Bluehour (A Watermagic Novel) by Brighton Hill Page B

Island,” Mom called out from the kitchen.
“I put it on the refrigerator.”
    At that, my dad looked up from the TV
suddenly. “Catalina? What the hell are you going to do there?”
    “It’s just a field trip to the Catalina
Historical Museum.” I rolled my eyes.
    My mom walked over to my dad and put her hand
on his shoulder. “The school is taking the students over to the
island on a ferry. Nothing’s going to happen.”
    He got up off the couch. “They think they can
just take a bunch of kids out to sea?” His hands were waving in the
air from anger.
    “Dad!” I looked at him astounded. “It’s just
an innocent day trip.”
    “I forbid it.”His face was red. “Absolutely
not.”
    I sighed. “Okay. Just calm down. I won’t
go.”
    He looked relieved. “Good,” he grunted and
then walked out of the living room into his bedroom.
    Now I turned to my mother looking at her in
frustration. “Why’d you have to tell me about the permission slip
in front of him?”
    “I know. I know. It was stupid.” She shook
her head and shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking. But, you can go anyway,”
she whispered. “He’s going to be out fishing that day and the next.
He won’t even know.”
    I nodded, relieved and frustrated at
once.
    After all that, I needed to be alone. On the
way to my bedroom, I stopped off in Lucy’s room and kissed her
forehead while she slept. She looked like a little angel with brown
curls around her face.
    But when I got into bed, all I could do was
think about Laurent. I fell asleep dreaming about him.
    He and his friends were these beautiful
beings, almost ghost like. They swam in the depths of a deep blue
sea. The underwater scenery sparkled and was a colorful array of
sea weeds and coral reefs.
    There were people around them drowning in the
ocean. It was a shipwrecked crew. The très beaux were attacking the
people in frenzy, the way sharks attack their prey. Flesh was torn
and floating in the water. There was blood everywhere.
    Lost in the dream, I watched and I watched.
And I couldn’t leave even though I knew I should. Even though I
knew they were killers.
    ***
    The weekend was relatively uneventful.
Mostly, I studied the whole time. My only relief was on Saturday
night when Agatha and I watched movies at her house. I spent the
night and we went for a night swim under the crescent moon that
drifted behind gray and white storm clouds. She was so excited
about Danny and couldn’t stop talking about him.
    The week days became more eventful. The sky
cleared mostly and I was excited about the trip to Catalina Island.
After arriving at school on Monday, we took busses to the nearby
Fisherman’s Village in Marina Del Rey and from there we took ferry
boats over to the island.
    The ferry ride was about an hour and a half
of endless blue ocean. Because the boats weren’t big enough to hold
the entire junior class, we were divided up into groups. And before
the trip, we picked partners. Of course Agatha and I chose each
other, so we hung out together on the deck sipping sweet drinks
through twisty straws while we watched for whales. We actually saw
a few of the gigantic creatures and even some dolphins and sea
lions too. The sky was a pristine blue with big white puffy
clouds.
    The principal must have allowed the French
exchange students to ride together because they were all on another
ferry. As usual, Danny accompanied them. And I’m not sure what boat
Ashton took, but it wasn’t ours.
    Once I saw the island in the distance, I
began to hear the call of seals and it almost sounded like
beautiful music. Chills ran through my body. The sounds were
alluring. Somehow, it reminded me of my dream of the très beaux
this past weekend.
    But as we arrived in Catalina’s town of
Avalon, the music faded and I was surprised to see how charming it
was. Open storefront shops, cafés, and quaint hotels lined the
cobble stone promenade before the harbor. It was a dreamy setting.
The sun was bright and