CLICKS is the story of a girl named Cami, her twin brother Mica, his best friend Blake, and Blake’s twin brother Mica. They all live in the same tiny island town called Pinhold Island, a place with huge waves, an elite lifeguard crew, and mysteries as deep and as old as the ocean. The Elders there insist that they have a special connection with the dolphins living in the waters around them. Cami hasn’t seen any evidence of that, until one Summer Solstice when a unique albino dolphin saves her life.
The book itself is written from Cami’s point of view. But here, I wanted to share with you a unique take on the beginning from the dolphin’s point of view.
Moonlight filled the water, a hazy pointed arrow that caught her gaze. I didn’t need it to see, but it was still important because of the way the angle told me it was time for the Summer Solstice. The moon came later today than any other time of the year. It marked a moment I’d been learning about since I was small. It marked a ritual that my relatives used to attend every time skywheel cycled. But I’d only seen it in their memories.
Tonight, if the signs were right, I’d attend for the first time. So I waited, slipping lightly through the water, loving the early summer warmth and the way it warmed stripes on my skin. I pushed up to the surface, breaking through and flipping into the air. It was my favorite thing to do and it made me all buzzy, especially when the others joined in.
Together we jumped over and over again in diamond formation, switching it up with long deep turns near the bottom. The water was pretty shallow here, three lengths below the waves, and close to the islands that marked our home. Remembering my responsibilities, I popped up my head, but heard nothing. I went down deep again, and that’s where I felt it. Clicks and patterns that bounced from the tiny land sounded familiar, because I’d had been taught them even if I’d never heard them before.
Now that I knew how to listen, I came back to the top, and picked out that voice from above. I answered the call, matching each of the girl’s tones with my own clicks and whistles. And then I took off as fast as she could, calling my pod to follow.
Through the glassy surface the land got close enough that I could sense the individuals there. I recognized the girl immediately, and felt it in my soul when that attention was returned. A single second later, the girl dove in the water and I swam as close to her as possible. The others cleared a path to let us through, and she kicked off, swimming as fast as her arms and legs would let her, leading the lot of us to the bigger land’s shore. We were surrounded by my kind, and moving fast en masse. I didn’t want her to get pounded by flukes or sliced at by fins, so I went on top of her to protect her.
It wasn’t necessary – the pod instinctively followed behind the two of us and even made room for her to get air for the brief second that she surfaced. But then she dove under again and so I captured her in my slipstream, offering my protection, carrying her along at my speed. I got caught in the motion and couldn’t stop us in time, and the two of us were crashed up on the rocks at top speed. I tried to move back into the water, to do something to protect her, but the rocks trapped me.
Blood oozed from her head, and the stillness in her bones and limbs frightened me. I had failed her, the island and my pod.
Clicks is available at all vendors, and for a limited time it is part of FUTURE TENSE, an amazing FREE box set of Young Adult Sci Fi books.
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About the author
Amy Evans is a young adult / new adult writer who believes that all the best stories get told with kisses. She’s excited to push the boundaries of romance a little further with Jellybean Kisses, and peel back the curtains on love and life without safety nets.
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I love dolphins.
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