In a house miles off of the coast of Maine with six other people, there were limited opportunities to get work done. One of the best times was between the hours of midnight and four thirty, as long as no one knew about it.

Brett came creaking down the stairs before anyone else that morning, even Darrell. I pulled my coffee cup closer to my laptop. Hopefully, he wouldn't notice, and if he did, he wouldn't ask any questions. Logan and I had our seal watch, and I was supposed to go with Robbie and Nastasya to search for whales up north in a few hours.

I already had all of my supplies ready to go for the day so I wouldn't forget anything. It was surprisingly easy to leave the camera behind (which was not as funny as Robbie and Nastasya thought), so I had put it right behind my laptop for safe keeping.

"Wow, and I thought I was up early," Brett said with a laugh. "You were working when I went to bed, and you're working now."

Hopefully he wouldn't put two and two together. He walked over to the icebox, and when he didn't say anything else about what those two data points could mean, I let out a breath and took a sip of coffee.

"Wait a second. You've been up all night again, haven't you?" he asked, and when I didn't respond in the quarter of a second he gave me, he continued. "Reagan, you know how you get when you're sleep-deprived. You end up looking like you're about to kill someone with the sword in the game room."

"It's fine. I just really wanted to identify this whale before I went to sleep, and I did, but then I got sucked into reading the notes in his bio, and then his mother's, and now I'm reading about the biodiversity of Indonesian wildlife on Wikipedia. I know it's still kind of related, but I honestly don't know how I got here," I said.

"Indonesia? I don't even know where that is," Brett said.

"It's west of Papua New Guinea," I said.

"Oh, that really clears it up. Thanks," Brett said. I could live without the sarcasm, though. I got enough of it from Logan.

And besides, I probably wouldn't have known where either country was if they weren't on the little Wikipedia map for reference.

"Just don't tell anyone about this. Jia thinks I need to do a better job of taking care of myself, and Logan hates it when I forget to sleep," I said.

"You don't forget, Reagan. You just make another pot of coffee and pretend that everything is fine."

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, but his point, though correct, was stupid.

Before I could change the subject to what he was planning to make for breakfast, Logan came down the stairs.

I slammed my laptop shut, but with the sun barely rising, he definitely saw the light from the screen. Shit.

"Rea, I'm not even going to waste my breath telling you what you already know, so just do whatever the hell you want," he said.

I frowned. "I'm sorry, but I just—"

Logan interrupted me. "When do you plan on catching up on your sleep?"

"Well, I can't today. We have seal watch, I have to get groceries for the next week or so, and then I have to go look for whales with Nastasya and Robbie." I grabbed the camera from the table and held it up for him to see. "I'm hoping we get some good pictures today. I'm super close to my goal of identifying fifty whales for the summer."

As Jia came down the stairs for the morning, that only left Darrell, Toby, and Carter still asleep. And it was very possible that Carter was just like me and already studying the day's microscopic organisms. I hadn't seen him in a while. Darrell, on the other hand, was still devastated at the news that Rule Number One had been broken for months without him noticing, but what did rules matter when I finally had the courage to let someone in?

"I'm so not feeling today. If Darrell says one shitty thing, I'll shove him into the ocean," Jia said.

Good morning to you, too.

"We'll handle the whale data today. Me, Brett, and Jia, and Carter if he wants to. You don't have to worry about a thing," Logan said. "That way, you can sleep like an actual human being instead of trying to survive on coffee."

Jia perked up at the mention of leaving the island. "Field trip?"

"I'm really not tired today," I began, but Logan shook his head and interrupted my half-truth.

"Don't start with that shit. You are physically incapable of doing your best work and being one hundred percent focused when you're running on empty. Caffeine doesn't replace sleep, so we'll get this done for you today since you've helped everyone else here."

I gripped the camera a little tighter. "Are y'all sure about that? It's really not a problem for me to do it, especially since you get sick, Logan."

"We'll be fine. It'll be a good chance to get off this rock for a little bit and help you out," Jia said.

"I mean, when have we ever let you down?" Brett asked.

Considering I was the one who blabbed about Logan and me, I couldn't hold that against them. They really hadn't let me down, had they?

That was somewhat unexpected.

