Team name: Super girls
School: Esperance senior high School
Participants: Emma
/Emerson/Jemma/Hannah/Miriam/ Ysabel
Acknowledgement of sponsors- $240
Dedication: We would like to dedicate this
book to all the Children - we wish you
Good luck and to get better soon!
Chapter 1
Emma
As we walk past the shiny windows of the
Boulevard shopping centre, I see a person
that looks like an older version of me. One
that always put me in the spotlight. I don’t
like the spotlight; I always feel safe in the
shadows. At home with my nose in my book I
can forget about feeling loneliness and
sadness. It is funny how you can feel alone in
a big hectic city like Perth.
My brother was always getting all the
attention since father died, and mother has
been different since he and grandpa died in
that awful bushfire. Mum has always talked
to Jack and always did everything for him,
unlike me; I was always left out every time.
Perhaps it is because Jack is the talker or
sometimes even the stalker. Jack loves his
popularity and enjoy putting me down.
Mother says he is only teasing me and does
what “big” brothers do.
My best friend is Lily’s my fluffy furry dog.
With her wet black nose she always gives me
welcoming kisses. In her curious eyes I can
see that she worries about me being sad.
Doctor Flip says I am beautiful but I feel
ordinary with my brown hair and brown eyes.
Mouse like.
Thank goodness the shopping trip is over. I
don’t like the hectic lifestyle; I prefer the soft
whispering of the cool blue ocean as it
whispers “Esperance”.
Esperance is a small coastal country town
700km from Perth. My Marine biologist
mother, Bella, and my older teenage brother
Jack and I live in this peaceful town. Since
the accident my family has experienced a lot
of conflict. My mother is often cantankerous,
like in grumpy. This is since the fires in Perth
were we used to live in the hills. A happy
family with Pop, dad and us.
As the sun sets in the west and kangaroos
look for food in the dark, mother tells us that
it is not safe to drive at night because we
may come across wild kangaroos jumping all
over the place as well as dead kangaroos
laying on the road and beside it. We arrive
home to Esperance safely and sound.
Chapter 2
The soft warm sand tickles my feet while the
sun warms my body. As I am reading my book
I recognise a shadow; of course it is my
brother and his friends. Jack is being a jerk.
He told to me that I am a big ugly nerd that
reads books, and will never be as good and
brave as him. I get up and say, “Can you stop
teasing me?” He walks away with no feeling
of guilt for what he said.
Those words alone made a hole in my heart
that can’t be fixed. I always knew my brother
was better than me but I could never hate my
brother, because he is the only family I have
left. I just keep thinking that if I enrol in the
surfing competition I might beat my brother,
but what if I make a fool of myself? I guess
it’s worth the risk, so I walked down to the
tent where the judges are.
Chapter 3
I want to prove to my bother that I am not
just quiet and shy. I want to be brave and do
something different; not just be an ugly nerd
that reads books everyday like my brother
tells me that I do. When I arrive at the desk
of the judges, I know I’m doing the right
thing. I sign my name on the piece of paper
with my details. I get my number and stick it
in my dairy, then I start to walk home I am
really proud of myself for joining in the
competition.
I walk back from the judge’s desk and I go to
café, thinking about how I want to do in the
competition. I want to win, I want to prove
Jack wrong, because he never thinks I can
do anything. I need to win, so he will respect
me and not treat me like a lesser person, I
am his equal, but he doesn’t think so. I need
him to think so.
Chapter 4
Very early the next morning before the sun
peaks its head out.
I tiptoe to get my brothers board. Quiet as a
mouse I complete my mission feeling proud
of myself. As I am walking to the beach, I see
an opponent, strong and confident like a lion,
surfing though the big massive waves by
himself practicing for the big event.
I imagined myself paddling and kicking to get
a wave as I am rubbing wax on my brother’s
expensive new board. He had just bought the
board with money he had been saving up for
years. After thirty minutes of hard work I
finish rubbing the board and I am ready to go.
I walk towards the sapphire water, but I am
curious, do I really want to go in and prove to
my brother that I can surf?
I don’t have a choice so I go for it. My first
wave comes towards me. It is a beautiful
lovely day and I am excited to catch a wave.
I don’t have a choice, so I go for it. I paddle
and kick as fast as I can my legs feel like
jelly, but the wave gets me before I can stand
up and try to surf.
