Chapter Eleven

Lights Out

It was early. Like, mad early. I only got up this early for Dawn Patrol, but not today. No, today Bummer had called all of us in for a "special assignment." Normally, this would mean he would give us a lecture about something or other, and we would zone out while he droned on. Then when he was done, we'd all nod in understanding, and then leave, hoping he didn't check up on us throughout the day.

Today, however, Bummer was nowhere to be found. It was usual for him to be a minute or two late, but today we'd already been waiting for fifteen minutes, and were getting bored. We each tried to pass the time in our own ways. Reef was at a mirror, looking at different ways he could get his hair to stick up (but always settled on the same, regular style). Broseph was enjoying his hair in a different way; he was rooting around in the bush on his head, and pulling out loose change. Last time I'd asked, he was at a buck forty. Fin was on her phone, and Johnny and I were staring off into space. Just then, Fin chuckled.

"Twenty more hits on that picture of you, Reef," she called to him. Johnny, Broseph and I giggled, and Reef buried his face in a locker. Two days ago, Reef had this whole "episode" when he'd found this weird totem when he, Johnny, Broseph and I had went cliff diving off the waterfall at The Office. Long story short, the thing had some weird curse on it, and it made a ton of bad stuff happen to Reef, including his boardies falling down for all to see. Someone had snapped a picture, and it quickly circulated through the entire staff. We all had a picture of Reef naked on our phones. Eventually someone posted it online, and now I had no idea how many people had seen it.

"I can't believe someone posted that on 'Surfbook,'" Reef whined from inside his locker. The rest of us laughed again, and then lapsed back into silence for a while. Eventually, Broseph spoke up.

"Dudes, what's taking Bummer so long?" he asked. "We're wasting perfectly good surf time."

"Hey, yeah," said Reef. "Forget this! I'm going surfing!" And he quickly pulled his board out of one of the full sized lockers. We'd all started leaving our boards in there whenever we had extra-long shifts, and Reef was smart enough to utilize his right now.

"Count me in," I said, pulling my own board out of a locker. "You guys coming or what?" Broseph, Fin and Johnny exchanged a look. Johnny looked like he wanted to protest, but Fin and Broseph already had their boards in their hands. So, with a sigh, he got his as well.

We began sneaking through the hotel, quickly moving through the lobby towards the back exit. Luckily, none of the guests or other staff were awake this early, and so the only person we'd need to watch out for was Bummer.

We snaked through the halls leading to the back. Reef pushed open the door, and did a quick scan of the area. He gave us the signal all was clear, and we sprinted out the door. We were moving through the woods… now the beach. I could see the waves from here; beauties, all of them. Double overhead minimum. And we were twenty feet away. Ten feet. Five. We were going to make it.

"STOP!" came a shout from behind us. We turned, and our shoulders sagged as we saw Bummer run up to us, panting with exhaustion. "Do NOT enter the water!"

"So busted…" Broseph said under his breath, and I nodded.

"I… I have a job for you," said Bummer. "Get changed, and meet me in the lobby." With a collective sigh, we slowly trudged back towards the hotel.

XxXxX

The lobby had been decorated nearly beyond recognition. Spaceships, aliens, other… dork things... God it was like the dude who wrote Star Wars blew up or something. Reef and I were lounging on the information booth that Bummer had set up. Reef had name cards in his hand, which he and I were in charge of dishing out to the guests here for this Sci-fi convention.

"Head of Big Nerd Council," Reef read off one of the cards, jokingly. "Dork Fleet admiral. Nerd-I master. This is sad."

"I hear you," I nodded.

"I like sci-fi movies," said Fin, walking by carrying two bags of mini-spaceships. Reef and I fixed her with strange looks. "What? They're cool. It's the fans that creep me out." I nodded again. Fin handed her bags to Lo and Emma, who had just shown up.

"Bummer got you guys too?" I asked them. They nodded glumly.

"My tan is pathetic," Lo complained.

"Dude, I haven't had a good surf session in like three days!" complained Reef.

"Seriously," said Fin, with a nod. "It's not like we came out here to work. Why can't we do this at night when we can't surf?"

"Um… because the geeks all have early bedtimes?" I tried, earning a chuckle from Johnny. Suddenly, Reef grabbed Fin, a wild look in his eye.

"Dude!" he shouted, throwing his arms in the air ecstatically. "That's it!"

"What is?" I asked.

"Bummer may own our days, but we own our nights," Reef said. "And tonight, we're getting our surf on!"

"Great idea!" said Fin with mock enthusiasm. "Except for one thing… it's dark out at night, genius. No way we can surf waves we can't even see."

