Another short one.

Anyways, in case you're not aware, I live on the east coast of the US. And I've been doing quite a bit of research on Australia and the cultural differences (because that kind of stuff seriously interests me, especially with the Gay Marriage political nonsense going on these days, I like to see how other countries handle it.) Anyways, right now, here in America, it's late Spring. Summer is like three weeks away.

Current Temp in Greensboro US: 30 Celsius/86 Fahrenheit
Current Temp in Sydney Australia: 16 Celsius/61 Fahrenheit

Current Time in Greensboro US: 3:56 PM on Wednesday
Current Time in Sydney Australia: 5:57 AM on Thursday

Anyways, I am just interested in the cultural stuff :D

It was one of those mornings. The ones where you had trouble falling asleep the night before and then you wake up and you don't know why. Worst part about it is that you can almost never fall back asleep. Heath gave up. He kicked his blanket off and ventured quietly down the stairs.

It was still dark out so Heath was surprised to walk into the kitchen to see a girl sitting at the table.

"Can't sleep?" Her accent took him completely by surprise.

"You're American." Heath had never heard her speak-they had all been surfing and she was one of the few lucky enough to get a shower first. She linked out immediately afterwards.

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "It's been a pretty big culture shock. Part of me still thinks I'm at home where it's currently Fall and—" She glanced over at the clock which bore the time 5 AM. "—three in the afternoon yesterday."

"Michelle, right?"

"Call me Shelly."

Heath smiled and pulled down a glass from the cupboard. "Alright, Shelly," he smirked as he filled up his glass with water, "what are you doing up at this hour?"

She held up a book. "Science project due tomorrow. My worst subject."

"Mine, too. Sorry." She looked a little hopeless. "But you know, Matt is brilliant in science. I'm sure if you ask him before you leave for school, he'll take a look at it."

"For real?" Heath nodded. "Well, I've pretty much beat this dead horse with a stick." She pushed the books away from her. "So what do you do? What does Heath Carroll, loser of the Solar Blue wildcard 2005 do for a living."

Heath gave her a small grin, reached onto the counter and tossed a magazine to her. It landed on the table in front of her. It was a surf mag, naturally.

"Professional surfer?" she guessed.

"Close. Take a look at the photo credit for the cover." He lifted his cup to his lips to hide the smirk on his face.

She gave him a skeptic look, but flipped to the back pages. "Cover photo taken by…" she muttered. "No way."

"Yes way."

She looked up, face way too bright for five in the morning. "How is that close to being a pro surfer? You're a professional photographer? That's so cool."

"It's close enough. I get to hang out with all the pros."

"What were your favorite competitions that you've covered?"

Heath pressed his lips together and leaned forward onto the table to rest his chin on his arms. "A few years ago there was an all girls comp a few kilometers up the coast from here. Fly won that comp." Shelly gave him a look, her eyes darting to the space over his shoulder. He sat upright and then cautiously turned around. "Hey, sorry. Did we wake you?"

Fly just stood at the bottom of the stairs, a blank look on her face. "You were at that comp?" she asked finally. Her poker face held strong.

"Yeah—"

"And you didn't think to come say hi or anything?" A little bit of hurt was seeping into her tone. She shook her head suddenly and waved him away. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter. Sorry. I'm going for a run."

"Fly—" But she had already crossed the kitchen and exited, completely ignoring him.

There was a short silence before either one even moved. "Training isn't for another hour or so. I'm guessing that's enough time for a run. That way you won't need to warm up," Shelly suggested, standing up and stretching. "As for me—I'm gonna go get an hour's worth of sleep."

Heath nearly laughed at her attempted not-so-subtle subtlety. But he wasn't one to just let things like this slide. Fly had once been his best friend and sure—maybe he had let their problems go before—but now was the time to set the record straight. Maybe clearing the air would settle things down a bit.

And a run was exactly what he was going to do.