Ride the Wild Surf

by Adri Mars

AU:: In a small beachside town of Nijibe, here is a story of a girl named Lucia, a boy named Kaito, and a surfboard... and everything else in between. #16 up--- NEED REVIEWS, THANKS!

5. Surfer's First Day

RIDE THE WILD SURF
a Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Fanfiction

by Adrimarie

Surfer's First Day

The clock stroke at five-thirty in the morning and the young lanky blond boy Hippo Nanami was already awake. Though this may seem rather odd for a normal twelve-year-old, Hippo's habits of waking up very early morning was normal to the Nanami Family. This particular day was known as the first day of summer for everyone around Nijibe, but as for Hippo it was an important day for him.

Once he got up and washed himself he gazed at his desktop calendar with today's date circled with red ink. His late ex, a beautiful young girl named Yuri Suiyou, would have turned thirteen today had she still been alive. Periodically Hippo had the habit of biking his way to a particular cliff in a rocky mountainous area known as Rainbow Valley Ravine, overlooking the ocean where he and Yuri used to meet and used to run away to whenever they needed some time alone. Before Yuri's tragic death she left him to pursue the heart of a certain surfer boy, which obviously caused Hippo a lot of pain through his heart break. Ironically enough it was because of that certain surfer boy that caused Yuri to take her own life at their very own cliff.

The news article that was posted on Hippo's wall with the headline of Pre-Teen Girl's Death Determined as Suicide – Police Reported Young Girl Jumped off Rainbow Valley Ravine and Drowned pertained to Hippo's former love's suicidal death. The article dated last year, just a week after Yuri's death. Hippo used to visit Yuri's grave at that particular cliff almost every other day and still does to this day. During their relationship no one in his school, not even his long time classmates Nagisa Shiroi and Seira Iria, even knew of his young romance with Yuri, simply because these two were not exactly in the Top Popular Kids' list among their class level. Even if that was the case neither Hippo nor Yuri cared if their relationship was known or not.

Hippo particularly woke up early today to write a quick note to his sister Nicola so she did not panic when they find him missing in his room. He already had a bouquet of both red and white flowers specially ordered through the neighborhood florist not too far from Pearl Waters and arranged with the florist that he would pick up the flowers very early morning at six. Though the flowers are for Yuri's birth anniversary this particular day was also the day Hippo decided to make his final goodbye. He had a dream last night of Yuri appearing to him and gave him some form of prophecy. Yuri's spirit wanted Hippo to find true love again and that she wanted him to smile once again. She often reminded him how his smile was what made her fall in love with him and that ever since Yuri's death that Hippo's smile disappeared.

The heart break that one particular surfer boy drove Yuri to take her own life by jumping off the cliff and drown down the sea that surrounded the foot of the cliff. It was because of this reason that he became overprotective of his sister Lucia from getting close to her longtime crush, Kaito Doumoto. To make things clear it was a Doumoto Twin who caused Yuri's suicide. The problem at this point was which one of the twins whom Yuri pursued that caused his relationship with her. He already forgave Yuri many times during his grave visits but still cannot forgive that surfer boy who caused Yuri's broken heart. Hippo was afraid that Lucia may end up suffering the same type of heartbreak that Yuri did, but what Hippo did not realize was that Lucia had been in love with Kaito since her younger days while Yuri had been crushing on a Doumoto Twin for only a short while. Still, Hippo did not want to risk someone with that same heartbreak that can lead that someone to suicide.

Though this was the case Hippo also admired the Doumoto Twins. His love for surfing and surf photography got him interested in the surfing culture and the sport's most prominent seasoned surfers that drove fans wild with their mad skills and phenomenal techniques but as for Hippo just seeing the perfect form of the waves and the surfers showing off their tricks was pure art to him. He wanted to capture everything in detail through precise photographs and show them off to the world, both surf enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike. His alluring photo of Kaito Doumoto doing his 360 aerials from a raging swell was simply perfect that Surfer Styles magazine decided to make this particular shot as a special pinup. For the fan girls the photo made them become hardcore neophytes of their surf prince. But for Hippo, the Kaito Doumoto pinup in this month's issue was his personal triumphant victory.

If only you would be true to Lucia and not a prominent heartbreaker, Kaito Doumoto... Poor Lucia... I don't want her heart being toyed and torn... just like how Yuri had hers by the likes of you...

Before he can get ready he called the florist to confirm he would pick his order of roses in just a few minutes. Afterwards he proceeded to get ready from his clothes to his camera equipment backpack.

A few minutes later at the Doumoto shack, Kaito woke up gradually right when he caught the rather seductive sound of a woman next to him. He did not remember sleeping on his bed with someone next to him since his friends did tell him that they got rid of the partying crowd once he went off for a walk at the beach last night. When he went ahead to go home he knew he was alone. But with one eye open he felt the alluring warmth of another body surrounding him.

Kaito had not been sleeping with a girl next to him for the last three months ever since he ended his one-week girlfriend habit. He certainly knew he did not invite some random pretty girl to spend the night with him. The question now was how did he end up having a girl sleeping next to him just now. Quickly he gazed at himself and sighed in relief. He still had his his t-shirt and his bottom PJ on. Nothing crazy happened in his sleep at all.

What's up... I can't get up from my bed... just who is this girl with me...?

He rubbed his eyes for a clearer view when he heard his door open. He was startled and dropped himself back to his bed to see his older twin entering his room.

"Hurry up, Kaito, get up!" Gaito exclaimed. Right then both Kaito and the mysterious girl rose up from the bed. Gaito's eyes widened in shock to see the face of the girl sleeping next to his twin.

"... Sara? What are you doing here?"

The tall, lengthy orange-red haired siren named Sara Iria looked up and found her boyfriend just standing right at the door, gazing right towards them. She looked down at herself and appeared semi-naked with just a brassiere and a pair of short shorts on her. Right then she turned her head slowly to her side and found her boyfriend's twin brother snickering right at her. At that moment Sara screamed and jumped off his bed.

"PERVERT!" Sara shrieked in panic and slapped Kaito with a pillow on his head. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Kaito raised his arm to protect himself and recovered. Still with that smirk on his face he answered. "Hey, this is my room! But man, Sara... I know you're head over heels on my twin but I never knew you're desperate to get down and heavy with me too..."

"OH MY GOD! YOU REALLY ARE--- UGH!" Sara quickly grabbed her top that was on the ground and ran right next to Gaito while Kaito burst up laughing. "I'm so sorry, Gaito, it's not what you think it is! I meant to surprise you when you wake up and I thought Kaito was you..."

"Oh?" Gaito gave a slight grin, looking rather interested at the small situation. "Do tell, Sara."

Kaito stood up from his bed, grabbed a white t-shirt and placed it over him. He enjoyed the little moment with Sara and continued. "You know, G, you need to shield me from Sara because even if you two are serious with each other she can get delusional." He turned to Sara and approached her while the completely embarrassed lady clung on to Gaito's arm, backing away from the twin brother.

"Then again, in my case, babe," Kaito gently lifted Sara by the chin, still with the same smirk on his face. "As twins, your man and I are mentally connected. Anything he feels, I feel it too. When you tried all you can to seduce me in my sleep, he felt it too. So in other words, if you feel the need to get hot and heavy when you're man's not around, I'm your best choice available to cater to all your passionate needs!" Right along with the latter he gave one of his signature winks at his twin's girlfriend.

Sara screamed in chagrin and immediately slapped Kaito on the face. "PIG! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Instantly she left the room to head to the restroom looking both embarrassed and angry at the same time.

Kaito gently rubbed his cheek from the slap and turned to Gaito. "Don't worry about a thing, G. You know I'm not gonna touch her like that. But I can't help it that she was really going down on me thinking she was you. On the other hand, it's all good with me!"

Gaito shook his head with a slight smirk on his face. "You moron. Hurry up and get dressed. We got breakfast and work to do. Shiroi was already ahead of us and he's already out there at the beach with Sara's sister."

Kaito gazed at the watch on his wrist to check the time. "Jeez, it's six o'clock! Why so early?"

"We got no time to waste, Kaito. Let's have breakfast. Sara and Seira apparently decided to surprise us by coming over this morning. I left the extra key underneath the map so the girls can come in anytime..."

"And you're calling me a moron?" Kaito snickered as he followed Gaito out from his room.

Once the boys, along with Gaito's elusive lover Sara, gathered at the kitchen table and had their breakfast compliments of Sara's intricate cooking skills, the discussion about what they need to do today was brought up.

"Gaito hun," Sara called for her cool and silent man as she gazed at him eating his pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage. "So, I got your text on my cell about this tournament that you dudes are really stoked with. I wanted to tell you and your dudes this in person because you know I want a sweep too."

Gaito lifted his head while taking a bite from his sausage. "Are you talking about our surfer girl team dilemma, Sara?"

Sara chuckled in a rather seductive way; at least that's what the rest of the boys thought. She answered with a wink on her face. "You dudes only got one place to go if you want to find your surfer girls."

"There is...?" Kengo and Daichi exclaimed in shock while subconsciously gazed at the slightly revealing perfectly-shaped cleavage on Sara's chest.

"Yes, there is, Kengo and Daichi," Sara snickered, knowing that the two boys were just staring at her own cleavage. "Now boys, the faster you finish your breakfast instead of taking your time staring at my cleavage the more you'll have time to prepare, hm?"

The two boys lowered their heads knowing they were caught. Masahiro answered briefly to Sara. "Thanks for helping us out, Sara. You have no idea how much this tournament means to us--- even if it's the first time this type of tournament is being held. And of all places they chose Nijibe as their premiere location of the tournament. Experts say the swells of our ocean this summer is gonna be the wildest, most ferocious this entire country has ever seen, so we gotta show the entire surf world that not only our town deserves to host this event, but we also rule over this tournament as well!"

