CHAPTER 2 - A VISIT TO THE "ROACH MOTEL"
Okay, I did promise in the capsule preview of this chapter in Chapter 1 that my new OC, surfer/wrestler Dick Starbuck, would join Reef and the gang over at the Office to do some surfing, but due to the length of this chapter as originally written, I've decided to split the chapter in two, with Kelly and David's meeting with Fin at the staff house (the "Roach Motel" of the chapter title, as nicknamed by Fin) being Chapter 2 and Reef and company and Starbuck at the Office, originally part of this chapter, now split off as Chapter 3. I'm also beginning a bit of a back story for Kelly, which I'll expand further upon in future stories, in this chapter.
Following dinner at the Pirate Ship, Kelly and David took a shortcut through the hotel pool area to head to the staff house. As with last week, Kelly had not wanted to take David to see the staff house because of its substandard condition, but David, who wanted to meet Kelly's coworkers at the hotel, persuaded her to show him where she and the other staff members stayed, so she reluctantly agreed.
"You know Kelly, I really enjoyed going jet skiing with you at Sunset Beach last week," David said, broaching the subject of water sports as the couple walked along. "I'd never tried it until you suggested it, but I had a lot of fun doing it once I got into it."
"See, I told you you'd like it once you got the hang of it," Kelly said with a smile. "It never hurts to try something new when you really want to."
"True," David said, returning Kelly's smile with one of his own. "That's why I was thinking this time around, I want to take up something else new here."
"Sure, what's that?" Kelly asked.
"I'd like to learn how to surf," David replied. "It's another water sport I've never tried either, but it looked like fun when I watched some surfers on the waves here last week."
"Sounds cool," Kelly said. "I don't think I could try it, though. Remember when I said I don't surf?"
"Yeah, I do," David said. "But I should ask, have you ever actually tried to surf?"
Kelly hesitated momentarily in her answer, an uneasy smirk crossing her face. "Well," she said, "it's not that I've never tried. I like to think I'm pretty athletic and active, I played sports in school and was involved in minor softball for a few years, and I even took ballet and tango classes when I was younger."
"Okay, and?" David wondered.
"I did try surfing once the first year I came to work at Surfer's Paradise last year," Kelly explained, "but I just couldn't get into it then, so I gave it up."
"Ah, okay," David said. "I think the operative word here was 'then'. You tried surfing then and you gave up on it, but that doesn't mean you couldn't try it again now. Like you just said, it never hurts to try something new - or in your case, to try again."
"Are you serious?" Kelly said.
"I am," David replied, nodding. "You have the athletic background you mentioned, and your background in ballet means you've got the poise, balance and grace to be able to stay on a board long enough to surf a wave. I think you'd be a natural at surfing if you gave it another shot, Kelly."
Kelly was touched by David's faith and confidence in her, as well as his encouragement. "You really think I could do it again?" she asked.
"If you're willing," David said with a smile.
"Well, okay," Kelly said with a nervous giggle. "If you're willing to take a chance at it, then so am I." Continuing on as she and David approached the staff house, she added, "If we're going to take up surfing though, we have to get lessons from someone who knows the ropes about surfing."
"Sure," David agreed. "Anyone you know here who could teach us?"
"Oh, I've got someone in mind," Kelly said, thinking about fellow staff member Fin McCloud. The two girls had not talked much to each other since Fin first arrived at Surfer's Paradise, in part because each worked in separate hotel services (Kelly at the Pirate Ship restaurant, Fin in Housekeeping Services), but mainly because Fin was friends with Lo and Emma, two of the Pirate Ship waitresses working under Kelly, who had not gotten along well with them from when they first came to work at the dining lounge until David came into the picture. As a result of her relationships with Lo and Emma improving since then (although, at that point, they were now more like casual acquaintances to her than full friends) thanks to David's influence, Kelly was more willing to give Fin, who was protective of her friends, a chance.
