By Hannah Carter
Haddie always loved summer. No sums, no figures, just sun rays and ocean waves.
But it seemed some people couldn’t relax, even if their lives depended on it.
A fifty-foot watery monster stood in front of her at the beach. Inside its liquid chest sat a boy, the root of all her problems—
Percival Holmes.
One moment, he’d been trying to do summer homework right beside Haddie. He’d seemed stressed, jaw clenched, and snapped when Haddie attempted to distract him.
Then a wave swept his Magical Government textbook out to sea, and he’d lost the book and his temper.
His fists clenched as he shook, and—wham. With a scream, magic exploded around him, and he’d been sucked into the middle of an aquaeous humanoid blob.
Percy hung limp inside the creature, though magic crackled around his body. The monster swung its arm at a group of teens playing volleyball. People screamed as sand exploded; globs of gloop flew onto Haddie.
She flicked the wet sand off. “All right, Perce. That’s quite enough.”
“You should be studying!” The ocean-monster bellowed. “Not partaking in frivolities!”
He hammered a shaved ice stand with his fist.
Haddie whipped her wand out of her magical bathing suit pocket—what a necessary invention—and aimed it at the creature’s arm. “Ice!”
His arm froze from the elbow down, and the monster bellowed. Haddie braced herself and leapt up onto the icy slab—
—and promptly lost her footing, smacked her bottom, and slid off onto the sand.
She winced and rubbed her poor, sandy backside. “Oof. That always works out better in the movies.”
She climbed to her feet; the water monster ripped the unfrozen bits of his arm free and drew in more ocean water to reform it.
“Why aren’t you all doing your homework?” the monster cried. “Don’t you know your futures are at stake? The choices you make now will affect you forever!”
With another swipe, he leveled a pair of empty chairs. The sunbathers that had previously occupied them shrieked and kicked up bits of sand as they fled, leaving the scent of suntan oil and salt water in their wake.
“You are going to waste all your potential by lollygagging!”
Haddie rushed to the shoreline. The waves attacked her legs with the fervor of a head prefect of a magical boarding school gone berserk.
“Ice!” She aimed her wand at the first wave and raced forward. Her bare feet skidded, but every time she plunged into the water, she climbed back up and kept her frozen path going, right up to the heart of the beast.
“Perce!” Haddie cupped her hands around her mouth as she yelled desperately, “Perce, stop it!”
Percival’s unconscious body convulsed; the monster swung at Haddie. “You! You are the worst slacker of them all!”
Haddie shrieked as tons of water smashed into her. She flew off her pathway and fell face-first into the waves. The currents swarmed her, her body throbbed from impact, and she struggled to the surface, spluttering and hacking.
Oh, ouch. She’d never wished to be a fish-girl—excuse her, mermaid—like Percival’s girlfriend until right then.
Haddie pointed her wand beneath her feet and froze the waves below into an elevated podium.
The creature jabbed at her again. Freeze, jab, freeze, jab—their battle repeated as Haddie inched her podium closer until she could speak to Percival without screaming.
Up close, he didn’t look much better. His eyes were closed, and he floated listlessly in the monster’s chest.
“Perce, listen to me.” Haddie swallowed and reached out a hand. She could almost touch him, almost… “I know your mum puts lots of pressure on you to perform well in school.”
The creature grabbed a surfboard and snapped it in half. “You hooligans could get hurt and ruin your future!”
Haddie ignored that. “Perce, it’s commendable that you work so hard, but if you don’t take time to rest, well—this is what happens.”
Percival’s body twitched.
“You’ll never succeed in life unless you work hard!” The monster picked up all the abandoned floaties in the water and hurled them across the beach; one shaped like a duck let out a long quack-wail as it flew.
“You’ll never succeed in life if you put all your self-worth into being successful, Perce.”
The water around the monster stilled; the creature turned to face her.
Salty ocean spray stung Haddie’s eyes until they watered. Obviously that was why there were droplets on her face, not because she was crying because her best friend had overworked himself into a magical, perfectionist beast.
She reached into the monster’s heart and grasped Percival’s hands. A jolt nearly shocked her off her podium as their skin met. His eyes flew open and he gasped as he tumbled into her arms.
“Ha—Haddie?” Percival coughed and spit water out.
The water creature dissolved behind him. The waves crashed against their refuge; Haddie froze the spray and used it to form a slide to lead her best friend safely back to shore.
Percival surveyed the damage. “What happened? Did you do something stupid again?”
Haddie rolled her eyes. “Actually, this time it was you.”
“Me? But—but last I remembered I was studying—”
“That’s just it. You worked yourself until you just snapped. Magical burnout is no joke.”
Haddie righted a seat and guided Percival to it. She propped up an umbrella and placed some sunglasses with only one lens on his face.
Poor Perce still looked a little shell-shocked as he examined the beach.
Haddie summoned two fruity drinks inside coconut cups and sat down in a chair beside him. She clinked the shell of her coconut against his and took a sip.
Percival tested his own beverage. “Maybe I do work a little too hard.”
“Just a tad.” She grinned and leaned her head back. “And let’s face it—the world won’t end if you take a break… but there’s a good chance it will if you don’t.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This was absolutely delightful!!
Haddie’s role-reversal as the sensible one was a pleasant surprise. :)
(And pardon me while I fangirl, but my favorite line was this one: “…one shaped like a duck let out a long quack-wail as it flew.”🤣 Priceless!!)
Awwww, thank you so much, Rose!!! I’m so glad you liked it. 🥰 And Haddie definitely enjoyed her turn as the sensible one. It happens so rarely! 🤣
(Hahahah, I’m so glad you liked that line!! That was my favorite line as well. Along with magical bathing suit pockets, because, let’s be honest, bathing suits need pockets, magical or not! 🤣)
Loved this! All the lines about hard work tied to success just made this so much more powerful. Awesome story!
Thank you so much, Arlan!! Like Percy, I also attribute a lot of self-worth to being successful/the quality of my work. So this was such an important reminder to myself as well! 😊✨
These characters are so fun! I hope you write a book (or series) about them in the future.
Thank you so much, Rae!! 😊✨ I would love to write more about them in the future. So far, I have a few pieces about them on Havok, and a short story in Whispers From Before by SnowRidge Press on Amazon!! 😊✨
Yeah, I think I caught one other here on Havok and I was first introduced to them in the SnowRidge anthology. I’m enjoying seeing them again and how their story is progressing.