I dragged studying on until long after I heard Charlie’s group leave. When I got back to my room, I found a folded note stuck to my door. I grabbed it and squinted at the sloppy handwriting.

Jen

Jon’s in Panama. Wants to meet you. Dinner at a burger place right on the dock at 8 tomorrow night. Can’t miss it. Will your trip be over by then? Drop by my room or call me – 3044 and let me know!

Charlie

Well, why not? I grabbed the ship phone off of my roommate's desk and dialed the room number.

"Hello?"

"Charlie?" I asked.

"No, it’s Mark. Charlie’s not here."

Mark, hmm? I wondered if Mark was in on their little secret. "Can you tell him that Jen says eight o’clock is fine?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks, bye."

I sighed after hanging up. A part of me was excited to dock in our second country and see new things. I couldn’t wait for my trip tomorrow. And yet there was another part of me that just wanted to skip the clock up dinner so that I could find out just what was up with these people. It was a miracle that I fell asleep at all.

I got up early enough for the tradition of watching the sunrise in port, but it was too rainy and cloudy to see anything. The sunrise in Mexico had been spectacular. Disappointed, I went to breakfast much earlier than usual. I spotted Charlie across the dining room, but didn't see anybody else. Maybe Dani and Mariana really had somehow gotten off the ship early. I ate quickly, hoping to avoid Charlie. I knew that he couldn't have known that I overheard his phone call, but with all the strange things happening, it wouldn't have surprised me if he did.

He caught me anyway. "Hey, Jen. Did you get my note?"

"Yeah. I left a message with um..."

"Mark," he said dryly. "Figures. Does eight work?"

"Yeah."

"Toasty. Have a good day!"

Much to my relief, he didn’t say anything else. I went back to my room to get ready and made my way to the gangway to disembark. We couldn’t dock in Panama, we had to anchor out in the bay and use our lifeboats to cruise into the dock. They separated us into groups of twenty to fill the lifeboats and let us out one at a time. When it was finally our turn we lined up and swiped our IDs to check ourselves off of the ship.

"Hello again!"

Just my luck, Charlie, TS, and Thomas were all in my group. I grumbled a greeting back to Charlie. Thomas nodded at me before stepping through the metal detector. He swiped his ID and headed for the small staircase that led down to the lifeboat. The girl behind him did the same and moved through the metal detector.

"Oh my god, he fell in the water!" the girl in front of Charlie screamed.

The crewmember checking us off of the ship raced forward. "Stay here!"

I could hear everyone on the lifeboat freaking out and the crewmembers shouting orders. I craned my neck but couldn’t see what was happening. I noticed movement and looked over at Charlie. Rather than trying to see what was happening, Charlie had calmly swiped his ID. I looked at the screen where our data appeared and to my surprise saw Dani’s picture pop up, with Daniel Pelagos above it. Charlie slid the ID into his pocket, pulled out another, and swiped it as well. The name Mariana Bar and her picture came up too. Charlie turned and noticed I was watching. He shot me a look that plainly said to keep quiet.

The checkout crewmembers returned.

"Everything is alright now," one said.

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"I haven’t swiped my ID yet," Charlie told him innocently.

The man nodded and Charlie swiped his own ID, and vanished out the door. After they looked in my purse, I checked out and got onto the steps. At the bottom, two crewmembers took my arms and helped me jump from the steps into the arms of the crewmembers waiting on the boat. It was a bit freaky, but also fun. I stepped down into the lifeboat and looked for a seat. And there, soaking wet and wrapped in a blanket, was Thomas. Charlie and TS sat across from him, so I took an empty seat next to him.

"You’re the one who fell in?"

He nodded sheepishly. "Slipped."

"Or did you fall in so that Charlie could use Dani and Mariana’s IDs without anyone seeing?"

Thomas glared at me. "You are entirely too observant."

Charlie and TS glanced at each other and shrugged.

"So, where are you off to, Tom?" TS asked. Seeing as they probably spent a lot of time together, I doubted that TS really didn’t know Thomas’ plans for the day.

"Indian village trip."

"Me too! Keen!" They high-fived, and I rolled my eyes.

"I’m doing the half-day rainforest tour," Charlie said. "Then, I’m taking that sunset Panama Canal boat ride."

"I’m doing the rainforest tomorrow," TS said, "Let me know how it is."