Kelly and David then arrived at the staff house, giving David his first look at the accommodations for the hotel summer staff. "Well, this is it," Kelly said. "This is where I stay."
"Hmm," David said, raising an eyebrow and smirking as he gave the dilapidated-looking staff house a once-over look. "This place looks kind of, how can I put it politely...rustic?" he commented on the state of the building's exterior.
"You could," Kelly quipped, "but I've said much worse about it."
"I believe it," David said as he leaned against a post supporting a stairrail leading to the front porch. As he did so though, the post gave way unexpectedly and caused David to fall backward with a yelp, knocking over several surfboards leaning against the porch rail as he hit the ground and toppling the boards over onto him.
"David!" a surprised Kelly said out of sudden panic as she ran over to David, who propped himself up on his elbows as Kelly kneeled by him with concern and moved the surfboards on top of him aside. "Are you okay?"
After letting out a groan, David answered, "That was a bit of a shock there, but I'll survive."
At the same time as David fell over, Fin, who was coming outside through the front doors, witnessed what happened and ran over to check on him. "Wow, are you all right?" she asked as she and Kelly helped David back up.
"It's nothing that a little TLC can't fix," David replied, looking over to Kelly as he answered. Turning back to Fin, he extended his right hand to her. "I'm David Hughes," he introduced himself as Fin took his hand and shook it. "Happy to meet you."
"Fin McCloud," Fin said, returning the greeting. "Same here." Glancing over to Kelly a moment, she then added, "I guess you've already met Kelly, right?"
"Sure have," David said. "We've known each other a week already. Did she tell you about us?"
A light then dawned on Fin. "Hey, yeah!" the blonde tomboy said with a snap of her fingers upon her realization. "You're the guy I heard about that Kelly went on those dates with last week."
"Yep, that's me," David responded with a chuckle, making Fin laugh as well.
Okay, who told Fin about me and David, Kelly thought to herself. Was it Johnny, or did Princess Lo and Surfer Girl Emma spill the beans? Oh, never mind Kelly, she continued with a sigh of resignation. It's going to get out to the rest of the staff in time anyway, so I might as well roll with it. "I'm glad I found you anyway, Fin," she then said to Fin as the two girls and David went inside the staff house. "There's something I wanted to ask you."
"Um, sure, what's that?" said a cautious Fin, who was wondering why Kelly wanted to talk to her after the times the Pirate Ship manager had treated Lo and Emma poorly up until recently. Even though Lo and Emma had told her about Kelly's recent improvement in attitude after she met David, Fin was still somewhat skeptical of her and would need some convincing.
"David and I want to learn how to surf," Kelly explained, "and I understand from Emma that you're the go-to girl for teaching surfing. I'd have asked Reef since he's the official instructor here, but Emma highly recommends you since you taught her."
"Oh, well then," Fin said, brightening up. "You've come to the right person then. You're right about Reef being the official surf teach here, but..." Beckoning Kelly to come closer, Fin then whispered in her ear, "Between you and me, Kelly, Reef couldn't teach a squirrel to eat nuts. He's more about grandstanding and showing off than about teaching the basics."
After laughing at Fin's comment about Reef, Kelly said, "All right, you're hired then. How much is it usually per lesson?"
"Well," Fin began, "the rate for the hotel instructors is $100 per person per lesson, but the hotel takes a cut of that. I teach privately, so I charge $80 per. You cool with that?"
"Sounds good," David said. "I wouldn't really mind paying a little extra for me and Kelly though, if you come recommened by your friend."
"Okay, sure," Fin agreed. "Hey, I gotta meet the rest of the gang to go surfing," she added, noticing the time on the clock on the living room wall, "but I'll meet you two at the hotel beach tomorrow morning for your lesson, around nine o'clock."
"Great, nine o'clock's good for us," David said as Fin grabbed her surfboard and said goodbye to him and Kelly. "See you then, Fin." Looking around the living room after Fin left, David then remarked, "Well, the living room here's not too shabby-looking, but not so great either. I noticed there's a widescreen TV in here, though. Looks nice."