"And that is what the floodlights are for!" Reef announced, gesturing to the many floodlights scattered about the lobby. Whoa, hold up a second. Did Reef just come up with a brilliant plan? Reef? I mean… Reef?

"Sweet plan!" said Broseph, and the two bumped fists.

"I know!" said Reef. "8:30 pm. Hotel Beach. Be there!" Fin and I high fived at how awesome this plan was. Then she held up a finger. Never a good thing.

"Just one problem," she said. "What're we gonna do about Bummer. He never leaves. This hotel is like his life."

"Dude needs a vacation, or a girlfriend," said Broseph, and I nodded.

"Or… wait…" I said. "Maybe just one date. A date that would keep him out all night while we surfed under the stars!"

"Perfect!" said Reef. "Lo, how are your sweet talking skills?"

"I don't know," she said, batting her eyes, and walking over towards us. "But your hair, is looking soooo good today," she said, stroking Reef's hair. "Handsome."

"Oh, she's good," I noted, as Reef recovered from Lo's persuasive show.

"I think I have a mission for you," said Reef. "Okay guys, here's the plan…"

XxXxX

"You sure this is gonna work, guy?" asked Broseph, as we lounged about outside the DR. I was off work right now, so I wouldn't get in trouble for not being in there serving. Reef waved a hand.

"Of course it's gonna work," he assured us. "It was my idea, wasn't it?"

"It was kind of my idea," I corrected.

"Whatever, same difference," Reef said. Just then, his phone rang. "Roger that," he said after a minute. He gestured for the three of us to enter the restaurant, signifying that Emma and Lo had been successful at convincing Bummer that there was a chick out there that… I shudder to say it… wants to date him. "Target is in our sights. Hey Kelly…" Kelly was bent over a table, setting up some of the cutlery. "What're you doing tonight?"

"Why?" she asked grumpily. "I already told your red-head friend, I don't surf."

"No, no, that's not it," I said. "It's just…" I turned to the guys. "Should we even tell her?"

"Tell me what?"

"I don't know, man," said Broseph, like we'd practiced. "She really seems like she wouldn't want to go."

"Go where?" asked Kelly, getting a bit mad.

"No, we've got to tell her!" argued Reef. "Otherwise the poor dude will be all alone on that pier tonight."

"What pier?" Kelly nearly shouted. "What dude? What is going on?"

"Okay, okay, calm down," I said. "Listen Kelly, there's this guy, and he's got the hots for you. Majorly."

"If it's one of your stupid grom friends you can forget—"

"No, it's not," I cut her off. "In fact, he doesn't even surf. He hates it." Kelly's eyes widened a bit, and I knew I had her hooked right then and there. "Listen, dude's really into you. He's a good guy, so we told him we'd help set you two up. But if you're not interested…" I slowly turned to walk away.

"No!" she called. Then she realized how eager that sounded, so she cleared her throat awkwardly and tried again. "I mean… I'm a little interested. Where can I meet this guy?"

"The pier," said Reef. "Tonight at eight."

"He's gonna hold this rose," Broseph said. "Here's one for you, so you two won't miss each other." Broseph pulled a red rose out from behind his back, and handed it to Kelly.

"…Okay, I'll go," she said. "But he better not be one of your beach bum friends."

"He's not, don't worry!" I called over my shoulder, as we began to walk away. As soon as we were out of the ship, the three of us exchanged high fives. Reef quickly dialed up the others.

"Guys," he said, when they were all conferenced in. "Phase one is complete."

XxXxX

7:45 at night. Kahuna was loading up the whale bus. From behind the fountain out front, Reef, Broseph and I watched as Kelly got on, quickly followed by Bummer. We sneaked up to the open driver side window.

"Remember," Reef whispered up to the Kahuna. "Keep Kelly and Bummer out as long as you can."

"Oh man, for a cause as worthy as night surfing?" Kahuna clarified. "You got it man." And with that, he put his foot to the petal, and the bus quickly left the hotel premises. As soon as the bus went over the little hill, and was out of sight, Reef, Bro and I jumped from our hiding spot.

"Alright," Reef called. "Let's get this surf party started!" The others emerged from their own hiding places, hooting and hollering. "Come on, it's all set up at the beach!" The seven of us began running towards the beach. We were already in our swim gear, and had left our boards at the surf shack earlier in the day. Everything was in place.

We arrived at the beach, with the sun completely set. The moon gave us enough light to see the four floodlights that had been set up. They were connected to an unimaginable amount of extension cords, which led all the way back to the hotel. Reef quickly ran over, and grabbed the only two cords not plugged in.

