TWENTY

Cora took off immediately after drama club. In her own car. Was I the only U.E. spy without a car? Next time I was at the U.E., I was going to have to investigate this. So what if Cora and Jaisen were older than I was? I should get special allowances to get a real license.

I sat down on the curb of the parking lot with Chuck.

“Doesn’t it seem like a waste to even bother trying out for The Tempest?” I said. “How can he not know who he’s going to cast? He sees us every Saturday.”

Chuck leaned back, his elbows on the sidewalk. “Maybe he thinks it’s good practice auditioning.”

“I guess.” I set my pack on the ground and hugged my knees to my chest.

“I wonder if I we’d get kicked out of the club if we didn’t show?” Chunk grinned.

“Mr. Svink would probably just want us to talk about our feelings. Why, Chuck, did you not come to auditions?” I said, imitating Mr. Svink. “What were you feeling that stopped you?”

Chuck laughed.”Hey, isn’t that your dad’s wagon? Who’s the guy with him?”

I was almost afraid to look. Sitting in our family’s brown station wagon, right next to Dad, was Jaisen.

“Oh my god,” I said.

“Friend of yours?” Chuck asked mischievously.

I shook my head. “I have to go. See you on Tuesday.”

“Bye, Katie,” Chuck said. “Have fun.”

I wrinkled my nose at him and walked over to slide into the backseat.

The backseat. On a father daughter outing.

“So what’s the deal?” I said.

“Hello, Katie,” Dad smiled at me in the rear view mirror.

“How was drama club?” Jaisen asked, turning to me.

“I will answer your question when you answer mine. What is the deal?”

“What do you mean, Katie?” Dad asked all innocently. As if he didn’t notice the hulking blonde guy next to him with the slight German accent, though Dad might not catch the accent, as it only seemed to come on strong when there were giggling high school girls around.

“I mean, what are the two of you doing together? I thought we were going whale watching.”

“We are going whale watching,” Dad said. “I invited Jaisen along.”

“I have never been whale watching before,” Jaisen said.

“When did this happen?” I asked.

“When Jaisen was over before your fundraiser. He mentioned he was interested in seeing some of the sights around here, so I told him we had an outing planned for Saturday. You must have been there,” Dad said.

Jaisen shook his head. “Maybe we talked when Katie went to get her purse. Maybe that is why she doesn’t remember.”

Dad nodded. “I bet you’re right, Jaisen.”

First of all, I am never leaving my parents alone with a boy again. Never. I would attach my purse to my hand and never run upstairs to get it. Secondly, how could everyone just forget to mention this to me?

“Now that that’s settled,” Dad said. “How was drama club today?”

“Yes Katie how was drama club?” Jaisen asked.

“It was fine.”

Two smiles from the front seat. Then Dad began giving his tour of the area, pointing out all of the points of interest as we drove through San Martin on our trip down to Whale Watching Excursions.

When we arrived, we found a two level boat, the bottom enclosed with windows and the top open. The sun shone bright on us as we found a spot for three on the top deck.

“Be right back,” Dad said and disappeared down the stairs.

“I love the ocean,” Jaisen said, seated across from me, looking out. The water shimmered out to the horizon.

I hesitated. “Me too.” This sounded unconvincing even to me.

Jaisen turned towards me, his blue eyes picking up the sunshine. His look was curious and his cheek dimpled in a half smile. “You don’t like the ocean?”

I tried to put some enthusiasm in my voice. “Of course I like it.”

“You really don’t sound like you do.” He was watching me closely now.

“I do. I just—”

“Wait a minute,” Jaisen interrupted. “You actually sound…” He paused for a second looking at me. “Scared?”

A shock went through me and I must have looked pinned to the wall because he went on to say in a surprised voice, “The courageous Katie Carlyle is afraid of something?”

“I’m not afraid. That’s ridiculous.” I turned away from the wide expanse of water.

“I can hear it in your voice. How can you not love the ocean? It’s so huge.” He spread his arms wide. “It makes you think differently, looking at it.”

“Yeah, it’s so huge, which means you can easily get lost. Anyone in their right mind would have some hesitation about the ocean. I mean, hello, sharks? They have extra senses that people don’t to make them better killers. And giant squid. Their eyeballs are bigger than your head.”

I paused to catch my breath. “But anyway, that’s not it.”

“Oh-kay,” he said slowly, giving me the eye, those eyes of his all lit up like he had a private adorable joke he would share but couldn’t because he was talking to someone just a little too close to the edge.

I fervently wished I had kept my mouth shut. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“This is so new. I’m trying to take it in. If you aren’t afraid of the ocean, what exactly are you afraid of? You have to tell me. I’m dying here.”

“That would suit me just fine.”

Jaisen’s grin just got bigger. “I’m sure it would.”

I turned away, but there it was–the ocean, big as life. My hand went to my stomach.

“OH MY G—” Jaisen, at this point, started laughing. Maniacally, really, if you want my opinion. “Noooo. No way. You’ve got to be kidding me. You get seasick?”

Damn, damn, double damn. How did he get past my very elaborate and effective secret keeping defense system!

