(01) Sidetracked

There’s at least one night in every teen’s life when you’re too lazy to go out with friends, only reruns flash on the TV, and the food stocked in the cabinets just isn’t that appealing anymore. Maybe it’s a school night when Mr. Hammond didn’t give you any biology homework, or the night before a huge party that you’re aching to go in order to see that special someone who sits behind you in Algebra.

Perhaps it’s a night when a date canceled, or a best friend is sick. Whatever the night may be, it suddenly hits you in the face and leaves you as bored as a kid watching grass grow.

There isn’t any way to prepare for it, no coping mechanisms. You just have to stare anxiously at the clock in your kitchen, waiting for the hours to pass, another part of an eager teenager’s life. It was such a night for me just last month.

I was sitting on the plaid couch in the family room, flipping from MTV to NBC to ABC to even the Disney Channel. It was just a lazy Saturday night so of course there was nothing. Just as I had clicked to a documentary on camels, my father bounded down the stairs, keys in hand and announced cheerfully that he had an urge to go for a drive in his car. He slipped on his faded brown top siders and asked me, eyeing the TV, if I wanted to join him on his little adventure. Glancing back at the camels, I opted for the drive, even if it was my dad.

As I hopped into the navy BMW, I looked up at the cloudy sky and decided it was a night for wasting time. It was time to go places a person would never admit going or even want to go on a regular time schedule. It was time for my dad and I to hit the town and live life to the fullest.

As my dad and I passed tons of stores, we decided to let the car and the road take us to where we were going. Breathlessly we waited for that certain place to suddenly sock us and cause my dad to slam on the breaks and turn into its parking lot.

Oh, the places we went that night, not a care in the world, no limited time. No place was too tacky and not worth entering. Pointless department stores, simply scary clothing stores that contained hardly clothes, over which we had to bite our lips to stop us from falling over laughing inside. We passed small hangouts for colorful, odd-looking people who smoked and stared at us suspiciously as we tried to make a solemn face.

The night was long and we both felt young, our only stop for reality being when we dropped a large, hot fudge sundae off at the house for my mother. I didn’t want it to end. It was kind of like when you help yourself to a large piece of chocolate cake but then need just one more tiny sliver to satisfy you just a little bit more after you finished the last huge, delicious piece.

My dad insisted on coming up with that last small sliver for the night. As he ran upstairs to give Mom the ice cream, he told me it would be a surprise. Having no faith that my dad would resist the image of his bed at 10:30, I was pleasantly relieved when I heard him say, “Back in a bit, Hon,” as he came back down the carpeted stairway. With my heart still beating with suspense, we jumped back into the Beemer and headed off for more fun.

It seemed like ages as we passed many stores, entered on the highway and suddenly entered a podunk town with peeling painted buildings and some of the street lights dimmed.

It began to rain and the splashes of the drops made the windows blurry. I looked questioningly at my father but he just patted my knee and smiled. Suddenly he turned into a parking lot of a restaurant called Sidetracks.

As we entered the doors he explained that when he and my mom were first married they had gone here to eat almost every day because just down the road was where my mom had worked. I glanced around and saw that the theme of a railroad station was everywhere. Lights flashed from blinking traffic lights and signs. Guys laughed noisily from the nearby bar and the waiters and waitresses sat talking on a stairwell in front of us.

One of the girls showed us to a table with two seats. Glancing at another table, I noticed a blond guy with a slightly oversized nose.

We ordered one of the largest plates of nachos I had ever seen with beans, chili, every kind of gooey cheese, peppers, and salsa with a dollop of sour cream on top.

While trying to make a dent in this monstrous pile of chips and toppings, my dad leaned over and whispered something about the guy in front of us looking at me. I laughed as I picked up a tortilla chip covered in chili. Outside the wind howled and lightening flashed.

“I really want the power to go out in here,” I tell my dad, smiling and thinking about the excitement a power outage would bring to the whole scene.

A couple of minutes later, lightning flashed again and the lights in the restaurant went out.

“Looks like you got everything you wanted out of tonight, Honey,” my dad said.

I smiled at him, thinking to myself that I really had gotten everything I wanted that night.

