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“No. I don’t want to go back. There has to be another way.”
Lela’s face is determined and serious; Mack has never seen her quite like this before. She’s scared. Desperate. Her friends are disappearing, and she still wants to stay here, in the real world.
Mack sighs. “Lela… I wish there was, but you’re the main character. The movie needs you.”
She shakes her head, furrowing her brow. “Can’t someone else be the main character?”
“What do you mean?” asks Tanner.
Mack watches as Lela takes a step toward her brother, holding out the flower necklace in her hand.
“Sis…” Butchy reluctantly reaches out a leather-gloved hand.
“Here,” Lela says, placing the necklace in his hand, and it shines in the light of the full moon. “You’re all main characters now. Make your own stories. I know you can do it.”
Butchy is stunned for a moment, then reaches his hand up, still clasping the necklace, to wipe a tear from his eye. “That’s beautiful, sis.”
Tanner puts a hand on her shoulder. “You’re really not coming with us?”
“You could stay with me, Tanner. We could discover ourselves in this world together.”
He shakes his head. “You know… this world did help me discover one thing, which is… I’m not much like you, Lela. But not cuz you’re a biker. And that’s okay!”
Lela leans forward and kisses him on the cheek. “I hope you visit sometime.”
Tanner blushes and smiles, and while there’s no shiny teeth sound, it’s still very bright. “Right on!”
Lela smiles back. She takes a step back and addresses the whole group of Wet Side Story characters.
“I’ll miss all of you so much. But I have to do this.”
“We understand,” offers Struts, from the back.
“Don’t forget us,” adds Cheechee, clutching her heart.
“I could never.”
“Well…” Butchy glances around the group. “We should probably gets going. Before more peoples disappear.”
Lela nods.
“Bye, sis.”
“Bye, Butchy. Bye, Tanner. Bye, everyone. I’ll see you at the movies!”
They all wave, taking their last lingering looks at Lela, Mack and Brady standing awkwardly to the side of the whole thing, and the beach.
Then, they muster their strength and walk into the sea together.
Mack, Lela and Brady watch them disappear into the night. They’re silent for a few moments.
Then, Lela turns to Mack with a bashful smile. “It’s okay if I keep staying at your house, right?”
Mack can’t help herself but laugh, after all of this craziness in her life. “Yeah. It’s okay.”
.
Lela aces high school like nothing you’ve ever seen. Mack would be jealous if she wasn’t so utterly in awe. Well, okay, maybe it’s a little of both. But mainly the awe thing.
Not only does Lela join Mack and Alyssa’s study group and help everyone bring their grades up by at least a few points, she falls in love with biology too. And literature. And history. She even likes PE, though dodgeball proved to be a bit much for her.
She gets used to the hardships of beauty in a world where you actually have to work for it, too. She loves it, even.
“Mack! Mack! How do I look?”
Mack looks up from her laptop to see Lela standing in front of her, beaming. But what’s much more noticeable is her makeup—bright blue eyeshadow from eyelid to brow, sparkly bright pink blush, and little eyebrow pencil hearts splashed across her face like freckles.
Mack’s eyes bulge out of her face and she stifles a laugh. “Um…”
“I love makeup so much! You can look however you want!”
“Gosh, Lela, you sure can. But, uh, with great power…”
Lela’s expression shifts into a frown. “You hate it.”
Mack sighs, feeling guilty. “I just… um…”
And just as quickly, she beams again. “That’s so cool! I’ve never looked a way someone hated before!”
Mack can’t help but grin, relieved she didn’t hurt her friend. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
Lela giggles, spinning in the skirt she borrowed from Mack. It’s funny. Even when the 60s movie magic wore off, she still wears all of Mack’s clothes kind of perfect.
“But I’ll wash it off,” Lela says, taking a step back toward Mack’s bathroom. “Because I don’t want you to hate me.”
“Lela, I don’t—“
“I know, silly. I just want to try another look!”
Mack grins to herself as Lela walks to the sink, letting her eyes fall back to her biology homework.
.
They end up choosing the same college, because it’s easier that way. Besides, Lela would find things to be excited about anywhere, so she decides she’d rather stick with Mack for a little while longer. The transition to college is scary for anyone, and Mack can only assume how daunting it is for someone who only learned about “school” and “student loans” in the past year.