"And you sorry losers are biased as well." Sara added with her arms crossed and a stare that brings domination over the boys present. "Good thing the beach where Pearl Waters is located at became outraged with the huge waves rolling in. It's calling all of you surfers forth to head to that particular strip. All the mysteries of what real surf culture is like lies at that strip. That's what I meant when I said that all the concepts you need to enter that tournament is in one place."

The surfers turned to each other looking confused and wondered what Sara truly meant. Gaito took over the conversation and spoke to his love. "I'm a little lost, Sara. You said we're biased?"

Sara sat on an empty seat of the dining area and crossed her arms. "You dudes always hang out and surf at the downtown strip because all the cool kids hang out there. Yeah, all the cool kids alright but sometimes it makes me wonder what these cool kids have. As far as I'm concerned you guys are the real cool kids and real cool kids take the time to actually look for a particular strip of the beach where all the best waves are." She paused for a bit to get herself comfortable with her seating and continued. "A little bird told me one day that these cool kids you talked about actually think that anyone who hangs out at Pearl Waters are a bunch of weird and uncool kids? I'd like to know what's wrong with Pearl Waters."

Gaito leaned back on his seat and answered Sara. "Don't look at me. I didn't say that Pearl Waters is uncool or anyone who hangs out there are uncool. In fact I've been pondering on visiting there myself, but everyone else in this crew thinks that if I go there then I'll be deemed a loser---"

"Quit lying, G," Kaito stepped in from out of the blue. "You think the same as well." He turned to Sara again and continued. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Sara, but I fell for the false statement with all these cool kids been saying about that place. Those Rainbow Pop Girls clique and all those idiot kooks and Judiths who think they're cool with us but actually don't share the same passion as we do kept feeding us a lot of crap about other people. I realized that fact yesterday when I..."

Right at that point Kaito trailed his statement and decided to keep quiet about it. Sara probed at Kaito to continue. "You realized it yesterday? What happened yesterday?"

Kaito went back to his breakfast and continued to eat without answering. Masahiro sighed and turned his head towards Sara. "Kaito spoke to Lucia Nanami yesterday. You know her family owns Pearl Waters."

Sara slowly snickered and crossed her arms. "Is that so, Kaito? She's the younger sister of one of my close friends. I'm pretty sure you dudes are familiar with the manager of Pearl Waters, Nicola Nanami, right?"

No, Sara... not really. Those stupid popular kids getting me to think that Lucia Nanami is... what was it that they called her again? "Lucia the Loser" Nanami? After yesterday I feel like she knows more about the sport I love than I do. Kaito sighed and hid his face a bit to hide his inner guilt. "I feel really stupid now..."

"Aw, don't feel bad, Kaito," Sara chuckled. "If you don't know, now you know. And for those who still don't understand what I meant by one place, I'll just cut to the chase. Now that you all know about Pearl Waters, more or less, all the stuff that you need to enter the tournament is in that place and anywhere near that place. The beach you all discovered yesterday? Everything you need happens to be there."

Daichi answered from out of the blue, facing Sara. "You know something we don't know, do you, Sara?"

Sara laughed and gazed at Gaito, who returned the smile towards her. She turned back to Daichi and responded. "Why don't you find out yourself, hm?"

"We will," Masahiro nodded in agreement. "Besides, I have an appointment with the lovely Rina Touin at the beach across from Pearl Waters regarding our beach babe entry to the tournament. I just need to find a way to convince her and not turn away from me when she sees me. Right now she has ill reactions towards me because of my little mistake yesterday but I can make that up today. I just hope she doesn't ignore me when she sees me..."

"Dude, Hamasaki," Kengo answered with enthusiasm while he placed his fork down on his plate. "You're like one of the hottest dudes in school and you make kids with glasses look really cool because of you. And you rip through your motorbike as well as you rip the waves! What kind of girl wouldn't want you, man?"

Masahiro snickered slightly and shook his head. "Rina Touin wouldn't be one of those girls, Kengo. But that's okay. As Gaito said yesterday, true love is not a project with deadlines. But don't get me wrong though. I'm not pursuing Rina Touin. I don't want to scare her like that and if she wants a relationship with me, that's up to her."

Kengo scratched his head noticing Nagisa was missing at the breakfast table. "Hey, where'd that shrimp go? Now I realized he's missing."

Sara snickered and shook her head. "My little sister Seira woke him up first. You see, her and Nagisa are working on their assignment."

Masahiro snapped his fingers realizing what that was. "That's right. Nagisa said he was going to take care of the surf band problem. That would mean they're heading out to Pearl Waters already..."

"I don't get it," Daichi joined in the conversation. "If Nagisa knows who to talk to at Pearl Waters then how come Seira is with him?"

Sara nodded to confirm. "They're going to Pearl Waters to see Nicola's little brother Hiroki--- or Hippo, his nickname. He's the drummer and occasionally does vocals. In case you didn't know Seira dumped Nagisa for her new found feelings for Hippo. Poor kid..."

"Nagisa?" Daichi and Kengo asked curiously wondering who Sara was referring to.

"Well okay, poor Nagisa because my sister broke his heart when she realized that her true feelings were towards Hippo awhile ago, but I can see that both Seira and Nagisa got over the whole break up thing and remained friends. Besides, I know Nagisa's already got his eye on Hanon Houshou, correct? Actually I'm referring to Hippo..."

"Why's that?" Masahiro asked curiously.

Sara turned her head and faced the window overlooking the ocean. "Remember the tragedy a year ago in your school? It was about a girl who took her own life on one of the cliffs of Rainbow Valley Ravine? Don't tell me you dudes forgot about all about it after a year later..."

Kaito raised an eyebrow of curiosity and then noticed Gaito sighing and lowered his head. Just with that reaction alone Kaito already suspected that Gaito knew the story Sara just mentioned. He did remember that tragic incident that occurred a year ago. It was all over the news and even throughout school. In fact, he remembered seeing Lucia crying over the tragedy during class last year and often wondered the type of relationship she had with the girl. Maybe a close friend?

"Was this girl a close friend of Lucia Nanami, Sara?" Kaito asked curiously with his fingers on his chin.

Sara smiled towards Kaito. "You ask too many questions, Kaito. I'd like to tell you but we're wasting our time chit-chatting and gossiping here. If you want to know about this whole thing, why don't you ask Lucia?"

Kaito shrugged his arm as the entire crew stood up and began cleaning up their dishes. It was time for them to proceed with their plans to complete their entire entry in to the First Annual Surf Scenes Tournament.

In the meantime out at the beach were the younger surf bums in the form of twelve-year-olds Nagisa Shiroi and Sara's younger sister, twelve-year-old Seira Iria, making their way to the direction where this summer's hottest beach strip was located. Though that was not their prior destination they hoped that they would catch Hippo Nanami awake at this time. The time was six-fifteen in the morning and the former young couple were nearing Pearl Waters.

"I don't see why you have to come along, Seira." Nagisa sighed while Seira had her arm around his while strolling together. Though the break up took place around eight months ago just about a month after the tragedy they were able to rebuild their friendship together and remained at that level ever since. It was easy for them to rebuild their friendship simply because of their new different interests now. Both were aiming for the same goal, except that the goal was Hanon Houshou and Hippo Nanami.

"You need me on this one, Nagisa," Seira stated in a serious tone as she continued to drag him along with her. "Besides, I don't think you and Hippo Nanami get along smoothly as far as I'm concerned."

Nagisa sighed deeply and turned to the excited Seira. "That thing with me and Hippo... I have to admit to you that I started the whole thing. You know he's not one of the cool kids in school and I was just miffed that you had to break up with me for him. I didn't know he'd be this tough with guys like me and would immediately hate me for what I did to him..."

Seira gave a hmph at her young ex and responded. "I don't care what those idiot cool kids think. You and I were both part of that dumb clique. I'm just glad I was strong enough to stop hanging around with them after what happened to Yuri Suiyou last year. I think I was the only one who noticed Hippo Nanami completely torn that day and yet I didn't do anything to help him because I was one of the cool kids. You know, I've always liked Hippo Nanami. I think he's the hottest cutie ever to exist in our class and he's a really sensitive guy. Guys like him are really rare nowadays... I have to admit he's a lot cuter than you."

Nagisa rolled his eyes and turned his head away. "Okay... I admit he's actually all that with some girls but he's not in the same league as us. He was one of those band geeks and always took pictures of the beach all the time. Like okay, we all love the beach but I can't imagine myself getting attached to beach addiction you know."

Seira shook her head, ignoring what Nagisa just said, as they kept strolling at the beach. A few feet more and they found a good glimpse of Pearl Waters right at their sight. They finally reached their destination.

Nagisa found the Closed sign at the door of Pearl Waters and opted to back off slightly even if they were not right at the door just yet. "Maybe we should wait until they open."

"They open at noon, Nagisa." Seira laughed at Nagisa's concern. "Obviously you've never been to Pearl Waters before. Okay, I thought only lame kids would go there but after Sara took me there at one point to visit her friends Nicola Nanami and Coco Pacifica it wasn't that bad like everyone says. Everyone is so friendly there and they feel so free--- like they're never pressured to do whatever they want. It was then that I realized that being with the cool kids made me feel like I wasn't being who I really am. I always felt pressure and concern whenever I'm with them and I envied the Nanamis and the people who work there because they seem to enjoy themselves and didn't have to resort to peer pressure just for them to remain cool... and I think that makes them a lot cooler than what everyone thinks." She released Nagisa's arm and smiled happily at him. "Hippo Nanami is a guy with a lot of talents. Sure he seems quiet and... distant... but there's a lot of things you don't know about him. I was fortunate enough to get to talk to him and give him support a few days after Yuri Suiyou's death because I feel that he needed a friend."

"Oh..." Nagisa frowned and crossed his arms. The two kids found a spot at the sand and decided to sit there for awhile. "I never really did apologize to him for putting him on the spot like that in front of the cool kids. The guys made fun of him when they found out that he actually had a relationship with that Yuri girl, calling him a... what was that? A necro..."

