The Season of You & Me by Robin Constantine Page A

no?” I said.
    “I thought her name was Cassidy,” Wade said, which earned him a balled-up napkin to the face courtesy of Tori.
    “I guess she’s okay, she’s just not Liv, and it would have been nice if I had some say in the matter. I could have offeredit to Miki or Danielle, someone I knew. She pretty much got the job because Mr. E. and Mr. Beckett are buds at school. She just pops in out of nowhere, no interview process or orientation. Don’t you think it’s weird we didn’t know she existed before now? I mean, Mr. E. is our chemistry teacher, wouldn’t he have casually mentioned he had a daughter our age at some point?”
    “You must have been out sick on our Cassidy unit—I think it was between pH levels and the greenhouse effect,” I said. Wade snorted. Tori scowled at him.
    “Well, she must have some common sense, since she turned down your invite for the scavenger hunt,” she said.
    “Dude, I knew that was bothering you. She called herself catastrophic, she seemed kind of nervous. I was being nice.”
    “Sure you were,” she said.
    “Tori, please, would you be my partner for the scavenger hunt?”
    “Why, so I can do all the work like last year?”
    “We made a great team,” he said.
    “Heeeey, looooooooosers!” someone yelled from the parking lot.
    Tori looked over my shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Speak of the manatee.”
    I turned my head just as a silver pickup swept into the parking lot and took the first speed bump pretty hard. Its occupants howled. Matt and Nick were in the flatbed withtheir surfboards. I recognized Jake Matson’s truck. Tom was most likely riding shotgun. My guess was they were on their way to the cove and stopping in for a slush. At least that’s how it was two summers ago, when I was carefree enough to travel in the flatbed and it had been Jake’s older brother who’d been driving.
    The truck came to a stop and they all got out. Laughing, shirtless, as loud as gulls swooping down to steal some food. They greeted us as they walked past, only Matt stopped and eyed the remaining half of my pretzel.
    “May I?” he asked, and before I could answer, he scooped up the pretzel and shoved it in his mouth.
    “Geez, Matt, it’s like you haven’t eaten in days,” Tori said. Her eyes lingered on his bare chest a moment longer than necessary. Working with my father had given Matt the kind of muscles you couldn’t get from playing video games or skateboarding. Even Wade noticed.
    “Matty, look at you, all ripped and shit,” he said.
    Matt swallowed the pretzel and flexed his bicep.
    “I know, right? The physical-labor workout. Hey, Bry, can I bum a five off you?”
    “Doesn’t Dad pay you?”
    “Every two weeks. Come on, I need to try Nick’s slush flavor.”
    “What did you say?”
    “Sip N’ Freeze is naming a slush after him, didn’t youknow?” Matt said as I reached into my backpack and grabbed a five for him.
    “Is it hash flavored?” Tori asked.
    “Ha, wicked. Nah, pineapple and cinnamon or something like that. We’re heading to the cove; you guys should, you know, come hang out,” Matt said.
    “Working tonight,” Wade said. “Picking up a shift at my aunt’s restaurant.”
    “How industrious,” Tori said.
    “No, more like how the folks want me to pay for my own car insurance and I’m poor. Would much rather be shredding,” he said.
    “Matty, whatcha want?” Jake called. Matt jogged over to them.
    The three of us sat in the wake of his enthusiasm, just looking back and forth at each other. I could feel what was brewing.
    “What?”
    “You should go to the cove, Bry,” Wade said.
    “To do what? Sit in the sand? This chair really isn’t built for that,” I said.
    “Okay, we know, but I don’t think it would hurt to consider it—you’ve been swimming, you’re strong. That surf program is in July; we could go with you,” Tori said.
    They had this idea for me to get back in the water. There was an organization that helped people