Free Laguna Cove by Alyson Noël

asked carefully She never fully understood her friend’s unwavering determination. It didn’t seem to make her any happier, and it always seemed to come at the expense of everything else.
    “College. I have to go to a good school. I don’t want to be hanging around here forever. And you know how much I’ve been wanting a surf sponsorship.”
    Ellie seemed on edge, but Jade was determined to finally have the conversation she’d been mulling over for a while now. So she proceeded cautiously. “I don’t know, El. It’s like, well, remember when we first started surfing? How your mom taught us because your brother and his friends were making fun of us?”
    They both smiled at the memory. Ellie’s brother, Dean, was two years older, gorgeous, cool, and a great surfer, so of course all three girls had idolized him. But he and his friends wanted nothing to do with them. Surfing was a “boy’s” sport, and they always got a good laugh watching the girls struggling to stay on their boards. One day Ellie’s mom saw what was going on and packed them up, took them over to another beach, and nearly every day for the next several weeks patiently taught the girls to surf until they were good enough, and confident enough, to hold their own. By the time they returned to Laguna Cove, the boys were no longer laughing.
    “Well,” Jade continued, “It seemed like you were different back then. Like you just loved being in the water, and at school it was like you just liked learning new stuff.”
    “What are you trying to say, Jade?” Ellie eyed her warily.
    “Well, what I mean is, sometimes I worry that you’re not really loving this stuff anymore. And if you’re not really loving something, then like, what’s the point?” She looked at her friend carefully, but Ellie was staring off into the horizon, and Jade wondered if she had just stopped listening.
    They sat quietly for a while; then Ellie looked at Jade and said, “I know you worry about me. But I worry about you, too. Only for the exact opposite reason.” She smiled.
    Jade shrugged, then looked across the beach and said, “Hey, there’s Lola.”
    They both looked over to see Lola smiling and waving, holding her flip-flops in one hand, while her bare feet carved into the sand as she made her way across the beach.
    “Hey, you guys,” she said, leaning in to hug first Ellie, then Jade.
    “Are you okay?” Jade asked.
    “Yeah, why?” Lola asked.
    “I don’t know. Your mascara’s a little smudged, and all these years I’ve known you I’ve never seen your makeup anything less than perfect.”
    “Jeez. Cut me some slack, will ya?” Lola said, sitting on the bench across from her friends. “So did I miss anything?”
    “We were just talking about when Ellie’s mom taught us to surf,” Jade said, eyeing Lola, still not convinced everything was so great. That amazing smile she always had seemed a little muted now.
    “That’s one of my best memories of her. Well, that and those orange chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies she used to make,” Lola said.
    “And don’t forget how she crocheted those matching sky blue bikinis for all of us,” Jade added.
    “Oh God. We thought we were so hot in those,” Ellie laughed.
    “Yeah, until they came off in the water!” Lola laughed.
    “Right in front of those boys!” Jade said. “Too bad for them we were only ten, so there wasn’t much to see!”
    “Speak for yourself,” Lola said. “I was stunning at ten!”
    “Sorry, Lola, we still had baby fat. Ellie was the stunning one.” Jade smiled, looking at Ellie, who had turned bright red. She’d never been good at receiving compliments.
    “So what are you guys doing later?” Ellie asked.
    “I’m supposed to go to this stupid movie premiere with my parents,” Lola said, rolling her eyes.
    “Must be rough,” Jade and Ellie said simultaneously.
    “Yeah, yeah. I don’t mean to sound like a brat. I kind of had other plans, but I guess they just got