it's neither sink nor swim - at least the water's beneath your chin -

[wishesandsmoke]

It hadn't been that long - just about six months - since Eden had last lived near the beach. Alright, so she hadn't been that far from the Atlantic when she'd lived in Brooklyn, but that stretch of cold, open ocean was different from the warm sand of the Pacific at the edge of Los Angeles. She'd gone up to Santa Monica now and again to visit the

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[all_happening]

No matter how much you love music, spending all your time in the rec room by the record player when you're on a tropical island can get very tedious. At least, that's what Penny thought, and as a result, she decided to spend some time on the beach, maybe read her Rolling Stone for what had to be the 5,000th time since her arrival, and snap a picture or two when the sun started to set. She hadn't been there very long, just long enough to roll her jeans up mid-calf and sit her beloved Polaroid on top of the pink button-down shirt (the one she so rarely took off, but had decided to exchange for her white tank top, if only to wear her green coat over it) in the sand beside her, when she saw someone else approaching. What the hell, she thought, she could use some company. "Hello," she called out amiably, lifted her sunglasses to the top of her head, and gently waved.

[wishesandsmoke]

"Hi." Eden returned the wave with a smile, pleasantly startled out of her thoughts by the realization that the stretch of beach wasn't quite as empty as she'd initially thought. The girl looked nice enough, though Eden's caution had come creeping back and she knew better than to trust first impressions. "Mind a little company down here?" As she spoke, she swung her arms behind her back, free hand clasping her other wrist.

[all_happening]

"Not at all," Penny said, returning the smile, and moved the just-opened magazine from her lap. "Hasn't been too much of it lately, actually." Her confession was spoken with a somewhat raised eyebrow and a slight gesture of her left hand, trying to convey that it hadn't meant anything, when really she was glad to be able to talk to someone. "Don't mind sitting on sand too much, do you?"

[wishesandsmoke]

"There aren't a lot of options around here," Eden pointed out, looking pointedly around them at the stretch of sand, sea, rock and the trees that marked the beginning of the jungle. "I learned that one pretty quickly." Offering a hand as she let the shoes tumble haphazard to the ground, she added, "I'm Eden, Eden McCain." For a moment, she reminded herself of Daisy.