Kacey & Friends: Spring Break

Chapter Two

  "Come on, Emma, get up! We've got a lot to do!" bellowed Ava, pulling the covers from Emma's bed.

  Emma grabbed onto them, groaning. She grumbled, "I thought this was going to be a vacation. Why do I have to get up so early?"

  "Early? It's almost nine o'clock!" Ava replied, and then added coyly, "Breakfast is waiting, and all you have to do is pick up the hotel phone and order it."

  Emma bolted upright and looked for the phone, asking, "Where's the room service menu?"

  Ava tossed it to her and handed her the phone, saying, "Don't order a big breakfast because we want to get on the road. We're going to Cocoa Beach this morning, remember?"

  "Okay, okay," Emma grumbled as she glanced down the menu, her mouth watering at the tempting delights.

  Ava went into the main room of their hotel suite where Kacey was putting her towel and sun block lotion into a beach tote.

  "I want to get to the surf shop first and find out about surfing lessons. Then we can go find a nice spot on the beach," Kacey told her.

  "I'll drive," Ava volunteered, "You can be navigator this time."

  Kacey smiled, "Oh, you don't like my driving, huh?"

  "Well, last night you did pull onto a main highway going the wrong way! We almost had an accident with our rental car the minute we even got it on the road!"

  "It was dark! And I didn't know that there was a big, green island in the middle of the two lanes. Luckily, I was able to drive onto the right lane before anyone hit us."

  Ava shook her head and laughed.

  "Yeah, that was lucky all right! Pretty funny, too! Can you imagine if you'd been stopped by a cop and given a ticket for driving on the wrong side of the street?"

  Kacey pulled a face, "Please, let's not go there!"

  The three girls shared a luxurious two-bedroom suite at the Bella Vista Resort and Spa in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. They had arrived yesterday afternoon from the airport and checked in. They unpacked their things, went for a swim in one of the hotel pools, had dinner, and then took a taxi to the car rental place where they rented a bright blue convertible. By the time they left the car rental place, it was dark, and the roads were unfamiliar to them. Kacey was not used to Florida's double-lane turns and highways separated by wide, green islands between them. Her mistake was thinking that she had turned on the highway onto the right lane, but it was part of a two-lane road going one-way in the same direction. Once the girls realized they were on the wrong side of the street, she had to drive over the green island in the middle to reach the other side safely. All the way back to the hotel her friends teased her mercilessly.

  As soon as breakfast was over, the girls piled into their blue convertible and headed to Cocoa Beach, just an hour's drive from the hotel. Before leaving, they had put the convertible's top down. As Ava drove, they sang along with their favorite music. The weather was warm and sunny, without a cloud in the blue sky.

  Following all the signs on the roads, they found the Surf 'N'Ski surf shop easily. When they went inside, Emma exclaimed, "This place is huge!"

  The girls looked around, awed by all of the merchandize; from surf boards to swim suits, sandals, diving gear, and fishing gear, to beach toys. They soon found the counter where they could sign up for surf lessons. A young man with a deep tan and bleached hair greeted them. When Kacey told him they wanted to sign up for surfing lessons, he replied,

  "We're booked all morning, but we can probably fit you in later today at three o'clock, if that's okay."

  "That's great!" Kacey replied. The young man smiled at her, saying, "Cool. My name's Kyle, by the way."

  "Oh, hi, I'm Kacey. This is Ava and Emma."

  "Will all three of you want lessons together?"

  "Yes-" Kacey began.

  "No," Emma interjected.

  Kacey and Ava looked at her.

  "What? Don't you want to learn how to surf?" asked Ava.

  Emma shrugged, "Well, not really. I'm more the beach type than the water type."

  Kacey and Ava shook their heads, "Okay," said Kacey, "Just for Ava and me, then."

  Kyle booked their lesson and told them where to meet their instructor at three o'clock. They paid the bill and he gave them a receipt.

  The girls spent fifteen minutes looking around the surf shop, but soon left to go to the beach.

  They parked their car and carried their bags out to the crowded beach.

  The wind dashed waves against the shore, and swept over the beach-goers. People splashed in the shallow water, and several surfers were already riding the waves farther out. The girls found a spot away from the crowded areas and spread out their blanket. Ava and Kacey put sun block on each other, but Emma insisted on using suntan lotion.

