Oceans Crossed and Lessons Learned

"You should call your mother. " my aunt states as I groggily make my way into the kitchen.
"Mmm, yeah, okay." I say barely paying attention.
"Help yourself to some breakfast, I'm going to work." she says leaving the room briskly, "Simone is outside!"

I lean against the kitchen counter and look out the window over the sink. The ground is bright green, it continues all the way across the property and the neighbor's plot of land too. Another large house like this one, followed by another and another until the main part of town.

I rub my face, wondering how I can possibly make the best of this summer when all my friends are across the ocean. They have so much to look forward to this summer, endless hours bumming around the skate park, Warped Tour, impromptu pool parties and well anything else we'd normally do. I on the other hand, I get to spend my summer with Simone and what ever blond rich-bitch trash she hangs out with.

I grab a glass off the dish-wrack on my way to the fridge for pour myself some juice before heading out onto the back patio where Simone is seemingly tanning.
"Morning." I yawn as I sit in the lawn chair next to her.
"You're still not dressed?" she says moving her lilac tinted sunglass from in front of her eyes to on top of her head.
"Uhh, no." I mumble looking down at my ratty tank top and plaid boxer shorts, "why?"
"We 'ave to leave in ten minutes." she exclaims.
"Huh? Why, where?"
"Didn't my father tell you? We're going to play volleyball."
"Nah, I'll pass, thanks for the offer though." I say sipping from my drink.
"But we signed you up already," she says furrowing her thinly plucked eyebrows, "Do not worry, you are on the same team as me."
"So its like a camp?" I question.
"No, we just play volleyball, there's no camping."
"I mean, its like organized events?"
"It is like a club, but only for the summer." she explains.
"Alright." I groan as I get up and down the rest of my juice.

I head inside, and up to my room. I hear the door click open and closed downstairs.
"Simone!" I call as I look into the chaos of my suitcase.
"Yes?" she calls back, "Is volleyball indoors?"
"Its on the beach."
"Great." I mumble to my self as I grab my bathing suit and put it on. I pull on a pair of board shorts over them and slip on a pair of sneakers.

I leave my room to find Simone standing at the top of the stairs with a bag slung over her shoulder and a fairly large water bottle in her hand.
"Here." she says tossing my the bottle, "This one's yours."
"Thanks."
"Where's your bag?"
"Bag?"
"Yeah, you're going to need a towel and a change of clothes."
"Uhhggh." I groan, "Its too early in the morning." I head back into my room and grab my messenger bag. I shove undergarments, t-shirt and shorts into the bag, "Do you have any extra towels?"
"One second." she says opening the hall closet and grabbing a towel before tossing it to me, "We're going to be late."

I hurry my ass up downstairs where Simone leads me into the garage where her car is parked. She zooms out of the garage and down the street. It takes us all of about ten minutes to get to the beach where she parks next to a dingy ice cream shop.
"Hurry up." she says grabbing her bag out of the back seat, I grab mine too and we get out of the car, "This way."

She yanks my arm towards the front door of the ice cream shop which has about forty people occupying every single table.
"Marie-Eve Labreque?" someone with a clipboard calls, a girl raises her hand, "Charles Montpelier?" the guy with the clipboard looks over at us, "Et vous etes?"
"Simone Tremblay et Samanta Laundrey." Simone answers for the both of us. The guy nods and we go to sit down at two of the empty chairs near the door.

The guy with the clipboard finishes taking attendance and starts talking, I can't understand most of what he's saying, making me feel incredibly stupid. He eventually stops talking and people start filing out of the ice cream parlor.
"What's going on?" I ask Simone.
"We're going to warm-up now." she says as we too head out of the restaurant.

"Simone!" a girl calls.
"Allo Genvieve!" she calls back, "Ca c'est ma cousine Sammy." This is my cousin Sammy.
"Nice to meet you." Genvieve says shaking my hand.
"Nice to meet you too." I manage to say just as I realize we have to start running down the sidewalk along the beach. We dump our bags on the sand, where everyone else's are and start to run.

"How do you like it here so far?" Genvieve asks, she makes running seem effortless while I'm trying my hardest just to keep up with everyone.
"Its good." I pant. We keep running.

The clipboard guy blows his whistle and everyone turns around and starts running back towards the ice cream shop. I feel like one of these buff volley ball guys are going to trample me so I try my hardest to stick to the edge.

We finally come to a stop and everyone starts stretching.
"I suck at volleyball." I tell Simone and Genvieve.
"We will teach you then." Genvieve smiles.
"It's not that hard." Simone adds in.

All the girls here had on sport bikinis, the type with the racing stripe and they all had cute little shorts that went down mid-thigh. I'm in an army print strappy bikini and board shorts that go down a little lower than my knee. Even the guys' shorts are shorter than mine. Way to feel out of place.

Clipboard guy brings out a giant bag full of volleyballs and from my speculation tells everyone to grab one.
"You got a good one." Genvieve tells me. I give it a squeeze and try to tell the difference between hers and mine, they look exactly the same.
"Haha yeah." I say trying to be friendly, after all, she'd probably be my only friend this summer besides Simone. That fact just made my whole summer seem bleaker, granted Genvieve is nice and all but she seems a bit like a ditz.

Speculating again, we're supposed to be volleying the ball over our heads. I make a total spaz of myself. Everyone is able to volley it repeatedly over their heads, and when they miss they catch it, while me, the graceful Sammy, makes the ball go flying five feet to the left of me. This happens several times. We move onto practicing bumps, then serves, then spikes and then I see everyone putting their volleyballs back in the giant mesh bag.

"We're done?" I ask excitedly, this wasn't all bad.
"Time to go eat." Simone says, and my heart shatters into a million pieces. We pick up our bags and head to her car, Genvieve as well.

"Where are we going?" I ask as we start back up the street.
"Dominic's house." Simone says proudly, "My boyfriend."
"Oh, right." I mumble, wondering why the hell I tagged along.

Within the hour we're back at the beach. Lunch was awkward to say the least. Simone and Dominic are cuddly love bunnies while Genvieve and I sat at the table trying to make conversation. Not to mention the sandwiches Dominic had made for us were absolute crap.

"Look at that guy." Genvieve says nudging me and pointing to one of the guys putting up the volleyball nets, "He's hot." I look over at the guy, he looks about eighty-percent muscle, twenty percent ego.
"I guess." I shrug as I pull my water bottle out of my bag, "You going to make a move on him?"
"Oh, no, no." she laughs.

The clipboard guy starts talking again. I've given up on trying to understand him.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"We're going to be in our teams now, and play a few games." Simone informs me, I follow her to our court.

I barely manage to get up the front stairs when we get back to my uncle's house that's how tired I am. Whoever invented volleyball is a douche bag. I didn't bother to get changed, I just asked Simone to drop me off before she went to hang out with Dominic and Genvieve.

"How was volleyball?" Mathieu asks in a somewhat teasing tone.
"It was horrible." I groan as I sit on the kitchen stool, dumping my bag on the floor next to me.
"Never liked it much either." he shrugs, "Did you make any friends?"
"Genvieve, but meh."
"She's a little dumb, huh." he grins, "Like my sister." I can't help but laugh, "Volleyball is only like three weeks."
"Three weeks?" I groan, "But after today, I could sleep for three weeks."

"Ah well that sucks for you, because I was going to offer to bring you along to see this Ramones cover band on Friday in the city." my mouth hangs gaping open.
"No! No! I wanna go!" I exclaim, he laughs.
"No, you'll be too tired." he teases.
"No I won't! I'll drink seventeen Red Bulls if I have to."