Alpha Beach

========= Michelle ========= Her life changed in an instant.  The moment she took the chance to swim out among the giant waves just past the reef all eyes were on her. It wasn’t just those of the Alpha lifeguards that watched these waters but also those of the bystanders, reporters and competitors that were on their way to get out there for their shot too. There was a thrill to paddling out with them. Many of which were Alphas too which had given her dirty looks for being far too young to do this with them.  Those that didn’t ignore her, shoved her board away from their group but it didn’t deter her.  She knew this beach and the community here. These surfers were in from other locations trying their luck at prize money and nothing more.  Not Michelle though. Michelle knew herself. She had her friends who were more like the family she never had, but most of all, she had a connection to the ocean. To Michelle the ocean felt like home.  Since running in with the rest of the surfers, she felt nothing but calm where she could scent their concerns. They were pungent and awful which suggested that they were both as uncomfortable with this as they were scared. Michelle chuckled to herself as other surfers passed how she wished she could see their faces when she neared but they were so worried about being first and seen that they forgot what surfing was all about. It wasn’t about fame and fortune. It wasn about signing some big deal and being on what most simply called “The Circuit.” It was about the connection between their soul and the sea.  The waves they were approaching could ruin lives. They were huge and made surfing a five footer look like nothing. Big wave surfing was soon labeled surfing giants after one of the tallest Alphas on the beach was reported saying “It’s size reminds us of just how small we are in comparison. Our egos, our designations… they don’t matter out there. Out on a giant is where you learn who you are or lose your life trying.” The nameless Alpha among the crowd that day was right. It wasn’t about the group you were out competing against. The experience was unique to them as it was to her.  As Michelle continued out to sea, she could feel the swell, the pull to go deeper. It was like this every time. It told her to slow and watch the wall rise off to the side of where they were swimming while she laid on her surfboard, so she did. Other surfers only pushed on. They told her she didn’t know what she was doing out here if she was really going to stop but Michelle ignored them.  They were on the wave if they knew it or not and they weren’t listening as it expected them to.  Michelle panned over to watch the rescue helicopter do its initial rounds as if it was a usual day. The head guards at Alpha Beach always did this throughout the day to the point where she could nearly count on the change of the hour. They were well into the middle of the morning when she heard them overhead. Michelle could almost hear her name being called as it motioned to turn back in her direction.  “Michelle!” she heard a male call from a distance away.  Michelle was nearly sure that someone would ping her and send a jetski rescue if she stayed still but the wall approached. It pulled up the frothy bubbles from the last crash in it’s swell and so she stayed on its shoulder. It wanted her to. “Michelle Ketten!” the voice called her again. It made her swivel her head around, looking for the person calling her.  His voice sounded so familiar but out here the world thundered. The acoustics were unreal and hearing another person was a struggle the closer they got to the waves.  A tug at the fin of her board made her move backwards unnaturally and then she knew.  It was their code.  “Shane?” she questioned. “Yeah?” the Alpha grinned then slicked back his hair so he could see her better, or at least that’s what she told herself.  She’s always had a special place in her heart for Shane. They were always looking out for each other since he found her on the beach that day. Michelle couldn’t help the way she felt about him now though. He was all Alpha. He fit the popular build. Muscular, active, always strived to be the best, and don’t get her going about how attractive he was. It  made focusing around him hard to do. And now that he made it out to the waves, positioned beside her, she could feel it again. The pull to him.  Except, Michelle was too young for him. She was fourteen and Shane? Well, he just turned twenty four. Pairings like that wound up on the news for r**e cases and other wildly inacurate accusations that they wouldn’t have to worry about if he would just choose her. But that was the thing, wasn’t it? He couldn’t. It made being his friend difficult knowing someday someone else would be on his arm and it wouldn’t be her.  “Hey,” she tried to reply casually.  “Hey? That’s all I get for hauling ass out here?” he retorted. “Don’t look at me like that. You were supposed to wait for me.” “If I waited someone would have stopped me,” she frowned. “I know I can do this, Shane.” “That’s not what I’m worried about,” he shouted over the crashing wave beside them.  “What are you worried about then?”  Shane nodded over his shoulder at the growing spectators on the beach.  “Them. You’re an undesignated kid out here showing the world that designations don’t matter…” “And that’s bad?” Michelle roared over the wave.  “Mich! No… but they don’t know how to handle that. Take it from an Alpha, would you? This is dangerous for all of us and you’re already an icon just for sitting out here.” He paused for the wave to pull again.  The familiar sound of the riptide racing back past the reef caught her ear while he did. There would be a quiet moment that he could tell her that other kids would be out there after her if she showed them it was possible. People would die was his message, the one he wouldn’t pin her with. It was there though. “So you want me to turn around? Like all of these other Alphas? You want me to give up on something I know how to do because your Alpha and those Alphas are afraid?” she snapped at him.  The sting of her words seemed to cut deeper than she meant, but even Shane flinched.  “I’m not doing this for them. This is about me. If I die out there it’s not on your Alpha. Don’t make it about something I have no claim to.” It hurt to say but it had to come out. If he didn’t know by now that she liked him then she needed to be set free from it. It never would have happened anyway, she told herself as she began to read the wave again.  When it told her to move, she did. Michelle paddled out to reach the new shoulder this time. It swelled with other riders and it didn’t bother her that they ignored her. She wasn’t there for them.  She was there for herself like she told Shane.  Michelle closed her eyes then and let the sun burn her through the cold water on her skin. She listened to the wind and felt it’s direction. As the wave lifted even higher she reared back staying off of the tip of the wall to make sure she didn’t fall down it prematurely. This wave would crest and she would be there for the next one.  Taunts and calls beside her told her to go home. People flagged the air rescue chopper and pointed at her as if she was hurt which enraged her.  She hated them for it.  All the while the chopper’s blades cut through the air. They would soon be within range. There was no time to wait for another which only forced her hand. She would show them. She would show all of them.  Michelle paddled hard alongside her board despite the whistles and calls of her stupidity as the wall began to crest. The wave reached out forward giving her only moments to join it.  Michelle knew her timing had to be slick, but more than that she needed to shut them up.  All at once she pulled up off of her stomach to stand on her board as she dropped in. She could have given them the attention they wanted but even now as the wave licks the back of her board, she’s sure she won’t give them another look. Not now. Not ever.