Luke Powell's Sample Post: Extended Edition It had been a long day. The ideal thing right now would be to get out on the water and ride some waves but the surf was flat. A glum waveless ocean stretched out from the beach.
Luke had been in detention that afternoon with some of his mates for chucking a ball around in the classroom. He thought they might have got away with it had Aaron not had such butterfingers and accidentally lobbed the ball at the back of an unfortunate girl’s head (who then went on to whine and make such a big deal about it that Luke struggled to feel sympathetic).
Luke hated getting into trouble because it made his mom unhappy. He knew she wanted the best for him and hoped that he would keep his head down and get on with his work, rather than drawing attention to himself in his muggle school, but it was hard. School work was boring and he’d much rather mess around and have fun with his friends - it was unfair that not everyone saw it that way.
It was a shame that Loren wasn’t about anymore. Luke thought that hanging out with her might make the lack of waves more bearable but she was in Florida now with her mom and her evil stepdad and it sucked, much more for Loren than it did for him though.
“Hey,” Jaisa appeared beside him, leaning against the rail of the skate pool. “I thought I might find you here since it’s so dead out on the water.”
A couple of the other boys wolf whistled and some of Luke’s particular friends briefly began chanting the “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” song. Luke knew they liked to think that Jaisa was his girlfriend when she wasn’t, but he didn’t mind - they were probably just jealous.
“Ignore them,” Luke told Jaisa, rolling his eyes at his mates.
“How was detention?” she asked with way too much glee in her voice.
“Boring,” Luke wasn’t the sort to come up with witty responses, tending to go for the straight truth.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Jaisa told him, taking an unusually serious tone. She glanced at the group of boys hanging about the skate pool. “Can we go somewhere?”
“Sure,” Luke nodded, flicking his skateboard up with his foot and catching it in his hands. “See you later!” he called over to his friends, who just struck up their stupid “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” taunt again, accompanied by some words along the lines of “lame” about the fact that he was already leaving them when they’d only just been released from detention.
“We could grab some boards from mine and sit out on the water,” Luke suggested as he and Jaisa walked away from the skate park.
“Good idea,” smiled Jaisa.
When they reached Luke’s home, he and Jaisa entered through the front door. He didn’t usually enter through this way but instead preferred to come through ‘the lot’ so he could see everyone. Jaisa wasn’t allowed to know about the lot though, because she’d see things in the open huts that muggles weren’t supposed to see, and that made it hard for Luke. As they’d grown older, he’d tried to distance Jaisa a little by hanging out with the boys most of the time - they were less concerned with entering his private life so long as he showed up to the skate park, or joined them for a surf or a game of volleyball or something, often enough. Jaisa had been his first muggle friend and knew his mother well so it was very difficult trying to keep her out of his life so much.
“Wait there,” Luke told, like he always did because she could only come into the front rooms of the house, where she didn’t have a view of the lot through the windows. “I’ll get the boards.”
“Leanne sick again?” Jaisa spoke innocently but he knew she was teasing him again. “The dog get loose? Or have your undies sprawled themselves all over the house?”
Luke knew she didn’t buy the excuses he gave for not letting her any further into the house, hence she was taking the mick out of them now, but there was nothing he could do about it. He did appreciate that Jaisa didn’t push the subject further than her light teasing however and was respectful of his privacy. She was good like that, but it didn’t help make him feel better about keeping her in the dark.
He reappeared with a couple of boards from the rack at the back of the house and his swim shorts on and then they left again, making their way down the road and around the houses to get to the public beach. The obvious way to get to the water would be to just go straight through Luke’s house and out onto the private section of the beach that belonged to his family but unfortunately he couldn’t do that with Jaisa. That was one thing that his mom was really strict on, something called the Statute of Secrecy, and he knew that was one rule he could not get away with ignoring.
Jaisa deposited her t-shirt on the beach (she already had on a bikini top and a pair of beach shorts) and then the two of the paddled out from the shore on their boards. They went a little way out on the calm water before sitting up astride their surfboards.
“What was it you needed to talk about?” asked Luke, bobbing gently as the non-existent waves rolled slowly by. These days he’d tried not to talk too much with Jaisa – if she found a way to get him to spend time with her alone, they usually did some fun activity where he could keep her from asking too many questions.
