The sound of a wave

chapter 1

The waves rapidly thrashed about the water causing the man to tumble of his board and into the cold grasp of the water. He frantically waved his arms in the air as he furiously swung one arm over the other in a freestyle motion. The man looked like he was in his 40's with short chocolatey brown hair and scruff all around his pearl bright teeth that showed a little in his small grin of relief as he reached his board. The man pulled his muscular physic up onto his board and looked up at the thunderstorm clouds forming above him with a troublesome expression upon him. In instinct he laid down on his board and began to paddle towards the surface. But the waves where too strong, pushing his board further into the tied and flipping him off his board once again, only this time the force of the wave was too strong. It snapped his board in half sending it floating away further out to sea. The man tried to scream in hope someone near shore would hear him, but the salting water just kept splashing against his pale face almost suffocating him as it did so. He eventually gave up and just let the waves drift him out to sea. But then at that point, the water around him turned red and the man turned blue, leaving the sight of a great white chewing the flesh of his left foot.

Bethany shot up panting breathlessly on her bed. The startling  dream that had just unravelled in her sleep brought an expression on disquiet to her face. She could feel every single nerve in her body quiver as she slowly got out of bed and got reading for the big day ahead of her. Bethany, still a little shaken by her dream walked down stairs and threw her self down on the seat next to mum. "eat your breakfast honey, you have a big day, you know you can't surf on an empty stomach!" said mum with a look of empathy on her thin tanned face as she looked down at her tierd and distressed daughter. "Did you have the dream again?" She said "the one about dad?" Bethany looked up at her teary eyed before being pulled in to tight hug by her mother who whispered in her ears as she stroked Bethany milk chocolate hair. "It's gonna be alright" she reassured"

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Bethany sat in the car anxiously tapping her fingers on her thighs. "You nervous?" mum asked looking in the rear view mirror. Bethany looked up at the reflection of her mum's pale green eyes and for the fist time realised how similar they were in appearance."Yeah a little" she replied.  "There's no need for you to be, you'll be great!" said mum. Bethany looked back down and stared fiddling with her fingers and biting her lip which was a bad habit she had picked up after her fist surf tournament.

They had finally made it to the beach which was jam packed with what looked like over a thousand people. Too may to count! All getting ready for the big surf tournament. Bethany hung her head out the car window like a dog except she wasn't drooling or panting while her tongue stuck out. She scanned the beach before the car came to a stop and she hopped out of the back seat and grabbed her board from the back of the Ute. Bethany walked with her mother towards the groups of surfers waiting around the gazebos all waxing their boards or getting their wet suits on. Bethany dropped her board and pulled her wet suit on over her swimmers, pulled her hair out and let her beautiful long Mousy brown locks drop down past her shoulders. She picked up her board and for a short second she just stood there listening to the sounds of the waves before walking further up the beach and one foot a time slowly got into the cold ocean water.

Bethany's paddled out into the depths of the water before turning around so that the top of her board faced the shore. She looked around nervously at the other surfers getting ready for the tournament. Some of them looked confident like they had already won and others like Bethany looked like a nervous wreck. Bethany looked out over to the gazebos where the commentator and judges sat. She started nervously taping her board as she moved her head around until in the distance she could make out figures of her mum and two best friends Roxie and Theo. The thought of her friends and family being there to support her brought a slight touch of comfort to her and just a little bit more confidence.