Water Quest (open)

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar dug his toes into the sand on the beach, licking ice cream off his fingers as he watched the bathing suit-clad, sungolden Californians (or were they tourists?) splashing in the surf. For once his notebook was shut safely in his backpack, away from the sand and ocean water that might ruin his art. He might attempt to recreate this ocean scene later, from memory, but for the moment he was enjoying the warm sunshine on his face -- and the view of the bikini clad girls. They were possibly all older than he was, but that didn't mean he couldn't look.

He tugged open the cap to his bottle of Dasani, taking a long gulp. The weather had fluctuated mightily lately; today he was hot and thirsty, while yesterday had been much cooler. His water was almost empty; he definitely needed to get another one. He stood reluctantly once he'd confirmed that there was no more hidden droplet in his bottle, and surveyed his belongings. He had nothing particularly valuable in his bag, unless one counted textbooks which he didn't, so there shouldn't be a problem leaving it while he went to buy another bottle.

He found a vendor selling water and fell into line behind someone his own age -- someone familiar looking. "Hey." Sunar prodded the person in front of him, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

[Brad Dawson]

The quick escape from school, to avoid being rail roaded into helping out at the park, was exactly what was in order for Brad. It wasn't that he didn't like doing school things, he just hated to think what his agent would say if he saw pictures of him doing mundane stuff. That and he was pretty sure his mother would flip out, there were scarier things than letting down your school, and that was having an angry mother yelling at you.

So he headed for the beach and the chance to have some sun and relaxation, he had left all of his gear in the back of his car, and had just come with shorts and a pair of sun glasses on his face. He looked and felt so much more relaxed as he was, as he walked down to a vendor for a bottle of water or two in the hope of keeping cool. While he queued he was humming along to a tune in his head. Not really paying attention to the people around him. He heard someone say something then prod him, startled that it was directed at him for a moment he turned to look at who it was. He recognized the boy from school, though he didn't know whether he was a part of silver or Gould.

"Hi, Sunar right?" he asked with a smile. "I didn't see you there, sorry about that, How have you been?" he asked the boy with a huge smile. Happy to see someone that he knew somewhat from school. Maybe the next couple of hours wouldn't be so boring.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Oh! I remember you!" Sunar exclaimed, suddenly remembering why the other boy looked so familiar. "You're that model. The one from the rave. It's been awhile, huh? I'm not too shabby. Nothing really exciting, I mean, there was the shooting, but that was more terrible than exciting." He frowned, remembering Sierra Lopez. It was just awful that she had to die, and the others, too. Simply awful.

"Sorry, that's kind of depressing, isn't it. Let's talk about something else, pretend I didn't say anything. So, umm, how's the modeling thing going? Were you late for your gig or whatever? Photoshoot, I guess. And what're you up to? I'm just hanging around the beach, watching people, not too exciting, I guess, I mean, it is fun, but I guess it sounds kind of boring." He liked people watching, but it didn't make for very exciting telling. "But if you're not doing anything, we should go do...something. I dunno. Something exciting. Try and join some of the hot girls playing beach volleyball, maybe."

The woman in front of Brad finally left, loaded up with so many bottles that Sunar wondered if she were stocking up for the apocolypse. "You're up." He prodded Brad again, this time to encourage him to order his water. "Hurry, I'm thirsty." He grinned to take any sting out of those words.

[Brad Dawson]

Brad smiled at the Asian lad, "Yeap thats me, I've been so busy in and out of school. Recently I've been doing most of my work outside of school, with tutors supplied by my parents. All work and no play has made me rather a dole person right now." Brad said to him. "I was fortunate not to be near the school when the shooting took place, a friend was hurt in the shooting but." he said to the boy more soberly, thinking of Jade and the others hurt in the incident.

"I'll take two bottles of water." he said when he came up to the vender. "So are you going to the parties this weekend?" he asked he knew that there was a birthday party going on as well as the auction. He knew of more than a few people who would likely go to both, as he knew that Jade had been on the notices around the school. "Your up." he said as he stepped away from the vender and waited for Sunar to join him. Brad's eyes were on the beach and the people running around playing beach ball. "I think I should have brought my surf board with me. It looks like a great day for surfing." the Australian commented with a smile, one of his countries favourite pass times.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Yeah, this girl I know got killed....I wouldn't say friends, but you know, in the same grade and all, but I guess everyone knew someone...anyway, depressing. Not talking about it." Sunar mentally berated himself for constantly bringing that up; apparently Sierra's death had affected him more than he wanted to admit.

His ears pricked up at the mention of parties. "Of course! I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a party, could you?" He laughed, trying to imagine the boy who'd helped him escape an illegal raid passing up an opportunity to party. "I don't even know the people putting them on...well, I take that back, one of them is that cheerleader girl." He mused, as though that was a clear description. "The one who had the lingerie birthday partier last month." Now that had been an interesting event....and one that his parents had insisted on hustling him home from almost as soon as they arrived. They just had to choose that opportunity to be nosy about what he was getting up to!

"So you like to surf, huh?" He paid the vendor for his water and stepped out of the line, heading back toward his belongings. "Do you know the Patridges? Ben and Eden? They love to surf, they're really good. I mean, as far as I can tell, anyway, not like I'm knowledgeable at that sort of thing, but they don't fall off much. They said they'd teach me and Connor, but I keep forgetting to ask if they really will. I think we'd get too distracted trying to capture the scene, though, I mean, it's too tempting to draw them surfing, and Connor loves is a photographer, but it still would be entertaining, trying to stay on."