Honestly, Mack’s not sure how Lela was able to apply for college at all, considering she doesn’t have paperwork proving she existed before the age of 16, but she won’t question the magic.
Brady decides to take a gap year and work with Mack’s grandpa at his surf shop, and Mack is very happy for both of them. Things have been much simpler between her and Brady since they decided to just be friends, which is good, because she’s had enough complications in her life with the whole “housing a movie character” thing.
So they say their temporary goodbyes as Lela and Mack drive off to their new future.
.
College is… a lot.
The two of them room together, which is nice. They don’t do much together besides that, though. For one, Mack thinks, they’re in very different classes.
Lela seems to thrive in the heady, complicated stuff that Mack totally doesn’t understand. While Mack has filled her semester with classes for her eventual Marine Conservation Studies major, like Advanced Biology and General Chemistry, Lela’s favorite classes are Multivariable Calculus and Intro to Philosophy.
Philosophy! It’s crazy! Not that she has anything against… philosophers, but Mack is pretty sure she’d be bored to death in a class like that.
Maybe not, though. Not the way Lela talks about it, eyes shining, like it’s the coolest thing ever that some guy in ancient Greece said some stuff about the nature of human existence. How bad could it really be, if Lela loves it so much?
“Hey Mack, what’s World War One?” Lela asks, looking up from her homework. She’s sitting at the desk in their dorm, hair up in a loose bun. After almost two years in the real world, she’s almost unrecognizable as the 1960s biker girl Mack met in Wet Side Story.
“Maybe I should’ve told you to take a history class first,” Mack muses from her own study spot on her bed. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s historical context for the next book we’re reading in Philosophy.”
“Oh… um… it was basically a big war about a hundred years ago. Some guy assassinated another guy and a lot of people made a big deal about it.” Mack could probably explain it better, but she’s never been a history person. Plus, she’s tired. Her first big exam is in a few days and she’s been studying long hours for the past week. “Lots of people died.”
“Oh, that’s awful!”
“Yeah.” Mack understands why Lela wanted so desperately to remain in reality, but sometimes she can’t help but envy the movie characters. No news to watch, no history, no bad things happening ever. Seems nice.
“No wonder the writers of this era were concerned with the meaninglessness of existence!”
“Um… sure.” Mack is firmly back to looking at her own laptop, once again immersed in the inner-workings of the eukaryotic cell.
“You really should read more about philosophy, Mack. It’s opened my eyes to so many things!”
“Says the girl who doesn’t know anything about the major wars of the twentieth century,” Mack retorts, still staring at a ribosome diagram.
“I didn’t even know people could think about this stuff! I was just stuck in this loop, and then… well, I mean, first it was you, who broke me out. And now I’m breaking out all over again!”
“I’m happy for you, Lela.” Mack looks up again to see Lela grinning at her from the other side of the small room. She grins back, because she can’t do anything else when Lela is looking at her like that. “Maybe once midterms are over, I’ll try to read a philosophy book.”
Lela’s smile grows even wider. “Awesome!”
Mack’s heart flutters just a little bit.
.
They honestly don’t spend that much time together, all things considered. They’re both busy with their classes and studying and extracurriculars—Mack has joined a study group for each of her classes and every ocean-related club she could find; Lela has been collecting random projects and clubs like a child picking up seashells on a beach. Apparently tabletop club is a new favorite of hers; Mack would try to make a meeting, but it’s at the same time as the Young Oceanographer’s Association meetings on the other side of campus.
That’s why it’s so exciting when Lela plans a trip to the beach for them the weekend after midterms. When her roommate looks at her with a grin on Friday afternoon and tells her to pack her things to head home for two days, Mack considers protesting for a moment, but ultimately decides that the surf and sand is worth missing the two or three things on her calendar.
After a few hours blasting a varied mix of music in Lela’s old-fashioned coral Chevrolet—just like the one she always wanted to drive back in the movie, she’d said when she bought it from a scrapyard to repair—they arrive at Mack’s grandfather’s house as night is beginning to fall.
