"Honey, I understand how you feel but you can't just explode at them like that since they had no idea that it was you they were talking about," Torrey said to her son.

"I know," Gussie sniffled as he wiped the tears from his face. "I'm sorry, mom."

Torrey got a message from her husband reminding her about the meeting. "Oh! my, I have to go, your father needs me in the office. you go to your room and rest."

"Yes mom, and thanks."

"Of course, sweetie, anytime," she held her son's face. "I'll see you later."

The soulpadres hit the beach with Archie, Bryce and Harrison and the best part about was that there weren't a lot a of people so they sort of had it for themselves. "This is so beautiful," Perdita expressed her admiration at the scene right in front of her.

"Brr... breezy and yet hot," Perfida shivered from the cold wind but the hot sun was shining on them, she was wearing a one-piece blue swimsuit while the rest were wearing beach trunks.

Archie, Bryce and Harrison were playing catch by the sands, Vance was having a video call his beau, Topher, to show him the beach. "Can this get any less painful?" March asked as he helped Perfida applied lotion on her back since her one-piece was backless by sitting on the woven beach mat.

"It will if you stop fussing over it," Perfida chuckled while taking a selfie and posting it in her SnapGram.

"You're right, I can't let my jealousy ruin this beach day," he replied but then Vance gave Topher a flying kiss, smoke was coming out from March's nose that he started growling and made a death grip on Perfida shoulder.

"Ow! ow! ow! March, you're killing me."

"Oops, sorry, Perfida."

"It's cool," she moaned in pain.

Vance was done talking to Topher that he went back to his friends. "Is the instructer here yet?"

"No. Wonder what's taking him so long?"

"You Vance...ahem... do you want one... too?" March was hoping he needs some application, a classic excuse to touch his bare body and for Vance to touch his.

"Maybe just a little, I am too pale unlike Topher," Vance replied, as he took the lotion from March's hand.

March was about to ask him if Vance needs help but then he saw something better. "Hey!" a guy ran towards them, he was a Zumu working in the resort, dark bronze-skin, fit body, medium-length dark hair and bright silver eyes and he was young but maybe a bit older, March finds him very attractive even in the distance. In March's eyes, this guy was slowly running like the Baywatch thing plus he has this very nice friendly smile and the dimples were a bonus. "Are you guys the Sweeney?"

"Uhmm..." March got all choked up to see his cute face looking right at him.

"I am," Perfida answered.

"I'm Koru, I'm the Skirring instructer," the guy introduced, he had this very positive vibrant energy that could light up anyone's mood. "Mr. French, sent me here to teach you guys."

"Oh! right, anyway, I'm Perfida."

"Vance."

"Leyo."

March was the only who hadn't introduced himself because he was mesmerized, that they all had their eyes at him. "And you are?" Koru asked not noticing that March was into him.

"Very much available," March muttered softly that it wasn't very clear to hear, Perfida and Vance could tell that he likes Koru.

"Excuse me?"

"I... I mean, I'm March."

"Nice to meet you, March. I will just clean the gliders a bit and we can start."

"Stellar," Perfida replied, Koru then walked back to a hut.

"He's cute," Perdita said, she just finds him attractive but not so much falling for him like March.

"Yeah, I guess he is cute."

"Yeah, for a shrimp," Vance scoffed.

Perfida snickered then nudged him with her elbow. "Mean. We get it, your boyfriend is better looking than him."

"I wouldn't call it shrimp," March defended.

"A shrimp?" Leyo wasn't familiar with the term.

"It's what they call a person with a good physique but not easy on the eyes when it comes to the face, that's why it's called a shrimp because they have hard nice body but the face is, well... you get the point," Perfida explained. "Ugh... we're so bad."

"Oh!" Leyo nodded in understanding. "He does seem that way."

"He's still very cute," March insisted. "Surfer dude kinda cute, did you not see his dimples? I hope he's single."

"Let's find out," Perfida shrieked in excitment.

"Sure!"

The Soulpadres were standing by the water putting on the gliders on their arms, they watched other people and cosmic citizens skirring, it was a new way to surf, they were like dolphins going down the water then up the air for two to three seconds and went back down.

"This is the first time I see skirring in person," Perfida said feeling impressed seeing people and non-Phorion cosmic citizens were doing it. "It's like they're a fairy mermaid."

"I guess you can call it that too," Koru laughed.

Skirring was a sport that was introduced by the Phorions, since they have bat-like wings to fly and as for the other, they use gliders with special materials, it involves water and wind so it was better to do it in Thoto than in Ares city because they could use the beach for that.

"To start you have to run really fast with your arms up ready to fly so once you get to the waters you can either go up the air first or down in the water and so on, here look at that person for instance," Koru pointed to a guy with his gliders on preparing to hit the water, like what he said, he sprint to the waters until the wind carried him up then went straight to the waters and flew up then got back down.

"Stellar," Vance got amazed even Perdita agreed but sadly she couldn't join the fun."Seems easy enough sounds, I guess."

"Don't worry, it does, it's a lot easier than surfing and less painful," Polu said with his cheery grin. "Come on, just give it a whirl. Who wants to go first?"

