(Disc.: I don't own LoD or song lyrics. Also I don't know anything about surfing cuz I'm dumb, haha. That's why there's like no terminology in this story.)

"And if you'd like, and if you'd like, some other time,
I would like to introduce you to the finer things.
If we survive, if we survive, get out alive,
I'd like to say how beautiful I think you...

Just keep a hold on me, don't let go;
If you float away, if you float away.
Waited too long for a ship to come,
Don't you float away, don't you float away."

-Island, Starting Line

Chapter 7: Don't You Float Away

"I've gathered you all here today…" Skip began before being interrupted.

"…to announce the marriage of your first-born and only daughter?" Biniak piped up, and someone pelted him in the head with their hands as he shouted, "hey, watch it, watch the hair!"

"No you jerk-off, to tell you boneheads I signed Jez up fer a surf comp, and I want all you bozos to do promo for our new skateboard models. Bring the hype," he finished, holding one up in front of himself and adding a snide "dumbass" to the end of his sentence as an afterthought.

"It's Saturday," Montoya announced, beginning to pass out a limited number of fliers as well as some stickers to everyone.

"Skip, you did what?" Jezebel exclaimed, all the color flushing from her face.

"Yah man, how come she gets to do that and we gotta work?!" Wentzle added, reaching over to shove Jezebel lightly in a playful manner. "Neat!" said PC, beginning to clap his hands a couple times before stopping awkwardly when he noticed no one doing the same.

"Skip, this is so unfair, you know I'm so better than her!" Tony shrieked, frowning as Alan nodded his head in agreement. Even though he tended to coach Jezebel at the Cove, he certainly wasn't happy she'd get an opportunity over him, when he was older and better.

"Tony, you idiot, it's an all-women's meet, I don't think you have the right equipment this time around. Says right here on the flier. Geez, are you eighteen years old, or eight? Cap your ego, dude!" Peggy shouted, smacking him on the back, then turned to Alan and added, "And don't even open your mouth, Sarlo, ya little lackey."

Others in the group snickered as Skip added, "She's riiight. Pegs, as you know, you're entered too. Yer in a different age category, obviously."

"Course I'm fucking right," Peggy confirmed confidently with a smirk, crossing her arms in triumph.

"We should totally measure Alva's head now so we can see how big it swells when he gets famous. The dude is always on," came a voice from the back room doorway, and Jay stepped out of the shadows. He'd let himself in through the back door. "Nice of you to grace us with your presence," PC snapped, then shrunk away as Jay advanced toward him acting like he was going to hit him, but slid by instead.

"So what's this big announcement you got?" Jay asked, leaning against the doorframe with his skateboard tucked under one arm as Tony scowled at him about the 'fame' comment.

"You missed it, jackass. Me n' Peg're gonna be in an all-girls' surf comp. 'M gonna win my category," Jezebel spoke, standing quickly to saunter over to him. "Where the hell ya been, punk?"

The energy between the two felt super-charged as she stood nose-to-nose with him, invading his personal space as he usually did to her, poking his chest to emphasize each word as she spoke.

"I been around," he answered noncommittally, looking away from her.

"Yeah, he's been around – fucking around with Tony's sister!" Red Dog shouted, starting to laugh.

Jay shot him a warning glare and glanced at Stacy, who was scowling, visibly pissed again. Tony audibly growled at both, obviously displeased with the entire ordeal. "Break up yer little pissin' match boys, 'n get outta my shop!" Skip shouted, not before adding, "be here at ten Saturday morn to load in!"

"I gotta get to work," Stacy stated to no one in particular, heading for the door with his keys in-hand and a perpetual frown on his face. Most of the team scrambled for the door after him except a few key people. Jay and Tony stayed, as well as Jezebel and Bret; the last party to join them was Jim. Bret and he stood off to one side, observing the confrontation; Tony lay across the front counter lounged on his side, his body stretched across the entire surface as he examined his nails uninterestedly. Skip flipped the sign on the door to 'open' and disappeared into the back, tossing a "get off my counter, punk," in Tony's direction with a shoulder shove. Tony ignored him, as usual. Everyone gave Jezebel and Jay their space as they carried out a battle of wills, staring at each other intently, unflinchingly, unblinkingly with barely three inches of space between them.