"Necrophiliac," Seira answered and sighed deeply. "That was just cruel... what you guys did... but luckily for you Hippo was a lot tougher than that, but I can tell deep inside he felt insulted because you had just insulted Yuri Suiyou's spirit. But even if that was the case I grew fond of him. He was in the school band, sure, but he was the lead drummer in the school band's drum corps and he was also the drummer for the school's jazz band too. He was so cool behind the drum set. He was totally rockin'! That's why I'm excited to see him play tonight at Pearl Waters along with the rest of the band!"

Nagisa nodded in agreement and changed the subject. "That's why you and I are here at the beach across from Pearl Waters. We're here to get that band to enter the tournament with us. Now I'm curious who's in that band and what their band name is."

"Lucia Nanami, Hippo's sister, and Rina Touin are in the band. Lucia usually plays rhythmic guitar when needed and sometimes Rina would play the sax when also needed. Taro Mitsuki is Hippo's and Lucia's cousin--- and Sara's ex too--- and from what I heard he's going to start as a teacher in our school when we get back, so he moved here permanently. He plays lead guitar--- you should listen to those awesome guitar rips that he does sometimes--- he's so cool! Finally we got the final member, the ever-so-handsome Rihito Amagi... He's a famous orchestra conductor at such a young age whenever orchestral music is in season, but during summer he's a surf bum at heart! He plays bass guitar in the band. Now they gotta find a good name for themselves if they were going to enter the tournament."

"Right..." Just when Nagisa answered they heard the door at Pearl Waters open. The two looked up to see who just opened the door.

"Hey... it's Hippo!" Seira shrieked in silence and watched Hippo replace the Closed sign on the door.

"What?" Nagisa remained at his spot with Seira, watching Hippo exiting Pearl Waters with a huge backpack and a bicycle. He rode the bike to the continuous direction, which tempted Nagisa and Seira to follow Hippo from behind. "Where's he going?"

"I... I don't know..." Seira scratched her head as they continued to follow Hippo on his bike. Just moments later Hippo stopped in front of a building. The two spotted the painted window showing that the place was a floral shop.

Hippo got off from his bike and knocked on the door. The owner of the floral shop greeted him and handed him a bouquet or red and white roses. He paid the owner his money and then proceeded to his destination. Once again Nagisa and Seira used whatever energy they have left to follow Hippo to his destination.

"Seira--- I don't think we should follow him... he's got a bike!"

"Oh don't be such a wimp, Nagisa. We'll just meet him there and we can pretend that we just happened to be on the spot, you know?" Instantly Seira dragged Nagisa along with her, trailing Hippo from behind.

"Seira... leave the poor guy alone..."

After a few moments they finally reached Hippo's destination. Both Seira and Nagisa rested and caught their breath realizing that they had just climbed the trail to a particular cliff. At the same time they found a good place for them to hide and watch Hippo's activity at the top of the cliff, looking a lot more curious than ever.

Hippo found the edge of the cliff and at a good distance was a small stone memorial that had his late ex's name along with the years she lived from the year she was born to the year she decided to end her life. Right at the bottom of her name and the years had the inscription:

An angel lost but now found

An angel blind but now can see

He placed the roses in front and stood back at a good distance and gazed at the entire memorial stone. He looked around to be sure that no one was around and began to speak.

"Happy Thirteenth Birthday, Yuri. Well... it's been a year since you left us, but throughout that year I always felt that you were always here with me. I... I saw in a dream not too long ago and I guess I wanted to thank you for that dream. You had no idea how much that meant to me. I'm glad that you appeared to me again one last time and spend one moment together. I heard you still apologizing for all of this and I still want to let you know that I've already forgiven you. But along with that I finally realized what you were trying to do. Last night and earlier today I felt that I am ready to do this, Yuri."

Meantime Nagisa wondered and asked Seira: "Oh no... is he going to... kill himself?" Seira hushed Nagisa softly and both remained silent.

"Yuri... deep within me I know I'll always love you and I'll continue on loving you. But at the same time you feel unhappy because I still have you in my mind. When I finally thought of what you said and truly meant I finally learned what you wanted me to do. I'm sorry about my sudden change of attitude, Yuri. It's just that... it was so difficult for me to accept that you're no longer here with me. I'm truly going to make an oath just to make you smile again and I'm going to start working on that oath today. This is why I have decided that today would be the last day I will be visiting you here."

Nagisa once more turned to Seira and whispered: "Nanami... dated... Yuri Suiyou... like... for real?"

"Shhh..." Seira hushed him silent again as they continued to listen.

Hippo gave a small smile towards the memorial and gazed towards the sky and then towards the view of the ocean. He sat down on the ground and faced the memorial stone and began his contemplation. After a few moments, Hippo stood up from the ground, removing all the dirt that clung on to his clothes. He then gave a humble smile towards the memorial.

"Goodbye, Yuri. I'll smile again... like you want me to. I'll love again... like you want me to. You'll see."

He slowly stepped away and then turned his back, heading right to the flat surface again. On his way down he heard loud crumbling noises coming somewhere at the bushes area. Hippo approached where the sound was coming from and as he got closer he heard voices mixed with the dried leaf crushing sounds with one voice telling the other to stay silent, while the other complained that Hippo was no longer visible to their view.

Hippo found the two culprits behind the bushes and stood behind them. As the two argue in whispers the blond boy smirked and crossed his arms. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything... you two being secret lovers and all."

At that spot Nagisa and Seira were startled at Hippo's remark and quickly turned around to see their target standing right behind them. "HIPPO!" Seira shrieked while Nagisa lowered his head in embarrassment.

Hippo snickered and leaned himself against the nearest tree. "Heh, I sure found a rather scandalous moment in here... and rumors even say that the two of you broke up already. I guess the power of summer love is way too overwhelming that you two couldn't keep yourselves off each other, hm?"

Nagisa gritted his teeth and stood up against him. "Listen, you! We're here because we followed you---" Seira quickly spanked Nagisa at the back of his head. "OW!"

"I'm so sorry, Hippo..." Seira sighed and approached closer to him. "We didn't mean to--- we just want to talk to you... but you looked like your mind was somewhere else so we decided to follow you... and catch up to you after you're done with... whatever you needed to do."

Hippo had a slight suspicion on the two former young couple and slightly shrugged his arms. "Oh well. You're here already. Let's just get this over with."

A few minutes later the three pre-teens found another hill nearby from Yuri's memorial cliff and are now sitting at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. Hippo was well-equipped when he arrived there with his huge backpack. His camera equipment were not the only items in his backpack but he also packed a huge box with breakfast inside. He was a big eater despite of his tall and lanky build but he brought enough to share with Seira and Nagisa. He brought six mini-sized ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches in between two English muffins for his breakfast and those were enough for him to get full. Today was an exception though.

Once they settled in their small picnic spot Hippo began to speak. "What do you guys want?"

Seira was about to speak when Nagisa hushed her and insisted he would answer. "Look, Nanami. You and I... haven't been really getting along for awhile now and it's my fault. I'm kinda getting tired playing sarcasm games with you and we're being really immature."

Hippo rolled his eyes and gave a light smirk. "We're twelve-years-old, Shiroi, not eighteen. We're supposed to be immature."

"That's not what I meant! I mean I started this whole nasty rumors thing with you being a necro--- well whatever that word was—-"

"A necrophiliac, Shiroi?" Hippo interrupted, still with the same smirk on his face. "You can't even remember that awful term you used against me and that word's not even in seventh grade vocabulary too. I wasn't offended when you used that word at me but I was offended with your actions because you insulted Yuri's spirit."

"See, that's what I meant? I felt really bad about what happened and I wanted to apologize for all that. I've been wanting to for a long time but I had a feeling you're not going to listen to me anyway. I seriously had no idea that you and Yuri Suiyou were dating and what I did was really shameful. As you know Seira and I here used to date--- I guess around the same time you and Yuri Suiyou were dating... and Seira dumped me because she..." Just before he continued he noticed Seira staring at him with a vibe telling him not to tell Hippo of her feelings for him. "Oh well... I don't have any other good excuses for spreading rumors like that, Nanami. I guess you could say... I was jealous."

Hippo raised an eyebrow wondering what Nagisa meant by the latter statement. "Jealous?"

"I'm a selfish brat, Nanami," Nagisa continued with a sigh. "Before you transferred in our class I was the most popular kid in our class level. I was used to getting all these love letters from girls and chocolates for Valentine's Day and used to watch girls get in to fights after school just for my attention... I got it all in to my head. Even Seira here was head over heels for me..."

Seira sighed and nodded in agreement. "Yes... yes I was..."

"--- It lasted for about awhile until you came along, Nanami. You were... you were really quiet... and focused... and you weren't even aware that all of a sudden our class's cutest girls kept staring at you and laughing happily while your back was turned---"

"Funny you say that, Shiroi. I always thought everyone hated me since everyone kept on staring at me and snickering behind my backs. I'm not blind and deaf, you know."

Seira shook her head in disagreement. "They're all jealous of you--- the boys are jealous of you but the girls giggle because they all think you're cute and hot and all that... but you're like an untouchable you know? As in--- because you're so quiet and all that they're scared of coming up to you and you know... um... mingle."

Nagisa laid down on the picnic blanket, resting with his arms behind his head. "I changed ever since I started hanging out with the surf tribe. All the guys among the cool kids wanted to hang out with the surf tribe, especially with the Doumoto Twins. I mean those guys--- well the guys in the surf tribe--- to us cool kids, they're like gods. I was fortunate that they let me in. I've been wanting to get in to surfing for a long time but none of my old friends were even interested in learning how to surf so I've been trying to learn it on my own---"

Hippo's eyes widened in shock to hear the latter. "Are you insane, dude? You can't learn how to surf by yourself like that. That's like major suicide, man. But how'd you finally learn how to surf though?"

