The next morning when Nick woke up, he found himself alone.
"Cassandra?" he called. "Hmm," he thought to himself. Seeing that she wasn't in the room, he got up and headed downstairs where he smelled food cooking. He saw Cassandra standing at the stove cooking. He went up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She jumped and gasped loudly.
"Oh, you scared me!" she said.
"What are you doing? It's seven thirty in the morning!" he said to her resting on her shoulders. When she moved, he almost fell over.
"Here sit down," she said to him and brought him over to the table. She poured out some orange juice into a glass for him and started to explain. "Well, I've already made a complete lunch for us, packed some things that we might need, and I'm making breakfast." She turned back to the stove.
"I think that today is going to be exactly what you need."
"What do you mean?" she said putting bread in the toaster. He got up and stood behind her again.
"You had a bad nightmare last night. I can try and get your mind off of it. A whole day alone in the middle of nowhere, again."
"I can't wait," she said. "But I must get back to my toast." Nick was kind of confused, but decided that it was best just to let her do what she wanted. When he heard someone coming down the stairs, he got up and headed for the stairs. He looked back at Cassandra who didn't even notice.
"Hey Mercedes. Cassandra's acting really weird."
"Oh yeah? How so? Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Well she had a bad nightmare last night and-"
"Oh she's cooking a lot isn't she?" He nodded. "She doesn't care about anything other than how her toast is doing?" He nodded again. "Yeah, that happens to her after a bad nightmare. She has to cook. Just let her do it, besides, when she gets like this, she cooks really well! I think that a quiet getaway on the ocean today will be good for her." The both of them went into the kitchen.
"Oh good morning, Mercedes," said Cassandra.
"Good morning. What are we having this morning?"
"Well we have mozzarella cheese omelets, bacon, and toast."
"Sounds good!" said Mercedes. She gave Nick a 'just follow my lead' look. Cassandra put some on two dishes and brought it over to Nick and Mercedes. Just then Brian, Emalia, Kevin, Devon, Coreene, Nicole and Jonathan walked into the kitchen.
"Oh good morning you guys! Here let me get you some breakfast." The seven of them sat down at the table, when Nicole whispered across the table,
"Another bad nightmare, huh?" Mercedes nodded. "Thought so."
"Did we miss something?" asked Kevin.
"It's a long story," said Mercedes.
"Oh, I'll take your word for it." Cassandra went over and sat down next to Nick.
"Aren't' you going to eat anything?" he asked her.
"No, I'm not hungry."
"You want some of mine."
"Well maybe just a little bite, please." He cut some of his omelet with his fork, and fed it to her. "I'm good," she said smiling.
After they all had eaten, Cassandra got up to clear the dishes.
"What time do you want to leave, hun?" Nick asked her as he helped her clear the dishes.
"Um, I guess we could leave as soon as you're ready." she said and he nodded.
"In that case, I'll go upstairs right now and get ready," he said, and he ran upstairs.
"Where are you guys going?" Brian asked Cassandra.
"We're going to go out on the boat all day." Jonathan walked out of the room.
"Hey Nicole, what's going on with you and Jonathan?" asked Coreene.
"I don't know."
"Hey, well then why don't we all go to the mall today?" said Mercedes. "We could stay there this morning and have lunch there, since Cassandra and Nick are going to be gone all day anyway." Nicole, Brian, Coreene, Devon, Howie, Emalia, and Kevin all agreed. Just then Nick walked downstairs wearing his swimming shorts and a t-shirt.
"Ready to go?" he asked her.
"Ready as ever," she said, "just let me finish this note to A.J. and Isabella."
When she finished, she grabbed the picnic basket and her bag of stuff that they would probably need. They walked outside. Cassandra took the stuff and hopped on the boat, while Nick untethered the boat then got on and took the boat away from the dock.
"What time should we leave?" said Mercedes.
"Well, it's about eight thirty right now. We could leave in about an hour?" said Brian. The rest of them nodded in agreement.
