Sunset Read online

  Sunset

  Melissa J. Morgan

  Grosset Dunlap (2009)

  Rating: ★★★☆☆

  Tags: Social Issues, Love Romance, Girls Women, Juvenile Fiction, Camp Counselors, Hawaii, Sports Recreation, General, Family Relationships, Surfing, Dating (Social Customs), Self-Confidence, Fiction, Friendship, Water Sports, Camps, Adolescence

  Social Issuesttt Love Romancettt Girls Womenttt Juvenile Fictionttt Camp Counselorsttt Hawaiittt Sports Recreationttt Generalttt Family Relationshipsttt Surfingttt Dating (Social Customs)ttt Self-Confidencettt Fictionttt Friendshipttt Water Sportsttt Campsttt Adolescencettt

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  * * *

  Seems like only yesterday, Cassie had never spoken to a real live boy. Cut to now: not only has she already smooched with adorable Micah, she’s actually missing him while he’s away at a surfing competition. Part of her loves the way it feels to have feelings for someone. But another part of her wonders if Micah will just be a distraction once she starts surfing competitively again. And then there’s a third part—the part that still hasn’t stepped foot in the ocean since that fateful day with the shark. And if that part doesn’t find a way to get over itself, Cassie may never surf competitively again.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

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  Text copyright © 2009 by Grosset & Dunlap. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

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  Library of Congress Control Number: 2008039441

  eISBN : 978-1-101-04627-2

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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 was 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?

  The floaty feeling of having shared airspace with Micah was now beginning to fade. Cassie gradually became aware of the slidy sand beneath her shoes, and the itchy granules sticking to the recently applied sunblock on her legs.

  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 friendly pecks on the cheek). 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 had just left together for a big 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.

  Perfect. 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—with the perfect berry-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, you forget, 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.”

  “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 my teammates. It would be so . . . wrong. Like kissing family.”

  “So? I kissed Duncan at Aunt Alice’s wedding. What’s he? Like, our second cousin? Third cousin twice removed?”

  “You are such a freak.” Cassie smiled and shook her head. “If I started up something with one of my surf pals, it would seriously complicate things. Plus, I’ve never thought of any of those guys in that way.”

  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 . . . no.” Cassie then took a moment to brace herself for the scorn of her cousin/social director. Then bravely she asked, “Who’s Larkin Fennell?”

  Like clockwork, Tori’s jaw 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. She had brown eyes and long shiny brown hair. “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. “Oh, but no! That’s not going to happen. Like I said, their relationship is completely finished.”

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

  A strawberry milkshake. No, chocolate with maraschino cherries—and extra whipped cream on top.

  Danica fantasized about her favorite dessert while waiting for the slow-moving dude at baggage check to find her surfboard.

  Back in Miami there was an old-fashioned diner just a couple of miles from her house. Danica and her friends used to bicycle over there and treat themselves. Of course, this was before they discovered that the beach was a much better place to meet guys—before they started worrying about fat and sugar intake. Seemed like she was happier then. In tense times Danica found herself craving those shakes and the sweet, cool, luscious comfort they’d given her.

  She had to admit she was feeling a bit stressed out. She had thought she was over Micah, but it turned out she wasn’t. Seeing Micah and Cassie about to kiss was a major blow. Plus, it didn’t help that Micah spent the entire plane trip from the Big Island to Oahu staring out the window with a dopey smile on his face.

  Did she ever make him space out like that when they were dating? She liked to think she had. But one thing she did know for sure was that it was never too late to try. And right now, she was determined to do just that.

  “Got mine.” Micah bounded up beside her with his board tucked under his right arm.

  Danica let out a grunt. “Not me. I think the doofus decided to take a break in the middle of looking for my board.”

  “Aw, you know. They’re busy,” Micah said with a shrug. “I’m sure he’ll get it as soon as he can.”

