Chapter 23: A Surfer's Life

Another trio of short tales from the beach.

This chapters tune is a good song called "Miles Away" by Years Around the Sun. They wrote the song for a film about surfing by Taylor Steele and was featured in a Corona beer commercial.

Life Choices

"Sometimes I have to question where my life is leading," Stone stated after he laid his surfboard on the sand and tossed down the small bundle he was carrying.

Cooper didn't say anything. The small wallaby just unrolled a sand mat next to his surfboard and then carefully spread his beach towel on the top of the mat.

"It's a struggle to find sponsors for professional surfers our size, unlike the larger more popular surfers," the fennec fox complained while he rubbed wax onto his board.

The wallaby was still silent as he knelt next to his own surfboard and opened a jar of wax.

"You just can't make a living on the winnings alone."

Cooper just shook his head, he had heard this all before.

"Maybe I can get a job at the Carnival? Become a carnie like Billy."

The wallaby just rolled his eyes.

"Or work at a restaurant, like Sam. She seems to make good money as a waitress...wait, is she called a server? I wonder what the difference is between those two jobs? Maybe they are just names for the same job?" the fox had paused waxing his board while he scratched behind his left ear and looked over at the wallaby as if expecting an answer. When Cooper just shrugged, Stone continued, "Either way, I know that I couldn't work in a kitchen. The last time I tried to wash dishes, I fell into the sink and almost drowned. Shucking oysters is out too, I tried that before and got fired. Hey, what about..."

"SURF'S UP!" Someone yelled.

The fox didn't finish his question, his ears shot erect and his tail began wagging while he stood up and frantically yanked on his tight rash guard shirt. Then after grabbing his surfboard, he ran toward the waves.

"Crankie, that bloomin' soul-searching rant didn't last very long this time!" Cooper laughed while he watched the fennec fox paddling out into the surf on his surfboard.

Lost and Found

"STONE KOLE," the pretty sand cat growled her boyfriend's name while trying to keep her footing in the shifting sand as the waves crashed around her and then flowed back toward the sea. She had her paws tightly covering her chest.

"Are you missing something?" the fennec fox in a pair of blue and green boardshorts teased as he held up a teal colored object and waved it around.

There was laughter from a group of onlookers on the beach behind him.

"If you don't give that back…" she paused when another wave slammed into her, almost causing her to remove her paws revealing her now naked chest.

"You're going to do what, babe?" the fox chuckled.

"Bite your face off!" she snarled. Why she said that, she didn't know. It was something Stone's father, Finnick, would often snap at his best friend, Nick Wilde, when he was pretending to get mad.

The fox's startled expression almost made her laugh, despite her anxiety about slipping and losing her footing. As another wave hit her, her growing anger mingled with her fear of almost falling over. "Please!" she begged.

The tone of her voice made Stone realize that his teasing had gone too far and he plunged into the water, wading out to where she was now crouching with only her head showing. "Here!" he said as he returned her bikini top.

Karen quickly turned her back and had barely pulled her top on when another wave hit her, knocking her into the fox's arms. He steadied her, and as she turned to look into his brown eyes, she snapped, "That was not funny!"

"You're the one who lost her top in the surf," he lamely answered just before a larger wave slammed into them, causing both of them to slip and fall into the water. Stone struggled to stand, but suddenly he was pulled under and backward. "HEY!" he protested when he broke the surface but crouched just under the water with his paws gripping his tail between his legs so to cover his sudden nakedness .

"Are you missing something?" teased the beautiful sand cat as she waded toward the beach, holding his swim trunks over her head. Her question was met with laughter from the crowd on the beach.

Changes

Stone Kole tossed the remains of the surfboard onto the picnic table before he pulled off his rash guard and hung the shirt on a nearby clothes line to dry. "Coop, you missed some awesome waves!" he called out to his best friend who was inside of the big canvas tent they shared during surfing season. "But I broke Amy!"

"Mate, you need to stop giving your surfboards female nicknames. It bloody well doesn't sound right when you say something like that," the wallaby replied after he tossed open the tent flaps and walked out. The small wallaby was dressed in his best dark blue suit, a crisp white dress shirt, and he was fumbling with his pink and green striped tie.

"Dude, who died?" the fox asked

"Billy is graduating," Cooper answered.

"Graduating? From carnival school or something? Do they even have a school for carnies?"

"Not funny, fox! He passed all the General Educational Development tests and is getting his Certificate of High School Equivalency tonight."

"Oh, I forgot that he didn't finish high school. That makes sense since he left home before the end of his senior year with that older jerk-face supposed boyfriend. What was his name again?"

"Jerk-face is as good as any other name," Cooper bitterly snapped. "He seduced Billy, talked him into running away from home, got him a job at the Carnival, and then took all his cash after he dumped him for another bloke."

"Should I get cleaned up and come along to show him some support?"

"The space at the auditorium is limited and he could only invite family."

"Family?" the fox chuckled while he gave the wallaby a big grin. "Since when are you…ah, family?" Stone asked as he gave air quotation marks when he said that word. "I thought you said that the two of you were only dating."

Cooper didn't answer, but blushed.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" the fox teased.

"I…I don't…" the wallaby began to answer.

"Come on, Officer Vifaru told me that he saw you and Billy inside of a jewelry store a few days ago and it looked like you two were shopping for rings."

"Nosy fox!"

"Well?"

"Yes, we are engaged. We were not planning to tell you or our other friends until after our rings came in!"

"Oh? Sorry, I didn't mean to blow the surprise," Stone softly replied. "So, when's the wedding?"

"We haven't yet set a date."

"Oh?"

There was something in Stone's voice that made the wallaby look over at the fox. He was standing there obviously pretending to look at the broken board. His ears were flat on his forehead and his tail tucked between his hindpaws. He was trying, and failing, to not look upset. "What's wrong, mate?"

"N…nothing! I just broke my board," Stone lied as he picked up the two parts of the surfboard.

"Stoney!"

The fox looked over at the wallaby, but didn't answer.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just…" Stone hesitated for a few moments. "Now that you've got Billy, I just feel like I'm losing…" again he hesitated before answering. "You, my best friend."

Cooper walked over and engulfed him in his arms. "Stoney, you and I will always be best mates," he said.

The fox's tail was wagging as they hugged. "Hey, Coop!"

"What?"

"You might want to let go of me because I'm shedding."

The wallaby released their embrace and stepped back. Sure enough there was fox fur on his blue suit jacket. "Bloody, hell!"

Stone laughed as he picked up a lint roller and began to brush the fur off the wallaby's jacket. "There, now you are almost pretty enough to get married!" he proclaimed.

"At least you didn't ask me which one of us is going to wear the white dress," Cooper offhandedly joked.

There was no laughter from the fox. He just stood there for a moment before he stated. "I would never, never make fun of you being gay!"

"I know," Cooper answered with a smile before he reached over and affectionately ruffled the fur between the fox's two big ears.

"Of course that doesn't mean I can't make fun of your surfing...your eating habits...your snoring...!"

"You're still a bloody drongo and you surf goofy paw!" the wallaby playfully interrupted.

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

Cooper and Billy do get married in Zootopia: Stone Kole in Dark Paradise. Stoney and Karen get engaged in the same story and married in Zootopia: Stone Kole in Storm Warning. The fox and the wallaby remain lifelong best friends.