2

After the sunrise, they walked home. Drew also had the day off from school—it was a teacher's workshop day or something—so Alex and her brother had a whole day to bum around. Alex was meeting Sienna and Maia at the beach later. Maybe she would show them the lava rock.

“Have a good day, kids!” Dad said as he and Mom left for work.

As soon as they were gone, Drew snatched Alex’s headphones off the kitchen counter.

“Mind if I borrow these?”

“Ugh. Okay. But don’t wreck them.”

“I won’t. Sheesh.” Drew rolled his eyes and nestled the headphones over his ears. He plopped down on the couch, his usual spot, propped his feet up on an armrest, and laced his hands across his chest, partially covering the skateboarder doing a kickflip on his blue T-shirt. Electric guitars and drums blared out from the headphones, probably some heavy metal anthem about rebelling and shaking things up.

“Turn it down,” Alex said. “You’re going to go deaf.”

“What?” Drew said, lifting one side of the speakers away from his head.

“Nothing,” Alex said. “Never mind.”

Drew didn’t seem to care much about fitting in. He had his skateboard, and there was a skateboard park right down the block with tons of kids wheeling around and doing tricks. That was enough for him most days.

Alex pulled out her phone. No new texts. Simone hadn’t initiated a conversation in a while. How could her best friend have forgotten about her so quickly? Chase, that’s how. Oh yeah, they had gone to the movies. Alex sighed. Maybe she would meet someone here in paradise, but they were already a month into the school year and that hadn’t happened yet.

The first weeks at school had been a surprise. For once in her life, Alex’s brown skin and dark brown hair blended in, looks-wise, with the other kids because well over half of Hawaii’s people were Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or multiracial. But looking like them was totally different than having years of shared memories with them. She almost wished she didn’t look so similar. Back home, Alex’s blended heritage was unique. Here no one noticed her.

She met Sienna because they were in two advanced placement classes together, English and calculus. They even lived near each other, within walking distance of the beach—which Alex had to admit was pretty cool. Sienna’s mom was from Columbia and her dad was from the East Coast, so she got the blended heritage thing. And she was a transplant too: her dad was in the service and had been assigned to Hawaii a few years ago.

Sienna’s friend Maia lived on the other side of the beach. Alex felt that she had way more in common with Sienna than Maia did, but Mom had bugged Alex to make more than one friend. Now she could see why. If one person got a boyfriend, you would still have other people to do things with.

Sienna and Maia were pretty cool, and she liked hanging out with them. Maybe Hawaii wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it was getting better.

Her phone buzzed with a text.

SIENNA: See you in a half hour?

ALEX: Yes! See you then!

SIENNA: :-)

Alex straightened up and sent Simone a quick text because she wanted to tell someone she was doing something cool today.

No response.

Right. Date with Chase.

Alex stuffed the phone back in her pocket and grabbed Mom’s beach towel off the counter. It still smelled of coffee and Mom’s coconut sunblock. On the way to the beach, Alex would knock on Sienna’s door, and they would walk the rest of the way together. Maia would meet them by the three palm trees that made a triangle, and they would hang up hammocks—Sienna was bringing an extra for Alex—and chill out all day.

Alex went into the kitchen to grab a water bottle for the road and three small bags of chips. Standing on the tile floor, she felt an odd vibration. Had she left her cell phone on vibrate? Maybe that was Sienna again, asking if Alex could bring something else. Or maybe Simone was finally responding to her text.

Alex pulled the phone out. No one had called. Huh? She could have sworn she felt—

There it was again—more like a rumble. Thunder? She stepped toward the window, still holding the bags of chips.

The floor beneath her moved again. It had to be an earthquake.