"I mean," Summer couldn't help grinning a little, "I'm all for enjoying all the Summer, but, you know...."

Hey, she didn't make many pun jokes regarding her name and the season, she was allowed at least a few of them!

"I didn't think it was that bad this week, either," she said. "Intense, and I suck at skateboarding, apparently, but I have been meaning to get into archery, I hope no one notices that I totally , erm, 'borrowed' one of those bows...."

"Just to check it out!" Summer insisted. "To see if it's worth, you know, the long term investment."

And it would be. She was waiting for this catalyst for months!

"I guess you're just a natural skateboarder. You could have been super cool in high school in the early 2000s, Stark."

"I'm pretty sure," said Summer, "there's much nicer models I can trade up to other than whatever crap Skywalker put together. I mean, you've seen the stuff he makes us wear, I don't know if I'd want to put a lot of stock into anything he'd give us based on that alone."

Plus, investing in a bunch of sweet archery gear had the opportunity for hunky blonde archer dudes to help her out...ahem.

"And," she added, her grin genuine even though she knew it sounded cheesy and she was definitely playing up that cheese like a cheese-lovers' pizza, "I think you're super cool, Stark."

And even though they were joking around, even though Summer pretty much expected Stark to return the compliment, she had spent far too much of her life just wanting to be cool for that to not actually make the smile in response to that, like, embarrassingly sincere.

Which just meant, of course, covering it up with overcompensating hubris.

"Well," she said, with a little flick of her ponytail over her shoulder (or, well, the gesture for it, the ponytail wasn't quite long enough to actually do that), "obviously.

"The most modest," Summer agreed with a confident nod. "Like, I don't think there's literally anyone on this island even half as humble as I am."

"It's the least I can do, really," Summer shrugged, figuring she could milk this at least a little further before it reached the point of no return. "Can you imagine how insufferable I would be if I was this awesome and not humble? Like, ohmygod, the absolute worst, right?"

Summer gave a very grave, very serious sort of nod, and then she couldn't help laughing a little.

"Okay, I think we can call the vet now," she said, "I'm done beating that dead horse."

It wasn't overexaggerated! It was projection!

"Thanks." It was a bit more sincere and simple that time, and Summer just sort of took a moment to appreciate that for what it was. "I try."

More than she'd ever, ever want to admit.

And she also sometimes didn't know what to do with heartfelt moments like that,s so she just swung hard into a nice bullshit topic that could get them back up on the very surface of things and no deeper than that.

"So, should I skip the vinegar set I was planning on doing next week?"

She was planning no such thing.

She was definitely planning something terrible for next week, but it was not nearly that topical.