Chapter One

Surfer's Paradise

I stood at the end of the pier, watching the blue waves break in the distance. A tan dude with blue hair was shredding, but besides him the spot was pretty empty. Shame too, there were primo waves out there. I looked down to my left, and saw my own board in its bag. I couldn't wait to break it out finally; the first Canadian wave was going to be epic. Just like this summer working at Surfer's Paradise. While I mused on this, I heard hurried footsteps from behind me. I turned in time to see a redhead girl rush up, squealing into her phone.

"Thank you soooo much for letting me come, mom," she said. "By the end of the summer, I'm going to be a surfer!" She hung up the phone, and gazed out at the ocean. I raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and returned to watching the boy out on his board. He did a cut-back over a wave, and I whistled.

"Sweet cut-back, huh?" I asked the girl. She turned to me, and had an expression as if she hadn't realized I was there.

"Huh?" she asked. "Uh… oh yeah. Sweet cut-thingy…" I furrowed my brow in confusion, but just then I heard a loud and obnoxious honking behind me. I turned, and saw what can only be described in as the most goofy bus in the history of automobiles. It was huge, purple, and in the shape of a whale. The door swung open, and a tan older man stepped out.

"Hey dudes," he called. "All aboard for Surfer's Paradise hotel." My eyes got wide.

"That's my bus," I mumbled to myself, as the girl did the same. We exchanged an awkward glance. "Shall we?" I asked. She smiled and nodded, and we walked over to the giant monstrosity of a bus. We realized that we weren't alone; two other teens were there. A boy with hair that can only be described as "large" and a girl with short blonde hair. The boy looked to us.

"You dudes going to Surfer's Paradise too?" he asked. We both nodded. He smiled. "Sweet," he went for a fist bump, which I exchanged with him. "Name's Reef." I nodded.

"'Sup bro," I said. "I'm Nate." Reef grinned at me, and I gestured to the girl. "What's her name?" She walked up to me.

"I can speak for myself, you know," she said, but she didn't really sound mad. "I'm Fin. Nice to meet you." She shook my hand, and went to shake the redhead's. "And... your name?" The other girl shook her head quickly, like she tried to snap herself out of a daze.

"Uh, Emma," she said, shaking Fin's hand. "I'm Emma." The man who drove the giant whale shaped bus stepped in.

"I'm the Kahuna, dudes," he said, putting his fist up for pounding. Reef and I exchanged confused looks, but shrugged and pounded his fist anyway. "Alright dudes, dudettes, hop on the Whale Bus. We're going to Surfer's Paradise." We all nodded, and boarded on the bus. Reef sat in a far back seat, and I took the one next to him. Fin was in front of him, and Emma in front of her. I changed my mind and moved next to Fin, so I could be in the middle of the three of them. The bus peeled out, and started moving to the hotel. "So what's up summer staff?" Kahuna asked. "I drive the shuttle for the hotel, so any time you need to get to town you just look for me, just look for the Kahuna. So… you groms here for the surf?"

"Definitely," replied Reef, sounding ecstatic.

"Is it as epic as they say it is?" asked Fin.

"Best in the country," Kahuna confirmed. "Double overhead most days. Hope you're ready to get worked." I pumped my fist in the air.

"You know it!" Reef couldn't hold in his excitement any longer.

"Oh man," he said, excitement building in his voice. "I am so stoked!" He shoved his head out the window. "SOOOOO STOKED! Woohoo! Hello Sunset Beach!" There was a sudden pause. "Hey, uh, I think it might be raining…" He pulled his head back in to reveal three large spots on his face where a seagull had, well, relieved himself. No one inside the bus could hold in their laughter.

"Dude," I exclaimed. "You just got seagull'd!" The girls laughed even harder, and even the Kahuna joined in, as Reef tried to wipe the white gunk from his cheek and hair.

The bus ride passed quickly, and we soon pulled up to a large… um… I don't know how to describe it. It was a hotel, but it was, well, how do I put this lightly? Lame as all get-out. Another giant whale adorned to top of the building, and several whale fountains littered the drive up. The Kahuna honked the loud horn, causing a disturbance in one of said fountains. Out fell a teenager with dark skin, and a huge blonde afro. If I thought Reef's hair was big before, I hadn't seen anything yet. The four of us got off the bus and walked to the front door. The afro boy walked near us, and released a loud yawn while stretching.

"Dude wake up, you gotta punch in in ten minutes," said the Kahuna. "You don't want to get canned on your first day, do ya?" The boy yawned

"Man, what time is it?" he asked. Reef checked his phone.

"Almost twelve," he responded.

"Man, I slept in…" he said. He suddenly seemed to notice Emma and Fin, because he zipped over to them, putting an arm around each one. "Girls that I don't know, what's up?" he asked quickly. He had some sort of accent, though I couldn't place it. He wore no shirt, just a necklace and a pair of board shorts. Fin chuckled.

"Rough night?" she asked.

"No doubt," he said, stretching again. Emma, Fin, Reef and I began to walk inside. "Hey, wait up!" he called after us, following us in. As we entered, I was struck with just how much potential this job had… to be the lamest thing on earth. The place was practically sprayed with tourist attracter. There was a giant pirate ship on one side, a whale stocked gift shop on the other, a whale fountain, whale posters… man this place had a thing for that dumb purple whale.

"Oh… my… gosh…" said Fin, feeling a loss for words at how kooks-ville this place was. The five of us walked towards the checkout counter. Emma noticed something in the gift shop.

"Wow," she said. "I've never seen a board with diamonds in it before." I rolled my eyes, as did Fin.

"Okay, that is so fancy-feast," she grumbled.

"Man," I said, deciding to state the obvious. "This place isn't that clean." A maid carrying a large sack of garbage over her shoulder walked by.