"Well, there really isn't much that you need to know. Robbie and Nastasya pretty much do most of the work, and then all you have to do is take pictures of the whales when they're fluking and record as much detail as you can about the location and conditions. And take as many pictures as you want. That way, you guarantee at least one good one," I said. "Don't even bother with the crossbow. That's an accident waiting to happen."

"This is going to be so much fun," Jia said. "It's always a good day when Mom says yes."

I wasn't sure how I was elected Paradise City Mom after a few months, but it wasn't a bad title to have. I was doing an okay job with keeping Blue and Racecar alive.

Brett laughed. "Can we get McDonald's on the way back?"

I smiled. "That's funny. But all I ask is that you take it seriously. It's really important to me that this project goes well."

"Stop worrying. We got this, Rea," Logan said.

"Yeah, we're the most seriousest people on the planet," Brett said.

Seriousestly?

All I could do was hope that was a joke for my sake, theirs, the whales', and Nastasya's and Robbie's.

***

Although I wasn't sure what time of day it was, Logan's voice drew me out of my sleep. I opened up my eyes, and the sun shone through the window to greet me instead of the way it usually taunted me with reminders that I was only human.

Maybe sleeping wasn't such a scam. If only I had the time for it.

"Hey, Rea. You gotta get up," he said, but I wasn't quite ready to get up yet.

When did my pillow get so comfortable? Sure, I had spent a few nights dozing off on the couch and drowning myself in coffee, but I certainly didn't remember my Paradise City bed being so nice.

"How'd it go? Did you get any good pictures that I can use?" I asked.

"About that—"

I sat up. "Logan, please tell me you didn't drop the camera into the ocean."

He shook his head. "Nope. I have the camera right here, but there isn't any good data."

"It's fine if you didn't find anything today. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Whales will be whales, I guess." I gave a small laugh.

"Oh, we got data. It's just not what you wanted, and Nastasya said that we're not allowed to help anymore." He sat down at the edge of my bed, and I moved my legs to make room for him.

"Do I even want to know?" I asked.

"Just look. It'll all make sense when you see the pictures." He handed me the camera, and as much as I wanted to just take the story at face value for my sanity, there were plenty of details I wanted to know about.

I checked the most recent picture first and shielded the screen with my hand so I could see the picture clearly. It wasn't entirely unexpected, though, with Logan leaned over the edge of the boat throwing up.

"We're starting off very strong," I said.

Logan didn't even crack a smile. Too soon, Rea.

I flipped to the next photo stored on the camera. It was in the cabin of the Millenium Osprey, and there were grocery bags that had been rummaged through on the bench where I usually sat to chat with Robbie and Nastasya and work on identifications.

Did I remember to give them the list of things we needed? I paused. No, they didn't need it. Brett was there for food, and Jia was there for practical items.

I apparently needed to work on trusting people a little more.

"It all seems pretty tame so far," I said.

"This was after Nastasya yelled at us. Have you ever heard her yell?" Logan said.

I shook my head. "I can't say I have."

"Well, it's scary. And that's coming from the person who's crazy enough to not be scared of you."

I had seen her upset before with the drone incident, and that was intense enough for me. I didn't ask anything more about it, and instead, I moved on to the next picture. This time, the photo was of the back of Jia's shorts and the sun and the ocean in the distance, which meant that Brett was the person behind the camera.

Who put him in charge of the data collection? How did he win that lottery?

"Why is Jia's ass important data?" I said. Even though it was nice, it wasn't what I asked for.

Logan shrugged as if he had nothing to do with it. And maybe he didn't. He very well could have been throwing up at the time.

Next picture.

In this one, there were a few empty glass bottles of various sizes stashed away in bags.

Well, that explained what happened.

"So there was drinking involved," I said. I knew it was a nice summer day on a boat, but work needed to get done. I shook my head. Of course.

"You want to hear the whole story?" Logan asked.

I hesitated. "Do I?"

Even though I wasn't there, I could picture it clearly as Logan told me about his day with Jia, Brett, Robbie, and Nastasya.

Logan, Jia, and Brett all climbed aboard the Millennium Osprey to begin the work they agreed to help me with. After heading to the mainland to buy whatever we needed (and wanted) and keep it cold in several coolers on the boat, they headed back north to find some whales. Brett had the camera, even though Logan told him that Jia would probably be better if they wanted to get the best data possible for me.

Brett laughed. "How did we not figure out that you're in love with her sooner? You're on a boat for her. It's cute and pathetic at the same time."