An hour later, they were all ready to go, but Isabella and A.J. weren't up yet.
"Do you think that we should wake them?" said Mercedes.
"Naw. Let them sleep," said Brian. "Are we all ready to go?"
"Yup. Now who's cars are we taking?" said Kevin.
"Well why don't I take Mercedes, Devon and Coreene. Kevin, why don't you take Emalia, Nicole, and Howie?" said Brian. He agreed.
They quietly left the house, and got into their cars.
"How about we stop here?" said Nick.
"Okay," said Cassandra looking out over the waters, and inhaling the ocean breeze as he turned off the engine. She sat on the bow, and he sat in the chair behind the controls. They both hadn't said much to each other since they left the dock. Cassandra got up and went over to her bag, and pulled out her towel and suntan lotion. She laid her towel down on the small deck and sat down on it. He couldn't help but stare at every move that she made. She took her hair and pulled it up into a bun. No hair was out of place. She opened the suntan lotion and started to rub it on her arms. He stood up and went over to her and took the suntan lotion from her hands. He poured some into his hands, and started to massage the lotion on her back. Sitting on his knees behind her, he rubbed her back up and down, then along her shoulders and down her arms. He crawled over to the front of her and drizzled the lotion up her legs, and rubbed it in until it disappeared. He put some on his hands and rubbed her stomach, and the top of her chest, and neck.
"Thank you," she said turning to him. She hooked her finger around the bottom of his shirt, and started to drag her hand up, until his shirt went up over his head and dropped onto the deck. She took her fingertips and put them against his chest and drew lines on him. She put suntan lotion in her hands, rubbed them together, and placed her hands on him, rubbing her hands and fingers over every inch of his upper body.
"You want a towel?" she asked him and got him one.
"Sure," he said and she handed the one that she had already gotten him. They both laid down, taking in the hot sun. They were, once again, alone in the middle of nowhere.
Back at the house, Isabella and A.J. were just waking up and coming downstairs.
"Where is everyone?" asked A.J.
"I don't know. Oh look, here's a note," said Isabella.
"Well, what does it say?"
"It says: Dear Sleepyheads,
Nick and I went out on the boat for the day, but we should be back around one or two. Everyone else went to the mall and they should be back around the same time. Jonathan we're not sure about because his car was gone early this morning. Anyway, I made you guys breakfast and it's in the microwave.
~Cassandra"
"So then what are we going to do today?" A.J. asked her.
"I don't know. I guess we could do nothing until Nick and Cassandra, or whoever gets back?"
"Or we could go back to bed. I'm still tired. No more midnight snacks!"
"Hey! Well, I guess that I'm a little tired myself."
"Nicole, where's Jonathan?" asked Brian when they got to the mall.
"Don't know, don't care," said Nicole as a tear ran down her eye. Coreene went over and hugged her.
"I'm sure that you care," said Coreene.
"Well maybe you're right," said Nicole. "But I want to have fun today. Let's cruise the mall."
"Good idea," said Emalia. They all walked as one group, going from store to store and just looking around. Neither of them actually bought anything.
"Whatcha doing?" Nick asked Cassandra. She didn't say anything to him, she just stood on the front edge of the boat. He stood up, walked up behind her, and took her body in his arms. He rested his chin on her shoulder. "What's wrong? This doesn't seem like you."
"I'm sorry but, do you realize that love came into our lives stronger than you and stronger than me? We can't turn back from where we are, but we can turn into one. Nights like last night prove that." She turned around to face him. "I find my soul in your deep, blue eyes. You opened my heart and showed me yours. Always understand that I give you all I have inside." She turned back around and pulled his arms tighter around her stomach.
"I never know what to expect from you. Your love has so many different shades, and I don't feel like can experience them all. That's what I love about you. I experience another thing of you, but it's exciting to know that there will always be something else that I don't know or haven't experienced about you." He tightened his grip on her and jumped into the water. They collided with the water and swam around for a second, but they never let go of each other.
