Chapter 19
After a breakfast of croissants and pains au chocolat at the table outside, I chilled out in my room, going over and over Antoine’s lesson in my head, replaying each wave and desperately trying to recreate the feeling.
By the time I emerged from my room, it was almost time to go back to the beach. But I had to speak to Dad first.
I found him inside, making coffee while the girls got changed in their room.
‘Dad. I’m sorry for getting so angry last night,’ I said, because I knew it wasn’t all on him, my reaction. A lot of it was from all the shit with Felix. I watched as he put down his coffee cup. He sighed and turned round, his expression soft.
‘I am too. And you were right. The girls, they really do love it. I just worry, you know?’
‘I know.’ I nodded. Of course he did. We all did. ‘You know you can come and watch?’ I offered.
Dad laughed. ‘Rue won’t let me. She’s adamant it has to be you.’
‘Well, I am pretty cool.’ I grinned, and Dad smiled as he poured his coffee, then walked outside with it.
‘Tell me what you did this morning, Margot,’ Rue said as she came out of her room wearing her swimsuit, followed by Wren. The excitement on her face was photo-worthy.
‘It was so cool. I learned this thing called a bottom turn, it was incredible.’ I told the girls all about my lesson with Antoine.
‘Do you think I could do it?’ Rue asked, her eyes wide and hopeful, and the guilt was like a gut punch. It was tactless, saying stuff like that, when I knew that Rue probably wouldn’t be able to do it in the same way.
‘No way,’ I teased – it was always the best way to diffuse Rue.
‘Why not?’ She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes, and I had to double take, because it was like I was looking right back at myself ten years ago.
‘Too small.’ I shrugged, and she threw a pair of goggles at me.
‘It sounds too complicated,’ said Wren. ‘I like what we’re doing.’
‘Wren’s right. You’ll do something way better,’ I said.
We passed Dad on the way out. ‘Going to the beach?’ He looked at his watch.
‘Yep,’ I said.
‘Ruthie, Wren, come here a wee minute,’ Dad said, calling them over. He sat on the steps, where he was eye level with them.
‘Promise me you’ll tell Margot if it’s too much or you want to stop?
’ He said it to them both, but it was really for Rue.
And I could call him overprotective, but he knew Rue as well as I did, and that she would push herself as hard as she could.
Too hard sometimes. And maybe I knew her because I knew me.
How hard I pushed myself during swimming training, and with Antoine.
They nodded and he hugged them both, making Rue groan.
‘I’ll be there, Dad,’ I promised.
‘Have fun, girls!’ Mum called from the doorway.
The beach was packed with people when we arrived.
Rue was fizzing with excitement, while Wren was stuck to my side.
‘You OK?’ I asked her.
‘I’m fine,’ Wren said, smiling in the way she did when there was clearly something up but she didn’t want to say. I always got the feeling that Wren would say she was fine when she didn’t want to add anything ‘extra’ to the situation.
‘Well just tell me if you’re not, petit oiseau.’
She giggled. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Little bird. It’s what Antoine called you.’
‘He did?’ And her grin took up her whole face. ‘I like him.’
‘I like him too,’ I said, staring towards Antoine’s hut for the second time that day. Well, I liked parts of him. Not the arrogant part that told me what to do, but the softer part. The part that made me hot chocolate and the part that made his face light up when my technique was right.
I didn’t have to stare too hard; he was where he always stood, beside the rack of boards, looking out to sea. And then he was being tortured by kids, grabbing at him, throwing balls to him. I laughed.
‘Ah, la princesse, la guerrière et le petit oiseau.’ Antoine smiled at us and Rue rushed towards him, stumbling on the sand.
‘Wow,’ he said, lunging forward to catch her. ‘You are OK?’ he asked.
‘Yep! What did you say? What’s a guer … and a …’ Rue scrunched up her face and cocked her head, making Antoine laugh.
‘La princesse. Princess.’ He pointed to me. ‘La guerrière. The warrior.’ He pointed to her, and she could not have looked more proud. ‘Et le petit oiseau. The little bird,’ he said, gesturing to Wren, who smiled into my side.
‘What are we waiting for?’ Rue asked.
‘Delphine.’ Antoine replied to her but was looking at me and I didn’t know what to say. ‘I think I should stay with Rue by herself today and I wanted some help for Wren.’
