CHAPTER I:

( no wave is unsurfable )

      LIGHT OVERCAST HAD TURNED INTO THUNDER, LIGHTNING, PELTING RAIN, WAILING SIRENS, AND CATASTROPHIC WAVES FAST. JJ and Aroha had rushed to the girl's car soon after the boy had come to retrieve her for a brash surf session and immediately when they were secure in their seats the rain had begun to sprinkle on her windshield.

      JJ directed her driving from the middle grounds of Figure Eight and The Cut to head straight for the eye of the less fortunate side of the Outer Banks. Soon enough, they were soaked in their swimsuits in the pouring rain, surfboards in hand, both standing next to two of JJ's friends.

Aroha knew them both, John B. Routledge and Pope Heyward, well enough to not be any sort of awkward around them as she would if they had just appeared out of thin air—only knowing John B. from JJ's extravagant stories and knowing Pope due to their fathers being close in their line of work and often crossing paths. But the Toki girl couldn't give anymore cares for their familiarity as she was nearly itching under the rain to be submerged in the rogue waves in her sights.

"Those aren't surfable waves guys," Pope voiced his concerns to the trio with a shake of his head.

John B. and JJ grinned in the eyes of danger at their close friend. "Says who?" John B. laughed before taking off running into the sand with his surfboard.

Aroha planted her board in the sand laughing as well as she began tying her hair back into the quickest braid she could possibly do in such a storm. "All waves are surfable!" she retaliated finally putting a few stray hairs behind her ears. "You just have to be the better surfer!"

      Pope's face screwed up into a confused grimace at her hearty claim while he watched her pick up the longboard she had lodged into the muddy sand. "Or maybe they're just unsurfable?" he stated in the form of a question but the girl had been long gone.

      "Nah, man. I'm going with what the pretty lady said!" JJ shouted over the hurricane rain with a pat on Pope's back as he quickly followed close behind the Māori girl.

The three adventurous teens cheered and hollered as the cooling sensation of the new June waves coated their skin and engulfed them in the roaring waters ahead. To quickly greet them as soon as they reached the water, nature decided it was best to submerge them with a welcoming breaking wave and nearly push them to the bottom of the sea if they hadn't been familiar with such force.

Thunder cracked and lightning struck as they emerged from underwater and Aroha couldn't help the boisterous laugh that fell from her lips. She turned her head to her left and laughed at the sight of JJ's hair sticking so firmly onto his face that he reminded her of a wet dog.

The girl got on her stomach on her baby blue board and began paddling as far as she could go into the sea. She had lost her attention on the howling boys near her and she had finally become one with the brash sea, body heaving up and down with each collapsing wave.

Then her chance came. In as far sight as she could get in the blinding rain, she had spotted a deep water wave at last. Cheshire grin spread across her colorful features, she paddled with the way of water, eyes only swaying to her right for a moment to see JJ and John B. getting ready for a separate wave that had been slightly further than hers.

      The wave quickly approached behind her and the girl picked herself up to place her feet beneath her and gained her balance as if surfing in such conditions was as native to her as breathing. Aroha stood and soon after she was being pushed along the deep water with a wave at least seven feet tall following her like a predator chasing its prey.

      She continued for a few feet more before becoming prey for the wave to wash her away.

      It was abrupt, weight pushing her down as quickly as possible to swallow her whole. Her cheeks bubbled with the last gasp she had taken before wiping out and all she could do was contain herself from any form of panic she would feel from the brush of seaweed grasping at her body.

      Soon the weight had eased up on her and she was able to resurface with a gasping breath and her hands balled into fists up in the air while she kicked to keep herself afloat. The sun-kissed girl whooped and cheered for her exhilaration and a matching one sounded from where she had originated from.

      "Atta girl!" She faintly heard past the pelting rain while seeing the frame of JJ with his hands in the air matching hers. Aroha's eyes widened at the sight behind the boy but he had been long gone under the water before she could have even thought of warning him of his wave coming to drown him.

Ro gasped at the sight and climbed atop her floating surfboard to see if she could get a better look at where the boy had gone. She squinted her eyes, hands cupping at her brow bone to see better.

      Waves turned over and John B. had resurfaced from surfing the wave that had taken JJ under but soon enough he had come up as well, dog-like wet hair and all floating with just his face out of the water. The dark-haired girl sighed in relief at his resurrection and raised a thumb in the air questioning his well-being when he matched her thumbs up to reassure her.

      The trio went on with their fun with Ro and JJ occasionally going on each other's boards to see who could stay on the longest while JJ and John B. soon did the same. It was only half an hour more before Aroha had been getting pushed around by the waves a little more than she had preferred. The winds had picked up heavily in the passing of time. Debris had already begun pulsing through the water and the air with the rainfall somehow increasing in intensity even more than before.

      Ro's dark hair had long come out of her quick braid from earlier and was sprawled down her shoulders, back, and face. As if anything else needed to obscure her vision more than the rain and her hair, the crashing waves had gotten bolder, and decided to begin splashing harsher and harsher.

      "JJ! John!" She shouted over the storm waving her arms at the boys who were floating on their boards roughly six feet away from her. "The storm's getting worse!"

      JJ squinted his eyes at her and tilted his head confused. "What?"

      She huffed, "we need to pull the plug!"

      The boys looked at each other before John B's turn to be confused. "What'd she say?" he asked JJ but the blond could only shrug.

      "I said-" Yet before Aroha could get a third word into her sentence a deep water wave had cashed over her front behind, ultimately knocking her body forward into her board.

The eyes of the two boys had bulged at the sight of her needing to use her hands to grip the edges of her longboard to push her body up out of the water for air.

"Yeah, Ro, we gotta pull the plug and head back!" JJ shouted to her once he knew she was steady. The girl stared at him for a moment, disbelieving that he hadn't heard her but somehow said the same thing she did, but she wordlessly agreed with a large nod to avoid them questioning her anymore.

As they paddled back to shore she thought about what she told Pope about no wave being unsurfable. She may have told a small fib as she dared look behind her and see a catastrophically large wave slamming over the spot they had previously resided in. But what Pope didn't know wouldn't ever hurt him, so she decided that she would leave her fear of being pushed underwater again out at sea for the waves to swallow whole.

NOTE. this chapter was so good at first but now i kinda hate it 😐 but i refuse to rewrite it so wtv

I SWEAR ITLL GET BETTER AS IT GOES ON 🙏🏽