When I woke up the sun was shining through my window brightly even though it was still early morning. I rolled over and listened for any signs of movement but the house seemed pleasantly still. The only sounds I could hear were the screeches of seagulls fighting over a sand-covered sandwich and the quiet snores of my brother next door. I quietly slipped out of my blankets and walked across to the laundry. The floor of the laundry was wet from when we came home from the beach yesterday. I tried to jump around the puddles but they were too close to miss completely and water that splashed onto my feet was icy. I saw my bikinis hanging on the clothes hanger, they were still damp but I took them and got changed. Just as I pulled on a t-shirt, I caught a whiff of coffee and could tell that my Dad was up. In the kitchen he made me a bowl of cornflakes. He had added way too much milk and they were all soggy but I ate them quickly as I wanted to go surfing that day; I needed to practice for a competition that me and my friends were going to enter. The prize was $100, which, when your allowance is the same as your nine year old brother’s, is a very, very large amount.
Just as I was about to slip out the door Dad called after me.
“Charli, will you help me fix the fence this afternoon?” I turned around and looked at him. He was looking at me expectantly. I glanced backwards over my shoulders and focused on the ocean, which was waiting there for me, just a few hundred metres away. The waves looked particularly powerful this morning and I couldn’t fight the temptation of leaving them and staying behind with Dad.
“Sorry Dad. I need to go to the library, Mrs Jenson has given us lots of homework”, I lied.
