Author's Note: Hey everyone. So, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. I wrote about five or six chapters in bulk, so they'll be uploaded rather quickly. Others might take a bit longer. All I'm saying is don't get too used to the upload every other day. Anyhow, I really appreciate favorites, follows, and mostly REVIEWS! I really would like some constructive criticism, or, I don't know, maybe just some compliments. Just kidding (kind of). Now, without further ado, please enjoy chapter four!

Chapter Four

Grom Initiation

The alarms buzzed in our dorm, but Broseph and I were already awake. We flung off our sleep clothes into a steadily growing pile, and slipped on their boardshorts. Reef slowly sat up, stretching and yawning, and noticed the two of us getting ready.

"Where you guys headed?" he asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Taking Emma for dawn patrol," I said, gesturing out the door. "Wanna tag along?" Reef almost instantly became wide awake.

"Definitely!" he said, scrambling to find his boardshorts. "Yo, Johnny-front-desk, you wanna—" he looked up to the bunk above him, and found it empty. "Johnny-front-desk?"

"Must've had the same idea as us," I said. "Kind of rude not to wake us, though." Broseph shrugged, and Reef pulled his shorts on. We headed out the door and down the stairs. There we found Johnny, as well as Ripper, Lance, Kelly, and a teenager I knew to be Ty Ridgemount, Lo's older brother, and the son of the hotel's owner. All four of the guys were in their surf gear.

"Take a seat, boys," Kelly said, in her rude way of saying things. "We've got an important announcement to make." We exchanged confused looks, but with a nod from Johnny and Ripper, we sat on the couch. There was a creaking sound above our heads, and the girls slowly filed down. They looked from the seniors to us, and then with a collective shrug, sat as well.

"Listen up, groms," said Ripper. "You are about to embark on a journey that every new employee at Sunset Beach Resort must face. Grom Initiation." Lo got up to leave. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, I don't really work here," she said, heading for the door. "I'm going back to bed."

"Until six o'clock tonight, you are ours," Kelly interrupted her. "If you run, we'll find you. If you resist, you'll just make it worse. You will do anything a senior tells you to do today."

"This is totally bogus," Reef said. "What if we don't do what you say? Are you gonna fire us?"

"No."

"Give us a strike?"

"No."

"Well that's all I needed to hear."

"But," said Ty suddenly. "If you make it through, we'll let you surf… The Office." All of our eyes went wide, even Lo's, as gasps were heard all around.

"Wait, did you just say, The Office?" asked Reef incredulously.

"I thought it was just an urban legend," said Fin.

"No, it's legit," I said. "There was an article in Stoked magazine." Emma nodded.

"Yeah, I read that," she said. "It's supposed to be the perfect break, but almost no one knows where it is." Of course we had all heard of The Office; the most secretive, perfect surf spot this side of the country. It was the stuff of legends.

"Only those who pass the test get to see it," said Ripper. "It won't be easy. And it will be gross. If you want to back out, now's your chance." Emma jumped off the couch, squealing a bit too enthusiastically.

"Eee! I'm so excited! I'm in, I'm in." Fin stood as well.

"I've got four brothers," she reasoned. "Bring it on."

"I'm up for a little punishment," Broseph said.

"What's the worst that could happen?" I asked. The seniors looked to each other, smug smiles growing on their faces.

"Initiation starts now, and runs till the end of the day," Ripper said. "Consider yourselves warned."

"We've still got an hour before our shift starts…" Johnny said to Ripper, Lance and Ty. The seniors exchanged some looks, picked up their boards, and ran off.

"I wonder what they're going to do to us," Emma said with a sigh.

"Yo I heard last year was pretty rough," Broseph said. "Saw some groms running naked down by the pier."

"Well I'm not doing it," Reef said firmly.

"Yeah right," I said. "Like you'd give up a chance to surf The Office." He shook his head.

"No, I wouldn't," he said. "If they can find it, so can we. All I have to do is find out where the secret surf spot is, and we can blow the seniors off! I'm going after them!" And with that, he ran off. After a moment, I turned to the others.

"We've got some time before our shifts, too," I said. "Emma, still up for a quick sesh?" She smiled wide, and nodded vigorously. "Wanna come, Fin?"

