A Piece of the Pie (Chapters 35 + 36)

Chapter 35 – Fireworks

"How come you didn't come back last night?" Feo was sitting on the edge of my bed when I woke up, playing with my hair.

"Uhhmm, because your dad could easily use me as a toothpick," I said groggily as I yawned.

Feo laughed and hit me across the head with my own pillow, "what are you talking about, he loves you."

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure if he heard I was doing the horizontal shuffle with his daughter, he would love to see me launched into the heart of a sun."

"Well I guess we'll just have to find some time when he won't find out," she leaned her face over mine and gave me a soft kiss, "now come on and get up. We're gonna go see Uly, she's healing pretty well. Then you've got to get your party hat back on."

"Is that all you do here, fight mutant space aliens and then have afterparties for everything?" I grunted as I tried to sit up in bed.

Feo just laughed and hit me with the pillow again.

Uly was doing really well, she should be up and moving in a day or two. She was really happy to see us, and requested that we save some of the festivities for when she could participate.

While she rests, Feo and Vera wanted to give us a more extensive tour of the city. James joined us as well, and we found a pizza place for lunch. As we still had nothing in the way of money that actually works on this planet, lunch was on the girls again.

Having not been to Earth in some time also meant we hadn't been able to pick up shifts for a while now, hopefully we still have our jobs when we get back.

I actually kind of miss aisle bowling with Sam on the Metro night shift. I wonder if you can get vacation pay for fighting monsters in an alternate dimension?

For the moment, life is good – I'll worry about all that later. Bellies full of pizza, we headed to the park.

"They have basketball on Earth right, any of you play?" James asked as we wandered near to some outdoor courts.

"I've played a little, but not for a while now," I admitted.

"It'll be fine, let's play these dudes."

So I think I mentioned before that I'm pretty decent at basketball –

But come on! Of the eight guys playing on the court already, I don't think any one of them was under seven feet. I hoped for them to be the type of really tall dudes with no shot, or incapable of jumping. Or maybe having just recently regained the ability to walk – but in the ten seconds we took walking up to the court, I witnessed four of them drain a three a-piece.

"What's up James? You down for a friendly game?" the tallest called out as we attempted to look formidable.

"You know it," James replied before introducing us.

All these guys – though incredibly intimidating to play ball against – seemed like cool dudes, just as everyone else we've met on Luno Versa has been so far.

"So, you ladies gonna hang around to admire our skills?" Mouk turned to Feo and Vera as he limbered up.

"Are you kidding," Feo laughed and grinned the widest grin, "as soon as you guys miss enough baskets we're swapping in to save your dignity."

I couldn't help but think she was serious – and correct.

"Alright Jake, James will get the tip-off and pass it to you. You charge the basket," Sam announced in our pre-game huddle.

"Dude? You know I'm terrible at basketball!"

"Yeah, but they don't know that, and you are the least short of all of us, besides James here."

One of the subs on the other team tossed the ball up, and the game was on. Jake did get the ball first, but changed the plan and passed it quickly to me. I dribbled up the court and pulled around the defence for a jumper. I sunk it and got a cheer from Feo and Vera.

Alright, we can do this...

Next I tried for a lay-up, but the ball was somehow swiped from my hands, and less than five seconds later, one of the guys dunked it on our basket.

... okay, maybe not.

After that it all started to go downhill.

The girls eventually subbed in, and Jake and Sam monitored the bench for the remainder of the game with stunned looks on their faces. They claimed they were just too confused out there.

Feo and Vera threw up a couple threes, and even an alley-oop. It was beautiful. Despite this and James throwing down some heavy dunks to keep us alive, it was still a bit of a blow-out – these guys were too good for Feo and Vera to catch up after our dismal start.

We left in good spirits – exhausted ones though – and unanimously decided it was a great time for a swim.

The warm water felt great as I tread on my back, staring out at the first sun starting to drop below the far mountains. They were pretty far off, and only near the peaks was the faintest trace of snow visible.

We all agreed that we were pretty hungry, so we dried off and made our way back up to the castle.

