Surfers Paradise

Chapter 3: Sign Ups

At seven a.m. the next day, I sat on the front steps of my house waiting for Ryan. After last night he wanted to make it up to me, so he offered to drive me to the North Shore to sign up for the competition when he'd rather be surfing. Although it wasn't that much of a hassle since our town was only a 15-minute drive from the North Shore, I still appreciated the gesture.

In our town, everyone was up early because they wanted to go out and get things done or surf before work. I would usually wake up in the summer to the sight of surfers walking down the beach, owners walking their dogs, people holding their boards, kids playing, or people jogging. I loved our town because everyone was laid-back and surfed.

While I was waiting, I noticed for the first time, as my blonde hair brushed up against my leg, that I was already getting tanner and it was only the second day of summer. I always thought it looked weird; being very tan and golden blonde. According to Bethany, it looked "amazing," which she was only saying because she occasionally wished she was blonde. However, I loved her dark hair.

"Stop looking at yourself and get in the car!" Ryan teased. I shot him a look while trying to brush off the remark like I wasn't actually looking at myself.

"Dweeb," my brother Blake said while flicking my face. I hadn't gotten one of those in a while, but I had grown immune to the pain over the years.

"Ryan, what's up?" he asked, going up to the window of the car.

Ryan always thought my brother was cool while I certainly did not. Blake was almost 21 and back at home for the entire summer to do an internship in the city. He went to college in San Diego, so he didn't go too far from good waves and nice weather. My other older brother, Spencer, came up behind me and tried to flat tire me, which worked and made me ungracefully trip out of my flip flop.

Growing up with two older brothers was interesting. I only watched action movies, got into sports young, and was very competitive. Though, my mom made sure I didn't turn into a total tomboy. Sometimes they would gang up on me and it was horrible. There would always be huge caterpillars on my board, every time I walked outside I would get flat tired or tripped, and worst of all, they would use my head as an armrest anytime they wanted. All they wanted was my reaction so after a while instead of going to my mom and tattling, I would just flick the caterpillar off of my board or tie my shoes tighter.

Once I stopped giving them the reaction, they didn't find it as entertaining but they still did things occasionally for the fun of it or if I let my guard down momentarily. During our family dinners when they'd gang up on me, Sam would always defend me. They were both suckers for Sam and I loved it. She always harmlessly flirted with them, but nothing more than from a distance because she knew it would get weird and awkward very fast.

They at least toughened me up a bit, but I was still the youngest and shortest person in our family. Despite all that, we all got along pretty well. They both got really protective over me if a guy was smiling at me "the wrong way" or I got hurt.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"I'm going to see my friends, and Ryan here is going to give me a ride," Blake smirked while getting into the car.

"I need a ride down to the board shop and I want to see you sign up. I can get it all on video," Spencer said while wiggling his phone. Spencer always had his phone on hand in case something embarrassing happened to me.

One time, when I was younger and we went on a surfing trip, I ate a hot dog before then got into the water right after. The aftermath was not a pretty sight and I had not been able to live down that moment. Spencer was so pissed we didn't bring the video camera that day and now every time I eat a hot dog they have to bring it up like "Oh, Hannah you should go surfing now" or "Are you sure you can keep it down?"