"I asked around for help or if anyone would have time to teach a kid like me on how to surf. No one even paid attention to me thinking that I'd just be a poser and didn't even give me a chance what my reasons were. Then one day during one of the tournament practices at the beach Kaito Doumoto came up to me and we just talked."

"Kaito Doumoto... came up to you?" Right at that point Hippo gained interest in learning more about his sister's surfer boy crush. "What'd he say?"

"I was scared at first because Kaito Doumoto is obviously the surf god at our grounds, but he turned out to be really cool. I told him what my problem was and he said he doesn't mind teaching me how to surf as long as I have my whole heart and soul in to it. But you know, I didn't learn how to surf from him alone. He also taught me a lot of things too--- about life, about certain rules surfers in general should always follow with no excuses, and of course, how to deal with people. We became close and all and then time came when he introduced me to the rest of the guys in the crew. His twin brother Gaito, the biker dude Masahiro Hamasaki who's got some mad skills at surfing too, those two dudes Daichi and Kengo who always hung out with Kaito--- I thought they were posers too but they were hardcore surfers too. And then we got our absent tribe member, Rihito Amagi. He was part of the tribe too but he's like the oldest of the crew and was going to college and interns and stuff with music so he barely had time to hang out with us anymore."

Hippo snickered, feeling overwhelmed. "Yeah, he's a surfer himself. But he's been doing volunteer work at Pearl Waters as our bass player at our Friday night band. He's moving in to Pearl Waters later today to join the staff though he didn't really have to."

"Uh huh..." Seira grinned happily at the thought of Rihito Amagi and lost herself in her daydream world. "I have never thought young guys who are in to classical music can be such hunks... I mean, his singing voice is just... to die for! Do you think he's going to sing again tonight so he can woo us hapless, lonely girls to our knees?"

"Hey, Seira, this ain't the time for daydreaming!" Nagisa nudged Seira back to reality while Hippo snickered at the same time. "We gotta talk about what we need to talk about---"

From out of the blue Seira gazed immediately towards Hippo, who still had the snicker on her face. Right then she changed her tone. "Hippo... I know I've said so many apologies about Yuri Suiyou and I can see how much you loved her... but when we heard you saying goodbye to her... are you sure you're going to be alright?"

Nagisa frowned with his arms crossed. "Seira, stop talking to him about Yuri Suiyou. It's kinda rude you know..."

Hippo, looking a lot more confident and cool as ever, stood up from his seat and stretched his arms. He placed his arms behind his head and turned to Seira. "I've done my crying. I can't be like this forever. Besides, Yuri reminded me in my dreams that I should be lucky that I'm still alive in this world. She said that fate was not ready to take me up yet and that there are many reasons why I'm still here and she's not. She reminded me that I was a stronger person when it comes to heartbreaks than she was. She also reminded that this world needs people like me so we can all survive together. Besides, Seira, you've asked me several times about Yuri already. Thank you for your concern."

He sat back down to his spot and faced both Seira and Nagisa and a small smile appeared on his face. "I have to move on with my life and start all over. I think today is the best day for me to move on. I told myself not to cry when Yuri broke up with me long time ago because if I did, it only hurts more."

At that moment Hippo was reminded of a song he wrote awhile ago after he lost Yuri to another love that was not meant to be. He no longer felt ashamed to even sing the song openly to two of the former cool kids knowing that it was up to them if they understand his feelings or not.

You asked me if I ever longed for her

Since we said goodbye

Sure I get sad but it's not too bad

It only hurts when I cry

You see I hardly even think of her

As time goes slowly by

I just go on like there's nothing wrong

It only hurts when I cry

Sure I remember our first kiss

The way I loved her then

Sometimes I think a love like this

Could never happen again

So please don't worry if I sigh for her

You'll know that I'll get by

I'll just pretend that it's not the end

It only hurts when I cry

It only hurts when I cry...

"Hippo..." Seira murmured his name, unaware that tears appeared right on her eyes. Was it the song that got to her? Was it Hippo's tragic lost love story that touched her heart then? Whatever the reason was tears were about to fall.

Sure I remember our first kiss

The way I loved her then

Sometimes I think a love like this

Could never happen again

So please don't worry if I sigh for her

You'll know that I'll get by

I'll just pretend that it's not the end

It only hurts when I cry

Hippo took a deep breath and exhaled knowing that he finally felt free after singing the song. He also expected Nagisa would say something as an attempt to put him down but to a surprise there were no such remarks coming from Nagisa. In fact he remained silent and had a more serious look. From behind Seira could not help but let the tears fall and suddenly embraced Hippo from behind. "Hey---"

"Oh Hippo... I'm so sorry! You'll find another love one day! I know you'll do fine!"

Hippo looked rather perplexed at Seira's reaction and wanted to release himself from her grasp when Nagisa took him and Seira in to his arms from behind in the same fashion.

"I feel you, Nanami... Sure you may look kinda wimpy but damn... that song's just touching!"

Hippo raised an eyebrow with a slight frown on his face. "Okay, you two. Let go of me. You're killing me here..."

Both Nagisa and Seira quickly released him as the three began to clean up their breakfast picnic area. Once they were finished Hippo stood close to the edge with a pair of binoculars to check the ocean swells coming in at the beach strip where Pearl Waters was located.

"What are you doing here anyway, Nanami? I mean aside from saying goodbye to Yuri and all..." Nagisa asked in curiosity.

"Taking pictures of the raging ocean, what else?" Hippo answered and lowered his binoculars. "The sea has the biggest swells at late night and best time to catch them on daytime is very early morning like around this town. Looks like the swells' not big enough to be photographic-worthy right now. Besides, best spot to take pictures of the actual waves rolling in is right at the shore itself, and at that time I usually catch surfers riding these waves." He turned around and headed to solid land along with his backpack. "I'm heading back now. I don't know how you guys got here on foot, but as you can see I got no space on my bike, so... see ya all at the beach!"

Hippo pedaled his bike back with a wave towards the roads where Seira and Nagisa walked their way back, following Hippo from behind. The talk about the band will have to wait until they head back to the beach.

Once they reached at the front of Pearl Waters and Hippo parked his bicycle at the bike rack Nagisa spoke again. "So, we're cool, Nanami?"

Hippo was silent at first, staring at Nagisa. Then he turned his eyes towards Seira, who looked hopeful that things should be patched up between the two boys. He shrugged afterwards and answered.

"Yeah. We're cool."

Nagisa quickly stepped up in front of Hippo with a hopeful smile on his face. "So, okay, we need to hook up with the surf tribe and discuss what we seriously need from you!"

Hippo gave another smirk on his face and crossed his arms. "This is in regards to our Friday night band, is it, Shiroi?"

"You knew!"

"Of course I knew, heh. A certain family member informed me about it last night. We're the only band existing in the entire town of Nijibe who plays surf and beach tunes. Well we play other types of music too since Taro and Rihito are all music pros and all but yeah."

Seira joined Nagisa up front and gazed at him with a look as if she was begging. "I'm helping out too--- my sister Sara will be doing the tandem surfing with Gaito too and I'm helping the team assemble for the surf scenes tournament. And since we pretty much know every single neighborhood and know majority of the people here sadly this neighborhood strip is the only area we haven't really checked out... Our fault, actually. But yes--- we agree--- the Friday night band is the only band who does surf rock and surf pop! We have rivals entering this tournament and we want to get in there to show them that our surf culture is the best of all the rest! We're practically begging here!"

Hippo scratched his head slightly while still a little uncertain with this particular deal. "Well... hmm... well, regarding the band I'm not the one who makes decisions. You want to hook up with us? Tell your surfer crew to stop by Pearl Waters at around nine in the morning today. We'd still be closed but knock on the door and let the peeps here know that you're here to watch us rehearse."

Seira and Nagisa gazed at each other looking curious and both simultaneously answered: "We'll be there!"

"Glad to hear you two are eager!" Hippo grinned happily at the two. "In exchange for our invitation to let you peeps watch our rehearsals for tonight's performance here you better spread a little word of mouth to all the kids and other beach bums around town to come to Pearl Waters tonight and watch us. We could use a bit of profit and recognition, you know. Let them know that we're the band who's going to bring the Nijibe Surf Culture to victory in the First Annual Surf Scenes Tournament. Oh, and be sure the entire surf tribe and even the waxboys and the Judiths better be here tonight too."

Nagisa blinked in shock and retorted. "Nanami, dude, that's just a little too much, don't you think? All of that for tonight?"

"You're complaining, Shiroi?" Hippo raised an eyebrow with a slight frown towards the young surfer boy.

"Seriously, Nanami--- you want Seira and me to gather around everyone we see at the beach today to come over to Pearl Waters tonight? That would mean Seira and I have to face our former so-called friends--- the cool kids in our school--- and get them to come to Pearl Waters just to see you guys play? Not to mention those... posers too... whatever you just called them..."

Hippo leaned against the wall next to the door, smirking. "Do I look like I care about that, Shiroi? You and Seira are already considered gods by those cool kids like you said earlier today. And since you two hang out with the Rainbowside Surf Tribe now you won't have any problems convincing them. They'll listen to you word-for-word. And besides, since majority of the kids we know are a bunch of waxboys and Judiths they'd do anything to hook up with all you surf gods. Get me?"

Nagisa tightened his fist in chagrin but later on sighed. Seira nodded quickly and answered. "We'll do it, Hippo! Seriously--- we'll do it!"

"Seira?" Nagisa shrugged his arms in disappointment towards the hopeful girl next to him. After a few moments he realized that there was no other way to talk to a kid named Hippo Nanami out of a deal well made. "Alright fine. I'll talk to the twins and the rest of the dudes about it. Maybe they'll help--- well they should since this is regarding our entry to the tournament."