While sitting there, hearing about my dad’s past and having him tell me a guy is checking me out in the dimmed restaurant, with a pile of nachos that I can’t possibly eat, I realized that sometimes staying home on a weekend isn’t that bad.

Sure maybe the guy sharing the nachos in front of me is my dad, but I realized, there’s always time to look at your busy teenage life and take the sidetracks for a night on the town with the friends who love you best; your parents.

(02) New Possibilities

So it's the last day of our freshmen year and we're ending it by chilling at Kiki's pool. Literally all of the class is there which isn't hard because it's not very big. No one feels like swimming ironically because it's an overcast day. The chlorinated water is as still as glass and I wait for at least one annoying guy to be pushed in. It doesn't happen.

I sit in my favorite khaki capri pants and hot pink flip flops on a white pool chair smiling as Sophie, the girl sitting next to me talks on and on about her plans for the summer. I'm only half listening as she chatters about biking in France, twisting her brunette hair. I gaze over at the guy I had liked ever since he had shared his animal crackers with me in kindergarten, Lawrence W. Snow.

Lawrence is drunk out of his mind as usual, falling all over the place as he attempts to walk towards where the chips are. Watching him, I get this amazing urge to go spit in his face with disgust - he wouldn't remember it - or push him in the pool and watch him struggle to get out. After ten years, I realize that I'm just not attracted to him anymore and suddenly I have no guy to pine for. It's a miracle.

I glance back at Sophie, who I guess is onto a whole new topic about her brother corning home from college. I nod and smile but then look back to the crowd. Two girls with blonde hair race in front of me on the grass, followed by Andrew Peters carrying with a giant squirt gun. He squirts me but I hardly notice because I'm too bored to care. And then...he hits me. I am searching the crowd for my friends and I notice a guy and girl laughing on the mechanical porch swing. The girl is Tina Daniels, the grade's biggest flirt and the guy is one surprisingly I don’t know. I hadn’t had any classes with him that year and I had been so busy melting over Lawrence, I hardly had looked at him. I watch them now completely entranced, Tina doing her routinely brush of blonde hair to the side.

As the guy said something, Tina burst out laughing and leaned into him even closer. I began to be jealous of my mind for no apparent reason.

Then something unexpected happens. The guy looks straight at me! I sit there staring at him like a lovesick puppy, and for a brief second we make eye contact.
There is this energy I feel coming from him and my heart is hammering and my face gets hot, and I make the awful mistake of quickly looking away. I immediately regret it, and watch as he walks over to the soda table.

For the first time, I can really get a good look at him. His hair is dirty blond, short but long enough so that it hangs in his eyes in an adorable way. I instantly love how he shoves it boyishly out of his face when he talks to someone. He is wearing a shell necklace under his navy polo shirt with crisp khaki shorts. Immediately, Lawrence is completely forgotten.

Interrupting Sophie, I asks quickly, "Soph, you see that guy in the navy polo shirt with blond hair?"

She stops talking and peers closely over by the soda bottles, adjusting her baby blue tank top.

"Oh yeah, that's Jeff Waters. He moved here this year from California."

Oh." I reply. "Sorry I interrupted." I can't stop watching him. Before Sophie can continue about the latest fashion tip she learned from Cosmopolitan magazine, my friends come over.

"Daria, come start the around-the-world ping pong game with us!" I look up at Britney and Charlotte who are, of course, both wearing the same blue flowered shorts from J. Crew. I smile as I follow them to the ping pong table. As it begins to drizzle, Sophie tells everyone else to come follow and play with us. Britney, Charlotte, Patsy, and I start the game and a line begins to snake around us. A huge game forms and I am mostly at the top of it. Hitting the ball here and there and dashing between sides, I am unstoppable. I can't concentrate on anything but the oncoming war.

After a while the line fades as people strike out on their turns and start to cheer us on instead. I'm one of the last people left and as my turn comes up I grab the paddle and look up to see Jeff Waters himself facing me on the opposing court. The guys are patting Jeff on the back and all the girls are screaming for me. I can't make myself look Jeff in the eye. We are the last people left which means I have to play one on one with him. I try not to let the fact that he is Perfectboy intimidate me, but I know if I look just once into his eyes I’ll be taken and lose the whole game. I am a very competitive person, so I can’t lose a game just because of some cute guy. I concentrate on the ball and hit it back at him with everything I’ve got. It seems like hours until finally I watch the ball spike into his court. He misses it.

