CHAPTER 1 - THE LONG WEEKEND
As mentioned in the story summary, this fanfic expands on events that were first mentioned in the fifth chapter of my earlier fic, A Stoked Christmas. For those who don't like spoilers and haven't read that story yet, don't read it until after you've read this one. :D
This new Stoked fanfic, set about a month before the events of Gromfest (and several months before the events of A Stoked Christmas in the story's internal timeline), covers what happens over the course of a week at Surfer's Paradise, starting during Canada's August long weekend holiday (known in British Columbia as BC Day) and centering around Fin. While this story, like A Stoked Christmas before it, is a tragedy/hurt/comfort tale, there are also a couple of more light-hearted secondary storylines in the beginning which end up tying into the main storyline later, and there will also be some conflict deeper into the story.
And with that, awayyyyy we go...
Upstairs in the girls' room at the Surfer's Paradise staff house early on a Friday evening, Fin was having some fun bouncing around on her bed as she played air guitar while listening to her iPod. She was feeling good because she learned that she was getting a rare day off from her job in Housekeeping Services the next day, rare because Bummer, ever since he started making the junior staff at the hotel work weekends as well as weekdays in mid-June, rarely ever gave days off.
The decision to give Fin the day off had actually been made by head housekeeper Rosie, who had seen that Fin, her top maid, needed a break. In recent weeks, Bummer, who seemed to have it in for the groms, had begun working Fin and her friends harder than ever, even forcing them to perform duties not part of their job descriptions. The hotel day manager had also been looking for excuses to cut into his staff's surfing time, at one point even attempting outright to deny the groms their right to surf, even though he did not control their free time and they could surf whenever they wished when they were off-duty; the only thing that kept Bummer from following through on his threat was when Johnny, acting on the groms' behalf, used something incriminating he had on Bummer to blackmail his boss into changing his mind and let the groms continue surfing.
Fin had begun hating Bummer for the things he was doing to her and her friends as of late, but he was the furthest thing from her mind right now. She was still riding an emotional high from the success the Surfing Songbirds, the music group she had with Lo, Emma and Kelly, had at the charity talent show at the hotel theatre two weeks earlier, made sweeter by successfully foiling Captain Ron's plot to have his top employees, Tuna and Betty, steal the spotlight for themselves at the show through cheating and sabotage. When she got a copy of the video footage Ty, Lo's older brother, had filmed of the Surfing Songbirds' performance at the show, Fin e-mailed the footage to her sister, Sam, back at home in Halifax. During a later webcam chat with Sam, Fin got to talk with her father about that performance, and her father congratulated her on her group's successful debut and said he was proud of her, which pleased Fin very much.
Fin was still playing air guitar while singing along to one of her favorite Wolfmother songs, "Woman", on her iPod when Reef, who was on his way up to the guys' third-floor room, overheard the sounds of jumping coming from the girls' room and poked his head in to see Fin jumping on her bed during her air-guitar singalong. Fin, who had not heard Reef come in because she had her iPod earbuds in her ears, was caught by surprise when she turned around in the middle of an air-guitar riff and saw Reef laughing at her.
"Shut up, kook!" Fin said as she grabbed her pillow off her bed and threw it in Reef's face. "It's not funny!"
"Are you kiddin' me?" Reef said, holding his sides from laughing so hard. "I should've recorded your little performance on my iPhone for a keepsake, that's how funny it was!"
"Whatever, squid," Fin remarked as Reef continued laughing. "What're you doing in here anyway?"
"Came by to see if you were ready to hit the Office and let off a little steam after a hard day's drudgery," Reef said. "So what were you so stoked about to be tryin' to channel Andrew Stockdale anyway?"
"I just heard I'm getting the day off tomorrow," Fin said with a grin.
"What?" an incredulous Reef said. "How'd you swing that? Bummer almost never gives us days off since he started makin' us work weekends too!"
"It wasn't Bummer," Fin said. "I got Rosie to thank for that. Doesn't matter though, I won't have to spend tomorrow cleaning dirty guest rooms or scrubbing grungy toilets that some guests can't be bothered to flush."
"Man, what a gyp!" Reef commented. "I gotta spend the day tomorrow teaching clueless kooks how to surf as usual."
