The Field Trip

[Tessa]

Kei cocked her head sideways, “Reasonable? Not a word commonly used to described me.” She remarked with a brief smirk and she mulled over how to best explain her run-ins with the law.
“First off, I’m a surfer chick, a wahine.” Kei started off, “Best way to earn money on the North Shore without actually getting’ a job is connin’ the tourists. You make bets with them that you don’t know how to surf, fool them into thinkin’ your tellin’ the truth and then break out your skills. Easy money…but the cops ain’t real keen on that form of earnin’ it so I got sent off to a juvenile facility when I was 16, spent two years there.” Kei paused again, scrunching her nose up in thought. She wasn’t ashamed of what she’d done as a kid or as an adult, she knew it wasn’t right but it was fun.

“But see, once I was 18 they couldn’t keep me there…so I got a ticket outta there and moved in with a friend of mine, but bein’ jobless doesn’t really get ya great amounts of cash. So I went back to connin’; business men this time, figured my Japanese/Hawaiian looks were good for somethin’ plus it was easier to stay out of the laws hair if I was just datin’ the men getting’ their money and leavin’…I got an actual job though so I didn’t raise any suspicion with the local police force. Stayed under radar while creatin’ a small fortune in my bank account…anyway, I got sloppy with a job, got caught and the judge gave me six months probation, that’s when I was recruited for this team. It ain’t bad but it ain’t Hawaii either.” She folded her arms and looked at Wanda, “That scare ya? Ya don’t look much like the type to be doin’ things like that…”