Chapter Three: Welcome to reality

They were sitting outside the house on the grass after that mornings training session, the warm sun beating down on their aching muscles, when the points board was rolled out again. Simmo consulted the piece of paper held in place by the clipboard he was holding before picking up the marker.

"Jordan and Luci on five points, Gabby and Jayson on four and Charlie and Luke on three" he said as he wrote the points down on the board.

Luci was grinning obviously happy with being equal first. Luke did not feel so happy, the first time they'd been shown the board he was at the top and now he was at the bottom, it was big step down and it felt awful.

"You're first comp is on Saturday, two days from now" Mike was saying "you should start preparing now because the better you do the more points you earn"

…..

"Excited for Saturday?" Luci asked as they walked to school, she'd been in a very cheery mood since she found out she was at top of the leader board "how cool would it be if Solar Blue scored first, second and third place"

"Very" Jordan said nodding in agreement, a large smile plastered all over his face. He had also been affected by what Luke liked to call 'the leaders high' he hadn't stopped smiling all morning.

Luke begun to walk slower, lost in his own thoughts. The others easily put a large gap between them and him, except for Charlie who slowed down to walk with him. There was something about Charlie that he really liked, she was like this little ray of sunshine and he was very glad she was the one to walk with him.

"Are you okay?" she asked putting a hand on his arm "you seemed a bit off after this morning's training"

"Yeah I'm okay" he assured her "it just sucks being last you know?"

She nodded sadly. He suddenly remembered she was at the bottom of the leader board too, again. Of course she knew what it felt like. Just as soon as the frown graced her face her usual smile was back.

"Well we've got all year to turn it around right?" she said friendly nudging him with her elbow

"Right" he nodded with a smile.

…..

"Luke, Luke!"

He was standing by his locker with Charlie when Erin came rushing up to him, pulling him into an awkward hug, smiling so widely it looked like her face was going to rip into two. She, like Charlie, seemed to have an almost permanent positive attitude although unlike Charlie's Erin's sort of grated on his nerves. She just seemed so phoney.

"Oh hey Erin" he greeted.

"That party I was telling you about?" she asked, he nodded to tell her he remembered "it's tomorrow night, do you still think you can come?"

"Party?" Charlie questioned from beside him "what party?"

"And you are?" Erin snapped looking at Charlie like she some disgusting bug, just waiting to be stomped on. It was a shock how quickly her happy mood disappeared.

"Charlotte Monroe, but you can call me Charlie" she said sticking her hand out. As soon as Charlie introduced herself Erin's happy mood returned.

"Oh you're at Solar Blue with Luke aren't you?" she asked shaking her hand "it's lovely to meet you"

"You too" Charlie replied putting on a sort of smile he hadn't seen before on her, it was very obvious that it was fake. Erin didn't seem to care though as she quickly went back to talking about the party.

"It starts at seven thirty at the surf club if you're still coming" she said digging around in her binder for a while before pulling out brightly coloured invitations "it's invite only so you won't get in without this" she handed one to Luke and one to Charlie as well adding "you can come too if you want, it'll be a blast" before practically skipping away.

"It'll be a blast" Charlie mimicked mockingly waving her hands around for extra effect "you're not seriously going to this party are you, you barely even know this girl"

"Of course I'm going" he said loudly closing his locker door "it'll be a blast"

Okay so maybe he was using this whole suddenly being popular enough to be invited to parties even though he'd been at Blue Water High for a few days as a way to cope with being last on the points board, but it worked and he wasn't hurting anyone right?

…..

"Where's Luke?" Jordan asked at lunch as they gathered at their usual spot on the square of benches they'd claimed on their first day.

"Probably off somewhere with his new best friend" Charlie snapped poking at her ham sandwich. She wasn't jealous of Erin; well at least that was what she kept telling herself.

"New best friend?" Jayson questioned sitting beside her.

"Erin someone" Charlie answered "she invited him to some party at the surf club"

Something clicked in Gabby's mind "Erin Anderson?" she asked "Mark Anderson's brother?"

"Didn't catch her last name" Charlie told her "but she looks like him, she could be his sister"

Gabby jumped up quickly like she just sat on something hot and grabbed Charlie's hand dragging her up too, causing her sandwich to tumble onto the ground and effectively be ruined.

"What are you doing?" she asked staring down at her ruined sandwich in horror.

"We need to talk" was the only answer Gabby supplied as she dragged her towards the girls bathroom. The girl's bathroom was actually in pretty good condition for a school bathroom. Everything worked, it didn't smell like a tip and it was relatively clean.

"Erin Anderson is bad news" Gabby said gripping Charlie by her shoulders "I just know it okay, I just know it!"

"Okay first calm down okay? Breathe" Charlie said pulling herself away from Gabby's grip "and second what are you talking about?"

The unmistakeable voice of Erin Anderson was heard and Gabby dragged Charlie into a toilet stall, locking the door behind her. She's about to ask what the hell is going on when Gabby put a finger over her own mouth in a 'shush' motion.

"Why'd you invite those two Solar Blue kids to the party?" Erin's friend asked "I thought you were still angry at that Luke kid for taking Mark's place"

"I am" Erin replies her voice sounding a lot less happy but more real "I have a plan okay, I've been researching Solar Blue for years for Mark and the place has a strict curfew, I've just got to make the kid stay out too late and he'll get in a lot of trouble maybe even be pulled out of the comp on Saturday, it'll be a small price to pay for what he did to Mark but it'll have to do"

"You're a genius Erin" her friend says in such an adoring way that it makes Charlie's stomach churn or maybe that was because she just found out that they'd almost fallen into Erin's trap.

