New Explorers - 3rd book in "The Island" series

Friday Night

When everyone got off the taxi, up the hill, and inside the cabin, the girls remembered their deal from last time. "We get that room!" Kenzie shouted as she pointed to the right from the door. "Ugh... I was hoping you'd forget." Johnny said. "Not a chance." Kenzie replied as her, Lauren, Annie and Hayley headed to the room to put their stuff down.

After having dinner of hamburgers, Hayley suggested that they go down to the beach. "Actually, there's a different beach that I think you guys might like to go to." Melissa said. "It's just a few minutes away from here, it's pretty much just as close as the other one, but it's ok the south side of the island." She explained. Everyone agreed to go there.

When they got there they found that it was hard to get to the beach. "There's no stirs that lead down." Annie observed. "That's weird." Kenzie mused. "No problem for me." Johnny said as he climbed over the railing of the ramp that led down to the dock and onto a cluster of rocks. He climbed down carefully from there and jumped down onto the same kind of rocky sand as the other beach. "Well that's all great that you can get down there, don't you think it's kind of dangerous if there's no regular way to?" Kenzie asked. Johnny shrugged, and continued walking along the beach. Asher made his way down too, with Annie following him holding with hand. Hayley and Lauren both helped each other down, while Melissa, Katie, Meredith and Coco stayed up top watching.
They all sat down on the sand and looked across the water. "Isn't that the dock that you thought you could swim to from the other island last time?" Lauren asked as she pointed to the dock attached to the ramp their moms were standing on. "What can I say? I'm an optimist." Johnny told them. They all laughed. "So... school's starting soon I guess." Lauren said. They all groaned. "Don't remind me!" Hayley said. "Well, to be fair, all the commercials and advertisements are about back-to-school anyways, so I bet you've been reminded a lot already." Lauren defended. "Exactly!" Hayley answered. "Wow. I'm gonna be starting high school, I feel so old." Annie mused. Asher, Johnny, Kenzie and Lauren laughed. "Then what are we? Seniors?" Kenzie asked on behalf of her and Lauren. "And I'm basically dead." Johnny added. "And I am dead." Asher finished. Annie stared at him before they all laughed. "You guys are making me feel like a baby." Hayley said as she crossed her arms. "Enjoy it." Lauren said as she put her hand on Hayley's shoulder. "So I hear that tomorrow night is the annual end-of-summer barbecue for all the people on the island." Asher said. "Yeah, my mom was talking about that too." Kenzie added. "Are we gonna go?" Annie asked. "Duh." Lauren said. "There's food." Everyone laughed at Lauren's love for food. "Well I can't argue with that." Annie answered. "Do you think that there's anyone our age around here?" Kenzie asked. "I doubt it. The closest school is on the big island about a 20 minute's boat ride from here, although there might be families with vacation cabins, but what are the chances that they would come right before school starts?" Lauren explained. Annie shrugged. "We did." "And it is a long weekend." Asher reminded them. "Guys can we make a deal that this weekend we don't use the word... "school"?" Hayley finally choked out. "That's gonna be pretty hard but... okay, I can try." Lauren agreed. Annie sighed. "I'd like to be rid of that thought too." She said. "I'll do it for Annie." Asher said. "My heart." Kenzie said as she put her hand over her heart. "I wouldn't mind not having to think about schoolwork." She stated. "Then I'll do it for Kenzie." Johnny agreed. She rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her. "Ooo! Jenzie!" Meredith shouted from the group of the moms. "You guys are so cute!" Melissa added. Johnny rolled his eyes. "Come on guys, let's go back to the cabin and play a game or something. Maybe we can come back here tomorrow." Johnny suggested. They all got up and headed back up the path.