“Can we talk about my epic block again?” Elijah says, breaking the tension.

Everyone starts laughing, and Darien pelts Elijah with a marshmallow. Elijah jumps up and drops a handful of dried seaweed on Darien’s head, and that starts a massive game of chase up and down the beach, all of us flinging dried seaweed at one another and dodging marshmallow bombs.

The game ends when we run out of marshmallows, and everyone retreats back to the shrinking fire or to their tents or pickup beds. Elijah and I stay by the fire until the last dying embers finally turn black. I pour a bucket of sea water on top of them before dragging myself into the tent Elijah pitched earlier. I’m still grateful he was there to help with the tent; otherwise I’d be sleeping in the sand using a rock for a pillow. I’ve never been any good at putting up tents or putting together IKEA furniture or anything like that. I can see too many possibilities.

“Well, that didn’t exactly go over well,” I say to Elijah, lying down on top of my sleeping bag.

“I think maybe everyone’s just a little disappointed. I mean, it’s a thing the whole team looks forward to. I understand that you think it’s a distraction, and I agree, but, um… maybe not everyone else does,” Elijah says, his voice quiet but insistent in the dark.

I know he’s right, but I can’t let it go. “It’s just way too easy for things that start out small and harmless to grow into something that you can’t control. We’ve got to try to at least get a regional title. That’s the only way I’m going to get a scholarship. I need everything to line up just right if I have any chance at getting out of here.”

“Did your dad get a scholarship?” Elijah whispers in the dark.

My gut sinks. “No.”

“He made the most out of it, though, didn’t he? Why are you so hell-bent on leaving Meridien? Leaving Texas?”

I roll over to face him. “Why aren’t you so hell-bent on leaving Texas? I mean, there’s so much more out there. Didn’t living in Houston make you want to see more of the world?”

I can feel Elijah shrug next to me.