MY Summer

Prologue

Ember's POV

"WOOOOHOOOOO", I scream into the wind. My hands out the sunroof and my hair blowing around in the breeze. We have music blasting out of the radio.  I don't even know what's playing, one of Bree's pop-country songs.

Rolling up the windows, my friends laugh. We roll to a stop at the beach and we file out of the car. We take our boards off the roof and finish zipping up our wet suits to fight off the early June cold from the water.  Then, we sprint straight for the water.

The chill of the water against my skin feels like bliss. I look around and see my best friend, Sophia , and the other 3, Carson, Bree, and Jackson. We've all been friends since we were in kindergarten. I like to think of us as inseparable, because we are.

"Hey Em! Look at that wave! I bet you five dollars you can't catch it!", Jackson calls out.

I look out to see a wave about 6 feet tall. The crystal wave against the stark contrast of the sun rising makes it look like it's almost glowing.

"Oh, you're on! Be ready to pay up, Jacky!", I called back. I used the nickname that I gave him when we were back in middle school. He's always hated it, but it never stopped me.

I lean forward so now I'm facedown on my board with my head up. My arms cut through the water and propelled me forward. Just as I caught up to the wave, I turned and started to paddle the other way, racing it. When I was in the right position, I stood up. My knees bent, legs feeling the burn from the early morning surf.

Once I rode out the wave, I swam back towards my friends. They were all sitting on their boards. Bree, Sophia and Carson all look to me as they clap and whoop. I bend over in a small bow and twirl my hand in front my stomach as they laugh. I look over to Jackson and see him playfully sulking.

"Looks like you owe me some money.", I arch my brow at him with a grin plastered on my face.

He grins back and says, "I'll get you one day."

I pretend to ponder the thought, putting my hand to my chin and look thoughtfully at him. I turn and smile, "Unlikely."

For the rest of the morning, we surf and chill on the beach. At around 11 am, we decide it's time to go, since we all have to work.

I drop everyone off at their houses and wave goodbye. Once it was just Sophia and I, she turned to me and said, "Do you think your mom got that job? The one here?"

"I dont know. I really hope she does. We need her to."

My mom lost her job at the docks last month because of being accused of stealing from one of the rich families while she was fixing up their yacht. Falsely accused. The owners of the boat didn't have choice but to fire her because, in their words, "it would have shown unfairness to the other workers if they didn't". A bunch of bullshit if you ask me. She applied for another job a week ago. We're still waiting for a call back.

We hear a noise on Soph's front porch and turn to see that it's Mattie, her 12 year old brother. He loves to play pranks and gets into heaps of trouble. It's great. From our angle, he seems to be pulling a crate full of seaweed, paper bags, hair spray and a lighter. He opens his mouth but before he can utter a word of his surely elaborate fake excuse, Sophia holds a hand up and says, "I don't want to know."

He shrugs, turns and marches off towards God knows where with his items while calling back, with a mischievous grin, "I gotta go to the docks. There's some certain rich people who're going to have some pretty stinky boats."

Sophia turns to me with a plaintive look on her face. "Why, oh, why does he have to be like this?", she looks like she's unhappy with him, but you can see the pride in her eyes.

"Oh, come on. You love his pranks and the chaos he creates."

"I really do. But I also have to be his big sister and make sure he doesn't go to juvie."

I nod in agreement. "Fair. Text me and tell me how it goes."

"Bye, love ya," she says while stepping out of the car, "and good luck with your mom's job!" She yells while waving like a crazy person from her front porch as I pull out of her driveway.

When I walk up the steps to my front door, noticing that the house needs a new paint job. The shutters near the windows are almost breaking off and the paint is all crumbled. I lean my surfboard against the wall of the porch and walk inside. I immediately feel the tension in the atmosphere and take a hesitant step towards the living room, where my mother is clutching a letter and reading it very intensely, barely even noticing that I've walked in.

When the floor breaks under my feet, she looks up. Only then do I realize the look on her face. She tries and fails miserably at trying to hide the worry on her face. "Mom? What's wrong?"

"Nothing sweetie," she pats the sofa next to her, a silent suggestion for me to sit down. I do, hesitantly. "I got a job."

I smile wide and congratulate her, "Yay! Congrats mom!"

When she still has that look on her face, I get defensive, "then why do you have that look on your face?"

She sighs. "The job... it's not here."

"What do you mean 'it's not here'? Where is it then?"

"It's on an island. Just off the coast of South Carolina."

My face is blank. I can feel the colour drain off my face. "What about my friends? School? Hell, the surf competitions?"

"They have all of that there, as well, Em. And you can meet new friends, and you can call yours here anytime you want."

Did I mention we're in  right now? South Carolina is over 10 thousand miles away! I huff. And cross my arms.

She better be damn right.

~~~~~
Hello!
Thank you for reading!
Please lmk if I've made any mistakes or if it doesn't make any sense! Lol
Again, this is my first time writing, so please don't be too harsh!
Also, lmk if I should continue it!

- unknown-2-you