“You have a Tweety Bird suit?” Katie asked. “Cool.”
“No, I don’t,” Sierra said, deliberately not making eye contact with Tawni so that her icy glare would shatter in midair and all her invisible frozen daggers would fall noiselessly to the ground. “I did when I was ten or twelve. And I’ve never owned a Speedo.”
“My aunt wouldn’t mind if you borrowed one of hers. I’m sure she has several to choose from,” Christy said.
“You think they would fit?” Tawni asked.
“One way to find out. Come on.”
“I’ll stay here,” Todd said, managing to stuff another bite of his sandwich in his mouth without loosing any of it.
“Me, too.” Sierra placed the lid on the mayonnaise jar and acted as if she had been appointed as the kitchen cleanup crew.
“Not me,” said Katie. “An open invitation to go through Marti’s closet? Come on, Sierra! Don’t you realize this doesn’t happen every day?”
“I can live without the experience.”
“Suit yourself,” Katie said. “Oh, ha! Get it? Suit yourself?” Katie cackled away as the three girls walked out of the kitchen. “Sometimes I crack myself up.”
“I guess we should call Doug,” Todd said to Sierra. “They might already be on the beach.” As he rose to head for the phone, he added, “I’m glad you came. Tawni, too. I’m glad you both came.”
Sierra swung open the refrigerator door with more energy than the act required. Well, I’m not glad she came. I wish I’d never suggested any of this to her. I wish she would find her own friends and leave mine alone. I wish she wasn’t so picky and prissy about everything. I wish she wasn’t so beautiful and so attractive to guys. I wish… Sierra stopped herself right before she wished something she might regret later.
nine
THE GREAT THING about the beach, Sierra decided, was that it treated everyone the same. Anyone, no matter who she was, could accept the invitation to cradle herself in the warm, rippled sand and feel the sun generously pouring out its gold with the same indifference (or was it benevolence?) on one and all.
Somehow, once she was stretched out on her towel, face toward the heavens, ears drinking in the laughing melody of the ocean’s afternoon game of tag, all her envy of Tawni was evaporated. These people were still her friends. She was in Southern California, lying on the beach, with a whole week of vacation before her. Sierra refused to sabotage her own holiday.
One other factor calmed her, or at least redirected her focus of energy. When Todd called Doug, he found out a few more guys had arrived from the San Diego group. That tiny phrase, “a few more guys” rang like a bell inside Sierra. “Anger school is dismissed,” it seemed to say. “The class in dreams and wishes is now in session.” She remembered what Christy had said on the phone the week before about the possibility that Sierra could meet someone here this week. One of Doug’s friends, maybe. After all, Newport Beach was a wonderful place to meet someone special.
Sierra lay still in the sand, listening to the others talk around her, waiting for Doug and his bunch to show up. What if she opened her eyes and looked for the first time into the face of her future husband? What would he look like? What would his name be? Was she getting carried away with her hopes? Her mom had told her to dream, always dream. It wouldn’t hurt to whip up a little for herself this afternoon, now would it?
Sierra hadn’t allowed herself to do much of this daydreaming over guys before. Not that she wasn’t interested in guys, but she lacked confidence in herself. Growing up in a small community as she had before her family moved to Portland in January, Sierra had been buddies with every guy in town—not only with the guys who were friends with her older brothers but also with guys her own age. She had known them all since she was in kindergarten and thought of them as little more than bullies and buddies.
Since meeting these new friends, and now spending time with them as couples, Sierra’s thoughts had certainly turned around. It didn’t seem as if she were one of the gang unless she was interested in somebody. So even though she knew that’s what motivated her to dream up dating scenarios, she still let herself do it. After all, she was sixteen. It was time she took her feminine wiles more seriously. Tawni certainly had at that age.
“Jeremy, over here!” Sierra heard her sister call out.
