“Here, play with this,” he said. “Try to hit those pigs with the little birds.”
“Ooh, neat,” Tanner said, taking it from him. But he played only a few seconds before he put it down.
“Brady, can I level with you?” Tanner asked.
Brady nodded. “Sure.”
“I don’t usually like thinking about things,” Tanner explained. “But I’ve been thinking about something. I’ve always assumed that Lela would always be there for me. But that night when she ran into the water with her necklace, it gave me a strange feeling in my stomach. It felt like when I drink a milk shake too fast. Like maybe things wouldn’t work out.”
“That’s called worry,” Brady told him.
“Yes! That,” Tanner said. “And the thing is, things always work out for me. But here—I’m worried that Lela wanted to come to this strange world because I wasn’t enough for her.”
Brady had never seen Tanner look so sad. But he knew how his friend felt.
“I know what you mean,” Brady said. “Like, you’re with a girl, and suddenly she’s got her whole life figured out, and you just feel a little left behind.”
Then he realized something. “I guess all you can do is be the best dude you can be, and hope that’s enough,” he added.
“Is that what you do with Mack?” Tanner asked.
Brady shook his head. “No. Recently, we’ve kind of hit a rough patch. I’ve been spending a lot of time working on something I haven’t told her about.”
He walked to his workbench and pulled off a blue tarp, revealing the strange-looking surfboards he’d been working on.
Tanner’s eyes got wide. “Are those surfboards?”
“Yes,” Brady said. “These are all boards. Boards that do what other boards don’t. Like this round one. It has rotating fins, so you can surf in any direction.”
“You made these? Neat! I’ve never made anything.” Tanner said. He pointed to a huge board on Brady’s workbench. “What’s this one?”
“This one’s crazy,” said Brady. “It’s got these two intake manifolds here, leading to sealed hydro-turbines hooked up to an internal lithium-ion battery.”
“Everything you just said? I have no idea what that means,” Tanner admitted cheerfully.
“Basically, this is a surfboard that moves by itself,” Brady explained. “If it works. I haven’t tested it.”
“Why can’t you tell Mack?” Tanner asked.
“Because I’m not sure if she’d get me spending so much time on something like this,” Brady replied. “She’s got her life mapped out.”
And I don’t, Brady thought. Not yet, anyway.
Tanner nodded. “I understand, Brady,” he said. “Maybe the problem is you’re not tan enough!”
While Brady and Tanner talked in the shack, Mack and Lela talked in Mack’s bedroom.
“I love everything here!” Lela was saying as she looked through all the modern items on Mack’s dresser. “The challenging classes. The interesting conversations. The flavored lip gloss! Vanilla kiwi-berry? It’s delicious and keeps my lips moist!”
Lela moved to Mack’s closet next and started trying on clothes.
“Lela, our world isn’t all that great,” Mack said. “There’s finals, and taxes, and global warming. You really had it good back in your world. Your hair’s always perfect. You have a boy who loves you.”
“You have a boy who loves you, too,” Lela pointed out. “But you want more, right? You want to live your life to the fullest. I want more, too.”
Mack paused. Lela had a point. But she couldn’t admit that. She had to convince Lela to go back.
“No,” Mack said. “Being with the right person can actually make life more full. If you both have the same drive, the same passions. Unless he doesn’t respect your passions…and keeps secrets from you…or gets weird when you’re busy.”
Mack flopped down on the bed. “I don’t know! It’s all pretty confusing here—which is why you should go home.”
Lela stepped out of the closet, wearing an outfit of Mack’s. She looked great—and perfectly present-day. The magic necklace glittered around her neck.
She’s becoming part of this world, Mack thought. That’s what happened to me and Brady before we almost disappeared forever!
Mack ran into the hallway and quickly called Brady.
“We have a situation,” she told him. “Meet me on the beach—and bring Tanner!”
The four friends met up a few minutes later. Tanner grinned when he saw Lela.
“Wow, Lela! You look like…future Lela. Groovy!” he said.
