Penny, not for the first time this morning, looked up in irritation from her book as some kids charged past on their way out to that raft and signed. Between them, the sporty volleyball going on, and the classic rock tunes drifting over the dunes she could barely appreciate the calm quiet she'd come out here to get. "Geeze, it's your vacation." she muttered to no one in particular, placing a bookmark in the small tome of old fairy stories she'd been reading and snapping it closed. "Can't you guys afford to sleep in a little?"

Of course, Penny had been out here since six so she had no room to talk. She'd risen early on her second day here at the resort after spending most of the previous day relaxing on her balcony, packing her essentials and heading down to the beach to flop down in a chair and enjoy the sounds of the wind and waves as she watched the sun rise over the water. She'd spent over thirty minutes smiling dreamily as she basked in the quiet, the only motion to break the stillness being the movement of the earth itself. Nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Then the shopkeepers arrived and started setting up the market stalls, and the zen place she had been in vanished like a mirage in the bustle of activity. 

She got up off the chair, stretching out as her ankle length black skirt ruffled in the soft sea breeze. It wouldn't be long now, she thought, before the beach was unbearably full. She grabbed her long brown coat and threw it over her shoulders like a cape, it being so warm now that the sun was out that she couldn't justify buttoning it up over the sleeveless white blouse she had on. It had gotten her an odd look or two from the volleyball boys as they'd filed in, but what did they know? It had been kind of chilly this morning. Besides, she had sandals on and that was the be all end all definition of beachwear. You never wore sandals if you weren't on the beach. She threw her book in her bag and threw it's strap over her shoulder to make her way off the each. 

On her way up the beach she passed a young girl building a sandcastle that waved her small pink shovel as Penny passed by, eliciting a grimace from her and a quick turn of the head to focus somewhere else. Maybe that was really what was bugging her, that she really [i]did[/i] have something she needed to do today. Later this afternoon was that sandcastle contest, and her guts twisted themselves into knots with dread over the fun activity that she had signed up for every time she was reminded of it. 

She made her way through the mini bazaar that had been set up on the beach looking around for something to distract her when her eyes landed on Diversion, her eyes sliding instantly off the bearded man who manned the stall and onto the stand of soft cover books her had for sale. Interested, she approached and lifted a few titles off to take a closer look before finding one with an appropriately macabre cover and opening it. Beach's like this usually had at least one or two real ghost stories and and whole horde of embellished ones. It was something about the ocean she guessed. There was always a captains wife, or a ghost ship, or buried pirate treasure being guarded by hideous specters, something guest could tell stories about when the beach was dark and spoky. If you were lucky there could even be a local sea monster. "Hey?" she said, closing the book and holding it up. "How much."