ily ~ Jake Nolan

Chapter 10

This chapter does include blood and a shark attack so if things like that upset you or make you uncomfortable, I've marked out the paragraph using •••• so that it can be avoided.

I woke up still in disbelief that Jake had asked me to be his girlfriend. A smile still plastered on my face after replaying the event over and over in my head. I was so happy, I couldn't quite put it into words.

I had work today though so had to quickly come back to the present and get in the zone. I did my usual morning routine that I always did before work and headed out to make the short commute. However, today wasn't just a normal day down at Bondi. Tonight, it was the lifeguard challenge. I found it slightly unfair how I had to work today as it would tire me out before the race. To make things worse, none of the boys had work today, although I was close with all the lifeguards, I was very close with the boys that lived with me.

I made my way into the tower to see that today. I would be working with Deano, Harries, Chappo, Beardy, Whippet, Box and Hoppo. I always felt more pressure when on duty with the boss as I was always scared I'd muck up. However, it occured to me that all the team leaders and senior lifeguards were also all on duty with me which confused me as they would usually have their shifts spread out so that they could keep things under control.

After having the morning briefing (being told when the busiest times where going to be, where the rips would be most dangerous and the times that the tides would be changing) Hoppo asked me to go and put out the signs and the flags in the right places. Usually two people would do this job however he said he needed to speak to the other boys privately. I was confused by this as I didn't know if it would be about me and didn't know if it would be bad or good. I started off the morning rounds normally, setting the signs, flags and rescue boards where they needed to be. As I was putting out the last rescue board, I saw someone a long way out to sea and in distress. I had no radio in me so couldn't radio up to tell the others what was happening.

I grabbed the closest board to me, forgetting to take off my shirt and ran into the ocean paddling as hard as I could. The patient was at least 300m from shore, past the yellow shark boy. It always freaked me out when I was that far out as I knew it was shark territory and I also knew that this early in the morning it was the perfect time for sharks to be out.

••••••
As I got closer to the patient, I could hear him crying in pain and screaming out for help. That's when I saw what had happened. The water around him was a darker than normal and from the noises he was making I realized that he had been attacked by a shark. Adrenaline started pumping around my body and I began to try and take control of the situation. I managed to get the guy on my board so that I could work out where he was bleeding from. I quickly saw that his left hand and part of his left arm where only just hanging on. In order to stop the bleeding I took off my shirt and wrapped it around what was left of his left arm and started paddling into shore.
••••••

Upon reaching the shore I saw Hoppo and deano standing there. Hoppo had this ability to know exactly what was going on without being told. Although he had got an alert through from the shark boy, alerting him that there was a five meter great white lurking around. An ambo had already been called which I was confused about as no one apart from myself really knew what had happened but it was such a relief when they got here. We handed the man over to the ambo and I went to clean myself up. When I had arrived back to the tower the man was standing there alongside the ambo officers and the other lifeguards that I was working with. I was so confused and gave everyone looks as if to say "what is happening here" everyone suddenly burst into laughter. They had told me that it was a fake situation that Hoppo had set up to see how I'd react. I was so confused as to how the injury had seemed so realistic but was ensured that it was all makeup and special affects. "you passed the test with flying colours" Hoppo said, patting me on the shoulder shortly afterwards.

I had an interview with the film crew shortly after to explain the situation that just went down and they congratulated me on my bravery and effort and that they wouldn't of know what to do in that situation. I explained that it was all down to the training that I had had prior to becoming a lifeguard but that you never think you'll ever be put in a situation like that. It was definitely an experience that I would never forget that's for sure.

The rest of the day was spent talking about the lifeguard challenge. This year it was slightly different, we would be in pairs and each person in the pair would have to complete a swim, run and board paddle twice each. However, the pairs were decided randomly and we only found out who our partner was just before the race began. I was excited to find out who my partner was. I was extremely competitive so hoped I would get someone equally as competitive as I wanted to win and also prove to everyone I was as good a lifeguard as they were, even if I was the youngest and smallest.

1021 words