After about ten minutes of swimming around, they went back into the boat, dried off, and decided to eat lunch.
Back at the house, A.J. and Isabella had also decided to find something to eat for lunch. Both of them gathered in front of the fridge and tried to find something that sounded good to both of them. They weren't getting very far.
"I wonder if they are having any better luck at the mall," said Isabella.
The group had dispersed for a while, but they had now gathered in the food court and were trying to decide on where they all wanted to go. All of the guys wanted to go to Mcy D's, and all of the girls objected.
"Well, do you mind if we go there?" said Brian, and none of the girls objected to that. They watched the guys walk away.
"Well then what should we eat?" asked Mercedes. They all shrugged. "I'm actually not that hungry. We had a big breakfast."
"Actually, you're right," said Nicole.
"I'm not up to eating eating either," said Coreene.
"How about you Emalia?" asked Mercedes.
"Me neither." Now that they all decided that they weren't going to eat, they went over and joined the guys at a table.
"Aren't you guys going to eat anything?" Brian asked them as they sat down.
"No, we all still full from breakfast," said Mercedes
"Oh, are you sure?" asked Kevin.
"Yes we're sure," said Emalia.
"Do you think that we should head back?" Nick asked Cassandra as he was holding her on deck in the sun.
"I don't know, what time is it?"
"It's one o'clock. We're pretty far out, and it might takes us a while to get back."
"All right." Nick gave her one soft kiss on her neck and pulled himself away long enough to start the engine and ask her, "you want to stear?"
"But I don't know how."
"I'll show you," he said. She stood up and went over to the stearing wheel. She took hold of the wheel and said,
"Now what?"
"Well-" He stood behind her and put his hands on top of hers, and turned the wheel. "Very good."
"This is easy." He sat down and pulled her down on his lap.
"Well it's two o'clock," said Isabella to A.J. "Someone should be home any minute."
"Yeah," said A.J., then stopped and listened to the air. "You hear that?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"It's a boat. It's must be Nick and Cassandra."
"Oh, well. Now that we know they're home, we shouldn't bug them until they come in." A.J. agreed.
Cassandra got up from his lap and walked over to her bag and started to clean up the deck. Nick turned off the engine and just sat there looking at her. Wanting to say so much, but not being able to, he jumped off the boat and tethered it. When she finished packing up, she jumped off the side of the boat. Walking down the deck, she stopped Nick.
"Look," she said and pointed over to a tree. "It's Jonathan. I thought that they all were going to the mall today?" She quickened her stride and over to the tree and sat down next to him. "What's wrong? I thought that everyone was going to the mall today?" Nick joined up to them and sat in front of them.
"Hey, what's up dude?" Nick asked him.
"It's Nicole. The other day."
"What? What happened?" asked Cassandra.
"She told me that she kissed Burke."
"What?" asked Nick.
"I don't believe it. Tell me exactly what she said. Word for word," said Cassandra.
"She said that it was Burke that kissed her, and that she didn't kiss back, and that it was just a peck and didn't mean anything. So now I don't know what to do!"
"I believe her," said Cassandra. "Burke would pull something like that."
"Well how do feel about her?" asked Nick.
"I love her. I would give up everything for just one sniff of her hair, or one touch of her skin, or one kiss of her lips. I would give it all up for just one." Nick and Cassandra could find nothing to say. "I don't mean to sound rude, but could I just be alone?"
"Yeah. Come on Cassandra." Cassandra didn't want to leave Jonathan, but she knew she had to. Nick pulled her off the ground and headed for the house.
"We have to do something!" said Cassandra.
"I know. We have to get those two back together, but what can we do?" Cassandra stopped and smiled at him. "You have an idea." She nodded her head.
"I have the perfect plan, but I'm going to need your help, and your secrecy." He crossed his heart, and zipped his lips. She laughed, grabbed his arm, and started running for the house. "We have a lot of work to do before Nicole gets home."