Saving Olivia

Chapter 21

I face palm, rolling my eyes and sighing. I start eating my own pancakes, but not as fast as Kian.

"So," I start after taking a bite. "I was wondering if anyone wanted to go swimming after we finish eating. I went on my balcony this morning and it was pretty hot outside, which means the water should be warm."

Faith pauses, looking up at me, her eyes glistening with excitement. "I want to go!"

Kian also looks up, his mouth full of pancakes. "I want to gwo twoo!"

I flinch back in disgust. "Nasty, food is for you to put in your mouth, not spit it all over me while you talk."

Kian smiles sheepishly in reply. He swallows his food, and mutters a sorry.

"Now hurry up and finish these pancakes, we don't have all day!"

*****

I drag my boogie board behind me as we walk out to the beach. Kian is already in the water because he ran ahead of me and Faith instead of being nice and waiting for us. Jerk.

"Hey Olivia?" Faith asks, looking up to me. "Do you think you could teach me how to boogie board?"

"Yeah, of course!" I reply, smiling. "Its simple really. You'll have it down in no time. Here, put this around your wrist." I hand her the string I attached to my board, and wrap it loosely around her wrist. "This is to make sure you don't lose the board in the waves, It'll always be connected to you." I say and she nods eagerly, quickening her pace. We reach the water finally, and I waddle into it slowly. I was right, it's warm.

"Alright," I say, turning towards Faith. "I'm going to help you the first few times until you get the hang of it. So you've gotta wait for a bigger wave, like the one that just crashed into Kian..." I drift off, laughing at Kian as he's pushed down into the water by a wave. He resurfaces, whipping his head around to see me laughing. He too cracks a smile.

"Okay," I begin again, looking back to Faith. "So you get yourself a wave, then you wait for it to get a little bit closer to you, then you jump forward with the wave onto your board. Hopefully the wave will carry you into the shore."

"Okay... I think I get it, but can you help me the first few times?" She asks, starting to head further into the water. I nod and follow her, until the water reaches her stomach and my waist.

"Alright. Get on the board, I'll guide you the first few times." I say and she gets on the board, her stomach pressed against in and her head lifted up, looking back for a wave.

"Here comes a good one... you ready?" I ask and she nods her head eagerly. "Okay.. One, two, three!" I yell and push her with the wave. She rides it for a while and I can hear her laughing, then she falls into the water and it's my turn to laugh. I walk towards her and she finally pops out of the water, rubbing her eyes, and spitting.

"I hate salt water," she mumbles. "It burns my throat." She wipes her hair away from her eyes, looking up at me.

"That was a pretty good one, until you fell." I laugh a little. "I think the fall deserves a ten out of ten. It was great."

Faith narrows her eyes playfully at me, smacking me in my stomach. "You're not funny," she says, turning away, but I see her smiling.

"You'll get it sooner or later. Shouldn't take that long." Faith turns back to me and gets back on her boogie board, paddling out a little bit further. As she waits for good waves, I go up to talk to Kian.

"Hey bro," I say, splashing water at him. He turns around and the water hits him directly in the face.

"Ow, fu- my eyes! Olivia, my eyes!" He covers his face, whining.

"Oh get over it, you big baby." I splash him again, laughing. Soon enough, we're both splashing each other and laughing. Suddenly Kian stops.

"Oh hell no," he states, starting back to the shore. "You know, I just realized we're in the damn ocean, and we're splashing each other and Faith is boogie boarding. Sharks are attracted to that kind of stuff! I'm getting the hell out of the water!" He starts running back to shore as fast as he can. "Ay yo, Faith! get outta here! We're gonna attract sharks!" Faith turns toward us, eyes wide. She gets off her boogie board and starts running toward the shore.

I roll my eyes and start walking towards them. They're so paranoid, no sharks are gonna-

Did something just touch my leg?

I scream and start running up to the shore, which causes Kian to scream, which causes Faith to start crying, which causes dad to come running out on to the deck frantically.

We reach the shore and I plop down on the sand, catching my breath.

"That... was the scariest thing... ever!" I breathe, and dad comes rushing towards us.

"What's the matter? Is someone hurt?" He looks at us, his gaze shifting over us worriedly.

"No. Something touched my leg!" I whine, looking down at my calf.

Dad visibly relaxes, running a hand over his face.

"You guys- don't ever do that again! Jeez, get in the house."

"Sorry dad. Don't ever worry about that happening again, 'cause I don't think we're going in that ocean for a while."

*****

IM TAKING A SURVERY!!

How do you guys feel about Faith and their dad? I need to know so I can up my writing if I need to...

p.s I wrote this in one sitting! Congrats to me! I usually write chapters in like a span of a week... but I wrote this in a day...

1589 words🍟