Surfing USA {Ginny}

[Ginny Campbell]

As soon as Jem parked Ginny shoved open her door, exiting in a manner more akin to falling than any other method.

"Ravenous, absolutely ravenous. I haven't had anything to eat since lunch and no, chocolate doesn't count." She added, heading off any comments about the melted candies in her friend's car. They were tasty regardless of form, but they didn't count toward keeping her full.

"Sometimes Rumor is kind of funny." Ginny could be a bit mean, herself, so she couldn't fault anyone else for having the same attitude she herself sported, "but sometimes they can cross the line, yeah."

For instance, the comments about her dads. Not. Funny. Definitely not funny when she'd been sure Chase was abusive. It hadn't really occurred to her that was how the other people mentioned on the blog must feel; empathy wasn't her strong point.

"Right. Buckets. I didn't even think about bringing buckets, you reckon any of those hot guys'll have some?" She mused, swinging her purse over one shoulder and racing to the door, hoping to arrive there before Jem so that she could chivalrously open it for her friend.

There may have been some slight competitiveness as a motivating factor, as well.

"I hope this place has good food. Otherwise we're gonna have to take a Mickey D's break ffor shakes."

Maybe they would do that anyway.

[Jemima Rennal]

"I only ate half a bowl of lucky charms for breakfast. There were hardly any left in the packet, and Avi wasn't around so I couldn't pester her for delicious waffles." Jem pouted, shrugging her shoulder. "And all I could hear was your dad going "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" like he did last time I came over and tried to skip." She wrinkled her nose.

She did agree on the fact that Rumor could be funny but also ridiculously harsh. She'd winced at the gossip on Ginny's parents and been totally prepared to beat the crap out of anyone if they mocked Spencer. "I agree. It goes from being kinda lulzy to being really harsh."

Huffing when Ginny ran ahead of her, she scowled. "Urgh cheat!" The manipulator complained, putting her hands on her hips and strolling over. "They probably do great food. But we can stop for shakes around... Iunno. How does 7 sound? We can have late night burgers of joy then." She gave a thumbs up, then trotted in the door.

"And we can probably pick buckets up when we're at the coast. EVERY coastal place has a beach shop. That'll be where we can get your surfboard." She gave a thumbs up, then moved over to the counter. "Uh, hi, table for two please?" She said politely, before being lead over to a corner table and flopping down.

The waitress happily gave the two their menus and Jem hummed thoughtfully. "Well, the Pantzarosalata sounds good for a starter, if only because having beet stained lips is such a massive turn on." She grinned. "The Chtapodi sti schara is totally my starter though. I haven't had octopus in like... five million years." She paused. "Do you want my amazing guide to what I think you should have?"

The girl paused, waggling her eyebrows with a big smile on her face. She knew greek food almost better than she knew biology. Well. ALMOST.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Late night shakes and burgers of joy? How can I say no to that?" Ginny laughed, holding the door open as Jem pranced inside. "You really know how to woo a girl." She fluttered her eyelashes exaggeratedly at her friend, though she was quite serious that she liked the idea.

"Right, maybe the beach shop will have a deal, a bucket for like.....fifty cents. Then we can get fifty buckets and make the most epic sandcastle the east coast has ever seen." She grinned, following Jem following the hostess.

She fell into her seat with grace nearly equal to her friend's, eyebrow climbing as she attempted to read the menu. "Oookay, I can't even pronounce any of this stuff." She admitted, dropping the menu back onto the table. "Just...I don't even. You order for us both. Just nothing with sausage in it." She shivered; sausage was her least favorite food.

"I'll trust you not to screw me over too bad." And if she didn't enjoy any of it, hey, she had the promise of burgers and fries later.

[Jemima Rennal]

"Who DOESN'T like late night shakes and burgers of joy? I mean aside from vegans. Who'd take offence to the dairy and dead cow." Jem shrugged. Can't win 'em all. She couldn't imagine waking up on a sunday morning back at home without a bacon roll and a massive glass of milk, but different strokes for different folks.

Even if there weren't a ton of buckets at the shop, they could always just take four and keep reusing them till the tide came in. Maybe they could make it big enough to actually hide in. "Hey, if we make it big enough we could make it a fortress. And the hot guys can just sit in awe. And chat you up!" She grinned. That was her goal in life. Find Ginny a wonderful handsome dude who could keep up with her.

Now Ginny had given Jem permission to order for her, she scrunched her face up and let out a deep sigh. No sausage. Well, that was easy enough. She didn't think the Greeks were big on sausage anyway. "Patatosalata for starters for you then. It's potato salad, greek style." She laughed, then scanned the mains. "Aaaand... Giouvetsi. It's lamb. In a clay pot. Pretty basic but omnomnom." She encouraged.

