It had been weeks since the trip to San Francisco, but finally, yesterday, there was a message on the beach from Dylan that said he’d be picking me up today. According to him, it would be safe for me to return to Oceania. The Master Coders were no longer keeping him on a tight leash and monitoring his every move. At long last, I would be returning to the underwater city.
Pausing my furious pedaling, I allowed my bike to glide down the hill towards the restricted beach. I slid off my bike before the wheels had even stopped turning and swiftly walked with it until we both came to a stop.
Suddenly, I thought I heard a rustle in the bushes nearby me, but after a short pause of listening, I dismissed it as a figment of my imagination or merely a noise that resulted from my hiding my bike beneath the bushes. I was too excited to return to Oceania to waste my time investigating something fruitless.
Scrambling underneath the rabbit hole, I wiggled out on the other side and ignored the sand that stuck to my skin as I raced down the beach toward the rocks where Dylan and I had designated to be our usual meeting place.
He was already there, resting against the seamobile. “Hey, Allie, ready to return to Oceania?”
I rushed over and came to a halt on the other side of the seamobile. “You bet I am. It’s been too long.”
“Yeah, I know.” Dylan threw his leg over the seamobile. “Then hop on.”
Halfway to Oceania, Dylan drew my attention away from the underwater sights of the abyss that I’d miss seeing so much. “Hey, Allie, there’s something I didn’t tell you about your visit today.”
“What’s that?” What could he and Dr. Wilcox have thought up now?
“Well, um…” Dylan cleared his throat. “It’s my birthday today and my parents allowed me to throw a party.”
I grinned. “So that means…”
“Yeah, I’m bringing you to my birthday party where there’ll be a lot of other people our age. I think you now know enough about Oceania to pretend you belong there and mingle with others living in the city beyond the casual greeting. I feel like after you and your grandmother took me to San Francisco that I owed you some kind of equivalent exploration of Oceania.”
Immediately, I felt both great excitement and dread. What would the other teens in Oceania be like? Would they be like my friends on land or would they be just like Dylan? What if they talked differently and I got lost in their lingo? What if they completely ousted me as an outsider?
I told my concerns to Dylan, so for the rest of the trip to the city, we concocted several different lies I could tell to decrease suspicion.
By the time we arrived at Dylan’s apartment, it was already crowded with people—including Dr. Wilcox. Colorful cerulean and chartreuse decorations slung from the ceiling in drooping U-shapes. Projected images of Dylan making a variety of silly and normal faces graced the walls with captions of Happy Birthday Dylan underneath them. Music blared through the room from invisible speakers, making my heart beat in rhythm. Robotic servers hovered through the room serving snacks and drinks to the hungry guests.
“Hey, Dylan, my boy, you made it to the party.” Dr. Wilcox laughed and came over, taking Dylan under his arm and ruffling his hair. “Happy Birthday, Kid!”
“Hey, Dylan, what’s up man? I have to say I’ve never arrived at a party before the guest of honor…that is until today,” said a guy about Dylan’s age with glistening white teeth, black curly hair, and gingerbread eyes.
“Well, I had to go out and get something. I didn’t expect it to take so long for me to return.” Dylan and the guy shared some kind of special handshake I’d never seen before, both laughing when they finished. Dylan reached back and gestured toward me. “Hey, Max, this is one of my friends I met at the engineering camp my parents sent me to a few months ago.”
“Ah, the camp of death?” Max walked up to me with a warm smile and extended his hand. “I’m Max Granger.”
“I’m Allie.” I hoped he didn’t notice I left off my last name. I didn’t want someone trying to look me up on a database later just to find out I didn’t exist.
“Great, Allie. I see you’re one of the survivors of the Engineers of the Future Camp, huh?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I barely made it through.”
“Dylan!” a girl with long, straight hair nearly knocked Max over on her way to give Dylan a hug. “Happy Birthday!”
“Thanks, Samantha. I’m glad you could come.”
“Well, you know how our parents are…work, work, work. They wouldn’t notice if I disappeared into the hadalpelagic zone.” Samantha turned to me and grinned. “Who’s this, Dylan?”
Dylan introduced me and Samantha waved at me. “It’s nice to meet you. Are you new to this area?”
“No, I live on the other side of the city. I met Dylan at the Engineers of the Future Camp a few months ago.” I regurgitated the lie like a pro.
Samantha winced. “Oh, I just barely made it out of that horror camp. Dylan and my parents work together at the Oceanographic Lab and his parents were trying to convince mine to go so badly. Luckily, I threw a tantrum and they gave in.” Samantha smirked as if she took pride in throwing a tantrum.
“Well, you got lucky then, it was horrendous.”
“I bet.” Samantha laughed and then kept smiling. “Hey, Dylan, why don’t I show Allie around while you greet
