“Dad we have to go. NOW.”

“I have to drink my tea!” He whined.

“Well, HURRY UP.”

My mom laughed as I scolded my dad for being so intolerable.

Then he started to drink it very slowly, making a loud slurping noise just to annoy me. It was 7:22, and I wanted to go to school early so I can meet up with my best friends Jayden and Ava in the band room. The reason it was so important, was because all members of the band were supposed to leave the instruments there in the morning so we wouldn’t have to carry it each and every period. Though I play the flute and it has a narrow case, I wanted to drop it off because I tend to bang it into things likes poles, trees, desks, and people. But my father wasn’t helping my situation. I stood there next to the door in my P.E. clothes and jacket, tapping my foot rapidly. My brother laughed as I attempted to drag my dad to the door. I shot him a scary glare. And just as he started mocking me, he ran away in fear.

“Okay, your done lets go.” I said in relief.

“Wait, I need my keys…” He said with a foolish smile.

“AUUUUUUUGH.” I moaned as he took out the keys that were originally in his back pocket the entire time. “Oh, I totally didn’t know that was there.” He said sarcastically. I gave him a dirty look as my mom chuckled at the sight. “Bye mom, see you later!” I said as I rushed down the cement steps. I got in the car and buckled up, urging my dad to start the car. We finally arrived at the school. I waved goodbye to my dad and got out of the car. I checked my fitness tracker on my wrist. 7:27. Not bad. I walked on, lugging my P.E. bag, on my shoulders and my lunch box, sheet music,and flute in my arms. On these days my schedule is usually really fun and not as nerve wrecking as my other four classes the next day. I have P.E. homeroom, band, and then homeroom.

Since the band room is all the way at the back of the school, it took me a while to get there. I met up with Jayden on the way, lugging his alto saxophone in his hands. “Hey Wise Girl.” He said. Since we both read the Heroes of Olympus series’s he started calling me the nickname given to the one of main characters in the books. “Hey Feline Face.” I said as he grinned “Hey, don’t you have to go to that beach cleanup thing for Earth Club tomorrow?” I nodded my head in reply. “You know how we have to write those poems for Homeroom? You could probably get inspiration from the beach for your poem.” I actually didn’t think of that. “Well, I’ll probably have to take some notes in my notebook then.” I said deep in thought. “I don’t think you need it Wise Girl, you have so much knowledge that what you explain to me endlessly is scary, and adorable. Plus your a walking dictionary so I probably wouldn’t even be able to read the words you write.” He laughed as I punched him playfully on his shoulder.

We arrived at the door to the band room. We saw the 5th period band getting ready for class. I put my flute in my little wooden shelf, as Jayden put in his. As we headed outside, Ava attempted to scare us by jumping and yelling “AHAHAHAHA!” “Nice try Avacado.” I said with a laugh. Jayden was still recovering from the shock. We reached the roll call area for P.E. “See you guys at Core!” Jayden said as he ran off to his next class. (Core is what the school calls homeroom.) Ava and I met with our other friends Ally, Ashley, Andrea, June, Lilija, and Renee.  We all started talking, and then went into the girls locker room to change. The day went by at a good pace, as usual. In P.E. we we had free play. Ava and I had a contest to see who could dance the best. Though I am not a dancer myself( I am quite horrible at it) I was able to pull of some Lindsey Stirling style moves. Whereas Ava started to attempt the same moves, leading to her tumbling into me.

In Core class we had to write down ideas for our poems. Jayden, Ava, and our friend Zach were in the same table I sat at, so we all gave each other ideas, because our poems had to be related to nature. After that period it was lunch, I was thinking about the beach clean up. Then I realized I had to meet my friends at the band room. I picked up my things and headed off. If my dad is going to be like he was this morning, I will be a literal hurricane. I thought.

The next day…

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed and flailed my arms as I called my dad. Here comes the hurricane, I thought. We were supposed to be at the school parking lot by eight o’clock for a head count. My friend Subi was standing beside me, her parents dropped her off here so we can go to the school together, and then take her to her carpool and meet her at the beach. I stood there in my jeans and black and white sweater, in frustration. While Subi stood next to me wearing a Disney tank top with bright pink shoes and jeans. If you see us side by side, you could already tell we are TOTAL opposites. She’s a super girly girl, and always wears bright girly clothes. While I am here, blabbing about science and how things work in a vocabulary no one would understand . Standing in jeans and t-shirts, and probably have paintbrushes in my hair, and paint on my face, hands and fingers. Anyway, we both stood there, my mom beside me as I tapped my foot rapidly, my arms crossed. Finally my dad came in, he honestly looked like a man that literally just walked out of a Dapper Day poster, and upgraded his outfit to fit the 21st century. “About time, but I don’t think the CEO of Apple is coming along though dad.” (Though I definitely would have loved that.)

