Matilda Hunter sat on the couch in her living room, wondering how she was going to find a way to spend her summer. Her best friend Cassie was staying in the city with her new boyfriend, Henk, her ex-boyfriend and soon to be step-brother Lucas seemed to be spending all his time writing, and her only other real friend in this town, Ric, had been working non-stop to try and save up enough money to buy a new car. As Mattie sat slumped on the couch, trying to figure out what she could do to keep herself entertained, the phone rang. She dragged herself up and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Mattie?!" an excited voice said from the other end of the line.

"Nat?" she exclaimed. "Oh my God, how are you?"

"I'm great! How are you? How is everyone?"

"I'm good. Everyone is good."

"Yeah? Well, guess what!"

"What?" Mattie asked. She hadn't heard from her cousin for years, and she knew there must be a reason she was calling now.

"I'm coming to the Bay for the summer!"

-

As Mattie hung up the phone, Ric came to her front door.

"Hey, Mattie," he said. "Do you want to come and have some lunch down at the Diner? I'm going to try and drag Luke down there too. I just feel like we haven't had much time to hang out lately."

"Um, yeah. Absolutely. But is it okay if I meet you there?" she asked. "There's just something I have to do first."

"Yeah. Sure. I'll go and get Luke and we'll meet you down there."

"Okay. Cool. And also, is it okay if I bring someone with me?" Mattie asked.

"Yeah. Sure. Who?" Ric asked.

"Oh, it's a long story. But I'll explain when we get there," Mattie said. "Now I have to fix a couple of things up here, and then go and get her but I'll be down at the Diner soon, okay?"

"Okay. See you there," Ric said, and headed over to Lucas' house.

He knocked, but there was no answer.

"Hello? Luke? Are you in there?" Ric called. "Hello?"

-

As Lucas home from the beach, after his surf, he noticed a girl standing at the bus stop ahead of him. She was probably around his age and she had long brown hair, tanned skin and was wearing a white singlet top and shorts, plus a pair of expensive looking sunglasses. He kept walking and towards her, and noticed she was looking in his direction, but her sunglasses stopped him from being able to tell whether or not she was looking at him.

She gave him a polite smile as he walked past, and he smiled back and gave her a nod. Luke found himself walking a lot slower as he passed her, as though giving himself time to take all of her in. She was wearing fresh smelling perfume, and her teeth sparkled in the sun as she smiled at him, as did the metal symbol on the side of her sunglasses.

He knew she must have been from out of town, not only because she was standing at the bus stop with a suitcase, but also because he hadn't seen her around before, and she looked like a city girl. She intrigued him, and not just because she was beautiful, but because he wondered about her. Where she was from, why she was here, what she was doing at the bus stop, who she was waiting for – so many questions that he'd probably never get answered.

Luke continued to walk to his house, when he saw Ric walking down on the opposite side of the road towards him.

"There you are," Ric called out. "I've been looking for you?"

"Oh yeah. Why's that?" Luke asked.

"Mattie and I are going down to the Diner for lunch, do you want to come?"

"Yeah. Sure. I feel like I haven't seen you guys for ages," Luke commented.

"My thoughts exactly," Ric said with his usual cheeky grin. "Do you want to go and put your board away?"

"Um, no, that's okay," Luke said, and turned around and headed back the way he came from with Ric.

"So where's Matilda?" Lucas asked as they headed for the Diner.

"I think she's still at home. She said she had to do a few things and then she was going to get someone."

"Who?" Luke asked.

"I have no idea. But she'd just got off the phone when I got to her house, so I'm guessing that has something to do with it."

As the boys walked down the road, they approached the girl Lucas had seen earlier, who was still waiting at the bus stop.

"Who is that?!" Ric said quietly to his mate as they came closer to her.

"I don't know. I saw her before. I'm guessing just someone who's come for the summer."

"Sweet maybe she'll be staying in the caravan park," Ric said with a grin. "Hi," he said as they passed her.

She smiled. "Hi." She lifted her sunglasses from her eyes, and placed them on the top of her head.

"Hi," Luke said, as he tried to hide his attraction towards her.

The boys kept walking, but Luke couldn't resist the urge to turn around and have another look at her. She saw it. But she'd been looking at him too.