Race Of A LIfetime

• Billy Alcorn, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2021

The sound of cheering behind me was making me go for gold. I can feel the current under me pulling me back. I see an object in the far distance moving fast along the water. I continue pushing against the current with salt water splashing in my face, blurring my sight. The object is becoming just visible. I can make out its shape. Shock and disbelief went through my mind as I realised what’s ahead...

“Chirp chirp, tweet tweet’’, another wonderful morning waking up to chirping birds. Same time every morning. It was just like having an alarm. “Michael, brekky is ready,” Mum said. Brekky would always be vegemite on toast since it was the cheapest option but I loved it. It was just Mum and me living in a tight, small apartment close to Bondi beach. The apartment didn’t have a view of the beach and it was facing the busy road that led down to Bondi. Even so, Mum and I were lucky to have a roof over our heads. Whilst I was eating brekky I realised that today was race day for nippers. It started at 9:30 and if I was late I would have to do 100 pushups! I immediately looked up at the clock on the wall. I yelled “Crickey!”, it was 9:20! I flew as fast as the wind, put my budgie smugglers and rashie on, grabbed my board, said my goodbyes and I raced out the door, darting down the stairwell. I was out of breath, but that didn’t stop me from sprinting 800 metres getting there in the nick of time. My rival Tom was there laughing hysterically at me huffing and puffing. Racing was starting in 2 minutes so I quickly went and looked at the scheduled race sheet and after I saw it I knew I was having a bad day. I was in the first race with Tom! There was no way I was going to have a chance to win that race. Tom and I walked to the starting line with our boards and we got into our positions for the 200m nippers surf race. My heart was still beating 1000 miles an hour from the run here. The coach says “are you ready”, I look into Tom’s eyes and through them, I can just see him winning in glory, “on your marks, get set, gooooo!”. We sprinted towards the surf. Tom was in first. I got in 2 seconds after. We were neck and neck with 100m to go. About 50m behind us I could see a big wave forming that could give me or Tom a chance of being victorious. A bit closer to shore I see a pointy object sticking just out of the water. We got a bit closer to this object and we instantly knew what it was. It was a “Great… White… Shark!”. We quickly turned our boards around and knew this wasn’t a nippers surf race anymore, it was a race of life or death.