My dad and mom’s laughs were synchronized while I opened the door. “After you ladies.” He said in a fake British accent. “Why thank you kind sir.” I said. We drove to the the school. We arrived in the parking lot. I stepped out meeting with my science teacher and the  Earth Club instructor Mrs. Moore. My dad stood beside my friend Claire’s mom talking to her. My science teacher and I were having a conversation about how the climate change was affecting the tectonic plates, just like when there was Pangaea. Subi got bored of our conversation. so she walked over to our other friends Maya, Emma, Izzy, Josie, and Samantha, and started talking excitedly.

Now, I should explain the point of the beach clean-up: We were basically going to clean up the beach(obviously) have lunch, and take out some evasive plants for dune restoration. It may sound simple, but really it was a lot harder than it looked. Anyway, once the entire club and CJSF( California Junior State Federation) came we all crowded around the two instructors. They started talking about the shortest directions with less traffic, because we were going to one of the beaches in Half Moon Bay. I had been there before and I remember it took about 1 to 2 hours to drive there. We all got in our cars. My friends Rafael was carpooling with me and my dad. We buckled are seat belts and started driving. My dad and Rafael were chatting away as I looked out at the landscape before me, my head leaned against the window. The buildings turned into little houses. The houses transformed slowly into hills. The hills turning into dunes of sand. Words were swirling like a hurricane in my mind as I watched. We had been driving for almost an hour. Rafael and I pointed out the boats in the dock, and the tide constantly crashing against the boulders. My favorite part when we were driving, was watching the forest. The trees were tall and thin, I felt at peace in the quiet environment. But one of my other most memorable moments was watching the ocean. Hearing the waves crashing and falling is my favorite sound in the whole world( second to the song of the birds.)  But then I knew that we finally had arrived.

I jumped out of the car as I ran to one of the dunes overlooking the ocean. I breathed in the salty air. My favorite smell. I stood there until my friends arrived. My dad took pictures of the group standing in front of the landscape. I took a few pictures with Subi and my other friends. We all decided to go down to the beach and wait for Mrs. Moore and my science teacher Mrs. Coventry. We started throwing sea foam at each other from the waves crashing and falling in front of us. This lasted for about fifteen minutes, until we were called back to the parking lot to get trash bags. I paired up with My friend Samantha( I call her Sammie, or Sam)  and her dad helped. My dad went of with his camera drifting away. But he joined in later on. We picked up all sorts of things. I even found a pair of paintbrushes, they were old and sand was sticking in clumps on the bristles. Someone must have been painting, a fellow artist, I thought. Sammie found a bottle with a note in it. We were too curious to just ignore it. It was a small drawing of the scene in front of us. The detail was incredible from the sun radiating down, to the fresh almost white sand. I then realized that someone had just painted it, like just then. I was able to tell because the scent of the acrylic paint whacked into my face, almost like a punch. My face was painted with fear as I put the picture back in the bottle. Sammie and I quickly put it back. No wonder there was an easel on the sand. I thought.

And hour or two had passed. We picked up so much trash that it went up to the rim of the bag we held in our sticky hands caked with sand. We went back to the parking lot to grab our lunches. My friends and I all sat around a old wooden picnic table as my dad sat with my friend Emma’s mom. We all shared our food and snacks laughing and talking. Some of the parents even brought a box of pastries and a bag of jellybeans. We all played a game where each person had to close there eyes and pick a miscellaneous jellybean. Then we had to guess the flavor. Whoever lost had to eat five of there least favorite jelly bean. Subi lost. We all laughed as we watched her face change from normal to totally disgusted. After lunch we had to do dune restoration, where we basically pulled out the evasive plants growing near the good roots and shrubs. We each got gloves and worked in different areas. We spent an hour picking and pulling. But then it was 2:43. We picked every single weed in sight. It was also time to leave. I climbed into the car, and we started driving. I still smelled like the ocean, sand in my hair. As I slept, I dreamt of the sea and sand.