"It's brand new," Kelly said. "The owner's daughter bought it for the staff house last week to replace the old black-and-white set we had. We've also got satellite hooked up to it too, so the staff staying here can watch whatever they like." Unknown to Kelly, Lo, whom she was referring to, was inspired to buy the TV and satellite receiver (along with a second receiver hooked up to the TV in Reef, Broseph and Johnny's room upstairs on the staff house's third floor for the guys to watch), using an emergency money stash she had tucked away, by a dream she had on the same weekend Kelly first met David.
"The owner's daughter," David said. "You talked about her before on our first date, right?"
"You've actually seen her a couple of times before," Kelly confirmed. "She's one of my waitresses over at the dining lounge. I also said hi to her when she passed by us at poolside on our second date last Saturday. She's working for me and she lives here at the staff house as her punishment by her dad for that party she threw that I told you about."
"Let's see... Pretty girl, long brown hair with a purple flower in it, a little shorter than you," David recalled. "Oh yeah, she was the waitress who was almost about to serve me when I first walked in, before you sent her over to another customer."
"Yeah, that's right," Kelly said with a nervous giggle.
"Ah, okay," David said, nodding. "I guess if she's a friend of Fin's too, we'll probably meet her later on."
"They do hang out together along with a few others here, so I'm sure we will," Kelly said. Just then, she felt something crawling slowly up her bare lower right leg, then looked down and saw a cockroach there. Letting out a shrill scream, Kelly shook the roach off of her leg, then ran over and squashed the creepy crawler under her heel where it landed on the floor. "Ugh, I hate cockroaches!" she said, shuddering with revulsion and feeling her skin crawl at the thought of the roach crawling up her leg.
"As long as you're okay," David said as he put his hand on Kelly's shoulder, trying to calm her down.
"I will be, once I scrub my leg with bleach where it crawled," Kelly said, half-joking. As she looked back down, she then noticed something on top of David's left sneaker. Gasping, Kelly pointed and said, "David, your shoe!"
"What?" David said, looking down to his shoes and noticing that another roach was crawling around on his left shoe. "Oh, geez!" he said abruptly as he jumped and banged the toe of the shoe against the floor a few times to shake the roach off, then squashed it underfoot as well. Shaking his head in disgust and then letting out a sigh of relief, David turned to Kelly. "Okay, you know what I'm thinking right now?"
"That this house should be condemned?" Kelly remarked.
"Not quite, but pretty close," David replied. "Actually, I'm thinking you shouldn't have to be staying in a place like this, not after what I've seen here. I thought that if it's okay with you, you could stay the weekend in my room back at the hotel."
"Well, that sounds great, but..." Kelly said.
"Wait," David continued. "I'm not suggesting anything fishy here either. I can get extra sheets and a pillow for myself and sleep on the reclining chair in my room, and you can have the bed. You okay with that?"
"Not a problem at all, but that's not the thing though," Kelly replied. "The hotel's day manager has an issue with staff staying in the guest rooms," she explained, referring to Bummer. "He wouldn't like the idea of me staying with you in your room."
"Well, we'll just make sure he doesn't find out," David said with a conspiratorial wink. "And even if he does, I'll just ask him why he allows you and the rest of his staff to stay in substandard living conditions here. If he raises a stink about it, I'll just go over his head and speak directly to the hotel owner about the issue. My dad happens to know Mr. Ridgemount, so I think I can get his attention," he said reassuringly to Kelly.
Relieved that David had her back regarding Bummer, who she knew had a policy of always trying to please hotel guests, Kelly smiled at her boyfriend and put her hand on his arm. "Okay, then," she said, then turning to head toward the stairs. "I'll go grab my bag and get a few things to take along."
Coming up next, Fin schools Kelly and David in the art of surfing, and Starbuck discovers the Office.
Meanwhile, reviews are welcome.
