Well, at least he was checking something out. “What about my hair?”

“It’s pink. Duh.”

“I was in a march for breast cancer awareness,” she said, then blushed because she’d said breast. “Can you go to the beach tomorrow?” she asked, to change the subject. “There was a good surf report.”

“Sure thing. My grandparents got me my own board.”

The first Monday of summer was special, like a magical holiday, marking the first day kids didn’t have to drag themselves out of bed, whine their way through breakfast, race for the bus as if it came at a different time every day, and sit through classes while their eyes turned to glass.

True to the weather prediction, the first Monday was a beach day, crowded with people welcoming summer. The hours went by like a series of snapshots—volleyball, kite flying, sandcastles, surfing. Caroline stayed in the water until she could barely stand up. She staggered ashore, peeled off her wet suit, and rinsed off at the outdoor showers. She put her wet suit in the back of the truck, pulled on a pair of shorts, and grabbed a sweatshirt.

“He’s not going to notice you in that,” Georgia said, taking the sweatshirt from her.

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right.” Georgia adjusted the strap of her lime-green bikini. “That boy who came back for the summer. This outfit makes you look like his kid sister.”

“So?” She glared down at her cutoffs and lace-up canvas sneakers.

“You’re so obsessed with designing clothes, but you dress like a tomboy. Here, try this.” With her customary bossy officiousness, Georgia traded the sweatshirt for a sheer blouse from her beach bag, rolled it up at the waist, and knotted the shirt tail under her chest, leaving her midriff bare above her cutoff shorts. “There. That’s better. You’ve got those cute little abs.”

“Jeez,” said Caroline, feeling a blush come on. “Nobody cares about my cute little abs.”

Her big sister tossed the sweatshirt back into the truck. “Huh. Tell that to Baby in Dirty Dancing.” Georgia and her friends were obsessed with the old movie. Songs from the soundtrack were on every mix CD they made. Even Caroline secretly loved the parts where Baby transformed from geek to goddess.

Will came up from the beach and peeled off his wet suit. He didn’t seem to notice her abs, cute or otherwise. She handed him a can of root beer, which they both agreed was the best thing to drink after surfing. After a while, they joined in a game of volleyball, and she saw some of her friends checking him out.

“He’s a total babe,” said Rona Stevens, a girl in Caroline’s class. Rona watched Will dive for a shot. “He looks just like Brendan Fraser. Only blond.”

“What? No.” It was so weird, having her friends check him out. A few of them already had boyfriends. Nearly all of them had boobs. Caroline had neither, and it didn’t really bother her. Okay, so maybe it did, a little.

“He’s a stone-cold fox,” Rona declared. As captain of the cheerleading squad, Rona had been one of the most important girls in junior high—as far as she was concerned, anyway.

“What does that even mean? Jeez.” Caroline shook her head. Several things confused her these days: The prospect of going to high school in September. The way she sometimes cried for no reason at all. How embarrassed she was that most of her friends already had their periods and wore bras. And how she got a funny feeling inside when she looked at Will Jensen. There was a part of her—a very big part—that just wanted to go back to being summer friends with him, the way they’d been the previous year.

At the end of the day, the sunset turned everything to pure gold, and people aimed their cameras to the horizon, trying to capture the brilliant image. The colors melded like spilled liquid as the sun sank lower. A group of kids sat together on the sand, goofing off and talking about their plans for the season.

“I have to work at the restaurant this summer,” Caroline said mournfully. “My sisters both did it, and now it’s my turn.” She wrinkled her nose. “Bussing tables and washing dishes. Yuck. I made a big stink about it, but it’s the family business and I have to do my part.” She echoed the lecture her parents had given her when laying down the law.

“I got a job, too,” Will said. “Part-time at Scoops.”

“That’s cool. I love their ice cream.”

“Me too. Plus the owner said the tips can really add up. I’m saving my money to buy my own surfboard back home.”

She wondered what his dad would say about that. Did Mr. Jensen still insist that the ocean was for work, not play? “So the surfing’s good down there?”

“It is. I’ve been practicing.”

“I could tell today. You’re getting really good.” She sighed, leaning back on her elbows and tracking the flight of a seagull across the water. He was good at everything. Probably even math. “Hey, ever seen a green flash when the sun sets?” she asked him.

“A green flash?” He frowned, shook his head.

“It’s a thing you can sometimes see the moment the sun goes down. Not always, but on really clear days like today, the light separates out into different colors when it passes through the atmosphere.” She grinned at his expression. “Sometimes I do pay attention in science class. Maybe if we watch tonight, we’ll see it.”

He hooked his arms around his knees and stared at the shimmering horizon. “If it works, it’d be a new one on me.”

“Don’t look straight at the sun until the last second,” she said.

“If I wait, I might miss it.”

“Nah, I’ll tell you when to look. I always look for the green flash. There’s a saying that once you see it, you’ll never go wrong in matters of the heart.”

He snorted. “I don’t see how they’re connected.”

Was he more sarcastic than he’d been last year? “Whatever. It’s just something people say. I still look for it, though. Just in case, you know?”

A bunch of other kids joined in, lying belly down on beach blankets and facing the endless horizon. Rona Stevens managed to wedge herself in right next to Will, but he didn’t seem to notice.

As the light deepened, Caroline elbowed him. “Okay, we can start looking now. It always seems to go fast toward the end.”

Everyone looked at the shrinking orb. The moment before it sank out of sight, there was a subtle glimmer of green. “There!” Caroline said. “I saw it. Did you see?”

“I think so. Yeah, I saw the green.”

“Cool. You’ll never go wrong in matters of the heart, then.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

She felt silly and happy, just hanging out with him. “Me neither.” They stood, gathering up towels and blankets, shaking out the sand and loading up the surfboards and boogie boards. Will was supposed to meet his grandfather in the beach parking lot. Caroline was getting a ride home with Georgia, who drove their dad’s truck like a pro—according to Georgia.

“How’s California?” she asked, trying to picture him like the kids in 90210.

“Pretty good. Not as nice as here, though.” He leaned his board next to the outdoor shower. With no hesitation at all, he peeled his shirt one-handed over his head and lifted his face to the spray.