“Where are you taking me?” Ross’s voice is full-on suspicious. I can’t say I blame them. We’ve turned off the traffic-clogged road and stopped in front of a large metal gate with coiled sharp wire on top. It looks like it would skin you alive if you tried climbing over it. It is very uninviting, and seems way too similar to the entrance of the horrifying research facility in Splash. Ross is probably thinking this is all a setup.

“I promise you’ll see in like two seconds,” I say, using Kavya’s password to open her phone and read the instructions her mom left for parking. “Okay, so the code is easy to crack. Enter one-two-three-four-pound, then just drive through the entrance and park in her spot.”

I know what’s coming before Kavya screams it.

“THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!”

The Donkey Laugh bursts out of me, Kavya’s cackle joining in, but Ross just fidgets nervously in the back seat, playing with the zipper on their sequined jacket while they eye the barbed wire.

Kavya finally manages to catch her breath enough to punch in the numbers on a keypad outside the gate. The metal fence opens and she drives us into a small parking lot that butts up against the shoreline. An old dock extends from the lot out into the ocean, and a beige boat bobs alongside it. Avani, Kavya’s mom who looks like an older version of my best friend—russet-brown skin, gorgeous thick black hair blowing in the breeze—is loading bright yellow plastic boxes into the boat.

“We’re here,” I say, then turn to Ross expectantly.

“It’s, uh . . .” They look around at the cracked cement lot, the dingy, dark metal of the dock. The scowl on their face gets deeper and deeper. Really, there isn’t anything here to impress. “Rusty?”

“Ha!” Kavya cackles. “Yeah, it’s not much, is it?”

Ross shakes their head. “It’s kind of an eyesore on a gorgeous coastline. Just like all docks, piers, oil platforms, and any man-made structure that invades the waters and beaches, but whatever.”

I’ve got to make this situation better, and fast. I unbuckle my seat belt, hop out of the car, and open Ross’s door. “Okay, fine, you’re right, but just look past that for now. The real surprise is out there.”

I point toward the water. Ross follows my finger, and their scowl just gets worse. “Wait, is this some kind of a joke? What’s out there?”

What kind of a question is that?

“The ocean,” I say, looking out to the Pacific just to make sure that it is in fact still there. “We’re going with Kavya’s mom on a research trip. She’s a marine biologist.”

Ross crosses their arms in front of their chest. “We’re going out on the ocean?”