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”TESS! GET UP YOU HAVE SCHOOL!” Raymond yells outside of Tessa's door. “no!” Tessa rolls over in protest. “Tessa, I swear to god, get your ass up.” Raymond bangs on the door. “why can't I just skip again?” tess yells back. “because, you need to go if you want to surf. That's the deal, get up” Raymond walks into her room and pulls her out of her bed. “Ray, please i just cant today” Tessa curls into herself, she knows he won’t let her but it doesn’t hurt to try.“Tess, if you go for the rest of this week and actually get your shit done you can skip Friday. It's supposed to be a good surf” he knows how hard everything can be for her, but he can't just watch her fail out. “Fine, ill go.” She stands up, she's not pleased but she's not winning this “thank you” Ray says, patting her shoulder and walking out of her room. She gets ready and Raymond drives her to school. She's only 15 minutes late today, that's better than most.
Tessa sits down next to her best friend Leilani. “Wow, look who showed up today.” Leilani teases “ya ya,ray made me” she says taking her laptop out of her bag. "Oh well I'm glad you're here I have something to tell you!” leilani exclames. Tessa is genuinely in disbelief with how joyful she is this early in the morning. “What?” she slides her arms down and rests her head on them “There's a comp next weekend. You should enter, you'd win” tess shakes her head and looks away. “leilani, yk i don't compete anymore.” she states still avoiding eye contact. “I know but maybe this could help. You're a great surfer, you just need to get your confidence back.” she presses. “I don't know-” Tess tries to say before she's cut off. “ok well i do, so just think about it ok” Tess gives up, she's too tired for this “ya sure” the bell rings and they both turn their attention to the teacher.
Tessa was successful and went to school all four days and Raymond held his word, so now they were spending the morning at the beach next to their house.“see T i told you the waves would be good” he says looking at the water. “ok ya you were right, hey um raymond..” she picks at her nails, not really sure if she wants to tell him. “:whatsup?” He turns and looks at her, picking up on her nerves. “leilani want me to sign up for a meet” she says nervously avoiding eye contact. “When” he replies looking back to the water. “next month it's just a small one, but I don't know” she fidgets “you don't know?” he finally looks down at her. “i-i dont know, i dont think im ready yet” she spits out “Tess I've seen you absolutely rip it out there, what do you mean not ready?” he knows what she means but she's ready and he knows that too “I haven't competed since.. Well you know.” her voice wavers and she bites her lip to stop the tears. “Since I got hurt you mean” he clenches his jaw. He doesn't like to talk about his accident. “Ya”
She basically whispers back. “Tessa, I'm fine, you're a good surfer, don't let my accident hold you back.” he says with a bit more of a bite than he intends to. “You don't get it!” she yells back at him. This pissed him off. “oh i dont get it! Tessa I was hurt not you! ithink I understand!” he yells. He's really angry now. “It was so scary seeing you like that ray. You wouldn't move or talk, I thought you were gonna die. I can't do it again.” Tears start to form in her eyes. “Tess..” He walks closer to her.
“i still have dreams about them pulling you off the jet ski, your eyes rolling back and the way your body looked..” she chokes out a sob. “i-i didnt know it was that bad…im sorry” he grabs her and pulls her into a hug while she sobs into his chest “i just cant do it to you, i cant let you see me like that” she whispers through sobs “oh tessa” he just holds her as she cries. After a while she calmed down and Raymond let go of her. “Do you still want to go out?” he asks her, looking at the waves. “ya for a bit,I need to clear my head” she walks over and grabs her board. “ok, be careful.” She gets her board ready and walks towards the ocean. “ya i will be” she runs and dives into the water
“That was sick Tess you ripped out there.” Raymond says high-fiveing tess. “Thanks, um, I think I want to enter.” she says as Ray grabs her board and throws it into the jeep. “Are you sure?” He pauses and looks at her. “no but I think I need to. I need to just get over it.” she says nervously
“Ok training starts tomorrow, and school is not an option anymore.” he says walking past her to the driver's seat “Fine.” She complains and gets into the car. The two of them hang out at home for a while until Tess gets a text from Leilani asking them to meet up at the local diner. She gets up and walks out to where Raymond's sitting on the couch. “The guy wants us to go meet them at the diner.” she says petting the lump of golden fur sitting at his feet “alright get koa ill be in the car” he stands up, grabs his keys and leaves the house. “Come on ko” Tessa says, grabbing the leash off of the counter and clipping it to the dog's collar.
They arrive at the diner but as they walk into the building Tess bumps into a girl. “oh shit sorry i wasn’t paying attention” she holds her hand up quickly apologizing. “oh no worries, um actually are you locals? I just moved here, I'm trying to find my way around” she asks slightly fidgeting.