"I'd NEVER screw you over. Not like when your dad ambushed me last time I came over. I remember that." Jem laughed. She loved Ginny's dad, he was all shades of cool, but she totally wasn't ready for a James attack when she was still half asleep.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Luckily, I am not a vegan, so we can totally go ahead with your plan." Ginny encouraged. Nothing against vegans, but she wasn't about to change her lifestyle to accommodate not killing animals for food.

She snickered and shook her head at Jem's continued insistence that hot guys would abound at the shore, and that they would be taken in by a giant sand fortress. "Mmmhmmm." She rolled her eyes affectionately, kicking Jem under the table, "That's it, that is exactly why we're building a sand fortress, because we need guys in our life. I have plenty of guy in my life already, thanks." She only had three dads now, she didn't need more guys around. Not that she objected to looking at cute ones, but that was really all she was interested in, usually.

"Ohh, I do like potato salad.": She replied to Jem's recommendations with delight. "And lamb is pretty tasty. I still totally can't pronounce either of those, though, so you still have to order them."

Another snort of laughter accompanied Jem's story about her dad, "Sorry! I can't help it my dad is a ninja. You need to be more careful next time. At least you're not a boy or he'd grill you forever. I thought he was going to fall out when I went with Jonah to the dance. Poor Jonah, I don't even want to know what daddy put him through."

[Jemima Rennal]

Jem wrinkled her nose at Ginny, then laughed. "You're totally going to get married. One day. And I want to be a bridesmaid." The girl insisted, waving eagerly at the waitress to come over. "And if the guys aren't allured in by sandcastles, we can make a giant sandpenis and a pair of boobs." She laughed heartily, grinning broadly. The kick didn't even hurt, and she threw a packet of salt at her friend's head.

"No worries!" Jem chirped at the idea of ordering for the both of them. If they were a couple she was pretty sure she'd be the man anyway. Then they'd have to have a ship name. Like Ginmima. Or Jemny. None of them went together that great anyway, so it was clearly a ship doomed to sink. But Jem could ship salt and vinegar together and come up with a ship name, just give her a few days.

The waitress came over with a smile and asked for their order, and Jem rattled off their starters and main courses, then hesitated when it came to the drinks. "Uh..." She said, totally forgetting about liquid. "We'll have two frappe coffees please." She jutted her tongue out at Ginny, then smiled, passing the menus back.

"There. Food sorted. Now all we need to make this normal is for one of us to be wearing an obnoxious tie." She smirked. Ginny's dad had hilarious taste in ties. And fashion sense, in all honesty, but coming from the girl that thought pink and orange looked okay together, she probably wasn't the best judge.

Wrinkling her nose, she realised she was still thinking of a ship name. "You know, if we were shipped together, we'd have the world's crappest ship name. Jemny. Gimima. They all kind of sound like STDs." The younger blonde girl broke into a grin. Dorky fail.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Maybe." Ginny agreed dubiously, not wanting to get further into the subject of marriage. She wasn't going to deny the possibility; it simply wasn't her top priority.

The change of subjects made her snort out loud, and she covered her mouth with one hand, a fortuitous move as her friend promptly threw a packet of salt her way; it smacked her in the hand, then dropped to the floor. "Jem!" She whispered, leaning down to pick up the salt packet. "That would get some attention, yeah, but not from anyone date worthy." She screwed up her face. It would probably only attract the attention of guys like Zac. Eww.

She unfolded her napkin as the other girl ordered, surveying the waitress discreetly. She couldn't decide if the top would have seemed that low cut on someone with lesser cleavage, which caused her to drop her eyes to her own annoyingly flat chest. So unfair.

"....what?" She looked up when Jem began portmanteau-ing their names. "No, nononono." She shook her head seriously at the names proposed by Jem. "Jemny makes me think of the cricket from Pinocchio. Don't do that." She squinted, tilting her head to look up at the ceiling as if it would provide inspiration. "Maybe....Campnal. Renbell. I dunno." She offered with a shrug.

[Jemima Rennal]

"I think I want a hilarious wedding." Jem rabbited, scratching her head. "Like... with a really awesome Disney cake and everyone dressed as a Disney character." She broke into a grin. "I'd rock up in Belle's dress, because that dress was STUNNING." She paused then, and began putting the salt and pepper packets into pairings.

The white pepper had to do some interracial mixing, because otherwise there'd be some serious white supremacy... and why was she thinking on this so much. Snapping her head back up, she grinned wonkily. "Ew Zac. He's Brock from Pokemon, only less hilarious and more of a douche." Jem flopped backwards and watched the waitress head out back. Hm. She'd ship nice with that waiter over there.

