Summer Lifeguards: Piper Makes Waves

By Elizabeth Doyle Carey, Tracey West and Katherine Noll

Time to dive back into Cape Cod in the fourth book of the Summer Lifeguards series featuring empowering female friendships, relatable challenges, and tons of beach fun!

Piper Janssen is surprised by how much she likes being a Junior Lifeguard. Except for one thing: she's totally nervous about wearing a bathing suit in public. Add on a catering gig gone wrong, co-worker drama, and trying not to be distracted by adorable Luke, and Piper's got a lot on her plate this summer.

Everyone knows that Piper is amazing. But will Piper ever be able to feel that about herself? Or will her self-consciousness distract her from seeing the real threats on the beach?

The fourth book in the Summer Lifeguard series featuring:

• Strong female friendship
• The challenges middle schoolers face and overcome!
• A heartwarming lesson on body image and self-love
• Wholesome beach fun to add to the summer reading list
• The perfect series for grades three and up!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781728221328

Elizabeth Doyle Carey

Elizabeth Doyle Carey is a former book editor and bookseller. She is the author of many books for young readers including 15 titles in the Cupcake Diaries series and 4 titles in The Callahan Cousins series. She lives in New York City.

Book preview

Front Cover

The Summer Lifeguards series

Summer Lifeguards

Jenna Tests the Waters

Selena to the Rescue

Piper Makes Waves

Title Page

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Books. Change. Lives.

Copyright © 2021 by Elizabeth Doyle Carey

Cover and internal design © 2021 by Sourcebooks

Cover illustration by Judit Mallol

Cover design by Maryn Arreguín/Sourcebooks

Internal design by Ashley Holstrom/Sourcebooks

Internal illustrations © Freepik, macrovector_official/Freepik

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

Published by Sourcebooks Young Readers, an imprint of Sourcebooks Kids

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

[phone]

sourcebookskids.com

Originally published as Junior Lifeguards: Shark Bait in 2017 in the United States of America by Dunemere Books.

Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is on file with the publisher.

Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Copyright

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

About the Authors

Back Cover

To the Villar family, with gratitude

1

A Rash Decision

EEEEEEK!

I whipped my head around to locate the source of the squeal amid this morning’s crowd on the Cape Cod beach. Was it a child screaming? A mom shrieking for help? But no, it was one of those annoying plover birds wheeling overhead, trying to scare everyone off her beach. I turned back to the water and resumed my vigilant stance.

A gust of salty sea air rushed into my lungs as I wiggled my toes in the cool, wet sand at the surf’s edge. If you had told me this time last year that I would be trading in my riding boots and jodhpurs for a bathing suit, I would have said you were crazy. What’s more, if you’d told me I’d be volunteering for a summer job rather than making money, I’d have said you belonged in the nuthouse!

But here I was, standing at the oceanfront and keeping an eye on the tourists splashing in the waters of Westham, Massachusetts, my hometown, instead of mucking out stables. I was supposed to be a horse lover. My best friend Jenna was the champion swimmer. Those were our roles in life, and I liked it that way. Until Jenna joined forces with my grandmother, Bett, to convince me to try out for Junior Lifeguards with her. I might have been able to say no to one of them, but trying to stand up to both at the same time was like trying to ride a wild mustang: pretty much impossible.

Scanning the water again, I saw a wave break hard and early over two younger kids who had their backs to it. When only one head bobbed back up to the surface, I knew I had to take action—and fast. But first I had to take off my rash guard, or I’d be useless in the water. I’d learned that the hard way when my rash guard had dragged me down during a rough day of lifeguard tryouts.

Now in my haste I fumbled with the clingy material, getting my head stuck in it and wasting valuable seconds. Come on, I thought, frustrated, as I wrestled myself out of the shirt.

