Monday, October 23
Throwing a punch.
I wake up at five o’clock in the morning. I honestly have no idea why we’re still training this early, since I don’t have school right now, but I’ll go with it for now. I think Sander, Hunter, and Jaxon might all just be morning people to the extreme. You know, the kind of people who wake up early to work out, and actually enjoy it.
Not that I don’t enjoy our workouts. I’ve actually grown to enjoy them, lately. I just wish they didn’t have to happen so early in the morning.
Sander gives me five minutes to get ready. I guess I don’t get a break, even though I’m his girlfriend.
Five minutes later, Sander and I are running on a sidewalk. I have a view of the ocean, which is the best part of being up this early. The sun hasn’t risen yet, but I know when it does, it’s going to rise out of the ocean.
I’ve never seen a sun rise over the ocean—only sunsets in LA. Though, let’s be honest, I didn’t watch a whole lot of sunsets. Now, I can’t figure out why. This is beautiful. Maybe when you face death, you start to appreciate life more.
Thinking about facing death makes me mad.
Stupid terrorists.
They’ve ruined my life.
Okay, so going to East Raven Academy wasn’t a bad thing. And neither was meeting Sander. But now, these monsters have not only taken away my home, they’ve taken away my school, and I’m not okay with it.
I will train. I will learn to fight. And I will bring an end to this myself if I have to.
Sander’s team is good. I know this. And with them helping, I know that whoever is doing this won’t be able to hide for long. I can’t wait until they are caught and behind bars.
I wonder what life will be like then—I guess going to East Raven Academy will be a choice then. I’ll finally be able to tell all of my friends who I am. Well, to be fair, they know who I am. They just don’t know my real last name or who my parents are. I’ve never pretended to be somebody I’m not, though.
In LA, kids wanted to be friends with Charlie and me for all the wrong reasons, but at East Raven, we’ve been able to make friends who have no idea who our parents are. They’re my real friends and I love that.
I have friends.
After running for a bit, Sander and I slow down as we approach the hotel again.
“That was good,” Sander says.
“How far did we run?” I ask.
“That was seven miles,” he says.
Seven miles?
Wow.
I usually get exhausted around mile four, and Sander will have to push me to mile five.
“That was good, right?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says. “Really good. I’m impressed. I feel like you’ve been holding back.”
“I think it’s easier to run because I’m not freezing my fingers off,” I say. “Or maybe it’s the ocean air.”
“You do seem happier here,” he says.
“I am happier,” I say. “Not that I was unhappy at East Raven, I just felt trapped. I wasn’t allowed to leave campus. Here, you’ve given me freedom.”
“We still have to be careful,” he says, as we walk into the lobby of the hotel.
“Why did Hunter and Jaxon not train with us?” I ask.
“They wanted to run in the air conditioning,” he says.
This surprises me.
“Why?” I ask. “The ocean view is amazing.”
He shrugs.
I follow him past the stairs and elevators.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“The gym,” he says. “I figure the next part of your training will be easier if it’s not in the sand.”
“Ah,” I say. “Okay. But can we be done in time for the sunrise? I was hoping it would rise while we were running.”
He looks at something on his phone. “Yeah. Thirty minutes to sunrise. I’ll make sure you can watch it.”
“Okay, awesome. Thank you.”
I follow him into the gym. There are a few other people inside, running on treadmills. Hunter and Jaxon both get off their treadmills when they see us. Hunter uses the bottom of his shirt to wipe sweat off his forehead and a middle-aged woman nearly falls off the treadmill checking him out.
As if his ego wasn’t big enough already.
Then Hunter winks at her.
Oh, my goodness. This boy.
The gym in this hotel is rather big, but I’m guessing the guys knew that when we booked here. There is a mostly empty room attached to the gym. There are a lot of yoga mats in the corner and the front of the room has mirrors. I guess maybe they have yoga instructors in here sometimes, or something. But I’m glad for the privacy to train.
