CHAPTER 3 - FIN McCLOUD'S DAY OFF

Here's Chapter Three as planned, picking up as Fin's day off from work continues. While this chapter begins in a lighthearted vein, brace yourselves near the end because it's going to get heavy.

As soon as Lo returned to the lobby with Erica and Brianna after all had changed into their swimwear, Lo revealed her idea to Fin once she returned from the hotel gift shop, carrying four water-soaker guns with her. "Wow, what's up with all the water bazookas there, Lo?" Fin wondered aloud.

"That's part of the idea I got to help keep Erica and Brianna entertained," Lo said. "We're going to have a water gun fight outside."

"A water gun fight?" Erica said, her interest suddenly piqued.

"Right on!" Brianna joined in as the two sisters started cheering excitedly.

"So that's your plan?" a skeptical Fin asked. Taking Lo aside, she said to the hotel heiress under her breath, "You sure you want to put water guns in the hands of two kids that're probably hopped up on sugar as we speak?"

"Better them than the Marvins, that's for sure," Lo noted. "If it were up to those two terrors, Todd and Mark would probably choose paintball guns and aim them at everyone else in the hotel. Thanks, but no thanks." Once she finished talking privately with Fin, Lo walked with her back to Erica and Brianna. "Okay girls, you ready to go?" Lo said to the twins.

"Yeah!" Brianna said enthusiastically. "I wanna team up with you, Lo! Me and you against Fin and Erica!"

"Well, okay," Lo agreed, glancing over briefly to Fin before turning back to the girls. "If that's how you want to do it."

"It sure is," said Brianna, who then revealed that she came prepared in advance when she whipped out a smaller squirt gun from behind her back and let a surprised Fin have it with a few squirts of water in her face.

"So you wanna play it that way, huh?" Fin said as she wiped the water from her face while Brianna laughed. "Then if you're feeling lucky, bring it on, ladies!" she then added with a fiendish grin. Lo then handed Fin, Erica and Brianna each their water-soakers and they went off to fill them up using water from the sinks in the women's washroom off the lobby. Once Lo set a rule that indoor areas of the hotel were off-limits for shooting at each other, the girls were off and running with their water gun fight, starting when Fin and Erica opened fire on Lo and Brianna first when they went outside through the main entrance.

"Ha! Gotcha, Princess!" Fin said with a gleeful cackle. She then turned her water-soaker on Brianna and sprayed her, adding, "And this one's payback for the squirt gun for your lady-in-waiting, too."

"Oh, yeah?" a grinning Lo countered, letting Fin have it in the face with a spray from her water gun. "Have a drink on me, Miss Junior Surfing Champion!"

"Oh, it's on now!" Fin said as she, Lo and the kids started running toward the hotel beach, laughing as they soaked each other with shots from their water guns.

Meanwhile at the hotel pool, David was relaxing in one of the poolside sunlounger chairs when Kelly arrived from the Pirate Ship, carrying a tray with a tall glass of ice-cold Pepsi. Emma had originally taken the drink order from David while she was doing an order round at the pool, but when Kelly heard that her boyfriend had made the order, she offered to take the Pepsi out to him personally.

"Oh, hey Kelly," said David, who was pleasantly surprised to see his girlfriend deliver his drink as he raised his sunglasses and sat up. "I wasn't expecting to see you bring my drink out, but that's all right with me."

"For you, it's my pleasure," Kelly replied with a smile. "You deserve a chance to chill after spending the last couple of weeks working steady."

"I could sure use that chance too," David said. "Dad had me going here and there around some of his businesses back at home since the last time I saw you. The last two weeks alone, I've gone between helping run his two restaurants, working in the control room at the TV station and assistant managing at the Plaza Theatre downtown."

"Wow, and I thought my job kept me busy," Kelly quipped.

David laughed a little when he heard Kelly's remark. "Sometimes I wish I had your workload - that's like half what I have," he commented, "but that's okay. I don't mind interning with Dad's company because it'll prepare me for when I'm ready to run the business of my choice when the time comes."

"Good point," Kelly said, nodding. After a pause, she then asked David, "So, what do you want to do tonight after I get off work?"

"Hmm," David mused, giving Kelly's question a little thought. "Man, where do I begin? We've got another eight full days together here and it's hard to decide what to start with."

"Surprise me," Kelly said, getting a bit of a dreamy look on her face as she thought about what she wanted to do with David.

"Well, we could hang out here at the pool to start," David said. "There's a song I've been working on and I'd love to play it for you at poolside."

"Mmm, sounds good," Kelly said wistfully. "How about taking a swim in the pool afterward?"

"Works for me," said David with a grin. "Then we could take a walk along the beach after that, then relax in a hammock back at the pool and watch the stars."

"Sure," a dreamy-eyed Kelly agreed while she thought about getting to see David swim in the pool later on. The Pirate Ship manager's daydream, however, was abruptly cut short moments later when she felt a cold stream of water knock her pirate captain's hat off her head and soak the back of her hair and the top part of the back of her uniform. "What the...?" she snapped as she realized she and David were surrounded by Lo and Brianna on one side and Fin and Erica on the other, continuing their water gun battle.

