A whole year went by without meeting anyone special. I went to school every day, did my homework sometimes, but I chilled at home most of the time. Sometimes with friends, but alone mostly. A book's company was all I needed.

My mom begged me so many times to go outside a little more, the whole year long up until that next summer when we went to a campsite and stayed there for two weeks. Every time they decided to make a little trip while on vacation, I didn't go with them. I wanted to stay at the campsite in our camper, which I didn't think was weird at all. I was living the life I dreamed of: days full of doing nothing. I didn't have the desire to see a church or some other old building.

Others may say I had lost the energy in life and looking back, I really had. I just didn't realize it at the time.

That was, until I met Belle.

I saw her for the first time when my aunt came to visit with her daughter. They stayed one night at the same campsite my family and I were staying at, and I was the appointed babysitter for my niece Felicity, who was only three years old. I really didn't know how to entertain a young girl, so I took her to the animation team that had many activities planned that day. Felicity decided she wanted to go to the mini-golf course.

"Are you here for the contest?" a girl asked Felicity when we arrived at the course. She was wearing a bright green tee with the logo of the campsite on it. On the back, it said, Member Animation Team.

Felicity nodded enthusiastically.

"Let's sign you up then, pretty girl!"

Felicity lit up at 'pretty girl' and I immediately decided I liked this girl from the animation club. She was nice to my niece and she would be able to entertain her while I had an afternoon to myself. And judging from the kid hanging on to her leg, she wasn't just popular with Felicity.

This girl, of course, was Belle.

"Just wait a few minutes until we start, okay?" Belle said to Felicity.

She nodded again and walked away to stand with the other kids without even saying goodbye to me. Apparently, she'd decided she didn't need me.

"Well, okay, bye, I guess," I said, not directed to anyone special.

"Yeah, see you soon!" It was Belle that answered.

🌸

I didn't see her again until I picked Felicity up two hours later. Belle was still as energetic as the last time I saw her, and just as kind to the kids, but most of all really cheery.

"You must really like your job," I said when I was thanking her for taking care of Felicity—while actually meaning to thank her for my free afternoon.

Her eyes were sparkling when she answered. "What is there not to like? It's a beautiful day, the kids are lovely..." She waved to a group of kids and as she smiled, I noticed how pretty she actually was. With her hair in a ponytail and by wearing that ugly neon green uniform, she was hiding it, but her skin was tan and her eyes spoke of her soul, full of life and energy.

"They aren't as excited about it," I answered her, pointing to a few other members of the animation team. They were standing with their backs against the while, not really doing anything but chatting to each other. When a kid pulled the shirt of one of the animation team members, he just waved the kid off.

"They're morons," she said without giving any further explanation. Not that it was needed.

A silence fell in which I turned my head to look at her again. Felicity was tugging at my shirt, and I realised this would be goodbye.

"So, have a good day, I guess." I didn't really know how to end our conversation.

"I will," she said. Her eyes were glistening as she thought about what was awaiting her.

🌸

When Felicity left the campsite, I was scared I'd never see Belle again. She was still in my dreams every night, though I didn't even know her name yet.

I got to know it quickly after though.

Apparently, she wasn't just a member of the animation team, she had many more jobs on the same campsite where I was staying. One of her other jobs was teaching a windsurfing class.

The same surfing class my mom put me in.

She'd decided she was done with me sitting in a chair for weeks on end and had planned many activities, both for me and the entire family, and she'd made very clear there was no way I'd get out of it. So, I'd be stuck going to windsurfing classes, hiking, and looking at old buildings that didn't seem to be anything special but which my mom admired.

I'd just put on a wetsuit when I saw who would be giving this class.

Trying to act cool and not like my heart was racing, I said, "Hey, it's you again."

I couldn't show her how I was melting on the inside and could hardly stand up straight. My knees were weak and I was literally shaking, but she couldn't know how seeing her in a wetsuit, with her hair wet and her skin tan was making me feel.

"Hey, you!" Her face lit up, and just the possibility of her remembering me made my stomach turn in a good way. "You were with Felicity, right?" She tilted her head as if she was thinking. "Sorry, I don't remember your name..."

"I don't think I gave you my name. It's Eli."

"Belle."

"Like the Disney princess?"

She laughed. "Exactly."

I didn't tell her she was as pretty as a Disney princess, though I wanted to.

