Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Lily groaned and fumbled for the off button on the alarm clock. Uh…way to early…After banging her hand on the nearby lamp and almost knocking over the glass of water on her bedside table, she finally located the snooze button and rolled over to go back to sleep. This began a cycle that occurred every nine minutes until, thirty minutes after the original encounter, the phone rang disturbing Lily from her much needed sleep. She groaned once more before rolling over and burrowing beneath her pillow, holding the sides to her ears, in an attempt to block out the noise. After a minute of spectacular failure, Lily answered the phone as if a frog were stuck in her throat, "Hello."
"Tiger Lily! Glad to hear you're awake! I hope I didn't wake you..." Wendy responded with a smile in her voice knowing she had done just that.
"Like hell you didn't." Lily sat up and leaned back against the headboard, "Do I want to know what caused to call me at…" she glanced at the clock and blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.
"4:45!" Wendy supplied helpfully.
"Way too bloody early! So, what exactly possessed you to call me at this hour?"
"Ah, Lils. It's not that bad…don't you remember? We have a surfing lesson today! Scratch that. You have a surfing lesson and I get to go hit some killer waves."
"Riiiight. But clarify for me why you're calling so early?"
"Just get dressed! I'll be over in fifteen minutes! See you then!"
Lily stared at the receiver. That girl is crazy! Lily slowly got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. After plaiting her hair, she went to get dressed. Okay, what suit do I wear…she stood in front her suitcase, looking at her two suits…I wish I brought a one piece…The door bell rang, distracting Lily from her predicament.
After opening her door she looked at her watch, "You do realize that you're seven minutes early. Are you feeling alright?"
Wendy shrugged her shoulders and grinned, "I thought you could use the help with your accessories. Well, I actually knew that you would need my help. You're positively hopeless at fashion. Think of me as the Frenchie to your Sandy."
Lily held open the door, "I wouldn't exactly call me hopeless…"
"I would!" Wendy shot back.
Lily shook her head side to side, shut and shut the door before following Wendy to her suitcase, muttering under her breath, "And just yesterday you said you were Rizzo…seriously mental…that one…mental."
After a careful examination, Wendy threw some clothes to Lily, "Put those on. You'll look positively smashing!"
Both girls burst into laughter, and some thirty minutes later headed down to the beach to meet the boys.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
James met Matt on the beach at 4:30 am. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head at Matt, "When you said bright and early, I didn't think you meant quite this early!"
Matt laughed, "You think this is early? My friends in California get on the beach at 3:00 am to go surfing before school starts and then they hit the surf again after class."
"Mate, that's crazy."
"Nah, just dedication."
"Don't tell me you get up that early too."
"Only on the weekends and whenever I can sneak out…"
When the boys hit the water James shrieked, "Ah! That's too damn cold!"
Matt laughed at James and rolled his eyes, "No shit Sherlock!"
"Sherlock?" James questioned.
"You know, Sherlock Holmes, famous muggle detective…" Matt responded casually and continued to paddle out to deeper water.
The comment about muggles threw James off for a minute, but then continued his paddling. "I didn't know you had heard of a muggle before." James remarked just as casually.
"Yeah. I've heard of Quidditch too. Almost as good as surfing."
"Are you nuts? Nothing beats Quidditch!"
There was a slightly awkward pause before James spoke up, "How did you know I was a wizard?"
"It was too easy son, too easy. First off, you were so clueless yesterday when Todd, Derrick, Ryan and I were talking about sports. And face it, what self-respecting muggle guy doesn't know anything about sports? The "I'm British" excuse didn't work, because you would have at least known what soccer, sorry, football, was. Then, at the party, Lily got sick from that sobering spell, and you seemed to know what it was right away. Actually, now that I think about it, you seemed to know Lily pretty well too."
"Wait - how did you know that?"
"Son, I'm an expert in the area of sobering spells. I know those things."
James laughed, "Just like that Sherlock guy, eh?"
Matt laughed as well, but once the boys had stopped paddling, he glanced over at James. "You never did answer the Lily question."
"I didn't realize it was a question."
"It was."
James ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out where to start, when Matt suddenly leaned forward and began paddling furiously. James followed suit, the question forgotten for the time being, as well as Matt's recent revelation. Now, surfing was more important. The other items could wait, the waves could not.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
The girls got down to the beach around 6:00 am, a good thirty minutes late, but that was okay, Wendy was never on time and Matt usually told her to be someplace a half hour before he wanted her there…or was that an hour, she could remember the details.
"So…ready to go Tiger Lily?"
"You know…those are really big waves…maybe I'll just sit the first few out…" Lily looked longingly to where they had placed their things and at the book that was peaking out of her bag.
"No, you are not going to sit and read! You had fun the last time and…oh, there's Matt and James!" Wendy pointed to two figures coming out of the ocean carrying their surfboards. "I love the beach! Scratch that - I love the attire males wear at the beach!"
Lily rolled her eyes, "You have such a one-track mind!"
Wendy laughed, "No, it's totally two-minded. Hello. Fashion and Guys. My priorities are straight!"
Lily rolled her eyes again, but couldn't help but admire the way James looked in his swim trunks, especially as he got closer and she was able to see just how well built he was. Quidditch and whatever else he had been doing sure had been good to him.
Matt and James had been riding the waves for a while, and were ready to keep going. James still had yet to catch more than one wave and was determined to get at least ten. Well, maybe seven…actually…maybe just five. He was having a much more difficult time with the whole "surfing thing" today than he was yesterday. Matt had told him he this was normal, especially as they were working with much more difficult waves today, not to mention the fact that they were surfing in a completely different area of the beach. It was to be expected that James wouldn't do as well, however failure wasn't something James Potter was used to - unless you factor in Lily, then it was an area he was accustomed to.