Tawni had done well on her scavenger hunt in Marti’s closet, and she now wore a black bathing suit with straps that crisscrossed in the back. It was a bit too small on Tawni and rode up the sides, but it still looked ravishing on her, of course. She also had borrowed a cover-up trimmed in gold braid that looked like something a movie star would wear while lounging around her Beverly Hills pool. It was, Sierra decided, something she wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Sierra could hear the voices of Doug and Tracy as they approached with their group. She hesitated before sitting up and opening her eyes. She had been pumping so much hope into this dream bubble that it seemed almost certain to burst if she even lifted one eyelash and traversed the gulf between dreams and reality.
And burst it did.
Sierra looked up and saw only Doug, Tracy, and Jeremy standing there. No “few more guys” were with them. Tawni went right to work smoothing out a spot for Jeremy’s towel next to hers, which was already positioned behind and to the side of everyone else. A private sort of corner for the new people.
“How’s the invalid doing?” Doug teased Todd.
“Rank. The afternoon set is starting to come in,” Todd said, casting a longing glance toward the waves. “But Christy won’t let me take my board out.”
“Oh, right,” Christy said. “As if I ever was able to stop you from doing anything.”
Sierra thought Christy looked as if she belonged on the beach. She and Todd sat next to each other in matching beach chairs confiscated from Bob and Marti’s garage. Christy didn’t have a natural “show-off” body like Tawni’s, just a round, nicely proportioned shape that looked good in her burgundy bathing suit. The color made her arms and legs look tan, much more tan than Sierra’s. On Christy’s right wrist was a delicate gold ID bracelet with the word “Forever” engraved on it. Sierra had heard the story of when Todd first gave her the bracelet and how it had been off and on Christy’s wrist over the years. It certainly looked as if belonged there now.
The other thing Sierra noticed about Christy was that she carried herself well. She didn’t “plop” when she sat, the way Katie did. Yet she wasn’t petite and graceful like Tracy. She fit somewhere in the middle of those two, which made her approachable and the kind of person who was very watchable. Sierra wished she had a polished, mature look like Christy’s rather than her own tomboy appearance.
“What happened to Larry and Antonio?” Todd asked after he seemed to realize that everyone was done giving him sympathy.
“Antonio needed to find a surfboard he could rent for the week,” Tracy said, settling down next to Sierra. “Keep an eye out for them. So many people are out today that it’ll be hard for them to find us.”
“Too bad they wasted their money. They could have used my board,” Todd said. Doug had brought a boogie board, which he placed on his towel. Todd’s bright-orange surfboard was leaning against the back of his beach chair.
“I’ll borrow your surfboard,” Katie said, “if you don’t mind.”
“Sure,” Todd said. “I know you’ll take good care of Naranja. He’s been all over the world with me.” He adjusted his position in his chair and flipped on a pair of sunglasses.
Sierra knew naranja meant “orange” in Spanish. It made sense that Todd would call it that since it was such a distinctive shade of orange. But she wasn’t sure what Todd meant by taking good care of it. It looked pretty beat-up to her.
“Katie,” Christy said, trying to get her attention, “since when did you start surfing?”
“Ever since I found out Antonio was coming,” Katie said with a sparkle in her green eyes. “If he’s in the water on a surfboard, then that’s where I
want to be.”
“Who’s Antonio?” Sierra asked.
Katie was right next to her, and she turned her head from Christy on her other side to give Sierra the scoop. “Only the most gorgeous college student Italy has ever sent us.”
Sierra laughed at Katie’s “puppy love” expression.
Christy leaned over and said, “Katie has a thing for exchange students. Did she ever tell you about Michael?”
“He was the one from Ireland, right?”
“Northern Ireland,” Katie corrected. “Can I help it if I’m a sucker for a guy with an accent?”
“I take it that it doesn’t matter where they’re from, as long as they have an accent,” Sierra said.
“Yes,” Katie answered, looking over Sierra’s head and straining to see two guys walking toward them. “Is that them?”
Everyone looked, including Sierra. She was interested, of course, in how her little dream would turn out. If the “few other guys” consisted of Antonio and Larry, and Antonio was already spoken for, then she wanted to have a good look at Larry.