Wren’s disappointment was palpable and I hoped that Delphine would be nice to her.
And then there she was, walking up the beach like something out of a movie, her legs looking even longer in the tiny shorts she was wearing and her hair hanging dark and wet round her shoulders.
‘Ah les filles!’ Delphine smiled and Wren immediately grinned back at her, dissolving my worries.
‘I have heard you are brilliant. Do you mind if I teach you?’ she asked Wren.
And I felt her move away from me easily, like she gravitated towards Delphine.
And I probably would as well if she was that nice to me.
Delphine held out her hand to Wren and she took it without hesitation.
‘And you. La guerrière. You are with me.’ Antoine pointed to Rue, and she nodded.
‘Good.’
‘Margot!’ I looked to my right, where Sébastian was surrounded by the rest of the children.
‘Yeah?’
‘I need your help. Antoine said you did an amazing bottom turn this morning? This is true?’ he asked. ‘Arrête!’ Sébastian shouted at a kid who was throwing a football at him.
‘C’est vrai,’ Antoine called over to him and I shrugged back in his direction.
‘Please, Margot. Show these monsters what they might be able to do. One day. In the future,’ he pleaded.
‘I could try?’ I said. I walked to the rack of surfboards and reached for the board Antoine had lent me, turning to him to catch his eye before I took it out. He nodded, then turned all his attention to Rue.
I walked to the water with Sébastian, and the kids stood beside us.
And it surprised me that I wasn’t nervous. That I remembered everything from earlier that morning, and I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing.
I caught the perfect wave and felt the same adrenaline rush through my veins. And when I emerged from the water and walked on to the sand, Sébastian was standing there clapping, while the kids were messing around beside him.
‘Margot! That was génial!’
I smiled. ‘Merci, Sébastian. I loved it. I can’t wait to learn more.’
‘Can you teach me?’ he asked, and I pushed his shoulder.
I looked over at Wren and Rue, who were in the water with Antoine and Delphine.
They were both laughing. I walked over as Antoine pulled Rue on her board out towards a wave.
I watched him encourage her to paddle and then she stayed on her stomach as she rode the wave all the way to shore.
She pulled herself up awkwardly, then turned to me and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look happier.
It was like she felt it too, the adrenaline rush.
I watched the rest of their lesson, my eyes mostly on Wren and Delphine. I couldn’t believe how different she was. She was warm, constantly smiling, and Wren was laughing when she fell in the water instead of the tears I’d half expected.
And when they finished, the girls looked so happy, even though they must have been exhausted. Especially Rue.
‘Did you see me?’ Rue asked excitedly as I packed up their stuff and put it into a bag.
‘I did, you were amazing. You too, Wren.’
She smiled back at me. ‘I didn’t think I could do that. Delphine is so nice.’
I didn’t reply to that but when I looked up, Delphine was standing there, and her smile had vanished. I braced myself for whatever she was about to say.
‘Your sisters are great,’ she said.
‘They are,’ I agreed, shocked at the compliment. I kept getting ready and was about to leave when Delphine stopped me by touching my arm gently.
‘That bottom turn you did. It was not terrible.’ It looked like it actually hurt her to say it.
‘Thanks,’ I said and moved to head off but she stopped me again.
‘Try to keep your back shoulder even lower than you think. And watch your front arm, it needs to stay parallel to the water,’ she explained. I looked around to see if there was someone else she was talking to, because this was actually really helpful.
‘Thanks,’ I said in surprise.
She shrugged. ‘La Vague d’Or, they take away points for raised arms.’
I was about to respond when she walked away. But just before she got too far, she turned. ‘Antoine is not a bad teacher, but sometimes he is too nice.’ She nodded, like she’d said everything she needed to say, picked up her surfboard and walked back towards the sea.
La Vague d’Or. She didn’t think I wanted to compete, did she? She didn’t think I could, did she? And hold on … Too nice? Not the Antoine I’d met.
But before I could call after her and ask her to explain, Antoine had come over, pushing his hand through his wet hair. ‘You have some more time? I want to show you something. Meet me back here in thirty minutes?’
I nodded, but it didn’t feel like a question. Definitely not one I was going to say no to anyway.