“Oh,” Jaisa hesitated. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to be moving back to Canada when we’ve finished school.”
“What?” Luke looked at her, surprised.
“I know you’re going somewhere else to,” said Jaisa, because Luke had told her that he wouldn’t be going to the local secondary school when he was finished with elementary because he had received a scholarship to a boarding school elsewhere (and had insisted he didn’t know much about it except that they were very strict about communication with people outside of the school). He hated to think what Jaisa might speculate about him and all his secrets. “But I wanted you to know anyway because I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back here for the holidays like we talked about.”
A part of Luke felt relieved, because Jaisa going back to Canada meant that was his biggest worry concerning keeping his magical abilities a secret in the muggle world would no longer be around, but then he felt guilty for feeling that way. Jaisa was his best and oldest muggle friend and she deserved being thought of as something other than a problem. And he was disappointed that he wouldn’t see her when he returned home from school for the holidays.
“But why?” Luke frowned, feeling confused by Jaisa’s news. He knew she was born in Vancouver and had family there whom she visited with her parents in the holidays but she’d been living in Malibu for as long as Luke could remember. “What about the restaurant? I thought it was going really well – your parents only just had it all redone.”
“We’re not selling the restaurant,” Jaisa told him, her eyes looking down at her hands as she ran them through the water. “My mom’s staying here.”
It was all a bit clearer now but Luke still didn’t fully understand. “So your parents are divorcing?” he asked for confirmation. “Jaisa, why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Luke hated to think that he’d been so concerned about keeping his friend at arm’s length that he hadn’t even noticed things weren’t great for her these days. He wished that she could rely on him and he wished more than anything that she could have sought refuge in his house when things got too much with her parents at home.
“No, they’re separating,” said Jaisa firmly. Luke didn’t think there was much difference but he didn’t say so because Jaisa obviously wanted to believe there was. “I know, I know you’re here for me, Luke,” she smiled at her friend, assuring him that she did value their friendship. “I just didn’t think you’d want to hear it…” she trailed off for a moment and Luke could tell she was slightly nervous to say what she said next, “since your parents were never together, in your lifetime anyway, and I know you’d never say it but you might not think I have a place to complain.”
Luke was touched by Jaisa’s sentiment. He didn’t like his parental situation and tried not to talk about it negatively but the way Jaisa spoke now, he knew she wasn’t insulting him or anything like that. “It doesn’t matter,” Luke shook his head. “I’m here to listen to any of your problems, whatever they are. That’s what friends are for, right?”
“Right,” Jaisa beamed, in spite of her obvious misery at talking about her parents.
Luke couldn’t find it in his heart to regret emphasising the fact that they were friends but he didn’t have much time left to hang out with Jaisa, so he thought he should probably not waste it trying to keep his distance.
“I’m going to miss all this,” said Jaisa, gesturing to the ocean and back to the beach with her arms.
Luke nodded. He understood; life at Sonora was going to be hard enough being away from his family and friends for so long but being away from the ocean would be worse. At least in Vancouver, Jaisa would be close to the water, whereas he’d have nothing.
“And you,” his friend added.
“And me what?” Luke had lost track of what she’d been talking about. There had been a pause, in which his mind had drifted off to imagine what it would be like at Sonora.
“I said I’ll miss you, silly,” Jaisa giggled, flicking some water at him.
“Hey!” Luke protested, smiling. At least Jaisa looked happy, an improvement from her brief despondence earlier. It couldn’t be easy for her – she’d always seemed close to her parents so being apart from one or the other would be difficult. He wondered why she was going to Canada with her father, rather than remaining in California with her mother but he wasn’t going to ask, not now that her pink lips had resumed their usual pretty smile anyway.
In revenge he decided to tip over her surfboard. Jaisa shrieked and fell in the water but they were both laughing. Then Jaisa was tugging at his leg, before grabbing his arm and pulling him into the chilly sea. He didn’t resist a great deal and landed into the water with a splash. Instead of leaning on his own surfboard like Jaisa was, Luke joined her. He put his arms up on her board, opposite her, to keep himself afloat and then leant over and planted an impulsive kiss upon her lips.
It wasn’t the first time he’d kissed her but he thought it might be the last.