Surfing USA {Ginny}

[Jemima Rennal]

So it was the holidays.

Jem had a weekend to pack and head off to New York with Spence, but instead of packing, she decided the next best thing was to get her road trip mood started with, you guessed it, a pre road trip road trip. It was a Friday morning, and for the first time in history, the girl had skipped her final lessons, flung a few things in a suitcase, dropped the bunnies with Spence and promised to be back on Monday morning for them to go off and have their crazy NY adventure. Pulling on suitable beach ware and packing her bodysuit for surfing, the girl then spent the rest of the day stringing the board up to the roof rack on her little mini, and throwing the luggage in the boot.

Somewhere, she was certain her surfing companion's father would totally not approve of this. Indeed, as she pulled up to collect Ginny from their approved meeting place, she was already belting out A Whole New world as she drove down into Pilot Ridge and outside of the mall, honking the horn a few times before pulling up.

When Jem and Ginny had first become friends, Jem had thought she was the lame dorky one, but the pair of them soon realised they had a ton in common, and she was really excited to teach someone how to surf. So when she'd googled top surfing sites on the East Coast, she'd been delighted to find a good surfing location nearish by, in Rhode Island, a place called Ruggles. She'd typed the location into her sat nav anyway. ... She vaguely realised just as she parked that Ginny probably didn't have a surf board. They'd have to buy one, or take it in turns on hers.

Oh well. They'd worry about that when they got there!

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny was leaning against the wall, one foot up against the wall, the other just touching her luggage in a subtle protective gesture. She kept pulling her phone out of her pocket, anxious for Jem to arrive.

She knew that her father wouldn't be pleased that she'd agreed to learn how to surf, that she'd just decided to take off on a road trip with another young girl without even asking parental permission, but he would just have to accept that she was an adult.

Assuming he found out, of course. She hadn't exactly informed him about his trip, after all. She reasoned that with everything he'd been through lately he didn't need to think about the logistics of her vacations, and he was OCD so of course if she told him then he would, so it was better to just not say anything and to meet at the mall, so he wouldn't be in any danger of finding out and worrying.

She pushed herself off the wall at the honking that signified her ride had arrived, grinning at the other blonde as she rolled her luggage to meet her.

"Nice choice of tunes." She complimented, opening the trunk to toss her bags in with Jem's. "Haven't heard this song in....since the last time I saw you."

She hopped into the passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt without thought. "This is going to be the best trip ever!" She enthused, "I can't wait to learn how to surf!"

[Jemima Rennal]

Jem had heard from Ginny how her dad was a bit... well, a bit of an overthinker. OCD was fascinating but the blonde girl knew it wasn't a good idea to spend ages quizzing someone over an illness. Instead she'd googled it so she could know if James was panicking or having a bad day.

"Hiyaaa~!" Jem called from the car, waving her hands. "Well, I've got the disney soundtrack on shuffle right now, but the disk changer has all the hits." She grinned, tapping the steering wheel as her friend loaded up the boot. Pulling her hair out of her face, she nodded as the track shuffled to Bare Necessities.

"Even better, I booked us a tiiiny cute little B&B for the night so we're not like... sleeping in the car. Or on the beach." Pulling away from the mall parking spot, she began to sing along, before hesitating. "So ... about a surfboard. How about we buy one when we get there? OH MY GOD that reminds me." She chattered along merrily as her foot hit the accelorator pedal, getting them out of Pilot ridge as fast as possible.

"I saw a dude a few days ago that looked like Super Mario. Same 'tash and everything."

[Ginny Campbell]

"Hey, everyone loves Disney songs!" Ginny had never met anyone who was brave enough to admit they didn't in her hearing, anyway. "They're, like, nostalgic or ."

She propped one foot up on the dashboard, peering out the window as Jem pulled out of the mall parking lot and away from Pilot Ridge.

"Oooh, I'm glad you did, I don't think my hair dryer would plug in the car anywhere." And the thought of wading in the ocean and getting her bikini full of sand and then coming back to the car without taking a shower was horrifying. Sure, the boardwalk was sure to have sprinklers for rinsing off, but that wasn't at all the same. Ginny didn't think she was particularly high maintenance, but that was a bit much even for her.

"Super Mario? Really?" She giggled at that thought. "Did you ask for his autograph? Or maybe if Luigi or Princess Peach were around. Or maybe that would be a bad idea, he's probably looking for Peach. Where did you see him, picking mushrooms?"

