So this was a random inspiration that I had after on the last day of my holiday I had an amazing session surfing down at Woolacombe, which is where this story is set. I hope you enjoy this story.
"Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods."
― Peter A. Levine
Chapter 1-
It had all started because of her parents, they had decided that this year they were going to take a two week holiday in England, namely the south-west of England.
Being from America it was a very different kind of area but she had enjoyed the holiday nonetheless but it was only a week long, which isn't very long to make friends or get to know anyone.
At least in most 'normal' people's heads it's not but all it took was a few hours for Neopolitan Goodwitch to make a friend.
They had gotten a hotel near a town called Barnstable which had good access to a number of other places as well, with the first week they explored around the area before the second week found them moving to another hotel near a beach called Woolacombe.
This was because the second week was supposed to be a one of the hottest weeks in the country so her parents decided to spend it near a beach.
The couple's eighteen year old daughter enjoyed this idea a lot and had shown an interest in learning how to surf when she found out the area had a lot of surf shops.
So her parents happily paid for a day of lessons and once making sure Neo was ok would spend the day with themselves, knowing their eighteen year old daughter could handle herself.
When the day came they got to the beach early to find the surf shop not overly busy but still had about five people outside changing into wetsuits and putting on bright red rash vests so the instructors knew who was in their group.
Neo quickly signed in and started getting changed, wearing a bikini underneath her suit as she easily worked the skin tight suit on.
After listening to the instructor the six of them were each handed blue soft top boards, they all paired up to carry two boards each down to the water that according to the instructor was coming in.
After being shown what to do on the beach they were allowed to get into the water, Neo shivered as the cold water hit her bare feet but quickly got over it as she started to walk through the water pulling her board behind her.
Looking into the sea she had found that it was quiet today, not many people were in the water it seemed, it was before nine o'clock in the morning so she wasn't surprised but she saw a small group of women with their own surf boards much further out then she was, catching waves before they broke as they easily moved along them.
She saw one woman, she had long black hair and was wearing a black and red wetsuit with a black and red surfboard catch a wave and within seconds stand up and was moving along the wave.
Neo watched entranced by the woman as she moved along the wave, her hair was moving behind her as the wind picked up.
As the wave started to break the woman smiled as she jumped back into the air with a shout as she hit the water, her board being pulled along with her.
Neo stopped staring with a blush as she turned back to her group and saw the others in her group attempt to catch some waves, with most falling off in their first attempt.
Wanting to try as well Neo managed to catch a wave but got her position wrong and ended up falling into the water, scrambling to stand up for air.
Over the next hour the group kept trying to surf, most had managed get to their knees while one or two were able to stand up for a few seconds.
Neo however was unable to do either, she had kept falling off her board and even when the instructor tried to help her she still failed.
Neo was ready to give up even though she had almost five hours left in the session to attempt to surf and try to get it right.
She looked back towards the group of surfers all sitting on their boards as the waves moved over them, they seemed to be talking amongst each other while waiting out there.
Neo looked confused as one of them, with long blonde hair pointed towards Neo as she was talking, unsure what they were talking about Neo decided to ignore them as she thought they were making fun of her.
Neo attempted to catch another wave but once more failed as she nosedived into the sea and as she went under she started to move to get up but found that she couldn't, the current under the wave keeping her down and when she tried to move her legs she found them caught by her leash that had wrapped around them.
Struggling further to try and get out from under the water she started to thrash around as she lost her breathe.
It wasn't until she felt a soft arm wrap around her waist and pull her up and into the fresh air that she finally relaxed into the person's arm as she started to hungrily suck in air into her hurting lungs.
Whoever was holding Neo had easily lifted her up and she was sat down on her board as she tried to catch her breath and cough up any water she had swallowed, while her saviour was standing in the water next to her.
After a minute of catching her breath and calming her rushing heart Neo managed to say, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." A soft, sweet voice said.
Neo finally looked at her saviour and found the woman she saw earlier with the long black hair. Upon closer inspection Neo saw that the black hair was a mixture of dark red hair and black hair mixed together.
Looking at the woman's face she saw a soft but tired look in her oddly coloured silver eyes, but she while she had a smile on her face Neo could see it was laced with worry.
Hearing a shout to the side Neo saw the surf instructor moving over towards them but the woman just waved her hand and pointed towards the beach.
"Are you alright?" The woman asked as she turned back to the woman.
"Um, I am thank you." Neo said quickly, stuttering slightly as she couldn't meet the woman's eyes.
"Good, I've got your board so how about I take you in to the beach and you can rest for a minute, ok?" She said.
"Um sure, why did you help me?" Neo asked, not able to stop herself.
"Why didn't I? I've been watching you and well when I saw you in trouble I stepped in to help, the others were too far away." The woman informed the woman.
Neo looked around to see the surf instructor coming over to them but saw what the woman meant, she had drifted away from the group and she hadn't even noticed.
