Waking Up to Boys

by Hailey Abbott

  Chapter Six

  Stop horsing around back there!” Chelsea yelled from the back of the boat. She squinted out at the nine-and six-year-old McCullough brothers, who were each trying to jostle the other into the wake.

  The boys paid no attention. For the past half hour, she had been trying to get them to take the sport seriously, but they were acting like the lake was a ball pit in a McDonald’s playground. Mike rammed his body hard into Matt’s side, sending his older brother sprawling into the chilly blue water.

  “Ouch, you jerk!” Matt struggled to regain his footing and fell backward again as the boat hit a small rough patch.

  “Ha-ha, dumbbell!” Mike stuck his tongue out at his brother and suddenly lost his balance, plunging into the wake as well. “Aw, crap—that’s cold.”

  “Stop the boat,” Chelsea hissed to Nina, who obediently slowed down. Chelsea stood up on the back of the boat and grabbed the towrope for balance. “Okay, guys, get in here,” she called to the McCullough boys, who continued to goof off as if they hadn’t heard her. How did Todd manage to command so much respect from his students? All he had to do was raise an eyebrow and they jumped to follow his instructions.

  “I mean it,” Chelsea shouted to the boys from the boat, careful to keep herself steady. “It’s time to come in. Now!”

  The boys wailed in protest. “Do we have to?” Matt whined, bobbing up and down in the water.

  “Right this second,” Chelsea insisted. “Before I come out there and make you regret talking back to me.”

  Fear flashed in their eyes, and Matt was silent for once. Mike’s lower lip began to tremble, and Chelsea immediately felt bad. She hadn’t meant to be so harsh, but the boys were grating on her last remaining nerve. They swam awkwardly toward the boat, and Chelsea leaned down to fish them out of the water.

  “Now listen,” she firmly reprimanded them, a hand on each of their shoulders. “Wakeboarding is a privilege, okay? Your parents would rather I refund their money than bring home two mangled boys dumb enough to shove each other around a boat with a big powerful motor on it.”

  At that, Mike lost the battle for control of his lower lip and burst into tears. “I’m gonna be mangled, and it’s all your fault!” he cried.

  Matt shot Chelsea the evil eye. “Now look what you did,” he snapped. “Mikey, it’s okay. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about…. She’s just being mean.”

  Chelsea sighed deeply. Teaching wakeboarding was way harder than she had anticipated. In the few days she’d been teaching, she was shocked by how bad people were at following instructions and paying attention. She just didn’t get it. If people were shelling out so much money to learn to wakeboard, wouldn’t they actually want to learn how? Yet nearly every lesson ended with her either clenching her teeth in frustration or fishing bedraggled would-be boarders out of the lake. It was beyond irritating, and Chelsea had nearly had enough. If this were an ordinary job, she might have considered quitting. But her father had trusted her with this. And she couldn’t let him down over a few silly tourists. She could do this.

  “Listen, I’m sorry.” She awkwardly patted the still-weeping Mike McCullough’s spiky wet hair. She glanced at her waterproof Fossil. “Hey, your lesson is almost over. Let’s head back to shore, and I’ll give you guys some coloring books that I have on water safety.”

  Matt sniffed. “We’re too old for coloring books.” Mike tugged on Matt’s life vest and pulled him closer to whisper something in his ear. Matt rolled his eyes and addressed Chelsea again. “But I guess we’ll take them anyway.”

  Chelsea nodded and turned her face away from them as Nina started the motor again and began to drive back to the dock. Chelsea watched the sunlight glint on the water’s surface, refracting it into millions of tiny diamonds. It was a beautiful, clear day in the mountains, and she was not going to let one lousy morning lesson ruin it. She was just finding her inner calm when she felt a sharp, wet little poke on her arm and turned to see Matt prodding her.

  “Yes?” She smiled, trying to hide her irritation.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?” Matt looked up at her with large blue eyes that could almost be considered angelic…if she didn’t know what a little devil he actually was.

