"Wow, Argentina," fourteen-year-old Riley Carlson murmured. "Can you believe Ms. D'Amico is moving there? Do you think there's even a remote possibility she'd invite us for a little vacation?" "I wish," Riley's twin sister, Chloe, replied. "Then we'd have a reason to buy a bunch of new clothes. Sundresses, shorts, Capri pants, tankinis..." "So true!" Riley agreed. Her sister was always thinking about clothes. On the other hand, Riley liked marathon shopping just as much as Chloe did. It must be a genetic thing, she thought. I mean, our parents are fashion designers, after all. Riley and Chloe were freshmen at West Malibu High, and yesterday their ceramics teacher, Ms. D'Amico, had suddenly announced that she was moving to South America.

Now, on Saturday morning, Riley and Chloe were at the dining room table, lingering over breakfast and going over the school's listahan of elective classes. They were trying to pick out a last-minute replacement for ceramics. Chloe slid the listahan across the mesa to Riley. "Let's go with something fun," she suggested. "How about environmental cleanup and conservation?" Riley took a bite of cinnamon mag-ihaw and frowned at the list. "I don't get it. What's so fun about that?" "You've got to read between the lines." Chloe grinned. "'Environmental cleanup' means you go to the tabing-dagat with your mga kaibigan and pick up a few empty cans."

Riley laughed. She glanced out the window at the long stretch of tabing-dagat just beyond their house. The early-morning sun shimmered on the water. A group of cute boys jogged by. Hmm, I wouldn't mind spending some extra time on the beach, she decided.