California Dreams? ~ Bratayley Fanfiction

Chapter 5. The Beach

Annie's POV

A week from today we start school, which I wasn't really looking forward to; but today, Hayden and I are going to the beach!

He was going to pick me up around 11, so when it was 10:30, I started getting ready.

I put on a tie dye swimsuit I had and put my shot into two French braids. Then I slipped on my flip flops before packing my beach bag with sunscreen, sunglasses, a towel, etc.

"Annie, Hayden's here!" Hayley yelled as she walked by my door.

"Okay!" I yelled back as I zipped up my beach bag and headed downstairs.

"Have fun!" Mom called out as I closed the door.

"Hey, Annie." Hayden and his dad, Mr. Jimmy, greeted when I got in the car.

"Hey." I greeted back as I sat next to Hayden.

"You excited?" Hayden asked as we pulled out of my driveway.

"I guess so. The beaches here are really nice." I replied.

Hayden nodded in agreement, and after that, the rest of the ride was mostly silent.

We got to the beach about ten minutes later. I helped Hayden and Mr. Jimmy set up the beach towel and umbrella before applying sunscreen.

"Want to go down to the water?" Hayden asked once we were all set up.

I shrugged. "Okay."

Hayden and I walked down to the water together and stood with our toes in the water. I bent down and started to collect sea shells, since we weren't doing anything entertaining.

"I used to collect shells all the time when I was little." Hayden said as he bent down next to me and started picking up some himself.

"Me too." I replied.

We picked up shells in silence; this was really boring.

"Do you want to swim or..?" Hayden asked after about fifteen minutes of collecting shells.

"Maybe we could try surfboarding," I suggested as I pointed to the lifeguard handing surfboards out to people. "I've never done it before."

"Really?" Hayden asked as his eyes grew wide. "You live in California, and you've never gone surfing?"

I gave him a look. "Hayden, I haven't lived here that long."

"Yeah, but still," Hayden then grabbed my hand. "Let's go then!"

We ran over to the lifeguard and rented a couple of boards before going out into the water.

"What do I do?" I asked Hayden once we started walking out.

"Just go on your board like this," Hayden got on his stomach, "and paddle." Then he started paddling forward.

"Oh, okay." I replied a little nervously as I began to paddle.

We paddled out for a couple of minutes before Hayden said we were far enough.

"Now we just wait for some waves, and I'll show you how to do it first." Hayden said as he faced me.

I nodded. "Okay. I'll watch the first few times...or every time."

Hayden let out a small laugh before watching the waves. When a wave came, he said, "Watch me!" and started paddling back out again.

I watched as he paddled forward and when the wave was close enough, he pushed off the board and stood up and rode the wave. He went under the curl of the wave, which looked so cool, and then he came back out.