“Very groovy!” Brady added.
“No, not groovy at all,” Mack said. “She’s not supposed to look modern. Tanner, smile.”
Tanner obeyed—but there was no ping! this time.
Then she pulled Tanner over to the beach showers and turned them on, dousing him with water.
“Hey!” he cried. His perfect hair was soaked.
“Look! It’s wet!” Mack cried.
“What’s happening?” Tanner asked, panicked, as he felt his wet hair. “My hair feels so squishy! And limp! I don’t like this feeling!”
Mack pulled Brady aside. “Don’t you see? The very essence of who they are is changing. They could get stuck here forever! Or the whole fabric of our reality could split open! We’ve gotta get them back.”
Brady thought. “Let’s just tell them the truth,” he said. “About who they are and where they really came from.”
“But weren’t we worried about what it might do to them?” Mack asked.
“We’re running out of other options,” Brady said.
Mack nodded. She turned to Tanner and Lela and took a deep breath.
“Tanner, Lela—you’re just made-up characters in a movie. You’re not real,” she said.
Brady winced. “Okay, maybe I would have eased into that a little more gently.”
“What? A movie? I don’t understand,” Lela said, her voice shaking. She fidgeted with the necklace.
Mack opened her phone and found an image of the movie poster for Wet Side Story. She showed it to Lela and Tanner.
“Hey, it’s us!” Tanner said. “Doing things we usually do.”
“See, you guys get to live inside this awesome imaginary world,” Brady explained. “A movie world. My favorite movie. It’s how Mack and I met.”
Lela’s blue eyes were full of fear. “But I don’t want to live in a movie world.”
“But you do,” Mack said. “That’s why your life was so perfect, Lela.” She turned to Brady. “How can we make them understand?”
Brady smiled. “We could try explaining it in their language,” he said, and music swelled behind him.
“Do we have to? Really?” Mack asked, and then she sighed. “Fine.”
Then Brady and Mack started to sing, trying to convince Tanner and Lela that life was better in the movies.
“You gotta play the scene, up on the silver screen. No matter where you’ve been, good times are moving in!” they sang together.
“No!” Lela yelled, abruptly ending the song. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be that girl anymore. I don’t want people to write my lines for me. I want to stay here. Forever.”
Then she tore off the necklace and threw it into the ocean with all her might.
Back in the movie, Butchy and the gang were hanging on the beach at night when Cheechee ran up with Giggles, a blond surfer girl.
“Oh, my gosh…you’re not…gonna believe this,” Cheechee said, out of breath. “We was walking with our pals Muffler and Sidecar. And then boom! They just up and vanished.”
“This is terribles!” Butchy cried. “Peoples are vanishing left and rights! Any of us’s could be next!”
He got thoughtful. “Things started going wrong ever since Lela and Tanner took off.”
“You think thems leaving is somehow coronated with this chain of events?” Cheechee asked.
Butchy nodded. “Yeahs. I d
o,” he said, and then he spotted something in the sand. “Hey, what’s that?”
He jogged over and picked up Lela’s necklace, which had washed up onto the shore. He grabbed it.
“My sis used this when she disappeared into the ocean,” he said, remembering. “Maybe wese can use it, too. We can find Tanner and Lela and bring them back and make everything normal again.”
“We’re leaving?” Cheechee wailed. “Then I need to go home and get some hairspray!”
“There ain’t no time, Cheechee!” Butchy said. “We gotta get there now! Before more peoples starts disappearing.”
He took a deep breath. He was afraid of water, but he was even more afraid of disappearing forever. He raced into the waves, and the bikers and surfers followed him.
The sun was setting on the beach, but Mack was not giving up her search for Lela’s necklace.
“It’s gone, Mack,” Brady said.
“It might still wash up,” Mack said, continuing to search.
“Last time, it ended up in a parallel movie universe!” Brady pointed out.
“Do you have any better ideas? Just keep looking,” Mack snapped.
