Page 4 of The Summer List

“How about you and Sandy get started, and I’ll bring your bags in for you?”

I straighten up, and the cat lets out a yowl of protest.

“Oh, um, right. Yeah, okay. Thanks, Mom.”

She gives my shoulder a final squeeze. “I’ll say goodbye before I go.”

We’re only a twenty minute drive away from our house. I can go home for dinner with my parents and little brother any night I want. It’s not like we’re signing off for the whole summer or anything, which makes me feel extra stupid when a lump rises in my throat.

The longest I’ve ever been away from home was a week of summer camp in junior high. It was supposed to be a month, but my already moderate-to-severe social anxiety morphed into full-blown panic attacks that had the counselors begging my parents to come get me almost as desperately as I did.

I started therapy pretty soon after that.

I force myself to remember this isn’t camp. In a couple hours, I’m going to have this entire mansion to myself for the whole summer.

Just me, Bijoux, and Aurora Rose living our best introvert life.

I ignore the fact that these cats seem to be exceptionally extroverted and focus on the image of a still and quiet morning on the couch with them instead.

I take a deep breath and let it out.

I can do this.

“Shall we?” Sandy asks before leading the way into the rest of the house.

CHAPTER 2

Naomi

“How are you going to go from this to living the broke student life next year?”

Water droplets splash against the surface of the mansion’s pool as Shal sweeps her hand out in an arc to indicate the luxury that surrounds us.

“Ugh, don’t remind me about student life,” I say with a groan as I wiggle around in my donut-shaped pool floatie. The material makes a farting sound that Priya giggles at where she’s sunbathing on a pool chair. “Don’t remind me about anything to do with university.”

Shal kicks her feet to steer her own floatie away from a collision with mine. “Fair enough. This is our last summer to be wild and free teenagers, after all.”

I snort, and I hear Priya make a similar sound from over in her chair. Neither of us are what you’d call wild and free, especially compared to Shal.

I met Shal and Priya on the first day of first grade. As twins, they always stood out in classrooms. Being South Asian students in a mostly white school just added to the amount of stares and uncomfortable comments they received. Add in the fact that their mom dressed them identically until they were almost eight years old, and you’ve got yourself what Shal calls a recipe for a childhood identity crisis.

Priya and I were the ones drawn to each other from the start. We were both used to being labeled ‘shy kids’ before kindergarten even started, and it didn’t take long for us to earn a reputation as nerds too.

I doubt I would have become friends with someone like Shal if she weren’t Priya’s sister. Whereas Priya spent her childhood wishing all the attention would just go away, Shal decided she was going to put that attention to work. She was head girl in our last year of elementary school, MVP of the high school volleyball team for three years straight, and a frequent attendee of parties Priya and I probably would have skipped out on to study, even if we had been invited.

Our little trio was more of a thing when we were younger, but Shal still makes time to hang out with us, and I know Priya and I would have had way more of a hellish time in high school if it weren’t for her influence on the popular crowd.

“Wild and free,” I say in a dreamy voice as I tip my head back to stare up at the cloudless blue sky. “What must that be like?”

I can hear a grasshopper buzzing somewhere in the grass close by, the high-pitched whining ringing out above the sound of waves lapping at the side of the pool. The air smells like wet cement and chlorine.

“Oh, don’t act like there’s some law of the universe that means you two can’t lighten up a little,” Shal drawls. “I work hard in school too, and I still manage to have fun.”

“Yeah, but fun has a different meaning for you,” Priya counters.

Shal sits up straighter in her floatie, which causes the plastic to make the same farting sound mine did. She ignores the indignity and pushes her huge black sunglasses up onto her head so she can squint at Priya.

“What exactly are you planning on doing with your summer?” she asks, only pausing long enough to indicate the question was rhetorical. “Reading through all the university textbooks you’ve already bought and taking extra clarinet lessons to get ready for the university band. Come on, Pri. This is literally your last summer before we’re, like, actually living in the adult world. There has to be something new you want to try out while you still can.”

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