  The question caught Chelsea off guard—not only because it was inappropriate, but also because she didn’t really know how to answer it. She remembered her first night with Sebastian, how they had kissed in the boat and he had held her hand all the way home. The day after the island party, Chelsea hadn’t seen Sebastian until the staff gathered at their table in the far back corner of the giant high-ceilinged dining hall for dinner. Her stomach had clenched so hard when she first looked into Sebastian’s wide, dark eyes that she had nearly doubled over, but Sebastian just smiled as if they had a secret and he was happy about it. And that’s exactly what he had said later that night, after catching up with her on the gravel path leading from the main lodge and walking with her down to the trees at the edge of the tennis courts.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind keeping this a secret for now?” Chelsea had asked. “Because—and I know this is going to sound weird, but—my parents are your bosses and, well…” She trailed off, unwilling to admit that she had never had a guy in her life for her parents to decide whether or not to disapprove of.

  “It’s fine,” Sebastian had said, drawing her in closer to him for a long, deep kiss that left her breathless and shivering.

  And that’s how it had started. It had become almost a ritual over the past few days for him to slip discreetly out of the dining hall after dinner and wait for her around the corner of the lodge. Then they’d walk until they found somewhere secluded—a grove in the woods, the deserted dock over by the staff barracks, or the gear shed behind the tennis courts where nobody ever went at night. They would sink to the ground, barely touching the cool grass before attacking each other with their lips and hands. Sometimes they just lay together in the cool night air and talked as they looked up at the stars. Sebastian was easy to talk to: mellow, sweet, and full of stories about touring the world for tennis tournaments.

  Chelsea went home each night and sneaked into bed feeling suffused in Sebastian, the sharp, sweet smell of his shampoo on her clothes and hands, the taste of his breath still in her mouth, and the imprint of his lips on her neck. She couldn’t believe that, after years of watching all the other summer staffers hook up, she finally had a boy of her own. At the same time, she kept suppressing the nagging voice in the back of her head asking if Sebastian was really the right guy. Sure, he was handsome, sweet, and a really good kisser, but at times she felt like something was missing. If only she could figure out what.

  “Hel-loooo!” Matt poked her several more times in the arm, jolting her back to her lesson on the lake. “Chelseeeeeeea…do you have a boyfriend or not? Because if not, Mikey wants to ask you out.”

  Matt dissolved into giggles as his little brother pummeled him to the boat’s floor. Chelsea sighed and looked back out over the water.

  Chelsea’s stomach grumbled as she approached the lodge, and she realized that she’d missed lunch. She’d lingered too long in the shower after her lesson, trying to wash off Matt’s comments and the jittery feeling that crept over her whenever she thought too much about her make-out sessions with Sebastian. She approached the dining hall and pushed through the heavy double doors that separated the grand, open dining space from the industrial kitchen. Opening one of the oversized fridges, she found several pans of leftover lasagna from the night before. She scooped a chunk onto one of the resort’s earth-colored ceramic plates, popped it into the microwave, and leaned against the counter to relax until it was done.

  She was thirty-four seconds away from a piping hot plate of lasagna when the doors swung open and Sara bustled into the kitchen, muttering to herself over a book she held open in her hand. She was clearly engrossed in whatever she was reading and paying so little attention to her surroundings that she banged her hip against a counter.
Sara swore softly under her breath and hurried to the glass-doored beverage refrigerator, where she haphazardly removed a Vitamin Water.

  Chelsea craned her neck to see what Sara was reading and realized it was a plant identification guide. Just then the microwave beeped. Sara yelped and nearly leapt out of her skin…dribbling purple Vitamin Water down the front of her white ruffled peasant blouse.

  “Damn!” she cried. Looking up, she finally realized that Chelsea was in the room, too, and Sara forced herself to smile—even though Chelsea could tell it was an effort. “Oh, hi, Chels,” she said absently, looking down at the stain as if she could will it away with her glare.

  “Are you okay?” Chelsea asked, scrambling to get some paper towels from over the sink. This was the first time she’d ever seen Sara get flustered. It was strangely refreshing.

  “Oh yeah, I’m fine.” Sara grimaced as she dabbed at the growing purple splotch on her shirt.