"I know" Erin replies "maybe I can even mess with the blondie; she rubs me the wrong way"

"Totally" her friends agree and Charlie starts to wonder if that girl would agree to anything Erin says. She's tempted to bribe Erin to test this theory out.

….

"I'm telling you she's only invited you to make you miss curfew!" Charlie exclaimed hurrying to catch up with him. They were on the way home from school, the only time Charlie had had a chance to talk to Luke alone. She told the others to go ahead without them. Gabby had smiled at her as she left

"Erin wouldn't do that" he snapped, he wouldn't believe it, he just wouldn't "you saw her this morning she's way too nice"

"Yeah and I also heard her in the bathroom telling her friend about her plan to get you in trouble, she's a total fake, why would I lie to you!"

"You just think I can't get a girl to like me" he yelled "that's it right? You think I'm some lonely sad sack who's always going to come last, don't you?"

He didn't really know why he was yelling at her, he liked her. He really did, she made him feel alive. But here he was standing on the footpath screaming at her.

"Of course not!" she yelled back throwing her hands up in frustration "I'm just telling you what I heard, I don't want you to get in trouble Luke"

"Why?" he asked stopping in his tracks and turning around so quickly that he almost bumped into her "why do you care?"

"Because you're my friend Luke" she exclaimed reaching forward to grab his arm but he quickly pulled away. She flinched as he did so and he instantly felt bad. But instead of apologizing he walked away.

"Luke!" she called as he left "Luke!"

…..

Luke nervously gripped the invitation in his hands as he climbed up the steps to the surf club. He could see Erin through the glass doors wearing a blood red dress, her blonde hair pinned up on top of her head. She spotted him and waved him forward a bright smile on her face. He handed the invitation to the big, muscly guy standing at the door who nodded and opened the door for him.

"Luke!" Erin called "you made it! Is Charlotte with you?"

"No, sorry she couldn't make it" he lied. He'd slipped out while everyone else was watching movies claiming that he was going for a walk; Charlie had been upstairs at the time reading a book in the girl's room she didn't even know that he'd left.

"That's a shame, she seemed so nice" Erin said, she changed the topic rather quickly grabbing his hands and pulling him out onto the dance floor "come dance with me"

….

"Hey where's Luke?" Charlotte asked as she came down the stairs and noticed that all of her fellow Solar Blue kids were gathered in the living room watching some surfing video's, except for Luke.

"He went for a walk" Jordan explained twisting around on the couch to talk to her "but that was like two hours ago"

"He's going to miss curfew if he's not back soon" Luci added.

"Have some faith; he's got like twenty minutes" Jayson laughed "any later than that and Simmo's definitely barring him from tomorrow's race"

"Less competition for us, hey?" Jordan joked.

"I'm going to go see if I can find him" Charlotte said.

Gabby jumped up of the couch and met her at the door.

"He's at that stupid party isn't he?" she asked, when Charlie nodded she picked up her coat from where it had been laying draped over the back of the couch and slipped it on.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"Coming with you"

…

Only when Charlie got up to the surf club did she remember that the party was invitation only. The guy guarding the door put a hand to stop them when they tried to walk past him.

"Invitation only" he barked.

"We just want to go in and out okay?" Gabby tried to explain, the guy shook his head.

"Invitation only" he repeated.

"We'll call him" Charlie suggested stepping back against the railing "we'll call him and tell him he needs to leave"

"Hurry up then" Gabby urged "we've only got like ten minutes"

…..

"Is that my phone?" Luke asked upon hearing his distinct ringtone, he tried to grab it but Erin picked up his hands again and stopped him.

"No, you're being silly" Erin laughed swinging their conjoined hands back and forth. From this angle he could see out the glass doors and he could see a familiar blonde leaning against the railing, phone to her ear.

"Is that Charlie?" he asked to himself mostly, he tried to break away from her but Erin pulled him back.

"No, no" Erin said with a strained smile, eyes looking up at the clock on the wall above them. He noticed her gaze and followed it up to the clock, it was five to nine. Curfew was nine pm. He broke away from her again not giving her a chance to pull back and ran for the door.

"I'm –" he started when he reached the girls but Gabby cut him off.

"Talk later; we've got five minutes, run" she demanded and the three of them took off running down the beach.

….

Gabby reached the door fist flinging it open and falling inside panting, the other two tumbled in after her. The digital clock on the microwave read 9:03, surely three minutes didn't matter?

"Almost missed curfew, should be more careful next time" Mike who'd been sitting on the couch spoke up. Luke jumped a little, surprise to hear him. Mike stood up passing them go up to the stairs a grin on his face. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief; they'd made it, sort of.

"Well I'm going to bed" Gabby announced "don't you ever do something so stupid again, or else" she hissed at Luke as she passed him.

"I won't" he assured her, Gabby nodded and disappeared upstairs. Charlie went to follow her but Luke stopped her.

"Charlie, wait" he called, she stopped at the foot of the stairs "I'm sorry, I should've listened too"

She smiled a little, not her usual smile but still a smile. He slowly walked over to her.

"You should've" she replied nodding in agreement. She leaned a little closer to him, pressing her lips to his in a kiss.

"I told you I cared" she grinned when they pulled apart.