I'm nervous. The day of the competition has finally arrived and I can't seem to relax. I want to crawl under my sheets and pretend to be sick.

"Taylor?" Aunt Lana calls as she knocks on the door. I'm tying my hair into a ponytail as she comes in. "You ready? The car's all packed to go."

"I struggle with the ponytail, my hands slipping through the blonde strands. Eventually I give up and sigh out.

"I take that as a no?" She says as she walks over. "Here let me try." I hand over the scrunchie and let Aunt Lana work her hands until she forms the perfect ponytail.

"I'm nervous," I confess. "What if this was all a mistake? I can't go against those girls, they've been surfing for years!" I think of Ida. She's yet to take me up on my offer to talk. Today at the competition, would be my first time seeing her since the luau.

"Well, I can understand being nervous. But Taylor, if I didn't think you were ready or Kai, we wouldn't let you put yourself out there like that. It's all a matter of confidence. You've got something in there girl." She says as she smoothes my hair back. "Now's the time to let it out."

━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

There are hundreds of people, sitting on towels and chairs, propped under large umbrellas and camped along the beach. Judges sit at a table under a booth on one end. On the other is where the surfers are to sign in. This year the competition is really directed at the female surfers.

Thanks to Becca, I have a board, though I miss my own. I've grown accustomed to Becca's board though, since I've been practicing so much with it. Aunt Lana and Uncle Mike head to find somewhere good to sit, where photographers and people with video camera aren't blocking the view. It's when I'm signing in that a hand loops around my waist, strong and caring. Lips carress my neck and I smile.

"Hey!" I say as I turn around and give Kai a hug. He responds heartily and hugs me back.

"Hey! You ready to win?" He asks. I place my number against my stomach and follow him away from sign in.

"Yeah, or lose." I say with a shrug.

"You won't lose. You're too good."

"So's everyone else," I quickly respond. I look around and manage to locate a few other surfers. They're stretching, laughing, or enjoying themselves while I'm freaking out. I even spot Ida, who looks stunning in a black two piece, her hair wild around her face. She doesn't need to do any crazy rituals, she's got this in the bag.

"But you're not everyone else. You're not Ida either." He says and I frown at that. How does he knew I'm thinking of her? "Just be yourself Taylor and you'll be fine."

━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

The competition begins after an announcer gives the usual wecome. He then begins to go through the rules, most of which I know already. The first part of the competition is strictly half an hour of catching waves. Depending on the height and how long. You ride it, are explained as authors.

I walk toward the edge of the water along with the other females. Beside me stands Ida.

"You don't have a chance," she says with a smirk. There's the sound of the countdown in the distance. I grip my board tight in my hand.

"We'll see," I say.

The buzzer goes off and like the other girls, I run into the water. It's cold, but my wet suit eases that most. I start thinking of everything that Kai taught me. Eyes open, I try to pay attention. Then I see it, a good enough wave guaranteed to give me some starter points. I start to paddle toward it. I'm coming to a stand when, already positioned is Ida and she's riding the wave like a pro.

I only catch three waves and theres only three minutes left on the clock. So far I'm in third place, Ida in second. There's a small wave playing toward me. It's not much, but all the other girls have given up, giving me the opportunity to tackle it. The buzz comes as I finish out riding the wave.━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

My chest rises and falls with rushed breaths as I head out of the water. My teeth are chattering.

"Don't give up," Kai says, Becca is comforting Ida, which I don't mind so much since they're friends. I have to accept that as a mature adult.

"I'm not doing a good job of making you proud." I say.

"Stop trying to please me and everybody else. This is about you Taylor," Kai says as she he leans forth to kiss me.

I know he's right.

━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

It's the last part of the competition and in order to win over Ida, I need to gain just five more points. It's a freebase round, where all I really need to do is show the judges I've got some spunk inside of me. I straddle my board, my hands loosely paddling about. With just seven minutes left in the competition, we all wait for a wave.

But I've been waiting the longest. With time dwindling, some of the girls are already heading back. It's jsut Ida and me. I can hear people cheering. I start to go back when Kayleigh's voice stops me.

"Don't." She says and I hasp a little at the loud voice in my head. "You've got this Tay, trust me." Kayleigh's voice is clear, if I close my eyes it's almost like she's relaly here with me.

I start to ignore the voice when I notice the atmosphere of the sea is changing. There's a wave resting at the first layer, a big one. I try to ignore the thoughts, but I can't. The wave rides toward me.

Paddling furhter toward the water, I wait to emet to wave, knowing this will be a big break. Just when I know it's the right time, I prepare to get up.

'You got this.' Kayleigh's voice says again.

━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

There's a complete feeling of accomplishment as the ocean welcomes me like a lost friend. Under my control now, I slap my board against the wave and awaken the slight beast within him.

Standing straight, hunched over a little, I follow the wave.

My eyes narrow some and my hands extend. I shake against the wave, dipping inside to attempt a tunnel for the first time. Surrounded by a tube of water, I let my hands run against the wave with a smile. It's like beign a different world. I feel safe, like a butterfly inside of a cocoon.

Finally, I break out. The board gives out underneath and I fall into the water. There's silence, just for a moment before the judges have calculated everything. I'm compeltely speechless.

━━━━━━━━❀━━━━━━━━

I didn't win the competition, but I came close and maybe in some sense, I didn't really want to. I was surprised to find Mom and Dad, waiting for me with Aunt Lana and Uncle Mike. They came down to visit just for the occasion.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me." Mom says as she pulls me into a hug. "You were fantastic!" She says as she squeezes my shoulder.

"Yeah," her father agrees. "I never knew you could surf liek that."

Trutfully I never did either. In fact, there were a lot of things I didn't think I could do, but I was doing pretty well for the beginning.

"Hey, Blondie!" Ida calls and I face her.

"Good job," she says. It's not much, but it's enough and I know that I've done something.

I didn't want to leave Kaui.

I didn't want to leave Kai and Becca and stop surfing. But just because I was leaving didn't mean I would be forgetting. Aunt Lana and the island showed me a lot of things: things I never thought I would bother to find.

But if there was one thing I could agree it shoed the mot, it would have to be vulnerability. Kaui have me the chance to find a part of me I thought was lost with Kayleigh.

I could come for visits. I could keep in contact. But I didn't have to leave anything behind. Like Kayleigh's spirit, I would take it with me and I would use it t only strengthen me.

Point Break was rare, like the perfect wave.

But you couldn't be hesitant.

Like life, you just had to prepare yourself and take it on, head first.