Welcome to Dog Beach (15 page)

I also can't be the only one on the team to answer the questions. That's a Seagate Knowbodies rule—one team member can answer a maximum of three questions in a row.

“Next question,” Mr. Aprone says after he adjusts his microphone. It was making a terrible screeching sound, and we all had to cover our ears. “When was Seagate founded?”

I attempt to hit the buzzer, but No Sugar Added gets to it first. I guess I delayed a little bit because I was hoping Micayla or Bennett would take the chance.

“1932,” one of the women answers.

The bonus question is who was the first person to come to Seagate, and of course I know the answer is Melvin Jasper, but they get the first chance to answer and they get it right.

The next question goes to Sunny Days, but I didn't know the answer. It was some geographic question about what it's called when an ocean experiences two equal high tides and two equal low tides in a day. The answer is
semidiurnal
, and I always forget that.

We each get a few more questions, and then the score is tied.

“Come on, guys,” I say, finally. Micayla did get the answer right about the number of kids in Seagate Schoolhouse's first graduating class, so I high-fived her for that. “We need to perk up! Bennett, you haven't answered a single question.”

“Okay, okay.” He does this weird finger signal to Calvin and then bursts out laughing. It seems like Bennett would much rather be in the audience watching with Calvin instead of participating with us. “The next one is all me.”

So when Mr. Aprone asks, “Name the famous actor who once had a summer home on Seagate,” and Bennett hits the buzzer, I get all excited because he obviously knows this one.

Except that when Bennett's ready to answer, Calvin does some awkward fist-bump thing and Bennett starts laughing and then says, “Alec Baldwin.”

“Unfortunately, that's incorrect,” Mr. Aprone says.

Then No Sugar Added hits the buzzer because I'm not allowed to answer, since my teammate got it wrong.

“George Clooney,” one of the ladies says, and that team takes the lead.

“That is correct!” Mr. Aprone yells. “We will now take a five-minute break.”

“Bennett!” I say. “Don't you remember our moms telling us the story over and over again?”

He looks at me, confused.

“Remember? When we were little babies, I was crying so loud that George Clooney came over from his table at Picnic to our table and picked me up and got me to quiet down?”

“Why were you eating at Picnic when you were so little?” he asks me.

“My parents' anniversary.” I glare at him. That's so not the important part of the story. What is wrong with him? “Duh.”

“Sorry, Rem.” He hits the buzzer accidentally and gets everyone's attention. “Sorry, folks, technical difficulties.” He's not even making sense. That wasn't a technical difficulty; that was him being stupid, but Calvin laughs anyway.

It seems Calvin will laugh at whatever Bennett does.

He's ruining our chances at winning for the third year in a row, and yet he's just laughing. I turn my head to whisper something to Micayla, and I notice that she's not sitting next to me anymore.

I look around, shocked that I didn't even notice her leaving. Maybe she was sick and had to leave in a hurry. I wonder if I should go check on her. Then I look out into the audience and I see her sitting next to Avery Sanders, whispering something in her ear.

Mr. Aprone announces that the break is over, and Micayla runs back onto the stage.

“What was that all about?” I ask her.

“Nothing.” She looks at me weirdly, like it's a bizarre question. I don't have time to say anything else, because Mr. Aprone tells us it's now round two.

“Name three of Sundae Best's retired flavors,” he says.

Bennett whispers, “I got this one,” and hits the buzzer. He answers, “Peach pistachio, caramel apple, and s'more explosion!”

“Yes!” Mr. Aprone matches Bennett's enthusiasm, and then everyone starts cheering. It's silly, but the fact that Bennett answered this question right immediately makes me
feel better. Of course he knows the answer. He knows the Sundae Best flavors better than anyone.

But after that, things go downhill again. Sunny Days gets a question right about the consistency of sand, and No Sugar Added correctly answers a question about some old folk-singer who performed on Seagate more than two hundred times. Then we get an answer right about the Seagate Book Club, since all our moms are in it.

But the final question is about the price of a summer home on Seagate in 1950, and we have absolutely no idea.

We lose.

The RemBenMic victory streak is over.

Bennett's leaving tomorrow for a four-day boat trip, and Micayla was whispering with Avery Sanders.

Maybe I'm being dramatic, but it feels like it's not just the Seagate Knowbodies contest that's over. It feels like Seagate life as I know it, and have always known it, is over too.

At least I have the dogs. That's what I keep telling myself. When everything else feels out of control, the dogs are reliable. In a way, dogs are better than people. They don't take their bad moods out on you, if they even get in bad moods. They don't let you down, and they're always pretty much the same.

Bennett plans to leave at ten in the morning. He
told us last night to meet him at Mornings at nine. When I asked him why, he replied, “I want to say good-bye, duh,” in this weird voice that made me wonder if he was kidding.

Micayla picks me up on the way, but she's not her usual cheery, morning-person self. Instead she's dragging her feet and rubbing her eyes and complaining.

“I want a day off from dog-sitting,” she grumbles.

“Well, we got the morning off,” I remind her. “So we could go meet Bennett for who knows what reason.”

“Rem, he just wanted to say good-bye,” she says, sounding exasperated. “You're overthinking it as usual.”

After that, I stay quiet. It seems like I'm always saying the wrong thing, and it feels so bad that it makes me want to say nothing at all.

We get to Mornings, and Bennett is at the table with three chocolate croissants and three fresh-squeezed orange juices.

