A Replacment

The End of the Beginning

I gaze shyly at the four surfers in front of me, blushing at the complement SeaCat gave me. Just like when I met Kiki, I was freaking out on the inside, but I made sure that I looked calm and cool on the outside.

"Thank you," is all I say, afraid that I might say something stupid and ruin this chance of meeting and befriending the characters of my favorite movie.

Tanner moves to the front of the group and flashes me his sparkling smile. My blush deepens as I smile back, though I'm pretty sure my smile isn't nearly as nice as his.

"Hey, my name's Tanner." He turns around and gestures to his friends as he introduces them. "That's SeaCat, Rascal and Giggles." SeaCat and Rascal smile at me when their names are said, and Giggles waves her hand excitedly to me, the fringe on her bathing suit shaking slightly. I wave my hand shyly at all of them, still too afraid to say anything.

"Hi, my name's-" I stop for a second to let myself think. This is a new world. I can be anybody I want to be here, I don't have to be Quanika 'Nikki' Bennett, the orphaned girl who shut everybody out, I can be someone new, someone I want to be. Quanika Bennett can be the actress who played me.

"My name is Tiki." Tiki. In my opinion, that's the perfect name for me, and it's who I want to be. And I also want a name that reminds me of my best friend, the reason why I'm here, though by the time the sun sets, I'm pretty sure I won't remember who Kiki is, because I'll be completely apart of the movie, but I hope that in some way, it'll show Kiki how much she means to me, even if we won't know each other.

"Tiki. That's a really cool name, it sounds like a surfer name, are you a surfer?"

"Yeah it's my favorite thing to do." The smiles on their faces grow larger when they hear this.

"Really? That's our favorite thing to do too!" Exclaimed Tanner. He gasped suddenly and said, "you should totally go surfing with us, the waves are huge!" I giggle into my hand at his enthusiasm. Tanner was always one of my favorite characters because of his childish innocence.

The others looked at me expectantly, and felt myself nod my head happily.

"Yeah sure, but I don't have a surfboard, you see I just moved here, and I don't have a lot of stuff." I say in disappointment. I just now remembered that I don't have home...or anything else for that matter.

"That's ok, you can borrow one of ours, we have a bunch of them," Giggles said. My smile returns and I nod my head.

Rascal and SeaCat grab my hands and lead me to where they were all hanging out. They headed over to Rascal's car to get their surfboards, and as I waited, I noticed that my bathing suit had changed. I now wore a sea green pin up one piece swimsuit, super cute new sandals, and a brand new seashell necklace, with various other seashells decorating it, and although my hair stayed loose and flowing, when I ran my hand through it, I was shocked to feel the silky smoothness of my brown locks.

I could get used to this, I thought. I still can't believe I'm actually here!

After they got their boards, Giggles lent me one of the many boards they had, and we headed out.

We all surfed for two hours before I suggested we take a break, and as we walked around the beach, I got to know them a bit, and before you know it, we all became fast friends. I was actually surprised that they had welcomed me so quickly into their group, because they had known each other for a long time, and even though they just met me, they acted like they'd known me for years. It was both exciting, and slightly overwhelming.

I heard my stomach rumble, and quickly covered it in embarrassment. The others chuckled at my hunger, and I felt my cheeks burn.

"Why don't we go to Big Mommas for something to eat," SeaCat suggested. "And while we're there, you can meet more of our friends."