Pants

• Joshua Boros, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

Kayne screamed in pain as the jellyfish stung his leg. Kayne began to lift up his board shorts but before he could a wave crashed over him, not a wave of water but a wave of embarrassment at the realisation that he had lost his pants in the surf!

The sun shined down brightly on Kayne’s exposed body as he tried to cover up, but it was no use. Kayne waved frantically to Phil, his best friend who coincidentally was sleeping on a towel. That’s when it hit Kayne, all the things that could go wrong. The head line formed in his head ‘naked man seen by thousands on the gold coast’ or even ‘naked man eaten by shark’ and that’s when Kayne saw him, Chris, the school bully.

“Well well well, what do we have here” boomed Chris” Having a little skinny dip at the beach are we?” Chris teased sarcastically”, Kayne turned as red as a tomato and wished he hadn’t come to the beach. “I thought I saw Lisa up by those trees, I’m sure you’d love to see her” Lisa Kayne’s crush was about to see him naked at the beach. Chris kicked some water before walking towards the trees, towards Lisa
Kayne’s adrenaline was pumping as he waved frantically towards Phil who was talking to one of Lisa’s friends probably about his collector’s items like his shark fin swim cap or giant baseball bat. As Kayne’s last hope he yelled “Phil! Phil!” Phil turned and ran up to Kayne. “What’s up” said Phil crouching down to talk to Kayne. “I lost my pants”, whispered Kayne. Phil burst out laughing before suddenly stopping and said seriously “You’re kidding right?” “No” replied Kayne solemnly then whispered his plan in Phil’s ear “Are you sure” questioned Phil “Yes” replied Kayne

Chris had reached Lisa, Phil was not in sight and now Lisa was only 50 metres away and getting closer, fast. Suddenly there was a scream “Shark!” someone yelled. Everyone charged up the beach as a shark fin slowly surfaced from the water.

The dark shape of the shark swam towards crowds on the beach “Run” someone yelled as he scrambled away. Lisa had almost reached Kayne when she was knocked over by the crowd then the frenzy of feet kicked her as she ran up the beach, Meanwhile Kayne was pulling the pants on one leg at a time. ‘Is this the end of this nightmare’ thought Kayne ‘Have I finally escaped this hell?’

After everyone had fled, except for Kayne, the shark stood on two legs and walked up to Kayne “Turns out your collector’s items are useful for something”, Kayne said, impressed. “And this is an example of why you should always bring spare pants”, replied Phil enthusiastically. And even now if you go to the Gold Coast sometimes you can see those far-off, rogue pants.