Happy Birthday

"Happy Birthday!!" I yelled as loud as possible beside my sleeping friend.

"F**k!" She jumped and jolted straight up. "You b***h! What the hell?"

"I have a birthday present for you!"

"It couldn't wait?"

"Nope! We leave in an hour."

Anna looked as her clock. "Dude! It's 5am! on a SUNDAY! we don't even go out Sundays."

"Sorry chickita, only flight leaving for California is at 8am."

"California?" she said groggily "Why are we going to cali-"

I smiled.

her eyes got huge "No way."

My smile grew

"No. No you're playing a sick joke on me!"

I shook my head. "We're going to Mavericks."

She jumped out of bed and started screaming "Oh my God!" She hugged me still jumping "I can't believe this! I swear if this is a joke I am going to KILL you!"

I showed her the plain tickets

"Oh my GOD!! Dude! Oh my God!!!"

She ran around the house getting ready like a 12 year old girl getting ready for a Justin Bieber concert. I was already packed so I made coffee and packed everything in the car.

"Anna! I love you so so so so much!" she yelled from her bedroom packing up the last of her belongings "Like dude, you don't even know how stoked I am right now!"

"Oh I have an idea." I said sipping my coffee. I had a feeling I'd be driving to the airport.

"I've wanted to go to mavericks since before I could even stand on a board!"
"Lies. You've never had a problem standing on a board." I joked.

"Okay, okay. Since before I grasped the concept of strapping your board on you ankle."

I laughed, it took her a good month to remember to do that. The first time she lost her board her parents were furious. It was really expensive. They soon learned to buy her cheap ones until she strapped them on.

"I swear to god, they better play Chasing Mavericks on the plane ride in."

"We're flying air Canada so there are lots of options."

"God. I cant believe it," she sighed leaning against the counter pouring herself a coffee. "we're finally gonna ride some real waves. No more of these silly Tofino tubes."

"Well... living in Vancouver, you still get some decent waves. Better than Alberta."

"True, but oh my God!"

"Lets hope we don't meet any mermaids." I joked.

"Dude, don't kill my vibe." We grabbed what was left to pack and headed to the car. "You drive, no way in hell I can."

Bingo. She tossed me the keys. Anna checked her phone "What?! It's already 6? How!?"

I laughed "You take forever to pack, we'll make it."

***

"Attention all passengers for flight 290 to Mavericks California, this is your general boarding call"

 

Before the lady could even finish her announcement Anna was heading for the entrance. 5 people got between us, unfortunately I had the passes.

"Holly! Come on!"

"Sorry, sorry, excuse me, sorry, sorry." I made my way up to her and handed the flight attendant the boarding passes. We boarded the plane and found our seats. The seats were in groups of three, I wonder who our buddy will be?

"Dude! We're going to Mavericks!" she said for the umpteenth time.

"Surfers?" A man said taking his seat beside us.

"You betcha!" Anna said leaning around me. "It's a birthday present from the best friend in the world!" she said hugging me.

He laughed "First time I take it?"

"Yeah" I laughed.

"Well be careful. Legend has it Pillar Point Harbour is infested with mermaids." He laughed.

"I read about that legend on tumblr!" Anna exclaimed.

"Shhhh" I said.

"Sorry" she whispered.

"I'm Derek by the way." He said extending his hand to both of us.

"I'm Anna, this is Holly." She said shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you Anna" He said smiling, "and you Holly" he said extending his hand to me as well, I shook it obviously. Derek didn't look like your typical surfer dude. His hair was well kept and clean. It was black and shaved, except his bangs. He sorta had the 'emo' thing going on. And his eyes, piercing green.

Anna cleared her throat.

"Oh!" I said letting go of his hand, "sorry, sometimes I get lost in space."

He smiled "happens to the best of us."

The flight attendants did their safety speech and the plane took off.

"Are you kidding?" Anna said flipping through the movie options "no Chasing Mavericks" she finished, looking at me. I laughed taking a look through the movies as well.

***

The plane landed and we headed out with our luggage to catch a cab.

"what hotel?" Derek asked arriving beside us also looking for a cab.

"Uhh harbour view inn." I said.

"Same. Closest to mavericks. We could share a cab. Go halvies."

"Sure, they seem scarce."

Derek laughed at something to my left. I followed his line of sight and sure enough there was Anna snapping selfies."

"Ah finally!" Derek said flagging down the taxi.

It wasn't a long drive to the hotel. Derek sat in the front, while Anna and I sat in the back. Anna rambled off random facts about mavericks the whole flight down and she was still spewing them out. I was shocked. She finally ran out of facts when we arrived at the hotel. We split the cost in half and headed in to get our room. Derek was on the main floor, while we were on the second. We got into our room and dropped off our luggage. Anna went over to the balcony. "Dude! you can see mavericks from here."

"Yeah?" I said unpacking my stuff and putting my clothes into the drawers.

"I don't want to wait!"
"Then lets go!" I said grabbing my board. She smiled. We grabbed our surf bags and headed down to the lobby to catch a cab.

"It might be better for you guys to rent a car." The receptionist said to us.

"We just might have to do that." I said. "Lets head down today and we'll get one tomorrow."