Sea Stars & Wishes

Chapter 3

Lyrika

Waves crash against the soft, eroded rocky shore, creating a relaxing melody in the sunny, early spring morning. Lyrika sits with her legs crossed on a large beach towel, just far enough away from the dark salty waves. She looks up from her tablet, her sunglasses now on the tip of her nose, her eyes suddenly adjusting to the sun reflecting off the water. She blinks rapidly and pushes her sunglasses further up. Once her eyes adjust again she looks out at the water. Still nothing. She huffs and looks back down at her tablet.

"Why did we come here, again? The water is way too cold to even get in," Cassidy asks, slightly irritated. The two girls have been sitting on the beach towel mostly in silence for over an hour now. Lyrika had begged Cassidy in the morning to come with her to the beach so she could collect the items Song had requested. Cassidy was better with talking to strangers than Lyrika.

"I just need some water for testing," Lyrika answers without looking up.

"What's wrong with getting water from the shore right here?" Cassidy continues, gesturing to the waves crashing on the shore mere feet from them.

"The water here is polluted compared to being further out. If I have polluted water my results will be inaccurate," Lyrika explains.

"But you're studying sea stars, most of them are in shallow areas like this beach," Cassidy retorts.

"Most beaches and shores don't have polluted waters," Lyrika looks over to Cassidy, beginning to get irritated herself, "plus do you see any sea stars here?" Cassidy holds her hands up in surrender. Both girls, now irritated with each other, look away from one another and cease all conversation.

Cassidy pushes herself up off the towel, "I'm going to get something to eat while we wait on the surfer boys. Want anything?"

"No thanks," Lyrika responds quietly. She watches Cassidy disappear off the beach through the corner of her eyes. She sighs.

Lyrika looks back towards the ocean. Still no surfers. She huffs. How long does it take to get some clean sea water?

Lyrika had convinced Cassidy to ask a surfer to find some non-polluted sea water. Lyrika wasn't within earshot of the conversation because she was busy picking up seaweed pieces, but she has a feeling Cassidy somehow embarrassed her having to speak for her.

She glances over to the surfboard that sits just beyond the towel and wet bag of seaweed. A part of the deal was that the girls had to watch one of the boards because the boat could only fit one surfboard. Not an issue. The issue is how long the boys were taking to get the water.

"Hey, I got that water you were asking for." Lyrika whips her head around. A tan, lean, shirtless guy walks up to Lyrika. His wet black curly hair bouncing with each step. He carries a gallon glass jar full of water.

"Oh, thank you," Lyrika blinks in surprise. She carefully takes the jar from him, setting it beside her. She reaches across her towel into her bag to retrieve two folded twenty-dollar bills. Lyrika hands it over to the surfer.Then, she picks up the jar of water once more, inspecting it.

"Damian! So much for waiting on me!" His buddy, a tall, pale, lean guy with sandy blonde hair runs up holding a surfboard under his arm

"Sorry, Jake," Damian laughs, "just want to get out into the water already. You already have your board."

"I'll see you out there then," Jake pats his bare shoulder and waves to Lyrika before running into the water. He jumps up and lays on the board and starts paddling out.

"Sorry about him," Damian laughs, turning back to Lyrika.

"Oh, it's fine. Thank you again for the water. Where did you get it by chance? I just can't have pollution or anything of the sort in it," Lyrika explains. The water is perfectly crystal clear, it even glitters in the sunlight, but that could just be the jar and sunlight reflecting with the water. But something tugs at her that it's something different.