Mel hated the water. With a passion. Her mother had tried unsuccessfully to teach Mel to swim many times when she was younger. But Mel prided herself on her stubborness, and won.

So what was she doing at the beach with Katy and her brother? She didn't know, but she was trying awfully hard not to complain, even though the sand was hot and gritty, the sun so bright it hurt her eyes, and there were so many people wandering around she could hardly see the ocean. Ok, that one was a stretch, but still: it was freaking crowded. Everyone knew how much she hated crowds, yet like the water, here she was.

"Come on, Mel," Katy hollered from the other side of a group of umbrellas, beneath which a horde of white old ladies were sipping drinks and jabbering about their bunions or something equally repulsive. Add old ladies to the list of hated things.

"Jeremy's getting in the water! Hurry!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay, I"m coming," Mel grumbled, stumbling across the burning sand until she joined her friend in the spectator section. "So where's Jeremy?"

"Right there, see his blonde hair?" Katy jumped up and down excitedly, pointing. "This is his big chance, Mel. If he wins today, it will be so awesome." She squealed and squeezed Mel's sweaty arm.

"That's great. I hope he wins," she said unenthusiastically. I hope he wins so we can get out of here.

Mel knew she was being a jerk, especially when she knew how much this competition meant to Jeremy, and Katy, who adored her older brother, worshipping the very ground he walked on, as cliche at that was. It was also true.

She thought that was Jeremy out there, up on his board now and ready for the next wave. His black wetsuit shone in the sunlight, his hair sparkled with drops of water.

"He looks like a god," Mel said, awe on her voice. "The god of the ocean. Forget Neptune or Poseiden. It's Jeremy!"

"You are totally weird," Katy laughed, smacking her on the shoulder. "You shouldn't say stuff like that."

"Why not?"

"Because Jeremy really takes stuff like that seriously; all surfers do. It's not a good idea to insult the god of the sea."

"Oh, for--" Mel forgot what she was going to say, because suddenly a cloud went across the sun and the wind picked up. In the water Jeremy and the other competitiors glanced nervously at the sky.

"Take it back, Mel. Take it back!" Katy's fingers pressed Mel's arm urgently, painfully.

"Are you serious?"

"Take it back!" Katy was almost crying now, and the sky had blackened ominously, with rumbles of thunder heard.

"Okay, okay. I take back what I said. Geeze."

"No, tell the gods, Mel."

Mel rolled her eyes, but a quiver of unease shot through her. The waves were high now, the wind tearing at her hair.

"I'm sorry, Neptune and Poseiden," she said loudly, feeling like a fool. "Jeremy doesn't look like a god."

Immediately the sky cleared and the waves calmed as the wind died down. The surfing competition started back up.

Oddly, no one thought it strange that the storm that had rolled in so quickly had left the same way.

As Jeremy emerged from the ocean carrying his surfboard, Katy squeezed Mel's arm again in the same spot. There would probably be a bruise there in the morning.

"You want to come watch tomorrow?"

"I don't think so, Katy," Mel said, turning her back on the hated ocean. One run in with the gods was quite enough, thank you.