I fall off the board and go into the deep dark
water, gasping for air. I am so happy to see
the bright suns face smiling at me and I could
hear Pop congratulating me for being his
brave girl.
I go back on to my board, and paddled a bit
farther to get more waves; everything is still
the way I left it, before I fell in the water.
The water is still blue and beautiful, the sky
is bright, but as I turned back I see that I am
far away from the beach. It looks as small as
a gain of rice.
Chapter 5
It is so quite that I only hear a soft rumble
beneath me; I think to myself it’s probably my
imagination playing with me, but all of a
sudden the clouds become dark and the
waves become strong. It is not what I
expected. It is the biggest wave I have ever
seen in my life.
It is coming towards me as fast as an eagle.
I start to swim away from the wave as fast as
I can, but it is too late. The wave comes fast,
crashing down on top of me with all its fury. I
fall into the water and try to swim back up,
but it is no use. The current is too strong for
me to swim back up. I gasp for air as I
struggle to get my strength back to swim
back to the top of the water.
I don’t want to give up on myself because I
want to prove something to my brother. I try
my best and swim back to the top of the
water as I struggle to get my breath.
Chapter 6
Then I hear a sound that goes pop. It is my
grandad’s watch. It is telling me to swim
diagonally across the water instead of
swimming against the currant. I do what it
tells me to do and it works and it isn’t tiring
me out.
That’s when I start to feel more confident
and brave about the whole thing because I
have my special watch with me which will
help me on my journey back home. But the
only problem, though, is which way is home?
I don’t think the watch can help me this time
and then all of a sudden I see an island
appear out of nowhere. I start to swim
towards it but something is pulling me back. I
think in my head, it’s a shark, it’s a shark!
And then a fin appears and I think this is the
end for me; the shark is going to eat me
alive. But then a head pops out of the water
and I see it is a dolphin, and it picks me up
and carries me back to the island.
Chapter 7
When I finally arrive at the beach the dolphin
drops me off at the island and leaves me
there I don’t know what to do, but one thing I
know is that I am hungry and thirsty and
cold. I got up to my knees and glance over
the island. It is only small, but it has a few
trees on it. Now all that is left for me to do is
to find some food.
Nothing looks edible; tired I fall to the ground
under the comfort of a big palm tree. I look
up at a large brown coconut. My mouth
dribbles like Lily’s. Boy I am hungry! How can
I get the coconuts down? They are so high up
it’s nearly impossible to get them down? Pop
whispers in my ear, “You will be alright.” So I
shake the tree with all my strength and one
fall down. When the coconut fall it cracks
open. It is such a refreshing drink. So I drink
all the coconut milk in one go and I felt much
better. In the back of my mind there is still a
slight problem, how will I get home and will
anyone find me here?
Chapter 8
JACK
I look around me and wonder where Emma
has gone. I see her book lying on the sand,
where she was sitting earlier, but she is
nowhere to be seen. I wonder where she
would have gone. I walk over to my friends
and ask if they have seen her, and Phil says
that they saw Emma surfing. Terry says that
she entered the competition I ask where she
would have gotten the surfboard from and
they inform me that she what said Jack way
would she took mine. “What?” I ask “why
would she do that?” Phil then tells me that
she also fell off the surfboard because of the
huge wave. I start yelling, “Why didn’t you tell
me?”
“We thought you knew about this.” Replied
Terry.
“Well, I wouldn’t be standing here asking you
if I knew that, would I?” I ran into the water
and start looking for Emma. I looked
everywhere for her, I ran up and down the
beach until I could barely walk anymore, then
I looked as far as could into the horizon,
looking for any signs of a surfboard or a
person.
I yell as loud as I could towards the ocean,
trying to make her hear me, even though I
was sure she would be too far away to hear
me. My screams were so loud people on the
beach were looking concernedly as me, but I
didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was
finding my sister. She was the most
important thing to me right now; she was the
only person that mattered to me right now.
But my efforts were useless, I couldn’t see
her, she couldn’t me, there was no sign of her
at all. I collapsed onto the beach, crying, it
was the saddest thing that had ever
happened to me, ever.
I start to walk home, only speeding up when I
thought that my mum needs to know, she
needs to know that Emma had gone missing,
and I couldn’t find her.
