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

Saturday Night

Around 5, Melissa announced that they could all help carry some food, and then walk down to the beach for the barbecue.
When they got there, there were lots of people sitting on logs, getting food from a small table that was set up on the small amount of beach they had, since it was high tide. There were maybe about, 25 people there. "Can we eat now?" Lauren asked her mom. "Just hold on." Meredith told her. Lauren sighed and found a place to sit. Her mom followed Melissa, Katie and Coco who were saying "hi" to people and making conversation the way moms can magically do. "Kenzie! Come over here." Melissa called. Kenzie looked at her friends. "I'll be back." She told them before getting up and walking over to where her mom was sitting. There was a woman with black hair, who looked about mid-to-late-thirties sitting across from Melissa. Beside her were two girls about who looked like her, and about Kenzie's age. "Kenzie, this is Klaleia, and this is Rykel, they're about your age, I think you should introduce them to the rest of your group and you guys could go hang out together." Her mom told her. Kenzie held her breath. "Classic Parents" she thought to herself. But she felt bad for the girls, and she knew they were probably just as uncomfortable as she was, so she agreed and took them over to where Johnny, Lauren, Annie, Hayley and Asher were sitting. They sat down on the log and began to introduce themselves. "Well, you already know, but I'm Kenzie, and I'm 15." Kenzie said. "I'm Johnny, I'm 16." Johnny said from beside her. "I'm Hayley, and I'm 10, but I'm almost 11. In just a few weeks." She informed them. "I'm Lauren, Johnny's my brother, and I'm 14." Lauren explained. "I'm Asher and I'll be 17 soon." Asher said. "And I'm Annie, Hayley's my sister and I'm 14 as well." She finished. Klaleia and Rykel looked at each other before speaking. "I'm Klaleia, but everyone calls me Klai for short, and I'm 16." She said. "I'm Rykel and I'm also 14." Rykel said. "Guys it feels kind of crowded here, do you wanna go sit at the dock?" Lauren suggested. They all agreed and went to walk down the ramp and onto the dock that they had sat at many times before. "Hey remember that time that Johnny jumped off into the water from here?" Hayley asked. "And that time he pulled Kenzie in as well?" Lauren added. They all laughed. They sat down in a sort-of circle in the middle of the dock. "So let's go around and say what grades were all going into." Lauren said. "Speaking of scho-" Johnny started. "STOOOP!! We're not using that word!" Hayley interjected. "Sorry about that. Hayley doesn't want to have to think about going back to... you know." Annie explained. "Hey, you didn't want to either." Asher reminded her. "Anyways... what I was going to say is that I can't believe it starts it only 2 days!" Johnny exclaimed. "Ew." Annie commented. They all laughed. "So what grades are you guys going into?" Lauren said. "Well I'm going into grade 11." Klai said. "Same!" Johnny added. "And I'm going into grade 9." Rykel said. "Me too." said Annie."I'm going into grade 10." Lauren told them. "Me as well." Kenzie said. "And I'm going into grade 5, and Asher here is gonna be a senior!" Hayley said on behalf of her and Asher. "So do you guys live here?" Kenzie asked Klai. Klai shook her head. "No, we live in Utah. Our parents just bought the cabin by the South Dock a few moths ago, this is our first time here." She explained. "Oh! So that's why we heard voices and saw someone in the window this morning." Hayley exclaimed. "Huh?" Klai asked. "We went to the South Dock today to sit on the beach... although it's kind of a hassle to get to, do have any idea why?" Kenzie asked. "Sorry, no." Klai told them. "But I bet Ms. Kingsteen does!" Rykel exclaimed. "Who's that?" Lauren asked. "The lady who lives in the small cabin across from ours, it's in the other side of the path that leads to the ramp. She's the one who sold us the cabin, I bet she's lived there for years." She explained. "If you could figure it out, that'd be great. Then Hayley could stop obsessing over "her new mystery"." Annie told them. Klai raised an eyebrow. "The last two times we've been here we kind of gotten a detective thing rollin'." Hayley said with pride. "That's sound cool. Can I join? We're gonna be around here a lot more now that we've got everything settled." Rykel said. "Woah, woah, woah. Hold your horses there-" Hayley started to say, but Lauren cut her off. "Of course, you can join us. It's not like we're some secretive group or something." Rykel smiled and relaxed a bit more now that she was part of their "detective group." "Hey, maybe we could go to the South Beach together tomorrow and see if we can figure out anything more about our mystery." Hayley suggested as she put her hands together at the end. "Sure! Actually, there might even be some old files and stuff from when Ms. Kingsteen's family owned the cabin." Rykel said. "I take back what I was gonna say earlier, you seem like you can really be useful to the team." Hayley told her. Annie shook her head at her sister. Looks like they might be able to solve another mystery after all.