It's the end of the semester, and exam season, at PCA. Zoey has been helping everyone with studying while I've been spending as much time as I possibly can studying in my room, mostly to avoid asking her for help. Luckily, the exams finish today and then we go to Mystic Beach, a huge school event where we all leave for the beach and spend the day splashing around and relaxing after our long day of work. It's meant to be super exciting, according to everyone who's already done it, and I'm so excited to experience this new PCA tradition that I finish my exam faster than expected.

Finally, when I've been staring at the clock for twenty minutes, the teacher lets us know, "alright, students, exam week is officially over!"

Everyone cheers and prepares to leave, with Logan picking me up and shaking me as part of his energetic celebration. While everyone leaves, my friend group stays behind to organise our arrangements for the beach party. Dustin runs in, calling for his sister.

"Hey, look at you in your cute little swimsuit," she says, and I grin. If I said that to my brother, I would lose a hand.

"Thanks, would it be okay if I rode down to the beach in your guys' bus?" He asks, sweetly.

"Yeah, sure," she agrees, "if it's okay with the teacher."

The door opens and Quinn runs in, looking pretty excited. It makes me nervous. "Okay, people, you got to check this out." I notice the test tube in her hand for the first time, it has some white stuff it it.

"Uh oh, what now?" Michael asks, and I can't help but feel the same way.

"You're not gonna blow us up, are you?" Chase asks.

"Or ruin my hair right before the beach?" I add, and Logan gasps, covering it with his hands as we all grin.

"No," she says, confused, then looks between Chase and I, "though I could. Anyway, I finished my chemistry exam in, like, ten minutes. So, since I had some extra time, I combined a few chemicals and accidentally created an aroma that smells exactly like coconut."

"Cool," Logan mocks, "but no one cares."

"Oh, come on! Just sniff it!" She holds open the test tube to us all, and I admit it does smell like she said.

"Wow, that does smell like coconut," Nicole says, and I nod along.

"I know, isn't it cool?" Quinn asks.

"It makes me think of the beach," I say, trying to hint that we should get going. But even as I want to get going, I feel myself growing really tired all of a sudden.

"Man, I feel like taking a nap," Michael stretches out, and I feel myself swaying a little as I struggle to hold onto my consciousness.

"What?" I hear Chase shout, as I close my eyes briefly to satisfy the tiredness, "man, we can't sleep. We gotta, we gotta-"

The next thing I see is the carpet and Logan shaking me awake. "Harp, wake up!" It takes me a second to care, and then I begin to panic, realising we were meant to be at the beach, and this is a classroom.

"What?" I shoot up, steadying myself on the desk when I experience a head rush.

"What happened?" Zoey asks, yawning, and I look around for someone who might know.

"We all fell asleep," Michael tells us.

I scoff, still tired, and a little cranky, "really?"

Quinn looks at her experiment, the test tube of coconut-smelling chemicals. "It must be an effect of my synthetic coconut aroma. That's weird."

"So are you," Logan says, and I find the strength to push him, although he doesn't actually move so maybe I'm still not fully awake yet.

"What time is it?" Zoey asks.

"Eleven-forty-six," Michael tells us, and I groan.

Chase shouts, startling me, "what? The last bus for Mystic Beach leaves at noon!"

"How are we gonna get there in fourteen minutes?"

"We have to," Zoey says, as I put a hand on Nicole to calm her. "Come on."

This spurs us on. I run to my dorm and grab my, thankfully, pre-packed things. It takes me a moment to change into my bikini and swim shorts, and to pull on a t-shirt, but then I'm ready. I take my surfboard and beach bag and head down to the bus, meeting with the rest of my friends as they get there, too. The bus is just leaving, and we're too late. I notice that Dustin is still asleep and being carried by Chase as we run, and I'm not sure why, but no one else mentions it so I simply continue shouting for the bus to stop.

"Wait, we're here!"

We all stop at the bottom of the stairs, watching the bus continue to drive away. "Well now what are we gonna do?" Nicole asks.

"Can't someone else take us?" Dana asks, and I think about it, but can't think of anyone who would be able to take us with such short notice.

"That was the last bus," Zoey says.

"Man, the whole school's on their way to Mystic Beach," Chase groans.

