Chapter 17: Best Friends

A brief tale about how Stone met his best friend, Cooper.

Many years ago, Bruno Mars sang a little ditty titled "Count on Me," which I think sums up the lifelong friendship between the fennec fox and the wallaby.

The small wallaby reclined in the old, worn-out lounge chair that his best friend, Stone Kole, had salvaged from the trash. His leg was throbbing a little, but there was nothing more he could do except try to ignore the bothersome feeling. At least the regimen of ice and heat had alleviated the initial sharp pain enough for it to be bearable to wear the uncomfortable brace he had strapped on his left leg. It was just his luck that he had accidentally slipped and injured his tendon enough to keep him off the waves.

He smiled as he watched Stone sitting on his surfboard in the water, alongside other surfers waiting for their turn to catch a wave. Stone, also known as Stoney, was a natural at surfing, which was surprising because he was a fennec fox who typically preferred the desert and disliked water. However, Stoney seemed more at home on a surfboard in the ocean than on dry land. Papa Sammy, a retired champion surfer turned surfboard maker, called Stone a "soul surfer," a rare individual who seemed to embody the very spirit of the water and had a knack for knowing when the right wave was coming and relished riding it.

Closing his eyes, Cooper reminisced about when he first met his best friend. Both of them were waxing their surfboards on the beach. By then, Stoney had already earned a reputation in professional surfing but had yet to win a championship. "Dude, I saw you shred the waves yesterday!" the small fox exclaimed. "You've got talent. How long have you been surfing?"

He looked over at the lean fox and cautiously replied, "Ever since I was an ankle-biter, I grew up on Outback Island."

"Cool, I figured you were from O.I. It's your accent. Me I'm a Strandie…a local. I started surfing when I was fourteen. I was a regular grommet and underpaw of everyone else but I tried my best."

"Tried your best, mate? You're great!"

"Thanks! So what brings you up the coast to The Strand. You've got awesome surf on O.I."

He remembered growing silent for a few moments, before Stone held up his paws and exclaimed, "Sorry, brah, I didn't mean to get so nosy."

"It's okay, I just had to bloody well leave that place," he couldn't help sounding bitter.

"Families can suck sometimes," the fox sighed. It was almost like he was reading his mind.

There was something about Stone that made him want to trust the fox. "How did you know I had family problems, mate?"

"Dude, I got my own family issues. Now grab your board because SURFS UP!" the fox exclaimed and with his tail wagging he ran toward the water.

Day after day, they met on the beach and talked. Finally, one day, he was just sitting in the sand, feeling depressed. "Are you okay, dude?" a familiar voice asked. He turned to see the fennec fox standing there. Stone was wearing a pair of tattered cut-off jeans, and his paws were shoved into the large pockets of his slightly oversized blue, red, and gray cotton Baja hoodie.

"Just…" he hesitated for he was trying not to cry. "No, everything is just fine, mate. I'm being a bit of a drongo."

"What the heck is a drongo?" the fox asked before he plopped down next to him in the sand.

"An idiot."

"Oh? Well from one…ah, drongo to another, sometimes when you have a problem it helps talking to someone like a friend, a social worker, or a priest."

"A bloody priest probably wouldn't even let me in the [censored] Church's door."

"Chill, brah! I didn't mean to get you upset."

"The Church says I'm a sinner," he angrily grumbled. "Because I am gay."

"Oh, well some in the Church still claim that we foxes are the cause for original sin."

He turned and glared at the fox. "It's not the same."

"Sure it is! If we foxes were the cause for original sin, and since being gay is supposed to be a sin, then blame me!"

He remembered the look that the fennec fox was giving him, that mischievous foxy smirk with his tail wagging and how it caused him to hysterically burst out laughing. Stone made it sound so absurd that it was funny.

Wiping his eyes he asked, "So, mate, you've got no problem with me being gay?"

"As long as you don't have a problem with me being a fox."

"It's still not the same."

"Okay, I'm a fox and a bastard."

"You're a bloody bastard, alright," he chuckled.

"No seriously, I'm am a bastard. My parents were never married, my dad took a hike before me and my brother were born, so that makes me a bona fide bastard."

"Sorry."

"So, is that why you left Outback Island? Just being gay isn't exactly something they run you off the island for…well, not anymore."

"My father threw me out of the house and told me not to come back. He didn't want a son who was gay."

"Brah, that's harsh!"

"I tried to please him at first when he found out. He sent me to conversion therapy, even to a special summer camp, but..." he remembered growing quiet, feeling bitter yet again.

"You are who you are," Stone surprisingly finished his thoughts.

"Yeah!"

"A drongo!" Stone exclaimed with a grin.

"Shut up!" he laughed.

"So where are you staying?"

"The Shell and Surf Motel, off Bay Street."

"That's a flea ridden dump!"

"Yeah, but that is the best I can afford. With summer coming and the room rates going up, I'm running out of quids and I don't know what I'm going to do next?"

"I'm currently sleeping on the sofa in my mother's apartment. I'm eighteen years old and still living at home. It's not exactly an attractive situation for someone looking to date! Just imagine me in a bar, trying to chat up some hot chick: 'Hey, babe, do you want to come back to my place and make out? But first, let me make sure my mom isn't home!' Yeah, that wouldn't work, would it?"

"You are a bloody drongo, mate!"

"So, brah, you're running out of cash and I'm almost broke. What do you think about being roommates, pooling some of our cash for the surfing season?"

"Stoney, you really, really wouldn't have a problem with having a gay roomie?"

"Nope!"

They shook paws.

After walking together along the shoreline, he asked. "Where are we going to find a cheap apartment around here?"

"Hey, Coop, I've got this brilliant idea," Stone said as the fox grinned over at him. "There is this huge canvas tent for sale, really cheap and..."

"A TENT, I'm not going to live in a bloody tent!"

Years later, both he and Stone still shared the same tent in the city owned campground during the surfing season and then they would pack up and spend the winters across the strait near the village of Seaside in an old converted camper.

Cooper smiled as he watched Stone wading ashore, his best friend's tail was excitedly wagging as he grabbed up his surfboard. "You're still a bloody drongo and you surf goofy paw!" he playfully shouted at the grinning fox.

"Love you too, brah!" the fox laughed back.

Ankle-biter is slang for both small waves and also a small child.

Goofy foot, is to surf with the left foot back and right foot forward. Of course in Stone's world it would be goofy paw.

This story takes place before Stone comes to realize that Finnick was his father. Finnick was not aware that Stone and his brother, Storm, were even alive.