A Tale of Two Summers

Chapter 3

The next morning the white van drove Sabrina, Emma, and a few of the other teens through the beautiful city outside of Santiago. In Sabrina's lap was her bag full of sunscreen, bug spray, her towel, and of course, her camera she always carried with her.

The van pulled in front of the Oasis Church, a quaint, airy building with large red wood doors and white walls with holes to act as windows. Sabrina bounced up and down as she waited for the doors to open. She tumbled out of the van and ran into the church to explore the beautiful building.

Emma followed after her, "Hey wait up," she called as Sabrina slipped through the wooden doors.

When she entered through the doors, in front of her was a large auditorium, filled with the echoes of laughing and Spanish speaking.

A bunch of the teens from their group were already there, hanging out with some Hispanic teens Sabrina had never seen before. She assumed they were natives who went to the church. Grace was busy taking pictures of a Hispanic girl who looked about twelve years old. Next to Grace, playing with two beautiful 3-year-old twin girls, was a teenage boy who made Sabrina do a double take.

Sabrina could tell he was Dominican, with his tan skin and dark hair. He wore swim trunks, a muscle tank and towel around his neck. She smiled as he laughed and played with the girls, chasing them around the auditorium. As he picked one of them up, his toned arm muscles flexed and Sabrina had to force herself to look away so she wouldn't stare.

Too shy to go up and say hello, Sabrina sat at the edge of the room with Emma and pulled out her video camera. As she began to film the teens running around and laughing, the viewfinder fell on the boy lifting one of the twins who clung to his towel.

Sabrina snickered as Grace tried to get his attention to say hi to her camera, but he ignored her and kept his attention on the twins.

"Stalker," Emma smirked as she caught Sabrina video taping the boy.

Sabrina turned the camera to Emma, who put her hand up, "No! Don't tape me, tape the hot Dominican!"

Sabrina opened her mouth, "No, Emma," she said as if it was the most preposterous thing in the world.

"Well you were doing it just now."

"Oh shut up," Sabrina pursed her lips to keep from smiling and closed the video camera.

Emma raised her eyebrows and straightened her back, "Mhm, I saw you."

"I was taping the girls," Sabrina said.

"Oh, course you were," Emma nodded her head.

Sabrina shook her head and glanced at the boy, who's gaze was looking her way. She subconsciously brushed her fingers through her hair and shifted in her seat.

Emma snorted, "Stop."

"What?" Sabrina asked.

"You look fine," she said, "Besides, it doesn't matter what he thinks of you. He's Grace's buddy."

Sabrina turned her head and sure enough Grace was all over him, taking his picture with her fancy camera and attempting to talk to him in her terrible Spanish.

"Right..." Sabrina said. Why do I even care? she thought to herself, Whatever. I'm not here to admire guys from afar.

With that, Sabrina completely took her mind off the boy and focused on continuing a conversation with Emma.

After a few minutes, the teens were called to pile into the van to head on their way out to the jungle. Sabrina and Emma sat together towards the back of the van, followed by Grace who took the seat behind them. Soon Grace was surrounded by a couple of laughing Hispanic girls, who Sabrina later figured out were named Lisa and Lauren. Sabrina couldn't help but smirk when she saw Jacob, one of the teens from their group, being joined by the boy from earlier. He was even cuter up close. Butterflies rose in her stomach as she saw them take a seat directly across the aisle from her.