"There are going to be fireworks tonight," Strad was telling us, "you'll be able to see them from all over the city. They're in celebration that we're finally at peace again."

Supper was amazing once again: lasagne – the only thing that is worthy to stand next to pizza.

It was starting to get dark, so Feo and I went to find a good place to watch the fireworks from. This perfect spot happened to be on the roof of a candle shop – it smelled so good up there. Like lavender on a spring morn, with the wind blowing through a field of...

Okay, never mind that, I actually have terrible smell recognition, but it smelled amazing nonetheless. And you could see across the entire city. I lay on my back next to Feo, staring up into the dark sky. There was that Moon again, gold mist swirling about, and I still had no idea how this was all real, or what it meant.

I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to mean.

What was Noruav talking about? I recognized that vision of his planet because I am somehow connected to it? Without ever hearing about it? That's wild. I've spent my whole life believing that... well, I don't know for sure...

"Hey, you okay?" Feo had rolled onto her side and was looking at me with a bit of concern in her eyes.

"Wha – yeah I'm fine," I said, coming back to reality, "I think I just ate a bit too much lasagne. Oh man, I haven't worked out in more than a week. I'm just letting myself go here."

Feo just giggled. The first firework exploded in the sky and I could hear cheering from all around the neighbourhood. I thought I'd seen some decent fireworks in my time, but man were these ones awesome. Each one was multiple colours, and they burst into lions and turtles and just hung in the air forever.

I rolled over to look at Feo. She lay there smiling at me, then pulled me closer and we kissed.

"So I promised Vera and my girls we would hang out tonight, we kind of deserve it seeing as we have essentially carried every battle we've been in," Feo announced theatrically.

I laughed a little. Not because I thought she was exaggerating, but because it was very much true based on the action I saw them in.

"You absolutely deserve it."

"You're not going to be bored are you?"

"Nah, I'll go find the guys and we'll do what we usually do."

"Which is?"

"Oh, don't worry, we stay amused."

"Please don't eat something as a challenge that is going to require me taking care of your sick ass all day tomorrow," Feo said and laughed again.

"Can't make any promises," I grinned.

Feo tried glowering at me but obviously couldn't help smiling.

With that she slid down the ladder, and I lay back down, staring up at that glorious Moon.

I found the guys pretty easily. They were the loud ones standing around a barrel of booze, screaming at me to come over and get drunk with them. They were accompanied by Gliud and Ott – Vera and Uly's boyfriends.

"Hey Dim, what's up!" Ott barreled over and gave me a hug, completely lifting me off the ground, then he handed me a cup, "time to catch up bro!"  

Chapter 36 – Tubular

"Hey, are you going to come out for breakfast or what?"

I slowly opened my eyes, and began to take in Feo standing over me in a blue dress, hand on her hip.

I focused my vision up her long legs and onto her smiling face.

"Huh- a- wha... oh, yeah, yeah, I'm getting up," I got to my feet, and then collapsed back into a heap.

I had been sleeping in the middle of my floor – and I had been spooning my lamp. Eventually I steadied myself in a somewhat upright position.

"You got really drunk with the boys last night, didn't you?" Feo asked, a little too loudly if you ask me.

"Noooooooo," I replied very soberly.

Feo pushed me over onto my bed and laughed as she left out the door, calling over her shoulder, "come on, we're having pancakes."

"Dudes," I greeted everyone as I walked into breakfast, where Jake, Mouk and Sam were already chowing down on some flapjacks.

"How'd you like surfing last night man?" Jake grinned at me.

"Dude, I thought we just chilled by a campfire and came up with funny names for all the new constellations we could see?" Sam looked seriously confused – more so than normal.

"No way, we definitely just climbed onto a roof and – actually I don't know?" even Mouk couldn't remember properly.

"Then why did I wake up soaking wet?" Jake thought out loud to himself.

I sat down next to Feo and started on my pancakes. Uly walked in to a loud round of applause – she was pretty much healed up, a couple bruises and scratches still, but nothing to keep her down.

"Well I heard you guys had some fun last night?" she laughed and sat down with a plate, "do you have any idea what happened?"

"None," we admit.

