Free Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury Page A

coughing.
    Maya grinned when she saw that I was okay. Just soaked, bruised, scratched, andcovered with sand. “You look like you fell into a cement mixer.”
    “Uh-oh.” Julio nodded toward the pavilion.
    The kiteboard guy was racing toward us, shouting, “Hey! What's going on?”
    He ran up, breathing hard.
    “The wind grabbed your kite, mister.” I handed him the control bar. “We, uh … we saved it.”
    The guy looked at me, then at Julio with the kite bunched and overflowing in his arms. “I must have been careless. Hey, thanks for running it down for me.”
    “Yeah, no problem.”
    He laughed. “No problem? You look like roadkill.”
    He gathered up his equipment and started back up the beach.
    “Hey!” I called.
    The guy stopped and turned back.
    “Are you a famous kiteboarder?”
    “Pshh.
I wish.”
    I frowned at Julio. “You idiot.”
    Julio shrugged.
    Maya pointed at my arms and chest. “Yikes! Blood.”
    I looked down. Cuts and scratches ran across me like spiderwebs. “Cool.”
    Maya stared at me. “I think
you
might be the idiot, Calvin.”
    “And I think you're prob'ly right.” I grinned.
    Julio slapped my back. “You sure know how to end summer with a bang, bro.”

I rinsed off at the beach park pavilion. Sand was caked in my hair, my ears, my underwear, and the pockets of my shorts. I squeezed the water out of my T-shirt and threw it over my shoulder.
    “Hey, Cal,” Maya said. “Are you supposed to meet your mom here?”
    “No,” I said, checking the scratches on my arms and chest. They stung, but not too bad.
    “Well, look.” Maya pointed with her chin.
    Just down the way, Mom and my six-year-old sister, Darci, were spreading a blanket out on the grass. Weird, I thought. Mom hardly ever comes to the beach. She's always working.
    We headed over. Mom saw us and waved.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked.
    Mom gasped when she saw my cuts and scratches. “Cal! What happened?”
    “He went kiteboarding,” Julio said.
    Mom gaped.
    “He just went in the ocean, Mrs. Coconut,” Maya said.
    Mom looked at me and sighed. “Well, anyway, I was hoping to find you here, Cal. I have something special to tell you and Darci.”
    “What is it?”
    Mom glanced at Maya and Julio. “It's kind of a surprise.”
    I winced. Mom's surprises could be good. Or not.
    Julio sat, always ready for a good surprise. Maya knew better. “Let's go, Julio. I think this is private.”
    “Oh … sure.” Julio sprang up. They left. I sat down next to Darci. “What's up, Darce?”
    She shrugged.
    Mom smiled. A big smile. A big
fake
smile.
    Uh-oh.

    She clapped her hands together. “Guess what, kids? Someone is coming to live with us, someone you're going to love. Isn't that great? Her name is Stella. She's fifteen.”
    I blinked. What?
    Darci brightened. “You mean I'll have a sister?”
    “Yes, Darci, she'll be just like a big sister.Stella's mom and I were best friends in high school.”
    Sand must have found its way into my brain, because it wasn't working. Did someone say
big sister?
    “She's coming from Texas,” Mom added.
    “But why?” Darci asked. “Doesn't she have a house?”
    “Of course she has a house, sweetie. Her mom just … well, her mom thinks she needs to get away for a while.”
    “Why?”
    “Well,” Mom said, then stopped to think. “Sometimes teenage girls and their moms need a break from each other. It will be good for Stella to live here.”
    “Big sister?” I finally said.
    Mom snapped on that fake smile again. “It's so exciting, Cal. She's arriving Saturday.”
    My thoughts swirled like water going down a drain.
    “I know it's kind of sudden,” Mom added.
    Kind
of? Then I thought, Hmmm. Maybethis could be a good thing. “Are you going to make her the man of the house instead of me?”
    Mom laughed.
    I'd been man of the house since my now-famous dad, Little Johnny Coconut, hit it big with a song called “A Little Bit of La-la-la-love” and left the islands for