2 Hitting the Beach

Chapter 2 Hitting the Beach This summer, my parents rented a beach house. We were gonna share it with my cousins, but they couldn't come. So we'll have a big beach house all to ourselves! The day after school ended, we packed up the car and drove a million hundred miles to the ocean. "I can't wait to hit the beach," I said, looking out the car window. I had to sit in the back with my sister, Amy, who is going into sixth grade. She's annoying, but not as annoying as Andrea. "You'd better watch out for the sand monster, A.J.," my sister said. Sand monster? I never heard of a sand monster. "There's no such thing as a sand

monster," I said. "Oh, yes there is," Amy told me. "He's a zombie who lives under the sand. He comes out when you least expect it. And he only eats boys." I bet Amy was yanking my chain. But I decided to keep my eyes open for man-eating zombie sand monsters just to be on the safe side.

We stopped at a Chinese restaurant because there wasn't any food at the beach house. Chinese food is cool because they give you chopsticks. So while you're waiting for the slowpoke grown-ups to finish eating, you can drum on the table or put the chopsticks in your nose and pretend to be a walrus. Finally, we reached the beach house. It was too late to go swimming, but my parents said I could check out the beach while they unpacked our stuff. The ocean smelled good. There was a sign on the boardwalk that said SAND CASTLE CONTEST THIS WEEK. Up in the sky, somebody was parasailing. Do you know what parasailing is? A parachute is strapped to your back, and a boat pulls you with a rope. Parasailing is cool. I'm gonna try it when I get bigger.

The beach was almost empty, except for one thing—a backhoe. Do you know what a backhoe is? It's this yellow machine that digs up stuff. The backhoe was scooping up sand and dumping it onto a big pile. I went over to watch because machines are cool. A teenager was driving the backhoe. He had blond hair and a whistle around his neck. "Yo, dude!" he said as he turned off the motor. "My name is Evan, but everybody calls me Mr. Sunny. What's your name?" "My name is Arlo, but everybody calls me A.J.," I said. "What are you doing?" "Building a sand castle," Mr. Sunny said. "I'm gonna enter the contest." "It looks like a big pile of sand to me."

"Oh, wait until it's done, man," Mr. Sunny said. "Right now my castle is hidden within this sand, waiting to be born. Sand is my life, dude." Guys who say "man" and "dude" are cool. Mr. Sunny seemed pretty nice, even if he did like sand a little too much. "Is this your summer job?" I asked. "You build sand castles?" "No, dude," Mr. Sunny said. "I'm the

lifeguard here. Will I see you out in the water tomorrow?" "You bet!" I said. "I'm a great swimmer." It was getting late. I said good-bye to Mr. Sunny and headed back to the beach house. "I have great news, A.J.!" my mom yelled from the porch. "I just got off the phone. One of your friends from school is going to be sharing the house with us!" "Yippee!" I said. "Who is it? Ryan? Michael? Neil?" "No," my mother replied. "It's Andrea Young." WHAT?????????!!!!!!!!!!!