None of us caught any fish. Eventually even Holden sat down with us, still determined to catch one but unwilling to toy with them. I brushed bread crumbs off my knee.
“Holden, we should go. Mom’s gonna get mad again.” Haven loaded up the wagon. “You know Mom’s rule about streetlights. And we have to take Quinn home.”
“Fine, we’ll just cast it one more time. They turn on too early anyway.”
I stood up to help Haven, but before I could get to her, I felt a tug on my rod. A jolt ran down to my toes.
The pole stooped down. Another tug. The rod was so heavy I was afraid it would snap. I forgot everything Holden taught me.
“I feel something!” I screamed loudly enough to scare the frogs away.
“Reel it up all the way!” Holden said.
This was the bite Holden kept telling me about. The hours we sat here finally meant something. I flicked back my wrists like I watched Holden do a million times. The glassy water shattered. A fish caught the sunset on its scales.
The fish slammed against the dock on its way out of the water. Holden pulled it into his hands and held tight to keep the silver fish from flopping out. “It’s a bluefish! I can’t believe you didn’t feel this on the line!”
I couldn’t believe it either, even though it was only big enough to fit in his palm. He held the fish up and I trusted him enough to get a closer look. The fish looked back at me, its eyes bulging from its face, gray and silver skin glistening in the sun.
“It’s so cool, isn’t it?” Holden’s smile competed with the sunset.
“Yeah.” I watched its gills struggle against the evening air.
“That was pretty cool, Quinn,” Haven said.
“Thanks, guys.” I smiled with all my teeth.
Holden unhooked it, kissed it, and released it back home.
I missed it already, but I knew it was happier without me.
Age 10, August 10
That morning, I put onthe only clothes not packed in my suitcase: the yellow tank top Haven liked and some shorts I should have washed four beach trips ago.
With my suitcase in tow, I said goodbye to Blair and Hadley when Mrs. Rivera-Sanchez—who insisted I called her Saray—picked me up. I promised Mom I’d be ready for her to pick me up by four, so the twins and I woke up early so we could make the most of our last day. The best days of summer were the ones you needed to set an alarm for, anyways. Today, an alarm meant walking into an arcade with my new best friends for one last bite of summer.
The smell of cheesy food hit first, then bright, flashy neon lights. Machineclinks,beeps, andpingsbegged for our attention. Saray settled into a booth and sent us bouncing between all the hungry games.
When we found our wayback to Saray for lunch, we were red in the face and sweaty from laser tag after winning against a team of mean middle schoolers. A steaming pizza waited for us on the table next to ice waters and two cherry slushies.
“No fair, Quinn gets her own.” Holden slunk into the booth, taking a huge gulp of the slushy.
“Holden, please.” Saray looked up from a half-completed crossword. “Be grateful for what you get or it’ll all be Haven’s.”
“Ha!” Haven grabbed it from Holden and took her own gulp.
“You too, Haven.” Saray didn’t even look up that time.
Haven stuck out her bottom lip, shoulders slinking next to me in the booth. I emptied my water before we even started on the pizza, then I thanked Saray for the slushy and started in on it.
“No problem. How’s your last day treating you?”
“Good.” I nodded and etched lines in the Styrofoam slushy cup. “I can’t believe it’s my last day. I remember mini golf like it was yesterday.”
It didn’t seem like there had been two months of long, summer days between then and now, but that was how things felt when you looked back on them. It was how fourth grade felt back in June when I’d just completed it. I hoped it was how fifth grade would feel instead of spending every day missing cherry slushy brain freezes and stale pizza.
Saray nodded. “That feeling will only get worse the older you get.”