Grace:
Moving is terrifying, especially moving by yourself. As a young girl I would visit Australia every other summer, tour around and just relax. That is really where I fell in love. The Australian sunsets, the amazing beaches, and can't forget the amazingly friendly people.
Today is moving day, I already packed all of my clothes and things to ship them over. I will be living with an old friend called Tori.
"Alright, attention all passengers, those boarding to Sydney, Australia please queue up now." The overly friendly hostess announced over the intercoms.
"Okay Grace, you can do this. How much different can it be from England? Not much right? Guess we will find out." I told myself.
"Thanks love, enjoy your flight" the hostess told me as I was handing her my boarding pass.
-End of Flight-
Goodness , that was terrible. I was plane sick the entire flight, didn't eat, and couldn't sleep. I am beyond exhausted.
I looked around trying to find Tori as soon as I grabbed my baggage.
"Grace!" Tori yelled as I walked out.
"OI! How ya going? Flight went well?" She asked me Whilst taking one of my bags.
"Nah, absolutely terrible. I was plane sick the entire flight. I am absolutely knackered." I told her.
"Come on its about 9.45 lets get you settled for the night. Get you on our time, yeah?" Tori said whilst loading the boot of the car.
Finally pulling into the carpark of the apartment we unloaded and headed to bed. Figured I would try to settle into this time zone as fast as I could.
-Next Day-
I turn over in bed feeling almost refreshed. I look at the table clock reading 11.15. Damn I slept for a while, I mean I was up for more than 24 hours.
Walking into the kitchen to fix some proper tea, I saw Tori watching the tele.
"Sleep well, yeah?" She asked me whilst joining me in the kitchen.
"Yes, thanks. I feel so refreshed. Can we hit the beach today? I want to try to get to looking a bit more like an Aussie. This pale skin just sticks out." I told her whilst finishing up my cupa.
"Sure sure. Let's hit Bondi, you will love it. I know a few of the lifeguards over there. Sweet lads. I reckon you will enjoy it down there." She told me.
We both got dressed and walked the short trek to Bondi. I've heard of it before, heard it was a lovely place to surf. That reminds me.
"Tori, do you know anywhere good to grab a surfboard? I snapped mine before I headed over here. Figured I could grab one here." I told her whilst we settled in the sand.
"Erm, not really. I don't really surf. I reckon we can ask one of my lifeguard friends for recommendations. Did you wanna go today?" She replied.
"No, maybe tomorrow though. I figured I would just have a bit of a tan and swim a bit. The swell looks a bit calm today." I told her.
After about 15 minutes of "tanning" I got a bit bored and decided to go for a dip. Looking for the flags, I made my way down there, but not before letting tori know where I was going. I've heard the stories, a girl goes swimming, does tell anyone, drowns. Not how I want today to go.
The swell wasn't bad today, good for the newbie surfers. Finally making it to the water I spotted the lifeguards surveying the water. Good, they are on high alert. Swimming is my favorite, aside from surfing that is. I have always been a good swimmer and always loved the ocean. Making way farther back, I spotted a few surfers about 100 meters away from, making note to stay away.
I was enjoying my dip when I heard
"OI, Oi, watch out" not giving me enough time to reach I was knocked under water. Knowing how hard I was hit I tried to keep my head above water. Immediately raising my hand for the lifeguards to help me. It was not long after that I saw the blue lifeguard paddle board right next to me.
"Shit, how ya goin? Can you hear me?" The lifeguard asked.
"Yeah, I don't know what happened."
"It's okay sweetheart. Can you get on?" He asked me.
"Yeah I think so." I replied whilst trying to get on, but shortly failing as more blood slid down me head.
" can you help me, I'm feeling a bit weak." I replied as he jumped off of the board and lifted me up. By this time we were already in neck high tides. He calmly by quickly paddled back to shore.
"OI, stay with me. Keep your head still and eyes open." He told me ask my eyes. Started to go blurry. He lifted me from the board and sat me in the sand, trying to assess how bad my wound are.
"Okay does your neck hurt at all or are you short of breath?" He asked me.
"No, no just a fin chop. And I think he hit me in nose with the board as well." I replied to him.
"Did you swallow any water? For just a precaution I will put you on oxygen. Then we will get you situated on the rino and bring you down to the tower." He told me.
"Okay. One sec" he said whilst grabbing his radio. "Central to tower, we've got a pretty severe fin chop to the head. I think it is best to put her on a spinal board. Can someone please bring one down? Hurry-
He looked, asking my name
"Grace." I told him.
"Grace seems to be in a fair bit of pain. Chappo, can you come help me down here. Over"
"Sure, Whippet mate. Over" he told the tower.
Turning to me he grabbed my head, stabilizing it. From the corner of my eye I could see another lifeguard grabbed a type of reflective blanket like thing and wrapped me in it.
"Hi Grace, my name is Whippet. Im going to wrap your head and put a brace around your neck. It is just for precautionary measures, better safe than sorry. Then we can drive up to the tower and get you cleaned up, yeah?" He told me whilst smiling.
"Okay, thank you. But can you call my friend tori? She was tanning when I last saw her." I asked whilst closing my eyes.
"Yeah yeah. But you must keep your eyes okay okay. It you have a concussion it is best to keep you awake. We can deal with your friend once we get you up there." He told me whilst starting to drive.
"I reckon I won't be able to surf tomorrow." I told him whilst smiling.
"Nope, sorry sweetheart. Another day I reckon" whippet smiled down at me, whilst keeping my head steady.
Finally making it up to the tower he grabbed onto the board and with the help with about 4 other lifeguards we made it into the tower and on the medical bed.
"Okay we will lift you onto the bed, and wait for an ambo. Talk to me whilst we wait okay, I don't want you falling asleep." He told me whilst looking down at me."
"Do you reckon I will have to get stitches? What about my nose? How broken does it look?" I asked looking up at him.
"Your nose is definitely broken. As for the gash. We will have to wait to see." He told me whilst looking closely at my nose.
"Damn, hoping I could have just went home Scott free. I wanted to catch some waves tomorrow." I told him, looking a bit sad.
" aww sorry sweetheart. I'm sure you will be up and on those waves sooner than you think. Okay" he told me looking into my eyes and smiling.
"Yep. Sounds good. Oh by the way I need to tell my best friend what happened. I don't think she knows. Could you like announce to her I'm here, or like let me borrow a phone?" I asked him.
"Oh sure thing, one sec " he told he whilst quickly running to the tower desk.
Dialing the number I saw that it was already in the phone. Hmm I wonder why. She didn't tell me if she was dating anyone, let alone one of the cuter lifeguards. I hope she isn't, whippet is so cute and his smile is adorable.
"Whippet? Hellos?" I head a voice on the other end of the tele.
"Ahh tori, no it's Grace. Can you quickly come to the tower. Grab our stuff please."
"Erm. Okay is everything alright."
"Yeah yeah. Just hurry up" I told her and hung the phone up.
"Hey whippet, do you have any think meds? My head kills, I think the adrenaline is wearing off" I asked him whilst wincing. I could feeling the pounding and stinging. The pain was getting too much, I had to take smaller breaths.