The next morning, Mack wakes up early to catch some waves, leaving a note for the still-asleep Lela.
To her surprise, Brady is waiting for her on the beach, surfboard in hand.
“I knew you wouldn’t miss out on an early morning surf.”
“How did you even know I was in town?” Mack asks, somewhere between baffled and amused.
Brady shrugs. “I saw Lela’s car drive in last night. It’s hard to miss.”
“Fair enough, I guess.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s surf!”
Mack smiles and rolls her eyes, and they both head into the ocean.
.
It’s just like old times, in a way. Except, of course, that it’s nothing like old times. It hasn’t been since the first day of junior year of high school, and it never will be again. But maybe it’s nice to imagine.
After a few hours of decent surf, they’re lying on pool chairs on the beach.
“How’s the apprenticeship?” Mack asks, putting on her sunglasses.
“It’s great!” Brady exclaims. Mack’s facing forward, toward the ocean, but she can hear the grin in his voice. “I already knew a lot of board-making techniques, but with your grandpa’s expertise, and all the chances I get to practice and experiment…”
“That’s awesome.”
“Next time you come down, I’ll have a working prototype for you to test.”
“As long as it doesn’t take us into another teen musical, I’m down for anything.”
Brady laughs. “How’s college?”
Mack sighs. “It’s a lot of work.”
“Your favorite.”
“Haha.”
“But seriously. Are you still trying for that marine bio degree?”
“Yeah.”
“And it’s still what you want?”
Mack scoffs. “Of course! I’ve wanted—”
“You’ve wanted to be a marine biologist since you were a little kid. I know.”
“Yeah. That.” Mack rolls her eyes. “I think I have an in to get a research gig with one of my favorite professors next semester. It’s studying the effects of fuel pollution on red algae using new chemical techniques that she innovated in a partnership with the EPA. It’s so cool to be working with someone at the forefront of the field, and—”
“Okay, okay. I believe you. That’s the Mack I remember from high school.”
Mack laughs.
“Oh! And how’s Lela?”
A pause, as Mack realizes it’s almost noon and she should definitely have met her here by now. “I think a more important question is ‘Where is Lela?’”
“Oh. Yeah. Good point.”
Mack takes her cell phone from her bag, glad that she at least thought to bring it to the beach this time, to see a text from only a few minutes ago. “Huh. I guess she’s on her way now.”
“Well, she missed the best surf of the day.”
“There’s always tomorrow.”
“MACK! MAAAACK!!!!”
The sound of a familiar voice approaches the beach.
“Oh my gosh, and Brady too! Hi!”
“Hi Lela!” Brady says, standing up from his pool chair to give her a big hug.
After a minute of catching up, Lela turns to Mack, excitement in her eyes.
“So, I saw your note when I woke up this morning. And I was going to meet you here a few hours ago, but your grandpa was so kind to make me a delicious breakfast!”
“His cooking is so good,” Brady interjects. “Did he make you hashbrowns?”
Lela nods, and Mack smiles knowingly, because his hashbrowns really are that good. “And we were talking, and I learned that he’s an artist!”
“He has been many things throughout his life,” Mack agrees, quoting the line he often says to friends and customers.
“So I asked him to give me a tattoo!”
Mack’s jaw drops. “What.”
“Look!”
Lela holds out her left arm to reveal that the skin right above her wrist is bandaged in plastic wrap.
“That’s awesome,” says Brady.
“What is it?” asks Mack.
“It’s the flower from our necklace, of course! Friendship forever!”
Oh.
Wow.
“Now you gotta get a matching one, Mack,” Brady teases.
Mack laughs nervously. She never imagined ever getting a tattoo in the first place, given her childhood dream of being an important person in environmental politics, but something about this feels… especially weird. She’s not sure why.
Lela clearly notices, and she furrows her brow. “You don’t have to do that, Mack. I just got this for me.”
Mack nods. “Yeah. Um. Thanks. Of course. I’m happy for you, Lela.”
“Thanks, Mack.” A pause, and she puts a hand to her chin. “I think I might get more another time. It’s so exciting to be able to make your body your own!”
