Closed Beach Buddies

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory had found himself at the St Kilda beach in Dunedin. It had been a while since his adoptive parents had brought him to the main south island, but the time had called for it, and this was where they now were. Gregory was not a massive fan of these trips, mostly as they were to visit his older sister who was just rather boring. It was early in the day, the sun had risen, and since Gregory had already been up a few hours, his father had brought him to the beach to get rid of some of the energy. It was a beautiful sunny day, and though a little windy, Gregory was enjoying the outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and enjoying the ability to play. He had his bucket and spade and was trying his best to build a castle, though none of his attempts were managing to stay that structurally sound, and he'd built perhaps a little too close to the water, but Gregory was not going to give up, this beach had beautiful sand and he was going to use it! His father was reading, watching him vaguely, but was uninterested in building at this hour. Gregory could admit as much as he was enjoying himself it would be more fun with someone else. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

It wasn't often that Zerrin got a beach day. But one of the other waitresses had been planning to come, and after asking his mother, he'd finally gotten permission to come along. He separated from the woman, walking across the beach and just enjoying the sand between his toes. Soon he spotted a boy building a sand castle... or at least, attempting to. Smiling, Zerrin approached the boy. "Hi! Can I help?" He asked, taking a step back so he could sit down.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory was focused but he glanced up when a boy started speaking to him. He had just managed to get his first sand castle to stand but as he reached forward with a hand outstretched, he misjudged the step he took and tripped himself up over the sandcastle he'd just built, crushing it. He was quick to get back on his feet, "Yes, hi, I'm Gregory," he introduced seemingly unbothered by the crushed sandcastle, since it really wasn't the first he'd crushed that day, though it had been the most complete one. "I'm just building a sand castle,"​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin blinked when the boy broke his castle. "Okay, do you wanna build another one?" Zerrin asked, shaking the boys hand. He looked back up to the boy, one eye mostly hidden beneath his fridge. "I'm Zerrin Cromwell," He introduced himself with a smile. "Do you live around here?" He asked, settling down on the sand.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded eagerly, ”Yes! Let’s,” he passed over a spade and then placed the bucket down between them. He nodded at the boy’s name. ”Oh surnames, I’m Gregory Friend, it’s good to meet you Zerrin Cromwell,” he spoke eagerly, in a very friendly and warm tone. Gregory really liked spending time with other people and he had a degree of confidence to it. ”Nope, I live on Stewart Island, which is an island off the south island,” he said, ”But my sister lives here in Dunedin. Do you live here?” he asked as he began putting the sand into the bucket with his hands. He was already plenty dirty, this would make no difference.​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin smiled at the boys last name. "Friend, that's cool, I like that," He complimented the boy, just using his hands to try and build up a castle. He shook his head as the boy asked where he lived. "I'm not from around here, either," He told him. "We live in Wellington, but one of my moms friends let me come with her," He explained, looking over and waving at Ms. Averston.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory gave a very wide smile at the compliment. "I'm a friend shaped person!" he agreed with an excited tone, it was clearly something he said very often. He was filling his bucket excitedly, not paying much attention to the way he was putting the sand in and certainly not compacting it enough. "Oh that's cool!" he said he waved to the woman that Zerrin was waving at, and then pointed to his dad, the very visibly older man on the beach. Gregory knew his parents were older than most. "That's my dad!" he gave his dad an excited wave which the man returned. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Admittedly Zerrin was paying more attention to Gregory than he was the castle, smiling at the boys joke. He waved to the boys dad before looking back to him. "It's just me and my mom, but she just started talking to this really cool quidditch player guy, he has a son named Fraser. Fraser is super cool, you'd like him!" Zerrin rambled, patting at the sand and pretending he actually knew what he was doing instead of just making a round sand pile. "You should meet him, maybe we could all hang out sometime!"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory frowned at the word quidditch...he didn't know what that was at all, or who played it. "Is that like a table top game, or a computer game?" he asked, stopping in his castle building to ask about it. He would want to hang out with anyone fun, but he didn't know what Zerrin meant by it. "I'm not allowed to play many computer games because dad says I'm too young," Gregory told him with a little sigh absently touching the small scare below his left eye. He didn't really mind not being allowed, since he was always more interested in doing things like playing outside. He began putting more sand into the bucket again and then stopped. "I think it's time!" he took the bucket and flipped it over, and the sandcastle that came out was crumbling at the top a little, but still standing. "High five!" he held up his hand to the other boy​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin realized immediately he'd messed up. Quick to cover himself, he smiled brightly. "Oh, yeah, cribbage is this like word game on the computer or something," He offered smoothly, thinking he'd covered himself nicely. He nodded at the boys words. "Yeah, my mom is the same, mostly I just listen to my ipod and color," He told Gregory. He lit up as Gregory announced it was time, smiling brightly as the bucket was flipped. It was standing, and that was all Zerrin cared about. "Yeah!" He cheered, high fiving the other boy easily.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory gave a little laugh, "A word game?!" he said, "No wonder I haven't heard of it," the boy wasn't allowed to play most games and he certainly wasn't going to play one based on words. He smiled at him and shrugged, "Aren't ipods ANCIENT?!" he asked, he had a older phone for some purposes but he couldn't actually do a whole lot with it. He was very happy with how the castle turned out. "Shall we do a moat? and then get some water?" he suggested, it was gonna be a great castle. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin laughed, relieved that Gregory seemed to have believed him. "Right? Adults find the weirdest things to do," He tried to sound blasé about it. He laughed again as the other boy called his ipod ancient. "Sure it is! But I love it anyways," He joked lightly. When the boy mentioned a moat, Zerrin nodded eagerly and started digging around the sand castle. "Maybe we could build a bridge over the moat?" He offered, looking to his new friend.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded in agreement. "I know! My dad loves bird watching how weird!" he said to him with a little laugh. He didn't understand most of his parent's hobby's but they were always making time for him to show him what they liked to do, so though they were weird, he was happy to know them too. "What sort of music do you have on it?" he asked before nodding eagerly, "OH YES PLEASE," he said excitedly, he tended to accidentally crushing the bridge, but maybe Zerrin would get it. "I'll focus on the moat, if you wanna do the bridge," he drew around the castle with his finger in the sand, a circle around it for the moat and a line for where the bridge should be. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin laughed lightly. "Right? My mom likes to read sometimes," He offered. It wasn't the craziest thing ever, but it fit the conversation. He smiled at the question and shrugged a bit. "A bit of everything really, mostly pop or punk or some movie soundtracks, stuff like that," He offered. "What kind of music do you like?" He asked, curious.