"Wahinies and Brahs," he said, holding the cords up theatrically. "The moment we've all been waiting for. Drumroll please." Emma, Broseph and I began to make the sound of a drumroll with our mouths. "I give you, the first ever nighttime surfing event at Sunset Beach!" And with that, he raised the cords over his head, and plugged them together. One by one, the floodlights lit up, illuminating the waves. It… it was working. We could see the waves perfectly. "It worked!" cheered Reef. "It worked! We can surf at night!"

"Let's do this!" shouted Broseph. We cheered, and made for the water. Broseph was in first, and I was close behind, with Fin and Emma on my tail. Broseph and I split up, looking for different waves. I spotted what looked like it was going to be a ten-footer, and paddled hard for that. The wave was building, and I quickly popped-up. This was too weird. It was just like surfing during the day, but when I looked up, I saw thousands of twinkling stars shining down. The barrel of the wave caught up to me, and I gently placed a hand on the inside. I felt my hand skim along the water's surface, and then shot out the front.

"This is awesome!" I cheered. Reef hooted in happiness.

"Told you, dude!" he called to me. "Whoa, check Broseph!" I looked to where he gestured. Broseph was shredding the lip of the wave, standing on his hands. Reef and I cheered him on, but he got distracted, and fell, face first, into the wave. Reef and I burst out laughing, and Broseph splashed water at us.

I continued on, paddling around until I noticed something. There were little glowing things in the water. At first I thought it was the reflection of the stars, but now that I looked closer, I realized it was actually in the water. Emma paddled over.

"Wow," she said, looking at the little glowing dots. "What are they?"

"No idea," I said, running a hand through the still water, making the little lights dance. "But check them out! So cool."

"They're so pretty!" Emma said, as she waved her own hand around and watched the lights move. I smiled. Out here, on the waves under the stars, Emma looked really good.

"Yeah…" I said. "They sure are. Hey, Emma, I've been meaning to—"

"You know who would love these?" she interrupted me. "Ty! I'll bet he's around. I'm gonna go find him." She started paddling in, only looking back to call over her shoulder. "Catch you later Nate!"

"Yeah," I called, albeit halfheartedly. "Later…" I sighed, and paddled away from where I was. As I went, Broseph and Reef paddled up on either side of me.

"Dude!" Reef exclaimed. "Did you see my last ride? Was that not the sickest fakie you've ever seen?"

"It was so sick, guy!" agreed Broseph. I said nothing, and my two friends seemed to notice. "Dude, what's harshing your mellow?" Broseph asked.

"Yeah, you were stoked to be out here a few minutes ago," said Reef. I sighed.

"I don't know guys," I said. I really didn't want to talk about it with them. I mean, I loved these guys (not in that way) but they really weren't the ones to talk to about girl problems. And I wasn't even sure if this was a girl problem, or if I even liked Emma at all. She was gorgeous, that was for sure. And nice, funny, smart, and… well, you know. But I didn't want that to ruin the friendship dynamic we all had going on. That stuff happens, I've seen movies. So I just shrugged, and smiled wide. "What're you talking about dudes? I'm still so stoked! Come on, you've got to see my next ride!"

XxXxX

Despite how amazing night surfing was, we found it was time to call it in. The night was wearing on, and we were starting to get a bit tired. We set up a little fire pit, and quickly got a fire blazing. Emma still wasn't back, but I tried not to think about it. I sat between Lo and Johnny on one log, while Reef, Broseph and Fin had the other.

"That was epic," said Fin, and we all nodded in agreement.

"For once, Reef, you had a killer idea," I said, and Lo and Johnny nodded. Just then, Reef stood up, holding his marshmallow on a stick in the air like a torch.

"We are the Kings of Night Surfing!" he shouted. I smiled, and was about to say something, when a crackling noise filled the air. Suddenly, the floodlights began going out, one by one. Then the lights in the surf shack. Then the staff house in the distance. And finally, all the lights in the hotel went out all at once. We all gasped in surprise, our eyes wide.

"Whoa…"

"Uh-oh."

"Wow…" said Reef. "Didn't see that coming…"

"REEF!" Johnny shouted furiously. "This is all your fault! The floodlights were too much, they blew a fuse, I knew something like this would—"

"Dude!" I shouted cutting him off. "Calm down. Come on, let's get to the lobby and see what the damage is inside." The others nodded. Abandoning our boards on the beach, we made a sprint for the hotel. The closer we got, the worse things looked. There was no power: no lights inside, outside, heck even the fountains stopped shooting water. The sliding glass doors wouldn't slide open, so Reef, Broseph and I had to pry them apart. Once that was done, we entered a nearly pitch black lobby. The only light came from the moon outside.