"And we're stuck here," I sigh.

Logan shrugs, "we'll just call a cab." I sigh again, this time at his lack of awareness.

"A cab?" Nicole repeats, "Mystic Beach is, like, fifty-five miles from here."

"You know how much a cab would cost?" Zoey asks, annoyed with my friend.

"We just can't afford a cab, Logan," I say, gently, knowing it's not entirely his own fault that he doesn't understand money.

"Oh, gee, if only we knew somebody with a very rich daddy, and his very rich daddy's credit card." He pulls out the card and steps in front of us all, while I roll my eyes and simultaneously hope this works. "Cell phone please?" He holds out his hand, and I pass him mine. He begins to dial the cab company, "relax, children. We'll be at that party in no time."

The trip there is pretty crowded, but not bad, and way better than not being at the beach at all. We all get out when we get there, while Logan pays the driver.

"Alright, yeah!"

"We're here!"

We keep cheering, and I stop when they all begin heading to the beach, looking back to where Logan is just getting out of the car. We then make our way down to the beach together, running as we touch sand for the first time, and the ocean gets harder to ignore.

"Mystic Beach, here we come!" Michael shouts, as we look out over the beach.

"Alright, here we are!" Chase says.

The first thing I notice is that we're the only ones here. The whole school was coming to this party, but I can't see a single student or teacher on the sand.

"Mystic Beach, look out," Michael says, and I realise that no one else has really noticed how strange this all is, yet.

"Guys," I say, frowning, "where is everyone?"

"Yeah," Zoey says, slowly, "where is everybody?"

"Maybe we're the first ones here," Dana suggests.

"No, we left after everyone else," Chase denies.

I think this over, "even if we beat that last bus, there were others way before us who would already be here."

"Then where's the PCA party?" Michael asks.

"That is the question," I say, staring out at the water.

There's a small groan, and I look over at Chase, who begins putting Dustin down, "oh, hey, I think the kid's starting to wake up."

"Where am I?" Dustin asks, still sleepy.

Zoey smiles, "we're at Mystic Beach."

He looks around at the empty beach, and then turns back to us all, "where is everybody?"

"We're trying to figure that out," Michael says, and I sigh.

"Are you sure you have the cab driver the right directions?" Zoey asks Logan, and I watch him closely, worried that he didn't.

"Yes! I googled it, Mystic Beach is exactly fifty seven miles north of PCA."

"No, it's not," Dustin says. "Mystic Beach is south of PCA."

"Dustin, are you sure?" Zoey asks.

"You know, if the driver had just accepted 'Mystic Beach' and done his job," I grumble, terrified at the thought of being almost sixty miles from our home with no adults and limited resources.

"Who are you gonna trust?" Dustin asks her, "me, or pretty boy?"

Logan raises his hand, pointing angrily at Dustin, while I try to stop him from getting too mad, "look, you little kid-"

"Hey, don't yell at him, alright?" Chase says, "this is your fault!" Michael slaps Logan. "Now we're two hours away from the party, stuck in the middle of nowhere on a deserted beach, and I'm extremely sad about it!"

"It's not all Logan's fault!" I defend, while Logan bickers with Michael behind me.

"Will you chill?" He asks Chase, and I groan at how unhelpful he is to himself.

"Not really!"

"Guys," Zoey says, "let's not get upset about it. We have our cell phones, we'll just call someone and get a ride." We begin pulling out our phones.

"The girl says good things," Michael says, as we all begin to feel a little less stressed.

Chase frowns at his phone, "uh oh, I got no signal here. Zo?"

"No bars, you got bars?"

Michael shakes his head, "no service."

"Well, this is just great," Chase says.

"Come on," Nicole says, "I'm sure Zoey's got a plan here! What you thinking, Zo?"

"Well, I'm thinking we're two hours away from the party, stuck in the middle of nowhere on a deserted beach, and I'm extremely sad about it!"

Michael slaps Logan again as we all begin to feel the weight of what's happening, and I begin wondering how long it could take to walk back to PCA. Every turn the cab had made runs through my mind in a desperate attempt to figure this out, but I know it's not going to happen. With the silence of the beach doing nothing to soothe our worries, we stand in an emotional silence for a while.