When Kono was three she stayed at her cousin Chin's house. He was twelve years older than her so it always surprised outsiders to see how close the two were. Chin had decided when he first held Kono in his arms, that he would always look after and protect her, and that wouldn't change anytime soon. Kono loved Chin very much. She always wanted to follow him around and always told people she wanted to be him when she grew up. One thing about Kono though, is she would become very jealous when Chin showed someone else more attention than he showed her. Of course to anyone else this was just Chin socialising and Kono being too little to understand that not all his attention could be on her. So when Chin returned home that night after being out with mates, he was not surprised to find Kono sitting with her Auntie, arms crossed and ignoring him. It was something she had become accustomed to doing when he would leave her for his mates. He would play her at her own game and greet everyone but her. So that's what he did. When Chin had greeted everyone he headed upstairs to his room, walking slowly knowing full well his baby cousin would jump of the couch and follow him. When Chin opened his bedroom door he wasn't surprised to find it already cracked open, knowing Kono would often sneak in to his room to play with his surfboard. What Chin didn't expect to see was an interesting array of blue, red and green crayon scribbles over his bedroom wall. Chin dropped his bag and looked down at a doe eyed Kono clinging onto his leg. Chin sighed and scooped her into his arms.

"Did you do this Kono?" He asked her

Kono though for a minute before shaking her head no.

"Kono, shall I get auntie?" Chin threatened.

"NO!" Kono exclaimed, knowing her auntie would place her in a time out.

"I'll ask again, did you draw on my wall Kono?"

This time Kono nodded her head and looked at the floor.

Chin couldn't stay mad at Kono for very long, but he knew she couldn't get away with things like this. Chin placed Kono on his bed and kneeled in front of her.

"Kono you know better than to draw on the walls don't you?" Chins asked

"Yes Chinny" Kono replied giggling at her nickname for him.

"Kono you mustn't do that again okay and if you promise to be good, I promise I won't tell Auntie Layni what you did, deal?"

"Yes dweal!"

A Week later

"Chin why is there crayon drawings on your wall?" Layni asked as she fetched Chin's washing.

"ERM, I needed to use them for an art project and they were dirty so I had to scribble away to get the colour to come out on the paper. Sorry mum, I didn't have spare paper, I err want to re-decorate anyway." Chin babbled as he entered his room, signing in relief when his mom dropped the subject.

When Kono was eleven the family gathered at her Auntie Ramies house for her son's graduation celebration. Auntie Ramie was a strict lady who believed her son should always be the best. She also believed she was better than the others in the family. Ramie didn't like her house to be messy, she always believed in dressing to impress, she hated people being too loud, and she generally disliked other people's children. Ramie Kalakaua did not get on well with her sister Leia. She always felt her sister brought shame on the family for being a single mom and for encouraging Kono to pursue surfing. Ramie was not pleased when Leia had Kono. With Leia being the youngest out of her siblings Kono was in turn the youngest grandchild, thus everyone else would shower her with attention because she was cute and the baby.

When Leia and Kono arrived, Kono ran straight for Chin who was hovering in the kitchen being lectured by Ramies son Joseph about how being a cop was an easy career pathway and his graduation with a degree in maths was way more important. Ramie immediately headed to Leia when she arrived, boasting about Joseph and lecturing Leia on allowing Kono to run in her house. Like mother like son, Leia though as she swiftly moved on to see her own mother.

In the kitchen, Chin and Kono had managed to get rid of Joseph and decided to explore upstairs. They hadn't been to Ramies house for a long time, not since she and her husband moved to this lavish house. The two cousins wandered into what looked like Ramies office. Kono saw some awards on the desk and decided to have a look, but as she leaned across the desk she accidently knocked a large glass whale sculpture onto the floor, watching in shock as it smashed into a thousand tiny pieces on the wooden floor. Kono looked up at Chin as her eyes filled with tears, fear crossing her face at the thought of her aunt screaming at her. Chin dragged Kono towards him and stood by the desk himself. The next moment their Aunt Ramie, Joseph, Leia and Layni, plus various other family members hovered in the doorway.

"Oh my god what did you do?!" Ramie exclaimed looking directly at Kono who stepped back in fear.

"I, I emrmm" Kono stuttered

Chin looked at his little cousin; being older her had been at the end of his aunt Ramies wrath when he let Joseph drink vodka, so he knew how it felt.

"It wasn't Kono who broke the whale, it was me auntie" Chin confessed.

"That doesn't surprise me" Ramie exclaimed as she rushed around picking up shards of glass.

"Hey it was obviously an accident just calm down!" Layni cried

Ramie stared in shock at being shouted at by someone else.

"I think we should go" Layni said to Leia

Chin grasped Kono's hand before following their parents out the house, he felt Kono squeeze his hand, and he looked down at her.

"Thankyou" she whispered as Chin gave her a brief hug.

When Kono was seventeen she got suspended from school for drinking and night surfing. Her mother had sat her down and lectured her on lying to her by saying she was staying at a friends and instead stealing bottles of alcohol from the liquor cupboard and getting drunk and surfing. Leia had shouted at Kono for being so stupid as to drink and still go out in the water, despite how dangerous it could be. Leia had then grounded Kono for a month saying she would wake up do the school work she had, eat and sleep. Kono was angry with her mom. She knew what she did was wrong, but she thought her mom was so overreacting. Her friends had only been grounded for the week they were suspended.

By her second week of being grounded, Kono was fed up. She hadn't been allowed to surf for two weeks, hadn't seen Chin for ages and her mom was hardly talking to her. Kono got a text at 7pm on Friday night from her friend Alexis, saying there was a beach party and to get her arse down there. Kono knew she would be in so much trouble if her mom caught her sneaking out to a party, but she also knew she would no longer fit in with her new friends if she didn't go.

Kono waited until her mom was busy watching TV, then she climbed down the trellises outside her bedroom window before running down the street towards the beach. She had dressed to impress, wearing a pair of tiny white shorts that showed of her bum cheeks enough to tease the boys, a light blue sheer cover up and a black bikini underneath. Kono knew her knew friends were trouble, but being since she had bust her knee a year ago, she had stopped seeing her old surfing buddies, and therefore had to make new friends.

Kono spent the night on the beach dancing with her friends and drinking whatever they gave her. It wasn't until twelve o clock that she realised how drunk she was. One guy in particular thought he would take advantage of this and tried to kiss Kono and take her to his car. It was at that moment that Chin appeared by the beach, looking to see what was going on on his way home from work. He immediately noticed a tall slim girl being dragged around by a much older guy. As Chin got closer he realised it was Kono. Chin knew Kono had been having trouble making new friends, and was getting involved with bad crowds. He also knew how embarrassed she would be if he shut the whole thing down, so Chin walked up to the guy holding Kono and told him she was with him. The guy noticed the uniform and ran off. Chin took one look at his drunken cousin and helped her into his car. He drove to a gas station that sold coffee and grabbed her a large cup. Once Kono was sober enough to tell Chin what happened, he drove her back to her house. He walked his cousin round the back of the house, knowing his aunt would be asleep by now. Chin helped Kono climb up the greenery and back into her room. He laid her in bed where she immediately fell asleep. Chin left quickly and his never told his aunt what Kono did.