Johnny was having a bit of a panic attack. "Reef!" he said. "You… entire hotel… all dark, all dark! I can't breathe." He slumped over the front desk.

"Johnny it's going to be okay," tried Fin.

"Yeah, we can fix this," said Reef.

"Fix this?" asked Johnny incredulously. He then started stammering something like, "You—I—why all—this is—I'm getting fired!"

"Whoa…" I said, as Johnny slammed his head into the desk. "Johnny man, come back to earth a second, yeah?"

"Deep breaths," said Lo. "That's it. No one's getting fired tonight." Then she quickly ran over to Reef, shoved an accusatory finger in his face, and hissed, "Daddy hears about this, and I'll be stuck in the staff house until I'm twenty!"

"It's cool!" Broseph said. "My uncle's an electrician. He taught me everything he knows, bro."

"Sweet!" said Lo, as the rest of us sighed happily. "We'll go with him." She then leaned in close to Johnny, who was still breathing kind of heavy. "Johnny," she began slowly. "Go and call the Kahuna. Tell him we need as much time as we can get. Go." Johnny nodded, and ran off.

"Well, come on," said Fin, beginning to walk. "Let's get to the basement." We nodded, and followed Fin. The maintenance entrance to the basement was located near the staff locker rooms, and we slowly pulled the large metal door open. Cold metal steps lead us further. There was very little light, being given off by those red back up lights for when the power cuts. It wasn't a lot, so Reef, Lo and I pulled out our phones. Luckily, we had the flashlight app.

"So… it's dark," said Reef, as we walked on. "Wow, it's really dark. Seriously it's dark!"

"Yeah, we get it, it's dark," said Fin irritably. "Wait… are you scared?" Reef turned his head. "You are scared! Aww, Reef's scared of the dark!"

"That's pretty funny, bro," Broseph said, and I snorted with laughter.

"Dude, are you serious right now?" I asked him. "What are you, eight?" In response, Reef puffed up his chest, and began walking away defiantly.

"I am not scared of the dark, goodbye," he said, marching forward. As he walked, Fin put a finger to her lips, and slowly tiptoed behind Reef. When he wasn't looking, she grabbed him around the middle, and he shrieked. Broseph and I couldn't control the laughter. Reef sprinted away, yelling "You can't get me vampire!" then doubled back, and leapt into Broseph's arms. Now Bro was a bit embarrassed too, but the girls and I were practically on the floor.

Just then, there was a loud thud from somewhere else. We all looked around to find the source, but found nothing. Okay… now it was getting a bit creepy. And like Reef said… it was dark. Broseph dropped Reef, yelling "Every dude for himself!" and we sprinted away.

We ran until we felt it was safe to stop. We stood hunched over, panting and sweaty, completely lost. This night was seriously going from bad to worse, you know?

"Uh… guys?" I said slowly, as I looked around. I was safe, and so were Reef, Fin and Lo. But… "Where's Bro at?"

"Oh no!" Reef hollered. "The vampires got him!"

"There's no such thing as vampires!" Lo said angrily. "Come on, I think it's… this way." We slowly started following Lo's lead, Reef and my phones in the air to provide more light. Eventually we stopped at a door. "This must be it." Lo said confidently, and pulled the door open.

Inside was not the breaker, as we had hoped. No, far from. Inside were dozens of rusty hooks and chains. Nearly all of them were hooked into huge hunks of meat, which looked red and bloody (but that might've just been from the lights.)

"What kind of an operation is your dad running here?" Reef demanded in a scream, before we quickly shut the door, and turned back the way we came, heading for a different hallway.

We kept on walking, the whole time Reef assuring us he wasn't actually scared. We checked nearly every door, and found most were locked, or contained storage crates. We were walking down a door-less hall, when we heard a noise. It sounded like… slurping? Suddenly Reef's vampire theory didn't seem so crazy. With screams, we all ran down the hall, and took a sharp left. Then we continued on, and took a right. We ran on, until we reached a… dead end.

We could hear the footsteps coming from just around the corner. I quickly grabbed Reef and held him in front of me. "Take Reef!" I shouted. "He's probably tastier than I am!" We held our breaths, and watched in horror as… Broseph appeared. Carrying a huge tub of ice cream. Instantly, Reef and I ran over to our once-lost bro.

"Dude, you're alive!" shouted Reef, as he and I threw bear hugs around our friend.

