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girls finally decided to take the waves they were in position for and let Liam deal with it on his own.
    Liam did not deal very well. He started dropping in on the girls.
    There are unwritten rules of etiquette in the sport of surfing.
    One of the strictest rules is you don’t drop in behind someone who has already caught the wave. Better known as cutting off or burning.
    First one to catch it owns it.
    While annoying at any surf spot, dropping in on a person at some surf spots has the potential to be very dangerous. Adding another surfer to the mix can cause the wave to swallow up the farthest surfer back if the wave is fast and hollow.
    And the Samoan waves were fast and hollow.
    Initially, Liam only dropped in on Malia or Bethany for a second and then pulled out of the wave, acting as if he didn’t know they were there. But later in the morning, as the other Hamiltons paddled back to the boat in order to catch a ride back to the camp, his intrusions became more and more obvious.
    Bethany was starting to get fed up with his overt wave hogging. She began to mull over in her mind exactly what she wanted to say to Liam, or if she wanted to say anything to him, when the onshore winds begin to blow and all the surfers paddled back to the boat.
    All the way over the reef, Bethany gave Liam a classic case of Hawaiian stink eye. Malia too simmered in silent exasperation.
    Liam appeared not to mind the silent treatment.
    After lunch, with the winds onshore, Bethany and Malia grabbed some snorkel gear and went off to explore the reefs that lined the shoreline. And to discuss what to do about Liam.
    â€œI kinda want to talk to my brothers,” Bethany said as they walked along the beach. “And then I kinda don’t. I just can’t believe we’ve come all this way to surf a spot and have something like this happen.”
    â€œGod works in all things,” Malia said with a wry smile. “At least I tried to tell myself that when we were out there. Maybe we should say something to him.”
    â€œI don’t know if it would do any good. He would just say, ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you had the wave, water was in my eyes’ or something like that,” Bethany said, frustrated.
    â€œMaybe he got it out of his system today,” Malia offered.
    â€œI hope so,” Bethany said. “’Cause if he does it again, I’m going to let him have it!”
    â€œOoo! You are so scary, Bethany!” said Malia with a smile. Bethany grinned back, and then they both raced each other into the water.
    They gently floated over sharp coral, spiky sea urchins, and countless waving sea anemones. Small colorful fish darted back and forth underneath them and, from time to time, the girls spotted the sinister head of a moray eel. Picasso triggerfish trimmed along the edge of the reef showing off their brilliant abstract colors and looking for shells or coral to grind to sand with their tough teeth.
    Suddenly, a grey reef shark swam up through a passage in the coral.
    Malia let out a small squeal underwater and Bethany felt an electric shock go through her.
    The shark was small. Too small to bother with human beings, but it was a reminder that they were visitors to this ocean world and that world contained not only beauty but also monstrous brutality.
    Bethany had worked hard to get past the fear of sharks, but her reaction to this small reef shark reminded her that her dread of these creatures lay just under the surface.
    Bethany pointed toward the shore, and Malia, who was also put off by the sight of a shark, nodded her head in agreement.
    Minutes later, plopping down on the warm sand, Bethany glanced over at Malia. “You know, even those little sharks give me the creeps. I keep thinking that if there’s a small one, there could be a big one real close.”
    â€œYeah, I’m with you on that. And I don’t like stingrays either,” said Malia.
    â€œHow about jellyfish?”