The Summer We Danced (The Destin Diaries #2)
May 30th 1990
May 30, 1990
It’s summer again!!
Excuse this messy handwriting, diary. I’m in the van because—happy news alert—we are on our way back to Destin!! I’m so excited I could scream. But I don’t have to make any noise because buttpain Crista has been doing enough of that since we left Atlanta. If whining was an Olympic sport, my little sister would get a gold medal.
At least I didn’t have to go all the way back to “steerage”—which is what Dad calls the third row. (Not sure anyone could steer from back there but, okay, Dad.)
Eli and his friend Peter ( ) are back there with their noses stuck into their Game Boys playing Super Mario Land. (Why do they care so much about plumbers in overalls?) They should pay attention to real life because we are going back to the summer house on Gulf Shore Drive, and that means I’m finally going to see Kate and Tessa Wylie again!
Mom said Aunt Jo Ellen and Uncle Artie (who, reminder, diary, they aren’t our “real” aunt and uncle, but Mom and Dad’s friends from college—Go Dawgs!) left Ithaca yesterday and spent last night in Virginia. They should get to Destin right after we do! I cannot wait!!!
This is our second summer in a row, but this year is going to be totally different! Like me, Kate and Tessa (the opposite twins) are THIRTEEN now! We’re teenagers!
I wonder if the Wylie girls have changed. They sent us a Christmas card with a picture of them in snow up to their knees! I hope they are exactly the same. Except I hope Tessa didn’t get any prettier—she was already like a supermodel last year. And Kate is still the smartest girl in the world—she won her STATE science fair. Oh, and she got glasses which she hates but I think they’re cute.
Anyway, I cannot wait to swim and sunbathe and dance to our song—“Walkin’ on Sunshine”! Woohoo!
That little house will be crowded, like last year. Four girls in one room (Crista wailing because she has to sleep in a sleeping bag until one of us takes pity and lets her in a bed). The “’rents” each have a room, and Eli and Peter sleep on a bunk bed in that sunroom in the back.
The boys are sixteen, and they can drive this year! I can just see it now…cruising down 98, windows open, wind in my hair, sitting next to Peter!
It should be so mu?—
Ugh. I had to cover this up fast because Crista dropped her stupid stuffed bunny and Peter got out of his seatbelt to get it for her. Which meant HE COULD HAVE SEEN THIS DIARY. Disaster Alert!!
I wouldn’t want him to know I have a teeny tiny microscopic crush on him. But I’m thirteen now! Maybe he’ll notice me.
I have to go—Crista is DEMANDING I play a card game with her, but after this, I’ll be done constantly entertaining a seven-year-old. We are two hours from the beach, the sun, my best friends, and the most epic summer of our lives! What will happen this year? I get so excited thinking about it. I’ll share here, natch!
Destin awaits!
Vivien, now a teenager!!!