I get excited that it's just the three of us about to eat this amazingly yummy breakfast—but when I see Calvin come out of the bathroom, I feel out of sorts again.

“No croissant for you, Cal?” I ask.

“Cal?” Micayla says, and everyone laughs like it's totally strange that I called him that. It's just a nickname. Sheesh.

“I already had one,” he says. Then there's an awkward silence, and I take a bite of mine just to have something to do.

Calvin's phone pings. He looks down and then says, “My dad wants us to meet at the main dock in twenty minutes. He got here early.”

So Bennett shoves the whole croissant into his mouth and chugs his fresh-squeezed orange juice and burps as loud as I've ever heard anyone burp. No joke.

“Sorry to run out,” he says, “but I have to go pick up my bag first.”

“Yeah, and my dad gets really annoyed when people are late,” Calvin tells us.

“Bye,” I say quickly, not looking at either of them. “Have fun.”

“Yeah, enjoy your bromance,” Micayla teases, and I start laughing along with her.

“Ha-ha.” Bennett gets up from the table and throws away his trash, and just like that he's off with Calvin, leaving Seagate, and us, behind.

“So we should probably go get the dogs, right?” Micayla asks me, looking down at her phone.

“Yeah,” I reply.

We walk to Oscar's first and then to Marilyn Monroe's. Atticus and Rascal will meet us there. I wonder if we'll be okay handling two dogs each without Bennett to help with Frisbee and treats.

I count off how many days Bennett will be gone.

I've always missed him and been excited to see him, but this is different. This feels like a tiny part of my world is missing, like things won't be normal again until he's back. And the thing is, he was acting like a total doofus at the Seagate Knowbodies competition and even this morning, with the burping and running out like we didn't matter at all.

He wasn't acting like the Bennett I know. But I miss him anyway.

Rascal, Atticus, and Oscar are involved in a fierce game of chase-each-other-around-the-beach, and Micayla and I are sitting on the bench with Marilyn Monroe at our feet. We haven't said much to each other since breakfast, and I'm not sure why. Probably because I'm sad about Bennett leaving, but I think it could be more than that.

Micayla didn't really put much into the Seagate Know-bodies competition either, and after it was over, she seemed more relieved than anything else.

“Are you okay, Mic?” I have to ask. She's not herself, and
waiting around for someone to go back to being herself never works for me. I'm too impatient.

“Yeah. Fine. Why?” She looks down at the sand and not at me.

I continue to pet Marilyn Monroe, who is so happy to just be sitting between Micayla and me on this bench. She has no interest in being with the other dogs today. Maybe she could sense that we'd be feeling a little lonely without Bennett.

“You just don't seem like yourself,” I say, because it's true.

“I'm fine, I said.” She looks at me finally. “You're not acting like yourself either. I'm going to talk to Mason.”

She gets up from the bench before I have a chance to say anything else and leaves me alone with Marilyn Monroe.

“Do you notice anything strange about her?” I ask Marilyn Monroe. She looks up at me and lets out a little whimper, then lies back down so I can rub her head.

I know that whimper. It means she agrees with me.

Across the beach I see Micayla talking to Mason Redmond. That's one thing that's changed. She doesn't run away from him anymore. Now she stands there, waving her arms, laughing. I wonder what they're talking about.

So I sit there on the bench and continue to feel sorry for myself. Marilyn Monroe doesn't mind it, and every few minutes I'll tell her how I'm feeling, and she'll whimper and look up at me, and it really makes me feel like she understands.

She's not Danish, but I never imagined I'd feel this close to a new dog so soon. Dogs can't be replaced. I think everyone
knows that. But I'm realizing that it's possible to find an empty spot in your heart for a new one.

At the end of the day, Micayla and I round up Marilyn Monroe, Atticus, Oscar, and Rascal. We also offered to bring Palm home, because his owners were going for an early dinner at Picnic. We'll just let him in through the doggie door. They left food out for him and everything.

So Micayla walks with Oscar, Marilyn Monroe, and Atticus, and I have Palm and Rascal. The dogs are being good and not trying to run away or go off leash, but I can't wait to get them home and be done for the day. I'm feeling anxious about what's going on with Micayla. I don't know what it is, but things just don't seem quite right.

“So what are you doing tonight?” I ask Micayla after we drop off Oscar and Atticus.

“Hanging out with Avery,” she says like it's no big deal. But they never hang out one-on-one.

“Really?” I ask.

“Yeah, really.” Micayla crinkles her cheeks at me. “What's the big deal? She's our friend. And anyway, she's really fun this summer. You never even gave her a chance.”

“That's not true.” I smile, trying to make it seem like she's wrong and I don't care that she just said that. “Well. Have fun doing whatever you're doing.”

“She's taking me on a tour of Seagate Schoolhouse.”

“Um, okay,” I reply, not knowing what to say to that. I didn't even know the schoolhouse was open during the summer.

“I'm becoming a year-rounder, Remy,” Micayla says so quickly that I almost miss it.

“Oh.” I'm so surprised, I lose my grip on the leashes I'm carrying, and the dogs start to run away. Thankfully, I get them back before they've gone too far.

Dogs, just behave right now. Please. I just got some huge news, and I can't focus on so much at once.

“I can't believe it,” I say. “Did you just find out?”

“I'll explain after we've dropped off the dogs,” she says, like she doesn't really want to talk about it but she's being forced to.

How could she have waited to tell me something so big?