I hear a thud as his head hits the table and he pounds his fist in agony. The whole grade must be around us because I hear guys yelling and girls screaming at me.
Even Lawrence Snow is there, laughing like an idiot.
Jeff gets up and with a smile from his pearly whites, he looks at me and hands me the ping pong ball.

I can’t help but gaze into those brown eyes, and I think, as my heart beats as I touch his hand to take the ball, that just about anything can happen this summer.

(03) Distant Waters

So it’s the first week of total freedom. The novelty of not going to school has almost worn off, almost. “There’s still so much to look forward to,” I think as I hear my mom shouting from the family room that my friends are here. Grabbing a towel from the upstairs closet, I jump down the stairs and open the door to find all the girls in the black wrangler with Charlotte’s sister Kelly taping the steering wheel impatiently. Holding up the one-second-finger, I run to the nook in the kitchen and snatch my sunglasses, shouting a goodbye to my mom as I slam the door shut and jump into the jeep, almost all in one motion.

As the overly steamed sister, Kelly, screeches out of my driveway, I hold onto the side of the car tightly, laughing as a neighbor rushes to the side of the road with her dog, annoyed by Kelly’s driving techniques. It feels so good to be in the Wrangler, the warm sun on my legs. Instantly Britney’s long hair whips in my face so that all I can see is bright yellow.

“Can you control it?” I ask her, laughing and pulling it away from my face.

I pull down my shades and feel the wind ripple my yellow tee shirt. My hair is still damp from my shower. I let it down, allowing the sharp breezes from the open car blow it dry until I will put it up in pony tail again. Summer never felt so good.
After Kelly drops us off at the beach, we run toward our favorite sunning spot down by the concession stand. We peel off our shorts and tops and lie down on the warm sand, our towels a cushion underneath us.

We lie there in our suits, talking with our eyes closed, sneaking an occasional glance around the beach to see if there are any attractive lifeguards on duty, or even more unlikely, an attractive guy we know from school. Our towels are in a circle so it's easy to see each other.

Britney and Charlotte are both wearing the same tube top tankinis from J. Crew, Britney with blue, Charlotte in green. They have to adjust their tops every few minutes. Charissa lies flat on her bright pink fish towel, her brunette hair cascading around her on the sand. She insists on tanning this way to allow all of her hair to catch the sun and lighten. Perhaps she feels out of place, being the only brown-haired girl in the bunch, and Patsy is on her stomach, flipping through a Cosmo with headphones on, her legs bent and waving slowly in the air. When she is sure Patsy is completely into her music and can’t hear, Britney begins venting about how annoying she is.

“I can’t believe her! She shows up in the exact same bikini she knows I bought first and then pretends she doesn’t even know! How like Patsy! She doesn’t even look good in it! I just can’t…”

Britney has to stop because Patsy has taken off her earphones and is searching for another magazine. Patsy and Britney kind of have a love-hate relationship. They always complain about each other when they're apart, but they end up acting like best friends when they're together. It's strange, but that's how it has always been.

I dig my feet farther into the hot sand, listening to the squeals of nearby seagulls fighting over apiece of hot dog bun, and also the soothing sounds of the waves lapping against the rocks while kids laugh and splash in the water. I'm tuning out most of what my friends are saying until I hear them mention Jeff Waters.

"So I hear Jeff Waters is going to Maine for the summer. He's the got the nicest house up there!" Charlotte explains, as she adjusts her tube top.

"I wouldn't mind being his girlfriend. I think he is H-O-T hot!" Britney laughs.

"Yeah you and the rest of the free world!" Charissa points out.

The conversation turns to our plans for spending two weeks together at Britney's summer house in Martha's Vineyard. As all of the girls excitedly make plans for movies, dinners on the beach, and hitting all the major shopping areas, I am totally lost in my own thoughts, not focusing on Martha's Vineyard.

As I gaze up at the sky, I think about how I have only a summer to plan my strategy on how to make a certain guy mine. I have two and a half weeks to figure out how to make Jeff Waters, the perfect boyfriend, ask me out. "Good luck!" I think to myself doubtfully.

