“I loved this drive, this moment. [...] It was like coming home after you’d been gone a long, long time. It held a million promises of summer and of what just might be.”

As Belly and her family near Cousins Beach, a wave of familiarity and nostalgia washes over her. Cousins Beach is a second home for Belly, one that she only gets to see during the short months of summer. Despite her limited time there, the setting has left an indelible mark on her. Not only is the place important to her, but Cousins Beach holds deeper symbolic meaning for Belly. Cousins Beach represents opportunity, promise, and potential, even more so now that Belly is growing older and coming into her own as a person. 

“My whole life was measured in summers. Like I don’t really begin living until June, until I’m at that beach, in that house.”

When Belly measures her life, she does so in terms of what happened during which summer, all of which have taken place at Cousins Beach. Her life outside of summer is only half-real, something that exists completely apart from her “real” life at Cousins Beach. The other nine months of the year are merely counting down until she can be at the beach again.

“My heart was beating so loudly I could hear it. Everything was the same but not. They had looked at me like I was a real girl, not just somebody’s little sister.”

This early quote foreshadows the growth and change to come for Belly this summer. Belly is the only girl and the youngest of the Cousins Beach kids, and she has always felt an acute sense of being left out or different.