Page 13 of Finding Her

poppy

I figured we would put the plan into action on Monday—or better yet, we would all forget about it by then—but Lilah seemed to have other plans.

Breakfast went for longer on the weekends so we could sleep in, so I didn’t end up going down for food until after ten a.m. on Saturday morning, but Lilah must have been waiting for me there, because she pounced on me the second I sat down.

I didn’t even get the chance to take one bite of my food before she appeared and said, “Whatever plans you have today, cancel them.”

I didn’t have any plans but I didn’t want to look like a total loser by saying that to her. Truthfully, I thought I was going to spend the rest of the morning getting my homework out of the way then just wander around campus or watch movies all afternoon.

“Did you have something to do in mind or are you just opposed to me having a life?” I asked.

I took a bite of my cereal—fruit loops, which my mom never let me have at home, so I had them every morning here—and looked at her expectantly.

I was a little surprised she hadn’t just woken me up this morning to talk about this, instead of waiting for me to roll out of bed on my own.

Not that I was complaining. I’d only spent one morning this week covered in ice water, but it was enough to assure me I never wanted to experience it again.

“Did you bring a bathing suit with you?” She asked, crossing her arms on the table in front of her. She looked a lot more put together than I did, with her hair done and actual clothes on, while I was still dressed in an outfit that was probably only one step up from being pyjamas.

“On me right now? No.” I took another bite of cereal. “At school? Yeah. It’s upstairs.”

Her eyes lit up. “Perfect. We’re going to the beach.”

That actually piqued my interest. Hartwell’s campus had a stretch of the lake running through it, but it wasn’t the kind of spot anyone liked to swim in.

To do anything more fun, like swimming or boating, we had to go to the public beach in town, which was a bit of a trek away but always beautiful in the summer weather.

We would only have a couple of weeks before it got too cold again, so today was the perfect time to go.

I didn’t realize Lilah meant right this second until I got upstairs twenty minutes later, after finishing my food and calling my sister to say good morning, and found her tapping her foot in our room, looking impatient.

“Relax,” I said, as I grabbed my swim suit and better clothes from my closet. “If we leave now, we’ll still get there early.”

She ignored me as she stared at the bathing suit in my hand with eyebrows raised.

“What?” I asked, glancing down at it as well.

I didn’t see anything visibly wrong with it.

Certainly nothing that warranted her looking like that.

It was just a simple black one-piece. Nothing flashy, sure, but I liked it.

And most importantly, it was appropriate to wear at the pool at school,, which was the only place I’d intended on wearing it before Lilah pitched this idea.

“We really need to go shopping,” Lilah said. “Get you some new clothes.”

“My clothes are fine, Lilah,” I said, letting my head fall back. I actually prided myself on my good fashion, so I didn’t see why she took such issues with it.

“Sure they are,” she said, and to her credit, she sounded genuine. “I just think we need to dress you up a little. More seductive.”

“I’m not trying to be seductive,” I said flatly. I knew the only reason she cared was because of this stupid bet to get Bear to ask me out.

“And that’s what I’m trying to fix,” Lilah said. “Now hurry up and get dressed. I’ll text Saylor and let her know we’re leaving soon.”

I perked up a little at the mention of Saylor coming too. As much as I was starting to enjoy having Lilah as a roommate, I did still miss Saylor. I missed hanging out with her all the time—even if she was living her best life with a single room now and probably not missing me in the slightest.

Once I got changed, I went to grab my sunglasses. Lilah practically chucked the case at my head, then shoved a packed beach bag into my arms. I looked at her quizzically.

“The beach is going to get crowded,” Lilah said with a shrug. “I wasn’t going to miss out on finding a good spot just because you didn’t know where you put your sunscreen and towel. Now, come on!”

In hindsight, I should have questioned Lilah’s insistence that we get to the beach so soon. But I hadn’t and unfortunately for me, the reason only became clear as we stepped onto the sand and I saw who else was at the beach that day.

“Lilah,” I said slowly, “I am going to kill you.”

She made a big show of cupping a hand over her face so that she could see down the way and announcing, “Oh, look! What a funny coincidence.”

I glanced at Saylor to see if she knew anything about this plan, but she looked so angry that I didn’t want to ask her anything.

I wasn’t sure why she would be so annoyed, though, even if Lilah hadn’t asked her opinion.

When we talked about it yesterday, she’d been all for Operation Get Poppy and Bear Together. What could have changed that quickly?

I was ready to turn around and forget this whole thing, but before I could even consider suggesting we go somewhere else, Lilah grabbed my hand and pulled me forward.

Not wanting to leave Saylor behind, I instinctively grabbed her hand so that she was getting pulled along with us.

