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A Fine Summer
The summer I turned 12 was one like no other. I spent it with my two best friends, Jaime and Tim. Each day a new adventure, and new trouble to get in. Being young I naturally didn't use my brain, and would just do without thinking. There was one day when our adventure turned into danger. We were outside on the beach looking out over the ocean. It just finished raining and we were excited to go out and play. A thought occured to me. "You know, we've never crossed the sea before." I said. "So? " Said Tim. "Are you suggesting going out there in a boat?" asked Jaime, the youngest at age 9. "Well, yeah! Come on guys, it'd be fun." I encouraged "Yeah! Lets do it!" said Tim. "Um," Jaime murmurred. "but, wouldnt that be dangerous, the storm just ended. It could come back." "Aw, dont be a wussy." Tim jeered. "Leave'im alone Tim." I defended. "This is what we do, us three. Danger's what we live for!" I joked. "Okay." Jaime agreed. We headed up to the shack where the rafts were kept. The shack was cluttered with skiis, wake boards, inner tubes, fishing rods and then finally in the back, the raft. It wasn't completly blown up. We muddled through and dragged it out. "Looks like it'll sink." Jaime pointed out. "Start blowing!" said Tim. "I can't blow it up by myself! I dont have that much oxygen!" Jaime complained. "You dont have to." I said turning on the airgun. When finished blowing up the raft we pulled it to the shore. "We might need food." I said. "And ores." said Tim. "And a first aid kit." Said Jaime. "Good idea, i'll get the food. Tim, you find some ores, look in the shack, if there arent any, find some large sticks. Jaime, I'll get the first aid kit. " "I'll watch the raft!" Jaime said. I went into the house, found a backpack and stuffed it with cheese-its, twinkies, chips, and granola bars. Then I went into the bathroom and grabbed the little first aid kit and I crammed that in there too. I went back out and found that Tim already got the ores. "Ready?" I said. Tim looked in the backpack. "Will this be enough?" he asked. "It should be enough, we'll only be gone a few hours I reckon." "But what if we get stranded? Or what if a whale gobbles us and we'll have to have food!" Said Jaime. "Don't be stupid. Whales don't live 'round here. We'll be fine." I said. "Now get in the raft." "Should we bring life vests?" Jaime asked. "Nahh, we can all swim good." said Tim. "Just in case." Jaime said. "Fine, just in case." I said. When I came back with the life vests, they were both in the raft. I pushed it into the water then hopped in. The raft didn't move. I looked down at the surface of the ocean. "I thought it'd be more fun than this..." Tim complained. Tim is 10 1/2 years old and he's a pessimist, and a huge complainer. He also likes to get under your skin, he mostly picks on Jaime since he's the youngest, and more scared than us. "We just need to help it." I said and took one of the ores. I pushed the raft with the ore and got it out of the sand. We all cheered as we drifted away. We floated for a few minutes when Tim said "Now what?" "We row." I said tossing him an ore. "What about Jaime?" He asked. "Theres only two and you're stronger." "True." agreed Tim. "Thanks..." said Jaime sarcastically. "I guess we can switch off rowing duties." I suggested. We drifted in our little yellow raft singing every song we could think of as the waves brushed against us filling our noses with the salty ocean air. It got quiet for a moment and we felt something lurking beneath us and we sat still. Tim looked over the edge and gasped. "Theres a shark!" he yelped. Jaime squealed with fright and Tim stood up. The panic and fear of us disabled us to think clearly. What with Jaime screaming and Tim yelling and rocking the raft, I feared he would cause it to tip over. "Im too young to die!" Tim yelled. I got a better look at the shark. It was small and light gray. "Calm down! We arent going to die! It's only a dogfish shark!" I shouted over them. "They aren't dangerous!" They didn't respond. "Enough!" they looked at me. "You are gonna frighten the shark or tip the raft, calm down and stop panicking." They sat down. "Are you sure we're safe?" asked Tim. "Yes, look - it's leaving." I said and they both sighed with relief. "We should go back. This was a bad idea." Said Jaime who was shaking. "No, we're not going back." Tim said. "But guys - " "C'mon, its only been like 30 minutes. Are you afraid of getting in trouble?" I said. "Well, it's just that if I get into more trouble my parents will ground me, I'll be stuck in my room with nothing to do." Jaime said. "We won't get in trouble, my parents wont be home 'til 4 o clock. " I said. "They wont even know we were gone." Eventually as the sun setted, we came to a strip of land. It was a small island, about 75 feet away. "Laaaand ho!" I yelled. Jaime and Tim knelt up to look, cumberspect of the raft tipping. "Woah!" "Ya think we'll find burried treasure?" "Or a body?" "Or a ship wreck?" Then a small wave pushed the raft throwing Jaime off the raft, he shrieked, much like the little girl he is. "Jaime!" I reached out and tried to grab him, but the tide was pulling him away. He was wearing his life vest. Tim and I grabbed the ores and started rowing toward him, which was difficult. He was 7 feet away so I told Tim to hold my leg and I would swim out and grab him. I jumped in and felt the current pulling him, Tim held my leg and rowed out more and I caught up with Jaime and grabbed onto his vest. Tim pulled us back to safety and we gasped for air as we climbed back onto the raft. "Thanks guys." Jaime said still gasping. Soon we made it to the little island. We pulled the raft to shore. "Let's explore!" I said. It was a nice little island, there was a stretch of tree's in the middle and some large rocks and some grass. We looked around the little island, there wasn't much there. Jaime built a little sand castle, Tim tried climbing the trees, and I was jumping from rock to rock. A little later we decided to get back so we headed back to where we set the raft, only it wasn't there, because it had floated far out. It would have been dangerous to swim out all the way with the under-toe, and strong currents, it was also really deep. We panicked first then tried a few things. We looked for something to use as a rope to throw out and pull it back; We tried making a chain to swim out and get it; There was nothing we could do. We were stranded. "I bet I could make a fire." Tim declaired. "We'll find some sticks." I said and we searched for the sticks. I noticed Jaime sitting by the shore, holding his knee's with his head down and his shoulders moving up and down. He was crying. I walked over to him to comfort him. "Jaimes, it's okay, we're together and thats all that matters." "How will we get back?" he strifled. "I dont know, they'll come find us." I said realizing it was getting dark. Tim's fire didn't succeed. We huddled together and shivered. None of us talked. Then through the fog over the water we saw a light. Then there was a horn, and a boat came into view. On the side of the boat were the words "RESCUE BOAT" I stood up. "Guys, they found us!" then they all stood up and we raised our arms and called "Over here!" A man escorted us onto the boat and asked what happened. Then it took us back home. Our parents were hysterical. We got in mighty fine trouble, but it was the adventure of a life time. I will never forget that day.
poptart_princess11 · Fri Oct 22, 2010 @ 11:46am · 0 Comments |
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