"Why were you looking at me?" Neo asked, turning back to the woman who was gently pushing the board through the water towards the beach.
"Ah well my friends and I always enjoy watching surf students and well I guess I can say that you caught my eye." The woman said.
"Laughing at us and me because of my hair?" Neo spat out as she remembered the blonde woman pointing at her and talking with the group.
While Neo didn't normally care about people's opinions about her, especially because of her oddly coloured hair and eyes she was used to people laughing at her about it because she had a mixture of pink, brown and white hair and her eyes were two different colours, blue and brown.
The woman cocked her head as she stopped moving through the water, "What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"I saw your blonde friend pointing at me and talking to the rest of you." Neo stated softly.
"Yang? She was just pointing to you because I mentioned you, she was asking me if that was who I was going to help. I promise we weren't laughing at you, we never do that." The woman explained quickly.
"Help me? But I wasn't drowning until a few minutes ago." Neo said, confused and blushing slightly at her accusation.
"Help you with surfing, I saw you struggling so when you saw Yang, the blonde pointing at you that's because I told her my plan." The woman informed Neo as they got into the shallow water.
Climbing off Neo started to walk in as the woman picked up her board, once out of the water Neo sat down on the beach while the woman put her board next to her and sat next to her.
Barely a minute later the surf instructor came running over to Neo, crouching down next to her asking, "Neo are you ok?" He said worriedly.
"Ah I'm fine, I just caught under the wave and I think the leash tied my legs so I couldn't move them easily, it was lucky that um, she was there to help." Neo explained to the worried man, not knowing the name of the woman who saved.
"Hey Chris." The woman said with a small smile and a wave.
"Thanks Ruby, I was just too far away to help." The man, Chris said thanking the woman with a smile.
"It's fine Chris, I can keep an eye Neo while you attend your other students." The woman, Ruby suggested to the man.
"Is that alright?" Chris asked.
"Its fine Chris, I can keep an eye on Neo and maybe help her out a little if you don't mind?" Ruby asked.
"I don't mind Ruby, we have about another two hours before we go in for lunch, ok?" Chris informed Ruby before running back to the other students.
Standing up Ruby gave a sharp whistle before making a few gestures to the group she was with in the sea before the blonde one, Yang broke away from them with Ruby's black and red board as she gave it to her.
"Coming back in?" Yang asked, the woman wearing a black and bright yellow suit that was tight around her ample chest.
"I will at some point, I'm going to help Neo out so not sure when I'll join the rest of you." Ruby informed Yang.
"Alright then, still on for tonight though right?" Yang asked.
"Of course." Ruby said with a soft smile.
"Alright then, have fun and nice to meet you Neo." Yang said before running back into the sea to join the others.
After a few minutes of silence Ruby broke it, "I hope I didn't presume too much about teaching you and stuff, sorry." Ruby said.
"Ah it's alright, um that's a nice board you have." Neo pointed out.
"Thank you, I actually made it myself a couple years ago and kept it since, it's called Crescent Rose." Ruby said with a smile, "Oh I forgot, I'm Ruby it's nice to meet you." Ruby said with a slight laugh.
Neo giggled at the woman as she smiled at the other woman, "It's nice to meet you Ruby my name is Neo." Neo told her.
"Well Neo, would you like to get back into the water?" Ruby asked the girl.
"I'm not sure, all I kept doing is falling down so I don't think I'm going to go back in." Neo said, slightly annoyed at how it was going.
Ruby frowned slightly, "How about this? You finish the morning session with me and if you still don't like it then I won't hassle you over it, ok?" Ruby suggested.
Neo thought for a moment as she looked at the other woman, unsure at what to decide but looking into the other woman's eyes and seeing hope she gave in, "Alright then." Neo said.
Ruby's smile lit up her face as she jumped up into the air, "Thank you, I'll treat you to lunch afterwards as well." Ruby said as she stood up, helping Neo stand up as well.
"Oh um you don't need to do that, I um can get something to eat myself." Neo said awkwardly.
"Don't worry about it, plus I'm dragging you back out into the sea so the least I can do is this." Ruby said with a smile as she put her leash onto her leg.
"But shouldn't I be the one getting lunch? Considering you saved me." Neo asked.
"Again don't worry about it, it's not every day you can save a cute girl." Ruby said with a smile once more.
Neo blushed almost as dark as Ruby's suit as she heard what Ruby said, "Um, you think I'm cute?" Neo squeaked out.
Ruby stopped for a minute before she realised what she had said, "Ah I'm sorry, I tend to ramble at times and not think through what I say." Ruby said, smiling sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Ah it's ok, it's just no one has called me cute before." Neo said softly.
"Really? Hmm that's odd because as I said, you are quite cute but come on, times wasting away." Ruby said with a smile, helping Neo with her leash and board.