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"Things here are awfully wet," she said, a wicked, playful glimmer in her eyes. Her eyes narrowed as she watched Arilee played with the ice before dropping it into the sand, grateful that it stayed far away from her.

"Potential ehhhhhh?" Leto nudged at her friend, a lop-sided grin on her face.

Raising her watergun, she squirt Arilee again. "You're an incredibly easy target, darlin'," she stuck her tongue out at her before finally relinquishing her weapon of choice, dropping it into the sand. She'd have to make sure she got the short, blue-haired guy back later.

She picked up a few chips and munched on them thoughtfully. "Don't let me forget to go back to the car when the fun starts tonight. I brought drinks."

Oh shoot had she been running on too much at the mouth again? "Right now I live in a terrible neighborhood that makes going out after dark difficult, which makes things for me difficult because I work evenings. The place I want to move to is in a nicer neighborhood with lots of street lights and bus stops and things like that. It is the kind of place where you feel okay walking to and from the bus at night without having your cell phone in one hand and a knife in the other." Which was more than could be said about the little hole she was currently renting for far more money than it was worth.

Was it better than some places in Africa? Maybe. But that didn't mean that she had to be okay with living there. There were a lot of places nicer than where she'd grown up and Bernadette wanted to be there.

"I was having a hard time finding a responsible person to share the new apartment with me. If you like the place and the arrangement then I do not have to keep looking and maybe lose out on renting this new place. It is so much nicer!"

Looking at Renna it was a bit surprising how their thoughts were running along similar lines. One of the reasons Bernadette had come out here was to network, hopefully find people that wanted pictures taken or that might somehow help her find a way to help herself get ahead in life. Finding a roommate from Africa who seemed lively and responsible as well as good-natured was such a huge bonus that she was feeling just a little daring. "Do you want to try it? I don't mind letting you use the Polaroid if you want to get a bit more involved with it." It was a good way to see how responsible Renna was with other people's things -- a key trait for any potential roomie.

"Lets go down by the water, we can probably get better views from there and I think it will keep us out of the line of fire. Sadly my cameras are not state-of-the-art enough to survive a direct shot from one of those evil things." Especially considering her baby was not yet fully paid off. Just twelve more months and it was going to be all hers, down to the last little microchip inside. Then she could work on being a real photographer which to some may not have seen like a great aspiration but she could put that towards becoming something like a person on that incredible CSI show. They took lots of photographs!

Revved, excited, ready to go out there and have an amazing day Bernadette jerked her head lightly at Renna. "Come on then!" The other girl was happy to follow and the rest of the afernoon passed in easy camaraderie for them. Maybe, just maybe, this whole thing would work out.

Wait until they found out about each other's real jobs!

"I'm glad to hear you've been doing well Bo. You always did have a knack for photography." Somewhere under the edge of her bed was a shoe box full of all of the pictures that Bo had given her over their short but enjoyable time together. Some of the pictures were really beautiful, and occasionally she enjoyed looking at them, and a few had ended up in decorative picture frames here and there.

Their time together, though, definitely was at an end, so when Bo attempted to wrap a long arm around her waste she subtly blogged him with her bag and a seemingly innocent step backwards. "I've been well. Traveling mostly, getting ready for classes to start at DCU again." It looked like the best situation might be to pull in a third party. "Zac, It's good to see you again too. What classes will you be taking?" Not exactly her finest moment of subtly, but she was off her game at the beach where she hadn't expected any social interaction. After speaking, she realized that Zac might not remember her very well. After all, they'd only met in more formal situations and only a very few times at that. Hopefully he would recall who she was, otherwise it was going to get doubly awkward.

Adira didn't know if she could handle doubly awkward.

Doubly awkward might just be at the threshold where she picks up and goes home for the night to eat ice cream.

“Adira?” He blinked as the realization of who she was kicked home, surprise, though a pleasant one. She’d been one of those people that stood out just by being ‘nice’ on top of ‘different’, plus she hadn’t judged him poorly for his mother.

“Adira it’s been a while! How have you been?” He asked and offered a hand to shake, well, he did so after juggling a super soaker. It did rather look like he’d been on the wrong end of at least one of those.

“I um… Music of course, History, Math… Kind of an undeclared major but since I’m working I … I was limited in what I could take when. They’ve been really good about letting me spread out the hours though.” Knowing she was well to do, and remembering her as the party responsible, or related to at least, his scholarship brought a flush to his cheeks.

One more reason why he couldn’t seem to find anywhere to cut himself any slack, likely even with all the pre-reading he’d been trying to squash in he’d do more poorly in some of the classes at least than he’d otherwise have liked.

To be honest, the interaction had gone about as well as she'd expected. Before she could even bat an eyelash, Bo was already flitting on to find something else to do. She called out a little lamely after him, realizing the opportunity to respond had pretty much been missed. "It was good to see you, Bo."

But it also made her sad. She'd been around Bo enough to know that he was probably avoiding the situation in the way that Bo always avoided situations, smiling pleasantly and leaving soon after. It was still sad though, considering that Adira hadn't ever had a relationship like they shared before him, and was likely not ever going to find something similar again. Some day they would meet up again in a capacity where they could talk maybe a little deeper about everything that had transpired, but Adira wasn't sure that the sunny giant could handle that at the moment, and to be honest she didn't think she could either.

It was something she would reflect on at a later date. Snapping out of her momentary silence, Adira turned her mind back to what she had originally intended, which was talking with Zac.

She returned the slightly damp handshake with a practiced ease, though she did note that it was a little odd to be shaking hands at the beach. "I've been well. Out of town, for the most part." Adira had read his file and knew about where he was in life, leaving her to be a little more vague about her whereabouts than she might have normally been.

"That makes sense. I'm glad they've been flexible in what they've allowed you to take." She smiled, glad to see that her decision was at least helping a little bit in a way that she could measure. "If you ever need help or a study buddy, just ask. I'm more than willing to help out."

"Though, you don't have to be so formal around me if you don't want to." Adira flashed him a softer look. "I'm not going to judge you. I'd prefer if we were friends instead." Since she'd left for that period of time, she had even less people she could consider a friend than what she started with. Which was hard, considering she hadn't started with many to begin with.

"Course I'm an easy target," she sighed, now wishing she'd kept the cup of ice. "I'm taller than most and it's harder for me to hide."

She followed Quinn's example and tried a chip. Normally she wouldn't touch them, but it was probably going to be a while before any of the burger or the pineapple she'd brought were grilled up. And she was hungry now. Once her stomach was slightly appeased, she turned with a grin and a wink for her friend.

"I'll help you remember if you let me have some of what you brought to drink."