"Hey, you're not supposed to hit the staff or the guests here!" Lo told Brianna, who had sprayed Kelly from behind.

"Sorry, I was trying to get Erica," Brianna said in her defence, then she shot over Kelly and David to try to get her sister, only for David to also get caught in the crossfire when some of the spray from her water gun landed on him, then also get soaked from behind when Erica tried to get Brianna back but missed her target.

"Yikes, that's cold!" David said as he felt the stream of water hit him between his shoulder blades.

"Sorry, David!" Fin called as she, Lo and the kids then ran off to continue their game elsewhere, still shooting at each other with their water soakers.

"Ooooohh! LO!" a displeased Kelly yelled, clenching her fists. "Why couldn't she keep the kids and their water fight away from the pool area?" she then complained to David. "Now my uniform's soaked and I'll have to go get changed!"

David, on the other hand, kept a cooler head about the situation. "It's okay, it's only water," he said as he handed Kelly her hat back. "No real damage done as long as you have a spare uniform handy."

"I know," Kelly said, shaking some of the water off her hat while calming herself down. "But still, Lo needs to keep better control over the kids she babysits for."

"I understand," David said, "but that's easier said than done with some of the kids you told me she has to sit for. You know those two boys she's sat for a few times, the out-of-control ones I first saw at the restaurant and that we ran into at the movies later that night when they dumped popcorn on us from the balcony?"

"Yeah, those two, the ones with the bad parents," Kelly recalled, thinking about the Marvin family, whose sons Todd and Mark had become the terrors of Surfer's Paradise due to their parents' deliberate lack of discipline over them and Bummer's unwillingness to curb their bad behavior in favor of keeping the family spending money at the hotel, which had led to several guests checking out early in frustration, as well as one hotel babysitter quitting, during the past two months as a result of personal run-ins with the Marvin boys. "At least there, I can sympathize with Lo."

"I was thinking," David then said after a pause. "Does the gift shop here sell balloons, the kind you can fill up with water?"

Immediately, Kelly caught on to what David was suggesting. "Yeah, they do," she said with a grin. "You must be thinking what I'm thinking, then." Kelly had originally thought about giving Lo a strike for the water fight incident moments earlier, but she liked the sound of David's suggestion better.

"Mm-hmm," David said with a nod and a sly smirk.

Kelly then smiled back, happy to know she and David were on the same page. "I have lunch break coming anyway, so I'll take it early," she said. "Wait for me in the lobby while I change into my bikini, then we'll head for the gift shop."

After getting away from the pool area, Lo, Fin, Erica and Brianna took their water gun fight around the side of the hotel, back to the front at the main entrance area and down the boulevard before they arrived back at the hotel beach. When Erica zapped Lo from behind with a cold shot of water to her long hair, the surprised hotel heiress squealed. "Erica, watch my hair!" Lo admonished a giggling Erica.

"Lo, it's a water fight," Fin reminded her friend. "Your hair's gonna get wet whether you want it to or not." Fin then took aim and fired, but Lo ducked.

"Ha! Nice aim!" a grinning Lo said sarcastically before she got nailed with another spray from Fin's water soaker. Lo and Brianna returned fire, but Fin dodged both shots.

"Nice try, Princess," Fin crowed. "You couldn't hit the side of a barn!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, you only surf to pick up guys!" Lo retorted with a giggle.

Fin gasped on hearing Lo's comment, leaving her open to get nailed with more jets of water by Lo and Brianna. "Okay, that's it!" the blonde tomboy said. "Hope you like water facials!" Fin then took aim at Lo again...but before she could get her, she felt a sudden splash of water on the side of her head, while Lo simultaneously felt a similar splash against her head. Both girls, along with Erica and Brianna, then turned to see Kelly and David a few feet away, lobbing water balloons at the foursome.

"Hope you do too, Surfer Girls," Kelly, who was now in her tartan bikini, remarked with a grin as she grabbed another balloon. "This is payback for the pool earlier!" She and David then resumed throwing the balloons like grenades at the girls, with Kelly taking Lo and Brianna while David had Fin and Erica.

"Run all you want, but it won't work for you 'cause I don't miss," said Kelly, who put her experience playing softball to use as she put her pitching arm to work, to Lo and Brianna, who got hit every time with water balloons thanks to Kelly's precision aim. Lo and Brianna gave back as good as they got though, shooting and soaking Kelly with their water guns.

"Sure hope your aim's as good as your surfing, David!" Fin remarked as she and Erica fired shots with their soakers at Kelly's beau.

"Then let's put it to the test," a grinning David replied before he started firing off more water balloons. Like Kelly, David was on his mark every time as he scored hits on Fin and Erica with the balloons he threw. The water fight continued until all involved ran out of ammunition, then the six participants dropped to the ground, worn out but happy as everyone began laughing.

"Wow, that was fun!" Lo said in between laughter. "Never had this much fun doing something that wasn't surfing."

"You said it, Lo," Fin agreed. "Erica, Brianna, how 'bout you?"