And just like that, we were walking across the beach like some kindergarteners on a field trip who had to hold hand so they wouldn’t lose each other.

Was it embarrassing? Definitely. Was it also kind of fun? I guess so.

Luckily, Lilah wasn’t being too obvious about our plan.

At first, I was a little nervous she was going to walk us straight over the boys and ask if we could join them—at which point, I would absolutely be running away and leaving her in the dust, but she chose a spot far enough away that it wasn’t obvious we were trying to be near them.

Nobody would bat an eye at us being here.

It felt more like July than September with the sun beating down like it was, so I happily pulled off the dress I had on over my bathing suit and sat down on the towel I’d laid out.

If I kept my head turned a little to the left, I couldn’t see the boys at all and could almost forget that my roommate was stalking them for me.

I tilted my head up to look at Saylor, who was still standing with her hands in her jean short pockets and her eyes trained on the boys.

Except, now that the boys had dispersed a little—Bear sitting in a beach chair, while the other three went to put their feet in the water—I realized she was looking at one of the other boys that I didn’t know.

Actually, she wasn’t just looking at him.

She was glaring like she wanted to vaporize him with just her eyes.

I was tempted to ask her what they’d done to incur her wrath, but I didn’t have enough of a death wish for that.

“We should go for a swim later,” Lilah said as she plopped down on the towel next to mine.

She was still wearing the oversized button-up, that I was pretty sure must have belonged to her brother at one point considering how big it was on her, but I knew she had a bathing suit on underneath like me.

Originally, she’d been wearing a bikini, but when she realized I was going to wear a one-piece, she’d changed into one as well.

Saylor finally sat down as well, resting her arms behind her and tilting her head up to the sun.

“This is gorgeous weather,” she sighed. Unlike her expression earlier, she seemed totally content now. “I should get out for a ride before it gets too cold.”

“Has the equestrian club started up yet?” I asked.

“It doesn’t officially start till next week,” she said. “But I’ve been out riding a few times already.”

Hartwell had room for the students to board their own horses, so Saylor had her horse here. She went down to the stables daily, even if it was just to study while watching other people’s lessons. She said it was the place she found it easiest to think.

“I still want you to teach me to ride,” I said as I laid down. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could picture the smile on Saylor’s face. We’d had this conversation enough times that I knew what the answer was going to be without her even having to say it.

“I told you,” she said. “I’m not going to be responsible for you breaking your spine. Just join the equestrian club.”

“Maybe when I don’t have gym class anymore,” I said. “I’m not sure I can add another sport into my day.”

“I still can’t believe they’re making you take freshman gym again,” Lilah said. “Doesn’t it seem a little redundant? I know you need two gym credits, but it’s literally the same class.”

“I’d rather this than taking sophomore gym in the summer,” I said. “At least I’m getting it over with.”

“And,” Saylor said in a teasing tone, “you know you won’t fail.”

Lilah snorted. “Nobody fails gym. That’s, like, impossible.”

A smile tugged at my mouth. I wondered how Lilah and Saylor would react if I told them that, actually, you could fail gym and Levi Barrett was living proof of it.

They’d probably call me a liar, because the idea of a hockey player failing gym was just too ironic.

Without consciously thinking about it, my head tilted to look at the boys again.

The three boys Bear was with were messing around, wrestling in the sand and shoving each other over.

Bear was just sitting there with a frown on his face.

Well, I wasn’t sure it was broadly counted as a frown as much as it was just his natural resting face.

He didn’t look happy, but he also didn’t look annoyed either. Just... neutral, I guess.

As if he could sense me watching, he turned to look at me right then.

I immediately looked away, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

Maybe he wouldn’t even recognize us. He couldn’t see me very well with how I was lying down, Lilah was busy slathering sunscreen on her face so she was pretty much unrecognizable at the moment, and as far as I knew, he’d never met Saylor before.

So, there was no reason for him to think we were anyone but three random teenage girls enjoying a warm Saturday afternoon.

Heck, we didn’t even have any Hartwell Academy merch on us, so for all he knew, we could be from town instead.

I almost managed to convince myself that he’d only looked over in a passing glance and definitely didn’t recognize us, but when I snuck a peek out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was still staring.

Either he knew who we were and was trying to figure out why we were here (hopefully he wouldn’t come up with the theory that we were stalking him, even though we totally were), or he thought we looked somewhat familiar and was trying to figure out who we were.

Neither option was particularly appealing to me.

To take my mind off of it, I turned to Saylor and struck up a conversation about the book we were both reading for English class, hoping that Bear would lose interest. But for some reason, when I looked over five minutes later and saw that he’d turned away like I wanted, my heart sank.