[Jemima Rennal]

"Even my dad likes Disney songs." Jem agreed, accelerating off towards the freeway. "Last summer I caught him singing and dancing to Under the Sea." There was even a hula skirt involved, but Jem had been sworn to secrecy over that - she reckoned he'd been drinking too many scotches on the patio.

"Yeah! It's all cute and pokey. We're sharing a room, but that's okay right? It's not like I'm going to sexually harass you in the night." The blonde girl chattered comfortably, before glancing over for a second. "We can stay up late." She paused, before gesticulating rather dangerously with both hands off the wheel. "Swapping manly stories! And in the morning?" Another dramatic pause. "I'm making waffles." Yes. She had just quoted Shrek in the car. This was a totally normal Jem thing to do.

As the pair got onto the main road off to Rhode Island, Jem opened up the windows to let the wind roar in, nodding her head. "I pretty much stalked him singing the Mario theme. I just couldn't stop myself, it was a mario compulsive disorder. I think he got pissed off and went into the men's loo just to avoid me." She admitted with a laugh. "He was walking downtown, but get this." The girl turned in her chair, flicking a glance at the road to make sure she wasn't going to drive into someone.

"He had JUST come out of the plumbing repairs shop. I nearly died with all the delicious irony." She nodded, laughing, before flipping open the glovebox. "There's some gummies and chocolate in there. Help yourself."

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny obediently popped open the glove box, leaning forward to rummage through it for the promised candies.

"Ha! Poor guy, he probably is sick to death of the Mario theme." Ginny grinned, pulling the bag of chocolates onto her lap. They were mostly melted, and by the time she'd finished unwrapping even one her hands were sticky. "I would have done the same." She confessed, waving the bag in Jemima's direction with one hand and licking the chocolate off the other. "Want one?"

The signs outside the window informed her that they'd already left Pilot Ridge, left behind her father and her step-father and her step-brother and all the drama that had occurred. Drama she hadn't even informed her father she knew about yet. She would have to tell him at some point. Just not now.

The song changed from Aladdin to 101 Dalmatians, which reminded Ginny of her dads' new dog. She'd never had a dog growing up, so she was a tiny bit jealous of Niko. But only a tiny bit. "I should totally get an apartment," She told Jem, not announcing her transition. "Then I could have a dog of my own."

[Jemima Rennal]

Jem reached over to grab a chocolate and tutted as she got the chocolate all over her hands, throwing it down her neck and then sucking on her fingers with one eye on the road. "Delish." She decided, even though they were melting they were still just as good.

"Hey, Gin?" Jem said suddenly as the signs whizzed past them. "How's stuff been?" The words were vague, her friend had seemed kind of stressed out over the past few weeks and she didn't want to press her too hard. She added a smile to her question, then scowled as a man overtook them and then nearly crashed into another vehicle. "God what an ass."

When Ginny mentioned having a dog, Jem let out a little squeal. "Awww, that would be awesome! Could I come visit with the bunnies?" She tilted her head and looked over, pinching another chocolate and leaning back in the seat. "When I turn 18 I'll try and get an apartment, I guess." She pondered. Would she stay in Vermont much after her power was sorted and she'd passed her grades though? Probably not; Canada was home after all.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny shrugged nonchalantly at Jem's question. She couldn't very well tell all her friends about MSAD and her dad getting kidnapped, particularly not when both her dad and Chase had made such a point of keeping it secret. She didn't agree with the secrecy, but she also knew she couldn't betray that trust. Mia she could tell if only because she'd gotten Mia involved in the first place, and the technopath already knew about MSAD.

"Mmmm." She offered helpfully. "Okay. Dad and Chase got Niko a dog. And finals were a bitch, oh my god I hate English. I wish I got dad's English skills, that would be so useful." She enjoyed reading, so long as the stories had action and adventure and she didn't have to think too hard about symbolism and themes. She was pretty sure that was all BS to make people look more intelligent, a stance her father didn't appreciate.

"Signing up for next semesters classes soon. And Nat is gonna come up with me! We so both need jobs, we could rent a place together. That would be fun." She was super excited about her cousin's acceptance into the University of Vermont. They would have so much fun!

