Sandy Toes

• Bronte Gough, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2013

The waves submerged her feet in the salty water as she looked up at the bright blue sky and smiled. These summer holidays were going to be awesome.
Vanessa was one of the most popular girls in school, all the boys wanted her and all the girls wanted to be her. Her whole family adored her and she had a younger sister who had always looked up to her.
Her best friend, Marceline was in a committed relationship. She was completely in love with her boyfriend Mark.
Then there was Ricky, he had a bit of a reputation for playing girls like a footy game, not that any of them minded as he was so attractive.
Vanessa was standing at the shoreline when Ricky came from behind, picked her up and threw her in. She was laughing as she got up and jumped on his back. It was obviously flirting but Vanessa didn’t mind.
Marceline sat on a hill with Mark. They were talking and laughing. They were always happy when together. Mark pushed Marceline over and started tickling her and she was laughing loudly, yelling at him to stop while laughing uncontrollably.
So as Vanessa wrestled Ricky in the water and Marceline were having tickle fights with Mark in the sand the sun slowly went down and the day came to an end. Marceline’s mum rang and told her to come home as it was getting late, so she and Mark both went back home.
But Vanessa continued to party, the music had been turned up and more people arrived at the beach. Soon it was dark and the music was pumping as people danced around on the sand. Some older kids found their way to the beach party and brought alcohol with them, now the party had really started.
Everyone started to drink, arguments were taking place. Some really drunk guys decided to go swimming, which was extremely dangerous. A fight broke out so some people went home while some of the people who were swimming got out and watched.
As everyone was distracted by the punch-on, there was someone in the water. They were drowning, sinking deeper into the sea. But no one noticed.
The party slowly died down and people left for home, others passed out on the beach.
Morning. Vanessa woke up drowsily, not remembering much from the night before. She lousily got up and awoke everyone on the beach, telling them to go home and rest. A guy seemed to have fallen asleep along the shore, his face in the sand, Vanessa walked up to him and noticed it was Ricky, he laughed and tried to wake him. But her laughter soon turned into sobbing as she realised he was dead. He drowned last night and washed ashore this morning.
Vanessa sat on the sand next to his body, dazed. She looked at her feet as she sunk her toes into the sand and cried. This trauma would change everything.