Ava suddenly remembered something she had seen on TV, and swam up to the shark from behind. As she drew closer, its round eyes rolled in her direction. Ava made a tight fist and punched the shark on the nose as hard as she could. The shark jerked away, letting go of the girl's leg.
The shark swam off quickly for deeper water. Ava grabbed the girl's bleeding leg on her left calf. When she reached the surface, Kacey was holding the girl’s head above the water.
"She's bleeding badly," Ava shouted to Kacey, "I'll hold her leg while you tow her back to shore!"
Kacey nodded, and said to the terrified girl, "Stay calm. You're going to be all right. I'll take you back to shore. Just relax and let me do the work. Just do a back float and I'll do the rest."
After they calmed the girl, she went into a back float, and they began to tow the girl through the water. Ava swam with one hand holding the girl's leg tightly to stop the bleeding as Kacey swam while holding the girl’s chin. Within a few minutes they were in shallow water.
Two life guards came running and splashing toward them. When they reached the girls, they cried, "We've got her!"
"Her leg's bleeding! It was a shark!" Ava told them. They nodded in understanding and lifted the girl up, and carried her the rest of the way to the shore.
Kacey and Ava followed, and Emma came running up the beach with beach bags flailing.
The lifeguards lay the girl on the sand, and one examined her wound while the other called for an ambulance. The life guards made everyone get out of the water until it was safe to return.
Emma arrived breathlessly asking, "What happened?"
"Shark attack," Kacey explained, "Look through the bags. We need to make a tourniquet for her leg!"
They dumped out the contents and used a towel to wrap around the bleeding bite wounds. Kacey found her hair band that she had taken off before swimming.
"This will work!" she said. She wound the hair band around the girl's upper calf and asked Emma if she had any pens or pencils in her purse. Emma quickly produced a pen, and Kacey used it to loop it through the band to tighten the tourniquet.
The lifeguards were calming the girl and assuring her that she would be okay. A crowd gathered around them. Someone offered the girl a bottle of water, and Kacey used some of it to wash away blood and sand from the bites. She gave the rest to the girl and told her to drink it.
"The bite's not too bad," Kacey told the girl, "You'll be okay. He only got a nibble, not your whole leg."
"Thank you!" the girl sobbed, "I was so scared! I couldn't call for help because the shark kept pulling me under the water! I thought I was going to drown!"
Ava held the girl's shoulders, saying, "You're safe now. You'll be fine."
A woman pushed her way through the crowd, yelling, "Jenny! Jenny! It's Mom!"
The girl's mother hugged her daughter frantically, and Ava assured her that Jenny would be okay. Kacey kept a tight hold on the tourniquet to control the bleeding.
The lifeguards told the crowds to stay back and cleared the way when the medics arrived. The medics put a new tourniquet on and gave the hair band back to Kacey. They cleaned the girl's leg wound with antiseptic and wrapped a clean bandage around the girl's calf. Then they placed her on a stretcher and carried her off to the ambulance as her mother followed.
Kacey, Ava and Emma looked at one another.
"Whew!" Kacey said, "That was close. Did you see that shark?" she asked Ava.
"Yeah. It was about six feet long and it had the girl's leg in its mouth. I gave it a good, hard punch on the nose, and it swam away."
One of the lifeguards looked at the girls with admiration.
"You girls look like you've done this before. Are you lifeguards?"
They laughed, and Kacey said, "No, we've never seen a shark attack before. But we learned first aid and water safety training in high school."
He grinned and shook his head, "Well, you certainly kept your heads cool and saved that girl's life. She could have drowned if you hadn't scared that shark away. Or worse, he might have finished her off. And then you made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, too! But jumping off that pier took a lot of guts."
They smiled and thanked him. Ava said, "I just happened to look down into the water when we were walking along the pier. I saw the girl being pulled down into the water, so we jumped in to help her. Anyone could have done it."
"Well, you're much too modest. You girls are heroes."
"Thanks!" they replied. As he left, they noticed that other people were taking pictures of them with their cell phones.
Emma turned to her friends and said, "I'm sure glad you two are okay. But I have to say it: I told you so!"
Ava pulled a face, but Kacey said, "Yeah, okay, you were right...shark attacks do happen, but usually not in March."
A teenager in the crowd who looked to be about sixteen came forward asking, "Hey, can I take your picture with me?"
The girls asked, "Why?"
"Are you kidding? You girls are heroes for saving that girl! I got the whole thing on video and it's going on You Tube! I want a photo for my Facebook page. Okay?"
The girls agreed, and he stood next to them and took their photo. He asked them to describe what happened after they saw the shark, and the girls repeated their story to him. He also got their names and thanked them for the information. As he walked away, he was already uploading his files to You Tube from his cell phone.
"Hey, you two are going to be famous!" Emma exclaimed.
"I doubt it," Kacey said, shaking her head.
A few other people who had witnessed the rescue also made comments to the girls.
"Great job, girls!" one young man called to them.
The girls thanked him, and then they headed to the car to go to the place for their surfing lesson. All the way, Emma kept on saying,
"Maybe you shouldn't go into the water today. That shark might still be out there! And if he gets a good look at you, Ava, he might decide to take revenge."
They assured her that they would be careful, and would let the surfing instructor know that a shark was in the vicinity.
When they reached the location of their lesson and told the instructor about the attack, he assured them that they were far enough away and that they would be safe. He pointed out that several lifeguards were on duty, scanning the horizon for any sharks in the area.
Their surfing instructor was a tanned and athletic-looking young man named Rico. He introduced himself and told each of his students to grab a surf board and lay it on the sand. While demonstrating, he explained how to paddle out to the area where the waves were forming, and how to mount the board.
"Lie flat on the board, using the center line to keep your body centered on the board. Now put your hands on the top of the board like this...and push up. Get up on your hands and knees, and then bring your foot forward," he explained while demonstrating.
"Now stand up and keep your knees bent. Bring your arms up to balance yourself...sort of like a yoga warrior pose, see?"
He had everyone try the move on their boards on the sand. He told them the importance of the leash.
"If you fall, and you probably will, just get back on your board and try again. The leash will keep your board from going too far away. Now when you're out there, find the peak of the wave. That's where you want to start, and head down along the steepest slope of the wave."
"As we get into the water, lie centered on your board and paddle using both arms, like you're swimming. Once you find a peak, paddle up to it and start popping up. Let's practice getting up a few more times before we go into the water."
As the students practiced, Ava asked Kacey, "Do you think that shark is still out there?"
"We're pretty far from Cocoa Beach Pier, and on the opposite side, so we'll be okay."
Emma sat in the shade at a nearby snack stand, drinking Coke and watching the girls. As they practiced getting up on their boards, she waved and gave them a thumbs-up.
/> "Okay, let's get out there and surf!" Rico announced, "Follow me!"
The small group of newbies followed him into the surf and paddled their boards over the rolling waves. A group of cresting waves off to the right drew their attention, and they paddled toward them. When Rico started to climb up on his board, the others found their peaks and climbed up. Kacey found it difficult to keep her balance as she was trying to stand up, but Ava got up quickly, crouching low on her board. She used her feet to balance the board and steer it, much like she had used her snow board last winter. She caught the peak of the wave and began surfing toward the shore. Emma gave a whoop and cheered from her seat on the beach.
Kacey fell off the board on her first attempt, but got back up again. She crouched and balanced herself and stared to slide down the wave but lost her balance and fell again. She got back on again and found a short wave to ride to the beach. This time she stayed up on her board.
Ava's ride was slightly longer, but she fell into the sea as the wave broke. Both girls waved to each other, grinning.
"You did great!" Kacey yelled to her.
"Thanks! I decided I'd rather be out of the water than in it--too many sharks!"
Kacey laughed, and the two girls paddled out farther to wait for the next waves.
After surfing for almost an hour, Rico blew a whistle and waved to call them back into shore. They put their boards back onto the rack and Rico thanked them.
"Hey, you guys did a great job out there! Thanks for taking lessons with me, and if you ever want another lesson, you know where to find me."
"Thanks, Rico!" the girls replied and grabbed their towels to dry off. Emma came back to them and gave them their beach bags.
"You two looked like real surfers out there!" she commented.
"Well, Ava did. I still need more practice," Kacey smiled.
Ava shrugged, "I just pretended I was on my snow board. It's almost the same thing."
Emma shook her head, "Well, I was never good at that, either, and I didn't have to even think about sharks."
Kacey laughed, "Right! No snow shark attacks!"
"Hey, I'm starved," Emma said, "Let's find some place to get an ice cream sundae!"
Ava looked at her friend and asked, "You're starved? We're the ones who've been rescuing people and surfing all afternoon!"
Emma frowned in offense, but Kacey quickly intervened.
"Emma's right. I'm starved, too! Let's get some ice cream!"