Miss Braxton: Home and Away Fanfic

Chapter 1

Summer Bay was not at all how I imagined it would be when I arrived, early morning, before the break of dawn. Keenly, I leant against the fence that wound round the beach and surveyed the town with owl-wide eyes. The place seemed to me like a surreal and beautiful heaven. The ocean glittered dazzlingly like the surface of an opal stone, sparkling every colour of turquoise, sapphire and emerald imaginable to man. Brilliant waves rolled onto the crescent-shaped beach in endless rhythm, making a lulling music of their own. I thought it was wonderful. Summer Bay - A surfer girl's paradise. My paradise.

In the city where I had lived back at home, I had been friends with a boy named Flynn who'd taken me surfing as often as I could afford to go. I didn't own a surfboard of my own or a car to drive to the nearest beach. I could scarcely afford to feed my mother and me let alone buy luxuries like surf boards and cars. Besides, there were very few opportunities to go to the surf. I was always working to provide for my small, two-person family. There wasn't much money in being a fifteen-year-old waitress. My wages were barely enough to live on as it was and my mum didn't have a job to sustain us on, meaning it was always up to me to keep us afloat. I just about managed to ensure we were off the streets with our bellies full. Well, our bellies were never actually full, but at least I made sure we weren't quite as far gone as starving ourselves. But, although there wasn't much happiness in my life back in the city, there was always the few short hours I escaped to the beach with Flynn. Sand, salt and sea were in my blood. They were all that ever made me smile. Whenever I rode the waves, I was made to feel like I could fly. Surfing was the only time in my life that I, Alexis Braxton, was not just a rat in the gutter, surviving instead of living.

Just as the sun peaked round The Bay and pooled the town in dancing light and warmth, I realised it was time I made a move. I couldn't wait around and waste the day. My intentions for visiting the bay were not purely to satisfy a hunger for sight-seeing. I was there on business. And my business had to do with the Braxtons.

I stuffed a hand into the pocket of my ripped jeans and fished out a piece of paper with my own scribbly handwriting sprawled over its crumpled surface. My eyes read over the address it revealed and I tried to burn it into my memory. My nerves had caught up with me and I knew that before long, I would be forced to confront my four older brothers, whom I had never met before in my life. Darryl, Heath, Kyle and Casey. The Braxtons. How would they react to the revelation of my existence? How would they feel about having a little sister, by the father they all hated? Not very well I imagined.

Darkening thoughts clouded my mind, gnawing at my insides like a hungry predator. I was tempted more than once to turn my back on the Bay and scarper back to the city like a kicked dog with its tail between its legs. But I couldn't possibly to do that. The Braxtons, my brothers, were my last hope. The notion of facing the world alone once mum had gone filled my heart with burning sorrow. When the cancer finally took her over and stranded me on my own in the world, my estranged brothers would be the only source of security, comfort or family left for me. If I wanted to be a Braxton, to live in the Bay and avoid the grasp of foster-homes and social services, I was going to have to take the first step to get to know my brothers. That meant meeting them. And today was the day.