“Heck yeah,” says Brady. “Maybe I’ll ask grandpa to give me one too!” A pause. “Not the flower. Something else. Maybe… a surfboard! Or a wave!”
Lela grins.
A pause.
“Have either of you watched Wet Side Story lately, by the way?” Brady asks.
Mack raises an eyebrow. “No. Why?”
“Did they change the movie?” Lela asks. “Oh my gosh, how is everyone?”
Brady smirks. “Oh yeah. They sure changed the movie. They keep changing it, in fact. Every time I watch it, it’s different.”
Lela beams.
“I think it might even be getting around the rules about what movies were allowed to do back then? Like, sometimes there’s an interracial kiss.”
She gasps. “Tanner and Cheechee?!”
“Butchy and Seacat.”
“Oh.” She blinks.
“Good for them.” Mack chuckles.
“And you should see the sequels, too.”
“Sequels?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy. They went into the New Hollywood era and everything. One of them was produced by Coppola?”
Mack blinks.
“It’s very postmodern.”
.
“Your brother and Seacat, huh?” Mack asks on the walk back to her house. “I never imagined that.”
“I hope he’s okay,” Lela responds, looking down.
Mack chuckles. “Oh, so you think it’s like… a toxic relationship. Maybe we should’ve asked Brady for the specifics.”
“No, I mean…” Lela frowns, looking distressed. “You’re not supposed to… he can’t…” She swallows. “If you do something like that, you get punished.”
Mack tilts her head. “What do you mean?”
Lela looks at Mack, eyes intense. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel… it? Feel what, Lela?”
“The Code.” She takes a deep breath, looking away again. “If you kiss the wrong person, you have to be punished by the end.”
“Who told you that?”
“No one ever needed to tell me. I know it like I know… I don’t know. My own reflection.”
“Wow, that philosophy class really has gotten to you,” Mack tries to joke, but she’s more than a little freaked out by the way Lela’s acting.
“Maybe it’s just me.”
“We can… talk about it. If you want?”
Lela shakes her head. The palm trees on their path shake in the light breeze.
Huh, Mack thinks. That’s not like her.
“I think something bad would happen if I talked about it with you.”
“Oh… Um. Okay.”
They’re approaching the house. Lela tucks her hair behind her ear. “Sorry for making things weird.”
“No, no, it’s okay. Walks are meant to be… weird.”
.
The rest of the trip to the beach is admittedly a little weird. Lela can’t surf, because of the tattoo, so Mack decides to not to go either.
Instead, they decide to check out Wet Side Story.
“It’ll be nice to see all my friends,” says Lela, when Grandpa offers up the VHS.
Apparently the plot is crazy different—Les Camembert has something to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis maybe? But honestly, Mack ends up not paying too much attention to the movie. She’s too focused on watching Lela watch it.
The way her face lights up whenever Butchy or Tanner or one of her biker girls is on screen. The way she occasionally responds to dialogue in the movie like she’s there too, then giggles at her mistake. The way she makes commentary to Mack about all the things she didn’t know about these guys—her brother has a secret fondness for baby animals, Struts and Seacat share a love of building sandcastles, Tanner looks pretty good in a leather jacket.
It’s all very endearing to Mack. It’s nice to spend time with her friend. She can’t help but think back to that thing she said about The Code. How weird and unlike her. Lela never lets anything hold her back. Well, except for all that times when she did, back in the movie. It’s crazy to even think the Lela sitting next to her right now is the same girl who once told Mack some crazy plan to wear a dress that makes Brady think of the ocean. Or something like that.
After a delicious dinner thanks to Grandpa, the girls head upstairs to get ready to sleep.
It’s a pretty normal occurrence for the two of them by now, but Mack can’t help but think of the sleepover the biker girls have in the movie. It’s not the same without Lela, in the new version.
There’s something Mack just can’t shake, sitting in the back of her mind, as they both sit on her bed in their pajamas.
“Hey, Lela… what was that code you were talking about last night?”
“Oh, that,” Lela looks down. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”
“Okay… if you’re sure.”
She sighs. “Listen, Mack… you’ve helped me learn a lot. But there are some things I just can’t do. No matter how much I think I want to.”
Mack tilts her head. “That doesn’t sound like you at all, Lela.”
