chapter two / aboard the paikea

A summer routine for Ilyshah Tūrei veered far from replication, always a disarrayed supercut. You would find her either sleeping in between silks with the shutters drawn until close to midday, or bursting with life at five am. The only thing separating those days? Uncle Kahu and his reggae tunes blasting through the house as his girls' personal alarm. After chores were done and she finished contorting into downward dogs and birds of paradise, it was time to listen to the oceans call.

    Something about the currents on this coastline connected her spirit back home. She convinced herself that maybe a pint of the sea water drifted from the sweet shores of Aotearoa—leaving licks of salt on every mile of uncovered skin as she paddled on her mango shortboard to the dawn patrol lineup.

   Her rules for surfing: be on the shore at the same time as the awakening sun, or late in the afternoon and your skin will thank you for it. Don't forget to stretch beforehand less you cramp up again on an aerial and finally for the love of God, don't stare at JJ Maybank for too long or you will never catch a wave.

   Him and John B Routledge were the only two people her age in the foamy line up at this time of day, unfortunate kismet given that one was left on a ferry dock, the other rejected under a palm tree. Still, she couldn't let that faze her into looking like a Kook between waves—awkward smiles exchanged in contact as they let her cut through into the impact zone to observe her from calmer tides.

     "Not a bad surfer, almost like she's not a Kook at all," John B remarked, slapping the front of JJ's board to snap him out of his trance. "How's that plan coming along, JJ?"

JJ wiggled his finger, his other arm holding him steady on the board. "You don't trust me enough bro. I've got it on lock."

     "Oh yeah sure, definitely seems like it," John B hummed laced with sarcasm, taking off to paddle for a second before turning back to JJ. "Coming in or you just gonna to keep staring?" He taunted, spurring on a boyish smile from JJ as he broke out into a paddle.

     By the end of the twelfth wave, Ilyshah was gone. Back to a side of the island she saw as less of a home than the one she resided in of the mornings.

Back to Figure Eight.

      Where the white picket fence American dream capsuled its essence, through it's perfectly manicured lawns and star-spangled banners ribboned off porches of humble abodes to ivy strung estates. A grandiose facade greeted Ilyshah at every turn here. Even the air she breathed tasted of money old and new. It all blurred into disorientation when she first arrived nine months ago, and it still did right into breakfast with her family.

     As Ilyshah returned fresh from the sea clad in her crotchet bikini top and mismatched board shorts, Lani Tūrei came dripping with sweat off the tennis court at The Island Club in perfectly co-ordinated sets of pretty in pink from alo yoga. She downed a chilled bottle of voss before joining Ilyshah at the table laden with avocado, a loaf of sliced sourdough and Aunt Claire bustling in carrying a bowl of hard boiled eggs.

    "How was the sea, Lysh?" asked Claire, serving her up a plate with a kiss on the top of her head.

  Ilyshah shrugged. "Eh, not the best aunty, they say the swells will be good by the end of the week." She commented, pulling out her bullet journal as Claire sent a glare to Lani.

"Phones away when we eat, Lans."

Lani paid no mind as she clicked away at the keypad. "Dads not even here to see," eyes blowing wide as Kahu Tūrei plucked the device from her hands.

"The hell I'm not girl," he scolded with a temperance, "now come on, eat your kai — your mothers been up cooking it for you... Lysh you can start the karakia today."

The Tūrei household on this side of the world neglected little things like karakia before Ilyshah moved over, but since she had joined them they wanted to make her feel as at home as possible with the gesture. With a clearing of her throat, she recited a karakia kai as everyone at the table closed their eyes, gentle blessings from her lips infusing into the food.

     "What you working on, sweetie?" Claire gestured towards Ilyshah multitasking between eating and pouring over her bullet journal flipped to a tab filled with stickers of dolphins, surfboards, outlines of golden suns and hibiscus.

"Just the surf class Spencer and I started," Ilyshah responded with a smile while jotting down notes in a glitter gel pen. "We had six kids after only three lessons, and now we'll have eight when he gets back."

   Lani interrupted as she lowered her avocado toast. "Can you believe Lysh is doing it for only five dollars? You could be making so much more money cuz."

  "Oh for heavens Lysh, you're doing it for only that much?"

There it was. The pursuit of money so ingrained into the minds of people on Figure Eight it rotted their brains until it became unspeakable to do things out of charity unless publicised.

"Most of the kids live on The Cut, we wanted to make it easier on the parents," Ilyshah justified the choice her and Spencer came to together. It took more leg pulling for him to start it up with her but as of June, Splash Surf School was open for business !