"We haven't gotten to the outside yet," she grumbled. We looked out the windows, and all five pairs of eyes popped wide open. The place was trashed. It was like a hurricane went through or something.

"Oh that's from the party last night," said the tan boy. "It was soooo sick…" he seemed to be reminiscing. "Check you guys in a minute, huh?" He smiled, and walked off somewhere.

"I'm gonna go check the surf report," said Fin, walking in the opposite direction. Emma, Reef and I stood in the lobby, confused about what to do next.

"Should we be… checking in with somebody?" I gestured over my shoulder at what I assumed was the front desk. There was another teen there, maybe a bit older than us, who was dealing with a family of tourists. They shouted something at him, and he made a call on his walkie-talkie. Then he told the family to wait a moment, and we took out chance and walked up.

"Welcome to Surfer's Paradise," he said, arms outstretched. "We are surfing." I raised an eyebrow.

"We are surfing?" I asked. He sighed, and slumped his shoulders.

"Yeah," he said. "We are surfing. I have to say it."

"We're the new summer staff," explained Emma. "I'm Emma." Just then Fin walked back up to us.

"Hey," she said. "I'm Fin. That's Nate, and that's Reef." Reef and I both raised our hands up when our names were called. The boy behind the counter brightened up.

"Oh, hey what's up," he said, smiling. "I'm Johnny, I work the front desk. Concierge. So, what d'you think?" We all avoided the obvious answer. Well, except for Fin.

"It stinks," she said blatantly. "It's all fake!" Johnny cringed.

"Ooh… You must've seen last year's brochure," he explained. "Yeah, last fall, corporate decided to make all the hotels 'theme hotels.' And viola, every true surfer's worst nightmare. Dude! What'd I tell about taking sink-showers in the lobby bathroom?" We turned to see the boy from before returning, sopping wet. He shook off his hair.

"Uh… don't?" he guessed.

"Right," said Johnny impatiently. "So what're you doing here anyway?" The boy pointed proudly to himself.

"I'm the new bellhop man!" he exclaimed. "Sick party last night." He jumped backwards and landed on the couch nearby.

"Who threw this shindig, man?" Reef asked Johnny.

"The owner's daughter," he said, a slight hint of disgust in his voice. "Lo."

"If her dad finds out, it's tickets bro," the boy said. Suddenly the manager, a short man with short trimmed hair and a purple shirt, walked over.

"Hi, just checking in I see," he said. "I'm Andrew Baumer, day manager. If there's anything you need, just let me know." Johnny spoke up.

"Uh sir," he said. "They're not guests."
"We're the new summer staff," Fin corrected. The tan boy added a "what's up?" from the couch. The manager, Baumer, automatically became less friendly.

"Then what are you doing in the lobby?" he asked. "What are they doing in the lobby?" he directed it at Johnny. "And you, get off the couch!" The boy jumped off the couch he was laying on.

"It's cool, bro," he said, putting his hands up to quell the rage coming from this man. "It's cool."

"All of you, come with me," he shouted. "You too Johnny. I need all the hands I can get."

On the walk to the pool, which Baumer was making us clean, we got to talking. The boy from the fountain introduced himself as Broseph. No, seriously. Anyway, he told us all about Sunset Beach. The breaks were perfect, and if you can find a good enough spot, there'll hardly be any kooks holding up the lineup. Soon we arrived at the drained pool, and set to scrubbing it down. I didn't even want to know what it actually was that I was meant to clean. We set to it silently, but after a while somebody had to complain.

"Dude this bites," groaned Broseph, scrubbing down the side of the pool. Johnny made a sound like pshh.

"That's resort life for you," he said.

"What d'you mean?" asked Fin.

"Well," he said. "Usually we get the afternoon to surf. Then some kid has a diaper malfunction in the pool, and BAM! We're on scrubbing duty." We groaned, and got back to scrubbing. After another few minutes Emma decided to break the silence.

"So, where're you guys working anyway?" she asked, taking a break from her mopping. "I'm in the dining room." Johnny pointed a finger.

"DR, nice," he said. "Decent tip potential." Reef jammed a thumb in his chest proudly.

"You are looking," he said, as if he was going to announce something big. "At the head of water sports, and surf instruction!" Fin's eyes grew wide.

"What?" she stammered. "That's my job.
"Uh, is your name Reef?" Reef asked smugly.

"No."

"Well then it's not your job. I got this in the mail last week." He held out a letter, which Johnny scanned over. He verified its authenticity, and Fin got steamed.

"They do this all the time," Johnny informed her. "Move staff around. You'll get used to it."

"That is SO unfair," she said. "So… what am I supposed to do?" Johnny pulled out a walkie-talkie, and checked Fin's posting. The response came back quickly as housekeeping, and Fin was not too happy about that. "A maid?" she said. "Uh, no. Oh no! Okay, I don't even clean my own room." I wanted to diffuse the Fin bomb that was going to go off, so I stepped in.

"I'm working the rock wall," I said. Reef turned to me with excitement.

"This place has a rock wall?" he shouted. Johnny walked in, a finger put up to interject. I raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, had," he said tentatively. "This place had a rock wall. They took it down last year." I stared at him, mouth agape. He held up his hands. "I know the drill," he said. With that he called Baumer again to check for my job. When the response came back, Johnny shrugged.

"Well?" I asked.

"There's no permanent position for you yet," he explained. "We're gonna put you in the DR for now." Emma smiled.

"Hey, we'll be working together," she said. "Nasty!" I raised an eyebrow.

"I think you mean gnarly," I corrected. She turned slightly red, and nodded. "Alright, well, it's not the worst job around. I could be a maid." I smirked at Fin, who threw a scrubbing brush at my head. Then we set out to complete the rest of the tasks Baumer had set for us to do.