Survival of the Fittest
…
Sam woke up the following morning and got dressed. She padded along to Jezebel's room and tapped on the door softly. Jezebel opened it, grinning.
"Sam!"
"Hi Jez," Sam smiled, "You've changed? And packed? Wow."
"Er, yeah- is that okay?" Jezebel sounded worried.
Sam laughed quietly, "That's great, Jez. One less job! Now, let's get going hey?"
"Yes, please!"
…..
Sam and Jezebel grabbed their things, stuffed the tent into the back of Sam's car (a MASSIVE 4x4,) and set off on their journey.
"Right," Sam smiled, "I called social services before we left, and they're fine with our little tour of England. So, where do you want to go first?"
"I don't know!"
"Come on," Sam smiled, "I saw you looking through that book I gave you, with all the different places and all the different things you can do!"
"Um… the Isle of Wight?"
"That island off the south coast of England?"
Jezebel nodded.
"Okay then!" Sam laughed, "why?"
"Because it sounds really cool! There are all these little campsites, and big fields, and amazing beaches! It's all so small and pretty!"
"How do we get there?"
"There are ferries and a hovercraft," Jezebel explained, "But we'd better use one of the car ferries."
"Okay then," Sam smiled, typing in a destination on the sat nav.
…..
After the ferry journey over, on which Sam had sat on a comfy chair, and drunk a coffee, whilst Jezebel had sat on the window seat, excited at the sea around her. All of a sudden, an announcement came from the speakers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. As some of you who travel with us often will know, this doesn't happen often. But I would just like to inform you that we have a pair of bottlenose dolphins near the front of the ship. You can see these by going to the outside deck."
Jezebel looked excited, turning to Sam hopefully.
Sam grabbed her hand, picked up their bags and the two ran, laughing, through the ship and onto the deck. Two dolphins, a mother and a teenager, were leaping out of the water together. It was as if they were dancing round the ship.
"Wow," Jezebel smiled, "Just wow!"
"They're amazing, aren't they?" Sam laughed.
A few minutes later, and the dolphins dived under the blue waters and disappeared. They'd arrived on the island.
…..
Sam and Jess pulled their bags onto their backs and loaded them into the car, driving off onto the little island. The sun was setting, and it was warmer than Holby. Pretty little shops surrounded them, a slightly busy road stretched out in front of them and fields coated the hills around them in a patchwork pattern. There were families chatting and laughing as they headed from the ferry, glad to be home or on holiday. Sam paused for a moment, then remembered that she was driving, and pausing wasn't really a great idea.
She drove to a little campsite, right on the coast, with a rocky, yet also sandy, beach behind a worn hedge. A crumbling monument stood, on the hill, overlooking the calm ocean. Sam pitched the tent and the two left their sleeping bags inside it, keeping the rest of their bags in their tent. Then they changed into their swimming costumes, wrapped towels over them and headed down to the beach.
…
It was pretty, with a concrete and wood sea wall, a little restaurant and ice cream kiosk and dark wooden steps leading onto the sandy, stone smattered beach. The clear waters lapped at the coast, producing waves, about as tall as a five year old child. It was nearly deserted, aside from a group of families, clustered together in the warm evening sun- chatting and laughing. A group of children splashed around in the sea on foam boards, lying on them and letting the water push them speedily into shore. The two oldest chatted and laughed, one a long haired blonde, one a brunette with a short, cropped style. They were about Jezebel's age. The brunette held onto her own bodyboard, and the one of the youngest child, who looked about four, and was wrapped in a life jacket. A girl and a boy of twelve and ten swam further out to sea, and another ten year old, a blonde boy, sat determinedly on his board, ignoring all else in a desperate attempt to catch one last wave. One girl was just leaving the party, a towel wrapped around her thin shoulders. Jezebel watched them with amazement.
"Go say hello?" Sam suggested, watching her daughter walk off, and sitting down a few metres away from the group of adults. One held a small, smiling baby while the others gently cooed and chatted. She felt a bit excluded, having brought no friends on holiday with her. She recognised them as locals by their soft, carefree accents and the complete normality with which they found their situation.
She turned back to Jezebel.
…..
The two older girls were smiling and talking to her, and the brunette called another of their party to her. The ten year old girl waded over, her long brown hair and lightly freckled face dripping with salt water. The two talked for a bit, then the younger ran up to the small blue beach hut. She produced another of the boards and offered it to Jezebel, who smiled and thanked her. Whilst keeping an eye on the smallest of their party, who Sam had noticed had a tendency to disappear under waves should someone take their eye off her, the entire group lay on their boards and propelled themselves into shore, before running back to Jezebel and saying a few words, all smiling. The next time a big wave came in; Jezebel pushed herself in along with them, but looked vaguely irritated when the board would not travel too far. The brunette explained something to her, pushing down on the end of the board as if to demonstrate an instruction, and they all tried again. Jezebel hurtled forward, skidding up onto the beach.
