happy to be acknowledged she didn’t even mind fetching another bucket, even though theirs was practically still full. She rushed to grab it.

“No. Not what I meant.”

Dakota looked up at the other woman.

“You’re not using enough water. That’s why everything is breaking apart,” Dakota said, taking the bucket and tilting it onto the sand, to get it wet enough to start shaping. “If you don’t make it stable enough, of course it’s going to collapse.”

Sylvia’s mouth fell open. “Uh… o-okay! I can do that!” She said, grabbing the bucket and wetting some sand herself. She began to form another tower, just as lopsided as the last. But this time, when she tried to smooth over the rough parts, it didn’t fall to pieces in her hands.

Dakota watched her silently for a moment, then went back to her own tower. The annoying itch between her legs was gnawing at her, thanks to all the contact with wet sand. She didn’t like feeling this way when Nick still wouldn’t sleep with her.

It caused her to feel all nauseous inside.

“Does this look better?” Sylvia asked hopefully.

The tower she made still didn’t look anything close to what some of the other girls were working on. Dakota’s looked much better by comparison.

The dark-haired woman sighed. “Just move on to making the walls, that’ll have to do.”

If she pointed out everything wrong with Sylvia’s sandcastle skills, they wouldn’t be done in time. It was better to just take the lumps as they came, and work things out as best as possible.

Sylvia took it as nothing less than glowing praise.

“Thank you! I’ll do my best!”

“And dig a moat. You can handle that, right?” Dakota asked, not seeing how Sylvia could possibly screw up dragging a trench into the sand.

“Yes! Right away, I absolutely can!”

“Are… are they okay?” Mary whispered warily as she watched Dakota and Sylvia work together on their sandcastle.

“I’m not sure, honestly,” Nick admitted, making sure to keep his voice low enough that the two of them couldn’t hear. “But it could be going worse?”

“I think it’s sweet!” Rose said with a cheeky smile, earning her looks of shock from the other two.

“Sweet?” Mary shook her head. “Dakota’s being really mean though.”

“She’s still helping Sylvia, though, right?” Rose pointed out.

Nick and Mary took another look. Dakota was working with Sylvia to smooth out the wall, and she wasn’t even berating the other woman as she did it.

“…I guess?” Nick wasn’t sure he completely approved. But Sylvia seemed to be happier than he’d ever seen her today.

Maybe… maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world?

“Eeek! Eh! Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no!”

Ella’s wail caused a spike to shoot through the three of them, and the imminent judges whirled around to see the latina fretting in the sand, snapping her rubber-band with a loud “THWAP!”

Nick had no idea what sort of castle they’d been working on, but it was clear that the remains weren’t a pleasant sight.

Ella had slipped, and landed face-first on the sand castle she and Gina had been making, completely crushing it.

“I did it again… I did it again!” The poor girl was practically in tears. “Gina, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to, I swear!”

“Hey, hey, come on, it’s not a big deal!” Gina patted her on the back. “Look, you just gave it some character! Nobody’s going to have a castle that looks like ours!”

Ella stared at the scary-looking girl with the amused smile, then at the Ella-shaped imprint in the sand.

“…HUH?!”

She couldn’t believe Gina wasn’t mad. They’d put so much work into the darn thing, and she’d ruined it! And now they had to start all over again, with hardly any time left!

And the other girl just blew it off with a laugh!?

“It’s not the end of the world, geez!” Gina cackled. “Ella, you gotta learn to relax, or you’re gonna explode! Come on, it’s just for fun. Don’t worry about it, we’ll just build it again. Now, help me over here with the tower…”

Ella didn’t know what to say. She just knelt down beside Gina and started packing the sand again, slowly shaking her head as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

Nick watched on with Mary and Rose, trying to figure out if this was a good thing or not. He ultimately decided that maybe… maybe Gina was the perfect person to help Ella out with this.

The poor, neurotic girl took everything so seriously. She could use someone like Gina to help her mellow out.

A shiver went down his spine at the thought.

Did I… did I really just think of Gina as being a good influence on someone?

He really had seen it all at this point.