“Most of what I’ve taught you is self-defense,” Sander says. “How to get away with as little fighting as possible. I’ve taught you how to run. But now, we are going to teach you how to fight.”
“You need to learn how to throw a punch,” Jaxon says.
“Really?” I ask.
I’m not sure how I feel about learning how to punch somebody. I like the idea of running. Running seems like a better idea.
“Not just for now,” Sander says. “This is stuff you can use in the future. Even if you end up not wanting to join our team, every college-aged girl needs to know how to throw a punch.”
He’s probably right.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do this.”
There is actually a lot more to throwing a punch than I thought. It’s not just swinging your fist at somebody’s face. You have to hold your hand a certain way, and the way you stand can increase the power of the punch.
They also teach me that throwing a punch is going to hurt, but it will hurt the other person more than it will hurt me. I don’t know why they’re using this as their selling point for why I should learn to punch, but it’s not exactly making me want to punch somebody.
Actually, I hope I never have to punch somebody.
After thirty minutes, as promised, Sander stops the training for the day so I can watch the sunrise.
If I am going to be up at five o’clock in the morning, the only good thing about it is being able to watch the sunrise. Though, to be fair, it’s after seven in the morning now and the sun is just now about to rise.
Hunter and Jaxon leave us to continue working out for a bit. I know I’m holding Sander back, which I hate.
Sander and I sit down on large log, close to the water.
“You can go continue working out,” I tell him, as I watch the horizon.
“I’d rather be here,” he says.
“I feel like I’m holding you back.”
“You’re not.”
“You’d work out a lot more if it wasn’t for me,” I say.
“How about this... when we’re done watching the sunrise, I will go finish my workout. You can go hang out in the room with Hunter and Jax,” he says.
“Okay,” I say. That does make me feel a little better.
We sit there and watch as the sun slowly starts to peek out. It’s beautiful—just as beautiful as any sunset I’ve ever seen in Malibu. Maybe better because I’m here with Sander. We both just stay quiet as we watch, eventually we have to get up, though I’m not ready.
“What do you want to do today?” Sander asks.
“Can we just hang out on the beach?” I ask. “I’ve never swum in the Atlantic Ocean before.”
“We can do that,” he says. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever swum in the Atlantic Ocean, either.”
A beach day sounds perfect right now.
After a few more minutes, we walk back inside the hotel. Jax and Hunter are just finishing up their workouts, so they walk with me back to the room while Sander finishes his workout. I get a quick shower, not bothering to wash my hair. I know I’ll need to wash it tonight after swimming. And then I get ready to go to the beach.
Today is going to be a good day.
After everybody eats breakfast at the same café we ate at yesterday, we walk down to the beach a little way from the hotel. It’s not that crowded at the moment, which is nice. Jaxon actually found this place after doing some deep searching online. I guess not a lot of tourists know about this spot.
Mostly, I think the guys want to keep me away from the public as much as possible. I know we went to the mall yesterday, mostly out of necessity, but there is still a threat. There are people looking for me. It’s easy to forget that while I’m here in paradise.
Out farther in the water, I see some people riding jet skis. I’m a little envious. That looks like so much fun.
The waves here aren’t as crazy as they are in Malibu. It wouldn’t be as much fun to surf, but it’s definitely more fun to swim. Plus, the water is warm, like bath water. I didn’t expect it, because the water in the Pacific Ocean is always cold, even in the middle of a hot summer.
The water here is so gorgeous. There are palm trees everywhere and the sand is so warm. It’s hard to remember that I’m not at home. I’m on the other side of the country.
After an hour of being in the sun, I put on some sunscreen, per Sander’s request. He’s probably right, though. The sun here is pretty hot. And even though I have a tan, I haven’t exactly been outside a whole lot over the past couple of months. If I got a sunburn, it would pretty much ruin my vacation.
Vacation.
This isn’t technically a vacation, even if it feels like it. My days are filled with yummy food, sunrises and trips to the beach—if this isn’t a vacation, I don’t know what is. But I am here because somebody tried to kill me.
Well, not just me. They tried to kill a lot of people at my school, too.