Some minutes passed and they hadn't gotten the hang of it, they were soaking wet and their hair had sands in it too from running to the beach water. "It's kinda not easy but it is less painful, I'll give you that," March moaned, they all say on the ground, still wearing their wings, from exhaustion on learning how to Skirr.

"Give it time, it's just the first day anyway."

"How long did you get to master it?"

"Three days."

"Really?" Vance had his brow raised that it took this guy few days to get pick up the skill.

"Three days? you're so talented," March complimented, Perfida subtly giggled at his lines as she lied down on her stomach.

"No, just determined," Koru chuckled. "And... I just wanted to impress this girl back then, who is now my girlfriend".

"Oh! nice, you have a girlfriend," March was crushed the second time, Perfida patted his shoulder to console him even Perdita felt bad for him.

"Yeah, and I'm planning to propose next year, that's why I took this job as an instructor."

"Aww! how sweet," Perfida was touched by that with Perdita feeling the euphoria.

"Lucky her," March put out a fake teethy smile.

"No, I'm the lucky one," Koru claimed, he laughed after that. "Now come on, try again, guys, remember to spread your arms up."

"Okay," everyone whined.

Meanwhile, Gussie went out for a drive to just keep his mind off from the conflict he had with the Soulpadres, he was in a rural highway that was unfamiliar to him but he his phone for GPS in case he got lost wearing his shades and his window was open to feel the breeze in face.

He didn't expect to see anything interesting yet he came across a beat-up establishment with a written sign saying 'Looking For Property Buyers' there were a handful people there mostly Zumus, he took a closer look of the place and realized it was a restaurant with zero customers probably because the location was in the middle of nowhere so he decided to check it out for himself.

Gussie just placed his car in front, he got out and saw two workers sat on the ground playing chess not aware that there was a customer coming. "Ahem," he called for their attention, they panicked when he saw him and immediately just stood up.

"Good afternoon, sir," both of them said, one was tall and the other one was short with a high voice. "Welcome to Nia's Cantina!"

Gussie looked at the little guys. "Do you drive?"

"Yes, I dive," the little guy answered with his right hand up.

"Drive," the tall guy corrected him.

"Yes, I drive and dive."

Gussie threw the keys at him, he caught it and got to his car to park it properly. "I want to see the owners about the property and I'm hungry," he told the tall one. "Very hungry."

"Sir is hungry!" the guy shouted to the waiters that were standing by.

"Sir is hungry!" the waiters shouted to the cooks.

"On it!" the cooks were scrambling to clean up their kitchen so they can serve their first ever customers in only God knows how long.

"They're gonna be here in a while. They will prepare your meal while you wait," the guy escorted Gussie inside.

Gussie looked at the exterior and wasn't impress at what he saw, it was a dump no doubt that a storm could destroy the place and the staff's uniform were just yellow shirts and apron with some holes on them. Once he saw the interior, it was more disturbing, wodden furniture could break anytime, there were cracks on their porcelain and the ceilings were collecting dusts. "I'll just eat outside," he said to the waiter.

"No problem, sir. I'll set up the table myself."

"Can I ask you something? When was the last time you have a single customer?"

The waiter gulped. "I uhmm... I don't remember, maybe several months ago, lately it's been a customer every six months."

"I see, I'll have whatever is your best seller or... was."

"Right away, sir."

"Where's Gussie?" Ram asked his wife once their meeting was done.

"Is that rhetorical or do you really want to know?" Torrey answered as she read some documents in her tablet.

"Oh God, what did he do now?"

"Would you relax? He went out for a drive."

"Typical."

"Sometimes, I'm surprise you still look for him."

"He could at least be here to eat with us."

"Well, if that's the kind of attitude you're going to give him then I don't blame our son to not want to join us this afternoon."

The Sweeneys came resort's beach restaurant for with beach towels around them with Koru accompanying them. "Thanks again for teaching us, Koru," Perfida said.

"No problem, a little more practice and you'll be skirring in no time," Koru said back.

"By the way, there's going to be a Skirring live show next week at the west side of the island, maybe you guys want to watch it."

The soulpadres seem interested. "Sure! we'd love to watch. Are you in it or something?"

"Oh no, I am hosting it. I'm more into the competition than performance art."

Suddenly, Perfida saw bulletin boards with printed photos that caught her attention, she walked closer to see it better, her friends even started to look, there were pictures of how the Frenz resort was in the beginning before it became big and successful. "Wow, the resort was so small back then," she said.

"Yup, if it weren't from them, I wouldn't have this job to support my family, they're very nice people especially their son, Gussie."

The four of them flinched in disbelief. "You're kidding."

Koru laughed at their reaction. "I know, it's hard to believe but under all that angst, he's actually an okay guy, he's the one that gave me a good word to his parents."

Perdita saw a photo of the French family with Lexi and her father, Munro when they used to get along, she instantly remembered her. "Peachy, look, it's that girl we met in the hallway."

Perfida too recognized the girl, she did not know she was not alive anymore. "I saw this girl one day, who is she?"

"What are you talking about?" Koru looked at her in a strange way. "That's Gussie's girlfriend, Lexi". The twins were stumped. "She died two years ago."

Archie was at the back and saw the photos, he felt just as horrified once he knew why Mauro was so angry at the French family.