A Mermaid's Tale~Emma Gilbert

1.4.1

"See that guy over there?" "Want me to take him?" "Yeah, out of here" Harper nods and he looks over curiously. "What's up?" "Watch" The two watch him as he looks over girls passing by, smirking. "Oh...I see your point. What should we do?" "Anything to get the perv away" Harper scoffs. She notices his gaze locked onto Stella, or more like her backside and her jaw clenches in anger, her eyes growing darker. "Immediately"

"Hey, guys" Lewis was standing beside them. "Lewis! Perfect timing. We both know you're not here to surf" Harper starts off. "Oh, God..." "This is serious." Flynn nods his head at the guy who had finally moved to stand with a group full of girls, checking them all out while he 'learned' to surf. "Who is that?" "Some creep who only payed to check out girls. We need you to get rid of him" "Just me? Alone?" "Pretend to bond, lead him away, whatever. Get rid of them and call me once he's distracted" "Ugh! You owe me!" "Forever in your debt, my dude" Flynn pats his shoulder.

Lewis grumbles, walking towards the guy. The two talk for a minute or two before Lewis and him start slowly walking away. "I think we found a job for him" Harper comments. "We'll talk business later. We have customers" Flynn reminds her and she nods, both of them moving to work. Harper walks towards a group with Miriam, Emma, Cleo, and one of Miriam's minions. Miriam and her minion were talking and Cleo and Emma were talking with Rikki who had apparently abandoned the booth.

"Sorry about the wait. We had a bit of an issue" "Finally" Miriam huffs. "Watch it" Rikki warns her before her, Cleo and Emma send Harper a curious look. "I'll explain later" She stands in front of the group and Rikki moves back to the booth to trade with Flynn. "Okay, now, first off, we start with your positioning on the board. Let's start with your footing. One foot should always be in front of the other. There are two terms for it. You're either a 'Goofy Surfer' or a 'Regular Surfer'" "What are you?" Miriam wonders, her arms crossed as she stands beside her board.

"A 'Goofy Surfer'?" Her minion adds and the two smirk. "Actually, I am." "What does that mean?" Cleo asks curiously. "It means I surf with my right foot up at the front" Harper sets her board down sideways into the sand so the group can see and gets on the board, mimicking her stance. "So what, you just pick which foot to put in front?" "No, the footing depends on your reflexes. If you based it on which foot you wanted up front, it wouldn't be called 'Surfing', it'd be called 'Diving'" Emma and Cleo both laugh as Miriam and her minion roll their eyes.

"And before you ask, there are two ways to tell which foot you put forward. Either you can determine it by kicking a football and whichever foot automatically moves up to meet it would be your front foot, or someone pushes you from behind and whichever foot you use to catch yourself would be your front foot" Harper explains. "And how exactly do you know this? Did someone teach you to surf as well?" "I taught myself" "Then why should we be trusting you?" "Fine, don't listen. I don't care. Go ahead, let's see you surf" Harper motions out towards the ocean, giving the two an expectant look.

The two glance at each other before shrinking back and Harper nods. "Now, I have a football here if you don't trust me and want to give it a shot, or I can push you lightly. I'd prefer the push though because that really tests your reflexes" Emma and Cleo shrug, moving towards Harper. Cleo turns around. "Are you ready?" "Yes" Cleo nods. "Okay, remember, don't think about it, let your reflexes guide you" Cleo nods, and Harper gives her a gentle push. Cleo's left foot catches her.