“Don’t take this out on me,” said Brady. “I wasn’t the one who just blurted out, ‘Hey! Lela! Guess what? You’re not real!’”
Mack put her hands on her hips. “Really? This is my fault? How was I supposed to say it?”
Brady shrugged. “I don’t know. You could’ve been a little less…direct.”
“‘Less direct’? Like, we should have kept it a secret?” Mack asked. “That’s been working well for you lately.”
Tanner and Lela watched them argue.
“Why are they fighting? They’re not in rival gangs,” Tanner said.
“Here I guess couples do it, too,” Lela said.
“Guys!”
A familiar voice rang out across the beach. Lela looked up to see her brother, Butchy, stumble out of the waves! And there was Seacat, and Cheechee, and Struts, and Giggles, and Lugnut! And other kids from back home.
Mack and Brady heard the commotion.
“Are you kidding me?” Mack asked.
Brady’s eyes got wide. “The whole cast is here?”
Butchy hugged Lela. “We did it! We found youse guys!”
“Uh, nice to see you guys,” Brady said. “What are you doing here?”
“What do ya mean, what are wese doing here?” Butchy asked. “We’s here to take Lela and Tanner home.”
“Yes!” Tanner cried.
“No,” Lela said flatly. “Butchy, I don’t want to go home.”
Butchy looked perplexed. “But, Lela, I’m your brother. Don’t you miss me? Don’t you miss all of us?”
“Yes, of course, a lot!” his sister replied. “But I’m starting to find myself here, Butchy. I’m happy.”
“Okay, that all wells and goods and all. But here’s the thing, see: peoples back home have been disappearing,” Butchy told her.
“Peoples?” Lela asked.
Butchy nodded. “Yeah. They just sparkle. And then—poof!—they vanish.”
“And we don’t even knows wheres to! Or if they’s coming back!” Cheechee added.
Mack turned to Brady. “That’s what’s happening. Lela and Tanner are the stars of the movie. Without stars, there’s—”
“No movie,” Brady finished. “It’s vanishing out of existence.”
“You guys have to go back,” Mack told Lela and Tanner. “Otherwise all of you will disappear.”
Lela’s eyes looked sad. “I understand. I have to go back. It’s our job. To be characters in a movie.”
She turned to Mack. “I’m going to miss you,” she said.
“Me too, Lela,” said Mack. “But I’m so glad I got to see you again. And somehow, I know we’ll always be friends. Even when we’re in different worlds.”
They hugged. Tanner shook Brady’s hand.
“Good-bye, Brady,” Tanner said.
“Good-bye, Tanner,” Brady replied. “Take care of yourself. It was so great to see you again. Now, you guys get yourselves home.”
The Wet Side Story kids headed back into the ocean. Mack and Brady looked at each other. Without Lela and Tanner there, things were awkward between them again.
“Well, that’s done,” Brady said.
“I should get to the dance,” Mack said. “It’s time to start setting up.”
“I guess I’ll just see you there,” Brady said, and they both walked off in different directions.
Out in the water, Butchy held the glowing necklace.
“We should be zapped back any second,” Lela said.
Something was bugging Tanner. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Mack and Brady walking in two different directions.
“Wait!” he said. “I’m worried about Mack and Brady. They’re not happy. We can’t just leave them like this. That’s not what friends do, right? We can’t go home until we get them together.”
“Tanner, I’ve never seen you like this,” Lela said. “You’re caring about someone besides yourself. I like it.”
Tanner smiled.
“Wait, what about the disappearing and stuff?” Butchy asked nervously. “Do we have time? What’ll happen?”
“I don’t know,” Tanner replied. “But I know it’s the right thing to do.”
The Save the Beach dance in the high school gym wasn’t exactly the most exciting dance ever. A deejay spun tunes while a handful of kids stood under the blue crepe paper party decorations. A few of them even danced.
Brady was standing by himself when Devon approached him.
“You all right, dude?” he asked.
“Sure. I’m good,” Brady replied in a voice that definitely did not sound good.
