"Mini golf? Are you sure?"

I scoffed. "Klaus, don't doubt me on this, it's the perfect thing to get the ball rolling. Literally."

"I mean, I get how something competitive might work to get them together, but golf is a solo sport," Klaus reasoned, before his eyes lit up and he caught on to my idea, "unless they're paired up! Brilliant!"

"Exactly!" I said, sipping my drink. We had delivered our siblings' drinks to them prior to us discussing our plans in further detail, and now I was watching Duncan as he accidentally spilled half of it all over the girl he was trying to impress.

Violet and Quigley had long finished theirs and were now hitting a ball back and forward to each other in the pool, so Klaus and I had taken over their position at the loungers so we didn't lose them to the other pool-goers

"We have a problem," Klaus said all of a sudden, sitting up. "What do we do about Duncan?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's five of us. Who are we going to find to make the numbers even?" he said, but I just waved off his concerns. I had already thought that through. The easy option was to take Sunny with us and have her pair with someone so we had an equal amount, but then it was almost guaranteed that Violet would offer. So instead I had decided we would ask-

"Shauna," I said, ignoring Klaus' look of disbelief, "She's probably our age, just working a summer job. Why not try and befriend her and see if she'll come with us? I'm sure they don't make their summer staff work every single day."

"Okay, first of all, what makes you think she'll want to come mini golfing with a random group of strangers?"

"Summer fun?" I suggested.

"And second," Klaus continued, "I don't think it's fair to make her pair up with Duncan after he tried to hit on her."

"That's why she'll be paired with you instead," I explained.

"What?"

"What, you don't like that idea?" I said, sitting up as well.

"No, it's fine," Klaus said, looking away, "I just assumed we would be paired together. You know, since we're partners in crime now."

"All the more reason to split up, so they don't catch on to our scheming."

Klaus made a disinterested noise but didn't press it further. I turned my attention to the subjects of our plan, who had been joined by Quigley's polo friends from before and were hanging out with them now, completely crashing the pair's alone time. Things like that always seemed to happen, which was why Klaus and I had to do this. We knew that Quigley and Violet were a good couple, we just had to make it so they wouldn't have a choice but to face up to their feelings.

"Fine," Klaus said finally, "But know I'm not happy about it. How do I even approach the idea?"

I tried and failed to hide the ghost of a smirk on my face, pleased that he had come around to my idea so willingly, and shrugged. "I'm sure you'll come up with something."

Klaus downed the rest of his drink and then trudged off towards the juice bar, where Shauna was waiting. She was pretty. Extremely pretty. So Klaus shouldn't have been so reluctant to speak to her. If anything, he should've been thanking me for giving them the opportunity to hang out. I watched as Klaus shuffled about, clearly uncomfortable, and then caught Shauna's attention. She awkwardly smiled at him and I could only guess what sort of expression he had on his face, as he was unfortunately turned away from me. But I could imagine him putting on that overly serious face, the one he only got out when he was reciting information or he was nervous. I dimly wondered if he had read any books on dating, but then stopped myself, the answer being so obvious but also unnecessary; of course he had, he had read books about everything else. But he wouldn't be needing any of them, since this wasn't a date. Or maybe it would be. It didn't bother me either way.

I had to look away so I didn't burst out laughing as Klaus stumbled over nothing, obviously focusing so much on his words that he forgot how to stand still. I just shook my head at his antics. Klaus knew so much about so many different things, but still, even with his best friend being a girl, he had no idea how to talk to one.

A loud splash sounded next to me as Duncan (obviously, who else would it be?) cannonballed into the pool and then resurfaced a couple of seconds later, shaking his dead rapidly like a wet dog. He seemed slightly dazed after rattling his brains about but swiftly made his way over to our few loungers, only taking two attempts to get out of the pool like The Little Mermaid this time, opposed to the usual four or five. Why he was obsessed with mastering that, I don't know.

