Under Pressure

Nova's POV

"Okay, so Nova," Isabella smirks.

"Truth or dare?" Ari grins.

I sigh, "Truth," I say.

"Come on, sis, pick dare," Jordan says. He puts his lips almost against my ear and so does Charles on the other side.

"Dare. Dare. Dare. Dare," they whisper.

I push their heads away with a chuckle, "Truth," I say proudly and Charles ruffles my hair before I push his hand away.

"Okay, whose turn is it?" Sadie asks. We all point on Isabella.

She smiles, "Biggest fear," she says.

My eyes widen just a little. Thunderstorms. "Blood," I say the second thing in my mind.

"Why?" Ari asks.

"Not my turn," I say and spin the bottle. It lands on Harvey, who groans.

"Truth or dare?" I ask.

"Phh. Dare," he says.

I smirk, "Make out with.." I look around, "Rory," I say.

"Nove seriously?" Rory chuckles.

I nod, "For one minute," I say, setting the timer.

They both sigh and stand up. "And go," Charles says and pushes the button on my phone.

They lean in and start making out, grinning at the same time. Everyone pulls out their phones and films it.

I giggle quietly and lean my head against Jordan's arm. He smiles at me and kisses my head softly. I love my brothers.

*Time pass, 8PM*

"Guys, I'm gonna head back!" I shout to my brothers.

"Why?" Jordan shouts.

"Too scared of your brothers?" Charles smirks.

"Oh yeah? It's ON," I tell them as I've reached them now.

"There's my lil sis," Jordan chuckles.

"BRUCE!" Charles shouts and we all look at the shore. They're just laughing and talking. They can't surf.

"Yeah?!" he shouts back.

"Someone challenged us! We need a judge," Charles smirks at me.

I giggle and roll my eyes, "I'm gonna beat your ass," I tell both of them.

"We'll see that," Jordan smirks. I put my hands out and they both give me low fives.

"GO!" Ari yells.

We all start competing.

*45 minutes later*

"Hey hodads," Charles smirks, placing his surfboard on the sand. I sit on mine and so do they.

"Hodad?" Josie laughs.

"A hodad is a non-surfing beach bum," Jordan chuckles and ruffles Charles' hair.

"Did you see what she did?" Jordan asks everyone, sounding proud.

"No?" Sadie asks in confusion.

"The girl did the 'Superman'," he says and pulls me against him, making me chuckle, "You haven't thought about competitions?" he asks.

"Mom would freak," I say.

"We can talk to her," Charles says.

I raise my eyebrows, "Seriously?" I ask.

"Yeah. You know," he smirks and sits on my surfboard now as well, "one is coming," he says.

"She would never let me compete," I say. They sigh.

"How come you two get to compete then?" Rory asks.

"Yeah, kinda unfair, don't you think?" Bella asks.

"She's the youngest," Charles smirks.

"Mom's baby," Jordan teases. I hit his head and they chuckle.

"No seriously, it's the beginning of August. The local competition is in two weeks," Jordan says.

"We're going, you can tag along," Charles tells me.

"She won't let me," I say sadly.

"Bruce, give me your phone," Jordan says.

He furrows his eyebrows and hands it to him. He types in mom's number. I giggle quietly as he stats dialing.

"Hey mom," he says. I can't hear what mom is saying though. "You have no idea what just happened," he says, making me smile. "No, nothing bad," he says. We all laugh.

"Anyway, we were surfing… Nove did the Superman. And like a total pro," he says, "So I was thinking-"

He listens to something she says and sighs, "Why the hell not? She's been surfing since she was like what, 3?... Well if she's been practicing the most, why can't she compete?" he asks.

A boy. I totally zoom myself out of the conversation my brother is having with my mom. A boy is looking at me with a big smile, while his friends are talking (a girl and two boys). He's only in his swim trunks. Gosh the biceps and the abs. Wow.

I smile back at him and he keeps still looking at me with a cute smile. I blush a little and turn to look at my toes with a smile.

Jordan taps on my shoulder and I look at him with the same smile. He hands me the phone and I take it.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Novella," she sighs.

"Mom please," I plead.

