Sunrise

by Melissa J Morgan

  Cassie was frozen in place as the van pulled out of the parking lot and into the road. What a way to ruin a moment.

  “Cass!” the sound of a familiar voice shouting out her name derailed her train of thought. Cassie turned to find Tori and some of her pinao bunkmates running up in bathing suits, trailing towels. “You’re the swimming C.I.T. Come chaperone us! Please, please!”

  Tori had just been sobbing into Cassie’s arms over some unworthy boy and now it looked like she was back to her old self—and even voluntarily wanting to swim! She sure got over that one fast, Cassie thought. How does she do it?

  Then there was no time to dwell over anything—not how quickly Tori could bounce back, not the drama Cassie would surely face once Danica returned, not the fact that Cassie still hadn’t managed to get back on her surfboard, and not even what was happening with Micah. It was time to swim, and Cassie needed to grab a beach towel. The ocean was calling.

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  One

  Cassie felt as if she were surfing. But she knew she wasn’t. In fact, when she looked down she could see her white flip-flops trudging over the sand, and she could hear them click-clacking against her heels—but it didn’t feel like she was walking at all. It was like the earth was moving beneath her and she was somehow managing to remain upright. As if she were gliding.

  There’s nothing like kissing the boy you’re crazy about to make you lose all sensation in your legs.

  Of course, she and Micah hadn’t actually kissed kissed. They almost kissed. She’d puckered up, closed her eyes, and felt the warmth of his breath. But just before their lips came together, they were interrupted. By Danica of all people.

  As disappointed as she was, Cassie had to admit to the teensiest amount of relief, too. She hadn’t been prepared for the kiss to happen, and she would have appreciated a little heads-up. Because the total lame reality of the situation was this: She really didn’t have much experience in the whole making-out department.

  What if she was bad at it? What if Micah had locked lips with her and then discovered she was terrible at it?

  She did a quick mental recap: Micah liked her, and that was good. He wanted to kiss her, also good. But she had zero history with boyfriends and hardly any kissing experience (just party games and pecks on the cheek from friends). And that was bad. Sad, scary bad.

  Micah, she knew, had had girlfriends. Maybe even lots of them. Including Danica, the smokin’ hot alpha female of Camp Ohana. And—oh right! They just left together for the inter-camp surf competition in Oahu, where they would spend two nights in a hotel.

  More bad.

  Of course they had separate rooms and chaperones, but it didn’t take Einstein to figure out that hotel plus ex-girlfriend plus honeymoon capital of the world equaled big reason to worry.

  Cassie came to a stop. Now the light, gliding sensation was totally gone. Instead she could feel the unmistakable crashing, flailing, and total disorientation that came with a major wipeout.

  It was almost like her shark attack all over again—the one bad experience that haunted her so much, she still couldn’t bear to surf in deep water. Only instead of a Great White taking a chomp out of her board, it was her own daydreams getting munched in front of her.

  Great. She’d had her first boyfriend for all of ten minutes and already she was stumped on what to do. There had to be something seriously wrong with her.

  “Cass-eeeeeeeee!” a familiar female voice sang out her name.

  Cassie turned and spotted her cousin, Tori, bounding toward her as fast as her high-heeled wedge sandals would allow.

  How does she do it? Cassie wondered. Somehow, Tori always seemed to be wearing a brand-new outfit. But how was that even possible since campers were only allowed one trunk? Did she have a secret closet in the jungle? Did she have a magic passageway to Barneys?

  “Okay, so . . . ?” Tori planted herself right in front of Cassie and started making little circular motions with her right hand—the one with the perfect pink-polished manicure.

  That was something else about Tori. In addition to her enormous invisible closet, the girl seemed to have discovered a salon somewhere among the banyan trees.

  “What?” Cassie replied.

  Tori made a huffing noise and put her hands on her hips. “So did he kiss you?”