"Where's Klausy boy?" He asked. I rolled my eyes and gestured to the juice bar where Klaus and Shauna were still talking. "Woah, what happened to bro code?"

"Bro code?" I scoffed, "I feel like it doesn't count considering you only said like 5 words to her. Plus, he's not asking her out. Well... he is, but not like that. Anyway," I said, changing the subject, "how's Beryl?"

Duncan's eyes lit up at the mention of his new friend. "Oh, fabulous. Did you know she's a retired police woman? I love a woman in uniform."

"Well right now her uniform consists of a tankini and a floral swimming cap."

"My favourite," he said with a wink.

"You do realise Beryl isn't rich, right?" A voice interjected, and I turned to see Klaus, back from his mission.

"What do you mean?" Duncan said, dumbfounded. "She lives in a huge house. Like gigantic. I'm pretty sure there's acres of grounds, and even an on sight hairdresser."

"Duncan, she lives in a retirement home."

I laughed as Klaus brought Duncan's idea of inheriting his old lady friend's fortunes tumbling down. I wanted to joke that he'd have to scope out another older woman, but I didn't want to give him any ideas. Plus, I had more important things for us to discuss.

"So?" I said to Klaus, giving him a look.

He shook his head. "No luck, she's busy tomorrow."

"So you were asking my lady on a date!" Duncan interjected, "Shame on you!"

"I was asking her to come mini golfing with us tomorrow," Klaus clarified, "So we have even numbers?"

"I hadn't told him yet," I said before turning to Duncan, "You're down for mini golfing right?"

"Don't ask me questions you already know the answers to," he said sassily, "But why are you fretting? I can just ask Beryl."

"Absolutely not," I exclaimed while Klaus just grinned. The idea of Beryl swinging a golf club was hard to conjure up, and knowing Duncan and his clumsiness, he would probably end up whacking her in the head with his, and end up getting us a one way trip to juvie. No one would believe the idea of teenagers inviting an old woman along to their summer activities being anything innocent, especially if she ended up dead. Maybe we'd even get one of those true crime shows that aired at 4am on a channel no one knew the name of. 

While I was watching my whole life as a framed criminal flash before my eyes, Violet and Quigley had returned with their own round of juice drinks, easily remembering everyone's beverage of choice, and passed them out. We often did that when we hung out together: someone choosing to pay for everything instead of us all paying separately, taking it in turns but no one really keeping a strict play by play of who paid when. It just made things easier. However, their polo friends had also come along too, not giving the pair a moment alone, even at their own sun loungers. I guess that was the price Quigley paid for being so charismatic; people just gravitated towards him.

I decided I didn't want to be surrounded by a group of guys who would before long probably delegate to talking about sports, so I got up to head back to the juice bar, hoping Klaus or Violet would come along too so we could chat in peace. But, in my hurry to escape the conversations surrounding the loungers, I ran straight into one of the polo guys, who I hadn't realised was standing right behind where I had been sitting. And, because it was me, with all my bad luck and poor timing, I spilled my drink all over him, a whole Berry Blast wasted. I tried not to think about the similarities between myself and Duncan, both of us tipping drinks on strangers.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, but I didn't really know what else to say. Especially given that this guy was beyond chiseled, and the fact I had thrown my drink at his bare chest had given me a reason to stare at it. I wasn't really into super muscly guys, but there was no denying that this was a greek god standing before me.

"It's fine," he said, giving me a cheeky grin, "although you can make it up to me if you want?"

I almost spluttered like a dying fish. "Pardon?"

"Are you free anytime soon? We could go out or whatever?" It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise he was flirting with me, and when I did realise, I didn't know how to feel. However, that feeling didn't last long, as I was immediately reminded of my plan and what was still missing from it.

So I swallowed my pride, gave him my best smile and said: "Sure, what about tomorrow?"

A/N:

What do you guys think so far? I'm interested to know 👀

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and see you Tuesday for the next chapter! ❤