"Will do. What about you, Jen?" Charlie asked.

"Lake Gatun boat tour." As eager as I was to meet Jon and figure out what was going on, I was excited for the trip. We’d be on a boat on one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

The little boat, rocking violently, started across the bay.

"I’m gonna be sick," TS groaned.

"You’re fine," Thomas said. "We’re only on for a few minutes."

It was a short ride, and TS was practically the first person off the boat.

"Don’t forget, that restaurant down there at eight!" Charlie reminded me, pointing down the dock.

Thomas argued with the crew for a bit, before they agreed that he was perfectly fine, just a bit wet. After he pointed out that we were practically on the equator in the middle of summer and he’d dry off fast, they let him go. He and TS headed off toward the bus marked with their trip number. The bus next to it closed its door, and Charlie groaned.

"Oh clinker! That’s my trip! Gotta go. Give this to Danio, will you?" He thrust Dani’s ID at me and ran off toward his bus.

I frowned after him and made my way to my own bus. I almost felt bad that I didn't have time to find Dani, but I didn't want to miss my own trip. A teacher seemed to be arguing with someone, and as I went around of the front of the bus, I saw Dani. So, he was on this trip with me, then. Charlie must have known that.

"I swear, I had it when I got off the ship," he said. "Ask anyone, I really am a student, you can’t kick me off the trip!"

"No ID, no trip," the teacher said.

"Dani!" I called and hurried over. "Here, I found this down on the dock."

I handed him his ID, and he grinned.

"Thanks, Jen! You’re a lifesaver!"

We got onto the bus and ended up sitting together.

"You know, Thomas fell off of the lifeboat and into the water."

"Really?" I noticed that he seemed curious, but not at all concerned.

"Yeah. And then Charlie used the distraction to swipe your and Mariana’s ID cards."

Dani hummed under his breath and smirked. "You really keep an eye on us, don’t you?"

"Well, I am curious. But I meet Jon tonight, right?"

Dani nodded.

"So… how did you get here?" I asked. "Did you and Mariana jump off the ship and swim all the way to shore?" I left out the fact that ‘all the way to shore’ would have been over 100 miles.

He just smiled at me. "Everything will be explained, I promise."

"But you did, right? If it were anybody else, I’d say that it was impossible to swim that far, especially in an ocean. But you did."

"Keep your voice down! Yes, all right? We swam here to meet Jon."

"Last night."

Dani looked shocked.

"You weren’t at dinner."

"Fine, fine. Keelhaul me, why don’t you?" he hissed. His eyes were doing that weird thing again, where darker blues looked like they were splashing with his normal color. "Yes, we did. Now drop it."

He turned away from me, and I knew that the conversation was over. He and Mariana had swum from a ship in the ocean to shore in the middle of the night. It just wasn't possible. The more I tried to figure it out, the more supernatural my thoughts became. I decided that I needed to lay off the fantasy books.

The trip went well. We took the boat around the little islands on the lake and saw some huge ships bound for the Panama Canal. There were monkeys in the trees and crocodiles in the water. While we ate lunch, I noticed that Dani was nowhere to be seen, but when we all went to a swimming hole after lunch, he was back. I climbed up some rocks and sat down by a small waterfall. I watched Dani while he swam below me, half hoping that he'd do something out of the ordinary. A few minutes later, he scaled the rocks and settled down next to me.

"Done swimming?" I asked. "Isn't that your thing?"

He let out another one of his lyrical hums and leaned back against a rock. "Don't like the water," he said with a shrug. "This little swimming hole is gross."

I looked down at the water; it looked fine to me. Dani stretched out in the sun, and I realized that he hadn't changed into a swimsuit; he was still wearing his shorts and t-shirt.

"Your clothes are going to be wet for hours."

Dani chuckled. "You think wet clothes are going to bother me?"

His eyes were their usual cheery blue, but in the sunlight I could swear that the irises were still slowly moving. It reminded me of gentle waves.

"So, where were you?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"During lunch. You vanished."

He narrowed his eyes, and I could see the flecks of blue-gray appearing. "I was around." His tone sounded worried, and I realized that "worried" was the exact word I'd use to describe what his eyes did too. I thought of Charlie and how his flared red when he got upset. It was like their eyes reacted to their emotions! It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. A little voice in the back of my mind kept saying inhuman.