"I heard about that shit. You messing with her now? How could you do that to Stacy, you're such an ass sometimes. Friends don't screw over friends. And friends don't screw their friends' girlfriends, either. Not cool. I don't understand you at all." She stepped backward a half-step, relenting with her hands on her hips.

She and Kathy Alva weren't the best of friends, but they were friendly enough toward each other. Girls had to stick together in this neighborhood and stand up for each other, or else they'd be completely overrun by boys. "Stacy'll get over it, he's a big boy. Kathy don't wanna date 'im anymore, they're too… different. He doesn't spend enough time with 'er," Jay answered quite callously. "Too straight."

"Oh, that so? Why you avoiding me then, huh? Dumbass, thought you were supposed to be my bro. That's what mom said…" she dropped her arms, arriving at the real heart of the matter.

Jay scoffed audibly at her, but said nothing. Moments elapsed between them, silent and motionless. Finally, he answered suddenly by grabbing her shoulders and pulling the two of them together, putting their foreheads against each other.

"You are my sis, Bella." He pulled her in for a hug, and Bret stepped forward slightly. "But you're not my girlfriend. And you don't need me to take care of ya anymore. Ya got your boy, Bret," Jay answered, releasing her and stepping back. He gave her a nudge and motioned in the ginger's direction. It wasn't a lie; it wasn't exactly the reason he'd pulled away either, but it wasn't a lie. Of course he wasn't going to announce he was in love with her, not in front of Bret, who'd just been in the right place at the right time when they'd been at that concert. He would let them chalk it up to general 16-year-old moodiness.

"You started hanging with him a lot, and I got… jealous, I guess. I swear, 'm good now. Let's go back to normal?" He asked, outstretching his hand to her. She pushed his hand closed into a fist, then bumped his knuckles. They both brought their hands apart in an 'exploding' motion and made 'fwah' noises in their signature greeting.

"What you did to Stacy was shitty, though," she answered, punching him in the shoulder.

"Yeah, well, nice guys finish last right?" Jay asked rhetorically and ducked as she swatted at his face.

"You'll never change," Jezebel challenged, giggling at the maneuvers to which he would go to avoid her flying hands. They were okay now, at least for the time-being.

"Nope!" Jay shouted.

"Y'all meet me at the cove, I gotta get ripping. Gotta get in extra practice now I'm taking over Tony's position as 'top female surfer'," Jezebel laughed hysterically, emphasizing her words with air quotes and laughing harder as Tony tossed the finger at her from his perch atop the counter, where he was now sitting up.

"Chyeah, let's go get wet," he added, jumping down from the counter. "I gotta show Jez here how bad she's gonna bomb that comp." He squealed, "'M kidding!" as Jezebel advanced toward him with a mischievous glint in her eye, reaching for a curl to tug, but he ducked out of the way.

"Skip, I'm goin' ta practice! See ya Saturday! Catchya!" She shouted as they left.

Saturday Competition

As usual, the three cars they would take to the competition convened at Zephyr at 10 AM Saturday morning – well, close enough, as the last stragglers wandered in around 10:15. The kids all piled into Stacy's car, Skip's truck, and Stecyk's car; Skip offered to let Jezebel drive, but she was too fidgety. She said she'd prefer to ride with Stacy and friends.

"You nervous?" Stacy asked as they sat shoulder-to-shoulder, Jezebel in the passenger seat of his car with Bret squished on the other side of her against the door, sharing the seat.

Jay was behind the pair, annoyingly tugging at Jezebel's hair as she attempted to swat him away, then replied, "Nah, excited! I'm gonna cream the girls in my division."