I don’t know what this person is trying to achieve by attacking my school. As if enough people weren’t already looking for them, now the FBI is involved. With this many people searching, they are going to get caught. They are going to do something stupid and mess up, and what good will all this have done? And all because they have different political beliefs than my dad. It’s silly.
After swimming for a bit, I sit down on the blanket we have spread under our beach umbrella.
“You look so content out here,” Sander says, sitting down beside me.
Hunter and Jaxon are off doing something else. The last I saw Hunter, he was talking to some girl. I don’t know where Jaxon went, but I bet neither of them are very far.
“I am content,” I say. “The ocean is my happy place. I can’t imagine not living in a beach town.”
“I’ve never lived in a beach town,” he says. “But I think I could get used to it. This is nice.”
“It is,” I say. “I really like Miami.”
“I was just thinking, every single vacation I’ve ever taken is to the beach,” he says. “There are so many places I want to go—like Paris and Tokyo. But still, when I go on vacation, I always end up at the beach.”
“You should just live at the beach, that way when you take vacations, you can visit those other places,” I say.
“I don’t really have a permanent home,” Sander says. “With my job, we’re always going to new cities.”
“Do you want to settle down somewhere?” I ask.
“When I’m older,” he says. “My parents waited until they were in their thirties to have me. Before that, they traveled the world and enjoyed life. I think I want to do that, too—just enjoy everything life has to offer and then settle down.”
“It’s a good concept, but I don’t think moving to a beach town is settling,” I say. “And just because you have kids doesn’t mean you can’t travel the world.”
“No, but it does make traveling more complicated,” he says.
“True,” I say. “My parents had me when they were pretty young. Like, they didn’t even wait until college was over to have my sister.”
“Your mom got married to your stepdad when she was still young,” Sander says. “Why didn’t she have more kids?”
“I don’t remember my mom before my sister died, but I think that kind of changed her. Of course, it did,” I say. “But she never wanted more kids after that. She pretty much adopted Charlie, and the two of us became her everything.”
“What happened to Charlie’s mom?” he asks.
“She died when Charlie was a baby... a drug overdose,” I say. “I don’t know a lot about it, but I don’t think it was an accident. Rick never talks about it, especially not in front of Charlie. But Charlie doesn’t remember his mom. He was only two when it happened.”
“You guys have had a rough life,” he says.
I shake my head. “No, my life has been amazing. When I was really little, I remember my mom and dad fighting over custody of me, but they ended up working everything out without the court system and lawyers. I honestly feel lucky that both my parents fought for me. And then when Mom married Rick, I got a brother. What more could I want? We moved to a big house on the ocean. I was happy. I still am, despite everything.”
“I bet your dad feels really guilty for all of this.”
“Yeah. I know he does. I just don’t want him to give up his job for me, you know? It makes him happy.”
“You’re more important than his job,” Sander says. “I can guarantee that.”
My dad definitely feels that way.
But his job is important. Really important. He makes decisions that affect an entire country. So, I think his job is more important than I am, because I know he is doing good for a lot of people.
“You know, I really like Miami,” Sander says. “But it feels like we never get alone time here.”
“Ah, that’s because you decided to bring Hunter and Jax,” I say. “I am more than happy to ditch them, just say the word.”
He laughs. “I feel better with them here. It means more protection for you.”
“Darn,” I say.
I actually don’t mind having them around, but I also wouldn’t mind having some time without them.
“Things are pretty crazy right now,” he says. “But it won’t always be this way.”
“It’s just hard to remember that, in the moment,” I say.
“Let’s just...” he reaches up and pushes a piece of hair from my face, “enjoy this moment. One day at a time.”
“I can do that,” I say, grinning at him.
I lean over to kiss him, when suddenly I am pulled away. Somebody has grabbed my legs and somebody else has my arms and I am being walked towards the ocean.
“I am going to kill you!” I yell at Jax and Hunter, but they don’t care. They just swing me a few times and send me flying into the water.
The two of them just laugh, like it’s the funniest thing in the world.