"You're a 'Regular Surfer'" Harper smiles. "Yes!" Cleo fist pumps. Miriam pushes Emma out of the way with a huff. "Do me already" Harper sends Emma an apologetic look before pushing Miriam and Miriam catches herself with her right foot. "You're a 'Goofy Surfer'" Miriam turns to look at her with a scowl. "I'm more 'Regular' than all of you combined!" She argues. "There's nothing wrong with it, Miriam. It just means your front foot is your right foot" Harper shrugs. "Try it again!" Miriam demands. "Fine" Harper gives her another gentle shove, her right foot stopping once again, though Harper could tell Miriam tried to switch the foot. "Still a 'Goofy Surfer'"

"Whatever! I'm going to the way better surfer! You dont know what you're talking about. Come on" Miriam motions for her sidekick. "But-" Miriam marches off to Byron, dragging her minion with her, making sure to shoulder-check Harper as well. "I'm so sorry, Harper. She's like this with everyone" Cleo quickly says. "Trust me, it doesn't surprise me. At least now I don't have to deal with her attitude and her bitchy-ness" "Can I try now?" Emma asks hopefully.

Harper nods and Emma turns her back towards her. Harper feels suddenly nervous. She slowly raises her hands, gently pushing Emma and Emma's left foot saves her. "Regular Surfer" "Cool" Emma nods, though she stares out at the water wistfully. "I'm sorry you guys can't surf anymore" Both frown as they look out before Emma turns to look at her, shaking her head. "It's alright. You can do all the surfing. You're good at it anyways" Emma assures her and Harper nods. "Would you like to move on to the next step?" Harper motions towards their boards and they nod.

"Okay, now that you know your front foots, it's all about positioning on the board itself. If you're too far on one side, you're most likely not even gonna get up on the board at all. Now, for all of the beginners, we made sure the boards had a 'Stinger'" Harper kneels down beside the vacant board Miriam's minion had been using, tracing along the line running through the center. "Both feet should be centered. You don't want one foot on one side, one on the other. Both your arches should be equally positioned over the 'Stinger'. And not only that, you have to make sure you're not so far back or the opposite, it has to be a little bit less than halfway, more towards the back of the board" Harper demonstrates first, just to give an example.

She motions for them to follow suit and they do, Cleo's feet a little bit off. "Almost, Cleo, just, uh" Harper gives her a questioning look. "Of course you can help" Cleo agrees with an amused smile. "Right" Harper moves her a little, moving her feet a little bit farther apart. "There. If you remember this positioning, you should be good to go on that end" She turns to look at Emma who was watching her curiously. Harper looks over her positioning before nodding with an impressed smile. "Very good, Emma. Let's move onto the next lesson, shall we?" She moves back towards the front where her board is.

"You've got the feet positioning down but you also need to make sure your upper body and even lower body are in the right position as well. Everything has to work together or else you'll lose balance" Harper moves to stand on her board, showing off her stance. "Now, like a lot of other things dealing with balance, your feet have to be shoulder width apart, if it's too wide" Harper moves her legs farther apart. "That's gonna be really uncomfortable, first off, and the feet positioning also determines your speed. If your legs are like this and you need to slow down, this is gonna do nothing for you because all of your muscles and weight are being used to keep your legs spread apart. But, if it's shoulder width" Harper moves her legs back, "Easier control. Try the difference"

She motions for them to try and both practice moving their legs to feel out the difference. "And remember where to keep your feet. It works best to keep them on that center line or else you'll topple over" Harper reminds them and Cleo fixes her feet positioning. "As for your upper body, you should keep it leaning a little bit forward to give the board the momentum it needs. But also remember to keep it straight. If you're like this" Harper slouches her shoulders dramatically. "That won't give you any control. You probably won't even be able to get up on the board. But if you're like this" Harper straightens her back. "You'll be fine. Another thing, always make sure you're bending your knees. That's how it should be with most things you do anyways."

"Only slightly bent though, and you have to also make sure your knees are pointing towards each other, like so" Harper demonstrates. "Doing so will make it much easier to shift your hips and control your speed. It'll also help you do some cool tricks as well" Harper motions for them to try and with some help from her, they eventually get it. "Doesn't seem that bad. I could have been a surfer" Emma comments. "That was the easy part. The hard part is actually managing to get yourself up on your board" Harper smirks. "I'm guessing there are a lot of steps and stuff for that as well?" Cleo asks and Harper nods. "Sounds fun" Emma sighs out and Harper chuckles before getting to work on showing them how to pop up on their boards.