"My point exactly," Hippo grinned and patted Nagisa on the shoulder. "Thanks for the deal, dude. I'm very sure the surf crew and us weirdos of Pearl Waters will get along very well." Right then he turned to the door and opened it with his keys. Before he entered the building he turned to the two once again.

"One more thing I have to mention to the two of you. Just to let you know that I don't believe with all these cool kids stuff. We're all the same, except certain people--- like the cool kids, for example--- are jealous because they know there's someone out there who's always going to be better than them."

Nagisa and Seira were left speechless as Hippo entered the building. "Later, dude and dudette. I gotta wake up my peeps here and get some stuff ready before we open. Ciao!" Hippo gave the two kids a victory sign with his fingers and closed the door behind them.

"Man..." Nagisa murmured with amazement in his mind. "He's good... he's really good... he really got us good, Seira."

Seira giggled and nudged Nagisa on the side. "Of course! That's why I'm in love with him, silly!" She winked at Nagisa and dashed her way across the beach.

"Hey! Wait up!" Nagisa followed Seira to the beach where they find the rest of the surf tribe along with Sara approaching their direction.

An hour passed and the entire Pearl Waters staff were up and awake and already munching on their breakfast. At that time Nicola Nanami gazed at her day planner with worry on her eyes. She gazed towards everyone who were just enjoying breakfast and interrupted their quiet moment. "Sorry to break your breakfast, everyone, but I'm just a little concerned about something."

The staff turned to each other with worry as Noel answered. "What's wrong, Boss?"

"I'm just worried that Pearl Waters may have another summer of low turnouts. I know yesterday's major huge swell that rolled in at the beach across from us really brought a lot of attention from all the surfers and beach bums but I'm afraid of what may happen later today. I'm really hopeful that we'll have a lot more successful business this summer but now I'm rather nervous of the turnout---"

Taro Mitsuki patted his cousin on the shoulder with confidence in his smile. "Chill, Cousin. Rihito and Hippo and Lucia and Rina and me got that covered."

Rina and Lucia were startled at what Taro had just said and turned to him. "We do?"

Taro nodded with a grin on his smile. "Rihito rang me up last night and from out of the blue he had a revelation--- sort of--- about our Friday night band. First up, he wrote up some quick compositions and songs that would surely get our surf bums pumped up, and second, he finally came up with our new band name!"

"A band name! Nice!" Hippo grinned as he exited the kitchen with his plate of breakfast sandwiches for the staff. "What is it?"

"OC-5!" Taro grinned with excitement. The new band name gave Lucia, Rina, and Hippo rather puzzled looks.

"Okay..." Rina answered though her expression remained bewildered. "What's it stand for?"

"The Oceanic Crib Five!" Taro answered, giving them a thumbs up. "Before you start thinking that the band name is lame, let me explain. We're a close-knit band who only performs here at Pearl Waters, so basically Pearl Waters is our crib and we play nowhere but our own crib. You know all of us in this town live the life by the ocean and the ocean always gave us inspiration to do anything. It's not just about being gods of the sea by surfing and taming the wild waves, but the ocean had given inspiration to mine and Rihito's compositions for our classical music performances. Our music and our beloved ocean are connected together and you know it. That doesn't just specify classical music but in Rihito's case he can hear fast-paced, pumped up tune in his head while he's out there at the sea making his ride!"

"Of course!" Lucia exclaimed with a nod. "Rihito's a surfer too! Didn't he used to hang out with the surf tribe or something before he left for college or something? I think OC-5 is a cool name for a band! People will easily remember the name!"

Taro nodded and continued on. "Thus, the oceanic part of the name Oceanic Crib Five--- or the OC-5 for short. And the five is obvious--- there's five of us in the band."

Hanon cheered happily while clapping her hands at the same time. At this time her eyes were fixated towards her new crush Taro Mitsuki and knowing her daffiness with her crushes she would agree with everything Taro would say. "I love it, Taro! I looove the name! It spells coolness from just the short form all over!"

"Agreed!" Coco gave a thumbs up regarding the name. "At least it's not one of those cheesy names like The Crewbies or something."

"Love it! Love it!" Both Noel and Caren cheered along with their approval of the name.

"Well... it does have a cool ring to it..." Rina admitted while still contemplating. "Sure, why not? OC-5 it is."

"I approve!" Taki gave her vote of approval with the band name. "About time you kids have your own identity instead of the Friday night band."

Lucia turned to her brother who still did not decide whether he approved of the name or not. "Hippo? You're the only one who haven't said anything."

Hippo smiled with a slight shrug of his arms. "Sure. Why not? That way it'd be easy for those two surf bums to grab some people to come to Pearl Waters tonight, heh."

"What was that, Hippo?" Lucia asked curiously regarding the statement he just made.

"Nothing. None of your business." Hippo slightly turned his head away, refusing to say any more to his sister.

Nicola nodded in agreement with everyone but her feelings still had not changed. "Taro, how is the new band name going to get us customers? If we get another low turnout this summer we'll be in big trouble financially."

Taro gave a wink. "As your assistant manager of Pearl Waters, Cousin, I'm about to get to that part. Again, Rihito's idea. He should be here soon. He'll be able to---" Just as he was about to complete his statement everyone heard knocking on the door. "Well, that must be him now."

"I got it!" Hanon dashed towards the locked door. Once she opened the door she found her eyes fixated yet towards another tall, dark-haired, and handsome boy slightly a little older than her. "H-hi... we're closed..."

The dashing and mature-looking Rihito chuckled softly at the reaction of this rather unfamiliar girl at the door. "I know it's closed. I'm Rihito Amagi--- bass player of the band?"

Hanon gasped and returned to reality. "Oh! H-hi! Um... come on in!" She opened the door wide for the smooth-looking Rihito along with his bass guitar case and a surfboard on the other arm. Just the sight of Rihito reminded her of Kaito a little bit, but just by the surfboard she already knew that he was indeed a surfer. On top of that, she was beginning to remember where she had seen this particular boy before.

"Wait--- don't tell me! Rihito Amagi--- aren't you part of the Rainbowside Surf Tribe too? I thought I've seen you hang out with the Doumoto Twins and their crew one time..."

Rihito gave a small wink at Hanon and smiled. "You got me. Part-time though. I've spent more time on my college studies than hanging ten lately but I keep in touch. Glad you recognized me though."

"Oh..." Hanon found herself blushing like a tomato and quickly covered her face. Man... first there's Lucia's cousin Taro Mitsuki... and this part-timer surf tribe dude who happens to be a member of the OC-5 band... Oh Lucia, you have no idea how much I'm loving my part-time job at Pearl Waters now...

The rest of the staff spotted Rihito and greeted their final staff member. "Hey, you made it, Rihito! We were just discussing about OC-5!" Nicola said with a happy smile on her face.

Rihito gave an embrace and a pat to his boss. "I'm here and ready for work, Boss--- even if I'm doing it for free."

"We were just talking about you, Rihito. Please join in our breakfast discussion." Nicola invited Rihito to take the empty seat between Taro and Lucia. Hanon headed back to her seat with her eyes stuck towards both Taro and Rihito at the same time.

"Sorry I'm late, guys," Rihito apologized briefly as he took his seat. "I had to help Michal pack up her stuff. For the first time this summer she wants to spend her private tutoring at the beach instead of at home. Kinda strange if you ask me."

Lucia stared at Rihito with a puzzled look. "Michal--- your younger sister, right?"

"Hm, I don't think I've met her before..." Rina said, thinking about this particular girl known as Rihito's younger sister.

"That's because none of you have met her before... not personally anyway." Rihito chuckled and continued. "She's always at home for her private tutoring with some of the best professional tutors in the country. This year she wanted to get to know more of the town itself by spending time at the beach. She's staying at Rainbow Shores Hotel, just two blocks from here. I insisted she'd just stay home to save money but Michal can be stubborn sometimes."

"So, you're going to introduce us to Michal, finally?" Lucia asked with enthusiasm on her face, palms together.

"I'd love to but she didn't want to come here to Pearl Waters." Rihito shrugged his arms. "I have a feeling she's got other priorities with her idea of studying at the beach instead of at home."

"Besides, you don't want to meet Michal Amagi, Lucia." From behind Caren gave a warning to the young blonde. "If you do there's going to be a mess."

Rina raised an eyebrow towards Caren. "Mess? What mess? What's wrong with Rihito's sister?"

Caren gasped in shock realizing that she just opened her big mouth regarding something that Lucia and the others should not know. Quickly she covered her mouth and said "Um, ignore what I said! I was thinking about something else!"

"Hm..."

Nicola cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "Okay, let's get back on subject, please. So Rihito, Taro's been telling us about this great idea of yours. Is this some kind of an advertising method that we can do to get more customers to Pearl Waters?"

Rihito nodded quickly. "Bingo! Check this out, Boss. Today is our rehearsals for tonight's performance here, right? There's this huge buzz around town about this surf scenes tournament thing and that the surf tribe is desperate for a surf band who's going to represent their surf scenes team. See, I got this vision. Since we already got our new band name of OC-5, here's our chance to take advantage. Instead of rehearsing in here we rehearse outside the beach."

Lucia gasped in shock with her hands on her mouth. "... Outside? Rihito, you're kidding, right?"

"Nope. We're going to rehearse outside... as in the beach... with a small stage and all that. We already have a small portable stage that we can set up at the supply room here because I happened to find it last year and actually cleaned it myself. We can set that up, set our instruments there, and we'll be good to go!"

Oh no... Kaito will see me... looking all weird and messed up on rehearsals... Lucia sighed deeply and lowered her head.

"Hey I like that idea, Rihito!" Rina exclaimed with a smile. "Let's do that! In that way we can attract a lot of people to us and they'll watch us rehearse and if they find us a really good band they'll definitely come over to Pearl Waters tonight to see us perform."

"And that, my friends," Rihito continued, "is how we're going to get a lot of customers for Pearl Waters this summer. We use our music and our presence to lure customers here. It would be like..."

