The sun flashed down my closed eyesight from the sky as I started to open my eyes. I got up, sitting on the squishy sand and listening the whispers of the waves. I saw the waves' soft white hands slithering towards to the wet sand. The wind blew my face and dried my wet, stringy hair, as I feel the breeze. I felt free from anguish and anger from my home. This island is a paradise for the rest of my life, and I have no wish to come back home.

I looked back where the plants and trees are behind me. I was curious what's inside in this beautiful island. I carried my backpack on my right shoulder, as I went into the island. It's full of greenish trees and plants like a huge garden. I have never seen how beautiful the island looks. I touched some of the plants, I feel them soft and smooth like silky cloths. I looked the tall trees up, covering the shining sun. I saw the sun's rays streaming through the whole, tree-shaded island. I looked all around, amazed, surrounded by greenish, feathery leaves all over. I suddenly found an elaborate treehouse, more like a normal house.

Suddenly, I heard something that made the leaves rustle. I looked all around, and I can't find it.

"What was that?" I softly gasped.

I stood still, hearing closely those rustling sounds. My heart raced with fear; but I'm a statue, who can blink but not looking around and can hear but not respond. Then, all of that rustling sound was gone now. I sighly relieved, as I kept walking towards that house. Suddenly, a meter-long sea lion leaped out of nowhere, barking like an angry dog. I got scared to death, and that stupid sea lion pushed me and I fell down on the ground. The sea lion tried to beat me up with its flappy fins, so I covered my face with my arms. It slapped me all over, I was struggling to grab his fins but it's too hard for me and I can't handle it anymore. I shouted like a little boy being helpless and needs defense.

"Get off from me! Get off from me!" I shouted to it but it was beating me down so hard.

Suddenly, I heard a teenage female voice calling the sea lion.

"Sophie! Sophie! Come here right now!" She scolded the sea lion as it crawled away from me, like a caterpillar.

"Sophie? Is Sophie a female sea lion?" I curiously thought as I didn't know if it's a she.

I was so beaten up by that naughty animal, I was covered by dirty leaves and soil and I cleared every piece dirt from my clothes and my backpack, as I heard the teenage girl warned the sea lion.

"Sophie, don't do that to the poor boy, he's having an adventure right here, like me." She spoke Sophie as she growled to the girl.

"Sophie, you don't want me to punish you, right?" She asked her as she whimpers.

"Well, don't do that to every person...unless it's a pirate, ok?" She advised her as I saw the sea lion crawling inside of the house.

I carried my backpack on my right shoulder, I looked up a little and I saw the teenage girl who scolded the sea lion. We started to stare each other and I have never seen such a beauty of this girl. I heard my heart beating in my ears. My eyes had focused on her as she kept focusing on me. She slowly walked down the short stairways as I slowly walked towards her. My heart was beating faster as we get closer to each other. She wore a light blue shirt with fingertip length shorts, showing her silky legs. Her black, wavy hair bounced as she kept walking towards me. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to make a move. However, we stopped walking as we kept staring each other.

"Hi." I spoke shyly.

She grinned a little bit as she looked up and down at the same time.

"Hi." She shyly spoke.

I'm sure that we're shy to get to know each other. However, we don't have anything to say. My eyes looked down, that I can't even resist to look at her beautiful face.

"Who are you?" She kindly asked me.

I was very shy to answer but I have to anyways.

"I'm Derek. Derek Watkins." I introduced myself as I nervously tried to handshake her.

"I'm Nadia Russo." She shyly shook my hand with her hand as I feel the smoothness of her hand.

I really don't want to let her hand go, but she slithered her hand away.

"Sorry about my sea lion, she's overprotective in this island. She doesn't want our island get invaded by evil, strange invaders." Nadia apologized me by her crazy sea lion beating me up.

"I know, I guess that she's blind of not knowing that I'm not a pirate, nor a poacher." I sighed as I was still mad of the sea lion.

"Yeah, everytime I got to calm her down, she can't stop beating people up." She chuckled as we chuckled together.

We paused for a moment as I tried to keep talking to her.

"So, you're having an adventure here?" I asked her as I really want to have this journey with her.

"Actually, I live here, but yeah, I have...a lot of adventures." She spoke then chuckled.

"Actually, I was thinking that I can come to your house." I wondered as she paused for a moment to think if she can let me in or not.

"Well, if you want to, you can, you can stay in there, too." She concurred as she grinned.

"Sound good to me." I agreed.

