Sean

Walking into my room, I saw that Jimmy was lying on his bed, looking pretty sick.

"How you doing, big daddy?" I asked, flopping onto my own bed and kicking off my shoes.

"Augh, I dunno, little buddy, I feel like I swallowed a moose."

"And is that painful?"

"I'm experiencing a Barf-O-Rama. It's not really pleasant."

"Okay, well, when you do barf, aim away from me, understand?"

"I wouldn't barf on you," he said haughtily. "I only barf on my friends."

"Uh, do you have many friends, then?"

"Funny, Sean," he grumbled.

"Why are you mad at me?" I demanded.

"I got to the boat, and I was ready to spew right, and the only person to pat my back with REASSURANCE was ASHLEY. And she wouldn't stop SQUEALING about how disgusting I was."

"Well that was uncharacteristically kind of Ashley," I said slowly. Ashley Dupree was the Southern Belle of the boat, winner of the Miss Southern States Beauty Pageant. Apparently you don't need a lot of personality to win those kinds of competitions.

"Yeah, and uncharacteristically UNFRIENDLIKE of YOU," Jimmy said angrily. Sometimes when he was mad, he liked to make up words. "You ditched me for that girl."

"I didn't ditch you, you ditched me!" I protested. "You ran out of the restaurant before I could even blink. And besides, her name is Zoey, not 'THAT GIRL.'"

"Oh, excuse me. Did you at least figure out something to do for our assignment?"

"Not yet," I said, mimicking his grumpy tone. "She's helping me with it though."

"What do you mean, she's helping you with it? You're seeing her again?"

"Yeah. And so are you. I invited her to come watch the fireworks on the boat."

"There's going to be fireworks on the boat?"

"No," I said impatiently. "There's going to be fireworks in the SKY. We're going to watch them from the boat. And I'm going to teach her to surf tomorrow too."

"You never taught me how to surf!"

"You never asked me to!"

Jimmy just sat there, smoldering for a moment, incoherent insults to throw at me probably flying through his mind at fifty miles an hour. Finally he said, "What, you like her or something?"

"Get real, Jimbo, I've known her for five hours." I shrugged resentfully. "But yes."

He crowed triumphantly. "Hahahahaha you like a Canadian!"

"She's a North American just like us."

"I'm not an Indian."

"NORTH American, Jimmy, not NATIVE American!"

"Oh right," he laughed.

I grabbed a towel, shaking my head in disbelief, and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

Zoey

"Where were you all day?" my mom asked as I came into the kitchen to look for something to eat.

"Me?" I popped a wafer cookie in my mouth.

"No, the other cookie junkie standing behind you."

"Shouldn't let junkies in the house, Mom," I said, reaching for another cookie.

"Anyway? Where were you?"

"Well, let's see. Fixed that starvation problem over in Uzbekistan…sold myself to prostitution, kicked my heroin habit…met a boy, pet some ponies…so as a whole, I'd say I had a pretty good day except for the prostitution part."

My mom's eyes went wide. "You met a BOY?"

"I thought I mumbled that part so you wouldn't hear and make fun of me," I muttered.

"Honey! That's so great! And amazing!"

"Mom, I am not a complete toad, you know! It's not that amazing that a boy paid attention to me."

My mother had this theory that I must have a personality deficit because here I was, seventeen years old, with no dating history. It got annoying.

"I know you're not a toad, sweetie," she said, quite excited. "You're gorgeous. I never understood why boys couldn't see that. Who is this boy? Are you going to invite him over? He's not thirty, is he? He's a normal age? Does he have many piercings or tattoos? What's his name?"

"Mom," I whined. "It's not that big a deal! I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd get all schizophrenic and have a mental breakdown."

She stared at me expectantly.

I sighed. "His name is Sean. He's my age. I didn't see any piercings or tattoos, so they must be in hidden places so I probably won't see them till the end of the second date. He's not from here; he's doing a semester at sea. And no I am not going to invite him over because you're scary, and he's supposed to be learning about Canadian culture, and this family is completely COUNTER-CULTURE!"

"A semester at sea?"

"That's what I said."

Her hands flew to her hair in desperate aggravation. "I KNEW it was too good to be true!"

I growled, frustrated. "Mother, you are a PSYCHO!"

Sean

Sitting next to my ex-girlfriend Tamira on lounging chairs by the pool, I looked over at her, wondering about the half smile on her face. "What's on your mind, T?"

"The air is so fresh here," she said, contentedly.

"Must be the fish."

She glanced at me, that carefree look in her eyes that I had to admit I still loved. "The waves here are good for surfing. Is that offer still good?"

"What offer?" I asked.

"You said a long time ago that you would teach me how to surf."

I had been trying all day to think of other things besides Zoey because in a couple of days, she would be just a memory. But right then my thoughts drifted back to her, and I said, "Sorry, Tams, I'd love to, but…I'm booked for surf lessons."

"You found another student?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "I must have a thing for waitresses."

"What do you mean, Sean?" Tamira, who was a waitress in the ship's café, asked curiously. "Did you meet someone here?"

"Yeah. I think she poisoned Jimmy," I laughed, but it soon faded and I couldn't help but shrug. "She's really nice."

"What's her name?"

"Zoey."

"Are you going to miss her when we leave Canada?"

"I already do."

Tamira and I had broken up under okay conditions. We were still friends, and it wasn't weird for us to give each other love advice. I would help her sometimes with Max Ballard, this scary guy that all the girls loved for some odd reason. And right now, she didn't seem to mind listening about my Zoey problem.

"I'd like to meet her," Tamira said carefully, looking at me as if asking permission. "She must really be something."

I smiled sadly. "She's got this light in her eyes, T. And you should've seen how smooth she was, sneaking us into the forestry farm place, it's like she's a female Canadian me!"

"That's kinda terrifying."

I laughed. "Aren't you just the amusing one."

She grinned, showing her innocent dimples.

It sucked. The girl that might just be able to help me stop loving Tamira lived in a different country.