…..
About ten minutes later, the group were called from the sea by one of the adults on the sea wall, with one simple word:
"Dinner!"
The children hurtled up the beach laughing, their boards flying out behind them. Jezebel plodded along the sand, returning to Sam.
…..
"That was great!" she smiled.
"Did you make some new friends?"
"Yeah- they all live here, on the island. The brown haired one, the one my age- her parents own the beach hut, along with the twelve year old boy. They're all friends."
"Nice," Sam smiled, "Lets head back for dinner."
But just as they were about to leave, the two eldest girls- the fourteen year olds- ran barefoot across the wall towards them.
"Would you like to come and eat with us?" the brunette offered.
"Well, if you're sure, I mean…" Sam felt taken aback.
"Of course we're sure!" smiled the blonde, "We weren't asking just to let you down!"
…..
Sam and Jezebel headed warily towards the party, but they had little to worry about. Everyone was smiling and happy, passing round plates and eagerly awaiting their food. Box upon box of it was pulled from the beach hut, and from various shopping bags. There were crisps, fizzy drinks, sausage rolls and snacks. But the real surprises were the hot pasta and sauce and two whole, lukewarm roast chickens that were pulled from the beach hut.
"What are your names, then?" a smiley woman with brown hair asked.
"I'm Sam," Sam replied, "and this is Jezebel, my daughter."
"Nice to meet you." The woman smiled, "I'll tell you all of our names, but you'll struggle to remember them! I'm Tracy, and actually, you lot can all introduce yourselves."
"Freya," the oldest brunette offered.
"Hannah," smiled the blonde, waving comically at them.
"Leyla," offered the long haired brunette, clearly Freya's sister.
"Zac," Smiled the twelve year old boy, who had been talking to Leyla in the water earlier.
"I'm Jane," grinned the girl who'd been leaving the water earlier, "And that's my brother Sammy," the blonde boy who'd been determined to catch a wave pulled a silly face.
"And this is my sister, Hattie." Jane nodded to the youngest girl who'd been in the water earlier.
…..
The adults began to introduce themselves to Sam.
"Hi, I'm Hayley, Tracy and I both own the beach hut- Zac's my son, along with Louise over there, and her baby Natalie."
Louise smiled and held Natalie so the little dark skinned, dark eyed girl looked at Sam. The baby smiled and gurgled.
"I'm Janice- Jane, Sammy and Hattie's mum." Smiled the woman sat beside Tracy.
"Sam," Sam remembered her manners, and smiled round, a bit daunted by the huge crowd.
"Sit down then!" Janice nodded to a chair beside her.
Sam smiled and sat down, looking round herself in mild fear.
"So Sam, where are you two from?"
"Holby, on the mainland."
"Ah," Tracy nodded.
The adults continued with adult-ish chat, and Sam began to fit in.
…..
Jezebel, meanwhile, was having no trouble with fitting in. She, Hannah, Freya, Leyla, Zac, Jane, Sammy and Hattie headed round to another beach, where on one side of the wooden barrier the water was merely knee-deep, and the other side it was over their heads. Hattie and Sammy sat happily on the sand, making castles and knocking them down again. Leyla swam around on the deep side of the barrier, chasing fish with her goggles to watch them. Zac splashed around after her. Jane stood nervously on the wall, legs shaking. She jumped with a squeal, laughing when she re-emerged from the water and clambering back up the wooden wall to jump again. Hannah stood on the wall, unsure, but after Freya dived neatly into the water, she conceded and splashed in after her. Jezebel stood on the sand.
"Can you swim?" Freya called, flipping her wet hair out of her eyes and helping Hannah stay afloat.
"Yeah," Jezebel replied, "But I've never jumped or dived in before."
"Oh…" Freya replied, she and Hannah scrambling up the wooden wall. "Don't worry, I'll show you."
"Yeah, Freya was teaching me how to swim… which explains why I'm so crap…"
"Hey!" Freya nudged Hannah, and Hannah sent her slying over the wall and into the deep water on the other side. Freya emerged spluttering and laughing.
"You bitch!" she cried, as the group laughed around her.
"Oh, thanks…"
…
A little bit of friendly insult exchanging later, and Freya and Hannah decided it was best to leave it and teach Jezebel to jump in. They took one of her hands each in theirs, counted down from three and splashed into the water, squealing.