"I'm down," she said. "We'll go change. Come on, Alberta."

XxXxX

The sun was bright by the time Broseph, Emma, Fin and I arrived at the beach, but we still had at least 45 minutes before we had to punch in. A quick set was all we were here for.

"Last one in's a total kook!" Fin called, and we all raced towards the water. Fin was first in, followed by a three way tie between the rest of us. I began paddling hard to get further out and away from shore. The waves, while rather large, were coming in pretty infrequently.

"Dude, race you for the first ride!" I called to Broseph.

"You're so on, brah." He responded, and we set to paddling. A few smallish waves were approaching, but we dove under them and kept going; we were looking for substance. Then I saw it; a beauty of a wave, nine feet easy. My first Canadian wave was going to be one to remember, and this was definitely memorable. I looked to Broseph, who seemed to sense how much I wanted it. "Dude, go for it!" he called, accompanied by a thumbs up. I waved a thank you, and paddled after it.

As the wave approached, I got in position to get on. It was nearly at me, and I popped up. The wave swept me along, and I rode it like I would ride any wave back home. Moving along the face of the wave faster than I could comprehend, I moved my board to the lip. One, two, three, cutback! I flipped over, and just when I was about to get back on the wave, it suddenly over took me. I got worked.

I came back up, sputtering for air, and found my board. As I got back on, Fin floated past me, laughing hysterically.

"Nice work, Nate," she said. "You just got barreled!" I spit water out at her, and she paddled away, still laughing. I paddled over to the lineup, where Broseph and Emma were waiting to catch the next swell.

"Dude, you bit it," Broseph said, laughing. "Sick cutback, though. Major props." I bumped his fist.

"That looked rough," Emma said, more to herself than to me. "I'm not so sure about this guys."

"Hey, we taught you how to surf, right?" I asked her. She nodded. "Well that means you'll be riding ten footers in no time."

A swell slowly began rising. Broseph and I each put a hand on the back of Emma's board, and gave her a shove. "Fly baby bird!" Broseph shouted after her. She slowly began paddling after the wave. When she was out of earshot, Broseph leaned in towards me. "You know CPR, bro? She might need it."

XxXxX

After the rest of our session, we made it to the staff locker room, changed, and went to our shifts. Walking to the DR, I whispered to Emma, "What d'you think Kelly's gonna make us do?" She shrugged.

"But I'm not running naked," she said seriously.

By the time we got in, the place was already packed for the breakfast rush. Emma and I quickly went to the kitchen, and got two hot pitchers of coffee to begin serving. As we were walking out of the doors, Kelly leaned over and spilled something (that looked an awful lot like clam chowder) onto Emma's pirate outfit.

"Hey!" I said. "That was cold."

"Okay, after you clean yourself up, you'll be serving table one," Kelly informed Emma. "It's the Ridgemount family table. You know, the owners."

"But it's just my second day," Emma said, exasperatedly. "And I've been clam chowdered!"

"I know," Kelly said, sounding like she was really enjoying this. Which she probably was. "Don't screw up, grom. Oh, and don't think I forgot about you, Nate. You'll get some punishment in a bit." Kelly walked off, and Emma slumped her shoulders. I put a hand on one of them.

"Hey, it'll be fine," I said. "Look, you should go clean that off. And don't sweat the serving thing, I'm sure Ty won't make things hard on you. His dad though…" Emma smiled in thanks, then walked off to clean off her blouse (or whatever you could call the dorky wench costume).

I poured coffee for a table with a young couple seated there, and took their orders. I walked back to the kitchen to alert Gavin about what to cook, and ran into Emma on the way out. "Be brave, surfer girl." I said. Walking in the kitchen, I hollered, "Gav, two eggs, scrambled. Belgian waffles with strawberries. I'm on the OJ."

"Thanks Nate," came the reply. I moved to the fridge, and pulled out a carton of orange juice. As I shut the fridge, I found Kelly standing there.

"Drink it," she said. "The whole carton, right now."

"I hate OJ," I said. "And, uh, isn't that wasteful or something?" She opened the other side of the fridge, and revealed at least seven more bottles of the stuff.