Operation Boyfriend has just begun and I feel as hopeless as I watch a nearby little girl, building a small sand castle that is constantly washing away into the hands of the outstretched glistening ocean, where the sun dances on the waves and reflects the glorious summer sun.

(04) Fireworks on the Sound

As the evening sea air whips at my face, I pull my black cardigan more closely around my increasingly suntanned shoulders, and watch the water froth down below me at the edge of the boat. Charissa and I are waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks to start, as we move closer to the middle of the sound in her father's boat.

We are both silent for a moment, taking in the salty air and lost in our own thoughts.
"So how long do you think it's going to take to get him?" I turn around to face Charissa. After a second I figure out what "him" means and I smile.

"Who knows, maybe forever." I hadn't really thought much about Jeff Waters for the past few weeks.

Charissa laughs cheerfully. "1 think you just need to forget about him and enjoy the summer. Maybe you'll meet some other guy while he's away."

"Maybe," I tell her, rather doubtful.

"I think you and Jeff would make a great couple though." She glances up at the sky which is dimming by the second. I watch how her hair lift up on the wind, then fall back gently around her shoulders.

Charissa is one of the most loyal people in my life. So far she is the only person I have told about Jeff Waters and the only person I have never had had a tight with. She
seems always to be the peacemaker in the group, not wanting anyone to be unhappy.

"What about you'?" I ask, nudging her slyly. "Who do you have your eyes on? The guy you sat in front of in Biology?"

She wrinkles her nose. "Oh gosh, no!"

Then she smiles, "There is this one guy who I've talked to a few times." "Charissa! You never told me!"

"He's just the son of one of the guys my dad works with," she says, suddenly shy.

"Good guys are hard to come by," I sigh. "They're either too young, too old, too fat, too skinny, too gay, or too annoying."

Charissa bursts out laughing which starts me going, and soon we are both falling over on the deck of the ship, laughing until our stomachs ache. As we gaze up at the stars, we are clearly in a mood where everything is funny.

"Charissa?" We both sit up to see Charissa's dad standing a few feet from us. His hands are in the pockets of his crisply creased khaki pants.

"Yeah dad?" Charissa stands up.

"You'll never guess who just pulled up next to us! Don Hastings and his son, Rick! Perfect! Hastings and I have some things to talk about and you can entertain his son!" He whistles to himself as he patters downstairs in his faded, old topsiders.
I look at Charissa who is looking at me. For a second we are silent, then burst out laughing. And then, she freaks.

"Oh, my gosh!"

"That's him? Rick?" I ask.

"Do I look all right? Oh my gosh, if I knew he was going to come I would have worn my other pair of khaki shorts! I can't do this, I am soo nervous! Thank goodness you're with me! Oh gosh, that's him in the light blue, button-down shirt!"

"You look fine," I say laughing. But I am growing kind of nervous, too. Three is always a crowd and I am not in the mood to be the odd one out. I watch the boat on the other side of us approach, and the two fathers tie them together side by side.
We don't have too much time to primp and prepare because after two minutes Rick and other figure step onto Charissa's boat.

Charissa kicks me excitedly. We both were still freaking out. I can't tell who the other person is next to Rick until they come closer and then I realize it was another guy - in navy blue shorts and a white button down.

"Hey, Charissa," Rick calls out, flashing his perfect smile. He introduces his friend, Brett Hayes, from Greenwich and before I know it Charissa and Rick have run downstairs to get some soda, leaving me in the awkward position of sitting next to Brett.
But it doesn't take long before Brett and I have exchanged AOL screen names and he has invited me to a party with a bunch of his Brunswick friends next Saturday night at the Belle Haven Club.

Then as Brett and I talked mostly about playing lacrosse and summer possibilities, I study his profile. He is EXTREMELY ATRACTIVE! Blonde and tan of course, with perfect teeth and a boyish sparkle in his eyes that makes his easy to talk to, and very alluring. I can't stop watching those eyes.

