Hi everyone! Thanks for reading my story. This one is really meaningful to me because Ocean City is a personal place to me- that's all I'll going to say, I'm not gonna give out personal info :). I hope you like it!

Just a Tourist

By: NotUrAverageMusician

I was flying down the road. Faster and faster with my choppy chestnut hair flying all around me and my messenger school bag hitting my waist with every bump in the gravel. I pedaled my green bike to the max and was heading to school, running late as usual. I passed the way back houses where year-rounders like me live in blurs, each one small, but livable with pastel colors and beach décor in the yards. The sun beat down on me and seagulls cawed overhead. I only had a couple more streets to go, I might actually be on time for the last day of school.

I passed Mallon's sticky buns on my left and the smell of it made my stomach grumble in reminder that due to oversleeping I had skipped breakfast this morning. I'll have to stick with sneakily eating the granola bar I had crammed in my bag before I sprinted out the door. I quickly turned the corner and my school was in sight.

Ocean City High School is huge and made out of red bricks. It is literally right next to the boardwalk and on the end where the amusement park, Wonderland, is. The sad thing about that is when you are in the middle of a particularly boring geometry class; you can always look out the window and see a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, and log flume almost within your reach. It's the worst.

I hopped off my bike and headed for the bike rack. I reached it at the same time as my best friend, Leo Valdez who was coming from the other direction.

"Late again, Miss McLean?" Leo joked as he locked up his red bike.

"I wouldn't be talking, Leo," I said, "you have been even more tardy than I have."

"That gives me the authority to joke about being late." He continued with his signature smirk, "Now we better get going because Mrs. Chase said that she would give both of us detention if we were late again and we won't be able to make it to the start-of-summer beach party if we're stuck in detention." I nodded and together we raced up the stairs two at a time in a desperate attempt to get inside before the bell.

Leo has been my friend since he moved here from Texas when he was 6. After his mom died in a fire he was declared an orphan, none of his relatives would take him in. He was put in foster care and came to live here with his third foster dad, Blake, who runs the arcade on the boardwalk. Leo and Blake have a great relationship and I know for a fact that he's been trying to get the social officers to let him adopt Leo. It's a total secret though and the only reason I know it is because he talked to my dad about it one day. Leo being adopted would be awesome for me because I always have feared that my best friend would be taken away one day for good.

Leo and I rushed in the school and flew into Mrs. Chase's class. I sighed with relief and we took our seats in the middle of the classroom just before the late bell rang. I smiled at Annabeth who was sitting to my left and I could tell she was relieved that we were on time too. Annabeth Chase is better known as Mrs. Chase's daughter around here, but we're great friends. While Leo is my best guy friend, Annabeth is equally my best girl friend. Every time her mom gets us in trouble Annabeth always feels super guilty, but I always tell her it's my fault anyway.

Mrs. Chase blames me for Annabeth wanting to grow up more. Once Annabeth started to want to wear makeup and stay up later Mrs. Chase started to dislike me. Then when Annabeth wanted to join the surf team like me and Leo and Percy instead of being on the scholastic decathlon team Mrs. Chase was furious at me. I don't really care though because it's not like my grades suffer because of her dislike towards me, plus I'll have a new teacher next year I can start all over with.

Annabeth was sitting next to my last good friend, and her boyfriend, Percy Jackson. He looked pretty good with his sea green eyes, but I only thought of him as a friend. Annabeth and him have been dating for a couple months now and are still going strong. Percy's family owns a seafood restaurant called Jackson's on the Avenue. The Avenue is a street where there are a bunch of shops and restaurants. It's another awesome place to shop that isn't the boardwalk. Percy's mom is super nice and his family are also my neighbors so our families are pretty close.

Mrs. Chase got up from her desk and scanned the classroom. "Looks like the late ones are actually on time today." She announced. Leo took a bow in his seat, which got a bunch of laughs from our classmates. I just blushed and looked down.