On last wave the boys had attempted James had the biggest wipe out of the morning. He got out of the water shaking in head in disgust, "Mate, this is stupid! What am I doing wrong?"
"Dude, relax. You need to balance, stop leaning back so much; it's all about centering your weight. You don't control the wave, you borrow it." Matt's eyes glazed over as he stared out at the open sea with something akin to reverence.
"O-K."
"Oy! There are the girls!" Matt paused and silently studied Wendy from afar. It was one of his favorite ways to look at her, when she was silent. Actually he loved to talk to her, but she didn't let him "ogle her like a piece of meat in a butcher shop window," and that was one of his favorite things to do - not that he would ever tell her that, he would get the silent and I'm not going to be around you in a bikini for days treatment. Which he felt was a bit unfair considering that she ogled him like a piece of meat as well, but he wisely kept that opinion to himself.
"You know, I think we should just keep the fact that we are all wizards to ourselves…we could just keep pretending we are muggles."
Matt was snapped out of his thoughts and back into reality, "Why would we tell….is that how you know Lily? Because, she is Wendy's cousin and if you…"
James interrupted him, "It's not like that…well, it kind of is. Lily and I go to the same school…and…"
Matt's eyes lit up in understanding, "Say no more - you have a thing for her and she hates your guts?"
"I wouldn't exactly say hate…"
"Despises you with every fiber of her being?"
James sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. That sounds about right."
"Look - if it makes you feel any better Wendy hated me before we started going out."
"Really?" James's face brightened considerably at this prospect.
"No."
James punched Matt on the shoulder. "Bloody wanker!"
Matt turned to James, "Don't worry mate, I won't tell Lily I'm a wizard and I definitely won't tell Wendy you're one because she doesn't know that I'm one."
"Thanks mate."
The boys made their way up the beach to where Lily and Wendy were arguing about Lily having to surf. She was all up for sitting on the beach, reading her book, and watching them - meaning everyone but her - go and surf. The waves were just a little too big for her taste. Besides, she only liked surfing a tiny bit more than she liked flying, and since flying was second on her list of things she despised most, after James Potter, the chances of her continuing surfing were slim.
"Lillllly, you can't just sit here."
"Why not?"
"Becauuuusssseee…."
Lily folded her arms across her chest and grinned at Wendy's antics. "I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, so I think I should just stay here."
"You were feeling fine this morning."
"Yeah, but that was before I saw the size of the wave!" Lily muttered under her breath not wanting Wendy, or anyone, to know how nervous the waves actually made her.
"Huh?"
"Scared of the waves Evans?" James butted in. The boys had reached the girls at the beginning of the argument and had been listening in with much amusement.
Lily whipped her head around and glared at him. "Hardly Potter."
"Then prove it."
"Fine! I will." Lily pulled her shirt off, flung it on top of her bag, grabbed her surfboard and stormed toward the ocean. She paused after a few feet and glanced over her shoulder. "You coming Wendy?"
Wendy stood there frozen for a second, then shook her head and grabbed her board, trailing after Lily who was marching furiously to the water.
Matt looked at James with disbelief etched in his facial features. "What the hell are you doing? I though you wanted the girl to like you?"
James shrugged nonchalantly, "I got her to go surfing, didn't I?"
Matt's disbelief turned to amazement, "I guess you did…."
Lily was surprised at how much fun it was to surf. Well, maybe not the surfing part, but the lessons from the boys. So, she kept falling off her board, which only meant some gorgeous guy without a shirt came to her rescue. Surfing, in general, was not much better than flying. In fact, on a broom, you had some measure of control, and in the water there was none. But, flying didn't have the added bonus of being surrounded by shirtless even if there was leather involved. However, there was only leather at a quidditch game…definitely a toss up between the two.
Matt, Wendy, and a few of their surfing buddies attempted to teach her how to stand on the board, what waves to catch, and everything of that nature. But Wendy soon got distracted by the waves and left her alone with Matt's friends. Surprisingly, James was also very considerate and encouraged her instead of mocking her. But that could have been because Matt's friends were helping him as well.
After what seemed like hours and hours of failed attempts, but was probably no more than two, Lily finally rode her first wave in to the shore and jumped up and down with excitement after she got off her board. Todd, one of Matt's surfer buddies, rode the wave in with her and swooped her up in a huge hug, lifting her off her feet, and swung her around in circles. James, who saw what Todd was doing, scowled in his direction. Wendy who managed to catch the direction of his scowl smiled brightly. "You just gonna let him edge in on your territory? Go and get her Danny."
She turned her smile to Matt, complete with puppy dog eyes, "Can we go get something to eat? I'm starving and I think Lily is done surfing." With that, she took off for the shore.
James looked at Matt, and this time he was the one with the look of bewilderment, "Danny? Who the hell is that?"
"Don't even ask. She's mental, that one is. Just be glad she hasn't thought to question your accent." Matt smiled fondly at Wendy's retreating back. It was obvious he was extremely fond of his girlfriend and mental was just a term of endearment. "Come on, we better go in and get them fed. Girls get mean when they don't eat."
Both boys laughed and made their way towards shore.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
a/n: I do realize it has been over a year since I updated. I'm terribly sorry. I've rewritten a bunch of the story and it is much different than before. I will do my best not to ever go that long without an update again. If there is anyone who is still reading this, thank you! I will be updating about every 2 weeks at the minimum. I will try to update once a week, but I can't make any promises!
-->