The rest of the day was spent doing work as usual, but my mind was down in Hidden Bay, sitting on the beach waiting for that stranger or strangers to come to shore so I could interrogate the shit out of them. Who were they? How did they find Hidden Bay? And most importantly how the hell did they get down there?

Suddenly a thought popped into my head, and I went over to my dad, "hey dad, I think I saw one of the gates left open when we were coming up the lane this morning. Were you moving something into that field or what?" My dad was distracted by something; I could tell as he had gone quiet and hadn't lifted his head in about fifteen minutes.

"What? Oh, close it. The damn gate must be crooked if it keeps popping open like that." Yes! I tried not to show my excitement at being let off the rest of the work, a few of the younger siblings like Crow and Teal were giving me the evil eyes as I walked past them. Sure, we were given free time every day, but it was never before lunch when work needed doing the most.

Deciding against taking one of the horses, I instead loaded one of the ATV's with the gear I would need if the gate were crooked. It wasn't a heck of a lot of stuff, but it'd get the job done if I used my gear correctly, footsteps behind me alerted me to the fact that someone...most likely Teal had approached. When I turned I tried not to groan, it was Teal, and she looked about as happy as a wet cat in the snow.

"What do you want Teal? I'm busy." That was a sentence I had picked up from Jock and Boy year ago, they used to say the same thing to me but because there wasn't as big an age gap between us they had stopped asking it. Now everyone asked Crow and Teal that question more often than not.

I watched as Teal folded her arms defensively over her chest, her scowl grew even deeper.

"You're such a b*tch you know that right?" Most people would be probably shocked at hearing this from a younger sibling, but Teal well Teal was a special case. She was the youngest kid, and like the oldest child in my family she was watched like a hawk, she wasn't allowed out on the farm on her own, she wasn't supposed to go out and mend things by herself. Teal had to stick with either Jock, Boy or dad and because Jock and Boy were busy, it was dad that was giving her lessons on how to do this, that or the other.

She hated it because Jock, Boy, Flick, Lately and I were all allowed out on the farm alone Teal and Crow often made it their business to tell on us at every little turn. It was annoying as all hell, but they did it, and we either had to deal with it or explain our way out of things. Stupid really, but that was like of the Lowry farm.

"I know, I'm top bitch out of all us girls so get out of it Teal. Besides, I know how to fix a crooked gate...do you?" Teal shut her mouth at that question; I knew very well she couldn't repair a gate properly. She was better suited to being with our mum, where she didn't have to lift heavy things, didn't have to get her hands dirty and could mostly stay out of dad's way.

"Yeah well, I still hate you." In the past, like way in the past that might have hurt. But I've heard every single insult from Teal that she could throw my way, so it was words over my head now.

"Stop being a little shit and get back to dad, he's probably wondering where his little runner is." That was an insult Teal could not handle or come back from, in essence, she was dad's runner. Whatever he wanted, be it a hammer or glass of water then Teal had to go and get it. We had all been through that stage, and I f*cking hate it when I had to do it.

Teal didn't say anything else, just gave an almighty screech before stomping off back towards dad and the others.

"You should be kinder to our sister; she's trying to be just like you...Ya know that right?" It was Flick; she always managed to sneak up and scare the sh*t out of me like it was a normal thing to do. Flick was always quiet, never really spoke much but when she did it was usually well thought out and sincere.

"You're sh*tting me, right?" I couldn't believe for a second that Teal wanted to be just like me, she was forever telling on, trying to get me in trouble and all that sort of stuff. At sixteen years old I just assumed she wanted to be mum and dad's most favoured kid. I was pretty sure she didn't want to be anything like me, who would?

"Watch her next time; anyway dad told me to come and help you with that gate. I'm only coming because I know you want to watch the waves for a bit, this way the job will get done either way. Unless it's a bigger job than we anticipate." Feeling relieved that dad had sent Flick to help me instead of Lately or Crow we climbed into the ATV and went down to the gate.

What felt like a three-hour trip earlier that morning turned out to be a twenty-minute ride down to the paddock in question, the Lowry farm was considered a medium size farm as far as New Zealand standards went. In anyone else's hands, it would have been large enough to make a good yearly profit, but my dad wasn't a business minded man, so the farm had taken a nose dive since my granddad had died and the farm stayed with dad.

Almost as soon as we had stopped at the open gate, I could see it had popped open, and it was crooked. Sighing, I began pulling things off the back to set about fixing the gate, but Flick stopped me. "Go have a look at the beach; I'll still be going when you get back up here anyway. Just help me set up a fence unit and lift the gate off the gudgeon." To anyone else that would probably sound like gibberish and nothing else, but I knew what Flick wanted help with so set about putting out the fence pegs that would hold the electric wire off the ground.

