“Less go beetch,” Lynn said, one sunny day.

Grace blinked. That sounded rude. But surely not from her good, close friend Lynn who was such an attentive listener! “Pardon?”

“Beetch, beetch!” Lynn stared uncomprehending at the fox’s uncomprehending expression. “Oh ah, Gracemoredice confoosed. Is like sand ‘n brellas ‘n salt, tha place.”

“Oh, the beach!” Grace had always wanted to be invited to the beach by friends! It was just a shame that Sadie, Sable, Alyson, Zel, Serena, Ellen, and the rest all were busy with their classes. “Well, I do have the day off since someone mysteriously pushed my professor out an open window.”

Lynn giggled.

“Hm, I’d need to get a new swimsuit though. I only have the one-piece I got years ago for swim class and it’s tight in the chest.”

“Ta da,” said Lynn. She presented Grace with a box. “Swimsuit!”

“Aww, you already got me one? You’re so thoughtful, Lynn!”

Lynn stared off into the middle distance at nothing.

Grace opened the box and frowned at the contents. She quickly turned that frown upside down because she had been taught to be grateful for gifts! Even if a skimpy leopard-print bikini seemed too flashy for her!

“What an interesting choice!” Grace gushed, choosing a very strictly honest response.

And she repeated that response after Lynn changed into her own beach outfit. Board shorts over a school swimsuit, her usual sneakers, and a giant sun hat.

–

“”S bright out,” complained Lynn, squinting directly at the sun. Grace readjusted her sun hat for her. “Ah, sankyu.”

“Where should we put our stuff?” asked Grace.

Lynn stared at her palm for a while, as if reading something. “Is tha… froot lnoobie?”

Grace scanned the beach. She’d heard fruit. Now to intuit what Lynn was saying. “Like a fruit floatie? There’s a stand right over there that has an inflatable banana and an inflatable durian.”

“Oh, yah yah, muss be tha!”

So Grace and her good friend Lynn put their towels and water and snacks down on the sand within eyeshot of the flotation device rental.

For some reason, several beach hunks came over to start talking to Grace. But they didn’t stay long once Grace excitedly interrogated their opinions on the trailer for the new fan-produced DEMOM musical.

Why did they even ask if there was anything a pretty gal like her wanted from a couple of friendly hunks if they didn’t want to engage with her current preoccupation? Sigh. Grace just guessed that not all people were such considerate conversationalists like Lynn.

It was nice of them to call her pretty, though. Completely off-topic but nice.

“You want to go float around, Lynn?” asked Grace. She brandished the money her mom had sent her to buy more bras. “My treat!”

Lynn stared at the inflatable fruit. “I wan biggest one. We al reddy outta snack.”

Grace slapped some money on the counter. “One durian for my good friend here. And I shall like to ride that large banana.”

The owner snickered at her for some reason. Rude! But he did pass her and Lynn their respective inflatable fruits.

The two good pals floated out into the surf and mounted their fruit. Grace had a good time trying to balance on that big banana, falling off into the water, and climbing back up again. Such a good time that she didn’t notice Lynn sink her teeth into the tough PVC of the float and pop it. Lynn sank under the waves like a stone.

Grace floated further and further from the shore, enjoying cavorting among the waves too much to notice. Until… a fin brushed her leg.

The fox froze, looking down into the water. A shadow moved beneath the surface and she felt something bump her banana float.

Oh, geez! She’d heard there were mean sharks at the beach sometimes! She really, really hoped this was a dolphin! Oh geez, she was really far from shore! If anything happened…

A shark head emerged from the water. Mean eyes and meaner teeth.

“Hey,” said the shark. “I just thought I should apologize. My eyesight isn’t great and I thought your inflatable banana was a real banana. My doctor says I need more potassium but my life coach says I should think things out more. Giant banana floating right at me? Too good to be true, you’d think I’d think!” He saw Grace’s scared expression. “Oh, geez, you’re really far from shore. Do you want help getting back to moist land?”

“I-I would appreciate that! My name’s Grace.”

“I’m Bruce.” Bruce the shark turned Grace towards shore. Then he grabbed the banana and started kicking. “So, what does a Grace do for fun, besides float on fake bananas?”

“Um, well, I’m really excited about this trailer for a fan-produced musical of DEMOM…”

“Get out! I love that comic! Someone made it into a musical? You must tell… me… everything!”

