My Life With The Ocean

• Sophie Mitchell, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

The small seashells floated away in the cold frothy water, the sun shimmered on the big waves and small fish swam around my feet. The sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful pink color. I slowly stepped out of the water and sat down on the sand. The sand went between my toes and the little sprinkles of water splashed on my face. I laid my head back and closed my eyes. I felt the cool breeze of air as I took a deep breath through my nose. I sat up and stared out into the empty ocean. I listened to the birds chiming a song and the waves crashing together.

My name is Nixie and I’m 15 years old. I enjoy being at the beach. One of my hobbies is collecting seashells from the beach. My parents named me Nixie because I was born in a hospital next to the beach. Nixie is a German name for water nymph meaning mermaid.They loved the ocean as well.

Not long ago, my parents broke up. It happened at the beach and now my mum says that I can't go to the beach anymore, but I still do. I go there all the time. I told my mum that school ends at 4pm so that I have half an hour at the beach before I have to race back to school and wait for my mum to pick me up. I'm lucky she hasn't noticed that only a few people are there. Maybe she thinks they are at the other carpark.

Like I said, my parents are divorced. My siblings still don't know, but my mum and dad used to have fights all the time. I know that, but I don't know a'lot of the rest. Mum said that it was because he was drinking but I knew that wasn't the case, or was it?

I stood up and walked along the sand. I looked at the time on my phone, 3:56 pm Ahhhh! I jumped up in the air and I started running as fast as I could, passing people. I even knocked over an elderly lady by accident and was in such a rush I couldn't stop to help her. I felt so sorry for her. I made it to school at 3:59 pm. I was so relieved because my mum comes to school at about 4:05 pm. I would have 5 minutes to grab my school bag from the class room and cool down from running to school.

Mum made it to school and I jumped in the back seat of the car. On the way home, I talked to mum about my day at school. We got home and I carried on with the rest of the day. She really is the best mum but I need the ocean.