The days were long and dreary for Spencer Carlin. LA wasn’t much like the small town life in Ohio. She desperatly missed her friends, the people she had known since kindergarten, some before that. Soon school would begin and things would change, or at least, she hoped they would.

The worst thing about LA for Spencer was to go anywhere, she needed a car, and how she hated depending on her brother Glen to drive her everywhere. With luck on her side, Spencer would find friends with a car.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Clay was the one with the car, but Glen always wanted one for one when it came to giving Spencer a ride anywhere, and today, all she wanted was to head to the beach and work on her tan before the term started.

Glen was in the driveway shooting freethrows when Spencer approaced him.

"C’mon Glen! Why can’t you give me a ride?"

"I gotta practice if I’m going to make JV in the fall, lil sis. Give me a break would ya? Can’t Mom or Dad give you a ride?"

"No, Mom or Dad can’t give me a ride! In case you haven’t noticed, they are both at work…"

Spencer folded her hands under her chin and put on her most impressive pout.

"It’ll take you like ten minutes Glen, and there will be lots of hot girls, pleeease! I just have to get out the house today."

Sighing deeply, Glen answered, "Hot girls you say? Well, I might be able to spare a couple of minutes out of my practice time."

(At the Beach)

"Wow Spence, you weren’t kidding!" Glen slid his sunglasses down over the brigde of his nose to get a better look at two bikini clad girls going by on rollerblades.

"Thanks Glen. Pick me up in a couple of hours?"

"Yeah, yeah." Glen was still staring at the bladers.

Spencer loved going to the beach by herself, something about the solitude with only the sounds on the water breaking on the beach and the occasional scream of a sunbather getting splashed. No worries or cares and she could leave her lonelyness far behind her.

She spread out her towel on the sand and removed the shorts and tank she was wearing to reveal a skanty, striped bikini top and black, short type bottoms.

Spencer led down and closed her eye, soaking in as much of the last couple of days of summer sun as possible.

Her rest was soon rudely interupted as a football came soaring out of nowhere, smacking Spencer square between the eyes. She sat up quickly, brushing the sand from herself as a tall, well tanned guy jaunted in her direction.

"I’m so sorry. Guess I’m not much of a football player…" Aiden grinned ever so slightly at the shock still on Spencer’s face.

"You should see me shoot hoops though! Aiden, by the way… I don’t think I’ve seen you around before."

"Spencer. Um, well, my family just moved here from Ohio. I start at King next week." Spencer smiled and began to blush when she thought to herself, this guy is really cute!

"That’s where I go. Maybe I’ll see you there."

"Yeah, maybe." Spencer handed the ball back to Aiden and he started back towards his buddies.

"Oh, yeah. If your interested, a bunch of us usually hang out at Grey on the weekends. What do you say, pick you up Friday, around 8ish?"

Spencer could feel the pulse in her neck grow faster and louder. "Okay, yeah. See you then."

She was almost sick for having agreed to the date. It was then Spencer set eyes on Ashley for the first time. She felt a wash of heat come over her, like putting on clothes right out of the dryer. "Weird."