"Dude, yes!" She agreed easily to the idea of Jem visiting with her bunnies. "I'll make sure and get a bunny-friendly dog." She might have to get something small in that case, but that was fine; a large dog might not work so well with an apartment anyway. "Are you gonna go away for college? Cause the dorms are okay. You know. I mean, at least they're on campus. Roommates are....mine suck, but whatever."

[Jemima Rennal]

"Awww, what kind of dog? I wanted one but 'cause Dad works full time and Mum has the bakery, we decided we'd wait till I'm back from Hammel." Jem wasn't particularly good at reading cover-ups anyway, so she saw nothing more than Ginny's stress from Finals. "Oh I'm good at English." She grinned over at her friend, before laughing. "You have a chocolate mole on your face."

Scratching the back of her head, she pulled off the main road to go down a country road, prefering the scenery and the windy-ness. "If you need a hand in English, poke me on facebook and I'll come help." Jem smiled, pushing her hair behind her ear and nodding her head to "Everybody Wants to be a Cat".

However, when the topic turned to what Jem was going to do once Hammel was out, she frowned. "I'm not sure. I'm torn between sticking around in Vermont to get an internship in the research department at Hammel, and going back home to Canada, going to uni and studying hard enough so maybe I can help people understand why people get certain powers. I mean, I don't get why I ended up with the power I did... but your dad... he got what he got." She frowned.

"I'd like to know those kind of things." She smiled, and then looked over. "But yeah, I like my dorm mates, I just think I'd like the bunnies to have more freedom. They can hop around in my apartment all day and I can cook greek food." Jem paused. "You reckon there might be a greek restaurant en route?"

[Ginny Campbell]

"He's some sort of husky or something." Ginny wasn't really up on dog breeds, but she was pretty sure that was what the dog was. It was big and looked husky-like, anyway. "But I can totes see why your parents wouldn't want one, if you can't care for them it'd be a pain."

She wiped at the spot on her face Jem indicated until she felt something, then took a look at her fingers. Yup. Chocolate.

"Oh, great, I'll definitely harass you if I'm stuck on the symbolism in Lord of the Flies or whatever BS we're working on." She agreed amiably, "You'll be ten times less annoying than dad, he gets pissy when I point out how much of English is BSing."

She sympathized with Jem's dilemma. She would have had an easier time with those choices, because her dad and Chase and Niko were all here, in Pilot Ridge and the City wasn't nearly so far away as Canada, and didn't require a passport or visa to go back and forth between.

"Mmm, That would be interesting," She agreed. She sometimes wondered why she didn't have any powers when her father did, and Jordan did as well, but nobody else in their rather large family was meta. It would be an interesting area of study. "I think you should go to college." She suggested after a moment's silence, "That way you'll have more opportunities. I'm sure they'll let you intern at the research lab if you come back later."

The suggestion of Greek food made her perk up her ears, and she slipped her phone out of her pocket. "And that is why phones have the internet." She quipped, pulling up said internet and doing a quick search for Greek restaurants in the area. "Uhhh, how 'bout Mykonos? There's also Greenstreet....that doesn't sound that Greek to me, but it says that it is....or Ahli Baba's Kabob shop. Is Ahli Baba Greek? I thought that was more middle eastern...but they spell it A-H, maybe that makes a difference...."

Whatever, the internet said it was a Greek restaurant, and she had no other way to gauge whether or not that was true. May as well go with it.

[Jemima Rennal]

"Ooh, huskies. They're super high energy according to the internet, so I hope James and Chase are up for that." Of course Jem knew that. Every animal and plant on the planet's information was stored up in that head. Even bacteria. Microbes. "I've always wanted a labrador. They're so happy looking and they're super friendly. Of course, not so great for my power I guess, but I'd use a wolf if I was going to absorb DNA from a canine."

She did laugh a bit that Ginny was apparently trying to go for a beauty spot, but hey, at least it was a delicious one.

"Blah blah, metaphor use means that the author is trying to envelope us in blah's feelings. For example, blah blah." Jem rolled her eyes, listing off a staple of her essays. It was easier after fanfic writing for years to figure out what it was authors and poets wanted from their characters, though she still fiercely wished there was a little more shipping in stories these days. Romantic tension. Y'know?

