Brady was distracted. He couldn’t help noticing how close together Mack and Spencer were and how they kept talking to each other. He strained to listen to their conversation.
“Wow, you really know what you’re doing,” Spencer said, impressed, as he watched Mack combine the liquids in the petri dish.
“You think so? Thanks,” Mack said. “I’ve always loved biology. And the ocean. I should have been born with gills.”
“Have you thought about college?” Spencer asked.
Mack nodded. “Of course. I’m knee-deep in applications.”
“No, I mean, have you thought about doing this in college,” Spencer clarified. “There’s this new oceanography program at Oregon Coastal College. You spend half the year on a ship, at sea. They’ll be at the college fair tonight.”
“I’m actually on the College Fair Planning Committee,” Mack told him.
“Perfect! I’ll introduce you to the college rep,” Spencer offered.
Mack smiled gratefully. “That’d be amazing.”
Brady stared at them, not sure how he felt about what he was seeing.
“Brady? Hola? You okay, my man?” Devon asked.
“I’m good. Totally good,” Brady answered. But looking down, he saw that he had gotten his hand stuck inside a beaker. He tried to shake it off.
Crash! The beaker shattered on the desk. Everyone turned to look at him. Mack rushed over.
“Do you guys need any help?” she asked.
“Yes! Totally!” Devon pleaded.
“No, we’re good,” Brady said.
“I just rocked this experiment,” Mack said. “You need to add iodine, agitate, then check out the compound under the microscope.”
“I was totally about to do that,” Brady said, embarrassed. “Agitate it. Or at least get it slightly annoyed.”
Mack nodded and headed back to Spencer and Alyssa. Brady watched her.
Brady. It’s us. We’re gonna be fine, Mack had told him.
But it was only the first day of school, and Brady wasn’t so sure.
When the last bell of the day rang, Brady eagerly looked for Mack in the school courtyard. She smiled when she saw him.
“Hi! Before I forget, here,” she said, pulling a blue rubber bracelet from her backpack. “I’m selling these to raise money for the beach cleanup.” The bracelets had SAVE THE BEACH written on them.
Brady nodded. “I dig it.”
“Good, ’cause I got you like eight,” Mack said, barely fitting one over her own wrist and offering the rest of the bracelets to Brady.
“I’m gonna need a bigger wrist,” Brady joked. “Listen, there’s a huge swell on. Should we go catch some waves?”
“That sounds awesome,” Mack replied. “But I can’t. The Save the Beach dance is this weekend. We’re up against the wall.”
“Speaking of, I had a cool idea,” Brady said. “What if you had a dance with a Wet Side Story theme? Like, you could do it at the beach. People could wear costumes.”
Mack frowned. “That would be totally cool, but we already booked the gym and bought all the decorations. Besides, I think you and I are like the only two people under fifty who’ve even heard of that movie.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Brady admitted. “You’re sure we can’t sneak in a few little awesome waves together before the meeting?”
“Definitely this weekend, after the dance,” Mack promised. “And anyway, we’re going together to the college fair tonight, right?”
Brady made a face.
“Brady, this is important for us. It’s our future,” Mack told him.
“Yeah. Of course. I’ll be there,” Brady said, relenting.
“In shoes?” Mack teased.
Brady grinned. “For sure.”
Since Mack didn’t want to surf, Brady headed home. He and his mom lived in a colorful house on the beach, and Brady had a shack in the back all to himself. Inside he had his own workbench and tools. Many different-shaped surfboards were stacked against the walls.
Brady opened his laptop and pulled up a college application. It asked all these questions about stuff he didn’t know the answers to yet. He abandoned it, grabbed a board-planing tool, and went to work on a large surfboard. His mom, Luanne, walked in and watched him for a moment.
“The mad scientist, tinkering away in his hideout,” she teased. “How’s the latest board shaping up?”
“Same as all the others,” Brady replied. “Slowly. Very slowly.”
Luanne nodded and then noticed the application on Brady’s screen. “Wow, how’s that going?”
