Waves

CHAPTER 03

(wet suit and surfboard above)

NORA

When Mouse and Nora got home, the first thing they did was check out the surfboard and wet suit.

The surfboard was beautiful. It was multicolored pink, purple, and blue, with a white base.

Nora spent quite a bit of time admiring it, before she opened up the wetsuit.

After seeing them both, she rocked back on her heels and looked at Mouse, waiting for his opinion. She had no idea what kind of brand they even were.

"These are very nice," Mouse told her, "I'm surprised that Rosie was willing to sell them for fifty dollars."

"That was very kind of her," Nora agreed, suddenly feeling bad that she'd accepted the money so easily. Maybe she should have given her more?

"Well then," Mouse broke Nora out of her thoughts by patting her shoulder. He offered her a smile and then said, "Get your swimsuit on, then. We'll wash this tonight. And you ought to learn how to swim in the ocean before you learn to surf in it."

"Okay."

Nora stood stiffly from her crouched position on the floor, wincing at the pain in her knee. Ever since her accident, she'd struggled to stay with her knee bent underneath her for very long periods of time. It would be fine after a moment, though, once she'd shaken off the pain.

Nora stumbled into her bedroom and grabbed one of the bags of clothes that she'd set in there hurriedly to go and look at the board and wetsuit set. She grabbed the blue swimsuit she'd picked out. It was a cropped top with a white, short skirt bottom.

After she'd changed into the suit and cut the tags off, Nora pulled her new pair of flip-flops out of her bag and slipped them onto her feet. Mouse said that they were called 'thongs' in Australia, but she wasn't too sure if she was fond enough of that name to use it yet. Plus, she'd only been in Australia for a few hours.

Nora grabbed her new towel, dropped her wallet and phone onto her bed, and hurried out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Mouse was just walking out of his own room, which was a little closer to the kitchen than hers. She hadn't seen inside it, so she had no idea what it looked like. Mouse was wearing a pair of dark blue swim shorts with two white stripes on the sides, and a backwards hat and sunglasses. His towel was slung over his shoulder.

"You ready?" He asked Nora.

Nora nodded and gave him two thumbs up. She was nervous, but ready.

Mouse opened the patio door and the two stepped down the wooden stairs and out onto the pavement. They walked across a small promenade and then down a set of stairs and set their towels down about halfway between the water and the stairs.

"Always swim between the red and yellow flags," Mouse told Nora, his eyes and tone deadly serious, "That's the safest area on the beach, alright?"

"Got it," Nora agreed. She certainly wasn't going to go swimming in front of the dangerous current sign just ahead of them. That would be stupid.

"Ready?"

Nora hesitated slightly, apprehension bubbling to the surface.

It must have shown on her expression because Mouse said, "I'm absolutely one of the safest people on this beach to swim with, Nora. You'll be alright."

Nora wasn't quite sure why he was such a safe person to swim with, but she wasn't going to ask. Maybe he just knew the water really well or something. "Okay," She said, forcing herself to relax.