"Drink," she said. I sighed. Not only did I hate orange juice, I was pretty sure drinking this much of it would make me sick. Drinking this much of anything would probably make me sick.

"For The Office," I muttered to myself. With one hand I held my nose (I really hate OJ) and pressed the carton to my lips. Citrus flooded my mouth, and I was guzzling like a madman to stop it from flowing all over my pirate suit. I drank and drank; I didn't really have any idea how much a gallon was until now. But eventually I reached the end, and with a huge gasp, I dropped the carton to the floor.

"Nice job, grom," Kelly said. "You're alright… for now…" She walked away, and I felt my stomach warble.

Walking out of the kitchen to serve my first table their drinks (just looking at it made me shudder) Emma ran up to me.

"That was the most embarrassing moment of my life!" she whispered fiercely.

"What happened?" I asked, followed by an orange-flavored baby barf.

"Kelly made me get on one knee," she said. "And propose to Ty. Right in front of his dad and his brother. And Lo."

"Lo isn't working?" I asked, confused. "And her dad's cool with that?"

"No," Emma said. "Before I 'proposed' I saw him go pretty agro at her. She better punch in. Hey… you don't look so good. Are you sick? You should drink some—"

"Please don't say orange juice," I said, and walked away before she could say any more.

XxXxX

About half an hour went by with no new tricks by Kelly. Emma and I were on our toes, however. We sat in the kitchen, the period between breakfast and lunch in full swing, so there were hardly any customers. Emma had her phone out.

"Lo texted me," she said. "Said her dad is bringing her over now."

"She's working the DR too?" I asked. Emma nodded. "Sweet. Maybe Kelly will direct some harshness towards princess."

"Nate!"

"I'm just kidding," I said. "…Mostly." Just then, Kelly walked in.

"Oh Nate!" she called in a sing-song voice. I groaned and walked over. "Baumer says you're from America, right?"

"Cali," I responded proudly.

"Right," she said. "Well, you're in Canada now. Time to act like it." She handed me a sheet of paper. "That's the Canadian National Anthem. You're going to sing it, to everyone in the restaurant." I peered out the door. Though there were many fewer customers in the restaurant than this morning, there was still a good handful.

"So I'm just singing?" I asked. "That's not too bad." Kelly smiled wickedly.

"Oh no, that's not all," she said. "Gavin, get in here!" Gavin came into view, holding what appeared to be a paint can in his hand.

"Sorry, dude," he said.

"O Canada!" I chanted. "Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command." I was standing stop a table that no one was eating at. Every customer (around fifteen or sixteen) was staring at me. But it wasn't my rendition of the National Anthem that I was butchering which got their attention. It was my chest. I was standing there, shirtless, with a large Canadian flag painted on my body. "With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free! From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee." I ended the song, and a few people offered awkward applause. I quickly jumped down from the table, and ran back into the kitchen.

"That was… interesting," said Emma. "Pretty harsh though." Kelly walked forward, a smug smile on her cruel face.

"Happy?" I asked.

"As a clam," she responded, tossing me my pirate shirt. Just then we saw, out of the window of the kitchen door, Lo and her father, Mr. Ridgemount walking in. Kelly quickly rushed to greet them.

"Too bad Lo didn't get to see that," Emma said. I stuck my tongue out at her as I started wiping the still wet paint off my body with some napkins. Just then my phone buzzed.

Dude, come with me, it was a text from Reef. Just sent Ripper and Lance's boards out for a swim. Got us an hour for Office hunting. You in, y/n? I quickly looked around. Kelly was with Lo, and was probably scheming on how to humiliate her at this very moment.

"You think Kelly's going to be busy with Lo a while?" I whispered to Emma.

"Yeah, probably," she guessed. "Kelly's got a serious harshness for Lo. Why?" I held up my phone.

"Reef texted me," I said. "He ditched Ripper and Lance. We're gonna find The Office before Initiation gets any worse."

"I don't know about that…" she said. I gestured to my still red and white chest.

"You want to get painted?" I asked.

"Good luck finding The Office," she said, and practically pushed me out the door to find Reef.