Olga Calleron: Madness in Mahabalipuram

Davey

Okay, so there are a LOT of things I'm embarrassed of- like having a crush on Tom Holland (What, he's cute!) And I may or may not have a secret collection of stuffed unicorns in our basement.  AND I also may or may not still go to sleep with a teddy bear at night. Yeah, yeah, those things are TRUE. But there's one person, who I'm super-duper embarrassed of- my cousin Davey.   He's scared of EVERYTHING, ever since his arm got ripped off by a shark. One time he came to our house and when Mom broke an empty bottle of alcohol, Davey didn't go near the floor for the rest of the day. I thought he would know better, since he's like, 15! And look at Bethany Hamilton, HER arm got ripped off too! And was SHE crying and scared of everything? No! She went right back to the ocean, and started surfing again! Groaning, I walked towards Aunt Winna and Davey. He looked different the last time I saw him, his hair had grown mindlessly longer, almost covering his forehead. His scared brown eyes stared at me, and his trembling hand hugged me. "Hey Olgie, how-how are ya?" Davey said, now trembling head to toe. "Um...good! I guess." I said. To my astonishment and fury, I found out I was trembling too! It felt so weird and embarrassing standing in front of my 15-year-old scaredy-cat cousin brother.  "Let's, er, head home shall we?" said Aunt Winna, in her crisp tone. On the ride, I felt like Becca Hart, in an alone and unfriendly world, with only her romance novels to keep her company. Davey hardly talked, which was typical of him, since he was always afraid of saying something wrong. Soon we reached a beautiful open-air hotel entrance that said Taj: Fisherman's Cove. I got up from the car, dragging my sunshine-yellow suitcase. Aunt Winna led me to a cottage with white musty walls and an orange-red roof. It was a hotel room, but nothing like it. Aunt Winna handed me my key and went off with Davey. I looked at the sea. It was beautiful but kinda green and murky. I decided to go for a swim after getting changed. I wore a one-piece swimsuit with a high neck, in yellow and dark yellow stripes. I headed out to the beach. It was warm and sandy. After getting THAT out of the way, I went to the sea. It was a good time to come since the sea wasn't choppy. It turns out there was a hill between the sea and the shore. I cautiously slid down the hill, and as soon as I felt the sand between my toes, I knew I made a good choice coming here. I got my surfboard and surfed for a while, laughing loudly. "Hey, it's you again!" said a familiar voice. I turned around, and that boy from the plane was standing there, waving.