"That's sweet Lysh, you can put it in your college letters too I'm sure it won't hurt," Claire responded as she poured a glass of iced lemon water from the jug.

Lani sighed impatiently, pasting on a smile as she abruptly stood up. "Well, I'm off. Kelce wants to go golf. So, au revoir," she began to skip out, Ilyshah holding in a smirk as Claire patted Uncle Kahu's shoulder in comfort that they were mourning the loss of their daughter to teenage girlhood.

With Uncle Kahu and Aunt Claire hulled up in their office, and Lani out with Kelce, Ilyshah found it fitting to escape on the open air deck of the Paikea. Soaking up the midmorning sun until it scorched her skin, with juices of the fresh punnet of strawberries coating her lips in deliriousness and trickling down her pink stained tongue. She flipped the pages of her mothers owned weathered paperback, immersing herself in the wise words of Clarissa Pinkola Estes on the divine feminine, head hanging over the edge of the lounge with her feet pointing skyward.

Her ears picked up on soles squeaking across the floor of the stern that she passed it off as her uncle, until the reflection in the glass revealed JJ Maybank approaching. That got her attention, monarchs taking flight in her gut.

Far too distracted with the music on full blast through his headphones, JJ bopped his head as he wandered past Ilyshah—blindly unaware of her presence while tending to the fixtures. Her lips turned in amusement at the sight, she always found watching people in their natural living state intriguing, observing the quirks they exhibit when they think nobody is looking. You see their real spirit under the flesh and bone, in his case; tattered baseball caps and dirty rags hung off the back pockets of faded khaki pants with Heyward's Seafood printed on the back of bottle green shirts.

"Hey, Maybank!" Ilyshah shouted out, garnering no response. She sat up, thinking quick by seizing a strawberry from the punnet and pegging it at his back.

JJ jumped back in response, broad shoulders pinned to his ears, spinning around to find Ilyshah smoothly fluttering her fingers at him wearing a sunny grin. He lowered his headphones to sit on his neck where a heat crept up the back of it.

"Well howdy there," He cheekily smiled, his eyebrows twitching goofily as he surveyed the floor. "Did you just — throw fruit at me?"

She nodded intently. "I did just throw fruit at you, yes."

"Is that any way to treat your staff Miss Tūrei?"

"Funny, I don't remember any of our employees crashing out on my bed after running from the cops but..." She trailed off, puckering her lips as she leaned back onto her elbow.

   He tapped his hands against a pole above him, his shirt riding up slightly to reveal the v lined against his skin. "My sincerest apologies if I stunk up your silk sheets princess."

"Smelt of old spice and sweat for days so only my dream scent," she teased, earning an eyebrow raise from JJ. "Hope you enjoyed my spliff the other night by the way."

"'Course I did, that was some good weed you had there," He let out a huff, distractedly feeding a hose through his palms.

Ilyshah clutched the jade pendant on her neck, fiddling it between her fingers, "I feel weirdly validated," she struck a hum, "I'll be sure to pass the compliments over to my dealer."

"Yeah look this has been great and all talking to you miss but I uh — need to get back to work before you get me fired," He smoothly jumped back onto the stern, gesturing a salute from his forehead on his descent. "Tally Ho."

She scrunched up her face in mirth. "Bye?" rolling her eyes before shoving her aviators back on, reclining on the lounge to centre on the book. Only, she couldn't focus now. There was no way in hell she would be able to.

Salt clung to the walls of the pearled yacht, shrinking to suds pooled on the floor by JJ who preoccupied himself with the pressure washer. He wanted to talk to Ilyshah longer, he did. But he was willing to play the long game with her. Like luring in a fish with heart and allure as the bait.

And it bloomed to fruition sooner than he would've thought.

Ilyshah hopped down onto the stern, her baby blue crotchet bag repacked with all her things. Weathered book, SPF, coconut water and soft papaya bathers ready for a surf. She came close to completely walking away but something compelled her to approach him. "Hey, can I ask you something?" she raised her voice over the loud thrum of the motor.

"Fire away princess!" He shouted in response, not making a move to turn off the motor.

She inched closer less she lost her voice. "It's about what you were going to ask on the wharf."

That got his attention.

With a release of the trigger for the hose and the motor dying down, an air of silence grew between them that only Ilyshah sliced in half.

"Weren't you going to tell me how you plan to thank me?"

