Author's Note: Sorry I don't have time for a long note right now, running late for something. Just, uh, enjoy I guess!

Chapter Eight

A Bro in Need

The next day started with dawn patrol, which is by far the best way to start any day. The Office supplied us with excellent waves, and even this early in the morning the water was nice and warm. Currently, Fin and I were trying to teach Emma how to execute a cutback.

"Just ride down the face," I said.

"And then just… well, cut back!" said Fin. There was no better way to put it. "Here, I'll show you. Watch carefully." Emma nodded, and Fin paddled after a growing wave. Emma had her eyes glued to Fin. I chuckled.

"What?" Emma asked.

"You're always so eager," I said. "It's funny. I love it." Emma smirked, reached down, and flipped my board over. I came out of the water, and pushed my hair out of my eyes. I squirted a small stream of water at Emma out of my mouth.

"Quit it!" she said, smiling. "I'm trying to learn here." Fin executed the cutback, and Emma nodded like a student in a lecture. Fin returned, and stopped her board in front of Emma and me.

"See?" Fin asked. Emma nodded. "Now go for it!" With a gulp, Emma nodded and began paddling towards the wave. Fin and I moved our boards together, and away from the breaking wave, giving Emma space.

"She gonna get worked?" I asked, lying on my back on my board. Fin shrugged. I sat up to watch Emma attempt the cutback. She started out nice, but in a few moments she had fallen in, the wave crashing over her and obscuring Fin's and my own view.

"Say what you want about her surf skills," Fin said. "But that girl's never afraid to go for it."

"True that," I said.

XxXxX

As we walked back to change into our work clothes, I noticed something. "Guys, has anyone seen Johnny front-desk?" I asked. "I don't think he came with us this morning." The others exchanged a few looks, and shrugged.

"He's a big boy, he'll turn up," Fin said. "Come on, we're gonna be late." We nodded, and quickly went to our rooms to change. Once that was done, we walked together to the hotel. Once we arrived, I saw Johnny. He was standing at his usual post, but looked very worried about something. Before the rest of us split off, I nudged Broseph and Reef, and gestured to Johnny.

"What's eating him?" asked Reef.

"Don't know," I said. "Let's find out." We walked over, and I realized Johnny's expression was more than worried. He looked to be in a full out panic. "Johnny dude, what's up?" I asked.

"Guys!" he whispered fiercely. "You've got to help me out!"

"Sure bro, anything," Reef assured him. "Uh, except cash. I'm kind of low on cash right now." Johnny shook his head.

"Not cash," he said. He looked around, and beckoned us all closer. The three of us leaned in. "I might lose my job!"

"What?" I asked, confused. Johnny was one of Bummer's favorite employees, as well as a great concierge. "Why's that?"
"The Marvins, that's why!" he said, sounding a bit paranoid. "They gave me a zero out of ten on a staff evaluation card!" I chuckled.

"Dude, same for me," I said. "They're just steamed that we put them in their place. Bummer was there, he gets it." Johnny shook his head again.

"No, that's not all," he said. "They complained about me so loud, that the three families behind them in line all gave me scores below four out of ten!"

"Oh dude!" Broseph said. "That's rough, man."

"If Bummer reads those, it's tickets for me, man!" Johnny said.

"What do you want us to do about it?" Reef asked. Johnny looked around the area again, as if making sure no one was listening in. He leaned in closer, so close that the four of our heads were almost touching.

"Okay, we could all lose our jobs for this," he said, making us all effectively curious. "But I have a plan. All of the staff evals are kept in Bummer's office, somewhere in the hotel. If you guys can get in there and find my evaluations, we can get them away from Bummer before he gets a chance to read them. Only problem is, I don't know exactly where Bummer's Office is. He keeps it a huge secret."

"And why aren't you doing this?" Reef asked.

"If Bummer sees me not at the front desk, he'll be keeping an extra close eye on me, and go to review my evaluations first. I need to be on my game today. So what do you say, will you help me out on this one guys?" He smiled, trying to be convincing. I exchanged looks with Broseph and Reef, and the three of us nodded simultaneously.

"Dude," I said, putting a hand on Johnny's shoulder. "A bro in need is a bro indeed." Johnny smiled with relief.

"Thanks guys," he said with a happy sigh. I turned to Broseph and Reef.

"Okay, Reef and I'll go get someone to cover for us, and meet you back here Broseph." The teens nodded. "Move out, dude!" Reef and I both ran in opposite directions.