"If you like OC-5 and want to check more of us out, come to Pearl Waters tonight at seven sharp." Hippo added from where Rihito left off. "I think this would be more convenient. Now everyone would be able to see us rehearse and perform without knocking on the closed door of Pearl Waters. I like the idea, Rihito!"

The others agreed to Rihito's idea and waited for Nicola to officially approve the advertising idea. She thought deeply first then moments later gave her answer. "Hm, I don't see anything wrong with this approach, Rihito. Sure, why not?"

The staff cheered happily while Lucia remained silent with worry on her face. Hanon noticed her reaction and nudged her on the side. "What's wrong with you, Lucia?"

Lucia lifted her head slowly and turned to Hanon. "Kaito and those surfer dudes will be there..."

"Well duh!" Hanon giggled and winked. "Here's your chance to use your musical charm to lure the man of your dreams to you!"

"I... it's just that... well I mean... what if he finds me all weird and unlikable again when we mess up in our rehearsals, Hanon?"

Hanon shook her head with a smirk on her face. "Why do you worry about these very small and simple things, Lucia? This is Kaito Doumoto we're talking about here! You kept telling me that your pure unconditional love was the reason why you got so good at singing and making up songs in your head! But since that hottie Rihito wrote some songs for the band tonight you shouldn't be nervous..."

Lucia placed her hands on her hair and then right on her cotton blouse and her pair of shorts at the bottom. "I'm... I'm not gonna wear a bikini!" Quickly she turned to Taro and Rihito and asked desperately. "You're not gonna make me and Rina wear a bikini, are you?"

Taro raised an eyebrow towards Lucia. "That's your decision, Lucia. None of us are forcing you to make yourselves look like someone you're not comfortable with. If you want to wear a bikini, that's up to you. Why do you look so worried?"

"Well it's just... it's just that... I don't want any pervert guys look at me... like that..." Lucia sighed deeply and looked down in embarrassment.

"Get with it, Lucia!" Hanon exclaimed with a disappointed look on her face. "That's the reason why us girls wear bikinis at the beach--- to have guys look at you! I'm telling you this, Lucia--- Kaito is in love with girls who wear bikinis! He would not look at a girl who is fully clothed at the beach here!"

"Oh get with it, Hanon," Rina stepped in between with a frown on her face. "I'd rather kill myself than wear a stupid bikini. What's wrong with just a plain shirt and shorts? We'd still look like surf bums with just a t-shirt and shorts!"

Rihito raised an eyebrow right when he heard Hanon mentioning Kaito's name. "Kaito--- are you talking about Kaito Doumoto?"

Hanon turned to Rihito and answered: "Well of course! I'm not talking about his twin, you know. I mean Lucia's crazy about him for the longest time and she's never even made a single move on him---"

"Hanon, don't tell everybody!" Lucia shrieked and was about to strangle Hanon when Rihito gave his reaction.

"Wow, Lucia... I didn't know you've got a thing for Kaito Doumoto too!" Rihito chuckled with his arms crossed. "Then again that doesn't surprise me anymore..."

Lucia sighed in embarrassment. "Rihito, please don't make fun of me... I have my own reasons why I'm in love with Kaito Doumoto--- and they're very good reasons too! Though even if that was the case I don't think he'll ever notice I'm alive..."

Rihito cleared his throat and continued on. "Well, since I am close to the surf tribe myself I have to agree with your friend Hanon here. Yes, Kaito likes girls in bikinis, but that doesn't mean he'd be interested in getting to know them. I even told Michal about that but she didn't want to listen. Lucia, as your friend and fellow band member and employee of Pearl Waters who happens to be a part-time surfer of the Rainbowside Surf Tribe, don't ever change yourself just to get someone's attention. You've got a lot of qualities that would make guys go crazy for you. And since I know you got those special qualities you can use them to bring something new to Kaito's table. It takes time but I can guarantee you he will notice you."

Coco raised an eyebrow and turned to Rihito. "Hey... why are you helping Lucia out with her chances with Kaito? What about your sister?"

Rihito shrugged his arms. "She's a year younger than Kaito and she's a little obsessive with him. In fact I bet seeing Kaito was the only reason why she decided to do private tutoring at the beach instead of at home. If she weren't so desperate and annoying about her infatuation with Kaito then I would've helped her. Sadly she just wouldn't have it."

Michal Amagi... likes Kaito too? Of course that wouldn't be a surprise. Hippo was right after all--- me and ten thousand-ish other girls of Nijibe are all in love with Kaito. What am I getting myself in to? Why can't I find another guy that would get my eyes away from Kaito so I don't have to deal with all this? And now Michal is making moves on him too while she does her tutoring stuff... I can't compete with Michal--- she's rich and pretty and smart and really nice too--- I mean the pictures Rihito showed us once in awhile shows it too. I'm pretty sure Kaito would be better off being with someone like her... Lucia sighed once more and buried her face under her arms face flat towards the table.

"Okay, okay, enough," Nicola interrupted. "Let's get to work, everyone. Lucia, Rina, you don't have to wear a bikini just to rehearse. Alright?" Lucia looked up and nodded along with Rina's agreement. "Let's do our band ads at the beach today, everyone!"

Rina turned to Taro and Rihito and provided a short question. "So, when are we rehearsing?"

"The earlier, the better," Taro answered with a thumbs up. "You and Lucia get ready while Rihito, Hippo, and myself get all our equipment ready. I checked our instruments to be sure they're in good shape earlier so don't worry about your instruments."

"Will do, thanks!" Lucia waved at the rest of the band as she and Rina head upstairs to get dressed. The rest of the staff also did the same by heading upstairs to their rooms and get themselves ready for a nice day at the beach.

Right at that moment another door knock was heard from the entrance door. Nicola happened to be near it and answered the door. "Ah, Maki! Welcome welcome!"

The restaurant's cook and interim manager of the restaurant arrived with an enthusiastic face. "Nicola, sorry I'm late. My brother and I were at the beach earlier just having a scoop on how the waves of our beach is gonna be like today. Looks like we're going to have a wilder one today than yesterday---"

Nicola chuckled and placed her arm around Maki. "Oh Mr. Maki, you always bring joy to this place with that excited smile of yours! Unfortunately if you want to talk surfing, that's my little brother's department." She turned to the back of the kitchen where the supply room was located and called for Hippo. "Hippo! Maki's here and he's got news for you!"

Hippo was packing the drums in their cases in the supply room when he heard Nicola calling for him. He turned to Rihito and Taro and said "Hold on a sec, Nicola's calling." He exited the supply room and arrived at the dining area and met Maki. "Yo, what's up?"

"You better carry a portable radio with you, kid. Surf forecasts..." Maki said. He removed a headphone from his ear and let Hippo take a listen to it.

Hippo's eyes widened with enthusiasm as he listened to the latest weather news as well as the local surf watch news. Quickly he turned to his watch to check the time and immediately dashed near the entrance where he dropped his backpack. He reached for his pair of binoculars and exited. He looked through his binoculars and focused right towards the ocean.

"No way..." Hippo murmured as he continued to observe the ocean's movement. "Rapid combo-swells in every..." He lowered his binoculars and looked at his watch, counting the seconds via the second hand. He looked out again while he placed his watch at the binocular lens to count the seconds. "That's never happened before... rapid combo-swells in every fifteen seconds?" He looked up the sky to see the sun slowly rising from the horizon. "And it's sunny too..."

He lowered his binoculars and dashed to the kitchen to call Taro and Rihito: "HEY! DUDES! WE GOTTA HURRY! WE GOTTA TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SCENE FOR REHEARSALS!"

Taro and Rihito were about to finish packing the instruments when they heard Hippo's desperate call. "What's the matter, Hippo?" Taro asked curiously.

"We got major signs of possible thirty feet-ish breakers rolling in later! We got combo-swells every fifteen seconds right now and the waves are barely ebbing away because they kept rolling in and rolling in and rolling in. Those major swells are gonna be building up really fast!"

Rihito exited with cases of instruments on his hands with eyes as if they were hypnotized. "Thirty... feet..."

Moments later Coco, Caren, and Noel dashed downstairs in their sultry beach outfits from a bikini top to boyshorts along with their short boards in their arms also looking stoked. "THIRTY FEET WAVES!!"

Coco waved towards Nicola with a wink on her face: "We'll be back later, Boss. We got monster waves to catch!"

"Yeah!" Caren and Noel cheered happily with thumbs up.

Nicola chuckled and shook her head. "Alright, ladies. Hurry back now and take care!"

"Thanks!" Quickly the three surfer girls dash their way out of the beach to capture the waves they want to ride.

A few moments later the (soon to be formerly known as) Rainbow Surf Tribe arrived at the beach area not too far from the spot where Pearl Waters was nearby. Like any other surfer they took a quick shower first and leave themselves wet before they can take on the ocean so in that way their bodies would not immediately freeze or burn once they get to the ocean's temperature. The warmth of the sun blazed like fire enough for any beach enthusiast to bare anything as much as they can to keep themselves cool. The boys of surf arrived not with their wetsuits (though there was always that option) but appeared to show up in appropriate print boardshorts, strap sandals, and open light sweatshirts revealing their perfectly-shaped bodies enough for any girl to faint over at first sight. Surprisingly at a young age, even Nagisa possessed such a body underneath the boyish, fresh look.

Apparently Rihito's hopeful younger sister Michal was able to spot Kaito from afar once she landed at the beach along with her private tutor. She wore a rather cute pink calico-printed bikini with a light pink cotton sweatshirt over it. She wanted to have a more revealing fashion as much as she can to get Kaito's attention but older brother Rihito forbade her to do so at first sight. She invited herself within the surf tribe and placed her arms around Kaito as if they had a special relationship, not only to make herself look good in front of the others but to also make other girls competing for Kaito's heart jealous.