I had just thrown it down onto the sand and was starting to run into the water when Jamie, the lifeguard on duty, went flying past me and splashed through the whitewash. Her tiny braids smacked against the dark skin of her back as she ran. Jamie dove a wave, then she swam quickly with broad, smooth strokes to where the boy was last seen. Just then, he came up on his own, gasping for air. He had been tumbled by the surf and was disoriented. He looked around, clearly confused as to which way he needed to go to be back on dry land. Jamie put an arm around him and helped guide him back to the beach. A crowd had gathered around to watch. I was standing by, feeling helpless, when I heard a voice shout my name.

"Piper, a word. Now!" Bud Slater barked at me, and I felt my heart sink into my stomach as I followed him over to the lifeguard chair. Bud had been the director of Westham’s lifeguard program for thirty years, and I knew he liked me. But if I was in trouble with him already, my summer of lifeguarding would be over before it had even begun.

Why were you wearing that rash guard earlier? It was out of uniform! he scolded, his light blue eyes drilling into me as his voice boomed out. This is life and death, not a fashion show.

As soon as he said that, I realized that I wasn’t wearing my rash guard anymore. It was still on the sand where I had tossed it. I crossed my arms over my chest to relieve the wave of self-consciousness that flooded over me.

You need to be prepared. Always. No exceptions, Bud said. Frankly, Piper, I’m surprised at you. I thought you were more level-headed than that.

I looked at him, unsure what to say. I hadn’t been wearing the rash guard as a fashion choice. I had been wearing it because I was embarrassed to stand around all day in just a bathing suit. It was like one of those nightmares where you wear just your underwear to school and wake up in a panic, thinking it was real. But I didn’t know how to tell a man in his fifties that. There was no way Bud would understand.

I’m sorry, sir, I managed to squeak out.

It’s dangerous and unprofessional. What if there’d been a shark? Or rough seas? Don’t let it happen again, he said before turning quickly on his heel and walking back to Jamie. The boy’s mother had her arms around him and was thanking Jamie over and over again.

That could have been me, I thought. The hero who saved the day. Instead, I was the dummy who got tangled up in her rash guard.

I was extra vigilant as I resumed my spot on the water’s edge, scanning the surf. I looked at the crumpled rash guard in the sand and, as tempted as I was to put it back on, I kicked it back toward the lifeguard stand and left it there—for now. Maybe if I got a red rash guard instead of the blue and white one, Bud wouldn’t notice if I wore it. And I could practice taking it on and off so it wouldn’t hold me back, and then Bud wouldn’t chew me out again. No matter what, I had to make this training program work for me. I had been surprised to have made the squad—but now I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

It was funny I cared so much since, at first, I hadn’t even wanted to do this training program. I’d always been a solid swimmer, and years of working at the stables and riding and handling horses had made me strong. (Sometimes I felt like it had made me too strong. I was taller than the other girls my age, bigger, more developed, and more muscular.) But I am a landlubber. I had surprised myself by excelling at the Junior Lifeguard training and discovered that not only did I like it, I loved it.

Succeeding is in your blood, Piper, Bett always told me proudly. Horse people are hard workers. You can do anything you set your mind to because you’ll always work hard at it.

Now I doubled my efforts, working as hard as possible to pay attention and stand ready. I was so intent on watching the swimmers in the ocean and scanning the horizon for sharks that I didn’t hear Luke Slater come up behind me until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I’m going to start calling you Eagle-Eyes Piper. Luke smiled at me. Nothing’s gonna get by you!

Even though I was already standing on a sunny beach, my cheeks flushed at his compliment. Luke was so handsome and friendly, always joking around and teasing everyone. His blond hair was bleached almost white by the sun, and his big green eyes twinkled with mischief. His tanned skin was smooth, and he didn’t seem to have any problem walking around in just his bathing suit.

Luke was Bud Slater’s son, but he and his dad were nothing alike. While Bud was strict and no-nonsense, Luke was fun-loving and laid-back. A lot of the time his attitude drove his dad crazy, but Luke’s lighthearted nature and sense of humor made him one of the main reasons why I liked being a Junior Lifeguard.

I’d been crushing on Luke ever since