Charissa and Rick return with the soda and soon we hear a loud boom and see the sky light up. As the fireworks shoot up displaying large rings of blue and red, we lie down on a blanket so our only view is the colorful flashes in the sky. Brett lays his head on the opposite side of the blanket from me so that when I put my head down it bumps gently into his, which just makes us laugh. His blond hair tickles my cheek and I get a whiff of his cologne which is probably Abercrombie.

I try to concentrate on the fireworks, but my heart seems to beat louder than the gunshot sounds from above. I glance at Charissa and Rick and I sighed happily. As a ring of blue explodes above a burst of purple, and the smaller flashes make a sizzling sound as they fell back towards the water I suddenly feel Brett’s hand over mine. My face is suddenlv hot, and when I look at him next to me, he's staring at the sky, but then glances at me and we both smile. I'm holding hands with a guy I’ve just met, on Charissa's boat watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July. It doesn't get much better than this.

Charissa turns her head to look at me and we both sneak a smile. Charissa is right, I have all summer to worry about Jeff Waters, and right now I just need to be free and have fun. As another explosion of red,blue and green flashes across the sky, I make a mental note. "Operation Jeff Waters officially starts...tomorrow." Back at harbor, I thank Charissa and her dad profusely and walk to my waiting car.

"The fireworks were great!" I call out to Charissa.

"Yeah, and the ones in the sky weren’t bad either!" Charissa shouts back.

(05) An Unexpected Friend

It's just another lazy Summer afternoon, and the bright sunlight streams through my bedroom window as I lie on my bed, flipping through Seventeen magazine with MTV's TRL blaring in the background. I peer closely at Christina Aguilera pictures, and her strange taste in fashion. The phone rings. Turning over onto my side I grab it, and immediately hear Britney's voice on the receiver. Then I quickly run across the room to my small TV on the table, shut it off, and bounce back onto my bed.

"Hey Brit!" I laugh.

"Oh my gosh! I feel terrible for you. I can't imagine what must' be going on at your house right now!" Britney says excitedly.

I lie down on my back and ease my bare feet against the wall next to me, feeling completely lost, as usual. "Ummm...I’m not sure what you’re...

"How is she taking it?"

"Who?"

"OLIVIA, of course! I can't believe he did it right before she's leaving!"

"Did what?"

"Come on, don't tell me you don't know, you're her own SISTER! Jake dumped Olivia last night when they went out to dinner!”

I can't believe it. Typical of me to the last one to hear the breaking news everyone in Darien must have be talking about, especially when it's about my own sister.

"I gotta go. I have a whole list of people to call about this! Call me later to tell me how she's handling it," Britney says eagerly. With that she clicks off, and I am left to lie there staring blankly up at the ceiling with the receiver still tucked next to my ear. I throw it back on the cradle and then stretch out, completely lost in thought as I trace the outlines of the puffy clouds on my bedspread.

Olivia has always been Miss Perfect. With her long legs, sun bleached hair, and perfect smile, I had always envied her. She had been on the Varsity lacrosse team since she was a freshmen, was a soccer state champion, and every guy's dream.
She had gone through boyfriends like a freshman goes through laundry until she went out with a certain sophomore named Jake. He, like Olivia, was also perfect and loved by everyone. As a varsity football player, member of the homecoming court two years in a row, and voted in his middle school as "most likely to become an Abercrombie and Fitch model, he was just the right boyfriend for my sister. He took her to his junior prom, his summer house in Nantucket, and every single happening party that was planned. Jake and Olivia were inseparable. No one in the entire high school could know one of them without the other one and everyone assumed they would go out until he went away to college, and even then they probably would find a way to still be together.

All of sudden Olivia has been abandoned. It is like when Angel left Buffy. I love it!
I had found out by phoning my mom that Olivia had been at her friend's house since the previous night. 1 waited hours and hours for that moment when my sister would walk through the front door, heartbroken and fully vulnerable. Olivia and I hardly ever talked. She was constantly gone or in her room on the phone so I hardly knew her now, though before high school we had been like best friends. I knew one thing though, there was no telling what Olivia would do in times like these. She is an extremely sensitive person and is known to take things like this very hard.