"Sure, you'll be the best one out there chica, since I'M the one who taught you all those sweet moves," Tony grinned, snickering as Jay proceeded to tie pieces of Jezebel and Bret's hair together in the back of their heads. "Well, except me!"

He was still running with the joke their friends made about him going on to be the 'top female surfer' at the upcoming competition. "I'm gonna 'cream' more of those girls than you," he quipped, and Jezebel tossed a crude gesture over her head in his general direction.

"Ew, you're disgusting! What a pig!" Peggy, who was crammed into the center seat between two of the boys, shoved him away as he lunged at her with his tongue out.

"Nah, I'm nasty. There's a difference," he shot back with wiggling eyebrows, followed by a high-pitched shriek as Peggy tried to smush his face against the window with her hand by locking her elbow straight. She relented, but pulled him back into a headlock, messing with his hair. "Heh-hey man, the hair's the money-maker, stop! Ahh!"

"Tony, shut up! God, it's like a dying cat!" Jezebel shot back as she turned to look at Stacy, and the portions of her and Bret's hair Jay had tied together pulled painfully.

"Shit! Fuck Jay, what'd you do?!" Jez shrieked, reaching back to detangle the hair before attempting to dive over the back of the seat.

Stacy swerved onto the shoulder as her bare leg brushed past his head, narrowly missing his face, and Jezebel landed across everyone's laps in the back seat. The car rocked slightly as Stacy suddenly stopped whilst Jezebel pretended to choke Jay, who made fake gagging noises and rolled his eyes back into his head with his tongue sticking out.

"Fucking hell guys, you're gonna make me crash this car! God-damnit! Get your asses in those seats like normal humans, NOW!" He thundered.

Jezebel had never seen him this angry, and she dropped her head in order to smother a giggle with her elbow. Peggy removed herself from underneath Jezebel's legs and slid over the seat into the front between Bret and Stacy, snickering.

"Yes DAD, geez… holy hell, you are one bony chicken…" Tony interjected raucously as Jezebel plopped herself between him and Jay, elbowing him in the side and relapsing into a new round of uncontrollable chuckles as Stacy maneuvered back onto the road to catch up with the caravan. He shook his head, but made no effort to reply to Tony's jibing. He wasn't sure if he wanted to drive this particular crew all the way back home later, or abandon them at the competition in protest.

They arrived in Long Beach about twenty-five minutes later, all three vehicles in a line stuffed full of people, skateboards, order forms, and more. Now, Jezebel was beginning to feel the pressure. Jay clambered out of the car into the parking lot without opening the door and stretched, his shirt riding up; a girl who was walking past winked at him. "Owh, owh!" Tony shouted, hanging over the open car window with his chin resting on his arms, and the girl seemed to wiggle her butt as she walked away.

'Yeah, this is gonna be ridiculous', Jezebel thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. She watched amusedly as Tony rolled up the window and exited the vehicle. Most of the Zephyr team began to disseminate in different directions, having been lectured by Skip and Craig on what they were supposed to do before their departure. Each had a small stack of order forms for both surf- and skateboards, and a handful of stickers with Zephyr's logo and phone number printed on them. They'd been instructed to skate around and bother people to accept either one or both items. The golden trio of Stacy, Jay, and Tony were supposed to stand around in their competition t-shirts, providing moral support to the girls whilst attracting attention by holding skateboards as well. Jezebel wasn't certain whether they'd be chased out of the Long Beach area by a mob burning flaming spits made from broken, shaved down skateboard splinters and waving pitchforks, or carried out on everyone's shoulders in triumph. Bret was even more nervous than the girls themselves; he motioned to the left side of the beach, then pointed out, "Looks like there's some sharp rocks out there…"

"Dude, have some faith in our girls! Those are so far off, the girls'd have to be aiming for 'em. They'll be fine!" Tony tried to reassure, which did not change Bret's mind on the subject in the least. "Jez. Man. Forget everyone else. Get out there and beat the other girls' asses," Tony switched into coaching mode, placing his hands on either of Jezebel's shoulders as he gave her a pep-talk. He added light-heartedly with a friendly shoulder-shove, "and hey, don't screw it up."

