Chapter 10: Swim Suits Me

Following the failure of her brother's idea, Justine takes the reins and attempts to appease the Sterlings via her own method.

Before everyone knew it, Springtime was almost over and summer began to bare its muggy, tepid soul. Nearly halfway through the year, and the tensions between the Simmons and Sterling families still hadn't been fully eased. For Junior, he all but felt like giving up, still angry at himself for that crucial oversight he'd made the last time he planned an outing for the large, dysfunctional gang. He sat moodily in the living room at his own place, next to Justine, who busied herself on her phone. Today, both of their parents were on a quick business trip, so it was up to them to keep all their guests satisfied.

"So he was just chilling on that island again? Well damn, no wonder I've seldom been able to contact him." Mandy sighed in relief.

"Been almost ten years and they still don't have cell-service down there. Ridiculous, right?" Justine rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but it is cool that they made the place into a tourist attraction," Mandy continued. "I ought to pay it a visit sometime, see how much it's changed."

"And it hasn't really changed much. They now give guided tours like you used to, and they serve junk food in the village, but everything else is untouched," Justine explained. "I even took a look around where you and your dad used to live, and I could still smell us in that bedroom."

"Aww... well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't flattered," Mandy giggled, but was startled by an audible beeping. "Oh! Welp, I'd better get back to cooking. I'm making pizzaghetti tonight. Tell Junior I said hi."

"Bye, Mandy." Justine hung up. "Junior, Mandy says hi."

"..."

"Uh, Junior?" Justine turned to her brooding brother. "Mind acknowledging that I'm talking to you?"

"I heard you," Junior replied. "I'm just... frustrated."

"Oh, about the trip? Well if it's any consolation, I enjoyed it." Justine shrugged. "But really, quit looking so moody. I'm cheerier when I'm PMSing, for crying out loud."

"Can you not bring that up? You know blood makes me squeamish."

A brief silence followed, during which the sun spent a few seconds behind the clouds before showing itself again.

"Man, Kicksburg is such a great place when the weather is like this," Justine mused. "The local pool's opened up, the restaurants offer outdoor seating, and even the local shops offer steep discounts... hey, that's it."

"What's it?" Junior looked up for once.

"Maybe instead of going big, why not go small and stay local?" Justine suggested. "Think about it. The Sterlings seem to hate urban settings, and a small town is perhaps the farthest thing from an urban environment... well, second farthest."

"Huh, I think you might be onto something for once," Junior pondered.

"For once?" Justine smirked, putting her arms behind her head.

"Hey guys," Kendra suddenly entered the room with her sister.

"What'cha doin'~?" Kendall asked in a sing-song voice.

"Just coming up with some plans for the afternoon," Justine replied. "Since it's so nice out, why don't we keep it simple and show you guys around town? We could go out for ice cream, or head to the town pool, or swim at one of our pools, or-"

"Oh yeah, a relaxing swim sounds nice." Kendall cut her off.

"Yes, but none of us packed our swimsuits when we came up here," Kendra reminded her.

"No swimsuits, huh? That's it!" Justine grinned, snapping her fingers as she suddenly had an epiphany. "Junior? I know what we're gonna do today! Hey, where's Rosemary?"

"Oh, she's upstairs putting Primrose down for a nap," Kendra replied.

"...which will give us plenty of time to go bikini shopping!" Justine spoke with a raised index finger.

"Cool. C'mon Kendra, let's go get the others." Kendall walked out of the room with her twin.

It was then that an unamused Junior turned to his sister, who busied herself watching both of her love-interests walk away.

"You're so predictable, you know that?" he spoke with half-lidded eyes. "You just want to do this so you can have something to gawk at and maybe think about later tonight. You've been checking those two out ever since they got here, and now you wanna check them out in bathing suits as well?"

Justine just stammered like a moron in response.

"Sucks to be a twin, doesn't it?" Junior smirked, before switching to a warning tone. "But anywho, like I said before, you can't just assume every girl you come across is lesbian. You may have gotten lucky last time, but don't expect lightning to strike twice."

"I know that. And I'm willing to accept any outcome." Justine turned up her nose, folding her arms.

"Well if it ain't the windbag twins," Lorraine's voice rang into the living room.

"Now what's all this about taking us shopping for swimwear?" Paul added.

"Well, we-" Junior spoke.

