Riding The Waves | A Bondi Rescue fanfiction

Chapter 14

A/n: I am so, so, so sorry. This is very late, very short and very bad. I have not had the time or motivation to write but I really wanted to publish something for you guys, particularly given I won't be updating for ages. I promise that I will get way better at writing and updating. I will probably rewrite this chapter at some point but I don't have any time now.

Later that day, Jasmine sat on the grass in the park to eat her lunch. She had just finished eating when she noticed a group of lifeguards gathering on the nearby beach. Her curiosity aroused, she made her way over.

They were standing around a young boy, who sat sobbing in the sand. Matt was kneeling next to him, speaking softly and comfortingly but the young boy continued to sob.

"What happened to him?" Jasmine asked Jethro, who was standing nearby.

"We think that he is lost. We saw him crying on the sand and we cannot find any parents. He has a backpack with him but there is nothing useful in here. He won't talk to us either. We aren't sure if he speaks English."

The little boy began to wail louder. Jasmine sat down on the sand next to him, hoping that she might be able to calm him down. He appeared scared of the other lifeguards but calmed down slightly when she sat with him. As a young girl, she was probably less scary than the older men.

"No sedondeesta mi mami," the little boy cried.

"Oh, ¿Estásperdidobebé?" Jasmine replied softly. She could see some of the lifeguards looking at her in surprise, but she focused on the distraught child in front of her.

"¿Quieresqueteayudemos a encontrar a tumamá?"

The little boy relaxed visibly as she offered her help to him. He nodded quietly and stood up with her, agreeing to walk up to the tower.

"¿Cómote llamas?" Jasmine asked the young boy.

"Mi nombre es Samuel," he replied.

Jasmine took his hand and began leading him up to the tower. The other lifeguards followed them. Jasmine turned around to explain the situation to them.

"This is Samuel. He cannot find his mum so I agreed to help him. He doesn't speak English, only Spanish."

Arriving at the tower, the rest of the lifeguards began searching for Samuel's mum. Jasmine translated for them, asking the boy questions to help them narrow down their search.

Samuel was still scared of the rest of the lifeguards though. He wouldn't look at any of them and hid behind Jasmine. Jasmine decided to take him outside.

When Hoppo walked past the tower, he was surprised to see Jasmine, who was supposed to be having her lunch break, sitting underneath the tower. She was talking confidently, in a different language, to a little boy while helping him build a massive sandcastle.

'Well, there is never a dull day at Bondi,' he thought.

***

Soon, the young boy was reunited with his frantic mother. Jasmine spoke to the women in Spanish, as she was not confident enough to converse in English.

The woman hugged Jasmine. She returned the gesture. The young lifeguard waved goodbye to Samuel and the newly reunited family departed. Jasmine rejoined the rest of the lifeguards in the tower.

"Apparently, Samuel was playing in the sand and kept wandering a few metres away to pick up shells. Samuel's mother turned away from him to find more sunscreen and then couldn't find him. Samuel must have wandered further away because, when he turned around, he couldn't see his mum either," Jasmine explained.

"You speak Spanish?" one of the boys asked, impressed by her language skills.

"Um, yeah. I am not really fluent," Jasmine muttered, abashed. "But I know enough to understand simple conversations."

"You sounded pretty good to me. Do you speak any other languages?" Jethro asked.

"Yes. I really enjoy language learning. I normally am learning several languages at any given time. I speak Chinese, French, Spanish, a little bit of Portuguese, a bit of Japanese and some Swahili. I'm currently learning Korean and German."

"Wow. Seriously?! That is really cool. You must be really smart to learn so many languages."

Jasmine shook her head, embarrassed by the attention but the boys were all suitably impressed.

They were impressed with a lot of things Jasmine could do.