I quickly snuck into the kitchen, hoping Kelly wouldn't see me. If I could convince Emma or Lo to cover without Kelly knowing I was here in the first place, everything would be fine. As my luck would have it, all the employees were gathered together, with Kelly giving some sort of directions. I nearly walked right into her line of sight, but quickly dove behind a pile of dirty dishes.

"Nast." I whispered to myself, smelling what I assumed was the Sea Food Special from three nights ago. I sucked it up though, and waited until the cooks and servers dispersed. As soon as Kelly left the kitchen, I sprang from my hiding spot, and grabbed Emma and Lo. Emma nearly shrieked in surprise, but I quickly put a finger to my lips.

"I need you guys to cover for me with Kelly," I said. "It's a matter of life or death!" Lo rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right," she said. "I saw you talking with Reef and Broseph. If you want us to cover so you can get in another sesh, fine. But you don't need to lie about it." So she called my bluff on the life or death thing? Whatever.

"Okay, fine," I said hurriedly. "Maybe it's not life or death. But it is important. Johnny might lose his job, okay?" Emma and Lo's eyes got wide. "Yeah, I know. So me, Reef and Bro are going to find his bad staff evals in Bummer's office. So will you guys cover for me or what?" The girls exchanged a look, and then nodded unanimously.

"Now go save Johnny front-desk!" Lo said, and the girls pushed me out the front door of the restaurant and back into the lobby.

After running to the staff house to change out of my pirate suit, I returned to the lobby to find Reef and Broseph sitting in the couch, seemingly deep in conversation. I smiled, hoping they were coming up with a plan. I sat down next to Reef, and said, "So, what've we got so far?"

"Here's the way I see it," Reef said, sounding serious. "If we can find Johnny's evals, we can rip them up, and have enough time for a quick sesh. People are already covering for us, right?" He and Broseph knocked their knuckles together.

"Okay…" I said. "I meant what've we got in terms of finding Bummer's office?" The two teens exchanged a look.

"Oh…" said Reef. "In that case… nothing." I groaned. Reef held up his hands in defense. "Chill dude, we've got this. There's three of us, and only one office to find."

"I just hope it's not as hard to find as The Office," Broseph noted, and I chuckled despite myself.

"Okay," I said. "We need a plan. Of all the people in this hotel, who d'you think knows where Bummer's office is?"

"Bummer!" Reef offered. I sighed again.

"Besides Bummer," I said. "Who's been here so long, and seen so many nooks and crannies of this place that they just have to know where it is?" The three of us all thought hard, but couldn't come up with something. Then, suddenly, Broseph snapped his fingers.

"I got it, guy!" he said. "Ty! His family lives here, man!"

"Why not just ask Lo then?" I asked.

"No man, you don't get it," Broseph said. "I don't think Ty knows where it is."

"But you just said—"

"I think TY knows who knows where it is," Broseph said. "Get it?" Reef and I both smiled, realizing Broseph had actually just come up with an excellent plan.

"So where's Ty?" asked Reef.

"My guess," I said. "The Office."

XxXxX

Once we had managed to get away from the hotel without Bummer noticing, we quickly made our way to the path leading to the Office. Passing the taco rock, shaka sign, and Bob the totem pole, we emerged at The Office. Just as I had suspected, there was Ty, along with No Pants Lance. Lance must've had this shift off or something. We quickly ran to the shore, and waved our arms frantically, trying to get their attention. Lance was the first one to notice us, and we distracted him so much that he slipped right off his board. When he came back up he was squirting water out of his mouth.

He paddled over, calling Ty to come with him. When they arrived, Lance looked less than thrilled to see us. "You groms just made me get worked," he said. "This better be good."

"Yeah," said Ty, nodding, though he didn't seem mad, just curious. "What're you guys doing here, anyway? Ditching work for a quick sesh?"

"Why does everyone think that?" I muttered to myself.

"Johnny might get canned!" Reef exclaimed. He explained the situation to Ty and Lance who, at the end, nodded in agreement

"So you'd figure I would know how to get to Bummer's office?" asked Ty. "Or at least know someone who knows where it is?"

"Yeah," said Broseph. "So… do you?" Ty thought for a moment.

"Like, I really shouldn't be helping you guys get into your boss's office," he said. "But Johnny's our bro, so I will. The only person who might know where it is would be Rosie. She's worked here since I was a little kid. Knows all the ins and outs. She's your best bet."

"Where can we find her?" I asked.

"Dunno," said Ty. "Isn't your friend Fin a maid? Try her." We realized that saving Johnny's job would require a lot of running around, and sighed. But we thanked Ty and Lance, and made our way back to the hotel.

