Chapter 3
As Slater started walking into the water, I hesitated. The rest of the guys were in the water up to their waists and were splashing each other. Creeping forward until my feet were covered in water, I sucked in a sharp breath; the water was cold. How could they be splashing each other with this cold water?
"Ivy, come on in! It's not that cold once you get used to it!" Mike yelled just as Slater grabbed his shoulders and dunked him, laughing. I sighed and bit my lip, walking over to the guys. The water reached a little past my stomach and I laughed as Cal, Eric, Adam, Mike, and Slater clapped and yelled "woo hoo". Then Slater exchanged a look with Adam, and they both started splashing me. I screamed in surprise as the cold water drenched me completely. Adam and Slater laughed as I glared at both of them.
"That was a stupid thing to do…" I said, jumping onto Adam and trying to get my hands around his shoulders.
"I'm being attacked!" Adam laughed, right before I pushed him under the water and let him up. Cal, Eric, and Mike were ganging up on Slater until they dunked him too. We were all laughing, until I was yanked under water. I resurfaced and coughed up water.
"Who did that?" I demanded, looking from Slater to Adam. Both of them looked over to Cal who was trying to keep a straight face. I launched myself at Cal, laughing. He squealed as I dunked him, and when he popped back up from beneath the water he said
"We should play Chicken!"
"Wait, chicken as in lying in the road chicken and wait for a car to come? I thought people did that when it was dark out?" I said confusedly, as the guys laughed.
"No, it's when you have teams of two people. One person has the other person on their shoulders, and they try to knock the other person off of their opponents' shoulders." Eric explained. I blushed, feeling stupid,
"Oh."
"Okay, so Eric's on my team. Mike can be on Adam's team, and then you're on Slater's team, Ivy." Cal said, climbing up onto Eric's shoulders.
"Up you go." Slater said, smirking as he lifted me up onto his shoulders. Adam got on Mike's shoulders and we faced each other.
"Ready. Set. Go!" Eric said, and I almost lost my balance as Slater stepped towards Cal and Eric. Cal laughed and grabbed my shoulder, trying to knock me off balance. I used all of my "human" force and pushed both of my hands into Cal's chest, sending him into the water. I gave a shout of victory, and felt hands try to push me again. I craned my neck to see Mike and Adam; Adam had a smirk on his face as he came back to try and push me off. Grabbing Adam's forearms as he came to push me off of Slater's shoulders, I pulled hard and laughed as Adams' face formed in shock. As he fell into the water, Slater let out a satisfied shout.
"I win!" I yelled as Cal, Eric, Adam and Mike laughed.
"Payback!" Mike and Adam said as they pulled me and Slater apart and dunked us both under the water. Slater and I popped up from the water and high-fived, laughing.
"Is anyone else hungry?" Cal asked. We all headed towards the beach and raced to the blanket that marked our spot. I got there first and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around me. Cal, Eric, and Adam grabbed their towels and sat down on the blanket, drying their hair with their towels. Sitting down on the blanket, I picked up my phone and saw that I had 4 new numbers in my contacts. Cal, Mike, Eric, and Adam's names attached to one of them. I laughed and looked at their grinning faces.
"Nice, guys." I said, checking the time. It was 2:50 p.m., hours since I had last eaten.
"Hey Cal. We should go get some pizza from Gino's." Adam said, putting his flip flops on. I stared at him, confused.
"What's pizza?" I asked. All of the guys looked at me, eyes wide with shock.
"You're kidding, right. Pizza is the greatest food on earth!" Cal said as he, Eric, Mike, and Slater jammed their flip-flops on and stood up.
"I've never had it before…" I said as Cal scooped me up and dragged me towards the boardwalk, the rest of the guys following behind, murmuring softly and laughing.
When Cal sat me down at a big table in "Gino's Pizzeria", the rest of the guys went up to the counter to order. About five minutes later they sat down, laying a thick white cardboard box in the middle of the table. Slater handed me a bottle of Coke, and I smelt a delightful aroma from inside the box. Adam opened the box and grabbed a slice of the "pizza", handing it to me on a white paper plate before doing the same for everyone else. I looked down at the cheesy, sauce topped, greasy thing they called pizza and took a tentative bite. My eyes opened wide as the delicious taste filled my mouth as I chewed.
"So…what do you think?" Cal asked, taking a bite of his own piece. I dropped my piece of pizza onto my plate and hugged him.