“It isn’t funny, being seasick is horrible.”

Jaisen started laughing harder.

“It only happened once, OK?”

He stopped laughing long enough to ask, “Did you…?” accompanied by a spewing hand gesture.

“NO! Well yes. It wasn’t like I could help it or anything.”

“Of course not.” He was still shaking with laughter.

“Right.” I looked at him cautiously.

“If you could help it, you would boss that stomach of yours to settle right down.”

“Are you suggesting that I’m bossy?”

Jaisen shook his head in that way like this is too funny I can’t even talk. His eyes were shining with tears and he wiped some away with his hand. He took a gulping breath.

“Here.” His voice steadier, he reached into his bag and pulled out a container of herb capsules. “Ginger–it works for this sort of thing.”

I gave him a suspicious look.

“Seriously, they’ll help. I’m sorry, Katie, but you have no idea how funny you are.”

“I. Am. Not. Funny.”

“You are.” He held out a ginger capsule.

I took it and gulped it down. Even though his last remedy had almost gotten me caught on a mission, it had worked. And I really didn’t want to spend this trip heaving into a wastebasket if I could help it. “Are you always so prepared?”

He shrugged.

“Maybe you should be a doctor instead.” I pointed at him with my water bottle.

“I don’t think that’s an option.” For one second, the light in his eyes went out and he looked lost, but as quickly as the light had vanished, it returned. “I’ve always wanted to go whale watching.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“My family works a lot. I’ve never really had the opportunity before.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry if I ruined your trip with your dad.” He looked all earnest now and he was making me nervous.

“It’s OK, it’s no big deal. We do father/daughter stuff all the time.”

Just then Dad came back up the stairs with a hat on his head and one in each hand. The hats were khaki colored and had a whale tail popping out of the water on them, which I was shortly to learn from our tour guide, Julie the Naturalist, was not called a tail at all but instead was called a fluke.

“It’s so sunny I thought we might need these.”

These hats had to be some of the dorkiest hats I had ever seen in my entire life. I am certain Emma would not have approved of the fashion statement Dad was making just now. Apparently, Jaisen didn’t realize that these hats were a “fashion don’t” because he accepted his like it was a treasure and immediately put it on his head.

I held mine in my lap with my hands covering it. “I think I’ll be fine with the sun, Dad, thanks.”

“We need a picture.” Dad pulled a camera out of the front pouch of his windbreaker. Then he pulled the hat out from under my hand, slapped it on my head, and put the camera up to his eye.

“Crowd together.”

What could I do? I leaned in to Jaisen and smiled at the camera. His nearness sent a shiver up my spine. As soon as I heard the click of the camera, the hat came off, and I scooted back to my seat. I didn’t even want to think about how the picture turned out.

While Dad asked Jaisen if he followed American sports at all and Jaisen responded that no he hadn’t and Dad started telling him all about them, I scoped out the other passengers on the whale watching boat. There were fanny packs and fluorescent visors everywhere. Not one suspicious looking character, not that I was on the clock. You never knew though–that tired looking mom with her chubby baby could very well be a criminal mastermind. This was San Martin after all.

I watched Jaisen talking to Dad. He looked people right in the eye when he talked to them–it could be unnerving, but you really felt like he was paying attention.

What did his family do for a living that they didn’t even have time to go whale watching? Probably actors–he certainly had the pretty boy genes. He caught me watching him and shot me a little smile on the side. I turned away.

Julie the Naturalist, stood on a small third story of the boat and told us about whales while we all kept a watch for them.

“Killer whales, which are actually a giant type of dolphin, are the greatest predators of grey whales. Grey whales have large amounts of fat on their bodies, but their tongues provide a huge chunk of dense muscle meat for killer whales. The killer whales eat the tongue and leave the rest of the whale for scavengers–usually sharks. Sharks are like the garbage trucks of the ocean. Many species of shark will eat almost anything.”

We went further and further from shore with no whales sighted. After a while, Julie the Naturalist took a break from her narration and the sounds of the motor took over. The sun disappeared and clouds covered the sky. With the sun gone and the sea breeze wafting by, the temperature started to drop. I looked at my ticket. On the bottom was printed “Whale sighting guaranteed.” I wondered how they could guarantee whale sightings and what they would do if we didn’t see one.

Dad and Jaisen seemed to be enjoying themselves, whales or no.

“Have you ever taken acting?” I asked Jaisen, testing my acting genes theory.

“Yes, but not in this country. I imagine that it is quite different.”

“People here take acting way too seriously.”

Just as I was regaling them with what I thought was a perfect imitation of Cindy from this morning’s Drama Club drama and getting whole belly laughs from my male audience, Julie the Naturalist, came over the speaker saying, “Ten o’clock there is a grey whale sighting.”

We, along with most of the rest of the boat, rushed to the ten o’clock position of the boat. The oohing and ahhhing of the crowd died down as we reached the spot. The whale had gone back down before we got there leaving what Julie the Naturalist, described as a footprint in the water. We all stared at the mark on the water where the whale had been, waiting for it to resurface.