She shrugs. “I’m not as much like me as people think.”
“Alright, I’ll back off. It’s not a big deal.”
“Thanks, Mack. You’re the best friend a girl could have.”
For some reason, it’s at that moment that it hits Mack.
She wants to kiss Lela.
Oh, jeez.
“Mack? Is there something wrong?”
“No,” she responds, eyes wide. “You’re a best friend too. Um, that I, uh, asked for.” She blinks. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Lela narrows her eyes. “...Okay.”
“We should sleep.” Mack fakes a yawn, which turns into a real yawn.
Lela yawns too, and nods. “Goodnight.”
.
The next morning, they set off for campus once again.
Mack isn’t sure what to think of her revelation from last night. It’s probably nothing, right?
She tries not to look at Lela as she drives, hair blowing in the west coast autumn wind. It’s easier tried than done.
“I just don’t know why the Soviet Premier would send the missiles secretly in the first place,” Lela muses as they drive across a thankfully empty highway. “Like… that does look pretty bad.”
“Sure,” Mack replies from the passenger’s seat. She wasn’t paying enough attention to the movie last night to know what she’s talking about.
“One time the surfers secretly bought a special kind of wax for their boards and Butchy found it hidden in Big Momma’s.” She giggles. “He thought they were gonna use it to sabotage our bikes.”
“That’s definitely comparable to nuclear missiles.”
“Exactly!”
Mack snorts.
“Well, anyway. I’m glad the bikers and surfers were able to unite to stop the world from blowing up.”
“Me too. I like it when the world isn’t blown up.”
Lela grins, eyes still on the road.
She has a really nice smile.
Nope, Mack thinks. I can’t do that. It’s nothing. It’s nothing. It’s nothing!!!!
“Do you think life has a purpose?”
Mack is jolted out of her spiraling thoughts. “Huh?”
“I just mean… do you think it meant anything, that they stopped a war? Was that supposed to happen?”
“I—I guess I don’t know.”
Lela sighs. “I used to think I was meant to be with Tanner. That seems so silly now. But I really believed that, you know?”
Mack thinks about all the things she’s believed were supposed to happen. Going to that prep school, for one. Once upon a time, she thought that was her destiny. Funny how silly that seems now.
“Everything just seems so…” She scrunches her nose. “I don’t know. Hollow. Like they won’t end the story.”
“Wasn’t it you who told the rest of the Wet Side Story gang to make their own stories?” Mack asks, eyebrow raised.
“I guess so.”
“So there you go.”
“It’s hard, though. What if I don’t make the right story?”
“Welcome to the real world, kid.”
She smiles again. “Thanks. I’m glad to be here.”
“As long as it doesn’t blow up.”
“That would be nice.”
.
Back on campus, they’re busy again.
It makes it easier for Mack to ignore that weird little voice inside her head that seems to think she has some sort of crush.
Lela keeps talking about her philosophy class—she seems to be pretty enamored with postmodernism. Not liking metanarratives, or something like that. Mack is deep in oceanography and biology and a desperate attempt to learn physics before the next pop quiz.
Brady texts her occasionally—pictures of his prototype surfboards, the sunrise on the ocean, failed attempts at basic cooking, that sort of thing. Which is very nice of him, especially considering how bad she is at texting him back. She’s just busy. At least he understands that.
It’s funny. Even with so much of her studies being about the water, she all but forgets her real love of the ocean until she gets one of those texts from Brady. She just gets so in her head about stuff sometimes.
Anyways, weeks go by, as they often do, and not much happens.
In a movie, they would just skip over this part, Mack thinks to herself sometimes. Like anyone would want to make a movie about her life.
But if they did, this would be nothing more than a montage. Studying by montage seems so much easier than actually studying, anyways. You just tap your pencil to your lip and scribble some notes down in a few different locations, and then you’re good to go for the final exam. It’s a shame it doesn’t really work like that.
Lela doesn’t mind, though. At least, she doesn’t seem to mind; it’s hard to tell sometimes how much of her cheeriness is real and how much is a coping mechanism. It makes sense, though—she came from a world where this stuff would literally be skipped over. As much as Mack gets tired of the work she has to do sometimes, she wouldn’t want to live like that either. Well, maybe if she had control of it. Like, she could direct her own movie and decide when to turn it into a montage…
Wait. What was she supposed to be thinking about right now? Oh, right. Planning for the Young Oceanographer’s Association end of semester party.