"Stop having boobenvy." She said suddenly, cupping her chest. "Imagine if you had giant boobs, you'd get back ache and have to buy huge tops to fit you." Jem thought Ginny was totally cute the way she was. There was no reason for her to feel inadequate.

Resting her chin on her palm, she listened as Ginny tried to make better ship names. "Renbell sounds like a romantic novel character's name." She laughed a bit, then scrunched up her nose. "Ginn... Ginncent. EW." She started laughing harder. "Okay okay. I'll make one for me. Jemes. Because after the wet nightie accident we're totally ship material." The girl couldn't stop grinning.

"My favourite ship right now is Greek Food with My Stomach. Match made in heaven."

[Ginny Campbell]

"Very nice," Ginny nodded in approval at Jem's wedding plans. If she ever got married she would probably have hers themed, too. Maybe a nice two-tone wedding, and everyone would have to wear checkered patterns. "So are you gonna dictate what characters people dress up as? If we don't have to abide by hair color I wanna be Jane from Tarzan because she's an intelligent woman." A pause, then, "So's Belle, of course."

She hurriedly schooled her expression into one of wide-eyed innocence as Jem called her out on her jealousy, and she squeaked out an unconvincing, "I don't! I'm totally cool with being flat."

...Maybe she needed to work on being more convincing.

She was grateful for the subject change, snorting at the declaration regarding Renbell. "I...I guess I can see that." She agreed, though she was fairly certain it had more in common with bad fantasy novels than romance. But she didn't read much romance, so it wasn't as if she could make a comparison.

"EWW." She almost knocked her drink off her table as she jerked back in alarm at Jem's proposed ships, only just managing to catch it and tilt it upright, though some did manage to splash down the table and onto her legs. "Don't joke about shipping with my dad, that is so gross, Jem!"

[Jemima Rennal]

"Hmm... I think I'd let people go as whatever they'd like, just as long as they made sure no one else was going as their character. I'd be so pissed if there were like... ten Cinderellas." Jem could imagine that too, her in her beautiful gold Belle dress and everyone else as Cinders. Fail. "But I'm writing down that you're reserving Jane." She grinned, grabbing a pen from her bag and writing down on the napkin that Ginny = Jane.

Her brow arched in her hairline as Ginny protested that she didn't have boob envy. "Pfft. Lying fail, Gin." The blonde laughed, happily taking a big swig of her coffee when it arrived. "I like my boobs, I just wish my thighs were a bit smaller." She stared down at them with a frown.

Not helped by LaRousse's snark at them.

Propping her head up with her hand, she paused in arranging the pepper and salt and snorted. "Oh Renbell, save me from the dragon!" She called, putting her free hand on her forehead. "Reminds me of a LotR fanfic I read a few days ago." Jem began, only to stop when the starters were served. "Lovely, thanks." She smiled, then grabbed her fork. "Anyway, yeah, this girl was the daughter of Arwen and Aragon and she got kidnapped by orcs, and somehow Legolas was sent to save her."

She rolled her eyes. Bad fanfics for the lose. "I was TEASING." Jem said, putting her palms up. "Your dad is too old and too gay for me." She grinned, then took a bite of her meal. "Anyway, end of the fanfic and she was pregnant with Legolas' baby and was going to be queen. And everyone wanted to marry her." She facepalmed.

"It's better than the Gimli and Gandalf smut I found, but not by much."

[Ginny Campbell]

"We can't all be Disney Princesses." Ginny sniffed, lifting her chin haughtily. "Someone has to be the fairy godmothers and the mice and the wicked step-families. or Prince Charming, I guess." She rolled her eyes to show what she thought of Prince Charming and his brethren.

"Yeah, I don't want to hear any more of that." She began in protest, but Jem either didn't hear her or took no notice, as she continued on with her story anyway. "Blegh. I don't know what's worse, Mary Sues disregarding and changing the nature of canon with their wonderfulness, or slash writers disregarding and changing the nature of canon and the very personalities of the characters they're writing to shoehorn them into heteronormative gender roles." She made a face before adding, "Don't tell Nat I said that. Or...do. She knows what I think about it. She's totally awesome until it comes to slash. Then she's loco."

She loved her cousin, really, she did, and they had a lot in common, but get Nat on the topic of slash and, well, having a gay dad made some of Nat's ideas a little irritating at times.

"But usually Mary Sue is Arwen's sister, not her daughter. I think daughter is, like, an itty bitty tiny bit better than sister, because at least you can...pretend that maybe in the future she and Aragorn had one, instead of like....yeah, here's this random sister inserted into this family that doesn't even have a mother anymore to make babies with."

She pushed her glass toward the middle of the table as the waitress returned with their food. "But seriously, I like canon. Be kind to it and we'll be friends. Show absolutely no understanding of the canon and ruin it, and don't even talk to me."

