Cooper and I were thrown from the watercraft. I gasped for air as I surfaced, due to the fact that I was unexpectedly tossed into the water. When I was able to clear the water from my ears, I realized I was being thrown around in a tornado of waves. I pulled my wrist from the water, and was frightened with fear. The key that was supposed to disconnect when I fell off the Jet-ski, was ripped in half. The jet ski was still on! I whipped my head around, still disoriented, to see cooper about ten feet away from me. Just as I was able to stable myself out and clear my vision, I heard the scream from the shore, “RYAN… WATCH OUT!” As I turned my head, I could hear the sound of a rumbling engine. About twenty feet away from me was the jet-ski, and it was coming at me fast. I tried to move, but in the second I had to react, I was paralyzed…

That summer morning was going better than usual, given that the rest of my mornings were filled with sleeping in, eating breakfast, and watching my favorite TV show of the time, Prison Break.

While I was clearing my plate, I heard a knock on the door.

“It’s Cooper!” I yelled, “I got it!”

Later that day, Cooper and I were going jet-skiing on the two that I had. We docked the jet-skies on a lake called LIllinonah, which was named after an old indian tribe that went extinct a while ago.

What made the lake a perfect destination for us, was the amount of people that go there. In the two years that we docked our jet-skies at that lake, I have probably only seen thirty other boats. On top of that, even though I had my boater’s licence, I was only eligible to drive with another adult on board. Obviously this would take all of the fun out of it, because my biggest goal is to flip the jet-ski. But because there are no patrol boats, all I do is drop my mom off at a sandy beach, then I go out and cross my own wake, and try my hardest to flip the jet-ski, even though I never succeed. This also, pretty much gives me the authority to do whatever I want, as long as my mom says so.  

“Hey Cooper!” I greeted him.

“Hey Lauter, what’s up?” He replied, “Are you ready to go flying on some jet-skis?”

“Let’s do it!” I said, “We were just about to pack up the car, come on. “

As we were packing up the car, my mom informed me that my sister, Kailey, would stay in for the day, as she was not feeling well. I felt sorry for her, but this also meant more time on the jet-skis, now that it was just Cooper and I.  

The car ride there was, let’s just say, LOUD. I’m pretty sure my mom talked to Cooper more than I did. On top of that, the music was blasting, which in effect, just caused the two of them talk louder. Cooper and I were best friends, so I wasn’t bothered by this at all. I hope he felt the same way, because I must have told him to “SHUT UP” a number of times, all in good fun of course. I found it funny how well Cooper and my mom got along. Then I realized, how could two craziest people I know, not get along?!

 

When we arrived at the dock, I first stretched out my legs before unloading the lifejackets. The sun was warm, bright. There’s not a better day to be on the water, I thought to myself.

I always tried to unload my fair share of the car, as quickly as possible, so we could get on the water ASAP, and not sit on the dock all day.

Once I realized that most of the work was done, I yelled to my mom, who was of course, still on her phone,

“Can Cooper and I ride around here until you’re ready?”

“Yes, as long as you boys stay in sight,” She replied.

“Ok, thanks!”

We raced down to the fast, yellow jet-ski, and I pluged in the key.

“Alright, hop on then give us a push off.”

Cooper untied the ropes, and lunged onto the seat.

“Ok, ready?” He asked.

“Ready!” I said.

With a heaping push, we floated away from the dock. I waited for us to change direction, then fired up the engine. The torque of the ski surprised me, as it was my first time of the season back on it. I slowly pulled the throttle in, and we caught up to speed. Now for the fun part. I may or may not have given Cooper the heads up that we were going into a J turn, but I don’t even think I was prepared. I twisted the throttle bars, and the jet-ski nearly flipped. Despite my humongous fear of drowning, which was highly unlikely, my goal was to throw both of us, flying off the seat. I was astonished when I realized, Cooper and I were still holding on. We were soaked all the way through, but it felt good.

“Honestly dude, you couldn’t have given me a heads up!”

“Yeah sorry, I forgot,” I said sarcastically.

I hit the throttle once again and we took off, this time in the other direction. This time cooper knew we were going into a turn, and I felt his grip tighten on the seat. I threw the jet-ski around, leaning from one side to the other, trying to get as close to the water as possible. Now we were just going around in tight circles, and I noticed we were creating sort of a wave pool in the middle. Without warning, I jerked the jet-ski out of the loop, and headed away from the wake. After about 50 feet, I turned around, and pulled the throttle all the way in. When we were about to hit a ginormous wave, I pulled the handle bars to the left, trying to roll us over. With that, the jet-ski hit the wave, and flew over its side, tossing us up in the air.

The wind was almost knocked out of me, from the impact with the water. I gasped for air as I surfaced. When I was able to clear the water from my ears, I was being thrown around in a tornado of waves. I pulled my wrist from the water, and was frightened with fear. The key that was supposed to disconnect from the ignition when you fall off the Jet-ski, was ripped in half. THE OTHER HALF OF THE KEY WAS STILL ATTACHED TO THE JET-SKI! The jet ski was still on! I whipped my head around, still disoriented, to see cooper about ten feet away from me. Just as I was able to stable myself out, and clear my vision, I heard the scream from the shore, “RYAN… WATCH OUT!” As I turned my head, I could hear the sound of a rumbling engine. About twenty feet away from me was the jet-ski, and it was coming at me fast. I tried to move, but in the second I had to react, I was paralyzed. I ducked my head, and almost tried to guard my body from the jet-ski with my hands.

The suction tube ran right over my thigh, and I could feel it too. The water was then shot out onto my stomach, which really hurt. In the chaos, my mom was sprinting down to the dock. As soon as the jet-ski passed, It started to spiral out of control, then slowly come to an idle, which was still about four miles per hour. I tried to get to shore, when I heard the other jet-ski fire up, it was my mom! She motored over to the yellow ski, then shut the blue one off. With one enormous leap, she jumped from one jet ski to the other. Once she straightened out the engine, she unpluged the key manually, and the engine bogged out.

Throughout all of this, I didn’t even notice cooper. He was just floating in the middle of the lake, watching the whole thing, like it had happened a thousand times before.

My mom drove over to me in the blue jet-ski.

“Are you okay?!” my mom asked, staring in astonishment.

“Well, I guess so,” I said, rubbing my leg.

She pulled me onto the jet-ski, taking a good look at me.

“You’re sure you’re ok?” She said again.

“Mom, I’m fi- Hey guys, not to interrupt or anything, but sitting here with the lifejacket rubbing against my neck isn’t that exciting,” Cooper yelled. He had drifted a ways away, but it was funny how he said it. We pulled over to him, and he grabbed onto the ski.

“Well, I knew you said this day would be exciting, but that was like, OVER EXCITING!”

His words were so dumb, so without a word, I waved my mom to park us on the dock. I leaped off the ski, and tied us tight up against the dock.

“Ok boys, how about you help me with the rest of the stuff, then we can go for a ride, you know, without anyone going to the ER.”

She made a good point, so with that, Cooper and I looked at eachother, then back at my mom. We both knew what to say.

“THANK YOU!”