Chapter 5 - Another day in paradise

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This whole 'not giving our names away' thing was going to prove difficult. As soon as my dad greeted me he called me T. Now I know this isn't exactly giving the game away much, but T is a nickname my dad always gave me. He didn't like Castiel as a name but my mom adored it so she would always correct him when he didn't say it properly. I quite liked my name personally, but my dads nickname wasn't bad either. Sounded kind of cool and gave us that extra bit of a connection, as no one else called me that.

So he called me T, and usually right about now my mom would chirp in 'Oh heavens Tom, call our angel baby Castiel for once' but luckily she was distracted talking to Mandy about how cute we looked with surfer hair. Thank God, I would have died right there and then if she'd corrected dad. But this gushing right now was almost as embarrassing.

I don't think this kid heard my dad anyway as he was already sulking next to his dad. I wonder what that was about. He seemed stoked a minute ago after catching his first wave, I thought he'd be bragging about it to everyone. Come to think of it, his parents must have seen, but neither had mentioned it or congratulated him. Maybe they didn't realised how significant it was? They didn't seem to know their son that well, that much was clear.

'Whilst every ones here, I wanna mention that me an 'T' decided not to learn each others names. It's a bit of an experiment so try and not use our actual names around each other please.' He called me T. Only my dad was allowed to do that. It sounded quite nice being said my him though so I didn't say anything.

'Oh ok.' his mom replied. 'We'll call you Star.' He looked super embarrassed by this for some reason but I didn't ask. There was something behind this nickname so maybe his parents knew him better than I thought after all.

As we were making our way over to the cars, Star spoke up 'I guess you can't really call me Tango now that I know your nickname is T. It wont make much sense anymore. But don't you dare call me Star!'

'I'll let you call me T but really only my dad says it. It's just easier for now. See you later then, Star' I winked and walked off. He looked like he wanted to hit me, but I felt a flutter of energy seeing him so worked up like this. This week was certainly going to be fun.

The next morning I woke up my usual early self and got some breakfast. My parents weren't up yet so I gave them a little while. If they were much longer though, I wouldn't be able to get my lift to the club today so I will have to wake them soon.

I decided to give this club a go for the week. It was actually rather good and I may as well stick with it if every day was going to be like yesterday. I was excited to see what today's activity would be and I felt a little like a small child all over again.

I prepared myself for the day and gingerly made my way to my parents room. I knocked but got no response, so I tried again and just walked in.

'Whats going on son?' my dad said peering out of the covers.

'You have to get up and take me to Calactively remember?'

'Oh, so you enjoyed it then? Right, well, give me a few minutes and we'll get going.'

I was pacing around and practically bouncing off the walls by the time my dad was ready. This was so not like me, but I just wanted the rush I got yesterday all over again. Maybe I was finally getting into sports, just in time at school. All this activity stuff wold certainly get me prepared.

As we made or way to the car, we noticed Star and his mom looking frazzled. 'Hey neighbour, everything ok?' Bless my dad, he was so friendly.

'Yeh, er, actually no. You couldn't do me a big favour and drop my kid off as well? I'm supposed to go with Charlton to a meeting in half hour and I'm pressed for time.'

'Sure, it makes sense anyway. You can return the favour tomorrow and give me and the missus a nice lie in.'

'Fantastic, no meetings tomorrow so thats more than ok.'

'Sup?' Star grunted at me and hopped into the front seat. Dammit, I should have got there quicker.

We silently made our way to the beach as I wondered what today had in store. The weather wasn't brilliant and the sea looked a bit choppy when we arrived. No beach fun for us today I assumed.

'Hey guys. Slight change of plan today. As you can see, it's not perfect beach conditions and we were going to be using jets and do a bit of wind-surfing after yesterdays taster, so that will happen tomorrow instead.

Today we will be heading up to one of our cabins and be learning basic nature survival skills for the first half, and will be heading back into town afterwards for some sightseeing. This was suppose to happen tomorrow originally so you're not missing out of anything and I want no complaints. We usually have a chilled day midweek, but we'll just have to have have a chilled tuesday instead.

Now to the minibus.' Tadd had obviously experienced days like this before and felt the need to squash any complaints. I had no complaints however, as I'd always wanted to learn this sort of stuff but never had the chance.

When we got to the cabin, Star went straight up to Tadd for a quick chat. Then they quickly made their way into one of the rooms and a minute later came back out again. Strange. Even stranger thing was they then walked over to me.

'So I hear you two are already pretty good at this stuff and may be pretty bored for the first half so I'm giving you permission to take off and have a quick nature walk. But I want you to make good use of the walk and use some of the skills we would have been going over today. Here is some of the equipment, I want you both back in an hour.' He shoved a pack into my hands and signalled for the rest of the group to head into the teaching room.

'What on earth did you tell him Star?' He turned red at the name.

'The truth. I'm great at this stuff and hopefully in the next hour, I can make you great at it. Lets go, an hour really wont last long T.' Dammit, looks like these nicknames were sticking. Ah well, I got a pleasure out of teasing him with his.

'What were you guys doing in that room back there?' I queried innocently. Well, maybe I was more curious than I wanted to be. No big deal.

'Why? You jealous?' He then winked at me. My tummy fluttered a little but I put it down to uneasiness. Children shouldn't be sneaking off into rooms with men. 'Lighten up T, I was showing him how I would tie a few knots so he knew I wasn't lying. I really am good at all this and you would learn much better from me in real life settings.'

My tummy called down a little now. I felt strangely relieved. And I was kind of excited to get to leave the group and do something with Star. He was cool to hang around with. I then felt suddenly sad. It dawned on me that I was getting close to making a friend with him and this was not good - it just lead to disappointment.

'Why so sad? Come on, lets get going. You will cheer right up.' And with that he took me into the trees.

He was right, the hour flew by. But I learnt so much stuff and it was much more fun than I expected. Definately funner than a classroom. Speaking of which, that was still going on and they seemed to be learning something that Star taught me almost straight away. I made the right choice to go with him.

We sat outside and chatted for a little while until the class was finished. I didn't want to get too close and lose another holiday friend so I kept the conversation general and fun. He seemed to appreciate this also, and at some point in the next 15 or so minutes, I gave in and deicided to be his friend after all.

He was was cooler than any other holiday friend I had met and there was just something about him. I didn't care if we never spoke again after this week, he was interesting enough for me to appreciate the time we were spending together. He could just be a fond memory of my childhood, worth the annoyance of having to say goodbye for good.

'Hey, wanna hang out after we get back later? I know we will have spent all day together but you're pretty awesome to talk to and it beats sitting in a house alone all evening.'

'Sure thing friend.' He smiled when I said this. 'But you still can't learn my name. Makes this memory much more insteresting, don't you think?' He nodded as the class came out, ready to head back to town.

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