  Sometimes Micah’s la-di-da attitude really got to Danica. But right then it didn’t bother her at all. That’s how she knew she was in deep. “You’re probably right,” she said, trying to match his sunny tone.

  During the flight she had consoled herself with the fact that she had Micah all to herself these next couple of days. A lot could happen in that amount of time. And she hoped that by the end of the trip she would have wiped all traces of Cassie out of Micah’s brain. So maybe on the flight back he’d be staring at her with big dopey eyes instead of the clouds.

  She wasn’t exactly sure how yet, but she’d do it.

  A sudden roar of noise made them turn around.

  “Great. Another plane is deboarding and they still haven’t found my stuff,” Danica grumbled, gesturing toward the pack of tanned, athletic-looking teens headed in their direction.

  “Huh. I wonder if they’re here for the competition, too.”

  Micah looked almost nervous. His Adam’s apple kept appearing and disappearing as he swallowed repeatedly, and his left foot tapped out a hip-hop rhythm on the industrial carpeting.

  The pack of surfers coming toward them did look pretty intimidating. They were tall and perfectly built, all decked out in top-of-the-line surfer wear. One in particular stood out. He had curly blond hair and droopy blue eyes and a swagger that told the world he was a hotshot. Plus he was cute in a drool-producing sort of way. He even looked somewhat familiar.

  A couple of days ago Danica would have totally gotten her flirt on for this dude, but at that very moment, all she could think about was Micah.

  “Okay, people. Let’s get moving.” Haydee seemed to suddenly appear, all laden down with bags and flipping through a half-dozen different papers. Behind her Zeke loped toward them, his head bobbing with every slow step. “No rental car because somebody forgot to make the reservation.” Haydee turned to glare at Zeke, who didn’t seem to notice.

  Danica groaned. Haydee should have known better than to trust Zeke with such a task. The guy was only good at one thing—surfing—which was why he’d probably be Camp Ohana’s male surf counselor until he went to the big sandy beach in the sky.

  “All is not lost, however,” Haydee went on. “Luckily I found a taxi that can take all of us and our stuff. But we’ve got to hurry. So come on, people! Danica, where’s your surfboard?”

  Just then the baggage claim attendant showed up carrying her lucky board. “Here you go, miss,” he said, hand
ing it over.

  Danica took it from him and ran her hands over it, checking for dings. Lucky for him it seemed to be in perfect condition. Otherwise the dude would’ve had to wear a broken surfboard on his head for the rest of the day.

  “Good, good. Let’s go now. We’re on the meter.” Haydee started charging through the crowds of people. Zeke, who had only just reached them, had to turn around and head back the way he came. Danica and Micah followed as best as they could with their boards in tow.

  As soon as Danica stepped away from the baggage claim booth, the Surfer King and his posse walked up.

  “Hey,” he said, smiling and nodding at her as she passed.

  Danica smiled back. Micah, she saw, noticed the exchange.

  “You know that guy?” he asked as they headed out of the terminal area.

  Ooh . . . he’s jealous. That’s a good sign, she thought to herself. “No. Why?”

  He shrugged. “No reason. He just . . . looked familiar.”

  Haydee was now just a blond bob in the distance. But Zeke, who could only go fast when riding a wave, was right beside them.

  “That was Bo Anderson, man,” he said. “He won the Boost Mobile Pro last year.”

  “Aw, man! Right!” Micah suddenly looked worried. “Do you think he’s here to compete?”

  “At the Junior Surf Invitational?” Zeke made a face. “I don’t think so. That dude’s, like, sponsored by sports drinks and stuff. This thing is totally beneath him.” He glanced worriedly at Micah and Danica. “No offense, guys.”

  “That’s all right,” Micah replied. Danica noticed he looked somewhat relieved, but his eyes were still darting around, checking out the fellow travelers.

  “So . . . is your family gonna hop over and see you surf?” Zeke asked Micah. Danica could tell he was trying to change the subject after his stupid remark about the competition.