We walked into her house and it was quite big as a normal house. However, this house was made bamboo and biodegradable plastics which is better for the environment. The sun shone brilliantly, white light through thin mist inside the windows of the house. I love this house and I wanted to stay here forever. We went to the living room, and suddenly, a hissing, light brown lizard scared in front of me, on a desk.

"You nasty, ugly lizard!" I growled it as I was totally angered with that dumb lizard, also.

"Freddy, don't scare or bother him, otherwise you'll get punished, too." Nadia warned to her pet lizard Freddy, and I hissed Freddy back but he hunted me down.

"I know Derek, he likes to scare people when they're here for the first time. That's why I don't like him to do that." She told me as I tried to walk away from the scary-looking lizard.

I saw stairs in front of us, as I wondered what could it be up there.

"Can we go up there?" I asked her.

"Yeah, this is my favorite spot because I can see the view from here to the way out there. I'm sure you're going to like it." She answered as I let her in first in a kind way. We smiled at each other as she thanked me.

"God, I'm totally smitten to this beautiful girl." I thought as my heart was beating with passion.

I ran up to the stairs and it was a huge porch as we can see the view from here to the light blue ocean.

"Oh, wow. It's beautiful out there." I was amazed.

"Told you. When I get bored as many times, I always go to this porch and relax, listening the beautiful songs of birds and crickets." She told me as she was staring at the ocean.

"I listen music or read books when I get bored." I told her as we looked each other.

"Really?" She asked.

I nodded.

"I did that also." She chuckled as I smiled to her.

God, I never knew she is so friendly to me, although I want to be more than friendly to her.

"You may think I live here, but no, I live from San Francisco." I softly spoke.

"San Francisco?" She asked me as she was surprised.

I nodded.

"Well, how did you get here?" She asked while I paused for a moment.

"It's a long story, though." I sighed as I felt a little bit down.

I saw her face looked puzzled.

"Is something wrong with you?" She kindly asked me.

"Yeah." I sadly spoke. "I really want to talk about it but this time I can't." I shook my head.

"No, it's ok. That happened to me sometimes." She told me while she put her hand on my shoulder. My heart started run a bit quicker.

"When I get a little bit upset, someone ask me what's wrong. I tell that I really want to talk about it, but not right now. So someone will say 'okay, we can talk later' and I'll agree." She talked about my experience, while I felt like I want to hold her hand.

I slowly held her hand as she was wondering why I'm holding her soft hand. We have exchanged longing looks but she slithered her hand go.

"Uh...Nadia, I was wondering if where I can put my backpack." I uttered.

"You can put in my bedroom. Come on." She replied as she opened the pink curtains of her bedroom. Her bedroom was about the size of my bedroom with Jason.

"Your bedroom is pretty big." I tripped over my tongue.

"Not that big, but at least I got two beds. One for me and the other for you." Nadia pondered as she shrugged her shoulders and went downstairs. I saw those two beds separated in front of us, behind the porch and between them, there's a big table drawer,.

I put my backpack on my bed, which is next to the wall, I unpacked everything from my backpack. I put my waterproof camera, my personal stuff, my first aid kit, my clothes and my shoes in the first box of the drawer. Then, I carried my packed food and bottled drinks, as I went downstairs to find a refrigerator. Suddenly, I found a refrigerator all of a sudden, which is right next to the living room. I opened the refrigerator and I put everything in order because I don't want to make a mess in there. I saw Nadia sitting on a chair, looking at the computer glowing at her face. I tried to startle her as a joke, so I tiptoed behind her. I kept tiptoeing towards her back and I stopped right behind her. I quickly hugged her back, but she stood still, scared. She slowly looked my arms, then to me and started chuckling in relief.

"You scared me." She chuckled.

"I'm just playing with you." I grinned.

"What are you doing?" I asked her as I put my hands on her shoulders.

"Looking those beautiful fishes and colorful corals in the computer." She spoke.

"God, I've always wanted to be an oceanographer like my mother." She sighed as we kept gazing at those pictures.

"Your mother's an oceanographer?" I asked her surprisingly because I didn't know.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Where's your mother now?" I asked her and she shook her head, I'm sure that something sad happened in her family.

"She passed away." She sighed as I widened my eyes a little. However, I felt immediately a pain in my heart that I was about to cry.

"She...died?" I broke my voice as I was trying to hold back my tears.

She nodded.

"She got eaten by a whale, which had scared by a ship named The Buccaneer, since I was a child." She sadly spoke.

"Oh, my God...I'm so sorry." I cried as I looked at her, looking down and a little bit sad.

"Are you okay?" I softly asked her.

"I'm fine now." She grinned.

"You are okay." I grinned as we smiled.