17 UNTITLED

July 2 1997, Moris Lake

"Damn, Greg is so hot.." Dayna with a dreamy expression on her face said as she look at the tanned hunk guy not too far away from them.

"Hmm," Brandi beside her despite not as bold her, bushed as she nodded in agreement to her bestfriend.

"I'm obviously more handsome though." Few meters away from them, Ben who was building sand castle along with the twins, Emma and Eden mumbles as he heard the older girls talking about other guys.

The guy in question, Greg Kinomoto, was a tall, well-tanned hunk of a young man who made every girl around camp swoon every single year— literally a type of guy that girls would willingly share just to get a piece of him.

Greg's family moved to the mainland from Hawaii, and he was an exotic mix of white, Japanese, and a hodgepodge of other ethnicities.

In any case, the genetic stew had produced a man so gorgeous it was actually a little sickening... Unfortunately, he was still a bit worse than him.

"Focus Ben! we're losing already!" Emma was beside him slap his arm weakly, sounding complain, snapping him back to reality.

Turning his eyes to look at the twins who was seriously building sand castle and the three girls on their left who was doing the same, he suddenly remembered that they are competing on 'who's gonna build a better sand castle.'

Dawn, Brooke and DJ teamed up together Vs He and the twins, Emma and Eden.

It's actually unfair competetion honestly, I mean, what would you expect a seven year old girls to built? But hey, the other party was very unreasonable: 'Since he was good at everything, he should at least give them a head start.'

'Sigh, what good at everything, I'm totally shit at this!' he cursed in his head. Looking at the sand castle before him and comparing it to the blueprint he created in his head, he suddenly felt like crying.

The one in his head was definitely a mixture of European, Egyptian, and a bit of Western fantasy theme architecture. It was a majestic, grand, and beautiful structure. However, the one before him was the exact opposite of it.

It was anything but grand, and the fact that he had no idea how to prevent the castle from crumbling made building it even more challenging. Additionally, having to follow the twins' requests on how to build it made it more complicated.

'Why am I even participitating in this childish competition.' Ben thought in helplessly.

HALF HOUR LATER.

As expected, they won.

Well, technically they did, the sand castle he and the twins made goes better overtime and the other side lost their fighting power after seeing how good theirs and in the end, they decided to forfiet cuz they got bored or so what they said.

Oh well, not that he care, it was all just a childish game after all.

"Even with such head start, you still lost? What the- are you for real?" Meh, just kidding, who doesn't care about it? Who cares if its a childish game, looking at the gloomy faces of the three chick before him, he smirked and flaunt proudly.

"..." Hearing him, the three was speechless.

"Is it just me or Ben is usually this annoying?" DJ asked breaking the silence.

"Tsk, havent I told you how annoying he is many times already?" Brooked beside her rolled out her eyes as she look at with her bestfriend with a knowing look.

"Technically yes, you did... Um, sis, wanna hang out with us later? And yes, just us, without Ben,"

"Sure, I need some space I think? I honestly felt like beating him right now."

"Hey, don't talk bad about me as if I'm not here." Ben complained only to be ignored by them.

***

DAWN'S BUNK TOGETHER WITH DJ AND BROOKE.

"So, mind telling us what's with you and

Ben?" Dj asked, looking at her sister with a knowing look along with Brooke beside her.

"What do you mean? Didnt I just left him to hang out with you two?" Dawn with confused expression look at the two of them.

"Stop pretending sis, we know that you're not annoyed at Ben as we are, duh, it's all on you're face." Dj rolled her eyes smirking as she look at her sister.

"Yes.. also why come with us? Surely you want to spend time with Ben don't you?" Brooke said as she remember how she badly want to spend time with DJ, and thought that perhaps that's how Dawn felt with Ben.

"... Honestly, I don't know?" A while later, after being questioned by the girls nonstoply, Dawn finally sighed and answered.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well.. it just, I don't know, I feel like I need space... Hanging out together all day made me felt.."

"Suffucated?"

"Yes, that's the word for it! Suffucating. I mean he's too good at everything and I... I'm just me, and the fact that he had to tease me for not being good enough is just so annoying."

"Oh.. but you don't hate him though?"

"No, I don't."

"I see... you're insecure?" Dj nodded as she concluded along with Brooke who had an astonished expression on her face.

"Hey, I'm not insecure-" Dawn was about to deny it, but upon a second thought, she felt that she felt unsure. "well... maybe I'm really insecure. "

"Unbelievable.." Brooke blurted out.

"What's unbelievable?"

"That you're insecure to Ben."

"Ehh? Why?"

"Well... Ben is usually the one who was insecure between the two of you.. I mean you're so cool Dawn, it just weird seeing you being like this with Ben." Brooke said, looking at Dawn with disbelief.

"Oh... Now that you said that, I felt like Ben changed somehow." Dawn as if remembering something said as she thought of how different Ben from what she remembered.

"Did he?" Brooke with uncertain expression said : "It felt the same to me, maybe he was a bit more funny, but still annoying that's for sure."

***

Author's Note:

LOL, I haven't updated for more than a week... again. Work, home, family, and sleep took up a lot of my time, making me unable to do anything outside of that. Damn, those MCs in the novels make it sound so simple. I mean, how the heck did they manage to succeed in everything so easily and say they've worked hard for it?

I'm also working hard, you know? Sometimes I even wonder if what I'm doing is worth it. Do I have an impact on society or whatever? Damn, I just want to laze around all day and do nothing, but I can't.

Sigh, I'm blabbing nonsense again, sorry about that. Anyway, I'm going to try to update more chapters... "Trying".