CHAPTER 1 - TAKE THAT, REEF! (OR LENDING A HAND)
Here's my newest entry, a little something for all the ReeFin fans out there. While there'll be a good chunk of action between Fin and Reef in this tale, it'll also be somewhat of an ensemble story (as noted in the capsule summary). With the Stoked episode "Surfer's Got Talent" coming up (or already played, depending on where you live), I'm centering this story around a talent show (not a talent contest like "Surfer's Got Talent") for charity, and what happens when Captain Ron decides to get his lackeys Tuna and Betty involved.
This story laps over the end of Season One and the start of Season Two, taking place approximately between just after "A Boy Named Leslie" and the early episodes of S2. Don't worry, there won't be any Lo/Reef action happening in this or any of my other stories here.
At the Surfer's Paradise hotel beach, Fin and Reef were enjoying a rare day off from work, courtesy of Mr. Ridgemount (thanks to their recent victory over Captain Ron's team in the Staff Tandem Surfing Contest), by catching a surf session before lunch. Fin rode up the wave face to do an aerial 360, then landed in time to see Reef come up behind her and do an open-face air off the wall of water while grandstanding to anyone watching from the shore, then did a spinning move on his second launch off the wave face. "Ha! Take that, amateur!" the cocky Reef crowed to Fin after landing. "Got you beat again!"
"Eat surf, kook!" Fin retorted. "You couldn't beat eggs if you had a mixer!"
"You're just jealous that I always one-up you every time we hit the waves," Reef bragged. "There's no shame in admitting that you're second-best to me, babe!"
"Oh, yeah? We'll see about that!" Fin remarked before she cut back and passed Reef by to join her grandmother, Amanda McCloud, who had just arrived on the wave herself. Mrs. McCloud had originally planned to return home to Halifax after her two-week vacation at Surfer's Paradise wrapped up, but thanks to her successfully coaching Fin and Reef to victory in the Tandem Surfing Contest, hotel owner Mr. Ridgemount had rewarded her by adding two extra weeks to her stay at the hotel, giving her more time to spend with Fin and the rest of the groms.
"Hey Grandma, let's show Reef what we can do!" Fin called over to her grandmother. "Routine One?"
"You got it, honey," Mrs. McCloud, who was decked out in the yellow, orange and pink wetsuit she got from Lo to wear for her surfing demo at the Tandem Surfing Contest, agreed on Fin's call of which surfing move to use. Right then, the McClouds rode up and off the wall of water and did synchronized rodeo flips together, stunning Reef as he watched.
"Still think I'm 'second-best' now, hodad?" Fin taunted Reef after she landed back on the water.
"Ha, just a lucky shot!" Reef retorted in an attempt to save face and minimize Fin and her grandmother besting him. "Don't make a difference to me 'cause I'm still a better surfer than you any day of the week."
"Let's see if you think this is lucky, then!" Mrs. McCloud then called to Reef as she cut back, rode through the green room and came out the other end trailing her right hand along the wall of water, then went up off its lip and, while grabbing the edge of her board with her left hand, did a one-handed handstand on the board while doing a 360 in the air before landing on the water again, with both feet back on her board. An astonished Reef said nothing when Mrs. McCloud got close and told him, "That's the move that won me my last Canadian championship back in '87, before I retired from competing."
After Mrs. McCloud pulled away and rode back to the shore, Fin pulled up to Reef next. "What's wrong Reef, catfish got your tongue?" she teased the surfer boy, who was not looking so full of himself now. "Not so quick to flap your lips now that you've been beat by someone who's been retired from competitive surfing longer than you've been alive, huh?"
"Whatever," Reef said dismissively. "I still look better on my worst day than you do on your best," he then bragged to Fin to get under her skin as only he could do.
"In your dreams, squid!" Fin snapped at Reef, who then watched admiringly as the pretty blonde surfer girl pulled away toward the shore, grinning a satisfied grin as he celebrated a self-claimed moral win, even if he had not beaten Fin or Mrs. McCloud on the waves.
As Reef and the McClouds returned to shore, Fin spotted Lo walking toward the beach with her board tucked under her right arm, looking somewhat sullen and a little sad at the same time. "Hey Lo, what's up?" she asked the rich girl. "You look like your kid brother swiped the last breakfast croissant before you could get it."
"I wish it were that simple," Lo muttered.
"Okay, Lo, something's got you feeling less than your usual chipper self," Fin said, "so spill the beans. What's the matter?"
"I was watching a news report on the TV back at the staff house before I got here," Lo explained. "The RCMP busted a puppy mill over on the mainland near Kelowna, arrested its owners and had the SPCA take a bunch of dogs and puppies away. It just made me angry that some people care less about the dogs they keep and about their welfare than they do about the money they make off breeding them constantly, but I also felt sad for those poor dogs." Lo, who loved animals (particularly dogs), had a history of being affected emotionally by hearing about stories of animal abuse in the news, on occasion even crying if she heard that the animals, especially if they were dogs or cats, died as a result of cruelty by abusive owners.
"Sorry to hear that, Lo," Fin reassured her friend, putting her hand on Lo's shoulder. "It can't be easy hearing stories like that."
"There's an easy way to solve that problem - stop watching the news," Reef suggested unhelpfully, earning him an elbow to the ribs and a glare from Fin.
"Shut up, Reef!" Lo snapped. "I can't help feeling the way I do about animals. They don't deserve to get treated so badly by owners who don't even deserve to have them if they can't treat 'em right."
"You know, there are ways you could help deal with problems like those," Mrs. McCloud then spoke up. "Never buying a dog from a disreputable breeder's a way to start. You could also volunteer with the local animal shelter by helping to feed and look after the animals there. Even donating money to a shelter to help them cover their operating costs can go a long way."
A light then went on above Lo's head after hearing Mrs. McCloud's suggestion. "Hey, that sounds like a good idea! Thanks, Mrs. McCloud," she said, turning to hug Fin's grandmother in gratitude for the advice. "Now I know what I can do to help."
"Not a problem, dear," Mrs. McCloud replied as she responded in kind by hugging Lo back. "What do you have in mind to help the animals?"
"Now that I think about it," Lo said thoughtfully, "the donating money idea just might work. Maybe even a fundraiser of some kind..."
Next chapter, Lo makes her pitch about a talent show fundraiser to her parents and the groms start organizing the event by announcing auditions. Plus, what will Tuna and Betty do when they find out about the auditions?
Stoked (c) Fresh TV Inc. and Teletoon. I don't own the show or any of the characters.
Comments and reviews are welcome.