Next, Jay pulled Jezebel aside. "Bella, yer gonna do great. Beat that comp, you got this," Jay ruffled her already-large hair as she mentally prepped herself.

Shimmying out of her jeans and one of Bret's button-downs she'd been wearing over her swimsuit, she pulled her wet-suit from her bag and proceeded to climb into it. Normally, she was a board-shorts-and-bikini or a one-piece kinda girl, and only wore her wet-suit when the water was cold, but wanted to look as close to professional as possible.

"Thanks, Jayboy. I'm gonna try…" she said uneasily as her empty stomach did a back-flip. She'd skipped breakfast again; in her mind, she wouldn't get any smaller or even maintain her light weight if she was eating all the time and trying to compete. Her belly audibly growled.

"We gotta get some burgers and fries in ya after your win," he smiled and nudged her in the ribs before patting her back. She didn't smile in return, and wrinkled her nose at the thought of burgers dripping with grease and smothered in cheese. Nervously, she flipped her head over and gathered all her frizzy, curly hair into a messy top knot bun with a hair elastic. Bret gave her a reassuring shoulder rub as she heard her heat number called. The age was thirteen to sixteen, putting her right-smack in the middle of the pack. She was contestant number 68, and she was scheduled to go near the end of the run. Skip wanted her to win, both so she'd get some recognition and so he could grow the shop's bottom line. They were spending a lot of money on new materials and hadn't exactly been paying the shop's bills in-full lately.

"Number 68, Jezebel... Engleman is up next," said the whiny announcer, and – ah, there were her boys. She grinned as she heard various voices screaming out from the crowd, "it's ENG-BLOM!" in near-perfect unison.

A few other contestants giggled, and Jez set her face into a blank stare, her mouth a hard line as she stalked toward the frothy waves with her board tucked under her arm. "Oh – um, ahem – excuse me, Engblom," the embarrassed man floundered, correcting himself as he cleared his throat.

She turned back and locked eyes with Tony, who pulled a goofy face and motioned her forward, challenging her to go hard like she always did. He could see her potential, even though he'd never admit it to her face. Jay watched his best friend paddle out and prep for the first wave. The crowd roared in disappointment as she decided to skip this one, waiting for a higher crest. She wanted her run to look more challenging, so she had a better chance of winning her division.

"C'mon, that was a perfectly-good wave!" Tony shrieked in dismay, waving his arms wildly above him; he smacked his hand down onto his forehead, wildly tugging fistfuls of curly hair in opposite directions. Jay just shook his head and chuckled; he knew exactly what she was doing, because he quite often did it himself. They both lived for the challenge. He began to cheer uncharacteristically as she charged forward into the next rising swell, bigger than the first, chanting her name and starting a call-and-response routine with some of the other guys. It was a perfectly-rounded pipe. His eyes narrowed as it didn't look like she was going to make it through the end of the wave, yet she came flying out the other side just in time, hand skimming gracefully through the wave as she topped it off by performing an easy trick as she emerged.

"Shit, thought she was goin' down fer sure!" Bret shouted at Tony, and Tony gave him a reassuring slap on the back. "Girl knows what she's doing, bro, relax. Been out there practically since she could walk," Tony answered, uncrossing his arms as his own previous bout of worry subsided, "toldja, taught her everything she knows."

She finished her run and returned to shore.

"A relatively-high score here near the end of the pack from Engblom," the announcer finished, emphasizing his correct pronunciation of the girl's name. "She'll advance to round two."

It all came down to this tense moment. They'd moved to rounds two and three; her score soared in round two, beating her initial score, but the third round found her wondering if she'd make it in the top three. This was her second or third serious competition, and she really didn't want to bomb in front of friends and family.