  “Yeah. I mean . . . no. Not really.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “We were just about to when we had to stop.” Her cousin frowned. “But he was coming in for an actual kiss, right? He wasn’t trying to whisper in your ear or something?”

  Cassie thought for a moment. No, they had definitely been in pre-make-out formation. His mouth had been heading for her mouth, not her ear. She knew what close whispering felt like and this was very different. This had been softer. Warmer. Tingly-er.

  “It was a kiss. Or almost was, anyway.”

  Tori let out such a high-pitched squeal, Cassie fully expected a pack of dogs to come running up. “I’m so proud of you!” she gushed. She hooked her right arm around Cassie’s left and started pulling her, half skipping, along the beach.

  “Yeah, well. Don’t congratulate me too soon,” Cassie muttered. “Like I said, it wasn’t technically a kiss.”

  “Yet,” Tori stressed, still smiling smugly.

  “And he’s in Waikiki for a couple of days.”

  “Big deal.”

  “With his ex-girlfriend.”

  Tori’s grin vanished. “Okay. That’s pretty bad. I’ll give you that.”

  Cassie sighed. She liked bubbly Tori better.

  “But so what?” Tori asked. “He’s had all this time to hook back up with Danica and he hasn’t, right?”

  “I guess not.”

  “That means it’s really truly totally over. You know. Like when you can’t even remember why you were into them in the first place.”

  “Uh, remember Tor. I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I meant guys you go out with.”

  “Had none of those either.”

  “Come on!” She bumped her shoulder against Cassie’s. “You’ve had dates . . . Right?”

  Cassie shook her head.

  “Seriously? Not even, like, a just-for-prom boyfriend?”

  “Nada.”

  “Okay, fine. But what about all those superhot surfer guys you travel with? You’ve at least started up something with one of them once upon a time? Right?”

  Cassie shrugged. “I held hands with one or two while we walked on the beach.”

  Tori blinked back at her. “You held hands? That’s it?”

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. That’s . . . sweet. Really.” Tori’s smile seemed to freeze in place until it looked more like a wince. “It’s just . . . I always assumed you’d had at least one or two flings. I thought it was, like, one of the perks of your job.”

  “What are you talking about? That would be stupid. They’re either my teammates or they’re with my competitors. It would be so . . . wrong.”

  They walked in silence for a moment. Suddenly Tori came to a dead halt and gasped.

  “What?” Cassie instinctively searched the waves for shark fins.

  “Shhh!” Tori pulled her behind a bush. “Over there. It’s Eddie. He’s with Larkin Fennell. Can you believe it?”

  “Um . . . I . . . guess not.” Cassie took a moment to brace herself for the scorn of her cousin/executive social director. “Who’s Larkin Fennell?”

  Like clockwork, Tori’s mouth dropped. She stared at Cassie as if she were turning mint green before her eyes. “She’s the snootiest camper in this place. Where have you been?”

  Cassie looked over at the girl. Olive-skinned with shiny brown hair cut in a bob. “She’s pretty.”

  Tori made a snorting noise. “Best looks money can buy. Do you know she actually had a butler or something carry all her stuff to her bunkhouse? What a snot
.”

  Cassie frowned. “Why do you care who he hangs out with, anyway? He’s your ex. I thought you were over Eddie.”

  Again her cousin stared at her in disbelief—with a little pity thrown in. “You don’t get it, do you?” “No. Explain it.”

  “It’s complicated—the whole deal with exes. It’s never totally over. You don’t want them back, exactly. But you don’t want them to be all happy and hooked up with someone else.”

  Cassie waited. “And this is why?” she prompted.

  “Because. It just is.”

  “So not what I needed to hear right now,” Cassie grumbled, thinking of Micah and Danica.

  Tori’s eyes widened in minor horror. “Nananananananoh! That’s so not going to happen with Micah. Like I said, their relationship has totally cooled off.”

  “I hope so,” Cassie mumbled, flicking a bug off her arm. “I really hope so.”