"Even though this is in fact the last day of school-" Mrs. Chase was interrupted with hoots from every corner of the room, "-we still need to learn things. So today we are going to talk about, since summer has just started… how the seasons change!" Mrs. Chase looked excited about this subject, but my shoulders slumped at the thought of science lessons on the last day of school. Annabeth's cheeks burned bright red, embarrassed by her mother who was now drawing a diagram of how the earth looked at the different seasons.

"So the first thing you have to know is that the Earth is tilted on its axis at exactly 23.4 degrees." I started to tune her out. How could someone possibly concentrate when the best time of the year is almost here?

Ocean City, New Jersey, my home, is a three-month town. While all the winter months are going on the town is empty except for us locals, but when the summer starts to hit, little Ocean City is bustling with business and tourists start to pour in through the bridge that connects us to the main land. People rent summerhouses on our island because of our amazing beaches and the stores on our Boardwalk that has been ranked third best in the country.

My dad's store is one of those one's on the boardwalk. It's called LifeStyle and it is my home away from home since I've practically worked there since birth. We sell lots of beach souvenirs, bathing suits, jewelry, cool clothes, and a bunch of other knick-knacks that those tourists love. I spend every day of summer at the Boards hanging out with my friends and chilling on the beach. It is the perfect life and I can't imagine it any other way.

"Miss McLean, are you listening?" called Mrs. Chase from the front of the room, breaking my daydream.

"Yes, ma'am." I lied, nodding my head.

"Well then you should be able to answer the question I just asked you." She raised her eyebrow at me.

"Yes of course… um…" I didn't know the question, I hadn't been paying attention. I desperately looked to Annabeth for the answer, she mouthed 'fun'. "Fun, that's the answer." Annabeth did a face palm. The class snickered and Mrs. Chase grinned.

"I think you mean Sun." she corrected, "Pay attention next time Miss. McLean." I mumbled some sort of an apology. Mrs. Chase turned around to draw another diagram on the chalkboard.

Leo nudged me and pointed to the clock. I looked and saw that it was 9:59, just one more minute until school was let out and summer would finally begin. It was a half-day today since it was the last day of school. I beamed at Leo and bobbed up and down in my seat. Everything about me yearned for the summer to begin. The bright sunrays coming in through the windows were just too much to bear sitting indoors. I imagined how Leo and Percy must feel; they're the ones with ADHD.

Every head in Mrs. Chase's classroom was turned toward the clock ticking and ticking away. Freedom was so close. Fifteen seconds… ten seconds… five seconds… SUMMER!

The bell rang and we all whooped and grabbed our things. Even Mrs. Chase softened a little and smiled for her students. Leo and Percy high fived and Annabeth squealed with joy. I laughed and laughed feeling giddy with excitement.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Percy asked, "Let's go!"

"You don't have to say that again!" Annabeth giggled.

The four of us ran out of the school and got on our bikes.

"Okay, guys, let's meet up here at around 5 so we can all get to the party together." I told the group.

"Sounds good to me," Leo said, "I'll see you guys later then. There's a broken Skeet ball machine that I have to fix before we open for summer down at the arcade." He grabbed his red bike and pedaled off in the direction of his house.

"I've got to go work my shift at Jackson's early if I want to get enough time at the party." He grabbed his blue bike and sped off to the Avenue.

"You ready?" I asked Annabeth. She nodded and we grabbed our bikes and started to my house. Since Mrs. Chase was packing up her things at the school, I volunteered for Annabeth to come to my house so she wouldn't have to stay at the school for any longer than she had to. My stomach growled again, I wasn't able to eat with Mrs. Chase's eyes on me all day so now I was starving. Annabeth gave me a knowing look.

"Why don't we stop at Prep's for an end of the year snack before we go to your house?" she asked.

"That sounds good!" I laughed. We swerved our bikes to the opposite direction and headed for the boardwalk for Prep's. Annabeth's older brother, Malcolm works there and he always sneaks us free food. Plus, Prep's is known for their amazing creation, any type of ice cream you want smashed between two waffles. It's the dessert for kings and has always been a great past time for Annabeth and I.