They think that now.
I will get them back.
I splash them, trying to at least get a little payback, but they’re already wet. Before I’m even done splashing them, the two of them are running towards me. I run away from them, but am tackled in the water.
That is pretty much how we spend the rest of our day, just messing around on the beach. I can’t remember the last time I have had so much fun.
Not bad for a not-vacation vacation.
I have a sundress over my bikini and my hair is still wet from the ocean when we go to dinner. We’re eating on the balcony of a seafood restaurant. The guys are talking about something, but I’m not paying attention because I’m just watching the ocean.
Today was amazing, and I feel so happy. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t thinking about my situation. I wasn’t scared. I was just having fun and enjoying myself.
Things at East Raven got a little tense for a while. I felt like I couldn’t breathe—I was trapped. I couldn’t leave campus. I couldn’t sleep in my own dorm room. I felt like I couldn’t even go to the bathroom by myself, which was kind of true. Sander would stand outside and wait for me, which always felt so awkward. Talk about an invasion of privacy.
Here, I’m just another tourist enjoying my vacation. I’m hanging out with my boyfriend and two of my other friends. We’re goofing off like kids our age are supposed to. I know that we will eventually have to leave here, and I am dreading that moment. I feel like it could happen any time.
“Phoenix.”
I look over and see Sander, Hunter, and Jax looking at me.
“What?” I ask.
“She’s dazed,” Hunter says.
I just smile. “Today was so fun.”
“We were just discussing what we want to do tomorrow,” Sander says.
“Umm... can we do more touristy stuff?” I ask. “Maybe more water stuff. Today was so much fun. I want to pretend like this is a vacation for a little bit longer.”
“Sure, but you still have to train in the morning,” he says.
“I will,” I say, knowing that our training sessions are super important.
“We should make Miami the home base for our team,” Jaxon says.
“You can do that?” I ask.
“We can do whatever we want,” Hunter says.
“That’s really cool,” I say.
“Serenity would probably like it,” Jaxon says. “She loves Florida.”
“And I don’t think it would take much to convince Phoenix,” Sander says, turning to me. “You want to live here?”
“Heck yes,” I say. “Sign me up. Seriously.”
Moving to paradise with my boyfriend and friends? Sounds amazing.
“You guys would still be traveling a lot, though,” I say.
“Yeah, of course,” Sander says. “It’s part of the job. But we’d be here, too. Our company doesn’t like us to work too much. They don’t want us getting burnt out. So, they encourage each of us to get a lot of time off whenever possible.”
“You went from New Zealand to East Raven,” I say. “How long has it been since you’ve had time off.”
“Awhile,” Sander says. “But I never wanted time off before. I’ll probably be taking some time off after all this is over, and spend a little time with you.”
I smile.
Hunter pretends to gag. “You two are so sweet, I want to vomit.”
“You are going to get so much crap when you get a girlfriend,” Jaxon says.
“Nah, ’cause I probably won’t get a girlfriend until I’m thirty and all you guys will be married with kids by then,” Hunter says.
I choke on my water. “I am seventeen. Please don’t talk about marriage or kids.”
“I’m with her on this one,” Sander says.
“Whatever, you know it’s true,” Hunter says.
I doubt Hunter won’t have a girlfriend until he’s thirty. Plenty of girls give him attention now, but he never seems interested. But one of these days, a girl is going to capture his attention.
At least he’s not like Charlie, always jumping from girl to girl. Mom says he’s just too picky. One time I asked Charlie why he does that—why he only dates a girl for a few weeks before dumping her. He told that me he knows right away if the girl is right for him or not. Meaning, they’re always wrong for him. He says he’s looking for the one. At the time, I thought he was just being sweet. Now, I think maybe he said that to get me off his case. Though, in my defense, I was only mad because he dumped this girl who was my friend, and then she refused to talk to me anymore after they broke up. It’s frustrating to lose friends because of things that are literally out of my control.
I look back out at the water, sad that the sun is going down on another day, but I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring.