Fear. I’ve always had a fear of the ocean, but I never thought this would happen. It was 1pm out in the blazing hot sun with sand between our toes and the calming sounds of the waves crashing. Enjoying the beach were my family and the one friend I brought, Sarah, oh and not to mention about five cute boys in front of us. Laying out on the sandy chair, my skin started to feel like an overdone burger on the grill. More than half of the people in our group were already in the ocean, so Sarah and I decided to go join in on the fun to cool off for a few minutes.

The waves could knock me down as easily as a water bottle falls over with a slight touch. My little 14-year-old body walked in the salt water out to my family, and as I got closer to them, a big wave came. My first thought was to jump up as it came over me so it wouldn’t pull me under as it crashed. I felt something strange touch me as I jumped up with the wave, and I immediately came back down to the sand. One poke. Oh no what was that, I thought. Two pokes. Why isn’t it going away? Three pokes. Okay, Emily, this is where you die. Something is trying to eat you! You aren’t going to live after this one. Fear ran across my face as more pokes started to occur and I couldn’t help but to scream as if a big spider was crawling across my foot. Frantically, I started kicking and rubbing my legs, trying to get whatever it was off my legs and feet.

“Emily what’s going on?” Sarah asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m going to die. Something is eating me!” I screamed.

“But what’s going on? she asked again. “What is it?

I was way too terrified to answer again so she stood there, with her long blonde hair getting soaked as waves came across her, watching me with a look of confusion, laughing a little. I finally could look down, and all I saw was a big black blob attacking me. Yes, I said attacking me. Too scared to think about what it was, I made my way out of the ocean, but the water was so rough that it felt like it took years to finally get out of the terrifying water. My life just flashed before my eyes. How am I still alive? Wait, what even was that?  I ran to tell my parents what just happened.

“It was probably a school of minnows, Em,” declared my dad with his bald head sweating in the beating sun.

“So, you’re saying that a school of fish just attacked me?” I asked.

“Yes, now Emily, that’s embarrassing,” he laughed.

“Are you okay, though?” questioned my mom looking concerned through her bright green eyes.

“Yes, I’m okay, but I don’t think I want to get back in the ocean” I muttered.

Of course, it got around to everyone with us, so all day my fish fear was brought back up to me but really, I just didn’t want to think about it anymore. My skin red as a tomato, I decided to go up to the condo early and start getting ready to go out to eat.

I got up to the condo and went to have a shower. As I took my sand-filled bathing suit off, something fell out of my top. I looked down, and there it was, staring at me with his demented eyes. Oh my gosh, this is death. Instantly, I put my top back on and ran out to the main part of the condo to find my parents and their friends.

“A fish, Mom!” I exclaimed. “A fish just fell out of my top and it’s dead. It’s been in there since they attacked me.”

“How on earth did you manage to catch a fish in your bathing suit top?” she asked.

“Hey at least you’ve caught a bigger fish than Luke has,” Luke is their friends’ son who is a year younger than me and thinks he’s the coolest human alive, “And he actually fishes.” Announced my dad.

By that time, I was laughing about it, laughing so hard I was almost in tears. The rest of the week me catching the fish was a joke and Luke never managed to catch any fish, so I was still leading with that one. Due to fish attacking me, I was very cautious when going into the water and I made sure to watch so that I wouldn’t get attacked by another school of feisty minnows even when I was only ankle deep. I was terrified, still am terrified about going into the ocean. Everyone sees lovely blue waves with peacefulness, but I see fear… and fish.