“Well! Um, the trailer opens on an extended shot of the front door~”

–

“Bye, Bruce! Good luck with the marriage counseling!” Grace waved as the shark gave her a two-fingered salute and disappeared into the waves.

Grace nearly tripped over Lynn, who was lying in a sodden heap at the water’s edge.

“Gresh, I saw paparazapus.” Then Lynn spit up water like a fountain. “Didya see shark?”

“Yeah!” Grace assumed Lynn had seen Bruce before he went back to the sea. “It just goes to show, you can meet some neat people if you’re open-minded or lost at sea!”

“S’cool, s’great, printhep razorton be heppy. All scording to pln.” Lynn spat up more water. “Tha so much watere unda ther!!!”

Grace didn’t really understand most of what she was saying. Maybe her friend had heatstroke. It was a scorcher!

“Let’s go get you a snow cone,” Grace suggested.

–

Frances Cumberland sweated and fretted by the fruit smoothie stand. Partly from the heat but mostly from the dawning realization that something had screwed up and that she was going to get the blame. Even though she was pretty sure it was Lynn’s fault.

“Look,” said 5-Kay Newt patiently. “You hired me to wait under the water until a red fox in a leopard-print swimsuit came swimming. I’d put a little scare in ‘em, your lady over there would rescue the fox.” The shark stretched a leopard-print speedo between her thumb and forefinger and shot it at Ms Cumberland. It hit the poor hamster like a rubber band right in the breast. “I scared some dumb fox. Now I get paid. You give me money.”

“But we never saw her on the beach!” Frances stressed. “You scared the wrong fox!”

“Not my problem. Your problem is going to be deciding how much ass you want to walk away with.”

The hamster shuddered and passed over the briefcase of money.

“Ah, much obliged. I love easy, dumb jobs that have a lot more going on than I care about. Feel free to hire me anytime.”

The shark walked off. Leaving Frances to have to explain this to Heather Strange.

The flame-colored bird claimed to be an exiled succubus princess. She certainly looked like one with a crowd of beach hunks crowding around her and offering her drinks and snacks and to fight each other for her amusement… all just for the slightest scrap of her attention.

Heather’s amusement at the hunk surplus - and how other ladies on the beach were glaring at her enviously - was the only reason she had not yet blown her top about her plan failing.

Which had all started when the bird had come back furious from… playing a roleplaying game with Grace Hormel? Furious that Grace hadn’t taken one look at her and begged to be ravished.

Heather had demanded to know how people got together if it weren’t for instant overpowering lust and obliged Frances to offer suggestions. So, Frances had talked about several common romcom plots from the Wallsmudge Channel.

Heather had really fixated on the idea of the rescue romance. Luring the unsuspecting and insufficiently horny fox into some peril that she could rescue her from. Clearly, that would make Grace instantly fall in love with Heather. Clearly.

And then she had relied on Lynn to do the luring?? So Grace never showed up at the fruit smoothie stand, like she was supposed to! And the shark that Frances had hired through her criminal contacts had just made quite a lot of money putting the fear of 5-Kay Newt into a different fox! Now Frances was going to get blamed for suggesting the idea in the first place! Even though she didn’t come up with the plan, just the core concept!

Heather glared at her. Oh no… Frances forgot she could hear her thoughts…

“Oh huuuunks… Wouldn’t it be funny if someone buried this fat-ass in the sand? It would have to be someone pretty strong to dig a big enough hole to accommodate all that cheek.”

The hunks immediately started digging. Ooooh, Frances hated summer…

—

Sadie will definitely kick herself that she wasn’t around to see Grace in this swimsuit. Well, maybe she’ll get another chance.

When I won this YCH, I didn’t have a real story idea for it yet. I just wanted more Grace pictures. So for a time, it was very possible that it would have been Sadie who talked Grace into wearing this swimsuit.

It just didn’t seem likely that the Grace character developing in my head would wear such a provocative bikini on her own initiative. So it was someone’s sinister scheme.

And when the Heather plot moved towards remembering Grace existed, I decided it would be a particularly silly scheme of hers. She’s not used to having to try. And even when she does try, she does the least amount of trying she possibly can.

Also why I split the narrative between Grace and the plotters. To make it obvious how from Grace’s perspective, this was all just a fun day with a thrilling incident.

---

Grace Hormel owned by me
Art by  kastoluza