Chapter 1. Thunder Strikes.

The sun was setting now, casting the beach in a deep, glowing orange. The waves rolled in low, lapping onto the beach with a slight, child-like clap. All traces of the storm were gone. I gazed into the horizon, watching as a patchwork quilt of stars revealed itself slowly beneath the sun's fading rays. The place was almost abandoned now; no one had wanted to stick around after the storm broke. All the better for us. Brady held me tight as I leaned into him, my head resting on his shoulder.

We shared a secret now. We'd decided earlier that…whatever it was that had happened to us in the storm was something that wouldn't go over too well with other people. Not even Big Poppa. I still couldn't fully wrap my head around it. Just the idea that Wet Side Story could ever be anything other than a silly musical, much less reality, seemed impossible.

"I can still feel it." Brady's voice was quiet, almost trembling. I shot him a quick look and noticed that he was staring down at his wrist, his expression tensed. He pulled his arm back from around me and began to trace a circle around his wrist.

"Feel what?" I pressed. I reached out and touched his wrist, stopping him from rubbing it anymore. This wasn't like him. He'd been so happy and energetic all day, celebrating the fact that we could be together. I guess I knew this conversation would be coming though, the quick agreement earlier to keep things secret wouldn't stand as a full discussion. It's not every day you get sucked into a musical.

"You know, from when Les Camebert and Dr. Fusion tied us to their weather machine." He spoke without looking away from our hands. He shook his head slowly and he pulled his out from under mine and started rubbing his wrist again. "He used rope. I can still feel where the rope dug into me! But look…" he pointed to where he'd been rubbing, "No marks! There should be red marks."

"I guess so," I sighed as I looked over my own wrists. The same thing had been bothering me all day, though I didn't want to admit it. It's just an itch, I'd told myself. Nothing to be worried about. But of course, it had all happened, and it wasn't something to be ignored.

Brady snorted as he got to his feet and began pacing back and forth. "We went into a movie by surfing into a storm, and have absolutely nothing to show for it. It's impossible. How do we know we're not both just crazy?" He kicked the sand in frustration, sending a cloud of the stuff raining down into the water with several heavy plops.

I jumped to my feet and dashed over to him. Grabbing his shoulder, I pulled him around to face me. "We do have something to show for it." His eyes widened.

"Wait, what?"

"My necklace, dummy." I tapped the 'friendship forever' flower symbol on my neck. "Remember? I told you, Lela gave it to me." He gingerly touched the metal pendant.

"You know, I was actually sort of hoping we could chalk this up to some bad food or a crazy shared dream or whatever." He lifted the pendant and gave it a quick rub before releasing it. "We really do have to accept it now."

I nodded as I clutched the necklace. I could almost hear Lela's voice in my ear. "It means friends forever, and, well, that's us now, right?" There was no way that couldn't be real. "So. Great, we broke science. Yay us."

Brady rolled his eyes. "Yay us. Right." He looked ready to launch into another spiel about the impossibility of it all, but I raised a finger to cut him off.

"Look, we can try to talk physics all night, but it's not going to go anywhere. I don't know what happened, you don't know what happened, and that's just how it has to be. Maybe it'll make sense one day, but until then, we just have to agree that we had one heck of a weird few days in movie land. And…" I caught myself mid-sentence, not wanting to get jinxed.

"Okay, okay, but…'And' what?" Brady insisted, mimicking my voice when he said 'And.'

"It's nothing," I said quickly as I turned on my heel and starting marching toward the shack. Big Poppa was sitting on the porch, reclining in a chair. He waved at me when he saw me approaching.

"Come on, Mack, whatever it is you can tell me." Brady caught up to me and strode alongside me, matching my steps. "I don't want you to have to keep anything inside."

"No, really, I'm fine, Brady!"

"But Mack!"

"Okay, fine!" I stopped in my tracks and swung around to face him, staring him straight in the eyes. "AND I hope it doesn't happen again."