"Why do you want to take part of this competition?" she asks.

"What do you think? To surf. To show people that I exist. To feel the ocean," I say.

I can basically hear her smiling, "Not to place? So you won't be disappointed if you won't get one?" she asks.

"Not at all. I just wanna compete," I say with a little smile.

She sighs, "When's the competition?" she asks. I squeal from excitement and they all laugh at me.

"Two weeks," I say.

"So you'll come home from the camp in 10 days and the other 4 you'll still be on the beach?" she asks.

"Yep," I smile.

"Okay, honey. I love you. Be safe," she says.

"Thank you. Love you too. Bye," I say and end the call.

I throw the phone back to Bruce and hug my brothers.

"You're in the same category?" I ask.

"Nope," they say.

I smile, "3 first places."

They laugh at me, "Don't get your hopes up," Jordan says.

"Dude, she'll win. For sure," Charles says.

They start talking about something else. I look back at the boy. His black hair is flying in unison with the wind.

I feel Charles tapping onto my back while the others are talking. I look at him. He smirks and looks at the boy as well.

"Someone has a crush, huh?" he asks.

I blush a little and hit his head after what I look down and my toes covered in sand.

"I'm gonna talk to the guy," Jordan says and gets up.

"No what the fuck," I say quietly and want to grab his hand but he already jumps up with Charles and they start running towards them.

"Where are they going?" Bella asks.

I hide my face into my hands. They don't care and keep talking and laughing. I turn my head a little, so that I could see, or that at least one eye would be out from my hands.

They say something to all of them and they all answer. The boy looks at me quickly with a smirk and then back at my brothers. I hide my face into my hands again.

In a few minutes, I see my brothers coming back. I fill my fists with sand and stand up.

"What's wrong with you two?" I giggle.

They smirk, "It's the first day and we already made friends," Jordan smiles.

"Fuck off," I say and throw sand at them. The three of us are wet, which makes it stick.

"Novella Willson, you did not," Charles chuckles and pulls me into his arms.

Jordan starts throwing sand at us. I get free from Charles' arms and start punching the sand with my feet, so that it all sticks. We start having a sand war.

"You three are babies," Harvey chuckles.

They all are looking at us now. The boy and his friends, our friends, and some more groups who are all sitting on the sand or surfboards, though most of them here can't surf. The camp is for soccer players and basketball players and swimmers and everyone.

Jordan picks me up just as I get all the sand into my fists. He places me onto his shoulders like a little child.

"I swear to god," I laugh. Charles starts throwing the sand on us and I have no other option but to keep my eyes closed.

"Can you-" I start, but I get sand into my mouth, "Ew," I complain and start spitting it out.

"Girl, not into my hair," Jordan complains.

I chuckle and keep doing it. He starts running towards the water with me and I can finally open my eyes. When we're deep enough he looks up, "Hold your breath," he says.

I do as told and he dives under the water. I get off of his shoulders finally and come on the air. All the three of us get ourselves clean from the sand and start swimming towards the shore.

"You three! It's 9:15! You aren't supposed to be in the water after 9!" we hear.

Our eyes widen and we start swimming faster. Once we're in the shore some coach come to us.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" he asks.

"Sorry," all three of us say in unison.

"We were all covered with sand, we just had to get it off," Charles says.

"What club are you in?" he asks.

We all sigh, "Football and surfing," Jordan says.

"Me too," Charles says.

"And you?" the coach asks.

"Surfing and soccer," I say.

"Oh. All from Hillwood?" he asks. We nod. "Names?"

"Willson," we all say in unison. He nods.

"Get some running clothes on you three. For punishment, 10km in the woods," he says.

"What? You can't be serious," Charles whines.

"Now!" he says.

We all sigh and look at our friends. They smirk and we run to our beach huts, where everyone has to sleep in. I'm sharing mine with Isabella. Ari, Josie and Sadie are in another one.

I get myself dried off and change into my running clothes. Just black shorts and a light blue sports bra. And my sneakers for running. I brush my fingers through my hair and just leave them like this. Wet and dropping on my shoulders.

I go outside and see that my bros are already ready. Some blows a whistle to me from a couple of houses away and I roll my eyes.

