Trust me, babe

Chapter 7

Kathryn

After we had changed on the wetsuits Samson had given us, he took us and our boards out on the soft open sand.

"Okay, put the boards on the sand," he said, placing his own board on the ground next to him as he talked. "We need to practice on dry land first."

"No way!" Persimmon complained. "Can't we just go straight to the water? That's what we came here for after all, right Kathryn?"

"Er, yeah, right," I managed to mutter. Samson's presence had gotten me all distracted, deep in embarrassment about the memories from the university fair at our school.

"We will get there," Samson assured us. "But first I need to teach you how to do the pop-up properly so that you don't get all confused once trying to do it in the water where it is a lot harder anyway. So, get on your boards," he ordered.

We did as ordered, stepping on our boards, waiting for him to teach us the pop-up, whatever it was. Honestly, surfing vocabulary was all Hebrew to me.

Samson went on to explain to us the importance of the pop-up, from its right timing and right technique to what might happen if you did it wrong. "Actually, I'd say that doing the pop-up correctly is the key to surfing. Yet it's the thing where people make the most mistakes."

I tried to concentrate on his words, trying to block away the thought of who he was, trying to regard him as just a random surf teacher. That was exactly what he was, after all. A random surf teacher. Someone whom I'd never see again after this lesson. He had just happened to be at our school's university fair but, really, it didn't change the fact that he was just a random guy I'd never cross paths again with as long as I just remembered to avoid whatever university it was he went to. I just had no idea which it was. Maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty to decline the brochure he had been trying to give me.

But no matter how much I tried to reason like this it didn't help; all my reasoning just went to deaf ears. Seeing him had caused in me a huge wave of embarrassment that was just impossible to push away as long as he remained this close to me. In my mind I was constantly replaying the moment I had fallen on the floor in front of him, hell, basically at his feet, a few weeks ago. And no matter how much I tried I just couldn't press pause.

And it didn't help that Samson was constantly smirking, he constantly had a playful glint in his eyes, even now when he was just doing his job and teaching us. I couldn't help but wonder if he was always like that. Did he always smirk? Or was it just me, the embarrassing and laughable Kathryn Summers, that caused him to smirk like that?

After explaining to us the importance of the pop-up he told us to get on our stomachs on our boards, leading us by example. "When we head to the water, searching for waves, we go on our stomachs like this, paddling with our hands. So, this is the position you are going to be at when it's time to do the pop-up," he explained.

"Won't we get water in our mouths when we paddle like this, our face so close to the surface?" Persimmon asked.

"You just better keep your mouth shut so you won't," Samson smirked. "Okay, I'm going to show you the right way to do the pop-up now and I want you to pay close attention. I will show it in slow motion so that you'll have time to absorb it."

Persimmon and I watched as Samson showed us the pop-up a couple of times, first slow and then faster. He made it look so easy — and he himself looked so athletic — but I was pretty sure it wouldn't seem easy anymore when it'd be my turn to try. I just hoped I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of him again.