Zerrin nodded as Gregory agreed to the bridge, shifting and settling in where Gregory had drawn out the line for the bridge. He carefully started digging out around it, before taking the bucket and running to get some water. He came back after a second and used the water he'd gotten to help make his bridge a bit more stable. After a little bit of quiet work, he'd built a rather stable sand bridge. He sat back, smiling widely, and turned to his new friend. "I'm done! What do you think?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory wasn't sure that reading was that crazy, but maybe she was reading crazy things and that wasn't something Zerrin wanted to mention. He nodded, "Oh I love movie soundtracks!" he replied excitedly before singing most of a verse of a song from hercules, it was off key, but didn't lack any passion or confidence. Gregory set to work on his moat, making sure to get the excess sand over to one side. He didn't dig that deeply and then dug a little more deeply one he'd made some indent, his moat was quite narrow, and he looked up at Zerrin as the boy announced he was done. "That's amazing!" and there was a raw honesty to it. He raised his hand in another high five. "My moat is pretty much done, just gotta get it to be wider, if you wanna help there,"​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin laughed lightly. "I have a lot of Ghibli music, too," He told the other boy. He smiled as Gregory lifted his hand, returning the high five quickly. "Sure! Let's make it wider," He agreed, and started digging again. "Do you come to the beach often?" He asked, thinking he might be able to ask Graeme to bring him and Fraser, too.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory gave a little nod, but he didn't know what Ghibli was, but he could imagine it was a movie soundtrack or something like that. He nodded in agreement as they started widening the moat. "Not this beach, I live on Stewart Island, so there are beaches, so I go fairly often," he said, "I like going to the beach, it's fun. Do you?" He asked in return.

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin settled in the sand, enjoying the feel of it and the light breeze in his hair. "Honestly I don't go to the beach often," he replied easily. "My mom works a lot, I only got to come today because someone else was coming," He shrugged like it wasn't that big of a deal. "We don't live around here,"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded, "Yeah, you live in Wellington!" he said, since the boy had already told him where he was from. "I know I am lucky to live close to beaches, and I do enjoy beaches, but the balance is like, the island is small and sometimes it's difficult to get things and it takes forever to visit anywhere," he said with a shrug, he didn't think it was a bad thing to not visit the beach, he got to by proxy of where he lived but given that he'd been adopted and taken there, he could've ended up anywhere.​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin laughed lightly. "Sorry, did I already say that?" He gave the boy a shy smile. "I guess that makes sense, there are good and bad things with living anywhere," He mused. He settled into the sand. "Do you want to go swim for a bit?" He asked, thinking that might be fun.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded in response, he didn't mind that the conversation repeated slightly, he was learning about the other boy so it was only fair that they were repeating things, who learned things on the first go, certainly not usually Gregory. "I don't have any swimwear," he said, "Let me just go ask my dad," Gregory raced over to his dad to ask him. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin smiled and stood up, brushing the sand off of his knees. He missed Fraser in that moment, and wished the other boy was with him. He was sure that Gregory and Fraser would get on great. He waited for the boy to return, looking out over the water, enjoying the view. He was sure his mom and Graeme would like this too. Maybe he could convince them all to go on a beach day soon?

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory quickly asked his father and when the man with a sigh clearly thinking about what he'd have to do once Gregory was wet said yes. "HE SAID YES," Gregory shouted as he rushed over to the other boy, already taking off his jeans as he ran, so that he'd at least not get too bogged down with it. But in doing so he tripped on the moat of the sandcastle and fell forward, crushing the whole structure with his body. "AH," he shouted as he crashed to the ground. ​

 

[Zerrin Fergusson]

Zerrin looked over to the boy, smiling as he yelled the first time. But when Gregory yelled the second time and fell over, crushing the sand castle, Zerrin rushed over to him. "Gregory! Hey! Are you alright?" Zerrin offered his hands out, looking the boy over to make sure he was okay.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory looked up and then pushed himself up and then taking Zerrin's hand, "Yeah, I'm okay!" he assured as he began brushing himself down, it was clearly something that happened often, "Dad says I gotta look where I'm going," he told him, since his dad always say it but Gregory didn't often do it and was constantly tripping over things, knocking over it. "I'm sorry about the castle...," ​