16 Savannah #2
Cora’s voice from behind her startled Savannah.
She spun around to see her two sisters approaching.
“Oh, I... um,” Savannah started.
“Welcome, Prestly family!” the peppy volunteer said, saving Savannah from coming up with an excuse. “You’ll be at spot fourteen
in the blue section. Scan the QR code for all the rules. And if you have any questions, just wave down someone wearing a volunteer
shirt.” She handed Savannah the participant goody bag. “Happy sculpting!”
“Thanks,” she said to the volunteer. Then she spun around to her sisters and held up their bag. “Just finishing checking us
in. Spot fourteen.”
She could feel her sister studying her, but luckily the volunteer stole Cora’s attention.
“Wait, aren’t you the girl dating Jax Verona?”
Cora nodded. “I am.”
The volunteer gave her an almost sympathetic look that Savannah couldn’t quite interpret. “Well... bless your heart.” She
turned to help the next person, and Savannah and her sisters headed for spot fourteen.
“What was that about?” Savannah asked.
Cora seemed unconcerned. “Apparently the community has thoughts about Jax’s potential as boyfriend material.”
Savannah shifted her stare to Bianca. “Who did your site set her up with?”
“Maybe he was just having trouble connecting with the right person before. He needed SoulMatch to help him find his full relationship potential.” Bianca looked smug for someone whose main justification for her own relationship had just come into question. “And he is definitely not an art thief.”
“Well, probably not an art thief,” Cora admitted.
“You set her up with an art thief?” Savannah asked. Maybe they needed to set better ground rules.
They got to their square, which was roughly six feet by six feet, in the middle of the giant grid that made up the blue section.
“Huh.” Bianca dropped her stuff in the space. “I guess that’s what they call a blank canvas.”
“Not for long.” Savannah shifted her focus from Cora’s new boyfriend to rummaging through her bag for the folder with the
plans. “Ta-da!”
Cora eyed it skeptically. “And what is that?”
“Plans. You don’t show up to a sandcastle contest and wing it.”
“Some people wing it,” Cora argued.
“Yes, well, not us. Mom used to plan for this for weeks.”
Bianca smiled. “That I remember. She used to do the best drawings.”
All right, this was working. Reminiscing was good. They were getting somewhere. “She would. Mine aren’t as good, but at least
they’re something.” Savannah grinned and handed Bianca the inspiration pictures, along with the scaled sketches on graph paper
of their design. This year, she’d gone with a dolphin against a cresting wave.
Bianca studied it, her smile twisting into something more critical. “Huh.”
The comment sparked Cora to look over Bianca’s shoulder. “A dolphin again? They always end up looking like a wonky boomerang.
Not good.”
Bianca dropped the plans to her side, completely dismissing them, and turned to Cora. “Oh, you know what we should do? A mermaid.”
“No.” Savannah didn’t even bother using her diplomatic voice. She grabbed the paper from Bianca. “This subject isn’t up for discussion. This is the only sketch we have. Therefore that’s the plan we’re going with.”
“So we call an audible. That’s a thing, you know. People change their plans all the time,” Cora said. “Half of these other
teams will be doing a dolphin. Let’s do something original. Like an octopus. Or a blowfish.”
“Or a mermaid,” Bianca said again. “Think of all the cool ways we could decorate the tail.”
Savannah stared at Cora. “You want to call an audible to do a blowfish ?”
Cora shrugged. “Sure. It would be original. All round and spiky, with those big eyes and a cute little face.” She sucked in
her cheeks and puckered her lips like a fish to demonstrate.
“Cute. Yeah, let’s do that,” Bianca said.
“Absolutely not.” Savannah stood up so she looked more in charge. “We’re not tossing out our plan when we’re in the middle
of the competition because you two didn’t want to be part of the prep. We always came with a sketch, and today we’re doing
it the same way we always did it.” She could feel her face turning red.
“Wow, someone’s in a mood today,” Bianca said. “It’s not a big deal. It’s just a sandcastle.”
And that’s maybe what the problem was. This wasn’t just about a sandcastle. It was about her family.
All the effort she’d put into this trip, all the fight she’d used to restore their relationships—suddenly Savannah felt like
she was fighting an impossible battle. Everything was slipping away, and nothing she was doing was good enough to stop it.
She just needed one thing to work out. She needed one thing to go the way she’d planned.
What little energy she’d managed to hold on to seeped out, and her entire body felt heavy. “It’s a big deal to me,” she whispered.
The words hung in the air for a second, and then the person she least expected to jump in... did.
“No, she’s right,” Cora said. She gave Savannah a look of solidarity. “We can do a mermaid or a blowfish next time. We really should stick with the plan. Like we always did.”
Bianca shrugged. “Whatever.”
Cora pulled two buckets from the bag Bianca had brought. “I’ll get some buckets full of sand from the sandpile. We’re going
to need it for that wave.”
“I guess I’ll get a bucket of water,” Bianca said. She reached down to grab an empty bucket, but she paused when she looked
at Savannah, like something had just caught her attention. “Are you okay? You’ve got some really dark circles under your eyes
today.”
Savannah smoothed back the loose strands of hair that had gotten stuck to her sweaty forehead and tried to brighten her expression.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well.”
Bianca studied her, looking like she was going to challenge the claim, but she shrugged and grabbed the bucket. “I have a
really good concealer. You should try it.”
Cora nodded and pointed to the cooler. “There are cold waters in there. You know, if you want one. We’ll be back in a sec.”
“Thanks.” She could use a water. And some rest. And probably a good concealer.
Savannah waited until they were a few steps away to sink down in the sand. She closed her eyes and pressed the cold water
bottle against her face.
Maybe everything was slipping out of her grasp, but she wasn’t going to let go of anything today. Today was going to be a
success, no matter what it took to make it that way.
There was a lot more than just a decent sand sculpture riding on it.