As long as Spencer promised to come to uni in Canada with her, then her decision was easy. If she didn't, well, that'd make it way tougher, but she'd definitely be showing up in Vermont again before the end of the world. "That's a good idea. I know I really want to help people get their powers, y'know?" She shrugged, then looked over at the stretch of road ahead of them. "Less serious business now, I'm feeling all... Sean right now." She gestured.

But then Ginny made it all better by hunting out a Greek restaurant, and the girl let out a whoop of delight. "Mykonos sounds good, gimme a poke when we get there and if it sucks then we can complain loudly or something." She shrugged, scratching her nose. As long as they had delicious food, she wouldn't care. "I'll take care of the ordering though, I frickin' love Greek food. If it was a person, I'd marry it and have at least 22 delicious tasting children."

She paused a moment.

"Uh. Repeat that statement in your head but with ninety nine percent less creepy child molester."

[Ginny Campbell]

If she'd been asked the same question a few years ago, Ginny wouldn't have hesitated to say that Chase, at least, could keep up with a husky. Since last summer in general, and the whole MSAD fiasco in particular, she was less keen to agree, though she wasn't about to admit any of that to Jem, so she simply said. "They keep up with a ten-year-old, pretty sure they could do a dog, too."

She nodded as her friend shared her essay tricks, though she doubted she would remember them. She agreed that there was a degree of BSing present, but she was never very confident in her skills coming up with appropriate themes and symbols.

"Yeah, that's reasonable. And useful, a lot of people seem to think they got bum powers, but they should learn to appreciate what they have. Anything could be useful sometimes." Easy for her to say, of course, when she didn't have one herself.

"Oh, please," She scoffed at the comment about Sean, "Doc N isn't that serious all the time." Well, he was pretty serious, even at her dad's holiday parties, but he had a lighter side. It was just darker than most people's. "Besides, have you seen the rumor blog? I'll bet he writes that, he has access to everyone's heads already."

She cracked a grin at Jem's enthusiasm regarding Greek food. "Uh-huh. Good thing I'm not a child or I would be running away from you right now." She teased, leaning her arm against the window sill. "But yeah, you can do the ordering, I'll trust your judgment." She peered out the window at the billboards flashing by. "I'll let you know before we get to the exit. If they don't have a sign, but you'd think they would, that's what signs are for, to let people know you exist. They want people to come, I imagine, so a sign makes sense."

[Jemima Rennal]

"Madness. I think kids are sweet but I always worry they're going to go all tantrum and roar at me." Jemima said thoughtfully. Her mum's sister had a little girl who acted so sweet all the time, till you told her go to bed, then it was like Satan had possessed her. It was scary, Jem had sworn never to babysit alone ever again. "But I've met Niko a few times, he seems like a good kid." She nodded, then frowned as a car jerked out in front of them.

Muttering something about getting to the coast in one piece, she restrained herself from laying on the horn and rolled her eyes. "I think all powers are cool. Even not having a power is cool because your body IS a power." She rabbitted on cheerfully. "Those cells all fixing you up, fighting colds, sending signals everywhere, it's incredible." Jem grinned, grabbing another chocolate and sucking it from her fingers. "If you had to choose a power though, what would you pick? I mean, like... there's so many and with everyone you know pretty much meta human, you must have thought about it?"

She did laugh at the thought of Sean chilling out at a holiday party with a whisky and a festive hat, but she still couldn't imagine him going hula dancing, or playing twister. Maybe she'd have to ask him sometime. "Oh YEAH I've seen that." She exclaimed. "I don't think it's Dr. N. Maybe... Iunno. Someone bitchy with telepathy or something. I do feel kinda glad I'm not in it yet though. Only a matter of time, mind." She shrugged. Roll with the punches and all that. Not much anyone could do about someone posting rumours on a blog.

As the pair continued on their journey, Jem enjoyed the whish of air in her face, almost completely in the driving zone when a sign alerted her to the restaurant. "Hey look!" She said, pointing over and getting ready to turn off at the next exit. "We should make it to Rhode before midnight too, traffic is way better than I thought it'd be." And that meant they could have an epic sleep before surfing time and breakfast. Epic.

"Hey Gin? Reckon we can build a giant sandcastle while we're there too? Like one of those ones on the TV that are about 50ft wide?"