🌸

The surfing class began quickly after this brief conversation that I played over and over again in my head.

And maybe it was because Belle was on my mind, or maybe because I had never been good at sports, but it was clear that I desperately needed those windsurfing classes if I ever wanted to get good at it. Which meant I'd have to spend more time with Belle.

For the first time, I didn't mind that I sucked—yes, actually sucked—at sports.

It had taken me fifteen minutes to stand up straight on the board and according to Belle, that was just the easy part. Taking the sail and lifting it up was the next, and more important, thing that I was desperately trying to learn.

It didn't actually fuel my confidence that Belle laughed at all of my hopeless attempts. 

"Don't laugh!" I said as I dropped the sail for the twenty-second time. 

"I'm not laughing at you," she said, but we both knew better. "Here, let me help you." She jumped into the water—she'd managed to stand on her board all this time while she was laughing and I was failing, and I don't know how she could—and swam in my direction.

But no matter how helpful all the tips and advice she gave me were, and no matter how contagious her adventurous and joyful spirit was, it didn't seem like I was getting any better.

"You'll need many more classes," Belle said.

"Maybe I need a different teacher."

"Ouch!" But she laughed.

"What? You just said I sucked!"

"Not in those words, but to be honest, you really do."

There was nothing to say to that. She was right, after all.

"Class is almost over," she said. "Do I see you again tonight?"

"Tonight?" I frowned. I didn't remember us deciding to meet up again—although I immediately wanted to facepalm myself when I said this. Who would say no to spending time with Belle?

"I'll be working at the restaurant," she said, making me wonder how many jobs and talents she actually had, "and I'll be done around eight. We can meet up if you want to—"

I was quick to answer. "Yes, yes of course!" I said. "I mean, yeah, sure."

She smiled, and the sky lit up. "Good, I'll see you then."

🌸

Somehow, my parents had decided it would be a nice idea to go to the restaurant on exactly the same night Belle and I had agreed to meet up there. Which really wasn't that strange as my mother hated cooking and my father wasn't that good at it either, so we went out for dinner almost every night. I just hated that it had to be exactly this restaurant.

And right when I thought my awkwardness and this situation couldn't get any worse, it turned out that Belle was the server at me and my parents' table.

"Is everything okay?" Belle asked in a formal tone after she'd walked up to our table as we were eating our main course.

"It's perfect," my dad said.

"Phenomenal," my mom added. A few crumbs flew out of her mouth as she said it, and my cheeks reddened.

"I need to go to the toilet," I said, in a crisis of not knowing what to say in front of my parents and Belle.

My parents shot me weird looks, but I went anyway. Not that I needed to go. Instead, I just stood in front of the bathroom mirror, fixing my hair, and I was planning on doing so for the next three minutes before I'd return.

"Hey."

Every muscle in my body tensed, making it impossible to turn around to see who it was. However, I had recognized her voice.

"What are you doing here?" I said, my hand on my chest in an attempt to calm my heart down.

"I thought you wanted me to go here," Belle said.

My eyebrows furrowed together. "When did I say that?"

"'I need to go to the toilet'?"

I rolled my eyes but laughed. "It wasn't code."

"Oh." Then, she chuckled. "By the way, you're in the ladies'."

My head turned to the door and I saw she was right. "Of course I am." I am such an idiot. In my hurry to escape the dinner table, I'd rushed into the first door I could find, not realising it was the ladies'.

Her smile grew wider. "Anyways, I'm almost done with my shift. You want to go somewhere?"

"Go where?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Anywhere. I just want to leave, run into the wild without knowing where to go."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why? That's pointless."

"It's not pointless; it's called adventure."

I wanted to say how reading was a much bigger adventure because there is actually something happening in a book in comparison to walking around aimlessly, but she didn't strike me as a reader, so she wouldn't understand. Instead, I agreed with her in silence to go on an adventure—whatever that meant.

She must have thought I was weird—I couldn't surf, I walked into the wrong bathroom and didn't know what to say. In her presence, it was hard to find the right words, but in desperate need to want to say something, I made another attempt at talking and said the first thing that popped up into my head and the stupidest thing I could've thought of.

"I admire you, you know," I said, quickly realising how weird that was and adding, "your attitude on life and your energy. I wish I had that too."

Her eyes had been fixed on her hands, but when I spoke the words, she looked up and tilted her head, letting the words sink in and getting a thorough understanding of them. "It's not that hard," she said. She bit her lip, after which she continued. "I had to go through a hard time to get here, but you can also just try."

