Summer woke up slowly to sunlight pouring in her window. She stretched, or tried to stretch anyway, since there was a large, furry lump taking up more than the cat’s share of the bed, glanced at the clock, and shot upright.

Saturday. No more school, for either of them. Her namesake season — time to go to the beach.

She scrabbled her phone off the bedside table and hastily texted Isaac.

[text to: okami] sun is shining time for fun! I’ll pick you up in an hour?

It would hardly take her fifteen minutes to drive over to Derek’s and pick him up, which gave her forty-five minutes to pack and shower and persuade Helios into his carry-case. She bounced out of bed, feeling more excited that she had in a long while, and rummaged through the top of her closet for a duffel bag. Another, much smaller bag slid down from the top shelf, and she caught it before it hit her in the head.

It turned out to be her camera. Not the little pocket point-and-shoot kind of camera, but the full-featured DSLR she’d gotten with her high school graduation money. She turned it over in her hands for a minute, thinking. She’d discovered Isaac was into art, but she was pretty sure he didn’t have a nice camera.

She would pack it, and see if he’d like to try it out while they were at the beach.