"All Ott could tell me was you sat around at Gliud's heatedly discussing what type of sandwiches you would bring with you if you were stranded on an asteroid hurtling through space," she laughed as she poured syrup onto her pancakes.

After breakfast, Feo and I headed down to the beach for a swim. I was really hoping to get in some surfing – I haven't been since I last visited the west coast. After getting wet, we walked up to a little board shack.

"Hey, what can I do for ya my friends?" a young dude hopped up from the sand where he was stretching out, pushed his shades up onto his forehead and beamed at us with wide eyes.

"Feo, what's happening girl? Lemme just grab your board," he shuffled around behind the shack and came back carrying a midsize sky-blue board.

"You do a lot of surfing?" I look gaped-jawed at Feo, "so you're like, really good at this too?"

"Better than you at least," she took her board, tossed her blue dress in the sand and jogged off into the surf, laughing at me over her shoulder.

That sounded like a challenge.

I looked back at the board-keeper and said in a reverent tone, "dude. She's like, perfect..."

"She's a good girl man. The name's Hota," Hota's smile stretched across his whole face, and he reached out his hand for a shake.

"Dim."

"Well Dim, I'll let you take one of my boards out for free – if you can get out there and not embarrass yourself too badly next to her. You can ride with Feo, you can ride here anytime dude," Hota passed me a brown board about the same shape as Feo's. I tossed my t-shirt on top of Feo's dress, slipped off my shoes, thanked Hota, and ran across the sand and started to paddle out.

Usually when I first paddle out, I admire the nice swells of the day, or how cool the air is coming off the ocean in the early morning. I just appreciate being out there on the water.

Today, I noticed all these things, but mainly my attention was on the absolute shredding Feo was doing on the first big wave that rolled in.

"Woohoo!!" I cheered as she paddled back out to where I was floating.

"You really think you can hang with me?" she smiled as she sat up on her board and we floated there, waiting for the next set.

"Oh I know I can. I've gotta prove myself to Hota."

"Well here comes the next one, let's see it."

And indeed the next wave was coming up fast.

Holy shit was it coming up fast.

I took deep strokes and a few feet away Feo did likewise. Reaching the crest and starting to drop I hopped up on my board and steadied myself, feeling that familiar rush of endorphins.

Feo to my right cut swiftly through the water, crouching low. She nodded towards the wave starting to curl above us, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

She wanted to get in the tube.

It had been a long while since I'd been out on the water, so I genuinely wasn't sure I could handle it.

I cut my edge in and carved towards the wall. I felt the water explode above me, and before I knew it, we were riding in that beautiful zone.

Sometime in the afternoon I lay on my back, afloat on my board, exhausted. I was tipped over suddenly into the water, and when I surfaced, Feo winked at me, laughing.

"So, you're really not all that bad," she remarked.

"Thanks."

"For a dude, anyway."

"Wow," I laughed and tipped Feo off her board.

When she came back up, she swam over close to me, pushing her wet hair back from her face. The green-blue water shone in the afternoon suns. Feo wrapped her arms around me and we locked lips.

The next big swell came in a little to our left, and on it was Hota riding an orange longboard. He manoeuvred over the portion that hadn't broken yet and paddled over our way.

"Sorry to interrupt, but there's a crazy dude on the beach rambling on about something he's gotta tell you," Hota pointed in to the shore, where I could see Sam, and he looked like he was doing jumping-jacks or something.

"Thanks man."

Hota caught the next wave in to shore, and I turned back to Feo and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Let's go see what Sam wants," she said as she wiped some wet sand off of my cheek and started to paddle in.

"Dude, you are not going to believe this!" Sam continued to jump and dance about as we got to shore.

"We were hanging with some girls and talking about music - mostly I was trying to figure out how they get all the Earth tunes here. Then they asked us if we were in a band or anything – so of course I took some liberties in describing how much our band rocks. The guy working the counter at the diner overheard us, and he just happens to run a little club in town, called The Honking Goat –"

"Hey yeah! I've been there!" Feo said while drying out her hair, "that place is a lot of fun."

"So he wants us to play there tonight! How rad is that?" Sam exclaimed delightedly.