"You'll be right at home then," Fin said with a giggle. "Meanwhile, I get to enjoy the day tomorrow. Kelly's boyfriend David is coming over again from Victoria and I'll be giving them another surfing lesson. I'm sure glad I got David for a student instead of those bennies you have to teach."
"Hey, those bikini babes I teach are not 'bennies'!" Reef said defensively. "And what do you got as a surfing teacher that I don't? If I was the one teaching David instead of you, he'd be doin' tricks on the waves after his first lesson!"
"Oh, really?" Fin retorted with a raised eyebrow. "If you're such a good instructor, then why did David pick me over you to teach him how to surf? Oh yeah, that's 'cause he wanted a teacher who'll actually show him how to surf the right way, not someone who's a hot-dogger and a glory hound. And last I checked," she added, "the students you've had lately haven't exactly been bikini babes, have they?"
"Yeah?" Reef said, not knowing what else to say to counter Fin. "Yeah, well..." he added before blowing a 'raspberry' at the blonde tomboy, then said, "...to you!" before he turned and walked out the door.
"Oh yeah, real mature, Reef," Fin said dryly with a smirk before she turned her iPod back on and resumed her air-guitar session while jumping back and forth between her bed and the floor.
Later at the hotel entrance, Kelly was waiting there for the Whalebus when it arrived at just after seven to drop off passengers it had picked up at the seaplane terminal at Sunset Beach. The Pirate Ship manager and head waitress had just gone off duty after tallying the evening's dinner bills and was waiting for her boyfriend, David Hughes, who was coming up to the hotel to spend the August long weekend and to hang out with her.
As soon as she saw David step off the bus with his guitar case and luggage, a happy Kelly ran over to greet him with a hug and some kissing. After he and Kelly finished their kiss, David asked her, "So, how's my favorite Songbird doing tonight?"
Kelly giggled a little, feeling flattered that David remembered her performance with the Surfing Songbirds thanks to the video she had e-mailed him. "Still feeling great after the talent show," she said.
"Then wait'll you hear this," David said with a grin. "I'm going to be here until the Sunday after BC Day, so you've got me for a whole ten days."
Kelly squealed happily and wrapped her arms around David again when she heard the news. "Oh, that's awesome!" she said gleefully. "We'll get to do what we want together when I'm not on duty at the DR, you'll get to see my friends around the hotel when they're working..."
"Speaking of friends," David cut in, "I hear you've got a surfing lesson booked for me with Fin tomorrow, right?"
"Sure do," Kelly confirmed. "Fin's got the day off from work tomorrow, so she's free to show you and me a few more moves on the water."
"Cool," David said. "I'm feeling ready to start learning to do tricks on the waves if Fin thinks I'm ready. No fancy tricks right away like the kinds her friend Reef does to show off, but I'm willing to start slow and build up."
"No worries then," Kelly said with a smile as she escorted David to the front desk to check in. "Fin's the one to show you what to do."
Later that night at the staff house just before midnight, Fin came into the girls' room, fresh from taking a shower earlier, now dressed up in her sleepwear of a spaghetti-strapped white top and floral-patterned pink pajama bottoms. After a surf session and a later bonfire party at the Office with the rest of the groms, along with Johnny, Ty, Ripper and No Pants Lance, she was feeling tired and ready to go to sleep.
Finding Lo and Emma already fast asleep in their beds, Fin made sure not to wake them as she walked silently to her own bed, hopped into it and pulled the covers over her, then closed the light on the nightstand, turned on her right side and closed her eyes. Tomorrow's a brand-new day, Fin thought to herself with a smile as she started drifting off to sleep. And it's a day I'm gonna enjoy because I don't have to work or have that slavedriver Bummer breathing down my neck.
Meanwhile, as Fin slept, her iPhone, which had been set to vibrate instead of beep, began ringing in a small bag she kept on the floor beside her bed, but she never heard her phone and she ended up missing the call, which flashed on its display:
JUL 31 12:07 AM
1 Missed call - Mom
Up next, Bummer sticks Lo with babysitting duty again and Lo recruits Fin to help her out. Also, Reef arranges a video game tournament with the guys after they call him out on his bragging, and Fin gets another call from home.
Stoked (c) Fresh TV Inc. and Teletoon. I don't own the show or any of the characters except my OC.
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