"I missed you so much, Kaito..." Michal cuddled herself against his arm while Kaito looked perplexed towards the younger sister of a follow surf tribe member. "You have no idea how lonely it was at boarding school down South... away from home... away from the beaches... away from you..."

Kaito chuckled nervously while the rest of the crew stared at them curiously. "Um... nice to know you think of me, Michal. So, how's your brother?"

Michal frowned and sighed hoping he would say something more about her instead of wondering about her older brother Rihito. "I give you a tender confession and you ask me about my brother?"

"Well, he is one of us part-time, Michal," Kaito grinned and turned his head forward to their path. "One of the major rules about being a surfer who's part of a surf crew--- think about your other fellow surf crew surfers first before you engage in to something else unrelated."

Michal frowned and sighed once again. "Fine, fine. Well, Rihito's at Pearl Waters right now. They were going to rehearse for tonight's showing over there. Honestly I don't understand him. Why hang out with them when he already has you guys...?"

"He is, first and foremost, a musician, Michal." From behind Gaito answered, joining in the conversation, while Sara looked onward. "It's not like he bailed out on us or anything. He still is pretty much a part of us even if he was doing it part-time. Heck, one of these days in the future we'd be like him too. It's not like we're going to be surfing and live the beach life for the rest of our lives, right?"

Kaito nodded in agreement with his twin brothers. "Yup. Even the best of the best surfers in the whole world will have to learn and determine when they have to stop and move on in to something else. It's a part of life, you know? See Nagisa Shiroi over there with Seira, just right behind us? For all we know he'll be our next surfing champion and take leadership of this crew with brand-new surfers as well as current ones. Pretty soon when you get older you'll probably get tired of the beach life and want to move on in to something else---"

Michal suddenly threw her arms around him and held him tight to her. "No! I would never ever get tired of the beach life or you, Kaito! You'll always be my surfing champion in my heart no matter how long you live!"

"Uh, Michal... that's nice of you but could you let me go? You're choking me to death..."

Michal sighed sadly hoping that he would feel enticed by her simple gestures along with the calico pink bikini she had on. "Kaito, you're so mean. I mean you'd date other girls at first sight but you won't even look at me the same way... I mean there's even other girls younger than me who look older than they look too."

While the rest of the surf tribe were witnessing this brief moment Seira whispered to Nagisa's ear. "So that's Michal Amagi... Rihito's sister. She looks so nice... and innocent... and fragile..."

Nagisa rolled his eyes and whispered in return. "With that bikini on and the way she tried to make passes at Kaito I don't call that nice, innocent, and fragile."

"Hm, good point."

As they continued to stroll at the sand Michal continued on with her flirtatious ways with the town's surfing prince. "So, what are your plans today?"

Kaito raised an eyebrow at Michal with a rather perplexed expression. "Uh... surfing... and... hang out at the beach with the dudes... and... well... surfing..."

"You're such a surf bum, Kaito!" Michal giggled in amusement and continued. "Have you thought of getting out of the beach for awhile and... you know... explore the rest of the town? Like the Nijibe Summer Festival and all that!"

"Can't. I'm training for the upcoming tournament with the dudes here. We can't afford to get out of the beach, even for awhile."

Michal moaned in disappointment and continued on with her verbal advances. "Aww... You see, an old friend of mine who lives here in Nijibe is holding a special birthday party in like two weeks but it's going to be formal attire and that no one is allowed to come unless if they have a date, so I'm thinking..."

Kaito stopped strolling and turned his head towards Michal. He released his arm from her grasp and patted Michal on the head. "Oh, why didn't you say so? I know tons of hot dudes who'd love to go with you, so when I have time I'll introduce you around and you get to pick your own date!"

"But Kaito, I don't want to get hooked up with other hot dudes that you know. I want you to be my date!" Michal tightened her fists as if she was ready to bend and beg. "Why won't you take me seriously?"

Kaito sighed with a small smirk on his face. "I'd love to, Michal, but my planner's really occupied for the summer and my entire week on that week you mentioned is all booked." He turned and continued strolling down the path to their destination. "So many girls... so little time..."

"Kaito!" Michal called out for him as Gaito and Sara passed by her with Gaito patting her on the shoulder. "Gaito, why is your twin so mean?"

"Can't help it, Michal," Gaito answered with a grin on his face. "He's busy, completely booked. We got a competition to train for in two months and we can't afford to waste any time. And when his entire summer's booked there's nothing stopping him."

"Can't you talk him out of his habits, Gaito?" Michal asked curiously looking more desperate than ever.

Gaito shook his head while Sara covered her mouth to prevent herself from chuckling. "I can't. You see, while I'm faithful to my girl here I have the same habits as Kaito."

"Gaito..." Just as the conversation was about to continue Gaito and Sara were distracted by the excited voices of Kengo and Daichi who shouted out a particular code.

"Gaito! Hamasaki! Shiroi! 36-22-36 alert!" Kengo called out for them as he and Daichi ran ahead of them.

"No way! I'm so there, man!" Masahiro grinned and ran after Kengo and Daichi.

Seira gazed at the boys rushing to their destination ahead of them and turned to Nagisa. "What's 36-22-36 alert mean?"

Nagisa lowered his head and answered. "No comment."

"Well what is it, Nagisa? I'm curious!"

"You don't want to know, Seira. Trust me." Nagisa walked on ahead from her as Seira chased him from behind.

"Hey Nagisa--- wait up!"

As the rest of the surf tribe ran ahead of Gaito, Sara and Michal, Sara nudged her boyfriend on the side with a smile on her face. "Now I'm curious what they're so excited about. I don't see any huge swells coming in..."

"36-22-36," Gaito said with a smirk on his face. "It's the second thing that average surfers love aside from surfing."

Sara gave a short thought of it and from out of the blue spanked Gaito at the back of his shoulder and walked on ahead. "PIG!"

Gaito gave a confused look at his girlfriend walking away. "Sara? I wasn't the one getting excited with that--- come on!" He ran after Sara, leaving Michal looking confused.

"Wait--- where are you guys going--- don't leave me here!" Michal ran, following Gaito from behind.

Just as the rest of the surf tribe ran to where their target destination was Kaito gazed at his friends passing by him wondering what the excitement was about. "What the hell..."

As Kaito continued to follow them he stopped himself right when his eyes caught the target. At the distance he spotted three somewhat unfamiliar girls with their surfboards all waxed and ready to go. He dashed quickly at a short distance to have a closer look and observe these girls finding their own spot. The rest of the boys found their spot not too far from where those three mysterious girls with surfboards stood their boards through the sand. Just as he was following his friends at their newly-established spot Sara caught up with him from behind.

"Sara..." Kaito called for his twin brother's girlfriend approaching him. "You ditched my brother for me?"

Sara spanked Kaito's shoulder from his back while Kaito snickered at the same time. "Shut up, Kaito! I can't believe you're still using that stupid 26-32-26 code... so sexist!"

"You mean 36-22-36, Sara? I wasn't the one who yelled that out. Jeez, get a grip, girl!"

Sara crossed her arms and glared at the younger twin. Moments later she changed the subject. "Anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to some of my friends, that's all."

"Your friends?"

"You're lookin' at them right now... they're pretty hot and sexy, huh?" Sara winked at Kaito referring to the three girls with surfboards who ran out to their spot just moments later.

"You mean those three girls with the boards? Well okay... they are kinda hot and sexy but they're your friends?"

Sara walked ahead from Kaito backwards with her arms behind her, grinning. "You're going to need those girls for your tournament entry, Kaito. Be nice..."

Kaito chuckled knowing that his brother's girlfriend was trying to tease him a little. "If they're nice to me sure, I'll be nice in return. I'm only being fair, of course."

Gaito and Michal caught up with them and quickly Michal grabbed Kaito from behind, cuddling herself against his back. "Found you, Kaito!"

Kaito sighed deeply and lowered his head while Gaito placed his arm around Sara. "Sara, you know I'm not like that... why would I check out other girls when I can always check you out any day?"

"Idiot," Sara rolled her eyes at Gaito and changed the subject moments later. "Look, my friend Coco and the twin sisters Noel and Caren are over there. You dudes want to win this tournament? Time for you to hook up with them. You got no choice around Nijibe anyway except for those three."

"Lead the way, Sara," Gaito said with a nod. "You're friends with them. You initiate the meeting."

"I will," Sara chuckled and walked ahead.

Gaito turned to Kaito and Michal. "Hurry up, you two. We've got potential surfer girls to catch!" He waved at them and ran after Sara from behind.

Kaito knew he had to set himself free from Michal's grasps quickly. Just as things were getting awkward between him and Michal he heard a familiar singing voice closing in on his direction. Right then he smiled after hearing the singing voice.

We've got an early start

We're gonna have a ball

We're gonna ride the surf

Yeah, and that ain't all

Just before the singing voice get closer to him he gazed at Michal, still with the smile on his face. "Hey, Michal. Do me a favor, will you?" Right at the moment he hands his shortboard to her. "Can you carry my board to where the dudes are? I need to see someone important."

Michal quickly took the board from Kaito looking confused. "Where are you going? Who are you meeting?"

Kaito felt rather annoyed at Michal's curious questions and then answered. "Your brother, who else? Do you want to come and join our little surf chat?"

"Oh..." Michal frowned and slowly walked away with her eyes still at Kaito. "Okay then! Come back soon!" She waved at Kaito and ran to their spot where the rest of the tribe sat and Sara and Gaito already making connections with Coco, Noel, and Caren regarding the tournament.

As for Kaito he found a rock where he sat on the smooth top and waited until that singing voice arrived at his direction.

Nothing is greater than the sand, surf, and sun there

Racking up my boards just as soon as we get there

Stack 'em in the sand where they're breakin' just right

We'll be surfin' all day and then swingin' all night

Vacation is here... beach party tonight!

Just as the verse of the song finished Lucia appeared right on sight. Kaito's detection skills served him well. He hoped that the cheerful singing voice turned out to be Lucia Nanami. He remained still on his spot with his arms crossed.

