Remember When **Under MAJOR Editing**

Chapter 3

***The picture above is of Emma Stone. She's playing Mya in this book.

My friends' beach parties were as starlit and romantic as the ones on TV and in movies, except there was no bonfire. Fires and bright lights weren't allowed on the beach because they disoriented the endangered sea turtles. Dozens of teenagers invaded the city beach park, guzzling beer in the sand and heavy-petting in the parking lot, but as long as they didn't mess with the turtles, nobody seemed to care.

I'd popped in and out of a few of these with my friends Mckenzie and Lily when we were younger and didn't dare stay long at a party full of seniors. Now we were the seniors. I parked the Bug in the crowded lot near Mckenzie and Lily's rusty Datsun and Zack's laughably large 1980s Buick. I was curious, but I tried not to peer through a few steamed-up windows in familiar cars. Then I crossed the wooden bridge over the scrub and sand dunes to the beach.
Ours was not the only party. Circles of teenagers stood in the sand or sat on towels in the darkness, sipping beer. I recognized the Splash Central  party by Mckenzie and Lily's laughter cackling above the roar of the ocean and the wails of a boy band on a radio. I kicked off my flip-flops at the foot of the wooden stairs, crossed the sand glowing white in the starlight, waded into the surf, and put one hand on each of their backs.
They turned around with wide eyes. "Mya!" they both squealed at once as they rushed me, splashing water up on my shorts. They both jumped up and down and hugged me too but Lily stopped soon and gave me some air, whereas Mckenzie  did not let go until I said, "Okay," and pressed her shoulders to stop the bouncing. It was clear to me which one was drinking tonight and which was the designated driver. They were twins—not identical, but they might as well have been, the way they finished each other's sentences. They did look similar, both petite with bright red hair, but from there they diverged.

Mckenzie  put on the first clothes she found on the bedroom floor, whether they were hers or Lily's, dirty or clean. I had seen her do it. Lily handled the personal upkeep better, though she obsessed about it until she looked like a parody of a girl. Tonight her hair was hot-rolled and pinned and overfixed for a windy beach party. I had told them they both looked so extreme because they were trying to differentiate themselves from each other. If they'd relaxed and settled for the happy medium, even if that meant looking alike, boys would have asked them out more. They did not listen to me. If there had been one of them, they might have taken me seriously, but it was hard to give unsolicited advice to two people at once, because they could drown you out with protests. They told me they could never be as pretty as me, so my advice meant nothing. I started to explain that looking like I did took work, and my mother had taught me this in turn—but they shut me down.

Tonight it was impossible to tell there had ever been any tension or unwanted advice between us. "I can't believe you're here!" Mckenzie  squealed. "It took the whole summer, but for once the whole swim team is at the Splash Central party!"

She gestured to the circle standing behind her—Stephanie Wetzel and the other three junior girls on the team, plus lots of boys. They all waved at me and called, "Mya's here!"

"Wait," Mckenzie  said. "We gained you, but we lost—"
A distant boat horn cut her off. The lights of a fishing boat and their reflections skimmed parallel to each other across the blackness of the ocean and the sky.

"Daaaaaaaaade!" the other swim team boys cheered and clapped from the darkness.
"Awww," Lily said, "Dade's  with us in spirit."
"Is that really Dade ?" I asked. Lost in thoughts of my mom, I'd almost forgotten seeing him an hour and a half ago at the emergency room. Now that anxiety came swirling back. At least if he was stuck on his dad's fishing boat, he wouldn't be showing up here tonight.

"Yep," Lily said. "He honks every time he misses a party for one of his dad's night charters."

"He was here earlier, though," Mckenzie  said, "searching for you, Mya." She poked me on the breastbone. "Why does Dade hate you so much?"
I took a sharp sniff of ocean air. I'd known Dade wouldn't miss an opportunity for revenge on me.