At about 6:15 she walks in. There are dark circles under her eyes indicating that she hasn't slept, her blonde hair is matted, and smudges of mascara stand out on her cheeks like war paint. Not surprisingly, besides all this, she still looks perfect.
I watch her carefully. She seems to be rather calm. As she walks slowly upstairs, I follow her, which she doesn't even seem to notice. In her room, she sits silently on her bed and gazes weakly over to the pictures of her and Jake on the bedside table. I fully expect her to grab it and smash it, but she doesn't. Everything Jake ever gave her remains where it is, from the jewelry to the stuffed animals he won for her at carnivals to the Nantucket postcards.

"Olivia?"

She looks at me wearily.

"Do you want to maybe go for a drive or something?" I wait for her to scream at me and push me out of her room, but she just smiles. It's scary for me to see her smile like that.

She picks up her keys, the silver key chain with the heart from Tiffanv's that has Jake's and her name engraved on it, and off we go for a drive to the beach. It's dark outside as she veers to the left towards a parking spot right in front of the water. We sit on top of the car roof together, just like when we used to in middle school.
The waves crash against the sand and there is faint laughter from some party down the beach, where everyone is probably drunk.

I gaze up at the sky, where the stars are studded across the black with the small sliver of a moon glowing in the middle of it. Olivia puts her arm around me and we watch the water, quiet for a few minutes. Then she begins to cry as she looks down at the silver ring on her finger that Jake had given to her for her birthday. It is a special moment. We talk about life and each other's problems and of course, Jake. I suddenly feel this long lost love for my older sister, a feeling I hadn't felt for two whole years. I wish with all my heart that Jake and Olivia could have been still together, but perhaps then we couldn't have shared this night together.

We stay there, the car's bright lights underneath us, the water lapping in front of us, the sounds of laughter behind us, and God watching over us. It is a moment for friends. For an hour and a half, a bond between us is sealed, and we both realize there are times only for sisters.

(06) A Girl's Best Friend

Every girl in the world needs at least one guy in her life with whom there is absolutely no mutual love interest. A guy to hang with and have no cares in the world with, a guy who can always take you to the prom if you don't have a date, a guy who can tell another guy that you think he's cute and not completely sabotage the relationship from jealousy, and most importantly, a guy who you don't have to try to impress at all. Mine right now is Cameron Phillips, and he is absolutely the best guy in the world. I have a few close guy friends, but Cameron is by far the funniest, wildest, and most attractive.

Cameron and I have been friends ever since he moved here in second grade from Massachusetts. He knows everything about me; my crushes, my weaknesses, my dreams, and vice versa. He has been my tango partner for all of the school dances, has planned all of the surprise parties on my birthdays, and most importantly, was the one who I had vented to the night of a certain party at the Belle Haven Club, when I found out from
Charissa that Brett Hayes has a girlfriend.

Even though Cameron is absolutely gorgeous with his sun bleached blonde hair and his dark tan, he has had only a few girlfriends in his lifetime. He is the sort of guy who seems to never want to grow up and will never be ready for a serious relationship, which is a serious disappointment to the hundreds of drooling girls at our high school. I never really figured out what made Cameron want to be good friends with me, perhaps I never will.

I think about all of this as I stare into the water farther down the sand, as Cameron and I eat pizza on a red striped blanket under a nearby tree. It's 6:30 in the evening on an idle Tuesday, and the weather is just right; warm with cool breezes. I am leaning against the trunk of the tree in my khaki shorts and red T-shirt, and Cameron is on his back, chewing and looking up at the darkening sky. The beach is pretty deserted, except for a few small families.

I let out a loud burp, full of cheese pizza and orange soda, which of course makes Cameron challenge it with another echoing one. I laugh hysterically as a white-haired man with his golden retriever turns around to see who just let out that earth shattering belch. Burping contests are things that you can only do with guys, so you have to enjoy them while you can. I throw my remaining crusts into the empty pizza box and take another swig of soda as Cameron sits up and looks at me.

"Let's walk down the beach." He tells me as he slips on his black Reefs and tosses me mine. I swallow my soda and pull my bare feet into them, following him down to the water.