  “You sure?”

  “It’s just…well, I’m giving my first nature walk in half an hour, and I had that outfit planned for the past week. Now I have to go find something else because my shirt is ruined,” Sara admitted. “I should go change.”

  “Do you want me to go back to the house with you?” Chelsea offered. Normally she wouldn’t have, but Sara was acting like such a basket case that without supervision Chelsea was afraid that she would just put on the same shirt, only backward and inside out, and then probably tell Chelsea’s parents that it had all been their daughter’s fault.

  “Yeah!” Sara brightened. “That would be great.”

  Gulping down her lasagna in two bites, Chelsea put the dirty plate in the sink and followed Sara out the doors of the kitchen, through the empty dining room, and into the bright afternoon sunlight.

  “I can’t believe you’re so nervous,” she said to Sara as they hurried up the path to their house.

  “Oh, I hate public speaking,” Sara admitted. “Half the time I get so nervous, I nearly throw up beforehand.”

  “You seem like such a natural,” Chelsea said. “The way you spoke at the orientation and stuff.”

  Sara laughed. “I’m guess I’m a good actress,” she said.

  They reached the house, and the girls hurried upstairs. Sara went into her room and Chelsea hovered at the door, wondering if she should disappear into her own bedroom, but Sara motioned her inside. “Come on, I need your help,” she begged. “What do you think…does this look okay?” She pulled a soft cotton American Apparel wrap dress with thin lavender stripes from her closet and frowned.

  “It’s nice,” Chelsea said, feeling awkward that Sara was asking her for fashion advice. Had she not noticed that Chelsea basically lived in wetsuits and track pants?

  “Yeah…,” Sara said skeptically. “Yeah, but too girly. I need something more authoritative and better for hiking.”

  She rummaged in her closet and came up with a cream-colored button-down shirt with a green fern print from Banana Republic.

  “I like it,” Chelsea said. “The leaves are perfect for a nature walk.”

  “Yeah?” Sara slipped off her ruined blouse and tossed it in the corner of the room, pulling on the new shirt and buttoning it up, leaving it just a little open around her neck. She twirled around so Chelsea could get a better look. “What do you think?”

  A stab of jealousy shot through Chelsea when she saw how good Sara looked. The blouse hugged her curves, showing and hiding skin in just the right places, her tan radiant against the cream-colored fabric. Even though Sara had planned her whole outfit, the blouse swapped in perfectly to match her dark trouser jeans and brown leather sandals. “You look great,” Chelsea admitted, looking down at her own shorts and flip-flops, which suddenly seemed very boring.

  Sara acted unusually happy with Chelsea’s answer. “I’m so glad!” she chirped. “I haven’t even worn this yet, but I knew it would come in handy sometime.”

  “Oh. Yeah,” Chelsea said dubiously. She bought only clothes that were super-comfortable, and that she knew she would actually wear.

  “Okay, almost showtime,” Sara murmured, probably more to herself than Chelsea. She suddenly looked nervous again, as she took a couple of small sips from her Vitamin Water. “You’re coming, right?”

  Chelsea had actually been planning to go wakeboarding instead, but Sara was looking at her so expectantly that she couldn’t think of a way out.

  She followed Sara’s brisk stride to the meeting point by the lake, and Chelsea couldn’t help being worried for her. She knew the Glitterlake Resort summer tourist crowd pretty well—well enough to know that the last thing they’d want to do on a balmy Saturday afternoon in the recreation capital of Northern California was take two hours to go on a nature hike and learn how to identify plants. Tourists around Tahoe liked action, partying, and spending money, and that translated into sports, nightlife, and gambling. Nature walks just didn’t fit into the equation, and even though Chelsea wasn’t crazy about her half sister’s sudden and unexpected intrusion into her life, she wasn’t looking forward to watching her learn all of this the hard way.