Brady flushed. "Oh," he mumbled. "Sorry, I thought…you…" He turned away and trailed behind a bit.

A moment of silence passed in which we both walked slowly toward the shack, our feet leaving deep holes in the sand. Finally, a let out a long breath and turned back to him. "It's okay. We're just jinxed now. The universe is gonna have it out for us."

"Well I sort of doubt we'll wake up to dinosaurs smashing the roof in on the shack."

"You're just making it worse, Brady!"

"Sorry! I just mean it'd be a whole different kind of insane if supervillains were suddenly real and started taking over the world and what not."

"Brady! Just stop!"

Days turned to weeks without anything strange happening. Brady and I hung out together every chance we could. We surfed the biggest waves the ocean would offer us, built sculptures out of sand, and spent hours just walking both down the beach and through town. My favorite moments had to be when we were curled up and watching movies on Big Poppa's old TV set, though. It felt so good to have his arms wrapped around me as I snuggled up to him while we laughed at whatever was on at the time. Big Poppa would make us do work around his shop from time to time, but we made the most of that as well.

Unfortunately, our extraordinary summer did have to come to an end. School was coming up in only a few hours. We'd received our schedules in the mail only a week earlier. Though we had asked for mostly the same classes, the school had only given us two together: Honors Chemistry and Cinema History. We'd already purchased all the supplies we would need for our classes, so our last night before school was peaceful.

We sat together in the sand, watching the sunset just like we'd done every night since 'it' had happened. Brady rocked back and forth, his eyes closed as he hummed the Wet Side Story song "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'." "We should try riding motorcycles sometime, Mack! Cook ourselves up some of our own surf and turf action." He flashed a quick smile at me, which I met with a laugh.

"Not a bad idea."

"Oh and Mack," Brady said as he snapped toward me, his expression totally serious.

"Uh, yeah?" I responded, a confused expression falling over my face.

"Nights we don't have much homework, we're hanging out. Kay?"

I snorted with laughter and had to look away to recover. "Of course!" I gave him a quick punch on the arm. "Wouldn't have it any other way!"

Just then, a sound like a shotgun echoed out over the surf's noisy rage. I instantly dug my nails into Brady's arm and yanked him to his feet, almost dragging him. "What was that?" he asked, looking around nervously.

"I…don't know. Let's get to the shack!" Several more shotgun noises suddenly filled the air, forming a massive chorus of sharp explosions. Brady and I ran up the beach as fast as we could manage despite our feet sinking into the sand every step. We were almost to the front door when the noises stopped. I glanced over my shoulder to see the water climbing upwards, as if it had been released from gravity and was making a path for the heavens.

There was one, final explosion, ten times as loud as the others, that sent me and Brady flying into the side of the shack. I heard him let out a painful shriek, but I landed without getting hurt. I wanted to look over and check on him, but my eyes were locked on the ocean. The water had stopped climbing, and now it was all plummeting back down. For a brief moment I saw a rainbow in the curtain of falling water, but then it began to hit the surface of the ocean. The water exploded out in a massive wave, at least thirty feet high. "No, no, no, no…" I mumbled as I watched the wave closing in. "Brady!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

He was curled up in a ball next to me, his leg covered in his own thick, red blood. He was clutching the wound tightly while making grunting noises and snarling his mouth. "Brady we have to move!" The rumble of the wave filled my ears, busting in on my ear drums like a heavy metal drummer. I didn't dare look back but snagged Brady under his armpits and swung him on my back with adrenaline-fueled strength I never knew I had.

I made a break for it, attempting to clear past the shack. Something deep inside me told me I was forgetting about Big Poppa, but there was nothing I could do. The rumbling was getting louder and louder and it felt like the world was moving in slow motion. My feet wouldn't obey me, and instead of moving faster they got stuck more and more often in the wet sand. Brady's screams pierced my ears, and I felt desperation take hold.

I glanced back once more, and my vision was filled with terrible, thunderous blue.

A/N: Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger, but enter our first fandom! Points if you can guess what it is before next chapter.