“It’s going,” Brady said. “Opened it up. Stared at it…” His voice trailed off.
“They’re due pretty soon, aren’t they?” Luanne asked.
Brady put down his tool. “It’s just…everyone seems so focused. They’ve got their whole lives mapped out. Like Mack. She knows where she wants to go, what she wants to do. And I don’t even know what I want for dinner.” He sighed.
Luanne read between the lines. “Things were a little rough with you two back at school today?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know,” Brady replied.
His mom patted his shoulder. “Every great love story hits some bumps in the road, kiddo. Sometimes, the trick is just to keep driving.”
“So, love is like a car?” Brady asked.
His mom smiled. “I’m sure you guys will work it out,” she said. She turned to leave, and then stopped. “Cereal.”
“Huh?” Brady asked.
“That’s what you want for dinner. Cereal. It’s what you always want,” his mom reminded him.
When his mom left, Brady turned on the TV. He restarted Wet Side Story, which was always in his DVD player. But this time, with Brady too busy to notice as he worked on a surfboard, the movie played out differently.
Tanner and Lela stood on the beach with Lela’s brother, Butchy, and the other surfers and bikers.
“So, Tanner, is youse and me ready to goes and disarm the diabolical weather machine now?” Butchy asked.
“You bet, daddy-o,” Tanner replied. “Ready is my middle name.”
Seacat, a surfer with a mop of curly hair, looked confused. “I thought Lewis was your middle name,” he told Tanner.
“It is Lewis,” Tanner said, and then he thought. “It’s also Ready. Because that’s what I was born. Ready.”
“Ready! Right from the moment he was born!” added energetic surfer Rascal.
“Tanner! Don’t go!” Lela pleaded. “It’s so dangerous!”
“Don’t worry, Danger is also my middle name,” Tanner replied. “Along with Ready. And Lewis.”
“That’s a very long name,” Butchy remarked.
Lela sighed. “Okay, Tanner. I’ll just wait here, and—” She stopped. That was what she was supposed to say. But it wasn’t how she felt. Not after meeting Mack. “Actually, why don’t I come, too? I mean, all we girls do when you guys go off is stand there and do nothing. Maybe I can help.”
Tanner looked surprised. “But girls aren’t supposed to do that, are they?”
“You’re right,” Lela said, shaking off that weird feeling she’d had. “I don’t know where that came from. Forget it.”
Tanner and the boys ran off.
“Go, Tanner! Be safe! You’re my hero!” she called after him.
Lela watched them go and then walked back down the beach. Behind her, a blue glow lit up the surf. Then something washed up on the sand….
Mack’s lost necklace!
Brady was still working on the surfboard when he glanced at the clock—and realized he was late to meet Mack! With a start, he jumped up. He grabbed the only clean shirt he could find—a Hawaiian one. Then he grabbed two socks (one blue, one yellow) and reluctantly slipped on some sneakers.
Outside the high school, Mack looked at her watch and sighed. The fair had already started, but there was no sign of Brady.
“Mack?”
Spencer stepped up behind her, dresse
d sharply in khaki pants and a button-down shirt.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked. “The fair’s almost over.”
“I’m waiting for someone,” Mack explained.
“Well, the Oregon program’s about to start packing up,” Spencer told her.
Mack looked around, frustrated. She didn’t want to miss out. “Then I’d better check them out,” she said, and headed inside with Spencer.
When Brady finally arrived, he saw Mack and Spencer walking out of the school, talking to the rep from Oregon Coastal College. He kept his distance and watched them.
“For me, the hands-on approach to oceanography just seems amazing,” Mack was saying. “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.”
The college rep nodded. “A pleasure. It was great meeting you, Mack. I hope you apply.” He shook Mack’s hand and walked off.
As Brady listened, it hit him: Oregon. That wasn’t too far, but it was far enough. He had already almost lost Mack to prep school. He couldn’t stand to lose her to Oregon.
Brady walked up to Mack and Spencer.