XxXxX

We made our way into the elevator, Reef texting Fin to find her location. "Third floor bro," Reef said to me. I hit the button, and the elevator slowly began to move. It dinged, signifying we were at our destination. We took about two steps out of the elevator, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar stuck up hotel manager. With a gasp I grabbed Reef and Broseph by their shirts, pulled them back into the elevator, and jammed my finger into the close doors button over and over until they shut. We practically held our breaths as we heard Bummer, whistling, get into the elevator that was next to our own. We waited for it to depart to leave our own elevator.

"Dude," said Broseph, with a sigh of relief. "That was way too close."

"Tell me about it," I said. "Let's find Fin quick." The others nodded, and we quickly began searching the halls for our blonde friend. We knocked on door after door, to either no response, or an angry one. Eventually, however, we heard Fin's voice on the other side.

"I've got this room, Rosie," she called, assuming we were Rosie coming to clean the room.

"Fin, it's us," Reef called. "I texted you." There was the sound of a vacuum being turned off, and Fin opened the door. The place was spotless.

"This place is totally clean," I noted. I looked around, and realized there weren't any bags in the room. "Fin… I don't think anyone's even staying here." With a sigh, Fin jumped backwards, landing on a perfectly folded bed.

"Okay, fine," she said. "Sometimes I go to vacant rooms to watch TV. So? You guys aren't working either."

"I explained in the text," Reef said. Fin pulled out her phone, and read aloud what Reef had texted her.

"Yeah, real good explanation," she said. "You texted me: 'Johnny mike loose his john. Need to fins Tosie. What's Tosie, anyway?" I looked to Reef, who shrugged.

"I can't text while I run," he said. "I meant to say that Johnny might lose his job, and we need to find Rosie."

"Johnny might get canned?" Fin asked, sounding interested, but not that concerned. "Why, what'd he do? Was it bad?" I shook my head, and quickly explained the situation.

"…and so we need to find Rosie," I finished. "Like, now!" Fin held up her hands to calm me.

"Okay, okay," she said. "Jeez, chill out Nate." She picked up the walkie-talkie all maids carried, and called Rosie. "Rosie, where are you?" The response came back, crackling with static.

"Upstairs, room 502, why?" she asked.

"Listen, uh…" Fin tried tentatively.

"Where's Bummer's office?" Reef asked impatiently.

"Who was that?" Rosie asked. "Was that the big haired boy?"

"Which one?" asked Fin.

"Red hair. Reef."

"Yep," Fin said. "Look, we don't have time to explain, but we really need to find it. And we figured—"

"I figured," interrupted Reef.

"Ty figured," I corrected.

"Someone figured," said Fin, cutting us off. "That you would know where it is. So… help a maid out?" Rosie sighed on her end.

"Surfers," she muttered under her breath. I chose not to take offense to that. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but Bummer's office is on the seventh floor. Room 709."

"Thanks Rosie," Fin said. "We owe you one." She turned off the walkie-talkie, and we stood there for a moment. "Well… GO!" Fin said. The three of us shook our heads to snap out of it, and quickly ran off towards the elevators.

XxXxX

We tiptoed through the hallways on the way to Bummer's office, not daring to get caught. We neared the door to room 709, and slowly inched towards it. I tried the handle, which was locked, unsurprisingly. I sighed, and slumped against the door.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Dude, let me try something," said Broseph. He pulled a door key out of his pocket, and swiped it in the slot next to the handle. There was a beep, and the door opened. "Bellhops man. We get master keys!"

"Dude!" Reef and I exclaimed at the same time, slapping Broseph five. We then realized how loud we were being, and quickly quieted down. We inched into Bummer's room, and found ourselves in a small area, practically filled to the brim with staff evaluation sheets.

"Bummer needs a hobby," I noted.

"Okay," said Reef. "Time for operation 'Find Johnny's staff evaluation form before Bummer sees it so he doesn't lose his job 'cause he's our bro.'" I smirked.

"Next time, I'm picking the operation name," I whispered.

"Fine," said Reef. We inched forward, and got to the center of the office. It was really, really cluttered with loose sheets of paper.

"How are these sorted?" I asked. "Alphabetically? By time?"

"Just start looking, dude!" Broseph said. Reef and I shrugged, and quickly began digging around. I spent a while searching through a pile of just Lance and Rippers, and found nothing.

"Whoa," I said, grabbing an eval from a nearby pile. "How'd I get a nine out of ten? I spilled soda on this guy's shoes." Broseph shrugged. Suddenly, Reef popped out of his own pile.

