I yawned as I stared out my window, the rest of my family still sleeping. I had a perfect view. The sight of the sunlight shining through the clouds and against the waves continued to pull me to the door. Wanting company, I woke my cousin Mara up, who had been staying in a spare room at my dad’s house. I watched her groan, and stretch. Her red, curly hair sticking out nearly three feet from her head, and eye makeup from the day before now gliding down her cheeks. The face she gave me as I stood waiting for her to adjust to the light showed me she wasn't all that happy to be woken up early.

“What could you possibly want from me at eight o’clock in the morning, Nadia?” Mara asked me, her voice grainy with exhaustion.
“It’s beautiful outside this morning. I am going to take the boat out, and I wondered if you would like to join me,” I implied.
It wasn’t much, my fishing boat, but I was grateful for every piece of it. What good is living on a lake without your own boat? I lingered around my dad’s house waiting for Mara to apply her face, and fix her hair for a reason that I do not know. Mara always felt better when she thought she looked nice, which I believe most girls also do. I did not bother to get cleaned up, for I did not think going fishing with my fifteen year old cousin, on my own boat was worth getting ready for. I stared out of the window again, admiring my oddly colored little boat, and in my head, I thanked my dad once again for paying for my boaters safety classes. I had grew up in the country, naturally enjoying the outdoors, and the water my whole life. I’m just like my dad.
Still waiting, I decided to get our fishing poles ready so we could leave as soon as Mara was ready. I grabbed two random poles, bait, and my dad’s tool box and wandered out to the dock. As soon as I stepped outside my hair whipped me in the face several times, and a chill spread through my body. Even though the calm moments were nice, and the sunlight on my skin was warm thening, I decided instantly that I would need to go back into the house and grab both a sweatshirt, and a hair tie. I was optimistic about the wind, although I didn’t know if it would come to a stop before we were ready to leave.
“Hey Nadia! Did you get everything ready? I’m ready to go!” Mara questioned me, walking outside.
“Yes, most of it, but I need to go get some things out of the house still. You might want a sweatshirt, and did you tell my dad that we’re leaving?” I answered Mara as I slid the door back open to enter the house.
“Nah, but we’ll be back before he rolls out of bed anyway.”
Mara is known to get sea sick easily, which caused me to worry about the waves. Making sure I had my phone and everything else we might have needed,  I pushed the boat out from the dock and jumped in. Mara tried a pretty long time to start the boat; you’d have thought she’d never taken boaters safety in the first place.  RRRrrr… UmUm! The boat would start up and stall over and over. Why am I letting Mara drive? The question repeated in my head.
“Nadia help me, I can’t do it.”
I started the boat in probably no longer than thirty seconds, causing Mara to look at me in disgust. I laughed and took off, watching as my genius cousin who had been standing flew back a foot, regaining her balance in the back of the boat.
“Hey!”
“Fast fishing boat, right?” I replied, still laughing.
Mara wasn’t laughing, but I smiled for few minutes after, with the image of her falling off still fresh in my mind.  Why is Mara letting me drive? I love to mess with Mara while I'm driving. Sometimes, when we hit waves I’ll jerk the steering wheel to the side and make her scramble to dodge the water that would have drenched her. I find humor in it; Mara hates riding with me. Pulling up to my favorite fishing spot across the lake from my house, I handed Mara her pole, and lugged the anchor over the side of the boat.
We must have cast thirty times. Mara and I both grew sick of waiting for the luck of catching at least one fish. Deciding to search for a new spot, I yanked the anchor back up. It took ,me  a minute because of the fact that Mara decided to sit on the same side of the boat that I was leaning over the edge on. When my face hit the water. I turned to see Mara’s reaction to see her laughing at me. I’ll get her on the way back, I thought in my head. I slid my way over to the motor of the boat, and tried to start it. I expected it to start immediately… but something was wrong. The boat would stall each time I turned the key, making loud startling noises, and fading out. I looked at Mara with concern, she knows that I have always had a fear of getting stuck out on the lake.
“Don’t look at me. We know I can’t start your boat.”
But this couldn’t be happening. I knew the boat had gass- at least I thought it did. Questioning myself, I checked the gas as Mara looked at me in disappointment. I unscrewed the lid of the gas tank, and stuck a long white pole all the way down into it. Crossing my fingers, I slowly slid it back out, only to see no more than a couple millileters of gas on it. I shook my head and sat down in my purple drivers seat. Now knowing what to do, I questioned Mara.
“You could use that broken oar.” Mara suggested.
“That would get us to the other side of the lake in no time Mara, thanks.” I replied sarcastically.
“You could call your dad, and hope he’s not sleeping”
I thought about doing this for a couple minutes, trying to imagine how he would react. First I go out on my boat without letting him know at eight in the morning, and then I run out of gas and get stranded on the other side of the lake, miles away from home. He’s going to kill you. I had to come up with something, and had to get home somehow. Remembering that my father's boat was parked near mine when Mara and I took off, I pulled out my phone to call my dad.
“This is going to be great,” I muttered, expecting my dad to be furious.
I had to call my dad three times before he answered.
“Are you calling me from upstairs Nadia? Are you too lazy to come down and wake me up?”
“No dad. I’m on my boat.”
“Oh. Is that so? Where on your boat?”
“The opposite side of the lake.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Well, I kind of have no way to get back. I forgot to fill the gas tank.”
My dad laughed out loud for about three minutes while I stood watching Mara try to hold back vomit, leaning over the side of the boat.
“Good job kid. I’m coming on my boat, and hey. Let’s not do this again anytime soon.”
I Hung up the phone, surprised that I was not given a lecture. That’s something I love about my dad, he’s great at finding humor in things. I thought about telling Mara the information that my dad was going to come save us, but I thought I’d let her be sick in peace until then. I was shivering, and it seemed that the wind was getting stronger by the minute. I expected my dad to take forever, but he must have hopped into his boat right when I hung up. I was sitting on the boat, watching the waves roll when I saw the a fast, white boat coming towards us. He took the speedboat, something we do not use unless we go waterskiing or tubing. Pulling up next to us, he attached a rope to the front of my boat. While my dad slowly pulled my boat back to the right side of the lake, I thanked him many times until he was annoyed with me.
“Lesson learned?” My dad questioned me.
“Yes, lesson learned,” I replied under my breath.
A different kind of wave rolled over me on the way home. It was a wave of relief. Getting stranded on a lake wasn’t all that terrifying with the help of my phone. This experience not only took away my fear of being stuck on a boat, but taught me a number of lessons. The biggest lesson that I learned from this was to check the gas before I took my boat out, and to always let my dad know when I am leaving. I am grateful for my family, and my life on the lake when I'm with my dad, and I wouldn't change it for the world.