It was probably a good thing that the sheep hadn't gotten too curious in the few hours that the gate had likely been open, so they were all probably still on the other side of the hill that sat in the middle of the paddock.

Flick and I made quick work of things, I was glad. I could jog quickly down to the beach and head back up to the ATV in an hour or so; it wasn't too far. "Be back in an hour and a bit Flick, if anyone shows up just tell them I've gone to squat in the trees or something." Flick laughed like it was the funniest joke on the planet before waving me off, I didn't waste time and more or less ran down to the beach.

The path from the Lowry farm down to Hidden Bay was a bit dangerous if you were rushing, after the second 'almost trip' I decided to slow down. A few times I stopped to see if the people were still down surfing, to my surprise they were and it had shrunk down to one person. By the time I had reached the beach the stranger was coming out of the water and...well he was a good looking guy.

I tried not to be so obvious with the ogling, the closer he came, the more I decided to focus on his face. When he was in five meters he offered a smile and small wave, feeling a little nervous I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned. The guy looked familiar but no names came to mind, he, on the other hand, seemed to recognise me quite quickly.

"Chunk! Is that you?" The hellish childhood nickname brought memories of fighting and name calling flooding back into my mind, this guy that I had been admiring I now loathed. Any fuzzy feelings that I had were replaced with repulsion and hate and a little something else that I didn't want to dwell on.

"Ruby is my nickname, not Chunk. What the hell are you doing in my bay anyway? I doubt you would have gotten permission from my dad to walk over our land." I hadn't seen a boat pulled up on the beach and I knew that it was too far to paddle from a safe beach on Smith land around to Hidden Bay.

"I walked here? No seriously, I did. I cut a track down onto the rocks and walked around the rocks, don't look so surprised. There's a flat bench that the water doesn't reach at high tide, so I can surf here all day long if I wanted to." That satisfied the why and how Lou Smith came to be standing on my beach and surfing my waves I hated to admit but it was all legal, and I now not only had to share a planet with him but also a beach and waves.

Without another word I turned and started making my way back up the beach towards the track, there wasn't anything I could do, and I did doubt if I would come back down to the beach again knowing that Lou used it as well.

"Hey Chunk, where ya going?" God how I hated that nickname, the memories alone were bringing tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. Ridiculous really but Chunk had been chanted at my former fat self like some sport, to see how long it would take the big girl to cry. And Lou Smith had been at the centre of it all; he had been the one to call me all sorts of nicknames, had been the one to poke fun at me relentlessly and he had been the first ever guy in high school that I had crushed on.

Call me stupid back then, but deep down I assumed that he would end the charade that was his teasing and plead for my forgiveness before showing everyone that it had been a huge joke and that he had liked me. You know, like how people always say that one of the signs a guy likes you is by his teasing?

Well it never happened, and I turned into a bitter woman because of it, I despised the very name Smith and always stayed away from Lou's family whenever we were out at public gatherings. The other reason I hated him? He got to live the life that I craved; his family farm was flourishing, his parents didn't demand he be at home on the farm to take care of everything, his parents encouraged him to explore and follow his dreams and mine were the complete opposite.

"Unlike you a**hole I've got sh*t to do." I didn't say anything else, just continued to the track and back to the ATV.

When I arrived back at where Flick was it was to find her still struggling to get the gudgeons pulled out and replaced. She smiled at me while stopping what she was doing, apparently, she wanted to hear what I had to say but I wasn't much in the mood for talking.

"Lou Smith was down there." Thankfully I didn't have to say anything, being female and one of the closest in age to me meant that I told Flick almost everything and she spilt almost everything too. In some ways, we were best friends without even realising it. Whenever someone was in major trouble, the other stepped up to take some of the heat, whenever someone was sad the other would try and cheer them up and when one was drunk, the other was sober.

"Well blow me down and f*ck me sideways, seriously? Jeez, sorry your beach is tainted, Ruby. Is he still calling you Chunk? I swear to god if he keeps calling you that I'm going to chop his balls off for ya." Flick always knew how to cheer me up, I was smiling by the end of her little rant and grabbed the hammer to start helping her.

That was the end of the major conversation; everything else was small chit-chat while we worked to straighten the gate.

Note: Have I mentioned yet that there is a lot of swearing in this story? Because there is, consider this your warning :P