"Come on, Reggie!" Twister pleaded.

"Forget it," she said definitively. "Otto got himself in this mess and I'm not bailing him out."

"But don't you miss hanging out with him?"

"After two days? No," she answered flatly. "Besides, aren't you two still fighting? I seem to remember you attacking him after the diary incident."

"We're cool now."

Reggie's eyes narrowed. "He went to talk to you last night, didn't he? After I told him not to. I'm gonna kill him. And he put you up to this?"

"Okay, don't be mad," Twister started.

"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at him."

"He was just trying to help. And it worked, see? I'm not listening to Lars anymore, am I?"

He was actually really relieved to not be listening to Lars anymore. He could be himself with Reggie again. At least until he had to try to show her up. But just eating breakfast with her, he didn't have to think about it. He could just enjoy his time with her. Except for the part where she was getting mad.

"Lars? He was the reason you were acting like that?"

"Yeah, but Otto's the one that told me to stop. Isn't that good?"

Reggie sighed. "What did Lars tell you?"

Twister felt a little embarrassed. "Just that I needed to be less clingy and be more hard-to-get or you wouldn't want to date me."

"And you believed him?"

"Well, Otto thought he had a point too."

"Which was?"

"That I need to man up more so you won't break-up with me."

"Those idiots," Reggie muttered. "This is because I was the one who asked you out, isn't it?"

Twister didn't answer.

"Twister, it doesn't make you any less of a man just because I asked you out. I don't care what Lars and Otto say. And for the record, I like you for you, not for who they're trying to tell you to be."

Twister felt relieved. "So I don't have to do Otto's plan either?"

Reggie rolled her eyes. "What's Otto's plan?"

"He said I needed to impress you by being better than everyone at stuff."

"Of course he did," Reggie didn't sound very surprised.

"He was even going to pretend to be bad at stuff so I would look better than him."

Reggie wasted no time connecting the dots. "Meaning he would need his grounding lifted so he could help you." She sighed. "He was playing you, Twist. He just wanted to get out of trouble so he could have fun again."

"Oh, man! I can't believe I fell for it!"

"Don't worry," she smiled mischievously. "I think I know how we can get him back."

O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O

The following day, Otto's grounding was magically lifted and he joined Twister, Reggie, and Sam at the beach for surfing. Twister stuck with the plan, asking Otto to mess up some of his moves so Twister would look better for Reggie. He kept Otto distracted enough that he didn't notice Trish, Sherry, or some of the girls from their volleyball team in the distance. Otto seemed to have changed his mind on the plan so Reggie had to intervene. She and Sam (who was also in on the plan) got close enough Otto and Twister so they could be overheard.

"That was a great one, Reggie," Sam commented loudly on the wave she had just ridden.

"Thanks, Sam! I just wish Twister could do stuff like that. It's pretty pathetic when you show up your own boyfriend."

Twister had been surfing bad all day on purpose but it was still weird hearing her put him down. He knew it was part of the plan though, so he focused on the good part of it— she had called him her boyfriend.

He played along, freaking out to Otto. "Otto, did you hear that? You were totally right! She's totally gonna dump me! You've gotta help me, man!"

Reggie gave him a look when Otto wasn't paying attention. She raised and lowered her hand and her expression told him to tone it down on the dramatic acting.

"Dude, chill out. Fine. Let's go for this wave. I'll beef and you take it. Then she'll see she doesn't have anything to worry about."

Reggie signaled Trish while the boys paddled for the wave. Otto crashed early and Twister nailed a perfect barrel wave. When they paddled back towards the others, there was a crowd of girls that had appeared. They all started swooning over Twister and talking about how impressive that was.

"Wow, Twister," one of the girls paddled closer to him and put her hand on his arm. "Can you show me how to do that?"

"No, me!" another girl squealed.

Reggie hopped off of her board and propped herself up to sit on his with him, wrapping her arms around him. "Back off; he's mine."

She kissed him and he wasn't sure if it had been part of the plan but he definitely enjoyed it. Part of him wondered if maybe she had just wanted to do it.

"No fair," Sherry splashed water towards them. "How come all the really macho guys are taken?"

"Hello?" Otto was getting annoyed, just as planned. "I'm right here!"

"Did you see how bad his surfing was?" a girl loudly whispered to Sherry and she laughed.

"My surfings not bad! I'm the best there is!"

"Right," Trish laughed. "That's why you wiped out."

"I did that on purpose to make Twister look better!"

"Uh-huh," Trish smirked.

"It's true! Twist, come on. Let's go again so I can prove it."

"No way, man," Twister said, enjoying Reggie continuing to run her hands through his hair. "Reggie's like all over me. Your plan worked better than we ever thought!"

"Ugh!" Otto groaned. "Fine. Squid, come on."

"Me?" Sam played dumb even though they had anticipated this scenario. They knew Otto too well.

"Yeah. Come on, next wave."

"Okay," Sam agreed, nervously.

Otto cut Sam off right after catching the wave, doing plenty of tricks to try to impress his crowd.

"What do you think about that?" he asked confidently when he got back to the group.

The girls ignored him and started fawning over Sam instead.

"Aww, Sam! Are you okay?"

"Maybe I could help you work on your stance a little."

"Otto's such a show-off!"

"Oh, you poor thing! He totally stole that wave from you!"

Otto groaned again, getting angrier. "Ugh! What's wrong with you! You guys can't make up your mind!"

"What do you mean, Otto?" Reggie acted confused, her arms still around Twister as she tilted her head and looked at Otto.

"You know what I think is really sexy?" Sherry giggled.

Trish filled in the blank. "When guys don't use their best friend for their own benefit?"

"Huh?" Otto asked, dumbfounded as Reggie, Twister, and Sam said, "bust."

"Thanks, guys," Reggie looked at the group of girls before hopping off of Twisters surfboard.

"No problem, Reggie!" Sherry said happily and they all started paddling away.

"Okay, someone better tell me what's going on," Otto said frustratedly.

"I'll tell you what's going on," Reggie glared at her brother. "You tried to manipulate Twister so you could get out of trouble."

"You used his insecurities to your advantage," Sam added.

"What? No, I didn't!"

"So you didn't come up with this whole plan just to try to get me to convince Dad to unground you?" Reggie remarked.

"No, well, yeah," Otto started. "I mean, not at first."

"I can't believe you used me!" Twister said.

"I guess I did," Otto admitted. "I'm sorry, man. At first, I really was trying to help though."

"Yeah, about that help," Reggie smiled. "Next time, don't. Reading my diary to try to get us together, giving Twister bad advice to try to keep us together, I think we're better off without the help."

"Apparently she likes me how I already am," Twister interjected, happily.

"Go figure," Otto shrugged.

"But in a roundabout way, our plan to get them together did sort of work," Sam commented.

Reggie looked over at Twister and smiled, "I guess we can give them a little credit."