Tara's POV
It was a warm afternoon, I sat in my living room nestled up to a pile of textbooks and a cup of tea. Finals week was just around the corner and I was ready to get sophomore year done with. I guess you could say it's good and bad that summer was almost here. Good, since summer would be here in just the next few days- no brainer. I looked forward to all the plans that would spontaneously happen over the course of the next 3 months. It was only bad since I barely picked up my textbook this whole semester. I wing it with school in general and pass with A's and B's. Nothing I to complain about, honestly.
Besides all of the finals, recently I'd been busy reminiscing on the past summers.
Last year I joined a youth group where I met some girls who changed my life. I considered them part of my family. But it had been ages since I had contacted any of them. I really missed them.
On countless occasions where I couldn't sleep, I opened up our group chats. We had about 6 chats on Facebook that hadn't been touched in a year. In each of those group chats, we had thousands of messages in between. I'd laugh, smile, and cry reading how young, stupid, and innocent we sounded. As much as I loved I seeing the girls down in SC at some parties, I saw never the sisters up in NC because of the one hour distance in between.
The conversations we had brought me back to all our countless ships. I even wrote a book filled with our imaginations and fantasies of the ships. I never finished the book because I became busy schedule of basketball and school. And unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. The sisters and I drifted away despite our countless promises that'd we keep in touch. That summer was one I knew I'd always remember. But in the end, I always wondered what had happened to the book itself.
At this point, I got tired of studying and shoved the textbooks back into my bag, I mean I only had one final left. Not studying for the remainder of the night wouldn't kill me... right? And in between that thought, I pulled out my phone and began to scroll throughout my apps. Instead of going to Messenger, I decided to end my curiosity with Wattpad. It was like digging for a fossil that was buried deep in the ground.
I tapped on the icon and the rush of orange filled my eyes.
"Welcome back to Wattpad, to_fab_4_u!"
'I must've been gone for some time.' I thought.
Suddenly, I found my way back to "When Ships Collide."
Back to the same book cover, chapters- just everything.
The only thing that took by surprise was when I looked down at the amount of votes and read the book at received.
"Oh my gosh... 1 million reads!?" I squealed. " That's a special kind of crazy for a book that was based on all ships the soul sisters made up."
I looked through all the comments of the books just to make sure people actually enjoyed the book.
"Siezel fEEls, cute ship name!"
"W0w Hapril must've been real. ASDFGHJKL TOO REAL."
"Thelsea is just GOALS"
"Can We JuSt TaLK AboUT JARA ASDF ASDFJL"
I laughed and smiled at all the feedback, the comments seemed endless. What made this book so...good? Especially to this many people like...
Dang.
I looked over at my inbox and there was a message.
"Must be one of my fans." I chuckled to myself and clicked on messages.
It took me a second to realize Wattpad had messaged me. I kind of just stared at the message, unopened.
'What did they want from me?' I wondered.
Did they want me to take down the book...?
I mean yeah there are some parts that are trigger warning...but my book cannot be the only one like that.
I took a step further into the message and tapped on it, while I uncomfortably cringed and feared for the worse.
"to_fab_4_u!
Welcome back to Wattpad! While you were away "When Ships Collide" was recognized by the Elite Young Author's International Press in Hawaii due to the thousands of reads it has received. Consider yourself lucky that you opened your account back up to confirm your trip with you and as many of guests you want to bring with you.
The Elite Young Author's International Press holds an annual reading contest of several worthy books from all over the world. 15 other authors including yourself have been hand-picked by your "Teen Fiction" book that was recognized to be read aloud in front of a crowd of one thousand people.
You are to write an additional chapter to your coexisting books to be read aloud in front of the Elite Young Author's International Press board.
Click this link to confirm your free trip to Hawaii with you and the guests you wish to bring with you. All expenses paid trip to Hawaii and back for the ENTIRE summer. We will provide you with the information on the email you used to register for the trip.
You have until tomorrow at midnight to confirm your trip through a page specifically linked in your email.
We hope to see you there!
Thank you for choosing Wattpad."
At this point I was internally screaming. Who else to bring along but my girls?