“Two o’clock,” Julie the Naturalist, shouted.

We all rushed to the other side of the boat and again the oohing and ahhhing died down just as we got there. Again we stared at the footprint in the water. Some people posted themselves half way between the one side and the other so that they could rush faster.

The next time the whale was sighted, we did not rush to the other side of the boat where it had surfaced but stayed put, Dad on one side of me and Jaisen on the other. Our efforts were rewarded. Finally, a grey whale arched through the water directly in front of us and then another right next to it. The fluke of the second whale flipped out of the water as the whale dove under and splashed back down. I found myself oohing and ahhhing. I couldn’t help it. They were amazing. They didn’t look that huge from the distance they dove from the boat but Julie the Naturalist, assured us that one of their tongues weighed over a ton.

I put on my hat with the fluke flipped out of the water. Dad and Jaisen grinned at me.

“What? I couldn’t carry it any more. I need my hands for gripping the railing,” I said. I turned back to watch for whales.

In too short of a time, Julie the Naturalist, announced that we would be heading back for shore.

Dad, Jaisen and I went down into the lower level to get out of the wind and cold. We could still watch for whale sightings out of the windows, but it was much cozier. There was a little bar set up at one end selling t-shirts and drinks.

Dad and Jaisen and I could not stop smiling. Whales were so much cooler up close than they were to write a report about.

Julie the Naturalist, came over the speaker again, “If you look to the sides of the boat you will see a school of dolphins playing in the surf that our boat makes.”

Dozens of dolphins were leaping up in the air right next to our boat. They were so close if the window hadn’t been there I could have reached out and touched one.

The dolphins receded and we were alone again in the ocean. Julie, the Naturalist, was making rounds showing people specimens of whales and pictures she had taken. Jaisen excused himself and went to take a closer look.

“Having fun, Katie?” Dad asked after Jaisen left.

“Yes, definitely. Thanks for bringing me.” It was a nice bonding moment but I was a little bit worried Dad was getting attached to Jaisen. We were just colleagues, even if Dad didn’t know it, and I didn’t want Dad getting any ideas. I took a deep breath. I didn’t know if it was possible to explain this without giving anything away, like say the fact that Jaisen was actually an international secret agent and I was working with him.

“It was nice of you to invite Jaisen along,” I said.

“It was nice of you to make friends with him, being new to town,” Dad said. He said it in a way that sounded like he understood that Jaisen and I were just friends and I wondered if he had read my mind and knew I was worried he was getting the wrong idea. Then I realized that if he could read my mind he would know that I was a spy and he obviously did not. Thank god.

I looked over and saw Jaisen talking to Julie the Naturalist. Unbelievable, it looked like she was flirting with him. She must be thirty, at least!

Jaisen came over with a pile of postcards he had bought.

“Julie took all of these pictures,” he said. “They are wonderful, don’t you think?”

They were kind of wonderful. I decided to change the subject.

“Hey, do either of you guys know what time it is?” I asked.

Dad looked at his watch. “We’ll be home in plenty of time for you to get ready for tonight if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“What are you doing tonight, Katie?” Jaisen asked. He asked in a friendly non-committal kind of way, but I had my eye on Dad.

Just when he seems like he is cool about the whole daughter/boy situation he goes and brings up one boy when I am with another boy. Not like I was really with Jaisen or anything, but still I’m sure he didn’t want to hear about this.

“Alex and I are doing something together tonight,” I said.

“Alex?” Jaisen said puzzled.

“From the band at the Whales fundraising dinner,” I said.

“I don’t remember an Alex. Was that the guy you were talking to? I didn’t realize you knew him,” Jaisen said.

“Well, I don’t really, but…” I tried to explain,

Dad cut me off, “You should go with them Jaisen,” he said. “I bet they could show you some of the night life around here.”

Dad was more clueless about the delicate workings of teenage socializing than I had given him credit for. Or more devious. Now I was in a bind. Was there any way I could politely uninvited Jaisen? Of course not. But did Dad even notice? Of course not.

Turns out I shouldn’t have worried, because then Jaisen said, “Actually, I have plans this evening as well.”

“Really?” I said. Hadn’t he just moved here?

“Alice invited me out to dinner tonight to Tutto Va Bene. She said it was a nice restaurant downtown.”

“It’s a nice place if you want to spend more money than anyone should on half rate pasta,” I said. Then I heard the other part of what he’d said. No way. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.

“Do you mean Alice Hersher Alice?”

“Yes, that Alice. She asked me to have dinner with her this evening when we were talking at the Save the Whales fundraising dinner.”

“And you’re going?” I specifically remembered telling him that Alice was the easiest girl at Norshore High.

“She seems nice.” He looked right in my eyes.

“Sounds like there were a lot of nice kids at the Save the Whales dinner,” Dad said.

“Apparently, there were lots of nice kids at the Save the Whales dinner.”

How could my partner be going out with Alice Hersher, who guys only wanted ONE THING from? I couldn’t believe he was like that.

And didn’t he realize that she was probably strife with disease!