Life starts now - A Bondi Rescue story

Decision day

A/N: Hey everybody! Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who read the story, voted on it or left me a comment :) You guys rock! Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas.

The next few days were filled with waiting. Melanie went to work at the café every day and every day, she walked by the lifeguard tower. The guys on shift would wave at her and holler a cheerful greeting when they spotted her. Usually, they were opening the tower when she was on her way to work and their unconditional friendliness never failed to conjure a smile onto Melanie's face.

In the lifeguard tower, discussions about the new trainees were always conversation topic number one. General consensus was that at least one of the girls had to be taken on. Hoppo agreed, but it didn't make the choice any easier. The candidates were all good and each of them brought a unique mix of experiences, personality and skills to the table. He listened to the guys' debates and discussed it with the team leaders, who were all good judges of character. Eventually, he had to make the decision.

***

Melanie nearly jumped out of her skin when the mobile on her bedside table went off. She fumbled for it and answered. "Hello?"

"Hi Melanie, it's Carol. How are ya?"

"Hi Carol, what's going on?", she replied, rolling out of bed and shuffling towards her closet.

Carol cleared her throat and asked: "Could you come in today? Em is sick and Rory has an appointment in the afternoon."

Melanie smirked to herself. Why am I not surprised? "I'll be there in twenty minutes tops", she promised. Hanging up, she rushed into the bathroom, washing her face, brushing her teeth and twisting her hair into a haphazard bun. Slipping into her work clothes, black skirt and white blouse, she then grabbed her phone and keys and hurried out the door, not even thinking about breakfast.

Racing down the stairs, Melanie jogged down the street and towards the beach. A glance at her watch told her that she had 7 minutes until she was late.

She made it to Michele's with 3 minutes to spare. Slipping into the staff room in the back of the café, the brunette quickly clocked in, grabbed her apron with notepad and pen and started working.

Her polite and friendly demeanour had quickly endeared her to the customers, especially the regulars. Even Frank, the growly handyman who loved to tell everybody about all the - in his words - stupid clients he had, seemed to genuinely like her. Carol had hardly believed her eyes when she had seen him smile at her newest employee and even laugh at something she had said.

Tourists were starting to flock to Bondi again as the weather became warmer and Michele's was busy. School holidays weren't far and especially in the afternoons, there were tons of children coming down to the beach.

Melanie took a quick break during the after-lunch lull, going to the toilet and having a small bite to eat before resuming her work.

After helping an elderly couple settle their bill – they had trouble counting up the cash and kept apologising for being such a bother, while Melanie assured them countless times that it was no problem – she cleaned and re-set table 5, took the order from the two lads by the window and juggled a tray with ice cream and milk shakes for the woman with her eight-year-old son and his friends.

Seeing Carol signalling her to the counter – during the day, they weren't allowed to call it the bar for a reason unknown to Melanie – the brunette brought some dirty dishes to the kitchen before turning to the counter. There she saw a man in a familiar blue shirt and black boardies leaning against the polished surface.

"Hi", she greeted him with a smile. Not the usual 'you're my customer and I have to be friendly'-smile, but a real, fully genuine one. "What can I get you?"

He looked up and recognition flashed on his face. "Oh hi, Mellie, how are ya?", Reidy grinned brightly. "I gotta bring the boys some food. Been pretty busy so none of us had lunch yet", he explained with a laugh. "So, you have an idea what's good around here?"

Melanie nodded, pulling up a menu from out of nowhere and pointing out a few take-out options that were tasty and affordable.

Reidy smiled at her and asked: "Which would you take?"

"M-me?", she stammered, suddenly unsure. It didn't happen often that somebody asked her opinion, least of all somebody she only knew fleetingly. "Uh...my favourite's the chicken sandwich", she offered with a shy twitch of her lips.

He nodded decisively. "That sounds great", he affirmed. "I'll take 5 – no, hold on, 4 of those. And one of these salads."

The brunette nodded and smiled, having regained her fickle confidence. "Sure thing. It'll just be a minute." She relayed the order to the kitchen and stumbled her way through a friendly conversation that Reidy instigated. He knew that she was shy, they had all noticed that already at the try-outs, but he didn't mind. She seemed to get more comfortable with time and it sure didn't stop her from being kind and sweet.

"D'you need a hand?", she offered when the food was ready.

"Nah, it's alright", he waved off. "See ya soon, yeah?"

The girl smiled happily and nodded. "See ya. Take care."

"Will do!", he called before making his way back to the tower. The boys were bound to be hungry.

***

Later that day, Hoppo finally found the time to call the recruits. Melanie, just home from work, answered after the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Yeah Melanie, it's me, Hoppo. How are you?", he spoke.

"Hoppo!" Surprise coloured her tone. "I'm okay, thanks, how are you?"

"Good good", he replied before getting straight to business: "Listen, about the recruitment. You did really well at the try-outs and I, we, think you definitely have a future on the lifeguard service."

Melanie waited with baited breath, expecting the 'but' anytime soon.

"You'll start out as a trainee and at the end of the season, we'll take a look at your progress and see about taking you on full-time", he explained. "How's that sound?"

For a moment, there was stunned silence on the other end of the line. Then, a soft: "I...I made it? Really?"

Hoppo had to chuckle and exchanged a glance with Azza, who was in the tower with him. "Yes, really", he confirmed.

Melanie laughed, still in shock. "Wow, I...I don't know what to say. I'm stoked." The excitement slowly filtered through and entered her voice. "I can't believe it...this is great! Thank you so much for the opportunity, Hoppo."

The head lifeguard smiled, her joy and gratitude infectious. After discussing the details, they ended the call.

For a moment, the young girl stared at the phone in her hand, before a massive grin split her face. "Yes yes yes!", she squealed, jumping up and down in exuberance. With a huge, content sigh, she let herself drop onto the couch, still grinning widely. I did it. I really did it.