Lucia came down to the sands with two instrument cases on both her hands. Behind Lucia were Rina, Taro, Rihito, and Hippo were also carrying their musical equipment while Hiromu Maki, the cook of Pearl Waters, aided them by carrying their portable stage. Just as Lucia found the spot she placed the cases down. She continued on singing happily.

We're checking our boards

While looking all cool

Now we're waxing our boards

'Cause you know we ru---

"EEK!" Lucia shrieked in embarrassment right when she turned her head and startled to find Kaito sitting on top of flat rock boulders watching her along with that grin on his face. "K-Kaito!"

"Good morning, Lucia," Kaito greeted the fully-clothed young girl, still with that charming smile of his. "Aww... keep singing!"

"Well... I uh..." Lucia felt like she was put on spot but luckily for her Kaito was the only one present. "That was embarrassing..."

Kaito stood up from his boulder and jumped to the ground. He walked closer towards Lucia until they were only a twelve inches apart to each other. Lucia, only wearing a pink and red t-shirt, a pair of red shorts, and white beach sandals, stood still facing her longtime crush but also felt as of her feet became stuck and frozen.

"So... Kaito... you're... very... um... early... today..." Lucia spoke nervously.

"So are you," Kaito answered. Right at the moment somehow he felt a lot of ease and excitement mixed together inside of him. He did not hesitate to wonder why he felt so happy and refreshed to see Lucia all of a sudden when he was not used to having all these eager feelings within him regarding girls in general. "I miss you, Lucia..."

Lucia gulped nervously and giggled softly. "But we only met yesterday, Kaito... that is... we spoke... yesterday... about the tournament and all that. You can't... possibly... miss me... unless if you meant you hoped to have more information about what you wanted me to gather for you which was why you felt like you're missing me... heh... heh... heh..." Right then Lucia sighed deeply knowing she was really messing up her appearance in front of Kaito.

"Well... yeah, that too." Kaito shook his head finding himself acting a little strange. He was always the cool and calm type whenever he spoke to a girl he was interested in but this was not the case with Lucia. "Um... what did you find?"

"Well..." Lucia pointed her finger towards Coco and the Lake Twins still in conversation with Sara and Gaito. "Those are Pearl Waters waitresses--- Coco Pacifica and the Lake Twins, Noel and Caren--- they're surfer girls from the closet. I mean they surf a lot but no one has seen them surf, so they're here now because they want to surf at these conditions, you know? I heard that there will be swells about thirty feet later today so we decided to um... take advantage of today... see, we'll be rehearsing here instead of inside closed doors of Pearl Waters. You know... provide a little... daytime show..."

"Then you'll be singing then, Lucia?" Kaito asked in hope and anticipation.

"Well... um... occasionally... Rihito will be doing most of the singing since he's our lead singer and all... but um... we take requests!"

Kaito stepped a few inches closer and Lucia's heartbeat began to beat faster and her face turning completely red. "Well... I request for you to sing during your rehearsals. I don't care what song you sing as long as you sing..."

"Well I... um... excuse me..." Lucia chuckled nervously and turned herself away from Kaito. She placed her hands on her face and began to have a conference with her own mind.

Kaito... wants me to sing? What have I gotten in to? I mean I'm excited to be rehearsing with the band as OC-5 but Kaito wants me to sing during rehearsals? I wonder what Rihito and Taro would say about it? I mean, I don't do much singing with the band and all... but still... this is Kaito we're talking about... and I think he really likes my singing that he misses me for it.

After her moment of self-conference she turned back to Kaito with her nervous grin. "Um... I'll see what I can do to fulfill your request, Kaito. It should be something hardcore so the music can really help you get stoked when you paddle out and stake your wave, you know?"

Kaito chuckled, feeling rather proud of himself and at the same time excited. "How about you sing something to me... like you know... how to say this..."

"Sing something to you...?" Dangit Lucia... you've got so many songs to sing to him--- mostly declaration of love for him--- but what if he stops talking to you if you end up singing one of those love songs to him? "Um... like... what type? Like how awesome and rippin' you are out in the waves or something?"

"Just kidding!" Kaito snickered while Lucia sighed out in relief. "You know I wouldn't ask something like that of you. Your boyfriend may probably get jealous if you do---"

"Ah!" Lucia shrieked and gritted her teeth. "I don't have a boyfriend, Kaito! What makes you think that I have one? I'm not very good dealing with guys like that... heh... heh... heh..."

Kaito seemed to be enjoying himself talking to the rather daffy Lucia and rested himself against the rocks with his arms crossed. "For some reason I don't believe you."

"What...? What do you mean?"

"You're talking to me, aren't you?" Kaito winked, still grinning at the same time.

"Well, actually I do like someone but... but I think he's forgotten about me..." Lucia sighed deeply, trying not to reveal too much of her feelings for him at that time. Not yet, anyway. "So... um... I've been reserving my heart for him... then again no one's really... um... flirted with me before..."

Kaito approached Lucia once more with only about six inches apart from each other and his eyes met her nervous-looking eyes right then. Lucia found her eyes completely fixated with his while her legs were melting with the warmth and tenderness his gaze had given her.

"Maybe I'm the only one who has perfect eyesight," Kaito began in a soft voice. "Why wouldn't guys want to flirt with you when your eyes sparkle like a bottle of Coke..."

Lucia looked a lot more perplexed than ever. "Bottle of Coke...?"

Kaito gently lifted Lucia's face by the chin as he slowly lowered to her. "When I look at your eyes I feel that my thirst was completely quenched, not to mention your eyes look refreshing, sweet, and... rejuvenating..."

"... Rejuvenating...?" Lucia could not take the little scene any longer and covered her eyes immediately. "You're making fun of me..."

Just as Kaito was about to continue he heard his twin brother's voice calling to him in annoyance. "KAITO! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE AND STOP FOOLING AROUND! WE GOT BUSINESS TO TAKE CARE OF!"

"Ugh..." Kaito sighed deeply and shook his head. He released Lucia's chin and backed away. "I gotta go... Lucia... sorry to cut this short."

Lucia felt her heart beating rapidly and placed her hand on to her chest to calm herself down while breathing heavily. "Um... well... we all have business to take care of, Kaito... heh... heh... well, um I'll see you around then!"

"See you later, Lucia." He winked at her once again and left the scene. As he walked away Lucia sat down next to the instrument cases and hid her face within her arms.

Kaito's making fun of me... I know he doesn't mean all that... I mean he always flirts with girls anyway... of course he doesn't mean that... my eyes sparkle like a bottle of Coke? Who on earth comes up with dumb statements like that? Although I gotta admit... he was really cute and adorable saying it... oh Lucia, what on earth is wrong with you? Why can't you face him like a real man, I mean, girl? I mean if he's really like that on girls then it's quite possible that he's not the boy you rescued those years ago... this is bad, Lucia... this is really bad. I bet Kaito would be talking to his dudes about me behind my back and would laugh and snicker at me in hiding. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna face him the next time we meet?

Moments later the rest of the band arrived with Taro patting Lucia on the shoulder. "Are you okay, Lucia?"

Lucia lifted her head quickly and spotted Taro next to her. "Oh... yeah... I was hyperventilating, that's all..."

"Hyperventilating? About what?" Rihito asked curiously while standing on her other side.

"Nothing! I mean.. I was hyperventilating about... um... all the girls I saw so far at the beach are all bikini-clad... that's all..."

Hippo took Lucia's arm and helped her stand up. "Come on, Lucia, let's set up already. Maybe our rehearsal would make you feel better."

"Thanks, Hippo." As the males left to begin assembling their mini-stage Rina approahced to her.

"Let me guess. Kaito came up to you and you guys talked, right?"

Lucia nodded her head slowly. "Yeah... he was... he was waiting for me... sorta..."

"Did he say some cheesy pick-up line about your eyes, Lucia?"

"You knew..." Lucia sighed in embarrassment and dropped her head down right then. "He said my eyes reminded him of a bottle of Coke..."

"Figures."

Rina patted her on the shoulder as the two went to where the males are and aided them in fixing the mini-stage.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Some notes below...

#1 – I've taken some time to do more research through the net (and through my surfer cousins) regarding surf terminology and surfer lingo. Take a look at the following...

Kook – a poser; non-surfer who acts and dresses up like a surfer who tries to sneak his way in to a prominent surfer crowd at a particular local beach. Most people just say "poser", but for the hardcore inner terms, Kook was primarily used.

Waxman – Another term for a kook.

Judith – a female version of a kook; mostly pretending to be a surfer girl in order to get guys.

All of the terms above are nuisances to real surfers and surfing enthusiasts and often try to avoid them as much as they can. There's probably a lot more surfer lingo that have similar meanings to the ones above but I try not to use too much of them as I can just to establish the surf culture of Nijibe in this fanfic. I only inserted these just for slight authenticity.

#2 – 36-22-36 – a guy's code/call for a hot and sexy girl. It stands for 36 in. bust, 22 in. waist, 36 in. hips. You know... a "perfect" girl's body. The code is a little sexist because women who don't have the 36-22-36 sizes feel offended and that guys in general only care about their "perfect size" instead of who they are as individuals inside. Why do you think most women always ask their husbands or boyfriends if they look fat or not? It's all because of these number code, folks!

#3 – On the part where Kaito explains to Michal about surfers in a surf crew always prioritize their fellow surfer, this is also a general rule with all surfers in general in real life. When a surfer talks to a relative or a significant other of a fellow surfer he would ask/mention about his fellow surfer related to that person before they talk to them individually.

More to come, obviously! Please keep the reviews coming! I really appreciate it! ^_^

RATED T for the VERY mild language AND slight adult situations.

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is © 2003 Pink Hanamori and Michiko Yokote. All songs used are © respected songwriters/owners. No copyright infringement intended.