“Hi, Brady!” Spencer said cheerfully.
Brady looked at Mack. “What are you doing here with him?”
“I almost missed the whole fair, waiting for you,” Mack shot back. “Where were you?”
Brady shifted uncomfortably. He had never told Mack about his shack or the stuff he did there. She would probably think he was just wasting his time tinkering away at making surfboards.
“I was, ah…” he stammered. “You could have at least sent me a text!”
“I did! Like twelve!” Mack was almost yelling now.
“No, you didn’t,” Brady insisted.
“Check your phone!”
Brady reached into his pocket. “Uh, I seem to not have my phone, because I…left it…somewhere.”
“Why don’t I just give you guys a second to chat?” Spencer said, backing away.
Mack shook her head at Brady. “Is it too much to ask you to take this one thing seriously?”
“Hey, at least I take us seriously,” Brady protested.
Mack was stunned. “What? I take us seriously! I just spent forty-five minutes waiting outside for you!”
Brady glanced at Spencer. “You weren’t exactly waiting alone.”
“What? You think…Spencer?” Mack lost it. “You were forty-five minutes late! What were you even doing? Did you forget?”
Brady hesitated. Should he tell her?
“I was…nothing,” he said, looking away.
“You won’t even tell me why you stood me up? We used to tell each other everything! What’s happening with us?” Mack said.
“I don’t know. You tell me,” Brady said. “It’s like the school you doesn’t want anything to do with me!”
“This coming from the school you that keeps secrets and flakes out on me?” Mack asked in disbelief.
“Well, then, maybe we just don’t work at school,” Brady said. It hurt to say the words out loud.
“Maybe we don’t!” Mack shouted.
“Awesome! So I guess I’ll just see you next summer—which is apparently the next time you’re free!” Brady couldn’t help getting in that last jab.
“Fine by me!” Mack said.
They stared at each other, hurt. Each was waiting for the other to apologize. To take it back. But neither did.
Mack turned and walked away, and Brady watched her go.
Mack headed for the lagoon and walked onto the pier, staring sadly at the water. Brady had retreated to his shack. He played a sad song on his guitar.
“It almost feels like it was a dream, all these memories of you and me, blown away in the summer breeze,” he sang.
In the background, Wet Side Story played on the TV in a continuous loop. Brady was too engrossed in his guitar to pay attention to the movie.
The movie was back at the beginning, when Tanner and Lela first locked eyes. Lela stood on the stage at Big Mama’s, singing.
“I just can’t stop myself from falling for ya. Can’t hold on any longer and now I’m falling for ya….”
She tripped over the microphone cord and fell off the stage. Tanner caught her in his arms.
“Nice of you to drop in,” Tanner said, flashing his blinding white smile.
“I guess I literally fell for you, huh? I’m Lela,” she began, but then she stopped. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this. Put me down.”
The music abruptly ended. Everyone turned to look at Lela, confused. This wasn’t how the movie was supposed to go.
“Lela, what are you doing?” Tanner asked.
“I don’t know. This whole thing, it’s just not working for me anymore,” Lela admitted. “It’s not you, Tanner. You’re a great guy—”
“Yes, I am,” Tanner agreed.
“But I’ve got to go!”
Lela hurried out the door, and Tanner raced after her. She stopped at the edge of the ocean. The night breeze swept her dark hair off her shoulders.
“Lela! What’s going on? It’s very windy out here. It’s not good for my hair,” Tanner complained.
Lela turned to look at him. “Ever since Mack and Brady came, I’ve felt…different. Mack wasn’t like any girl I ever knew. She inspired me. I miss her.”
“I miss her, too. And Brady,” Tanner said. “They were swell! But—”
“I want to be like her, Tanner. Try new things, experience new experiences—Wait. What’s that?”
Lela spotted something washing up in the waves. Something glowing. She reached down and picked it up. Her blue eyes flashed.
“Tanner! Look at this! Do you know what this is?” she asked.
“Uh, a necklace?” he guessed.
