Surfside Sisters(7)

Keely approached him to take the tape in its black dispenser. She couldn’t help noticing the pad on his desk with the intricate pencil drawing of the Nantucket harbor.

“Did you do that?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Yeah.”

Without asking permission, she stepped closer, studying the sketch. “This is cool. And I love the whales you put near Great Point.” She was so astonished she forgot to be in awe of him. “I didn’t know you could draw this well.”

“No one needs to know.” Sebastian pulled a blank sheet of paper over his drawing.

“Oh. Okay.” Keely carried the tape dispenser in both hands as she left the room.

“Close the door,” Sebastian said. “And don’t come in here again without knocking.”

As Keely took hold of the brass doorknob and pulled it shut, Sebastian said, “And don’t tell my parents. Especially don’t tell Izzy. She can’t keep a secret.”

“Okay.” Keely shut the door. Then, on an insane whim, powered by courage she didn’t know she had, she pushed the door open again and went into the room. “But, Sebastian, why is that a secret? Is it a present for someone?”

“Ha. Right.” Sebastian gave Keely a look that seemed almost friendly. “My parents want me to play team sports. Not sit alone in my room doodling.”

“But that’s not doodling! That’s art!” Keely protested. “And Izzy and I sit in our own rooms all the time. We’re writing a book.”

Sebastian’s mouth crooked up in a half-smile. “Cool. So just keep it a secret for me, okay, Keely?”

He said her name.

    Keely went hot all over, pleased and surprised and funny feeling. Of course he knew her name! She was such a total freak!

Too embarrassed to speak, she nodded and left the room—pulling the door shut tight. She returned to her paper doll dress with the tape and also with an odd happiness in her stomach. She shared a secret with Sebastian, one that not even Isabelle knew.





Keely and Isabelle started high school. Big change, Keely thought. Like a bucket of water thrown at her face. The door to her grown-up life was opening.

Her classes fascinated and terrified her. She was torn between wanting to be smart and wanting to be cool. Girls who’d been boring in first grade were suddenly super cool. Cool was hard to achieve. Everything was so new, so weird, so funny! Keely and Isabelle always got stern looks from teachers when they giggled behind their hands in class.

She still had a powerful crush on Sebastian. Worse, as she grew older, her infatuation grew into an obsession. When she was at Isabelle’s house, she locked the bathroom door and picked up his toothbrush. It was like a holy icon. Sebastian had touched it. Sometimes she saw his boxer shorts in the bathroom laundry basket. Seeing something so intimate made her heart pound.

It helped keep her steady and sane that they had to concentrate on their homework in order to make good grades—and Keely especially needed good grades so she could eventually get scholarships for college.

The homework was hard, the social stuff was harder. Just walking from class to class was like taking some kind of bizarre test. More kids, more teachers, more staff crowded the halls. Everyone was so much older.

    “I feel like a gazelle caught in a stampede of elephants,” Keely told Isabelle.

“I know, right? The seniors are so big.”

“Hi, Isabelle!” A junior, Diane, one of the cheerleaders, all glossy and cool, came right up to Isabelle. “How do you like it here so far?”

“It’s great, I guess.” Isabelle flashed an SOS at Keely.

Another cheerleader, Daisy, with such perfect makeup Keely couldn’t help staring, elbowed her way between Isabelle and Keely. “Hey, Isabelle, listen, if you ever need help with your homework or anything…”

“Plus we could give you the scoop on which teachers are cool.” It was another junior, Kyra.

Isabelle faked a smile. “Um, well…”

Diane pounced. “You could come to our houses, or we’d be glad to come to yours.”

So that’s their strategy, Keely realized. They were fawning over Isabelle so they could get access to Sebastian. She wanted to share her thoughts with Isabelle, but by now Keely had been nudged too far away even to see Isabelle.

What would Isabelle do? Keely knew these unctuous juniors with their long, silky hair were powerful. She would understand if Isabelle joined them. She’d be miserable, but she would understand.

“Thanks,” Isabelle said. “But I do my homework with Keely. We’ve got a perfect system set up.”

“Oooh.” The juniors made disappointed little chirping noises.

“Plus, I help them,” Sebastian said.

The hair on Keely’s arms stood up. She hadn’t heard him coming.

Before she could turn to speak to him, Sebastian put his arm around Keely’s waist and pulled her close to him.

    “I help you learn a lot of things, don’t I, Keys?” Sebastian’s eyes danced with mischief as he looked down at her.

Keely was breathless. Sebastian had gotten so tall. His shoulders were so broad. The heat of his body ran all up and down her torso.

She was surprised she didn’t melt into a puddle right there and then.