Across the gym, Mack halfheartedly untangled some balloon strings. Spencer walked up.
“Great party.”
“The turnout’s a little low,” Mack said. She fidgeted with the blue SAVE THE BEACH bracelet she had on. “I guess the school gym wasn’t the most exciting venue.”
“Maybe it’ll pick up,” Spencer said. Then he paused. “Hey, I have a question for you.”
Time to nip this one in the bud, Mack thought.
“Spencer, please don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a good-looking guy. But I’m just not…looking for anything right now,” she told him.
“You think that I like you?” Spencer asked. He sounded confused.
“Ah, yeah. Don’t you?” Mack asked.
“Oh, no. Sorry,” Spencer said. “You’re a wonderful person. But I like Alyssa.”
Mack gazed at her friend. Alyssa was dancing like some kind of puppet whose strings were being pulled by a monkey.
“Alyssa?” Mack asked.
Spencer nodded. “Yeah, we hung out at this government conference this summer. She was…wow…She blew my mind.”
“But Alyssa made me think that you thought I was cute,” Mack said.
Spencer looked sheepish. “Yeah. Sorry. Thing is, I haven’t had the best luck with girls. My buddies said the best way to impress a girl is to make her jealous. So I told Alyssa I liked you.”
Mack shook her head. “That’s terrible advice,” she said.
“Yeah. Now that I actually say it out loud, it does sound completely stupid,” Spencer admitted.
Mack gave him a little push. “Just go! Be nice to her! Dance with her!”
Spencer headed out and started dancing along with Alyssa. Mack and Brady stayed on opposite sides of the gym, not even looking at each other.
Then the gym doors burst open and some of the Wet Side Story kids poured in. Mack and Brady looked stunned.
“Oh, no,” said Mack.
The roar of an engine filled the gym as Butchy rode in on a motorcycle. Tanner rolled in behind him on a Segway and made a beeline for Brady.
“What are you guys still doing here?” Brady asked.
“I’m here for you, Brady,” Tanner replied.
Brady was surprise
d. “For me?”
“We couldn’t leave, Brady. We realized we had some unfinished business,” Tanner explained.
“Are you crazy? The movie is vanishing! You’re all in danger!” Brady couldn’t believe they hadn’t left.
“It’s not right that things aren’t right between you and Mack. So we’re here to help you make them right!” Tanner added.
Lela looked at Tanner with a new respect. “Isn’t it great, seeing Tanner like this? So concerned and thoughtful? I’m so proud of him.”
Tanner and Lela smiled at each other adoringly, then he turned to Brady.
“Brady, when we were doing that worry thing about Lela and Mack, I think you forgot about something really important. See, we have a word in our world. It’s called ‘confidence,’ spelled K-O-N…fidence.”
“We have that word, too, Tanner,” Brady said.
“Well, you need to remember it. You’re a good surfer, and a good friend, and you make cool things. You’re an amazing guy! And I’m pretty sure the only person who’s keeping you from realizing it is, well, you.”
Brady nodded slowly. “I can’t believe these words are about to leave my mouth, but…Tanner, you’ve just said the smartest thing I’ve heard all day.”
He spotted Mack across the dance floor. “I’ve got this,” he said confidently, and the magical movie music started up behind him.
“I gotta be me,” he started to sing, and soon everyone in the gym was singing and dancing along. Brady grabbed Mack and the two of them danced and sang together.
Brady jumped up onstage to sing the final verse of the song. Then, just like Lela had in Wet Side Story, Brady tripped over the microphone cord and fell off the stage!
Mack caught him in her arms.
“I guess I literally fell for you, huh?” Brady said, quoting from the movie.
Then the two of them collapsed in a heap, giggling.
Suddenly, Butchy appeared, holding up the necklace. “Okays, everyones,” he announced, “I hate to interrupt this bee-yutaful moment, but we’s gotta get back to whatever’s on the other sides of that scary watery stuff.”
“He means the ocean,” Cheechee translated.
“Yeah, that,” Butchy said.
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