The two college-aged guys waved and made their way toward the growing group of friends. Sierra guessed Antonio to be the one on the right with the dark hair, and that would mean that Larry was…
ten
HUGE! Larry was the largest guy Sierra had ever seen. He had to be a football player. As he approached, she thought he might be Polynesian. His surfboard looked almost like a skateboard under his arm.
Sierra had never thought of herself as a person who identified another individual by his size or skin color. But this guy was very noticeable because of both. In her daydreams, Sierra’s potential new boyfriend never looked like Larry.
Everyone was introduced. Sierra smiled and greeted both guys while Katie announced to Antonio that she was going to take Todd’s board and hit the waves with them.
“What are we waiting for?” Antonio said. “Let’s punch it.”
“Don’t you mean, ‘let’s hit it’?” Katie asked, rising and brushing the sand off her backside.
“Larry is always saying ‘punch it.’ Is that not how you say it?” Antonio’s accent would melt any romantic female’s heart. He had broad shoulders, straight, white teeth, and engaging eyes. Sierra didn’t blame Katie a bit for being attracted to him.
“That’s right,” Larry agreed in a deep, rumbling voice. “Punch it.”
Katie held up her hands in surrender. “Okay by me. Let’s punch it.”
“You going out, Larry?” Doug asked.
“I sure am. Heather and Gisele are coming up this afternoon. I have a feeling when Gisele arrives, my week will be scheduled for me. I plan to enjoy my few hours as a free man while I can.”
All of Sierra’s fragile dreams of a potential romance with either guy fluttered away.
“Women tend to do that to a man’s life, don’t they?” Doug teased, leaning away from Tracy before she could hit him.
“Hear, hear,” Todd said, lifting his bottle of seltzer water in agreement. It seemed to Sierra that Todd looked uncomfortable and a little pale. He wore a long-sleeved T-shirt with a sleeve covering the gauze bandage on his arm. He tossed a beach towel over his whole right side. The hot sun probably didn’t feel too good pounding down its heat on his bandaged burn.
Antonio hoisted Todd’s surfboard under his arm and trotted down to the water with Katie right beside him.
“Does she know how to ride that thing?” Larry asked.
“I’ve given her a few lessons,” Todd said. “It’s up to you guys to perfect her natural talent.” Todd shifted in his chair and slowly stretched, trying to get comfortable.
“Hey, Sierra,” Doug said, “you ever ride a boogie board? You can use mine if you want.”
“I think I will,” Sierra said, getting up.
Doug, Tracy, and Larry followed her to the water’s edge, where the foaming waves came rolling up to their toes, cooling the hot sand. Larry jumped into the water and began paddling out to Katie and Antonio, who were already past where the waves broke. Doug gave a few brief instructions to Sierra on how to hold the board in front of her and lie across it with her feet straight behind her. Then she set out to sea, toward Katie and the guys.
A wave that seemed gigantic to Sierra rose and, like a big hand, closed on top of her, scooting her back to shore. She got up, soaked, still grasping the boogie board, and with a smile to Doug and Tracy, who were watching her, said, “That was my practice run.”
“Let me get you past the waves. There are a few tricks to the trade.” Doug dove into the oncoming wave and surfaced with his hair slicked back. “Go under,” he called back to Sierra.
She followed his advice, and within two waves, she was bobbing with the others in the deeper water. Katie and the guys sat on their boards, floating on the calmer water. Clinging to the boogie board, Sierra realized she couldn’t touch the bottom. She was a strong swimmer but hadn’t spent much time in the ocean. It felt different from being in the deep part of a lake—maybe because she couldn’t see anything in the murky water except clumps of floating kelp that felt slimy when they touched her legs. Sierra wasn’t sure she liked this, but she wasn’t going to let some globs of seaweed keep her from a new experience.
