THUNDER IN OUR H E A R T S }• Hazel Morgan.

His sister was a musician and a swimmer. „I bet would get along with her.” , Hazel thought and smiled. Maybe she would get to meet her sometime if she started hanging out with Cade more. It was so nice to sit here on the beach and just talk to him. He was so easy to talk to even though the things they talked about weren’t always easy things. Normally, Hazel didn’t open up to people quite that easy. She usually kept her personal things to herself for a long time, limiting conversations to small talk. With Cade it was different. It seemed so natural, so easy to talk to him. Like she knew him for a long time instead of just a few hours. “Are you and your siblings close?” , he asked her and Hazel shrugged. “We’re far apart, if you look at our ages. Being 16, I’m the oldest of the three of us. My sister Kara is eleven and my brother Mitch is the youngest. He’s five and all excited to start school next year. Can you believe that? Being happy to start school?” Hazel smiled while thinking about Mitch and how he was all crazy about going to school, sometimes dragging his mother along to the school building and crying when she wanted to leave and go home again. Were all kids like that before school actually started? No, Hazel didn’t think so. She always liked to be outdoors and school was just wasted time indoors, she thought. Kara was much the same, but Mitch, Mitch was different. Instead of running down to the beach and swimming every spare minute, he liked to sit on the porch and read a book, even though he was only 5. “Kara and I are close even though we are 5 years apart. We go swimming a lot and I’m sure she will be a way better swimmer than I am when she grows up. She’s just a natural… She starts beating me in our little competitions.” , Hazel said without the slightest bit of jealousy but with a whole lot of pride in her voice. Yes, she was very proud of her younger sister. “Mitch and I are too far apart to be really close. He’s different than Kara and I, preferring a book to the ocean, but I still love him and would protect him in every possible way.” Hazel fell silent. She couldn’t remember ever telling anybody so much about her personal life. Telling Cade didn’t feel awkward though; it felt somehow right in a way Hazel couldn’t even describe.

“He’s kind of a sour man, isn’t he?” , Cade said when the conversation shifted to their music teacher. Hazel bit her lip and nodded. The music teacher was really odd and his weird way of talking and acting just gave her Goosebumps. “I’m sure he’s a lot nicer to you, being such a talent and all that…” , she said, half serious and half teasingly. Hazel had never actually broken anything during music class, but she didn’t show any talent and for sure not the ambition to stay any longer than necessary. And, sure enough, after offering her to borrow his guitar while teaching her how to play, he was coming back to the subject that she was afraid to break it, and Hazel wasn’t quite sure if he was just teasing her or if there was also a little bit of seriousness in his voice. Probably there was a bit of both, she decided. “I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll be extra careful.” , she said with more earnestness in her voice than she actually intended. It was more than just plain saying it; she really meant it. She would never be able to look into his eyes again if she broke his precious instrument and since she really wanted so spend more time with him, she was determined to be overly cautious when holding his guitar.

Hazel chimed in his laughing. “Yeah, I’ll keep in mind that you don’t want to show off and that you want to let me win to make me feel better.” , she replied and winked at him. Then he asked: “How long can you actually possibly hold your breath up to, Hazel?” Oh great, hadn’t she just decided to not tell him because she didn’t want to show off? She took a deep breath and bit her lip before saying. “The best I ever got was 4 minutes 17 seconds.” , she said before adding quickly: “But that was just going underwater and not moving. While swimming, I think it’s a lot less. Only like three and a half minutes or so… Even though I never measured that.” She remembered that day when she reached her personal record. It was during one of the many competitions she and her sister had. They would go out on the dock, jump into the water and then, once underwater, hold on to one of the dock posts. That way they didn’t drift back to the surface and it was easier to stay under water. She could remember how proud she had been when Kara told her the time, reading it off the tiny stopwatch Kara had gotten for her birthday.

Cade took the hand she had been holding out to him without any hesitation, which caused a thousand butterflies in her stomach to go nuts. “If I die, it’s your fault.” , he said jokingly and Hazel could feel how he gripped her hand a little tighter, making the butterflies in her stomach do loop-the-loops. “I’m willing to accept this responsibility.” , she responded and smiled at him. Even though there were some waves, the sea was calm and there wasn’t the slightest chance that he could be hurt in any way. Well, you should never say never and the ocean was sometimes unpredictable, but she still was absolutely positive that he was going to be just fine. Before she was able to say anything else, his loud scream echoed through the little bay and he started running towards the waterline, her hand still tightly gripped. Hazel let out a yell of joy and followed him into the waves, smiling big.

Once the water got about knee deep, Cade let go of her hand and threw himself into the waves. Hazel couldn’t help but laugh out loud before taking a deep breath and diving into the waves herself. She immediately felt at home. Once under water, she opened her exes, ignoring the burning of saltwater in her eyes. She was able to see him surface again but couldn’t understand what he was saying, because the water muffled his voice. A sheepish smile crossed her face as she started swimming around him in a big circle until she was right behind his back, before surfacing again. “Gotcha!” , Hazel said and splashed a hand full of water at him.

ooc: Your reply was great. Gave me lots of stuff to write. If you're busy don't worry about the answer, even though I of course would be happy to have another reply to read before you leave.