[Jemima Rennal]

Jem grinned as Ginny got sniffy, shaking her head. "Maybe I should make it so only the bridesmaids and family can be princesses and princes, and everyone else should be anything else." She paused, laughing. "I hope someone goes dressed as Scar. Or... Mrs. Potts." She beamed at the thought. People would definitely remember her wedding if that happened.

Jem did, indeed ignore Ginny's protest against hearing about the bad fanfiction on FF.net. Mostly because, aside from Isaac - who she regularly assaulted with the laughable star trek fanfiction (Picard and Worf, anyone?)- no one else could fully express their knowledge of Mary Sue fails. "I like when they self insert themselves in a relationship that is already canon. Like when I read a fiction about Narnia. Despite the fact Prince Caspian ends up getting married, this Mary Sue showed up and managed to break them up and steal his heart." She shook her head. "How about just take a dump on the book you just read, that's the literary equivalent."

Jem could imagine having a gay dad would take some of the glimmer and appeal of slash away. She liked the occasional slash story, both malemale and femalefemale, but it sometimes just went against everything in a story and blugh. What a pain in the ass. "My friend back in Vermont is an avid Merlin shipper. I have never seen someone obsess so hard over Merlin and Arthur in my life."

But enough of that, Jem wanted to enjoy her food and not think of how in the slash world no one used condoms and lube, and rape was "kawaii". "This is great. The beet is really tasty." She grinned, nibbling on her starter delightedly. "How's the Patatosalata?"

Pausing to swig some more of her coffee, she looked out the window. "Hey, do you reckon your dad'll mind if I drop over around the Christmas period? I have PRESENTS and I'll need to arrange a flight back to Vermont. I just don't want to burst in on happy Chase and James making out times, or the raging fire of doom when Chase gets into the kitchen." She grinned.

"And then I can abduct you over to mine for a few days over the festive break. There'll be LotR Marathons~" She cooed, making it sound like a massive bribe.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny shuddered at the mention of Merlin/Arthur shipping, and would have continued her rant about disliking slash and the horrid, fetishistic tropes that went along with it, had Jem not changed the subject.

"It's...." She glanced down at her potato salad and speared a chunk on the end of her fork, nibbling experimentally. "Delish!" She exclaimed, eyes lighting up in delight. She'd made a good decision by asking her friend to order for her. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."

She grinned around her potato salad at the question about Christmas. "No way, dad loves Christmas company. We always have a party and stuff and it's awesome." She took another bite of her appetizer, swallowing before she corrected herself, "We usually have a big party. We didn't last year, we were pretty low key, but I'll bet we will this year."

Her grin turned to laughter as she added, "But I hope you have something more than LotR marathons to offer, you know my dad has those, too."

[Jemima Rennal]

"Yay! I'm glad you like it." Jem said cheerily, popping a few more slices of beetroot into her mouth, then flicking her phone open. "Hey, I have a text from Mum!" She piped up, setting the phone on the table and reading it out loud. "Hey honey, Hope you're having a great time with Ginny, tell her we all say hi from Canada." She glanced up with a grin.

Pushing a particularly large olive around with her fork, Jem let out a hmm and tapped her lip. "Alright, how does the 28th sound? It's after Christmas so I get to chill with my family for a while, and you get Christmas without me making snarky comments all the time." She propped her chin up on her hand, then frowned a bit. "Is your Dad okay? I saw him with bandages on his hands a while back. I wanted to ask him but I didn't want to leap out at him."

She smiled a bit, then tried to think of a better bribe. "My mum's a baker so SUPER good bread rolls? My dad doing the hula dance to Under the Sea? Getting to go to CANADA?" She waggled her eyebrows hopefully, then took a big munch of her food. "How about me showing you the local ice rink? It's totally amazing in winter, with fairy lights and tinsel and pretty gold bells."

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny lapsed into silence when Jem brought up her father's injuries last summer. "Yeah." She mumbled, smile vanishing as she poked listlessly at the salad, "Yeah, he's fine."

The discussion of a fairy-festive ice skating rink brought the smile back, however, small but still there. "That sounds gorgeous. Let's do it. I'll bring fairy wings."

Jem clearly knew the way to her heart.

---

The shore was cooler than Ginny had expected, and her polka dot bathing suit, while not a bikini, still didn't protect her from the wild wind. On the plus side, there were massive waves, perfect for pretending she was learning how to surf on.

Pretending being the keyword.

She had thus far managed to wipe out every single attempt she made, and her hair was plastered across her face, seawater stinging her eyes and seaweed making a lovely if unexpected hair decoration.

It was warmer in the water than it was on the beach proper, however, which meant that as soon as she skidded to a halt in the sand she was splashing back headfirst into the waves, laughing.

"I swear I'll get this yet."