Caught Inside

Chapter Seventeen

"Yeah!" Cole waited until they were clear of the breezeway before attempting to make more conversation. "You know, I feel like we haven't been able to talk much lately. Are you excited for the comp tomorrow?"

"Definitely," he replied. "Though big waves aren't exactly the best for longboarding..."

"True." Cole paused, waiting for Koa to say something else, but his friend seemed to be silent today. Something told him that maybe Koa wasn't looking for company right now. His eyes flickered in the opposite direction, and that's when he saw her, sprinting down the stairs directly towards him.

Their eyes met, and her mouth opened in a perfect O. Cole was also surprised, but even more so because of how different she looked that morning. Her hair was slightly tangled, her clothes a bit wrinkled, and her makeup looked like it had been applied without a mirror.

Something in her expression, though, tugged at his heart. She looked so afraid. The way her eyes bugged out at him gave her the appearance of helplessness and innocence, something he'd never seen before in Taylor. But when she brushed past him on the way to her class, her face contorted into its usual sneer, and she muttered, "Anderson."

Cole stopped in his tracks and turned around, but she was already a good few yards ahead of him. He figured her class was on the other side of campus, and she probably didn't want to be late.

You don't want to be late, either, he reminded himself, so he shook off the encounter and turned back towards Koa. To his surprise, Koa had continued walking without him. He was already a good ten or twelve yards away.

"What is with everyone today?" Cole muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Everyone was avoiding him like the plague. At least in his first period art class he could forget about his social problems and get in "the zone." Maybe a little creative time was what he needed to get his mind off the awkwardness of the morning.

By 7 a.m. on Saturday, the awkwardness was certainly gone, but it had been replaced by nervousness. The entire gang felt the pressure to perform well in the surf competition that was due to start in half an hour. The girls' shortboarding Round 1 was up first.

Alana squatted down on the damp sand and bounced lightly on the balls of her feet to get the blood flowing in her legs. She had a sweatshirt pulled over the top half of her body, while her navy fullsuit had been folded down to her waist. As she rolled onto the pads of her feet and balanced there, she pulled up her tangled white-blonde hair into a tight bun. There were two heats in Round 1, and she and Maya had been separated. That meant the lineup was going to be extremely tense—more so than usual because Alana wouldn't have anyone friendly to talk to.

She did a few more light stretches to loosen up. She closed her eyes, ignoring the slight sea breeze and crashing of waves in the distance, only focusing on her muscles and body movements. She smiled when she remembered that Dylan and Tammy were coming later that morning to watch her surf—provided she made it through Round 1, of course.

When Alana drew one leg beneath her and extended the other, forcing her to rotate in the opposite direction, she glanced up and saw the gang conversing in a tight circle. As her elbows dug into the sand, she studied them curiously. It didn't look like they were having one of their normal conversations—their heads were bowed together and Cole was gesturing wildly with his hands. Something was definitely up.

Alana switched legs, but her eyes were still focused on her friends. Only when Maya happened to look up and meet Alana's gaze did a look of surprise register on both of their faces. Alana was a little peeved that she had been caught staring, while Maya appeared caught off guard and tugged on Cole's sweatshirt sleeve to get his attention.