"What do you mean, a hard time?" I asked.

"I've been ill for a year—nothing major or anything," she quickly added, "but it did have me housebound for twelve months. I hardly ever left the house and when I did, it was for twenty minutes tops, because I didn't have the energy to keep going any longer and it only worsened the pain."

I didn't know how not serious it could be when she couldn't leave her house for a year, but I kept my mouth shut and let her speak.

"I hated every single minute of it. Every day I sat in my bed, I could only think of what I would do once I was better. I really learned the value of life during that time and how I'd wasted it up until then."

I admired her honesty. We didn't even know each other that well and here she was, telling me the story of her life.

Girl, is everything about you perfect?

"And I decided that I wouldn't waste another second," she concluded.

Which explained all the jobs she had and her desire to go on adventures.

"But you can have that too!" she said. Her eyes were sparkling as she clapped her hands together. "I'll teach you right now."

"How do you want to teach me—"

"Let's go surfing," she said.

"Now?"

"Yeah!"

I frowned and took a step back. "But we can't."

"Why not?" She shrugged her shoulders. "You have to learn it someday."

"We don't have wetsuits or a board or a sail—"

"That's it! That's why most people don't live their life to the fullest. They let stupid stuff like this stop them."

"But it's quite impossible without that stuff."

"Then, let's go get the stuff."

"Where—"

She really wasn't going to stop. She had this idea in her head and she was making a plan to execute it—no one could stop her from doing that.

🌸

And not much later, she'd gathered everything and was standing in front of me in her wetsuit.

"How did you—"

"There's no time for questions—there's only a time to live. Now come on, let's go! What are you waiting for?"

It only took a few minutes to get to the lake. While she was attaching the sail to the surfboard, I was worried about my parents. Would they wonder where I was? I hadn't told them that I left or where I was going and I didn't have my phone with me to call them. What if something happened?

Maybe I should go back. This could only go wrong.

"Come on, Eli, get your ass over here!" Belle yelled. She was in the water already.

She was the reason I decided to stay. It wasn't that I really wanted to learn how to surf—I had never had the desire to do such an extreme sport—I just wanted to be with her. And I knew this was the way.

The water was cold, but the sight of the surface reflecting moonlight and Belle with her wet hair made me ignore it and walk right through. When I was close to her, she motioned me to get on the surfboard.

"Try to stand up," she said.

My knees were shaking and I was unsteady, but I didn't want to let her down. Giving up wasn't an option in adventures.

"This. Is. So. Scary!" My voice was quivering while I was trying hard to keep my balance on the board, but I slowly managed to rise up and stand straighter, the board I was standing on wavering underneath me.

"You're almost there—"

But none of the effort I put into it mattered—I fell off the board right when I was finally standing up.

Belle laughed. "Why can't you just stand up?" she asked. "It truly is the easiest part!"

"Then I'm not looking forward to the rest," I said. I brushed my hair back with my hands right when my head was above the water. "I'm starting to think surfing is not the sport I was meant to play."

"Don't give up!" Belle pleaded. "It's too much fun! Just try again—you will get the hang of it."

So, I did. I climbed on the board, first on my knees, but then putting my feet on it as well.

"Like that, yes." A smile appeared on her face and I couldn't help but chuckle at my own success. Was I truly going to succeed this time?

My hands let go of the board as I tried to get up. My knees were still arched, but with Belle holding onto the board, I felt steady and more sure of myself when I tried to stand up.

"Just a little more..." she said, her voice rising. "You're almost there!"

And just as she said that, I fell forward, diving into the water. For a moment while I was underwater, there was complete silence and the blue liquid embraced me. But quickly, I searched my way back to the surface of the water, and I could see Belle laughing even before I even reached the fresh air again.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's just so—" She couldn't finish her sentence, bursting out laughing.

"Don't laugh!" I said playfully. "You're mocking me!"

"I'm not," she said, "I'm only mocking your lack of talent." 

"That's the same."

We looked each other in the eyes and she stopped laughing, with just a small smile remaining. We stood there in the quiet for seconds, the water slowly swooshing around us and pulling us closer while I finally got the chance to admire her from up close.

Then, I leaned in and introduced my lips to hers.

🌸

Hey hey hey! Just one more chapter to go...