"In love is definitely a strong way to put it," Logan said.

"What? That's bullshit. Reagan said that you said that you love her," Jia said as she opened a bottle of Corona for the boat trip. I had assumed that "no drinking while sciencing" was an automatic rule, but apparently it was my fault for not specifying.

"Well, she loves whales more than me, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Logan sat down next to Nastasya on the bench. She scooted the new drone case closer to her side.

Smart.

"That's a bunch of bullshit too. She's always going out of her way to spend time with you, and she was devastated at the thought of you having another girl back home," Jia said. "She's just not the type to say it out loud."

As Logan paused in the story for a second, I couldn't help but wonder why he felt the need to share that. Maybe he wanted to hear it from me.

I nodded. "I just—I'm not good at communicating."

"And that's fine, Rea."

I smiled as he continued the story.

Robbie still didn't have any leads on any whales in the area, and Brett was beginning to get bored. Jia had bought a coloring book for Nastasya's young niece, Alexa, a while back, but it wasn't enough to keep Brett entertained for more than three minutes. Fortunately for him, there was plenty more beer on board, none of which made it back to Paradise City for the rest of us.

The afternoon sun was just beginning to warm up, and that was the perfect opportunity to make themselves at home on the deck of the boat (with a cooler of drinks right next to them, of course). And for Logan, it meant that he had Jia and Brett to keep him company as he puked.

Brett took out the camera and pointed it at Jia.

"Ew, don't take my picture. I really don't want to know what whale in the database looks exactly like me," Jia said.

Brett laughed. "What's the smallest whale in the world? Because that would probably be you."

"It's a dwarf sperm whale," Logan said.

Jia shook her head. "Yeah, I don't want to be that. I want to be a porpoise."

"Why?" Brett said.

"Because then she'd feel like she has porpoise in life," Logan said just before throwing up again.

Poor guy.

"One, that was a terrible pun, and two, why did you have to go for the jugular like that?" Jia said.

Brett snapped a few photos of the scene. I also should have specified that the camera was for data only.

Nastasya peeked her head out of the cabin. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"Just killing some time before we find a whale," Brett said. He took a picture of her and smiled.

"Don't break anything. If we have another drone incident, I'll lose my shit," she said, and even though she didn't smile, everyone assumed she was joking (because that would have been like her, no doubt).

Just as Nastasya returned to her spot with Robbie, Brett stumbled over to my seasick Logan.

"What are you doing? Leave me alone. I'm kinda busy right now," Logan said. He felt another wave of sickness coming on, and it was best for everyone to get out of the spray zone.

"I love you, and I don't want you to be sad," Brett said.

How sweet.

Logan looked up at him for a moment as the ocean sprayed them instead. "Fuck off."

"I'm just trying to make you feel better," Brett said as he turned around to take another picture. Whether it was true or not, I liked to imagine that this was the one of Jia's ass.

But with the moisture from the ocean, the camera slipped from his fingers, and he caught it just before it hit the ground and fell into the ocean.

"Holy shit, dude," Logan said. "Rea would have killed us."

Jia turned around and laughed. "That would have been bad."

"Yeah, no shit," Logan sputtered.

Nastasya came out of the cabin again, and this time, she did not have the courtesy to ask them what they were doing.

"I'm taking this away." Nastasya quietly before she erupted into a yell. "I don't want to deal with any of you during the whale trips ever again. This is Reagan's summer, and she needs this camera if she wants to get all of her work done on time. Do you want her to end up like Darrell?"

Brett shook his head.

"Because that's what would have happened if this fell into the ocean." She shook her head. "I don't care what you do on that island, but on this boat, you are going to do what you're supposed to do. Otherwise, I'd just like to remind you that these are international waters, and anything goes when it comes to body disposal."

"You're going to be a great captain one day," Robbie said to her as she sat back down in the cabin.

She let out a long sigh. "Thank you."

The boat ride back to Paradise City was very quiet.

"Well, I can say that I have officially been let down here for the first time," I said. "Not by you, though. You did your best, and I really appreciate you trying to help."

"I really put my all into throwing up. One hundred percent," he said.

I smiled and shook my head. "You know what I mean."

I certainly wasn't good at telling the world how I felt, but I had a feeling Logan knew exactly what I meant.