"It sure was fun!" Erica said. "We should do it again!"

"Yeah, let's do it again!" Brianna chimed in.

"Hey, it sure gave me a good workout," a grinning David added. "I haven't had fun like this in a water fight since middle school."

"I'd like to do it again too, but I have to get back to work soon before Bummer sends out a search party," Kelly said. "I had to leave Emma and Zack with the lunch crowd and they're probably swamped with orders by now."

"Speaking of lunch," Lo then said to Erica and Brianna, "girls, let's go dry off and change so we can go eat. Fin, you want to hang out with us?"

"Sure, why not?" Fin said with a shrug. "I still have the whole day to waste and there's a cheeseburger back at the Pirate Ship with my name on it."

Following the water gun fight, Lo took Erica and Brianna for lunch at the Pirate Ship, with Fin tagging along at Lo's invitation. After that, the foursome went into Sunset Beach to go shopping and let Brianna get the dress she wanted, then they returned to the hotel to have fun at the beach. When Erica and Brianna's mother returned to pick up her girls just before 6:00, Lo received $100 as payment for watching them, along with an extra $20 tip for her trouble.

Lo was busy counting her babysitting money in the lobby at around 6:30 when Fin came by after having dinner back at the staff house and spotted her near the front desk. "What's up, your wallet getting heavy on you again?" Fin quipped.

"No, just checking to see how much I have to get a new bikini in town next time I go shopping," Lo replied. "Or maybe I'll just put it back toward my 'mad money' stash. I haven't really decided yet." The rich girl then checked the time on the clock at the front desk. "I'm heading off to join my mom for dinner at the DR," she told Fin. "Want to come along?"

"No, I'm good," Fin said. "Already had last night's leftovers back at the Roach Motel. Besides, I'm gonna go join Broseph, Johnny and Emma for a surf sesh in a bit down at the Office."

"Cool, then I'll see you guys there later," Lo said. "I may be a while though, Mom wants to spend some mother-daughter quality time with me over dinner."

"Later it is, then," Fin said as Lo left for the Pirate Ship for dinner with Mrs. Ridgemount. Moments later, Fin's iPhone, which she had retrieved from her bag in the staff house before she had dinner, began ringing in the right pocket of her capri pants. Taking the phone out, Fin saw the call was coming from her mother, so she decided to answer it. "Hey Mom, what's up?" Fin replied.

"Fin, where've you been the past few hours?" Fin's mother said at the other end. "I tried calling you several times last night and today and I just kept getting your voice mail."

"Sorry, Mom," Fin said. "I had the day off from work and I was just out chillaxing. And those calls last night, I must've been asleep when you made them, so I missed them. But why were you calling me out here that late when it's like 4:00 in the morning back home?"

"That's...that's the thing, Fin," her mother said. "It's about your father."

Fin, who was initially puzzled to learn about all the phone calls her mother made to her since early that morning, became concerned when she heard her father mentioned, especially so because of the emotional tone she noticed in her mother's voice. "Wh...what about him?" Fin asked.

"He went shopping downtown last night," Fin's mother began, "and...and he was on his way home when...uhh..."

Fin became worried when she heard her mother pause, sensing she had bad news she was hesitating to tell her. "What? What happened?" she asked.

"H-h-he was driving through an intersection when another car ran a red light and hit your dad's car," Fin's mother went on. "T-boned the car on the driver's side. The police found out later that the other driver had been drinking - his alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit and he was driving with a suspended licence from previous drunk driving convictions."

Fin's face went ashen as her blood rushed to her feet, beginning to fear the worst. "W-w-what about Dad?" she asked next. "H-h-how bad was he hurt?"

"It...it was really bad," Fin's mother continued. "A rescue crew had to use the Jaws of Life to pry open the car and get him out, then the ambulance got him to the hospital from there. The doctors in the emergency room worked as hard as they could to save him...but..."

By then, Fin was becoming visibly upset. "No...please don't..." she said, the emotion in her voice clearly showing, not wanting to hear the answer she knew was coming.

"I'm sorry, Fin," her mother then said. "There was nothing they could do...he died of his injuries this morning..."

For Fin, who loved her father, hearing that news was like a sword going right through her heart. "No," she said, clearly shaken and upset by the news as she shook her head and her eyes began to water. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" She then hung up her phone and immediately began running out of the hotel lobby and toward the staff house, not wanting anyone to see how she was feeling then.

As soon as she reached the staff house, Fin bolted up the stairs and into her, Emma and Lo's shared room, then slammed the door shut. She was relieved not to have seen anyone on her way there since she did not feel like dealing with anyone at that point. The moment she entered the empty room, an emotionally-distressed Fin ran over to her bed, threw herself onto it face-down and, overwhelmed by the rush of emotions she was feeling over her father's death, buried her face in her pillow and began to cry, the pillow muffling the sounds of her sobbing.

Next, Fin deals with her tragedy alone when Lo comes along and lends a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on. Also, the STOKE tournament begins as Reef, Ripper, Lance and Ty vie for video game supremacy at the staff house.

Thanks for the reviews so far, and keep 'em coming.