“I gave it to Mack! It’s come back to me. Here. Now. Don’t you see? It’s a sign!”
Tanner was confused. “It really looks like a necklace.”
“This means”—Lela turned to look across the ocean—“she’s out there. Somewhere. I need to be where she is.”
The rest of the bikers and surfers caught up to them. Lela waved.
“Good-bye, Tanner. Good-bye, bikers. Good-bye, surfers. Good-bye, people always standing around whose names I don’t know,” she called out.
The ocean waves were starting to churn up fiercely. Lela turned to the ocean, and as her necklace glowed brightly, she ran right into the surf.
“We’ve gotta stop her, right?” Tanner asked, nervously watching her go.
“Sure. I mean, I would,” Butchy said. “But water makes me a little nervous.”
Tanner started to panic. “What should I do? Sing a song? That usually fixes everything. Or maybe I should talk in my low voice.” Girls loved his low voice. He gave it a try. “Lela! Come back!”
Cheechee, a biker chick with sky-high hair, sidled up to him. “Yeahs, I’d save your low voice for somebody who can actually hears it. She’s already in the ocean.”
Lela was about to disappear into the waves. A surge of courage rose in Tanner. He bravely bolted in after her.
The dark waves swirled around them. Everything went black for a moment. And then…
…they emerged from the water onto a sunny beach.
Lela was surprised to see Tanner. “Tanner? What are you doing here?”
Tanner was more surprised by the sun shining overhead. “I don’t know. Why is it daytime?”
They looked around. Every hair on their heads was still dry and perfect, just like in the movie. But they weren’t in the movie anymore.
Jet Skis zipped across the water as Lela and Tanner walked up the beach, dazed and disoriented.
“What happened? Where are we?” Lela wondered.
Lela saw a para-skier’s bright parachute in the air, pulled by a boat.
“That guy’s flying!” she cried, amazed. Then she noticed a Jet Ski. “And is that a motorcycle or a boat?”
“I think it’s both. He could be in two gangs,” Tanner guessed. “He could rumble with himself!”
; Lela pointed to a restaurant on the beach. “Is that Big Mama’s?”
Tanner read the sign. “No, it’s Billy’s Beach Burgers and Sushi. What’s a sushi?” He looked at Lela. “Where are we?”
A teenage boy with spiky hair walked by. Lela stopped him.
“Excuse me,” Lela said. “I think we’re lost.”
“Oh, here. Just use my phone,” the boy said.
Cell phones, of course, didn’t exist in 1962, when Wet Side Story was made. Lela and Tanner stared at the screen, confused. Then the phone spoke to them.
“What can I help you with?” asked a smooth female voice.
“Oh, my! That little box just spoke to us!” Lela said. “Tanner, are we here? Did we make it? Are we in Mack’s world?”
Tanner was still focused on the phone. “Hello, lady in the little box. What’s your name? I’m Tanner.”
Lela turned to the teenager. “We come to your world in peace,” she said, speaking slowly and clearly.
Tanner accidentally pressed the button for the forward-facing camera. The phone snapped his picture, and his face appeared on the screen.
“Whoa! How’d I get in there?” he wondered. Then he grinned. “Hi, small me! Lookin’ good!”
Not far away from where Lela and Tanner were, Brady headed across the sand with his board, unaware that his friends were nearby. Brady was just getting ready for his early-morning surf after a night of tossing and turning. He noticed the ocean was flat with an occasional big wave, which wasn’t the best condition for surfing. He also noticed a girl picking up trash with a pointy stick. Then he realized that it was Mack!
They locked eyes.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to see each other until summer,” Mack said.
“I’m just surfing,” Brady replied.
“And I’m just cleaning up the beach,” Mack said.
Brady smiled smugly. “Really? You’re cleaning up at my favorite surf spot?”
“Your surf spot happens to be where there’s a lot of trash,” Mack said.
Brady was insulted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, there’s a lot of actual trash here and I’m cleaning it up,” Mack replied. Then her eyes got wide, and she froze.
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