Chapter 1

The front door opened just as I was stuffing the last pair of wool socks into my suitcase.

My girlfriend, Bailey Carter, and our friend, Derek Wilson, walked in through the door with their snorkelling gear, bathing suits, and a whole bag of deflated pool floats.

Derek was the first to notice my thick winter coat on the couch. He was briefly stunned before he burst into loud laughter.

"Pay up, Bails," he said to Bailey. He pointed at my suitcase and laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face. "I told you that Josh would be angry. He's even packing winter clothes on purpose to spite us."

Bailey leaned against the entryway, looking down at her phone as she transferred money to Derek, a helpless grin on her face.

"Fine. You win this time."

She then put her phone away and walked up to me, wanting to straighten my collar.

"I've already booked the flight for you again, Josh. We went overboard with the prank this time, so don't be mad. Remove these winter clothes from your suitcase. We won't be needing them in Beachland."

I stepped aside to dodge her hand.

Her hand froze mid-air as she frowned.

"Are you seriously going to make a fuss like this?"

I zipped up my suitcase and pulled up the handle.

"I'm not going to Beachland anymore. Have fun, you two."

The smile on Derek's face froze for a second. Then, he hurriedly came up to me and tried putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Don't do that. We've already re-booked your ticket. If you don't want to sit by yourself, I'll switch seats with you instead. Are you happy now that I'm sitting in the back?"

I looked at his hand hovering inches from me and said, "Don't touch me."

Derek froze.

Bailey's expression also darkened. "Joshua Abbott! Why are you acting up over a cancelled flight? Do you seriously have to go this far?"

I turned to look at her.

"You cancelled my flight and made a bet with him about my travel plans. And now, you're saying that I'm going too far?"

Her eyes darkened with impatience.

"Aren't we already making it up to you now? I already booked the replacement ticket last night. I never said I was really not letting you come along."

Derek nodded and sounded aggrieved as he said, "Yeah. We never really thought of abandoning you. We were just pranking you. You didn't use to be like this."

He paused for a second as though he'd just thought of something. Then, his eyes lit up.

"Oh, right! I've got good news for you! I thought of telling you about it on the way there to cheer you up."

My heart sank. I had a bad feeling about this.

He then brought out his phone from his bag and showed me a screenshot.

"I submitted your final submission for the Stargaze Artist Awards competition two days ago! You'd been staying up all night for it lately, and I felt sorry for you, so I submitted it on your behalf."

My grip tightened on my suitcase handle.

"You tampered with my entry?"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch," Derek said, as though I was being a spoilsport. "I just added a little easter egg to your submission. I put a tiny frog rolling its eyes at the bottom left corner of that painting you liked the most as a watermark. It's hilarious!"

Then, he winked at Bailey. "I even made a bet with Bailey to see when you'd finally find out about it. I was thinking of only revealing it to you after you won the competition to make it an even bigger surprise for you!"

I felt my mind go completely blank.

The entries for the Stargaze Artist Awards competition were to be strictly anonymous. Entry files were not allowed to contain any irrelevant signatures or watermarks, and certainly no humorous symbols of the sort.

That was my entire portfolio that I'd put together after barely sleeping a wink in the past two weeks. It was also the only portfolio that my art academy had recommended for that award.