“I heard there was one down at San Onofre last week that came right up to the surfers,” Larry said. “The water’s really warm there because of the power plant. It probably attracts them.”
“Attracts what?” Doug asked as he treaded water next to Antonio’s surfboard. “Jellyfish?”
“No, sharks.”
“No way,” Sierra squawked.
Everyone looked at her with straight faces. “We get sharks around here every now and then,” Doug said. “Not recently—but this is their home, you know.”
“Why can’t they live out there?” Sierra said, bringing her legs closer to the boogie board.
“They have to go where there’s food,” Doug said. “I saw one here three weeks ago.”
“What did you do?” Katie asked.
“I got out of the water, of course.”
“Wasn’t there one up at Huntington Beach last month?” Larry asked.
“Yeah, did you see it in the paper?” Doug paddled over to Larry’s board and held on to the side for support. “There was a bunch of them. Great white, I think. I heard about it from a surfer who said he knew another surfer who was out there. He saw them coming and thought they were dolphins, and then all of a sudden, they attacked him.”
“Oh, stop it,” Sierra said. “Not really.”
Everyone, even Katie, remained serious, silently affirming Doug’s story.
“Really,” Doug said. “They showed a photo of his board hacked in half. The guy was in the hospital for a couple of weeks while they tried to reconstruct the lower part of his leg. He said the shark came up from underneath where he was dangling his legs in the water. One big chomp, and his leg was a hamburger.”
The image forming in Sierra’s mind was unpleasant. She tried to brush it away and change the subject. “So, are you going to give me your fine pointers on riding this thing, or do I have to figure it out myself?”
A gentle swell of salty water rose under them and pushed its way to shore.
“That would have been a good wave to catch,” Antonio said. Then quickly glancing behind them, he said, “What was that?”
“What was what?” Katie said.
Now Larry snapped his head in the same direction. “I saw it, too. Was it a big fish?”
“Where?” Doug tried to boost himself up in the water to see what Larry and Antonio were looking at. “Are you guys putting us on?”
“It’s right there!” Antonio said, shooting his arm in the direction of Larry’s board. “Don’t you see it?”
Sierra wished she were sitting on top of a board herself. She would feel safer and have a better view. She usually wasn’t squeamish when it came to animals. Her younger brothers had brought home a variety over the years, including a slimy yell
ow banana slug they had put in her bowl of cereal one morning when she left the table for a couple of minutes. She had pretended not to notice and had eaten toast instead of her cereal, which blew all the wind out of Gavin and Dillon’s sails.
This was different. The ocean seemed so huge and deep from where she bobbed in it. And she felt so vulnerable, especially because she couldn’t see her own legs in the water.
“You guys are crazy,” Doug said. He let go of Larry’s board and paddled a few feet away from them, scanning the water. “Just seaweed, you guys. I don’t see anything.”
He began to swim back toward them when all of a sudden, he let out a blood-chilling scream. His arms went straight up in the air, and then he disappeared, straight down into the water.
“What happened?” Katie yelled.
Sierra was too stunned to speak.
“You guys,” Katie hollered, “go get him!”
Antonio dove in with Larry right behind him. Sierra and Katie scanned the water for any sight of the three submerged men. But they didn’t see or hear them.
“Where are they?” Katie said frantically.
Sierra stretched her neck and strained her eyes to see anything. Bubbles. Movement. Anything.
Suddenly, she felt something cold and slimy brush against her leg. “Katie!” she screamed.
Before she could form a complete thought, the cold, slimy things grabbed her right leg and jerked her into the water. The same instant she was going under, she saw Katie topple from her surfboard and fly into the water, shrieking all the way.
eleven
AS SIERRA’S NOSTRILS filled with water, strong hands reached around her waist and boosted her back to the surface. She sucked in a panicked gulp of air and reached for the boogie board floating only a foot away. Doug popped his head out of the water directly in front of her and held on to the other side of the board. A mischievous grin hop-scotched across his face.
“Gotcha,” he said, laughing wildly. “That was totally awesome.”