wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

winter ; 33

The Roberts siblings hated tourists; Mr Roberts would chide his children, saying that they were the main sources of income for the island, he was not wrong at all. It's just that it didn't matter if Nate and Nini had stayed in Kauai for their entire lives, the crowd was something they just couldn't get used to. If there was a festival, the siblings would throw tantrums to avoid them like the plague; although it never worked because the Roberts family always had to show up for the rest of the island. Unfortunately for them, the one festival that they loved as children was the one their parents had decided to sit out on was the Festival of Lights, which drew an unbelievably large crowd from all over the world. The Roberts children were enamored by the sparkly lights and pretty christmas trees, each time they drove past the Historic County Building. Mr and Mrs Roberts made it their family tradition to light up their house instead — covering the living room with fairy light and candle holders made up of cans, a christmas tree decorated with recycled artwork from when they were kids. It was their own Festival of Lights and the children loved it, never once asking to return to the Historic County Building any longer.

Christmas was always a little weird in Hawaii. Your usual Santa Claus with a hat and red winter coat in a sleigh on a white Christmas was replaced with a floral print shirt with a lei, riding a surfboard. The vibes were obviously different, other people would be wrapped up in wool cardigans, sitting in front of the crackling fireplace drinking hot chocolates, the tropical country experienced a winter that was much like summer in other countries. But, the early Christmas jingles playing in stores late November till the end of December were the same. It was barely a week in and Nini was already going crazy.

What drove her even crazier was the fact that they had a live performance for the Festival of Lights and she was invited to perform every wednesday for each of the four weeks that the festival was going on. It was definitely a good opportunity to get recognition from tourists and build her portfolio as an artist but the sheer thought of having to enter the premises filled with people — not just people actually, tourists — Nini hated it so much, but a girl's gotta do what she gotta do to get that bread. 

She was sitting with Ricky at their usual quiet spot at Waimea docks. This time they weren't alone, they were joined by some random tourist high school kids on their winter break, having a steamy game of truth or dare. Ricky buried his head in the crook of his girlfriend's neck, groaning when the teens began to cheer as their friend executed a dare, "This was supposed to be our spot, baby. What happened to the peace and quiet?" Nini kissed his hair and continued scrolling through her phone for suggestions of songs to sing for her set. Another series of whoops and hollers filled the still night and she felt Ricky shift beside her to stand up, picking up her guitar in his hand, a hand reached out to her to pull her up, "Come on, let's get out of here. I can't do this anymore." The girl could feel his frustration and rose to her feet, standing on her tippy toes to kiss him fully on the lips, "Let's go over to mine, my mom made tiramisu anyway." He smiled excitedly and pulled her over to his car, making the quick two minute drive back to the Roberts household.

The festival lights were sitting in a box in the middle of the living room, yet to be put up. Everyone was just too busy this year, they hadn't found a time to decorate yet. As Ricky dug into the tiramisu that Nini took out from the fridge, she opened up her instagram once again to look through the suggestions her friends had given for her performance at the Festival; she had posted a QnA on her instagram story earlier that day. Kourtney was the first to view her story, writing in caps 8 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BY DESTINY'S CHILD, YOU GO GURL. Nini chuckled at her best friend's suggestion, reading the next one from Gina. Gina Porter was asking for a punch, telling Nini to play Jingle bells, despite knowing that Nini freakin hated that song. As a child, she'd whine to her momma saying that there was no fun riding in a one horse open sleigh, Kauai had no snow to make it fun. Growing up, it became an overplay, over-enthusiastic jingle that Nini grew tired of. EJ had spammed her with multiple replies, requesting Home and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Michael Bublé as well as another classic Jingle Bell Rock. There were other requests as well but Nini scrolled past all of them quickly, then proceeded to throw her phone into the depth of their sofa.