We walked inside the shop and I smiled at the picture of the cartoon crocodile holding a pizza pie. It was Prep's logo and ever since I was a kid, I thought it was super funny.

"Hey, Malcolm!" Annabeth shouted as we entered the store. Malcolm looked up from where he had been wiping the counter and smiled.

"So what can I get my two favorite ladies?" he joked.

"I'll have my waffle sandwich with cookie dough ice cream." I told him.

"And I'll have mine with strawberry." Annabeth ordered. Malcolm nodded and went to work. He's the coolest brother ever and I have often fantasized that I could have an older brother too like Malcolm, being an only child stinks.

A few minutes later Annabeth and I were behind two huge plates of ice cream and waffles. We were talking about our summer plans, how we would spend the summer teaching surf school with Leo and Percy. We had already signed up and can be counselors now that we were on the surf team and we are sophomores in high school. It's always been a dream of mine and now it's a reality. We also planned to do a lot of beach trips and Annabeth signed up to be a lifeguard. The rest of us have had jobs at our family businesses for a while, but this is Annabeth's first real job and she's super excited about it.

At one point we were laughing when I got my ice cream all over my nose and he walked in.

He had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He wore bathing suit bottoms and no shirt, exposing his hot abs. I could make out a faint scar on his upper lip that looked cute. I quickly wiped the ice cream off my nose with my napkin before he could see it.

I nudged Annabeth with my elbow under the counter. She grinned at me knowingly. She could always tell when I liked somebody. I guess I was really obvious about it too because Malcolm picked up on it and he winked at me like he was doing me a favor. I raised my eyebrow as he walked over to the boy.

"Hi, my name is Malcolm and I will be your waiter today, what's your name?"

"Um… Jason." The boy said.

"Oh, Jason, that's a cool name." Malcolm said a little too loudly in our direction. I tried to signal him to stop being so obvious by shaking my head frantically, but Malcolm only laughed and continued talking to the boy. "I would recommend having our specialty, a waffle ice cream sandwich. My friend Piper over here is eating that right now." Malcolm waved his hand at me, I blushed. "So why don't you tell Jason here about the meal, Piper. Think he'd like it?"

"Yes, it's good." I said in a slightly audible voice. Jason nodded and ordered what I had. He sat on the other side of the counter just across from me. I snuck peaks at his gorgeous hair between gulps of food to keep me looking occupied. When Jason's food was ready Malcolm did the unthinkable.

"So Jason, are you from here?" he asked.

"No, I'm from Massachusetts. I'm here on vacation. All summer." Jason responded.

"Cool, well then you probably want to know what us locals are doing for the start of summer?" Malcolm asked.

"Sure." Jason said.

"We're having this start of summer party on 6th street beach. You should come lot's of people will be there."

"Yeah, we're going, too." Annabeth piped up. "You should come and hang with us. We have some guy friends too you'd like." I looked at Annabeth and she winked at me. I smiled, gaining courage.

"It's going to be a lot of fun, we do it every year." I said.

Jason smiled, happy to be accepted by the locals. "Okay, I'll try to make an appearance."

"Great, see you there." Malcolm said, then he went off to seat another customer.

Annabeth and I were finished so we left Prep's. As soon as we walked off the boardwalk I squealed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Annabeth laughed, "I'd be thanking my brother if I were you. Now we're going to have to make you look extra gorgeous for the party."

"But there's one problem." I said, shoulders slumped, "He's a tourist. He'll be leaving before I know it."

"Then embrace the now." Annabeth said, "Someone very wise told me to be courageous and do what my heart tells me when it comes to Percy, and that someone was you. Follow your own advice. C'mon we have to meet the boys in a few, let's hang at your house." I smiled and we both rode off in the direction of my house.

Please review everyone! Tell me if you like it and if I should continue.

Thanks!

-NotUrAverageMusician