I look at the mysterious boy for a second. He is looking at me. But not at my body… My face.

I look away rapidly and put a strand of hair behind my ear. I go to the coach and my brothers.

"Where's my board?" I ask.

Charles points in front of their hut. I nod and we all look at the coach.

"Come with me," he says.

We all sigh and follow him into the woods. Here is some rail with lanterns, though it's not that dark yet.

"You follow the lanterns and when you get back on the beach, you're done," the coach says. We all nod and start jogging.

"You wanna make it a competition?" Charles smirks.

"Why does everything have to be a competition for you two?" I ask.

"What's wrong?" Jordan asks me, knowing that I'd love to compete.

"It's dark," I just say.

They both sigh. "You know that it's time to not be afraid of that anymore, right?" Jor asks.

I sigh, "I know, I... Can't," I say and keep looking around.

They both stop, which makes me stop as well. I look at them, "What?" I ask.

"Look. Nothing's gonna happen to you," Chic says.

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts. Nove, we're here. No one wants to kill you, okay?" Jordan asks.

"Okay," I say quietly, a tear rolling down my eye.

They probably see it, but I start running again. They follow me and stop me again.

"What?" I sigh.

They both hug me at once and I hug them back.

"Hey," Jordan says quietly and I look up at these two, "We know that what happened to Collin is terrifying. Especially for you. But no one wants to do the same thing to you or Chic or me," he says.

I sigh, "I know. I just can't help myself from obsessing about it every time there's a storm or it's dark or I see blood," I say.

They both kiss my hair, "I love you guys," Chic says to both of us.

"Love you guys too," Jordan and I both say.

We let go of each other and sigh. "Okay. The last one back pays the winner 30 and the 2nd place 20 bucks," Chic says.

"What?" I laugh, "You have that much money to give me?" I ask both of them.

They both smirk, "3. 2. 1. Go," Jordan says.

These two dopes start sprinting. "It's 10 kilometers, geniuses!" I shout after them.

I chuckle and keep jogging.

*15 minutes later*

I run past Chic with a smirk "See ya," I say.

"The fuck," he pants.

I chuckle and keep running. In 15 minutes I finally get past Jordan, Chic falling only a little behind me. "Hey, Jor?" I ask.

He looks over his shoulder, "You got to be kidding me. How?" he asks and adds some speed, but so do I.

I chuckle, "Soccer," I tell him and we both start adding speed.

"I have no fucking idea how much there is left," he tells me.

I giggle, "Neither do I," I say and then smirk, "Almost there," I say.

"How?" he asks.

"Shh," I tell him.

He gets quiet and we both hear the ocean. We start adding more and more speed. We see the beach already.

I look at him next to me and he does the same. "I'm not gonna get 10 dollars less than you," he says and speeds even more. I do the same.

About 10 meters before the shore I pass him. "The water line!" he shouts.

I nod and we both start sprinting through the sand. I'm in front of him so he probably gets all covered in sand again. Only that this time he's not wet.

"Go, Nova!" I hear Rory's voice.

I giggle and touch the water. Jordan gets here a second after me.

"Fuck!" he yells.

I laugh so hard. Chic gets here after us, "Fucking hell. When did you get faster than us?" Chic asks.

"The moment you said what the price is," I giggle and kiss his cheek.

He smirks and I run back towards the others. I see the mysterious boy still here as well and all of his group of friends are looking at me and my brothers who are following me.

"So what does Chic own you guys?" Ari smirks.

"30 bucks for me, 20 for Jor," I say and sit down on the sand, crossing my legs.

"That is so unfair," Charles complains.

"How is this unfair? You made it up bro," Jor laughs.

"I didn't know that she was faster than the last time, okay?" he asks and ruffles my now almost dry hair.

I roll my eyes, "Last time we ran against each other was like 3 years ago," I say.

"Right. You still look like you're 6, so," Chic says.

I hit his head and they laugh.

"So, what's up?" Jor asks and they start talking.

I feel eyes on me. I turn my head a little and look at the boy again. He and all the others from his group are staring at us. But he is the only one looking at me.

Oh no. He's standing up...