Saltwater Secrets - Cindy Callaghan Page 0,7

a quick end. But then again, what if Santoro ends up being the only thing that stands between me and handcuffs?

Six Stella

Boardwalk

June 18 (Continued)

Once we were back on the boardwalk, I faced into the wind, let it blow my hair out of my sweaty face, and I tied my hair into a knot on the top of my head. Josie didn’t get as hot as I did, and her blond hair wasn’t quite long enough to top-knot.

“Where to now?” Josie asked.

I looked at everyone slurping from lime-green cups. “I wanna check out those smoothies.”

“You can’t be serious?” Josie asked. “You’re gonna buy something from that factory? They’re, like, the enemy.”

“You’re being a little extra, Jo. It’s just a smoothie. It isn’t going to hurt anything.”

“I’ll wait in line with you, but I’m not having any.” She added, “I’m officially boycotting.”

The line was out the door. As we waited, I studied the place through the window. The walls were painted bright lime green, and metal baskets of fresh fruit hung from chains. Employees in white lab coats put peeled and cut chunks of fruit into clear tubes that led to blenders. Customers put their lime-green cups under the spigots coming from the blenders. They filled their cups with blended, drinkable fruit and stirred them with long, orange spoons. There was a self-serve bar where people could scoop on healthy toppings like granola and diced figs.

“It’s so ug,” Josie said, meaning “ugly,” but I thought the colors and white coats really brightened the place.

We still hadn’t made it inside when three familiar faces came out. Two out of the three held branded lime-green cups.

“G’day,” Josie greeted them.

“Welcome to the shore,” TJ said, holding my eyes for a hot sec longer than Josie’s. We could file TJ under things that had definitely changed. He was about a foot taller than last year, and his voice was deeper.

“It’s about time,” Tucker said.

“Where ya been?” Timmy asked.

TJ, Tucker, and Timmy—or the Three Ts, as we called them—were the same age as us, thirteen. They were a trio of best summer friends who lived in different towns during the year, but were glued at the hip at the shore. This year they wore matching red T-shirts that said GUARD on the back, although they weren’t full lifeguards yet; they were in training. The real lifeguards wore white shirts with red letters.

You’d think that, being called the Three Ts and wearing matching shirts, they might be triplets, but they were far from clones. Three different backgrounds, three different personalities, yet still best friends—at least for the summer.

“Hey there,” I said, mostly to TJ, whose dark curly hair was already sun-pecked with highlights. “We just got here. After this we were heading to the lifeguard shack to see what’s going on tonight.”

Josie asked, “We were?”

No one seemed to notice her question.

TJ said, “We got some stuff planned. I think the first bon—”

“Hold up,” Josie said. “Before we get to the summer schedule, what’s with this place?” I suspected Josie’s “hold up” interrupted what was going to be an invitation to a bonfire. That was an invitation I wanted, and I was frustrated that she might’ve just made us lose it.

“Uh…” I tried to stop her from “holding up” so TJ could finish, but Josie was steamed about the Smoothie Factory, and she wanted the guys to know it.

“I can’t believe you’re eating that.” She glanced at their cups—Timmy’s and TJ’s—with a snarl. “Or drinking? Is it a food or a drink?” She poked at Timmy’s long spoon. “If you have a spoon and a straw, I mean, I can’t even.” To the Three Ts she asked, “Where’s your loyalty to Water Ice World?”

None of them answered right away. I think maybe they were afraid of saying the wrong thing, which they probably would have.

TJ bravely gave it a try. “I’ll eat anywhere. I don’t discriminate.”

Josie said, “I’m not discriminating. I’m protesting. There’s a difference.”

I decided to lighten the mood. I asked TJ, “Is it good?”

He held his cup out for me, and I took a sip.

“Mmm.” I wiped a little green mustache off with my index finger, then tipped my sunglasses down to examine Timmy’s cup. “Crushed walnut?”

“Extra protein,” he said. “We have some seriously tough fitness goals to meet for the program this summer.” Then he asked Josie, “You still running?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said.

“Maybe we can run somewhere,” he said.

She replied, “I jogged on the beach last night, before Stella got here. The sun was going down,