A mid April heatwave had hit the UK and since we had time off, Jordan and Katie had suggested we go to the beach on a little girls trip out.

I sit next to Steph and Beth, dressed in a black bikini and blue denim shorts ontop.

"Guys," Beth says into her phone as she records a video to put on her insta, "we just learnt that Kim has a license to drive a mini bus so, we've all squished into it and are driving to the beach." Beth switches her camera around to show the team squished into the minibus. Most of us had claimed seats before anyone could, others were less fortunate and were sat on the floor. "What are we gonan do, Elena?"

"We're gonna sunbathe, play beach volleyball and just have a great time." I tell her followers.

"Kimmy!" Beth calls Kim and stands up to go shove the camera in her face, knowing she gets annoyed. Steph and I just sit back and laugh.

"Oh, guys." I catch the team's attention. "I have a good summer playlist that I always used to play back in Houston."

"Put it on." Leah tells me and I walk up to the front, pushing Beth back to Steph to bluetooth my phone.

"Thanks." Kim says to me and I laugh.

"What can we do with Beth?" I say and she also laughs. "Viv." I call the girl as Message In A Bottle starts playing as I put my playlist on shuffle.

"She's got good taste." Viv high fives me as I walk past her to the back of the mini bus to where Caitlin's sat. She's dressed in a brown beach set co-ord. I pull my legs up onto the seat beside her, leaning against the window of the mini buds as I scroll through my phone.

"Are you not going to talk to me?" Caitlin asks.

"Well, you're sat alone in this corner so, I presumed you didn't actually want to talk to anyone, but I thought I'd give you some company." I tell her.

"You've grown to know me well, Pugh."

"Right, I have." I smile at her while I push myself up from leaning against the window and instead rest my head on her shoulder, which she doesn't argue against, but instead rests her head ontop of mine and closes her eyes. I continue to scroll through my phone in the comfort of Caitlin's presence while the girls dance and sing to my playlist.

"Caitlin, look at this." Lia calls her girlfriend so, she lifts her head of mine and I groan as I have to move out of my comfortable position. Caitlin only chuckles at me as she gets up to go to Lia.

"You two have gotten pretty close." Katie says since she was also sat on the back row of seats.

"She's a nice person." I say, my eyes trained on Caitlin, who looks down at her girlfriend's phone while Leah laughs at her reaction. Caitlin and I had partnered up for every training session we'd had since we did that training together after everyone left and we'd also enjoy each other's company whether that was in silence or not. I'd told her about my mum and she didn't push me to tell her more, which I respected because I don't open up to people.

"You are too." Katie tells me and I smile back at her. Her phone rings and she picks it up. I peak at her phone to see a blonde girl with green eye's say hi. She has an irish accent. "Hi, Ella."

"Hellooo." Ella says in the same way I stretch out the word, making me laugh.

"Is that your sister?" I ask.

"One of many, yes." Katie nods and Ella waves at me, which I return.

"You're Elena, aren't you?" She asks, her irish accent strong.

"That's me."

"Katie says you're a great player."

"Thanks." I laugh.

Caitlin comes back over and sits inbetween Katie and I. She says her greetings to Ella aswell before she puts her arm around me and pulls me back to put my head on her shoulder again.

"You're making me too comfortable, I'm gonna fall asleep." I tell her, yawning.

"We'll still got another hour's drive so, we might aswell." Caitlin says and I note down her use of 'we'. It makes me feel a warmth inside.

"One sec." I lean over the seats infornt and tap Steph. "Use my phone for the music or whatever."

"Why, what are you doing?" Steph asks me, turning her head around.

"That's none of your buisness, Steffy." I say as I grab her face and kiss her cheek, making her pull a face at me. She pushes my face and I fall back onto the seat next to Caitlin.

"Wakey, wakey, Pugh." I hear Teyah's voice and push her away from me. "You too, Foord."

My eyes flutter open and I realise I'd fallen asleep in Caitlin's arms and she'd also fallen asleep. I sit up at the same time as her and we look at each other before sharing a laugh.

We stand up and I grab my tote bag as we leave the bud behind everyone else. "Thanks, Kim for driving us!" I call after the girl as she goes to set up the volleyball nets for us. "Mother Kim." Beth swings her arm around my neck and pulls me to the sand to get me to make a sand castle with her. I grab Steph's hand. "You can't escape if I have to stay." I tell her and she groans, playfully.

Sand castle building does not go well at all. With my clumsiness, Beth's yelling and Steph's laughing, none of us work with coordination.

"Elena!" Beth pushes me and I fall onto my back in the sand. I hold my stomach as I laugh at her getting frustrated at our failure to build. Steph laughs at me and Beth begins telling her off too, making her roll onto her side, her head resting on my stomach while we laugh. "You guys are just bullies." Beth says as she stands up and kicks the sand.

"Volleyball net's set up." Kim tells us and she goes and lies down in the shade provided by the umbrella Leah had brought.

"Who's playing?" I ask as I finally calm down. Steph, Leah, Lotte, Beth, Teyah, Jen, Jordan, Jill, Lia and Viv agree to play. "Including me, that's 11, we need one more player to even it out."

"Katie?" Jordan tries asking the Irish girl to join us, but she shakes her head.

"Nah, I'm getting a tan here." She declines.

"Caitlin?" I look to the brunette next to Katie.

"I'm tanning too." Caitlin tries.

"It's either you or Kim and Kim looks like she wants some time to herself so, get up." I grab the Australian girls hand and pull her up off the blanket she lay on.

"One game." She warns me as she goes to stand with me, Lia, Steph, Beth, Teyah and Leah, while the other girls stand on the other side of the net.

I throw the ball up in the middle of the nets to start the game. Leah jumps up to hit the ball before Viv can, but she doesn't manage to. Luckily for us, Jordan managers to hit it over the net.

Having 6 people on one team with such a small net doesn't exactly work out is what we've learnt. A few of us ended up ontop of each other many times, ending with girls yelling at each other. We were all just competitive people, especially Leah and I who yelled at everyone in sight as we tried to get the other team out.

I grow frustrated and kick the sand as Viv still manages to hit the ball over the net. Lia hits it back, aiming for the ground again, but Jen effortlessly hits the ball up and then over the net.

Steph and I both jump forward to hit the ball, which ends up in us hitting each other's heads. "Ow." We both grab our heads as we fall to the ground.

Kim comes running over to check our heads. "I told you guys to play safely." It was true, she did.

"Guess we're going home with matching bruises today." Steph tells me as we help each other up to grab one of the ice lollies from the cooler to put against our heads.

"Can't wait."

Once the sun began to set and it casted an orange glow, we all got up from the sand and ran into the water, for some of us it was the first time. I'd already been in once after pulling my shorts off where Beth and I proceeded to scare one another by saying there was a fish behind the other.

"Beth, last dunk before we leave." I tell her as we grab each other's hands, the other one's pinching our noses. "Go." We dunk our heads into the water, shaking them when we got out.

Beth leaned forward and whispered something in my ear, putting a smile on my face. We snook behind our lovely friends, Leah and Jordan, and pushed them into the water.

"You guys better start running!" Leah yells at us while Beth and I just laugh at our childish antics.

We began running out of the water, Beth leading the way with her hand around mine, but I slow us down when my focus trains on something else. Caitlin had pulled her beach set off and was now stood in the shallow water in her bikini, watching the sunset with Lia.

I wasn't entirely sure why it made me slow down or made my heart beat faster seeing her stood there, but I couldn't help but have my eyes trace her body.

"Come on, Elena!" Beth pulls me and I pull my attention away from the Australian as we run back onto the sand.