"Quiet, boy! We don't care what your reasoning is, but since you're so hell-bent on dragging us everywhere, why not just get it over with?" Lorraine snapped.

"Okay then," the twins replied in unison.

---

Thankfully for them, the Sterlings grew considerably less flustered as they stepped outside and began to explore Kicksburg. It wasn't the most rural area around, but it was pretty damn close. The quiet atmosphere, light traffic, and distinct lack of corporate influence worked wonders when it came to quelling their anxieties. Every single store and restaurant within town was a local small business with no other locations anywhere else. Products were locally grown and made, and though some were obviously mass-produced, there wasn't a single brand that the Sterlings were able to recognize. Eventually, Justine led the group to one of the town's boutiques, all of which selling many forms of swimwear at a rather generous discount, proudly displayed on the mannequins in the front windows.

"Welp, here goes nothin'," she said at last. "Feel free to browse and pick up as much as you want. It's all on me."

And so for the rest of the afternoon, everyone was free to shop to their heart's content. They split up to frequent the numerous boutiques which happened to be very close together, even for a small town. They all searched every store, checking out numerous styles and hues of bathing suits until they narrowed things down to just one or two. Zeke just settled on some houndstooth trunks to match his ever-present headband, not wanting to make a big production out of shopping of all things. Meanwhile his parents went for something as modest as humanly possible. Paul picked up some goldenrod trunks with blood red and burnt orange flame designs on them, accompanied by a waterproof muscle-shirt with a similar color-scheme. His wife picked up a skirted dark chocolate one-piece that looked like it would've been in style prior to the 2000s, but she couldn't care less about that. Better to look outdated than like a try-hard, in her opinion.

Across the street, Justine took it upon herself to help Kendra and Kendall pick out their swimwear, which they insisted had to match. The former tried persuading them to buy something on the revealing side, feeling it would show off their bodies better, but the latter two refused, preferring to cover up a bit more. Not because they were body-conscious, but because they wanted to wear something with a cool, possibly psychedelic pattern that would be hard to appreciate if the piece were too skimpy. Eventually, the three girls settled on a perfect middle-ground: a sporty two-piece that depicted the sun hanging above the vast ocean, with the colors growing lighter near the top and darker near the bottom. Kendra's suit depicted a sunrise, while Kendall's depicted a sunset, which seemed odd, considering how they didn't exactly have contrasting personalities. The padded, longline top revealed about three inches of midriff, but the bottoms looked more like mini-shorts. The material was waterproof, but it looked more like something that would be worn over a swimsuit rather than as one. Not that this was a problem, however.

---

Once everyone was satisfied with their choices, everything was paid for and the group went home. Given the choice between the pools at either Mark or Mark Jr.'s homes, everyone agreed on the former, seeing how the latter was located right outside the master suite and thus wasn't always practical to use. Slipping on their new bathing suits, they quickly hurried outside, a few of them holding drinks. Manic perfectionist Lorraine even offered to thoroughly clean the pool before anyone got in. Wasn't hard to see where Rosemary got her strong work-ethic from.

Speaking of whom, she ended up falling asleep while rocking Primrose, but managed to arrive a good half hour into the pool party upon receiving a text. They were both dressed in similar but not identical bikinis, the latter sporting some inflatable water-wings on her arms, and the former wearing a sarong that matched her onmipresent bandana. To Junior, her navel looked deep enough to serve as a worthwhile substitute in the bedroom. Just had to get rid of that piercing, and he'd be good to go.

Rosemary couldn't help but smile at the seemingly peaceful vibe between those around her, seeing her parents lounging in the hot tub despite the hot climate, her sisters swimming laps across the deep end, and everyone else standing in the shallow end to chat amongst themselves. Nice to see how they'd all finally managed to get along and enjoy themselves in each other's company for once.

"Well this is a nice surprise," she said cutely.

"And he didn't think I could come up with a good enough plan." Justine sneered at her brother, adjusting the strap on her high-cut one-piece.

"Okay, okay, you were right." Junior rolled his eyes. Even as adults, they weren't above squabbling from time to time.

"Well it doesn't matter who was right. I'm proud of everyone for all the work they've done so far in winning my folks over." Rosemary knelt down, handing her baby daughter to her husband and planting a kiss on his temple. "Keep up the good work!"

"Oh, we will." Junior nodded, briefly glancing up at the Sterling parents, who looked legitimately happy for once. "We will."