It’s basically ended up as her responsibility, since the club president and chair of the planning committee won’t be on campus for the event. They’ll be on a research trip to the Caribbean with the head of the marine bio department, which is a good excuse if Mack’s ever heard one.
Hm. She tabs back over to her email. How many cups did they say we needed to order, again…?
.
Once Mack has taken her final exam—or, uh, her final final exam… her last final? Once Mack has finished all her tests for the semester, she breathes a sigh of relief.
Now all that’s left is that party. It better go perfect this time. No weird interruptions from concerned movie characters this time.
Okay, Mack thinks, as she sets up streamers in the tiny room in the corner of the student union building that the planning committee had booked, this is gonna be smaller than that big high school dance last summer.
That’s fine! It’s college. Lots of people have already left for home, having finished their finals. She doesn’t mind small. It’ll be fun!
She puts the final touches on her lovingly designed snack table, complete with a tablecloth colored to represent the different zones of the ocean, and waits for people to show up.
And waits.
Okay. Maybe a lot of people are already home for winter break.
She grabs a handful of goldfish crackers from her snack table and slumps onto the couch with a sigh. So much for a perfect party. She wouldn’t even mind a movie character showing up out of the blue right about now…
“Hey Mack! Sorry I’m late!” The door opens and Lela steps into Mack’s sad little party room. She looks around. “Where is everyone?”
“Not here.” Mack gestures to the table next to her. “Have some snacks.”
Lela frowns. “Don’t you think a party needs some music?”
“It’s not a party.”
“Well, I’m here now.”
“What do you want to listen to?”
She shrugs, grabbing a blue mini cupcake from the snack table.
Mack grabs her phone—already connected to the bluetooth speaker she set up—and elects to just put her music on shuffle.
First up is… Oh, of course.
The opening notes of Fallin’ For Ya start to play.
Mack winces and fumbles for her phone in her pocket again. “Sorry, that’s weird, isn’t it? I’ll change it.”
Lela sits on the couch next to Mack, expression almost glazing over as the singing starts. “Is that… me?”
“Yeah.”
“No, it’s—” She furrows her brow. “I’ve never heard it like this before.”
“What do you think?” Mack asks, still wincing.
“I… I mean… the whole point of the song was just so I could fall into Tanner’s arms, wasn’t it?”
“In storytelling terms… basically, yeah.”
“I don’t think I like that.”
“Fair enough. I don’t think I’d like it either, if I got to sing a whole song just to fall off the stage,” Mack jokes, trying to lighten the weird mood.
“I just wish I knew what I was supposed to do.”
“Besides fall off a stage?”
“Yeah. That, and secretly yearn for something I don’t think I can tell anyone about.”
Mack’s chest clenches. “Huh?”
“You know, surfing!”
“Right.”
“That wasn’t in the script, you know. Me telling you that I love to surf. I never told Tanner that, I mean.”
Mack blinks. “Oh.”
Thankfully, the song ends, and a new one starts. Something instrumental, from Mack’s study playlist.
Lela scooches closer to Mack on the couch.
“Mack, listen…” She takes a deep breath. “I just… I really appreciate what you’ve done for me.”
“Of course, Lela. I mean, you did so much of it yourself.”
She smiles. “I did, didn’t I?”
Mack smiles back.
They stay like that for a moment, just staring into each other’s eyes.
“Lela…” Mack starts. “Whatever that code is, I don’t think it matters here. Just like how the song doesn’t matter here. You know?”
“You really think so?”
Mack nods.
“Can I kiss you, then?”
Mack blinks. “What.”
“Can I kiss you?”
She takes a breath, heart beating in her chest. “Yeah.”
The speakers are still playing that random instrumental song, but if this was a movie—no, you know what? Screw that.
It’s not a movie, and that’s the point. Lela and Mack each lean into each other, and it’s awkward, and they don’t know what to do with their hands, and the music is whatever, and it’s perfect.