Riding The Waves | A Bondi Rescue fanfiction

Chapter 4

A/n: I am sorry that this is so bad. The changes in POV might make this chapter hard to follow. 

Jasmine arrived down at the beach ready for the test. She glanced around, noticed the lifeguards standing around at the northern end of the beach and made her way over. She breathed in deeply, trying to calm her racing heart. It was a gorgeous afternoon, but Jasmine was too anxious to enjoy it.

As she made her way down, she noticed several lifeguards watching her or pointing her out to their friends. Jasmine wasn't used to being known. She normally hid at the back of a room and hoped that no one noticed her. People very rarely gave her compliments either, so she assumed that the muted whispers circulating were all insults, people talking about how stupid she was.

She was surprised when Matt called out to her, asking how she was. A few of the men he was standing with greeted her warmly as well. Jasmine didn't say much to them, worried that they would judge anything she said. But no one seemed to mind how quiet she was. No one was judging her for anything, she realised. They were accepting her for who she was. Jasmine wasn't sure how to feel about this. All her life, she had been raised to believe that everyone hated her, that they would criticise everything she did. Being accepted was a new experience for Jasmine. She liked it. But she knew it wouldn't last. She would probably fail the course and never speak to any of these boys again.

Just then, Hoppo called them all over. "Most of you will know how this works. For those of you who are new, here's what you have to do. Swim out to the buoy just out there. Swim back to shore. Grab a rescue board and paddle out to the same spot and back in. Run from that pole to that pole and back. You will complete the whole course twice. Once the first person finishes, everyone else has to finish within 5 minutes. If you don't finish within that time, you won't be lifeguarding with us this year. Everyone get ready."

Jasmine felt a shudder of tension run through her. Most of the lifeguards were really fast. Would she be able to make it within the time limit? And it would be so easy to draw comparisons too, everyone would see that she was so terrible compared to all the other lifeguards.

Several of the lifeguards smiled at her, wishing her luck in the upcoming test. Jasmine smiled back at them, but couldn't bring herself to respond. Surely she wouldn't be good enough. Surely not even luck would help her get through. The kind words of the other lifeguards were doing nothing to calm her rising anxiety, so she took a deep breath and tried to focus.

The rest of the lifeguards began making their way over to the start line. Jasmine steeled her nerves and followed them over, standing near the edge of the group. Hoppo counted down and then blew his whistle. And Jasmine began running towards the water.

***

She ducked under an oncoming wave and began to swim. The swell was large, but Jasmine wasn't afraid. She had been swimming in rougher waters since she was a toddler. She headed straight out to the buoy. She was around the middle of the group of boys, but she couldn't see past them to find out who was in front. Someone might be way ahead by now, she thought. But I just have to keep going.

Hoppo's POV:

When Jasmine started running, it was immediately clear how much more confident she was in the water than on land. She jumped over waves with an ease and grace that none of the boys could match. On land, she was shy and apprehensive. In the water, she seemed so much more in control. Her clear determination indicated to us that we didn't need to be worried about how she would cope with rescues. She was clearly more confident and ready in the water than we had seen of her on land.

Jasmine stayed in the middle of the pack throughout the first half of the swim. She has no trouble keeping up with the rest of the boys. She also appears less tired than many of them as she rounds the buoy and begins to swim in. She swam in quickly, overtaking a few of the other lifeguards. She ran up the beach and grabbed a board. I watched her closely to see if she would be able to handle the 10kg board. They were heavy and difficult to maneuver for most of the lifeguards. How would this young girl, who was approximately half the weight of most lifeguards, cope with that challenge?