[Ginny Campbell]

"Everyone's got bad days, I guess. Even kids." Ginny shrugged. She didn't date and rarely even had crushes (okay, so there was that one cute guy in her English class she'd liked for all of a month before she'd talked to him and found out he was actually kind of dumb. Seriously, he acted like it was such a surprise that the teacher wanted them to say Native American instead of Indian. What school system was he from, anyway?) so she never really looked in the future and saw marriage, let alone children, though she knew her mother would love to have grandbabies.

So, for that matter, would her dad.

He was such a mother in that regard.

As the other car zipped in front of them, nearly clipping the front of Jem's car, Ginny inhaled sharply, tensing to prevent herself from being flung forward into the front window as her friend tapped the brakes. "Crazy drivers." She muttered, rubbing her neck, "I am so gonna need a massage after this drive. God, who teaches the people around here to drive?"

The question about powers brought a grin to her face. "Not everyone I know has powers." She corrected. Her mom didn't, nor did Peter. Nor did any of her friends growing up in New York. Not even one had ever been sent to Hammel. And none of her friends at university were from Hammel, either, although Annie's sister attended.

"But if I could have annnnnny power. Any at all. Wow, that's a hard decision." She admitted, squinting out the window. "Maybe telepathy. Cause then I would know if someone was lying to me." For instance, she would have known what was going on with her dad that much sooner.

The first bitchy person with telepathy to come to mind was Aki, but she couldn't see the younger girl finding a rumor blog all that fun. She liked more physical pranks. And while Mia had the means to find things out about people and could be cruel in her assessments of them, she wasn't that interested in other people's sex lives, and besides, Rumor had been just as cruel to the technopath as the tiny girl was to others.

"It's probably someone nobody would ever suspect." She disputed, sure that whoever ran it was the last person anyone would accuse. "Hence, Doc N. He has the means to know and he comments on it all the time. All. The. Time. Sock puppet, much?"

She clapped her hands together as Jem pointed out the sign to Mykonos. "Sweet!" She exclaimed, stomach rumbling at the promise of food. "Thank you, traffic gods, for keeping the way clear for us. Except, you know, the assholes who keep trying to cut us off."

She gave a pointed glare in the direction of the car that had nearly caused an accident, though by this point it was so far ahead of them she couldn't even see its tail lights.

"Hell. Yes." She perked up at the thought of giant sandcastles. "I don't even know how people do those, but we will find out and we will make one and it will be so awesome. It will be my profile pic on facebook."

[Jemima Rennal]

Jem sort of wanted to settle when she was older. Maybe have a cute little girl or something with a guy and raise her on a farm or something. She just was frightened she'd end up like her biological mother and end up dumping them, and she couldn't forgive herself if that happened. "Yeah, it's true. Only yesterday I had an attack of non-pms and pretty much roared at my roomie for offering me a cup of coffee. Apologised later though, I felt like a prime bitch." She frowned.

"I can try and do a neck rub later, I was reading this book on acupressure so maybe that'll help." She shrugged, glancing over at the car. "I don't know, what a frickin' asshole." The blonde girl cursed, shaking her head like a disappointed mother.

She did admit defeat when Ginny said not everyone she knew had powers. She was the same. Her mum and dad were non-meta, so were her synchronized swim team back in Canada. Her best friend at home was non-meta, in fact... she only knew one guy who was meta, her first year math teacher. Weird. "Telepathy sounds cool, just sucks about the headaches and TMI you get from it." She grinned, driving off down the side road.

"I feel bad for the people in that blog." She admitted, looking over to Ginny. "Having their lives just put out in public, it must feel shit." Jem couldn't think of anything particularly interesting that Rumor could blog about her. She had a crush on Nintendo. She was a bit of a weird dresser? Whatever.

As the pair drove into the restaurant carpark, the girl had a big stretch and a yawn. "Thank god, my butt was going a bit numb." She laughed, turning off the stereo and turning to Ginny. "Right, how hungry are you on a peckish to "oh my god if I don't eat soon I am going to die" scale?" Jem asked cheerily, unbuckling her seatbelt and finishing parking.

As for the mystery of the epic sandcastles, she pondered this for a moment. "Ass loads of buckets, I reckon, but hey, it'll be nice to do it after surfing. Maybe we can get some cute guys to help." She frowned. "Though some of the surfer guys are kind of the biggest sleazebags ever. If anyone starts giving you trouble I'll get some jellyfish DNA and go sort 'em out." She gave Ginny a thumbs up, then slid out of the car.