"Hey now!" I shout to a middle-aged guy in a foldout chair, reading his newspaper. Cameron and I run away from him as he pulls off his sunglasses and peers closely at us. Screaming random things to the opposite sex is something Cameron and I have done since we were eighth graders. We fall down the beach laughing until our stomachs hurt from the sight of his confused face, and finally we make it to the water's edge.
The sun is blazing with a bright red color, as it seems to fall slowly to the ocean. Fireflies appear and flicker near the trees, welcoming the oncoming darkening night. I look at Cameron who glances back at me, and then I kick a fountain of water at him. I fall over laughing at his bewildered face and he sends a spray of water at me, soaking my shirt and shorts.

Soon we are standing there on that summer-night, kicking pools of water and throwing wet sand at each other like little kids. We continue getting each other more and more soaked and dirty until I push him into the water face first and he pulls me down with him- Then we sit there immersed, sopping wet in our khaki shorts and our hair stringy with clumps of sand. A little girl who is probably four or five in a hot pink swimsuit laughs as she walks past us, her mother smiling with an amused look as she pulls her daughter farther up the sand. I glance at Cameron who is wringing out his navy polo shirt and I notice he is unusually calm, until he sees a guy about our age walking towards us.

"Hey now, Kiddo, he's a hottie," he says laughingly, as I look up at a muscular guy in navy shorts and a white T -shirt with a surfboard printed on the back. I can already tell what is going through my evil friend's mind.

"Cameron don't you dare!" I cry at him, punching him. The guy walks past us and Cameron is just waiting for the right moment.

"Hey now!" He shouts as the poor guy turns around. "My friend here thinks you're hot," he tells him this matter of factly, as I pinch his arm under the water. But it's too late now, I'm obligated to play along. I give him a sly smile, trying hard not to laugh and he winks at me.

“Hey, can I have your number?" He asks me in a macho voice. Then he looks back at Cameron. "Wait, he's not your boyfriend, right?”

Before I can answer, Cameron is talking. "Oh her? Nah, we went out weeks ago, but then I dumped her. Anyway, if you want her number, I'll give it to you." As the stranger writes down the number, which of course isn't my real phone number, he smiles at me again. "I'll call you later then, hottie," he tells me flexing his muscles, and I smile back at him, biting my lip.

I fall into the water, laughing hysterically again as he walks up the sand and I hit Cameron really hard. "Ow!" he yelps, "you KNOW you wanted him, and he was totally checking you out!"

"I can't believe you did that!!" I shout as I throw a huge fistful of sand at him.

"He's going to come STALK me now!!" I laugh.

"You need a boyfriend anyway, and it might as well be him!" he shouts back and then we are splashing each other until we're sopping wet yet again.

As we trudge up to his car, completely dirty and drenched, we both dread the oncoming lecture his mom is going to give us about riding like that in her Mercedes. I push Cameron lightly and he pushes me back, and I think to myself happily, that at least one special guy should always be a girl's best friend. I watch his mom, talking on her cell phone as usual, and the sea air whips at my hair as the summer sun dies out, the sky becomes one map full of stars, and the dim flashes of the fireflies dance around us like a hundred blinking lights.

(07) Rainy Nights

It is Friday night, as I toss pairs of boots and gloves out of my hall closet, desperately searching for some sort of water protection, preferably an umbrella.
As I toss another random boot out behind me, I see a red blurry light from the nearby window that comes from the reflection of a car's headlights, mixed with the droplets of summer rain. I decide to ditch the idea of the umbrella and instead grab all the boots and other winter wear and throw them in the closet and slam the door.

Jumping into the back of the waiting Black Jeep Grand Cherokee, I slam the door shut after being dumped on by a shower of water, My hair is stringy and water droplets are scattered across the front of my light blue button-down and khaki pants.

"Hey," Cameron says, with an echo from my other guy friend Josh in the back seat.

"Hey, guys." I reply, running my fingers through my long blonde hair. I'm not really in the most talkative mood as I watch the raindrops run down the windows. This doesn't last long because Cameron and Josh start goofing around and acting out scenes from Saturday Night Live, which of course starts me laughing. Sometimes you just have to appreciate guys.

