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He slams a file down on the countertop before us, the photo pinned to the outside for all of us to see. It’s the rainbow haired beauty from the beach. The one I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since that night, but I’ve been too rushed off my feet to do anything about.
“So what if it is?” Cove surprises me by getting defensive.
“Right, cards on the table right now,” the prof growls angrily. “You all know this girl?”
“We’re friends,” Cove says.
“She’s in my class,” Bhodi adds.
“And you’ve been shoving your tongue down her throat!” The prof’s eyes flash with anger.
“What?” Cove cries.
“Have you kissed her too?” The prof rounds on him.
“Yes. So what if I have?”
“And neither of you thought to tell me that you’re both drawn to the same girl?”
“We didn’t know! We’ve been so busy we’ve barely had time to catch up!” Bhodi snaps back.
“And you, Reef? Have you got it bad for this girl too?”
“I’ve literally only met her once, and it was weeks ago. She didn’t even tell me her name.” It’s the truth, but they don’t need to know that I’ve been obsessing over her during my every waking moment. “Why, prof? What are you thinking?”
“It doesn’t make sense. If she was the Star you would all have had encounters with her. Or should I say we.”
“Well, no-one seems to hate her more than you, so she can’t be the Star, can she?” Bhodi retorts.
“I like her, but it’s not that obsessive, magnetic pull that you’ve mentioned boss,” Cove adds.
“I don’t know her.” I shrug. I’m not entirely sure what the prof’s getting at here, but I don’t think she can be the Star. She was just a really cool girl I wanted to get to know. In another life, I would have. Could have. Maybe we even might have been the ones kissing.
“Reef? Reef!” I blink as the prof snaps his fingers in front of my face.
“Sorry, what?”
“I want you to get to know Malia-Tarni.”
“Excuse me? What did you say her name was?”
“Malia-Tarni Van der Zee. Why?”
“Give me a minute,” I say, turning back to my computer, wanting to check something. The others keep talking and I half listen, the majority of my focus on my screen.
“We need Reef to get close to her, to be sure. It’s the only lead we’ve got.”
“What about you, boss?”
“She’s my student. I can’t exactly…”
“Guys,” I say suddenly as the results of my search flood in. “You need to look at this.”
I turn the screen to face them so that they can see what I’m seeing.
Van der Zee - a Dutch toponymic surname meaning ‘from the sea’
Tarni - the Kaurna word for surf. A girl’s name meaning ‘wave, surf’