Chapter 9
I run home and tell mum that Emma is lost
out at sea. I also tell her that I teased her
and that’s why she entered the competition. I
explained that there was a huge wave and it
pulled Emma out to sea and under the water
and I couldn’t find her anywhere “I am sorry,
mum”
“There’s no point complaining, we need to
find her!” replied mum. She disappears and
comes out with her lap top. I ask how that’s
going to help. “Well,” mum says, “The map on
my lap top will tell me which way the current
is flowing and then we can search in that
direction”.
“That’s a great idea!”
“Thank you. Now the current is flowing quite
fast. We will need a helicopter”.
“But that will cost us heaps of money and we
won’t have enough to pay for it,” I said.
“Well, that’s why you need to go outside back
to the beach and compete in the competition
and win the prize.”
“But what board will I use? I only have my old
board and it’s snapped in half.” Mum then
tells me that she does have a surfboard. It is
meant to be my birthday present. She then
goes into her bedroom and comes out with a
huge board. It’s the best board I have ever
seen.” I thank mum. “This board is
awesome!”
I run outside, down to the beach, and enter
the competition. I wait until it is my turn to
surf and then I go out and wait for a wave to
come. When it finally arrives I swim towards
it and turn around. I stand up and ride the
wave, and do some tricks. I then swim back
to shore.
When the judges announce the winner, they
call my name. I go up and collect the money
and say thank you. I quickly run back home
and tell mum to call for a search party.
Chapter 10
Panic stabs through me, my world feels like
it’s about to go black. I know I was mean to
my sister, but deep down in my heart I really
love her. Why did she have to go? I couldn’t
lose faith I had to be strong, for Emma. When
we went to investigate with the search party
my hope was slowly disappearing into a
black hole. We couldn’t find any clues.
This was my entire fault. I never should have
treated Emma like this, the only way I could
show her that I loved her was by being mean
to her. It seems like the filthy words that
came out of my mouth only led her to
wanting to go away, or maybe even join dad.
Emma, where ever you are, please come
home. I miss you and mum is crying out a
waterfall. I promise you I will change, but
please come back.
I feel so bad that I made her go surfing that
day. I should of respected her and treated her
right, I feel terrible that I let her disappear.
She would of hated me for it, but if I had
stopped her surfing that day and told I
thought she could surf as well as anyone, she
would never of gone out that day.
It was my fault, and only my fault. No one
should blame themselves because it was
only my fault. I failed her as her big brother.
Chapter 11
After many days and weeks I finally give up
on finding my sister. I lock myself in my
room, reflecting on what I have done. My
body is as skinny as a stick, my face is as
pale as a ghost, and my eyes are as red as
blood. Mum is going through a tough time,
paying the debt for Emma’s grave, and is also
working overtime. While I stay at home, now
knowing what it feels like to be my sister;
lonely, sad, depressed and feeling worthless.
After long hours of staying in my room I hear
the doorbell ring. I slowly exit my room to
answer the door, but when I open the door
my eyes are shocked. My mouth has no
words to utter. A police man is standing at
my door. It is strange to see him there, but
even stranger is the fact that he has a smile
plastered on his face. “I believe you will want
to see this,” said the police. Without saying
anything else I follow him. Once we are in the
car the atmosphere around us is dead silent
and strained. You could probably hear a pin
fall. After a long trip of silence we reach the
beach where Emma disappeared, however
there is a familiar figure ahead of me. As the
figure turns around, her brown eyes heal my
heart; my eyes are full of tears of joy.
I am so surprised; I never thought I would see
that figure again outside of the precious
photo albums that show us what she looks
like, because when my memory fades, I’ll
need to remember her face, I never wanted
to forget her.
I slowly walk to her. The girl that I have
wanted to come back home is finally here, it
was the most unbelievable sight ever, her
familiar face making me as happy as I’ve ever
been in my life.
Chapter 12
Emma’s disappearance has resulted in an
improved between us. As they say, every
cloud has a silver lining. We mad an
agreement that we will stick together
forever, and go hand in hand. Mum said that
blood is thicker than water.
Even though we want to, we can’t change the
past. However we can change the future. As
long as we have someone special on our
side, we are never alone: our heart will be full
of love, hope, and faith and family.
A year later Mum takes us to our favourite
café ‘The Shack’ that overlooks the beach
that nearly took my sister. The surfing
competition is full swing again, but we agree
not to enter. Instead we sit back, sipping our
hot chocolates, wondering what this year
competitors will learn.