  "I want to go home golden tan," she said.

  Ava grimaced, saying, "You'll probably go home red as a lobster…and just as cooked!"

  Emma ignored her and pulled off her top and shorts, revealing her two-piece bathing suit underneath, and she lay down on the blanket face down. Once the girls were situated, they lay down facing the ocean, and watching the other beach-goers as they passed by.

  Emma took out her cell phone and began taking a selfie.

  "Texting Dave?" asked Kacey.

  "Yeah. I'm sending him a photo of me on the beach…just to make him jealous."

  "That's awful," Ava said, "It's not his fault that his boss wouldn't let him off work to come down here."

  "I know. But I'm still sending him this," she said, smiling for her selfie. She then took two other photos of the three girls and sent those also.

  "Poor Dave," said Kacey, "I wish he could have come down here with Rick and Josh on Thursday. At least we can spend a few days with the guys before we leave."

  "By then we'll be expert surfers, right?" Ava said.

  "Of course," replied Kacey. She turned to Emma and asked, "Why don't you want to learn how to surf?"

  Emma shrugged, "I just don't like the idea of all those nasty things in the ocean that can hurt you, like jelly fish, sting rays, sharks…"

  "Oh, they won't be here this time of year," Ava assured her.

  "Maybe not, but why take the chance?" Emma replied, while browsing on her phone.

  After an hour, Ava and Kacey decided to go for a swim to cool off. They dove into the cresting waves and floated on the salt water.

  After playing in the water, the girls went back to the blanket and lay down to dry off in the warm Florida sun. Emma flipped over and began working on tanning the front of her body. When the girls were dry, Kacey suggested,

  "Hey, let's go for a walk on the pier."

  The girls agreed and packed their blanket into a beach bag. The beach was crowded with students on Spring Break who played volleyball or surfed. Some of the young men whistled and called to the girls. They smiled and waved back.

  The Cocoa Beach Pier was a long pier jutting out into the ocean. On the pier, restaurants and bars crowded among the small shops where the girls browsed for sandals and beach wear. At one of the restaurants, they ate lunch at a table by a window where they could watch the surfers.

  "I don't know how they get up on their boards. It doesn't look easy," Kacey remarked as she watched the surfers skimming over the waves.

  "I'm sure there's a trick we'll learn at our lesson," Ava replied.

  They finished lunch and walked back down the pier toward the shore. Two surfers waved at them from below as the surfers paddled out to the big waves. The girls smiled and waved back.

  Walking along the pier, Ava suddenly stopped and stared down into the water.

  Emma and Kacey noticed that she was behind them, and stopped to ask, "Hey, what's keeping you, pokey?"

  Ava's face was taut with worry.

  "Down there," she pointed to the water below, "That girl with the long red raft. She's in trouble!"

  The girls came to her side and looked down. They could see the girl, about 12 years old, disappearing under the water as her raft drifted away. Then her h
ead bobbed up and she gasped for air once before disappearing again.

  Ava and Kacey looked around for a life guard. They spotted one on the beach and began yelling for his attention, but he was too far away to hear them.

  "Oh, no! She's drowning!" Emma cried, "Do something!"

  Quickly, Kacey and Ava pulled off their sandals, shorts, and tops, and dumped their bags at Emma's feet. They both climbed up on the pier rail and jumped down into the water, thirty feet below. They landed with a great splash, and a crowd of people gathered around Emma to see what was going on.

  Kacey came up out of the water first, and looked around for Ava. She saw her about ten feet away and waved. They both looked for the girl, but there was no sign of her.

  "Did you see her?" Ava shouted.

  "No!" Kacey replied, but just then, they saw something swirling in the water to their right, about ten feet away. They both swam as fast as they could. Ava dove under the water and could see the girl through murky water. It appeared as if her leg was caught on something that was dragging her down under the water. The two girls swam up to the young girl and Kacey grabbed her neck from behind to lift her out of the water as Ava dove down to free the girl's leg.

  As soon as Ava saw what was there, she stopped. A six-foot long shark had latched its teeth into the girl's leg and wouldn't let go.