This is a re-write of my original story that went by the same name. I re-read the story and noticed a lot of problems that needed to be fixed. I am going to delete the original story once I get everything fixed. I really appreciate hearing from my readers, so any reviews are welcome. This is a story based on season 1 of the Discovery Kids' TV show, Endurance. It takes place in the summer of 2002 and was filmed on Catalina Island, California. I am replacing Ashley Gudzak from the Red Team with Kiley Lyon, an OC. I'll put a picture of her up on my account. Also, if you have never watched the show, I'll put a link for the first episode up on my account as well. I'm also making Kiley into a champion surfer, even though I know very little about surfing. I'm trying to learn some stuff about it off the Internet and from surfing friends of mine, but I apologize to any surfers reading my story who might get offended at my lack of surfing knowledge. I am the farthest thing from a surfing expert and will never pretend to be one. If anyone notices any mistakes I make relating to surfing, please let me know and I'll try to fix it. Thanks, and sorry again for any surfing-related mistakes. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.
Chapter One: Audition of a Lifetime
Kiley Lyon was 14 years old when she heard about Endurance for the first time. It was the first week of summer break in June, 2002. She had just arrived at the Pier, a beach in her hometown of San Clemente, California, to surf with her cousin and her friend when she saw a flier posted on a bulletin board about auditions for a new TV show called Endurance.
"Hey guys, have you ever heard of this before?" Kiley called out to the other two.
They came up to the bulletin board and read the flier, then shook their heads.
"No," said Kiley's friend Taylor, "What is this thing, a new kind of Survivor or something?"
"Looks like it," replied Kiley, "It says it's a competition for teenagers to see who has the most endurance to make it through the game."
"It looks cool," said Mike, who was Kiley's cousin, "We should give it a shot."
"What, you mean we should audition?" Kiley asked skeptically, "Like, actually try to get on the show? What are the odds that any one of us will actually get picked? I mean, there are probably thousands of kids our age auditioning, there is no way that any of us will ever get on this show."
"You never know, Ki," Mike replied, using her childhood nickname, "I mean, all three of us have surfed ever since we were little kids and have won tons of competitions. Surfing's a tough sport and if we can survive that, then we can survive a TV show. Anyway, if this is a physical competition, don't you think they'll be picking athletic kids? We're athletes, we could have a shot!"
"Especially you, Kiley," Taylor added, "You're the best surfer out of the three of us."
"Just because I've won a few more competitions than you two doesn't mean that I'm the best. Neither of you even competed against me when I won some of them!" Kiley protested.
"Oh, come on, Ki!" Taylor pleaded, "Please, please, please! It won't be any fun if you don't audition too!"
"Yeah, Kiley," Mike added, "It wouldn't be any fun if we auditioned without you. Come on, let's just do it for fun. It doesn't matter if we get chosen or not; won't it be cool to start high school in a few months and be able to tell people that we auditioned for a TV show? Besides, if you don't audition, then you definitely won't get picked. At least you'll have a shot if you actually try."
Kiley sighed heavily in mock frustration before saying, "Fine, if it gets you two to stop nagging me about it, I'll do it. God knows that if I don't, neither of you will let me forget it."
Taylor and Mike cheered as Kiley turned and started walking to the bathrooms to change. The two ran to catch up with her.
"The sign said to send in a tape," Mike said, "Do you think your mom will film them for us, Kiley?"
Kiley's mom was a professional camera operator for the local news station and had a lot of cameras and other kinds of equipment stored at their house. Kiley considered it: If her mom filmed their audition tapes, they would look professional and might just give the three of them an edge over the other kids, who would probably be using hand held camcorders.
"Probably," Kiley replied, "She always films our competitions, so she'll probably be willing to film our tapes for us. But what would we do in the tapes? We probably shouldn't just say that we want on the show, we would need to give them a good reason to pick us."
"We could do something with surfing," Taylor suggested, "We're all great at surfing, that might give us a good chance. Plus, I'm sure not many of the other kids auditioning will do anything like it. Like you said, your mom's always filming our competitions, so she'll know how to make us look even better on tape."
The three of them agreed that they should each do something with surfing, just as long as they did different stunts. It might not look good if they all did the exact same thing on their audition tapes. As they came out of the bathrooms and started walking towards the beach, they noticed another group of surfers (all boys) about 50 yards away who looked to be about their age. Kiley vaguely recognized one of them from a competition she had just been at.
"Who are they?" Taylor asked, who quickly became very interested in these good looking boys.
"I only know the blonde guy in the red swimming trunks," Kiley replied, "His name is Christian, but I don't know his last name. He's been at some of the same competitions as me. He's really good, he's number one in his age group."
"Is he from around here?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, I think he is," Kiley replied, "He went to different schools than us, but he'll probably be going to school with us next year if he doesn't move or something."
"He's kinda cute, don't you think?" Taylor asked with a smirk.
"Oh, please," Mike groaned before Kiley could respond, "No talking about guys while I'm around. I knew I should have asked David to come today so that I could have someone to talk to while the two of you drooled over guys."
"Now you know how I felt the other day when you and David were talking about that one girl in the blue bikini," Taylor retorted, "It was nauseating."
As the two continued bickering, Kiley couldn't help herself; she glanced down the beach at Christian, who was heading into the water with his friends. After a few seconds, as if he felt someone watching him, he turned and made eye contact with her. Christian held her gaze for a few seconds before smiling and waving at her, which she gladly returned. Taylor was right, she decided, he was kinda cute.
That night when she got home, Kiley told her mom about the auditions. She told her that Mike and Taylor had pretty much forced her into agreeing to audition and now there was no way for her to back out.
"Honey, I'm sure it'll be something fun for you three to do before the summer's over," her mom reassured her, "You never know until you try. Who knows, you might have a shot. I'd love to shoot the tapes for you; just let me know when and where, I'll be there."
A few days later, Kiley was back at the Pier with her mom, Mike, and Taylor to film their audition tapes. They decided to let Mike go first as he was the only guy, with Taylor going second and Kiley going last. All three of them started off their tapes by introducing themselves and explaining what they were going to do before heading out in the water to surf. Each tape lasted about 10 minutes long.
"That was so awesome!" Mike exclaimed as they finished the last tape, "Thanks for helping us, Aunt Angie."
"It's no problem, kids," she replied, "I'm glad you all had fun. I hope that the people doing the casting for this show sees how talented you are and picks at least one of you. But you do need to consider the fact that not all three of you could get picked. One or two of you might get left out and you need to prepare yourselves for that."
"She's right," Kiley said as her mom walked back to the car, "What if only one of us gets picked? Or what if two of us get picked and the other one gets left out?"
"It'll be no big deal," Taylor said, "At least one or two of us would get to go."
Kiley hoped more than anything that Taylor was right. She would hate for her friendship with these two to get ruined just because of a stupid TV show. Now all they could do was mail in their tapes and wait for the call to come.