Charms

Chapter One

A/N: This is a story that I had to write for my Language Arts class last year. Since my classmates enjoyed it so much, I decided to spruce it up a bit and upload it to Wattpad. Enjoy

"Crunch, crunch, crunch," the tiny, yellow grains of sand went as my mother, sister, brother, and I walked across it with our bare feet. The sand felt so hot that it almost felt as if it were combustible. If I were to have a thermostat right now, the temperature would be off the charts. It was was almost summer and my mom was taking me and my siblings to a place that we have not been to in a while- the beach. Being nine months pregnant, she has not been able to take us to many places, including school. Since our father has been confined to a wheelchair ever since a car accident five years ago, he cannot drive or take care of himself as well as he used to. Now, with an overly pregnant mother and a handicapped father, we were forced to hire a babysitter to help eight-year-old Rose, thirteen-year-old Tom, and I take care of them and ourselves and to drive us to school. However, since we strongly dislike Annabelle Marcus for her grumpy disposition, when our mother told us that we could go to the beach, we politely asked her if we could go without her. I am sixteen-and-a-half-years-old and have just received my permit a few months ago, which means that I can now drive at certain times as long as there is at least one licensed adult in the vehicle along with me.

"Alright, I think this is good," Mom announced.

Feeling exhausted from carrying a good majority of the stuff, I plopped the towels and beach chairs down on the crunchy sand.

"Patricia Olivia Patricikson!" Mom roared at me, her ocean-blue eyes filled with anger.
I looked down. Our nice, clean beach towels were now covered in millions of sand grains.

"Sorry," I grumbled as I picked up the towels and placed them on top of our folded-up beach chairs.

"No, don't do that!"

Mom walked over to the beach chairs as fast as she could. She looked at me furiously.

"Ugghh, see what you just did!" She complained, "Now the chairs are covered with sand too!"

"Must be another mood swing," I thought to myself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," I apologized, picking the towels and chairs back up.

"Don't shake them!" She hissed, "You're going to get sand in my eyes!"

"Then, what would you like me to do?"

"I want you to-"

All of the sudden, mom's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she closed them. Like a huge, dead oak tree, she came timbering down. "Paf!" Mom was now lying in the sand on her back.

"Mom!" Tom, Rose, and I all cried.

We immediately threw our stuff on the ground and rushed over to her. I knelt beside mom, held up her arm, and put my first two fingers on her whitish-tan wrist, checking for a pulse. I felt nothing.

"She has no pulse, Tom!" I exclaimed, looking over at my most responsible sibling.

"Wh-what are w-we gonna d-do?" Tom stammered, his hazel eyes filled with worry.
"Uhh... U-use your phone to call 911, while I perform CPR!"

Following my instructions, Tom pulled his black iPhone out of the pocket of his dark-blue swim trunks.

"What's CPR, Patty?" Rose asked as she turned her head towards me.

"I-I really don't have any time to explain," I began, nervously glancing down at our mother, "You'll see what it is in a second."

I carefully climbed on top of mom, trying my best not to puncture her stomach. I used my hands to open her mouth. I then, began to blow into it, filling up her lungs with my carbon dioxide. I placed my two hands on top of her chest and pushed down on it hard, trying to create a heartbeat. You see, in health class, they made us learn how to perform CPR. At first I thought that the whole entire lesson was nonessential, but now I am glad that I was taught it.

"Hello, hello!" Tom screamed into his smartphone, "I am at the Charm City beach and my mother just passed out! Help! She has no pulse!... Oh, thank you, thank you!"
Tom quickly put down his phone and looked over at Rose and I.

"I just called 911 and they told me that they are sending an ambulance over!" He announced.

"Oh, good," I sighed with relief, taking a break from breathing into Mom's mouth, but still pumping on her chest, "Now, call Annabelle and Dad and tell them what happened and to get over here as soon as they can!"

"Ok!"