Senior Year Box Set

“If you go to the shoot and keep me company, I’ll call it good. I bet we can talk them into letting you ride one too while they film me,” I said to sweeten the deal.

“I would still pay for mine,” he assured me.

“You can buy me the next toy we want,” I suggested.

“I’ll do that. Thanks,” Alex finally agreed.

◊◊◊

We met the girls for lunch. I have to admit that I had been missing out on Greek food. When they found out I’d never had saganaki, they insisted we order it. It’s breaded cheese that they set on fire and bring to your table. I took a quick picture to add to my social media from this vacation before Camilla put the flames out with a squeeze of lemon juice.

“Neither one of you commented on our haircuts,” Nat chastised us.

“The good thing about hair is that it’ll eventually grow back,” I said with a straight face.

Alex choked on something as they both glared at me. Then Camilla caught on.

“You’re a little smartass, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been called worse. Most of my female friends say I’m a ‘stupid boy.’”

“I think Alex is one too,” Nat complained.

“Oh, please. That was funny. I wish he’d warned me so I could have gotten a picture,” Alex said.

Alex shared what we did this morning and our plan for the afternoon. That gave the girls the excuse to go shopping again. We agreed we would meet up tonight and go to dinner.

◊◊◊

The afternoon was taken up with filming Alex and me on the eFoil. They took us to several locations around the island. Our boat captain told us he was a native Mykonian, as they called themselves. He hated that his island had turned into a tourist destination. But I noticed that he made his living carting them around.

The highlight was when he took us off the beaten path to Fokos Beach on the northern side of the island. Nature had carved out a bay that most of the tourists hadn’t discovered.

It was far enough away from Mykonos Town that you had to know about it; it wasn’t something you’d ordinarily stumble across. Because there was no public transportation to the beach and no hotels nearby, the place was almost deserted. Our captain explained that usually, only the locals went there.

What made it memorable was a pod of dolphins.

“Check that out,” Alex said as he pointed to the mouth of the little bay.

I looked over and saw a disturbance in the water. It looked like smaller fish were fleeing from something larger. Then it got interesting. It wasn’t just a couple of dolphins chasing the fish; there had to be dozens of them. Keelan had installed a GoCam on the nose of each of our boards. With the camera nearly two feet out of the water, it could catch the action if we got closer.

“Let’s go film that,” I suggested.

“You think it’s safe?”

I shrugged.

“Maybe we don’t get right in the middle of it all,” I said.

Over the next few minutes, we watched the dolphins work as a team to herd the fish together into a swirling ball. Then they would swim close and use their tails to smack into the bunched-up fish. The stunned fish were easy to pick off for a quick meal.

Because the water was crystal clear, we were able to capture a lot of the action. Once the frenzy was over, the pod headed out of the bay. Keelan was ecstatic that we’d been able to get the footage.

◊◊◊

Keelan took our information and promised to ship us our new toys for our day’s work. It wasn’t quite as cool as strapping a water jet to your feet, but for exploring, you couldn’t beat the eFoil.

I envisioned using it to go up and down the river on my farm. Like a canoe, the board was quiet enough that deer and other wildlife wouldn’t be spooked. It would be an excellent way to take nature photos.

We had some free time, so I returned to the condo. Brook had sent me a text to call her. I decided I would do that before going out to dinner tonight.

“David, I need your help,” Brook said by way of answering her phone.

“Okay.”

“I want you to talk to Cassidy. She’s being hardheaded and is about to make a mistake.”

It had to be a big deal if Brook was frustrated with my little ninja.

“She hasn’t joined the Marines, has she?” I asked.

“Not yet. Cassidy insists she’s following you to Oklahoma to go to college.”

Okay, that confused me.

“And that is bad, why?” I asked.

“I got her an athletic scholarship to USC. It’s a much better school, and I talked to Tracy and Pam. Cassidy can live with them in your condo,” Brook explained.

“Uh … this is the first I’m hearing about this. What athletic scholarship?” I asked.

Brook chuckled.

“I got her a scholarship to be on the rowing team. Well, that’s not technically true. My grandmother knows someone who got her the scholarship. Between you and me, it wasn’t cheap,” Brook shared.

“Did you talk to Cassidy before you did this?” I asked.

“I did when she told me you were looking at both Oklahoma and USC for football once the Michigan plan fell apart. There wasn’t anything I could do to help her with Oklahoma, but USC was more … shall we say, flexible.”

“Brook!”

“Settle down. You know Cassidy. She wouldn’t just take my money to go to school,” Brook said.