Chapter 13

"Max! Max, wake up!" a voice yelled, right in my ear.

"AAH!" I shouted, bolting upright. For a second, I wondered why I wasn't in my bed. Why were we in the car?

"Look! It's the beach!" Gazzy shrieked, yanking on my hair. "Cut it out!" I yelled, and then turned to look out the window.

I'd never been to the beach before – none of us had. I guess you don't get to go on vacation much when you grow up in a lab.

Well, it was amazing. The water was sparkling, and it was really sunny. Palm trees lined the street, and there were people up and down the beach.

"Wow," I said, pressing my face against the window. "This is so cool."

We were all staring out the window – well, except for Jeb, who was driving, and Iggy, who was still sleeping.

I bit my lip, wondering if I should wake Iggy up, but he wouldn't be able to see the beach anyway. And I didn't want to make him feel bad.

"Jeb! Let's go to the beach, right now!" Nudge hollered from the backseat.

"Yeah!" Angel said, and Gazzy started chanting, "Let's go! Let's go!"

"All right, why not?" Jeb responded, and the three of them cheered as loud as they could. I smiled at their happiness. It wasn't every day we got to do something like this.

"I don't have a swimsuit," Nudge whined as she clambered out of the car.

"Nudge, you don't need a swimsuit-" I started to tell her, but she grabbed Gazzy's hand and dragged him into some swimsuit shop. Gazzy started screaming at her that he didn't want to go in there.

I rolled my eyes, then turned to wake Iggy up. I had no idea how he'd slept through Nudge's screaming.

"Ig, wake up," I told him, poking his head. "We're here."

His eyes opened. "Where is here?"

"The beach," I explained, looking around. Jeb was buying Angel some ice cream, Gazzy was screaming at Nudge, and Fang was looking completely bored.

Great family vacation….not.

I helped Iggy out of the car and we walked over to Jeb, who was trying to hold Angel while paying for her ice cream at the same time.

"Jeb!" Nudge yelled, running up to him. "Will you buy me a swimsuit?"

"Uh…" Jeb started to say. That was when Gazzy grabbed Angel's ice cream and started eating it. Angel started crying, and Nudge went on talking about swimsuits.

I marched over to Gazzy and yanked the ice cream cone out of his hand. "That's for your sister, dummy," I told him, handing the ice cream over to Angel, who was still in Jeb's arms.

She took it, but then accidentally dropped it on Nudge's head. Gazzy started cracking up, Fang smirked, and Nudge started screaming.

I sighed. When was this vacation going to be over?

~~::~~

"Max, let's go in the water!" Nudge demanded, pulling on my arm. "It's not too cold!" Her clothes were soaking wet – Jeb had obviously decided that she didn't need a swimsuit – and she was dripping all over the place.

"Come on or I'll give you a nice wet hug!" she yelled, running towards me. I ran towards the water, laughing and turning to see if she was following.

"Me too! I wanna come too!" Gazzy shouted, standing up. He had been busy building a sandcastle with Iggy, and now they walked towards us, Iggy's hand on Gazzy's shoulder. Angel ran behind them, a grin on her face.

"C'mon, Fang!" I yelled, waving at him.

He shook his head.

"Booooo!" Nudge called, sticking her tongue out at him. "Loser!"

Fang just shrugged and went back to doing…I don't even know what he was doing. Probably moping about not getting to see Jaz.

I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest, turning my back to him. "Alright, gang! Let's go!"

Nudge giggled and ran into the water, and I ran after her.

"Oh! It's cold!" I exclaimed, laughing. I kicked some water at Nudge, who shrieked and ran away, only to come back and splash me again.

"This is so much fun!" Gazzy yelled, with a huge smile on his face. All five of us were smiling, actually.

Then all of a sudden, a huge wave crashed on top of us, soaking us all. We all looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.

Maybe I was wrong – this vacation was definitely looking up.

Angel squatted down on the sand, picking up seashells. She pressed one into Iggy's hand. "This is for you!" she said, beaming.

"What color?" he asked, in almost a whisper.

"Orange!" Angel told him, then skipped off to find more seashells.

I put a hand on Iggy's shoulder. "Hey, you alright?"

He nodded, the hand that Angel's seashell was in clenched tight.

"I just wish that…" Iggy started, but trailed off. I put my arms around him in a hug.

"I know, Iggy. I know."

~~::~~

"Let's get room service!" Nudge yelled, jumping up and down on the bed.

"Yeah! Room service! Room service!" Gazzy echoed her, climbing onto the bed and beginning to jump.

I pulled Nudge down and looked at Gazzy. "You're going to get hurt!"

"No I'm nooooot!" he yelled, jumping from that bed to the other.

I rolled my eyes. When was Jeb going to be back? He left to get a couple extra blankets and pillows, leaving me to deal with these crazy kids.

"Gazzy, get down. Angel, please don't put Jeb's keys in your mouth. Nudge-" I whirled, looking for Nudge.

"Nudge, for the tenth time, you cannot have anything in that minifridge! It costs money!" I told her, dragging her away from the fridge.

Being the leader was a tough job. Trust me, I'm definitely not paid enough.

Iggy was sitting on the couch, unusually quiet. He still had the seashell in his hand, and he was just holding it tightly, like he was afraid that he'd lose it if he let go of it.

Fang was watching a baseball game on TV, and Gazzy ran over. "Go Yankees!" he screamed.

"The Yankees aren't even playing!" Fang said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh! Touchdown!" Gazzy shouted, ignoring Fang. Obviously, Fang didn't feel like explaining to him that they didn't even have touchdowns in baseball.

I sighed, sitting down next to Iggy and putting my hand on his arm. "Hey," I said, with a weak smile. I knew he was still feeling pretty down from our beach adventure, so I figured maybe I could cheer him up.

"Oh, hey," Iggy responded. We sat there in silence for a couple seconds – well, not really silence, because between Nudge and Gazzy's screaming and the TV blaring, it was pretty loud.

Then Iggy said, "Hey, Max, could I ask you something?"

I smiled. "Yeah, sure. Anything."

He looked really nervous, so I just waited patiently to hear what he was going to say. "Well, um, you see, I really-"

"Hey guys, lights out!' Jeb called, walking into the room. Nudge moaned and Fang started complaining that the game wasn't even over.

The guys headed into the room next door – we'd gotten adjoining rooms – and I curled up in bed next to Angel.

But for some reason I couldn't sleep, so I just lay in my bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what exactly it was that Iggy was going to ask me.