  The girls rounded the bend leading up to the trailhead of the small, seldom-used two-mile hiking trail that wound its way around the resort’s property. Chelsea stopped, shocked when she saw a crowd of at least thirty people. She picked out her mother and father immediately, and a few of the elderly couples and families staying at the resort. But the biggest surprise was the sheer number of guys in their late teens and early twenties who had, apparently overnight, developed a rampant curiosity about plant identification. Amongst them she spotted Tim, Joel, Ted, Leo, and—Chelsea couldn’t believe it—Todd. The glare of the sunlight was pretty bright, but Chelsea would recognize that thick dirty-blond hair and those piercing lake-colored eyes anywhere.

  The crowd of guys broke into spontaneous applause and whistles when Sara approached. As she headed toward the front of the crowd, Sara’s shoulders straightened and her walk became more purposeful. By the time she turned to face them, every trace of the anxiety was gone from her face. She smiled and waved.

  “Thank you all so much for coming to the first ever Glitterlake Resort Plant and Tree Identification Walk!” she said enthusiastically. “I’m so glad you could make it. Now, I hope you all wore comfortable shoes and brought water, because…”

  Sara launched into a laundry list of safety precautions, and Chelsea wandered over to join her parents at the back of the crowd. They beamed at Sara with what Chelsea could have sworn was even more pride than when she had won her first wakeboarding trophy at the Tahoe Junior Invitational.

  “How’s it going, Champ?” Chelsea’s dad asked, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Teaching going okay?”

  “Oh yeah. It’s just great!” Chelsea said, plastering a somewhat fake smile on her face. For once, she couldn’t say anything to him—not about the party or Sebastian and certainly not about how badly she was doing with the McCullough boys.

  “Good. I knew you’d be great. There’s nothing you can’t do if you set your mind to it, Chels.” Chelsea looked up and saw the proud look on her dad’s face and felt like she would burst into tears.

  “Sara seems to be doing well so far,” Chelsea began, trying to change the subject.

  “I know! Isn’t this exciting?” Her mom grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly as Sara informed everyone that they were all standing under a giant ponderosa pine. “I had no idea these walks would be so popular.”

  “We should have thought of doing them years ago,” her dad agreed. “I don’t know why we didn’t.”

  Up front, Sara motioned for everyone to follow her, and the group snaked slowly along the path. The cadre of boys up front jostled one another to get closer to Sara as the few kids who had tagged along rushed around their legs to exclaim over the jack-in-the-pulpit Sara was pointing out.

  “She is an absolute natural,” Chelsea’s mom said proudly. “And she just looks lovely in that blouse.”

  Chelse
a tugged at her ratty old tee and wondered if her mom was ashamed of the way she dressed. It hadn’t really occurred to her before, but maybe her mom wished she would wear prettier things—stuff like Sara’s. Chelsea hung back, trying to think of how to bring this up with her mom without making it into a big deal.

  But her mom was already rushing ahead to look at some purple blossoms that Sara had discovered by the side of the path. Chelsea wondered if she should just turn around and go home. But at that very moment, Todd hung back and tried to strike up a conversation.

  “Hey, Chels. What’s up?” He sauntered up to her with his thumbs hooked casually in the belt loops of his cargo shorts. He flashed his adorable lopsided smile, and Chelsea’s heart began thrumming like the motor in an idling boat. She’d managed to avoid him pretty well since the island party and had thought she was making progress on the whole getting-over-it thing.

  “Not much,” she whispered—because she didn’t want to interrupt Sara’s plant talk, of course, and not because standing this close to Todd made her lose her voice. Definitely not.

  “Your sister sure knows her stuff, huh?” Todd said. “Pretty impressive.”

  Chelsea’s cheeks went hot and her palms started to sweat at the same time. She was so sick of hearing about how great Sara was that she could have screamed. It wasn’t like plant walks were a competitive sport or anything—nobody had ever won a medal giving tours. It wasn’t even high-risk. The way Chelsea saw it, they were just a random pastime…and one of Sara’s many ways to look cute and be on display. “Yeah, you just try getting her on a wakeboard and see how she does then.”

  “Good idea,” Todd said, grinning. “I just might do that.” And he wandered back into the crowd, leaving Chelsea to fume by herself in the rear of the group.