*Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… 

I rolled over and hit the snooze button on my alarm clock. 

“Five thirty?” I thought to myself shocked like I didn’t do this every Saturday morning. I let my eyes slowly close and drift back to sleep. I was having a dream about being at the beach. Laying in the warm, golden sand taking in the sun while watching my 6 year old little brother frolic in the waves. It was the perfect day out, not too cold that people couldn’t swim in the ocean, but not too hot that people tanning would be miserable. There were lots of people at the beach that day: some people throwing a frisbee, some people fishing, everyone seemed to be happy. Then, out of nowhere, I heard the scream of a little girl and I turned my head to the right to see her running from the water. Then, to my left, I heard the lifeguard whistle blow. 

“Shark!” he yelled, “Everybody Out!” 

I thought about my little brother and looked to see him still swimming peacefully in the waves as though he hadn’t even noticed the lifeguard yelling. And then, that’s when I saw it; coming up out of the water was a giant six foot dorsal fin, and it was headed straight for my brother. 

“Cayden! Hurry!”, I started screaming frantically. I watched in horror as the shark picked up speed and got closer and closer and ...

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…  

I rolled my eyes and slowly got out of bed. I flipped the switch to the light in my bedroom and threw on a sports bra and some spandex. Very slowly, I trudged down the stairs to the kitchen where I ate a clementine and a granola bar. After I brushed my teeth and filled up my water bottle, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. 

“Of course It’s still dark outside.” I mumbled to myself, “Who wouldn’t want to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to row?” I pressed the start button to my car, pulled out of the driveway, and headed to practice.

*   *   *   *   * 

When I got to the boathouse, there were already girls there getting out oars and launches. The sun was slowly starting to come up over the river and the smell of fish wafted into my nose. I walked to the back of the boathouse where I said good morning to coaches and checked the lineups for today. Krystal and I were stern pair in the Artemis. That made me happy because Krystal and I were rarely a pair anymore. 

“Hey Madi” I turned and saw my friend Elisabeth standing next to me. 

“Hey Elisabeth” I said back to her, “Do you know what we’re doing on the water today?”

“Not a clue”, she responded “But I think Coach Mel might let us get out and swim for a little.” 

Swimming was always fun, but I never got out for a couple reasons. First, the river water is nasty and I wouldn’t want to get an infection and second, I was too scared I couldn’t lift myself back into the boat and that I would end up making a fool of myself. 

“That’ll be fun!” I smiled, then it was time to warm up. 

After warm up, everyone went and got hands on their boat and carried them down to the docks. “Starboards unlock yours oars!” our coxswain yelled, and then we were off. As we started rowing down the canal, I could hear the birds chirping and the splash the oars made when they hit the water. I could smell the river water and the stench from the seagulls that always came when we rowed under the bridge. I watched Krystal’s back because she was sitting in front of me and I followed her. I could already feel the blisters on my hands breaking as I gripped the oar and felt the boat move underneath us. While we were doing our usual warm up by stern four and then bow four, Coach Mel told the boats what we would be doing today. 

“On the row up,we’ll do some drills and then we’ll get out and swim. Then we’ll turn around and race home. Sound like a plan?”

 I looked around and could see the excitement on the other girl’s faces in the boats. Elisabeth was seven seat too, but she was in the Gemini. She especially loved when we got out to swim. Little did she know though, this wouldn’t be an exciting day for her. 

“Way Enough” Sophia called and everyone stopped rowing. Everyone flipped their blades so the boat stopped moving and we all grabbed a quick sip of water as well as getting ready for the swim. Elisabeth was the first to jump out, then Riley, then Catherine, then Krystal, then more.

 “This is so refreshing!” I heard Catherine call. “Come in Madi!” said Krystal. “No thanks, but you guys have fun!!” I shouted back and they continued to keep swimming. “AHHHHHHHH!!!” I heard a high pitch scream coming from the water, almost like the one I heard in my dream when the little girl saw the shark. I turned to see Elisabeth yelling and although the bottom half of her body was under the water, it looked like she was grabbing her foot in pain. The other girls rushed over to her to see what had happened. “I think she stepped on a stingray!” Catherine yelled. 

“And there’s a lot of blood!” Riley yelled back. Coach Mel rushed over to her in the launch and the other girls helped hoist her into the launch. “The rest of you row back, I’m gonna take Elisabeth back to the boathouse to call an ambulance and her parents.” Coach Mel told us. Pretty quickly, there was a sense of uneasiness and panic amongst everyone. On the way back, no one was really talking because everyone was focusing on rowing hard and getting home.

When we finally got back to the boathouse, the ambulance was there. Right as we were carrying the boat off the dock, we saw them carrying Elisabeth into the ambulance. We all watched closely as our friend’s foot was gushing out blood and getting pushed into the back of an ambulance. We kept our distance, but as soon as the ambulance left, we all ran up to coach Mel.

 “What did they say?” Asked Catherine. “What happened?” Asked another girl who hadn’t even seen what had happened because she was with another coach today. 

“Do her parents know?” I added in. “I called her parents and they’re going to meet her at the hospital.” Coach Mel said calmly, “They think that she stepped on the barb of a stingray and it went straight through her foot.” I cringed at the thought of that disgusting water on an open wound like that. I silently hoped to myself that it hadn’t hurt her too bad.

 “Let’s take care of the boats and then we’ll worry about Elisabeth” said Coach Mel eventually, and that’s exactly what we did. 

After one week of not seeing Elisabeth, some of the girls and I decided that we would go visit her in the hospital. When we got to her room, she was resting peacefully in her hospital bed. Her mom was there, and when she saw us walk in she lightly woke Elisabeth up. As soon as she realized it was us, she sat right up, and looked very happy to see us. We all took turns giving her a hug and then told her what she had been missing at practice.

 “I miss you guys so much” she said, and we all told her how much we missed her too. Then, her nurse walked in and told us it was time for us to leave because it was time to administor Elisabeth’s antibiotics. 

*   *   *   *   *

A couple weeks later, it was Saturday morning again. I rolled out of bed, ran downstairs, grabbed a granola bar, and headed out the door. Unlike usual, I was happy to be at the boathouse so early. I was happy to see all my friends together and everyone healthy again. I smiled at Elisabeth as I walked past heriand thought of her time spent in the hospital. 

Of course it was a bad thing that my friend had stepped on a stingray, but in a way, I was glad it had happened. It had brought me and my friends together and connected us more as a team, and for that I was grateful.