"…Engblom? Engblom? Hellooo?" The announcer called a third time, and Jay shoved her; she snapped out of her trance immediately, her mouth wide as she lost her balance, hit the ground, and got a mouthful of sand. She stood and spat the sand out with a grimace, noticing the announcer gesturing in her direction. "Can we get her up here, please?"

Stacy and Bret appeared beside them, ushering her toward the front of the crowd whilst Jay followed behind. She could hear people cheering. Had she made second place? Third? "Babe, you got first!" Bret said right next to her ear, rubbing his knuckles down her side to get her attention.

She'd won?

"I won?" She asked incredulously as she was led toward the stage.

"Yes, you've won top place in your division. Would you like to say anything?" The announcer asked, tipping his microphone toward her.

"Uh… no, I… thank you," she began, a little dizzy as a shirtless, be-hatted Tony ran up on the stage, grabbed the microphone from the man's hand and shouted, "Jeff Ho Surfboards 'n Zephyr Productions, come find us in Venice!" before hurdling over the side while tossing a handful each of stickers and fliers over the heads of the crowd. Jezebel shook her head, wondering where he'd gotten a hat in the past two hours.

A number of girls screamed as they recognized him and he was shooed off-stage. Jezebel stood between the two other winners from her division, a stupid grin on her face. "Congrats," a brunette girl on one side who was younger and much shorter congratulated. She'd been the third-place winner. "You were great," the second-place winner, an older girl on her other side told her, pushing some red hair out of her face. "You were so focused – totally thought you were gonna bite it on that first one, but you didn't!"

The girls put their arms across each other's shoulders as the camera flashbulb popped, and Jezebel spotted Craig at the bottom of the stage snapping more than one photo. He'd also gotten some awesome action shots during each of her runs.

They exited the stage, and a little brunette boy wandered past. Holding out his paper event program toward her, he asked excitedly, "Hey! Hey, Miss E! Hey, will you please sign my book?!"

"Sure little man! What's your name?" She answered with a chuckle at being called 'Miss E', accepting the marker from him.

"It's Antonio, oh wait write 'Tony'!" The little boy no older than eight grinned gleefully, hopping up and down whilst tossing sand all over the place with his feet as Tony, the Alva version, sidled up to them. "Hey look, it's a mini-me!" He remarked, high-fiving the kid who also coincidentally had lots of curly hair.

"WHOA, Tony Alva, awesome! What're you doing at a girl surf comp? Are you two MARRIED?" The little boy blurted, awestruck.

"No!" Tony and Jezebel shouted at the same time, jumping away from each other, then devolving into side-clutching hysterics as the boy walked away in a confused state.

"What's so funny?" Bret asked, cuing in on the conversation after exiting his previous discussion with Stacy. "Little dude thought I was married to your girl, bro!" Tony continued to laugh heartily, bending over to grab his knees.

"Ah, it was priceless! He was all, 'oh balls, it's Tony Alva!', an' then I thought Tony was gonna shit his pants, he was so geeked someone recognized him!" She jostled, bumping shoulders with him and causing him to lose his balance as she spoke in a high-pitched voice, mimicking the little kid. Tony righted himself and pulled his shirt from his back pocket, removing the hat from his head and putting on the shirt.

"YO!" Jay yelled from the sidewalk, holding his skateboard over his head, announcing, "party at my place tonight, to celebrate!"

"Okay, bro – alright if I compete now?" Peggy nudged Jezebel's hip with her surfboard; everyone had forgotten the senior girls' competition hadn't yet occurred.

"YEAH!" Jezebel shouted excitedly, "now you gotta win, so we can double-celebrate!" As she shouted, her world began to spin and the ground came up to greet her.

"Jez? JEZ!" Stacy hollered, turning around as if expecting to see her still standing behind him. When his eyes met only an empty space where Jezebel used to be, he realized she'd fallen to the ground in a disorganized heap. He bent down to check on her, then sat on the ground to prop her up. "Shit, what's wrong with her?" He mused, looking around for someone else to notice they'd disappeared.