“Ya we live on the other side of town”, "welcome” she said, greeting the girl “great, um im hana” she introduced herself. “oh nice, im tessa this is my brother raymond. Where are you from?” Tess asks “I'm from O'ahu, I'm just staying with my dad for the summer” she says in an annoyed tone “would you maybe wanna come hang out with us and a few friends?” tess asks “omg yes that would be amazing!” she quickly exclaims “ok were just in here”
They all walk into the diner and are quickly greeted by a very excited leilani. “TESSAAAAA!” She runs and practically tackles Tessa into a hug. “Ugh, hi lei” she laughs hugging her back “ugh i missed you who's this?” She looks at Hana. “oh this is hana shes new to the island, shes from o’ahu.” she introduces Hana “Hi, nice to meet you” she says nervously "A friend to Tess is a friend to me! Hi, I'm Leilani.” She introduces herself by grabbing Hana's hand. “ok…so lei, and then thats nalu and the blond is cooper, him and my brother have some weird situationship going on i don't really know…she explains looking over at the three boys up at the counter. “oh um ok” she laughs as the boys walk back with drinks for everyone “Guys, this is Hana. She just moved here from o’auh, she's gonna hang with us.” Tessa explained to the group “oh ok sick, im Cooper, do you surf?” he asked handing tess her smoothie, she thanked him and looks back at hana. “oh no i dont.” she states “oh that will change, that's like all tess does.” nalu laughs meeting up with the rest of them. “Oh I thought you all surfed, Tessa said you did” she askes confused. “oh ya we do but its tessas thing.” Leilani states resting her shoulder on Tessa. “Im not even that good, do you want something to drink?” Tessa asked, trying to hide her embarrassment “dont let her be humble shes amazing” nalu laughs, handing hana the drink she asked for. “how much do you wanna bet tessas gay for her?” lani whispers to naul “um 20 bucks, i dont think so..” he laughs
“nah i can feel it nal” she says as they shake on the bet “What are you two talking about?” Raymond walks up behind her making lani jump “oh nothing” she giggles and ray turns to look at nalu “Leilani thinks tess and hana will fall in love.” he caves “what…how do you come up with these? Also how much?” He knows there's a bet if Leilani's involved there's a bet. “20 bucks im betting yes Nalus betting no.” he shakes his head at the girl “add another 20 to the pot i bet no.” he says in defeat “yall just don't get it.” She walks back over to the booth and flops down next to Cooper. He laughs at her and ruffles her hair. Ray and nalu follow after her sliding into the seats “hey tessa i meant to ask earlier but whos this cutie” she asks petting koa. “thats koa, hes dumb as hell” raymond exclaims and leilani gasps “dont be mean ray hes just a baby. Right ko just a big baby” she crouches down and pets the dog as he licks her face. “Whatever” he says leaning his head back. “Koas’ my dog got him for my 15th birthday. Ray pretends like he hates him but they nap together sometimes.” she laughs “hes cute” she gets back up. “Do yall wanna stay at our place tonight moms gone again,” Tess asks her friends. She hates when their mom leaves, she’ll disappear in the middle of the night and sometimes they won't hear from her for weeks. She hates how empty the house feels when she's gone so she invites everyone over to keep it loud. “Ya sounds fun, has she been back at all this month?” Leilani asks what everyone's thinking. “No, and honestly who cares” Raymond spits out. He cares more than anything, but he has to stay strong for Tessa. “Ok, well sleepover it is. Hana do you want to join tonight? "Cooper asks Hana, trying to change the subject. He grabs Raymond's hand and rubs his thumb over rays. “Uh ya i can see if i can” she takes her phone out and texts her dad.
******at tessa house******
“do yall want dinner? I can cook something,” Nalu asks after a few hours of group silent doomscrolling time. “yes lord nalu please” cooper yells out, everyone else agrees with him
“What do you want?” he stands up walking into the kitchen “SPAM MUSUBI!!!” Cooper yells practically into Ray's ears. “good lord my ears!” Ray exclaims covering his ears. “Shit, Sorry, are you ok?” he looks down at Raymond with a worried look in his eyes. “yes coop im fine” he laughs. “omg just kiss already damn!” tess yells from her spot on the couch. “That's what I'm saying dude!” nalu calls from the kitchen as ray throws a pillow at tess hitting her in the face.
“ow, fuck you that hurt she whines acting like it actually hurt “shit tess im sorry did i actually hurt you” he jumps up to make sure shes ok “ya it really did” she giggles a bit breaking character “oh fuck you it did not” he stands up pushing her over as everyone laughs at him “see han i told you he's soft.” she says, throwing the pillow back at him. “Fuck you im not soft” he pouts sitting back down “no youre so tuff trust” cooper says in a mocking tone “fuck all of you man” he says and nalu walks back in with dinner “hey man what did i do” nalu pretends to be hurt by these words. “Not you nalu, you're too good of a cook to hate” he says taking a piece of the musubi “thats what i thought, now eat up children” nalu says setting the plate down on the coffee table “thanks mama nalu” lailani laughs as they all grab from the plate of food.
After dinner the group decides to make the night into a descendants movie marathon after finding out raymonds never seen it. They start the first one and of course Leilani and Nalu sing all of the songs with the occasional comment from Ray saying it's stupid and he doesn't get why they like this crap. Tess doesn't bother to pay attention and somehow manages to fall asleep with the loud teens next to her. Maybe it's the noise that makes sleep easy, or maybe it's the pretty girl whose shoulder she's currently using as a pillow.