Sorin gripped the red, rough handhold with her right hand and grabbed onto a yellow one with her left. Just as she released one hand, her foot slipped and she felt herself dangling from the climbing wall eight feet high, without a harness, swinging dangerously over the parking lot. "Ro!" She yelled. Rosanne groaned. "Rin, hold on with both freaking hands!" The salty sea air whipped her long reddish hair into her face as she climbed towards Sorin. Sorin desperately scrabbled at the wall, hoping to regain balance. No such luck. She silently cursed herself. Why, why had she let those two maniacs talk her into going rock climbing with them? Ro finally reached Sorin and grabbed her right hand as Sorin tried in vain to secure her feet. Sometimes being clumsier than a toddler had its downsides, like, oh, dangling off of a cliff high enough to break your neck from and die... Sorin finally managed to swing sideways and plant her feet onto a footrest. Alexis Lee watched in amusement as Sorin struggled. Being their resident track-and-field champ, as well as a competitive gymnast and rock climber, Alex had made it to the cliff and up its face in no time. Sorin, however, couldn't run ten yards without tripping over her own shoelaces. "Ro, I think Rin is a lost cause," Alex said, smirking at Sorin. "Maybe you should leave her to her own devices?" "Not a chance," Sorin grumbled. "I will set your bedroom on fire and lock you in the closet while it burns, so help me Alexis." She contemplated sweeping her bleached blonde hair out of her face, but wasn't ready to let go of her lifeline- the handholds. "You'd have to make it off the wall first," Alex said, annoyingly smug. Sorin cleared the last two feet with a risky leap. "Alex, prepare to die!" It would have been much more climactic if she hadn't instantly toppled towards the edge and Alex hadn't had to grab her wrist and tug her forwards. Ro, who had somehow made it to the top without them noticing, successfully interrupted by letting out a loud whoop as she slid down the slide to the beach. Sorin followed, grumbling about how it would have been so much easier to just install stairs. Alex laughed at Sorin's complaints as she slid down the metal half-chute, plopping down on the soft golden sand. "I prepared a picnic," Ro said happily. "Ro, we just had coffee..." Ro blinked innocently at Sorin. "Your point?" Alex snickered. "Oh, Rin. Ro's definition of "full" is "never". Have you seen the donut poster collection in her bedroom? Ugh, it's getting out of hand..." "It is NOT," Ro scowled. Sorin repressed a grin. "No? Ro, your walls are a donut shop's dream. You have a whole entire menu plastered to your ceiling." "Whatever," Ro sighed. "Just enjoy the picnic, will you?" Sorin smiled as she helped Ro unpack the hordes of bread that she had somehow stuffed into the tiny basket. After the tenth loaf, she shoved her entire arm into the basket trying to figure out how Ro had acquired a Mary-Poppins basket. After the fifteenth, Alex googled ways to do magic tricks. "Um, Ro... how are we going to eat all this bread?" "Oh, I packed extra, just in case." Sorin rolled her eyes. "In case what? The seagulls attack? So we can distract them and sneak away?" "You never know." Ro's expression was so serious that Sorin started cracking up, except until she saw something flash at the edge of her vision. She glanced over at the overgrowth framing the cliff. Nothing. But then through the leaves, she saw something different. That definitely did not belong in the flowery shrubbery and vines. A pair of eyes. Staring straight at them. Or, more specifically, at Sorin. At her bracelet.