[Brad Dawson]

Brad smiled sadly, "I am sorry that you lost a friend, I was lucky in that I didn't know any of the people who were killed. I knew a couple of the people who were hurt." Brad said to him. "I guess we are the lucky ones, we get to continue on the living." Brad added, it didn't really effect him all that much either way, but he had kept his tone respectful in and around the school and people who had lost friends or siblings.

"How is it that I missed hearing about a lingerie party? Oh who cares, I'm gay, now if it was a guys boxers show I would show more interest." Brad told him with a bloody great big grin on his face. "That was probably more than you needed to know sorry about that." he added. "Well I plan on going to both parties, the one on Saturday is just to make up the numbers, but the second one I am required to be there. The family that organised it, are kind of like family to me." Brad told him.

Brad grinned at him when he mentions surfing, "Of course I surf, your not a true Australian, if you don't surf at our age. But no I don't know Ben or Eden, at least I dont think I do, if they are that in to surfing though. They sound like people I should get to know, are they Gould or Silver?" he asked the boy.

[Sunar Chugani]

"I don't know how you missed out on the lingerie party," Sunar laughed, "And there were guys in boxers. It was supposed to be a pajama party, or that's what the invite said, but it didn't much look like pajamas to me, but maybe that's what girls really do wear to sleep in. I dunno. Daja doesn't, but she's kinda weird."

He danced across the warm sand, trying to get to his belongings before the soles of his poor feet were burned to crisps. "Uh-huh, so which family is this again? I think I saw fliers about it, but they've been so many fliers recently, I started ignoring them. Vampires, really! Wait, those aren't the people you're friends with, are they? I guess a vampire party might be kind of fun." He mused, hoping he hadn't just offended Brad.

"Eden and Ben go to Gould, they're Juniors, too. They surf all the time, so if that's your thing then yeah, you really should get to know them." He agreed, "Meet me for lunch tomorrow and I'll introduce you." That was assuming he could convince the twins to come, but they were both friendly people so he saw no reason they wouldn't. "Or maybe tomorrow before school, they hit the beach pretty much every morning."

He unscrewed the top of his bottle, tipping it backward to drink greedily. "They're cool. Maybe you can drag your friends along, too. Or, I dunno, I guess I could just wait and make them come to this party." He shrugged, "Whatever works for you."

[Brad Dawson]

Brad followed the boy back to his belonging's, "The Edwards family, their eldest Jade was shot in the shoulder during the attack. It was meant to be a party run by his parents, but now technically its Jade their eldest child's job to get the auction of without a hitch." Brad said to him with a smile on his face. "Food drink and music is pretty much what most of the kids are going to want while they are there. The adults and the rich kids and maybe some of the norms will to, I'm not sure what is in the auction. But apparently Jade said that their will be something for everyone, his hoping to raise a lot of cash for the school and the victims." Brad added. "And what he wants he usually gets, his pretty driven." Brad told him.

"Tomorrow lunch time would be good, I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing tomorrow morning. We can arrange a meeting on the beach with surfboards later." Brad said with a grin. "When we all have spare time that is." he said to him before opening a bottle of water and taking a gulp, he splashed more on his face then put the lid back on. "Much much better, even for someone who doesn't mind intense heat, I can still do hot." he added.

"You should definitely bring your friends along to the party's no one sane turns down the chance to party." he said to the boy.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar blinked when Brad mentioned the Edwards. "Oh! Oh, you're friends with Jade. Yeah, I know him, he's pretty cool and I don't know how I managed to not know about his party, I guess I'd better harass him about that!" He laughed. He'd only seen Jade just the other day, but unless he'd been talking too much and not listening enough (which was always a possibility) but he certainly didn't recall anything about a party. "Unless it's only rich people, then I guess I'm not invited, but that's not fair, he should invite me, I thought we were tighter than that! By which I mean, I see him about once a week maybe, but that's not the point at all."

He nodded absently at the agreement about lunch. "Excellent, I'll make sure to give the two of them a text or something, cause all you surfer types are supposed to stick together, right? I mean, it's not like there are just bunches of them in California.Or, okay, that's a lie, lots of people surf, but still, no reason not to make new friends."

He grinned wildly at the invitation to drag his friends to the party. "Oh, then I'm invited after all." He cackled, "You bet, I'll make sure everyone I knows shows up. Except maybe Daja. But she'll be too busy mooning after her fiance to care."

He nodded to the shore as he took another swig of water. "So wanna go in? I don't have a board, but I won't let that stop me! I'll pretend, just like I'll be pretending I know what I'm doing."

[Brad Dawson]

"I'm ready when ever you are, my wallet and stuff are back in my car, so I have nothing that can be destroyed by getting wet. That would really be annoying." Brad said to him with a grin on his face. "If Jade knows you, he would be more than a little disappointed if you didn't show. If I were you I wouldn't eat before you go though, the food layout will be fit for a king from what I heard." Brad said to him. "Jade and I go way back, so I get a little inside information. It helps if your his best friend and ex boyfriend." Brad added.

He hadn't met Jeremy yet, but then he wasn't all that sure whether they would last, he wasn't sure he wanted them to last for that matter. He still had some feelings for Jade, the boy had been his first love. Even if it was a summer romance between the two of them. He respected Jade enough not to act on it while he was with someone though. He would be happy to meet some hot guy at the school, he should be so bloody lucky he thought to himself. All the best ones seemed to have their partners already, he needed to make time for that sort of thing.

"Do you have a place to store your stuff? If not you can stick it in my car, saves someone stealing anything important." he asked the boy.