"It's amazing!" I exclaimed as everyone laughed. Cal smiled,
"Good." he said, taking another bite of his pizza. While we ate, they asked questions like how old are you, do you like Seaside so far, my taste in music, etc. In return, I asked some of my own questions. All of them were 16, a year older than me, and they had been friends since first grade. They liked some of the same movies, music and TV shows that I did; they also asked questions about Luc, like how old he was, what he looked like, and I laughed when Cal asked if he was cute. By the time we were done eating, talking, and laughing it was dark. I stood up and sighed,
"I gotta go guys. Coal needs to be fed and let out." Cal looked at me with sad eyes,
"Aw, don't go! Oh, I have an idea! You should meet us under the docks after you take care of Coal." He said in delight. Eric laughed as Cal, "discretely", punched Slater in the arm "Make sure my BFF gets home okay, than come to the docks with your radio." He demanded, looking at me. Slater laughed.
"Yes, sir." He said, standing up.
As Slater opened the back door for me, I chuckled.
"Thanks. I'll see you guys in a little bit, okay?" I said and Slater nodded bowing and walking towards his house to retrieve his radio I walked into the kitchen and saw that Coal hadn't moved from his place by the fridge. When he saw me he jumped up and ran over. Coal licked my hands and sniffed me over, smelling the ocean, the sand, and Gino's pizza.
I patted his head and walked over to his food bowl, filling it with the dog food from under the sink. He gobbled it greedily and lapped at his water bowl. As soon as he was done, I opened the back door and let him out to relieve himself. I checked my phone and found that I had a message- it was from Adam. 'Can you bring a couple of band aids? Cal hurt himself' was what it said. I shook my head and went to the medicine cabinet grabbing a few Band-Aids and then let Coal inside.
"Be a good boy." I muttered as I closed the door behind me and descended down the steps; running with my angelic speed, I raced towards the docks.
About a dozen feet away, I saw a small fire underneath the dock. Using my enhanced sight I saw that Cal, Eric, Slater, and Adam were gathered around it. I slowed to a human walk just as Cal spotted me.
"Ivy! You came!" he said, getting up and hugging me tightly. I nodded and held up the Band-Aids.
"Here." Eric took them and put them in his pocket.
"We found some band- aids on the boardwalk shop a few minutes ago, sorry." He said flashing an apologetic smile and putting his arm around Cal
"Mike's parents took him to some Aunt's house so he couldn't come." Adam said as Slater passed him something that looked like a deformed cigarette.
"More for us than." Cal laughed, sitting me down on a blanket near the fire. Adam raised the 'deformed cigarette' to his mouth and inhaled, passing it to Cal and exhaling a bitter smelling smoke. Cal giggled and did the same, passing it to the next person in the circle, which was me. I stared blankly at it and Cal smiled.
"It's pot. We call this a boagie. Don't worry it's not harmful." He said showing me how to hold it. I sighed and pressed it to my lips; mimicking Adam and Cal. I inhaled, than exhaled. I felt the sudden urge to laugh and I did, relishing in a wave of dizziness that overcame me.
"We have a natural, boys!" Cal exclaimed as I passed it to my right, to Slater. He took a few inhales and started cracking up, passing it to Eric.
"This time shot gun it to the person on your…left." He said inhaling and leaning towards Slater. Slater leaned over so that their mouths were about two inches away and Eric blew the smoke into Slater's mouth. Cal whispered something in my ear and I laughed. "Soon we'll be high as kites." He had said. Slater took the bogie and inhaled for a while, and then I glanced around. Slater was going to shot gun me, since I was to his left. Slater and I leaned towards each other, eyes locked. His mouth neared mine and he blew the smoke into my lungs. Cal smirked and looked to Eric. Both of them pushed Slater and me together, our mouths meeting in a quick kiss. I pulled back and blushed, seeing Slater chuckle in a stoned voice and fall backwards onto the blanket. I hesitantly took the boagie from him and shot gun Cal. Handing him the boagie so that they could shot gun Adam, I fell back into the blanket and looked at the sky. After Cal shot gun Adam and Adam shut-gun Eric, they all started howling.
"We should play truth or dare." Cal said, slowly I felt Slater sit up and laugh. Pulling me into a sitting position Cal looked at me and laughed. "Looks like Ivy is higher than the stars." He said and I started giggling. I could barely see straight and cracked up when Cal said "I've got the munchies." Eric smiled and got up, sitting next to Cal and then pulled him down over top of him on the sand. Cal's eyes turned yellow and his teeth pointed before he bit Eric's neck.
"What is he doing?" I asked, laughing. Slater smiled and pushed me gently onto the blanket as Adam came over.
"I've got her wrist…" Adam said, his eyes turning yellow and canine's lengthening. He grabbed my wrist and raised it to his mouth. Slater's eyes also turned yellow and his teeth sharpened as he leaned over me. I felt a sharp pain in my wrist and let out a gasp.
"What's going on-"I said as Slater leaned towards my neck.
"Just forget this." his melodic voice whispered -then it all went black.