After a few minutes, we pull into a parking space in front of Blockbuster and all three of us jump out and head for the entrance. Josh and I both run inside to avoid getting soaked, but of course Cameron lags behind, standing in the middle of the parking lot holding his arms up in the rain like a complete idiot. Josh and I run to the back where the latest arrivals for videos are displayed. We run past an older man stacking a pile of videos back on the shelves. He has long stringy dark hair and reeks of cigarette smoke and as I glance at his name tag I realize that he is named Tim. I shudder as I look at him over my shoulder and we make our way closer to the back of the room.

Finally, we see the sign for the latest arrivals and start peering over the selection of videos. I study Josh for a minute as he picks up American Pie and looks at the back of it.

"This the BEST movie!" Josh exclaims, as I roll my eyes and smile. I have only known Josh for, a couple years. He sat next to me in English in eighth grade and we automatically just clicked. He used to keep to himself most of the time, with his kind of shy blue eyes and dark hair. He's not much of a loud person, but Cameron and I have definitely fixed that over the years.

After Josh and I browse for a few minutes, Cameron finally joins us. His hair is wet and plastered to his face and his red Abercrombie shirt and khaki shorts are completely soaked through. I tousle his hair and tell him just how ridiculous he looks as he grabs American Pie from Josh and The Haunting from the shelf as we make our way to the front of the store to the cash register. Josh pulls out some money from the back pocket of his navy shorts and hands it to the lady who is waiting for it. I glance at her.

She looks like she's somewhere in her forties with her dark hair twisted into a tight bun on top of her head. She has a harsh looking face, but smiles at us after we pay for the videos. I grab the bag and then we make our way back to the Jeep.

Josh's older brother, Clarke, is almost eighteen and is our taxi driver for the night. His girlfriend, Erin, whom I only knew a little bit, is next to him in the front seat.
She is leaning on his shoulder and holding his hand with her legs on top of his lap. When he opens the door, she quickly moves back to her side of the seat next to the window, definitely annoyed by her boyfriend having to tow around some freshmen on her date night.

As I sit there in the middle of the car with Josh next to me, I am suddenly deeply interested in Erin and Clarke.

I have always thought Clarke was attractive, even before I knew Josh. He has crystal blue eyes like his younger brother, but also dirty blonde hair and had an amazing tan from being a lifeguard at Greenwich Point. Erin is also gorgeous, with her long blonde hair, emerald green eyes and an amazing tan of her own from life guarding alongside Clarke. They have been together for only a few months, but they act as if they are engaged.

I am now mesmerized with both of them. I watch as Clarke makes fun of Erin and she punches him on the shoulder. Then he tickles her, trying to keep one hand on the wheel. Erin starts giggling uncontrollably. She punches him harder on the shoulder and he puts both hands on the wheel again, focusing more on the road but also looking into her eyes. She takes his hand in hers and they both kind of sit there while he continues to drive.

I take this all in. I think about what it would be like to be in a relationship like that. Sure, some of my friends had gone out with seniors when they were only freshmen, and I have had a few boyfriends before high school. But it's not the same.
Dating a senior as a freshman does not bring complete seriousness to a relationship. The freshmen are always thought of as just annoying freshmen, being dated by senior guys for play. In junior high school, relationships were never that serious either. Girls only went out with guys for a few months max, and they never were really confident around them.

I am thinking about a completely new relationship. One where the partners are mature and are seriously in love. I've never had that. I try to picture what it would be like to be with a guy like that, to be with Jeff Waters or some other guy for that matter. I sit there, completely wanting a boyfriend more than ever before.
“Hey, what the heck are you thinking about? It's like you're gone, man." Cameron says, waving his hand in front of my face.

I sigh. I’m back in the Jeep Grand Cherokee with just my two guy friends sitting there with me. " Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” I answer.

Just then, we pull into Josh's driveway and jump out with the videos. Josh's brother screeches out of the driveway, now free of little brothers and their little friends. I walk slowly towards Josh's TV room where Britney, Charissa, Patsy, and Charlotte are already piled on the couch watching Daria on MTV. I think to myself, as I open the sliding glass door that friends are definitely important, but having a boyfriend is even more important. At least right now anyway. Right then and there at that moment. I vow to myself that, as of the upcoming school year, I will never be single for more than a month ever again.

Cameron looks at me strangely, and then opens the door. I sit on the couch with the other girls. The laughter and joking seems to come from another world, as I dream about my boyfriend-to-be.