Chapter 1
Jill scanned the ocean. Her legs dangled over the sides of her surfboard. Her board bobbed gently in the water. She was looking for a wave, any wave, that would take her in to shore.
The ocean was way too calm. Definitely not a good surfing day.
Suddenly, a shrill scream burst across the water.
“Shark!”
Jill quickly turned on her board. She looked in the direction of the warning. Then she shook her head.
“Not again,” she said to herself. She lay down on her board and began paddling.
“Shark!” Meg shouted. She waved her arms frantically. “It’s not a mistake this time! I swear!”
“Meg!” Jill called to her. She was still several feet away. “You really have to stop.”
Jill could tell that Meg was panicked. Her eyes were wide, and her legs were drawn up on her board, her knees up to her chin.
She stopped waving when she saw Jill, and she gripped the edge of her surfboard. Jill could see that Meg’s knuckles were bone white.
Jill paddled up to her. “You know the story of the boy who cried wolf, right? You’re going to be known as the girl who cried shark!” she said.
Meg released a shaky hand from her board. She pointed over Jill’s shoulder. “Look!”
Jill looked where Meg pointed. At first, she didn’t see anything. Then she caught a glimpse of something. Something that looked a bit like a shark’s fin.
“Stay here,” she told Meg. “I’ll be right back.”
Jill paddled her surfboard toward the finlike thing. Two other objects poked up around it. They looked circular. They looked suspiciously like the tubes of snorkel gear.
Jill drifted up to one and placed her hand over the top of the tube. Within seconds, a head came spluttering to the surface. “Hey! What did you do that for?” It was Abby Miller. And Jill was sure the other snorkel belonged to Sara Roberts.
Sure enough, Sara’s blond head popped up from the water. “We were just having a little fun,” Sara said.
“That girl is so afraid of sharks, she’ll believe anything is deadly,” Abby added.
“Even a surfboard!” Sara said, giggling.
Jill rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said.
She watched as Abby and Sara flipped the surfboard over, hiding its fake fin. Abby lunged onto it, lay on her stomach, and began paddling toward shore. Sara swam swiftly beside her.
Jill turned her own board around and headed back to Meg. The scared girl still sat glued to her surfboard.
“See?” Jill said. “No shark.”
“How did you know that?” Meg asked.
Jill shrugged. “Shark fins are usually much, much bigger.”
Meg’s eyes widened.
Jill laughed. “I’m kidding! I could just tell it wasn’t a shark. It looked more like the bottom of a surfboard. Come on. Let’s go in. The ocean is dead today.”
Jill watched Meg untuck her knees and stretch her legs out along the board.
“Do I have to put my feet in the water? You know, a surfboard looks just like a seal to a shark,” Meg said.
Jill smiled. “You watch the nature channel too much.”
Meg finally smiled back, weakly. “Yeah, well, what can I say? I like to research something before I do it.”
The two girls started paddling to shore.
“So why are you at surf camp, if you’re terrified of the ocean?” Jill asked.
“I’m not afraid of the ocean. I’m just afraid of sharks,” Meg said.
“Well, North Carolina might not be the surfing capital of the world, but I don’t think you have to worry about sharks here,” Jill told her. She smiled as they walked onto the beach.
“Famous last words!” Meg said.