He shook his head, motioning the trigger again to continue washing the waxed down walls. "It doesn't matter anymore—" then halted his movements when he noticed her soft frown, "—you can check your instagram dms if you want to know so bad."

"Eh?" She questioned, a puzzled look washing over her features. "I didn't get any messages from you — what's the username?"

JJ wiped the slick off his forehead with his forearm, a hand reaching into his back pocket, scrolling through the apps once he retrieved his phone. He turned the screen to face her, with a private account he requested to follow under the username of ilyshah03, full confidence written across his face.

She relaxed her frown into a bored expression. "You realise that's not my account?"

"What?" He furrowed his eyebrows, squinting at the blurry display picture as he inspected the profile.

"Why didn't you just ask for my number? Y'know you're a really bad stalker," she held out her hand, beckoning him to pass over his phone to which he obliged, pressing her digits into his contacts, "oh and you can follow my real instagram now," she revealed a pearly grin as she requested her instagram, handing back his android.

He shrugged, cheeks turning pink that he hoped to god she didn't notice under the beaming sun with how his nose crinkled up. "I dunno, I didn't think you'd give me your number."

"What made you think that?"

"Maybe finding out through a little bird you don't date anyone on the island."

"Oh," she nodded pensively, "and I'm guessing that little bird was your friend? John B?"

He scrunched up his glossed over face. "John B? John B... Uh, the name sounds awfully familiar but I can't put my finger on it," he tapped his chin repeatedly as she shook her head in amused disappointment and turned to walk away. "Hey, I don't need to tell him you made up that rule to let him down easy — it is made up right?" He asked with a sliver of hope.

Ilyshah Tūrei narrowed her eyes, the corner of her lips curving into a smirk. "Why don't you text me and find out?" sandals flopping against the wooden planks of the dock in her wake as she retreated to the glasshouse of a mansion, looking back once to meet his gaze with a coy side smile.

That night when her phone pinged on the sofa as she splayed her legs across Lani's, both of them tuning into a new season of Love Island, Ilyshah could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. Transmissions sending wavelengths straight to the cherry pit of her gut as the screen lit up with (1) new message.

Message from (252) 996-0162

4:44 pm
sup

4:52 pm
who dis?

4:56 pm
guess

4:59 pm
hmm, sea cowboy?

5:02 pm
you know it island princess

Lani Tūrei nudged Ilyshah's knee with her own. "Were you listening?"

"Hm?" Ilyshah hummed with a dumbfounded look, then played it off. "Oh yep, can't believe he dumped Demi for Eva." She scoffed.

"Right?" She chuckled, shoving a handful of goldfish into her mouth before taking notice of Ilyshah's flushed face towards the lit-up phone screen. "Who are you texting?"

"What — oh, just Sarah."

Lani turned back to the screen, mumbling. "Could you ask her to bring back my Gucci sandals? I need them for midsummers."

"Sure, sure," Ilyshah distractedly responded, wavering her hand as she got up off the boucle sofa and aimlessly meandered down the vast arched hallways that always felt like an art gallery, trailing fingertips against the raw stone.

She twirled them around the olive branch perched upon the glass hall table, all in anticipation of the next pop up on her phone. It became an addiction offset, every minute of waiting felt like a withdrawal from her fix.

They kept it light and breezy. Sending eachother memes, her teasing him for not finding her instagram earlier, JJ confessing his latest run-in with John B at a newly developed house on Figure Eight, screenshots of whatever song they were currently listening to ( at one point, gym class heroes playing almost simultaneously ) complete kismet haze amongst gnawed lips, tingling thumbs and heart flutters from each end.

sea cowboy 🌊🤠

5:54 pm
so
that rule we were talking about earlier
it's gotta be fake yeah?

5:55 pm
what do you think?

5:58 pm
i'm guessing so

6:05 pm
you gave me your number after all

6:10 pm
i didn't realise texting counted as a date
this is a cheap date you're taking me on
i must be dating half the island too

6:12 pm
bill my secretary at the end
no but really
you know what I mean lol

6:20 pm
the rule is legit... sorry

6:24 pm
and no exceptions?

    Lani bellowed from the living room. "Lysh, come check this out!"

      "What is it?" Ilyshah dropped the phone slack against her leg as she fixed her attention on the flat screen tv with the local Kildare County news blaring, flashing with boldened yellow text.

Severe Weather Alert: Damaging Winds and Flooding as Hurricane Agatha develops

Whale Rider ━━ JJ Maybank
Chapter Two, Aboard The Paikea
Outerbanks Pre Season One CONT.