"Aha!" he said. He grabbed a pen off Bummer's desk, and quickly re-wrote something on the evaluation he found.

"Johnny's?" asked Broseph expectantly.

"Nah, it's mine," Reef said. He turned the sheet to show us. There was what clearly used to be a six, which Reef had changed to an eight. "Pretty lucky, huh?" I rolled my eyes.

"Focus, bro," I said. "We're here for Johnny, right?" Just then, Broseph hopped into the air, a smile on his face.

"Dude, found them!" he shouted, then quickly quieted down. "Look, here they are." He showed us three staff evals, all below four out of ten, as Johnny had said. I looked them over, wondering if we should change them, or just take them.

"Johnny's last name is St. James?" Reef asked. "Huh, I never knew that." I shrugged.

"Come on," I said. "We've got them, now let's go, before—" Just then, the door to Bummer's office swung wide open, and our boss stood in the door frame. His eyes landed on us, and I could've sworn I saw him get visibly red. Reef grabbed the evals from my hands, for what I don't know.

"Get out here!" Bummer shouted. "All three of you! Now!" We stood, hung our heads, and slowly shuffled out. I came out first, followed by Broseph. "You too, Reef." Bummer said, as Reef seemed to be stalling for something. Bummer was steamed. "What on earth did you think you were doing?!" he demanded. Broseph, Reef and I exchanged glances, and then I nodded. Reef slowly handed Bummer the sheets of paper. He scanned them.

"See, we just didn't want—" I tried.

"Save it," Bummer said, holding up a hand. "I see what's going on here… You three didn't want Johnny making you look bad." My eyebrows arched.

"Come again?" I asked. Bummer held out the sheets for us to see. What had previously been two threes and a one had become two eights and a ten. My eyes went wide. From behind me I felt a slight poking, and realized it was Reef. With a pen. He had changed the scores at the last minute. I could barely hold back my smile. "I mean, uh, yeah. We didn't want him showing us up."

"We're mad jealous, boss man," Broseph said, nodding. Bummer seemed to be mulling it over.

"Well," he said at last. "I admire the initiative for work. But, you did break into my office, and had the intention of tampering with employee scores. Strikes! For all of you!" Broseph, Reef and I hung our heads.

"That's fair," I said with a sigh. "Come on dudes, let's get out of here." We walked away, heads still facing down, until we got to the elevator. Once the large metal door slid shut, however, I slapped Reef on the back. "Dude! Genius!"

"Yeah guy!" said Broseph. "I never would've thought of that. How'd you do it so fast?"

"I used to practice magic when I was little," Reef said. "Yeah, I know, total dorks-ville. Don't tell anyone, deal?" Broseph and I both crossed our hearts solemnly.

"Grom's honor." We stated.

XxXxX

We reclined on the porch with the rest of the groms, telling the story of how we got the evals and saved Johnny's job.

"And then," said Broseph, who had been embellishing the story since the beginning. "Bummer's trained team of ninjas came down from the ceiling, but we fought them off! And we almost got away, dude!"

"Man, knock it off," I said. "We snuck in, we got the forms, and we almost got out undetected. Then Bummer showed up." I looked to Reef, and gestured to him with my thumb. "Then this dude had a serious brain blast, 'cause he made Bummer think we were trying to make Johnny's scores worse!" Reef smiled.

"What can I say?" he said. "I'm a genius."

"And Bummer was cool with this?" asked Emma.

"Nah," I said. "We all got a strike. But at least no one got fired." The others nodded, and Johnny put his fist up. I bumped it.

"I seriously can't say thanks enough, you guys," he said. "If you three hadn't helped, I might be packing my bags right now."

"Ahem," Fin said, clearing her throat. "I helped too. The wingman never gets any credit. Or the wing…woman…" I smiled.

"Thank you Fin," I said in a joking voice. She grinned.

"That's better."

"I mean it guys," Johnny said. "I owe you all one. If you need anything, just ask." The three of us exchanged some looks of mischief.

"Wax our boards for a week?" I asked. Johnny nodded.

"And wash our boardies?" tried Reef. Another nod.

"And bring us some grindage, eh bro?" Broseph asked.

"Done, done, and done," Johnny confirmed. Broseph, Reef and I smiled and nodded. I was sitting between them, and held out my hands, palms up. They each slapped me a high five simultaneously.

"Okay," said Lo at last. "So… do any of you guys think you can help get me off work for a day or so?"