"We thought you were gone for good, man!" I concurred. "And uh, no hard feelings about me sacrificing you to the vampires, right Reef?" Reef fixed me with a hard stare, before looking down.

"Where'd you get the ice cream?"

XxXxX

About fifteen minutes later, we were walking along as we snacked on some sweet ice cream that Broseph had found in a freezer. I was enjoying some rocky road when Lo said, "Okay, it has to be this way."

"You don't know where it is, do you?" asked Fin.

"No clue."

"I knew it!" yelled Reef. "We're gonna die! We're gonna die at the hands of vampires, and aliens! And then we're gonna get fired! And then we're gonna die all over again! HELP!" And then Broseph smacked his left cheek. When his face turned in my direction, I smacked his right cheek. He rubbed his face, which must've hurt a ton. "Dudes, why?" Reef asked.

"Fin gave us five bucks," Broseph said.

"Guys!" called Lo, from a bit further ahead. "I think I found something!" We ran in, and found that we had finally located the circuit breaker.

"Okay bro," I said, clapping Broseph on the back. "Your time to shine."

"Where's the "on" switch?" he asked.

This lead to an awful lot of yelling at Broseph. Turns out, his uncle the electrician wasn't the best at his job. So all that stuff that Broseph knew, well, there wasn't a whole lot of it. Eventually, Lo decided to dial Kahuna, and see if he knew what was going on.

"Okay guys," she told us. "Kahuna says one false move, and the whole system will go down forever."

"Wh…" I tried. "Like, why would that be an option? Who would build a hotel like that?"

"As if we weren't under enough pressure," said Fin distastefully.

"Oh…" said Lo. "And he's almost home."

"Oh that's just great!" yelled Reef. He was doing a lot of yelling tonight. "This is everyone else's fault! If the vampires don't get us, Bummer will. We are SO dead! We are BEYOND dea—" And then Fin smacked him. "Okay, yeah, I… I deserved that one…"

"Okay Kahuna, I've got you on speaker," said Lo.

"Power up the pump," said Kahuna's voice over the phone. It crackled, probably from the bad connection, what with us being in the basement and all. "When you're done with that, flip the switches in this order: green, pink, orange, yellow, then…" he was silent for a moment, then said, "Hold on, incoming Bummer." We could hear nothing for a while. And then there was a loud, high pitched screeching, and the line went dead.

"Okay then…" I said. "Kahuna's gone, and we've got two choices left. Either red or blue… In the movies, it's always red. But I don't know…"

"There's only one way to solve this," said Reef, and with a thrust of his finger, he began. "Eeny meeny miny mo. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go. Eeny meeny miny mo." He paused a second. "Mo means no, so that means…"

"Reef just do it!" shouted Fin. I could see the sweat building up on Reef's brow, and he began to bit his lip. Then he closed his eyes, reached out his hand, and flicked the red switch. For a moment nothing happened, and we were all terrified that the power was shut off forever. But then, with a crackle of electricity, the lights came on. We cheered, Broseph and I slapping a high five, and Lo hugging Reef around the middle.

"Sweet bro!" said Broseph.

"Told you it'd be the red one," I said to Reef, who rolled his eyes. "Now come on, let's get out of here."

XxXxX

We got upstairs quickly, and were headed to the lobby. Just then, Fin held up a hand. "Hold on," she warned. "Bummer's right there." We dared a peak, and watched as Johnny quickly guided Bummer away from where we were hidden. With a sigh of relief, we continued on, running past the Lobbyquarium and out the front door.

We sprinted all the way to the staff house, not daring to look back for fear of Bummer chasing after us. Once we reached the porch, we collapsed on the couch and the chairs. We were exhausted; facing terror all night really takes a lot out of you.

"Yo," said Broseph, slouching on the chair. "Did we really just pull that off?"

"We went surfing," I said slowly, trying to make sure I got all the details right. "At night. Then we turned all the power in the hotel back on, and Bummer doesn't know about any of it?"

"Sounds about right," said Fin, on my left. She was next to Reef on the other side. To my right was Lo, who was so exhausted her head was resting on my slumped shoulder.

"Yeah Broseph," I said with a nod. "We really just pulled that off."

"You are all welcome," said Reef. I wanted to say something witty in response, but was too tired. So instead, I gave him a thumbs up, and stood to leave. I climbed the stairs to the room I shared with the guys, and was pulling the door open, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

The hotel lights were… flickering… And that was when I realized, we had never unplugged the floodlights. The hotel suddenly went dark once again. I stared at it for a long while in disbelief, and then sighed, and said, "Let Bummer deal with it." Then I flopped onto my bunk, and was asleep in an instant.