My name is Sarah, and I am 15 years old. I have brown hair and green eyes. I consider myself skinny, and I am 5’3. I am the only child which can be boring sometimes but I like it. My mom had died when I was born so I never met her. It’s just me and my dad. I’m going to tell you about this time we moved into this really cool house that had a lagoon in the backyard that was pretty interesting. .  

It was June 23rd, 2023. We were officially moved into this house. My favorite thing was the lagoon in the backyard. I was excited to go swimming. You can tell the lagoon needed a little cleaning. The house was big and made of brick. The attic was my room. I am more of a tomboy than a girly girl, so my room isn’t very colorful and there is only the main pieces of furniture.

Took us about a week to get fully unpacked. The whole time I felt like someone or something was staring at me but maybe I just need to get used to the house. My dad said in a few days we still start to clean the lagoon because I kept bothering him about it.

It was Friday morning and I woke up to my dad already cleaning the lagoon.I rushed out of bed. I went outside and saw there was a full garbage bag full of garbage. He hasn’t been working on it that long and there’s already that much garbage. I didn’t even care really. I wanted to swim.

Later on that day my dad was telling me not to go swimming in that lagoon because it didn’t look safe. I wasn’t listening to him. I gave myself a plan to go swimming tomorrow morning.

The next day I ran out of bed and jumped right into the lagoon. Everyone was still sleeping. It was so peaceful and nice. How dare my not let me swim in here. He must be crazying knowing how much I love swimming especially that now we have our own lagoon in our backyard. I was enjoying myself until I looked up and saw my dad looking out the window. I wasn’t going to get out until I needed to.

“Why are you in that filthy lagoon?” my dad started screaming at me.

“It’s not even that dirty,” I said while sighing and slowly making my way out of the water.

“At least let me finish cleaning it first,” my dad said.

“Fine,” as I made my way in the house.

Later that day I was sitting in the living room until I heard my dad yell my name from outside. I quickly ran out.

“What is it?!” I yelled.

“Come look over here.”

I ran to my dad around the lagoon as he was standing in the water. There I saw what might had been a bed to a large animal on the side of the lagoon a little hidden.

“You are not swimming in this lagoon until I found out what animal is around or even in the water,” my dad was saying.

“But dad it looks old. It’s probably not around anymore. You know how much I want to swim don’t do this to me!” I started yelling.

“Stop yelling Sarah. I want you safe because what if that thing is still around. I don’t want you hurt,” my dad said seriously.

“Can you just clean it,” I said walking away.

My dad didn’t even say anything. I went inside and was bored and a little upset so I went to bed. The next morning I saw my dad was getting ready. I wondered where he was going.

“I’m going to get traps and a tranquilizer gun,” my dad said when he saw me.

“You are wasting money,” I said pretending like I cared.

“I’ll be back in an hour or two,” he said walking out the door.

“Okay!” I said yelling running to my room as an idea came into mind.

I grabbed some rope and gave myself the idea of swinging from a rope and jumping into the water. There was a tree right next to the lagoon having a brunch right above the water. I had enough time to do this before my dad would come home but yet I wanted to prove him wrong about there being nothing wrong with the lagoon.

I got on my bathing suit and ran outside. I didn’t waste any time getting this together. I grabbed a chair to stand on. I threw the rope over the branch and quickly tied it into a knot. I then got the bottom and made about four knots so that the knot was big enough for me to have something to stand on to.

I stood back and admired my work. I was quite satisfied now I just needed to give this baby a test. I pulled the rope with me then ran and hopped onto it just before the water. I let it swing for a minute then found the right place to drop. The water was so refreshing and it felt so good to swim. How could my dad keep me from this.

I went a few times on the rope until I wanted to relax in the water. It was fun. After about ten minutes I heard my dad’s truck pull up. My heart dropped. I had then got a little nervous. I wondered what he was going to say.

“Goddamn it get out that lagoon, Sarah,” my dad started yelling.

“Dad the water is fine. I’ve been swimming since you’ve been gone. I even made a rope.” I said with enthusiasm.

My dad then froze. I was kind of scared so I didn’t move either.

“Do not move,” he said quietly.

He was looking behind me. I couldn’t even turn around to see what it was. I’m kind of shaking because I don’t know what’s happening. My dad begins to slowly reach into his bag and pulls out the tranquilizer gun which I was surprised he got. He raises it right over my head and finds a point. With just a blink of an eye, he shoots it. We both froze. I then heard a rambunctious splash right behind me. I screamed then ran out the water. We both looked into the water and then that’s when I saw the creature. I was so shocked. My dad was actually right and I’ve never seen anything like this before. It was probably about ten feet long. It’s skin was kind of like an elephant’s. It had webbed feet with claws. It was an water and land animal. It looked like it had sharp teeth.

The water started to get a dark red from the blood.

“What should we do dad?”

My dad already had his phone out and started calling animal control. They arrived in five minutes. They did about ten minutes of examination and told us in total shock that that creature was extinct. The creature was a Nothosaurus, A type of dinosaur! I was so shocked and I was kind of mad my dad killed it. It was the last one living today.

They then took it away to the hospital to see if there was any way to save it’s life. They left and I went to go look at it’s bed. There a saw something white. I got closer and saw there was about eight eggs.

“Dad you have to see this!”

My dad ran over.

“Oh my god, we are going to be on the news,” my dad said in excitement.

Three weeks passed and me and my dad now have ownership over the dinosaurs. They stay in the lagoon. My dad had separated it so I have my own part where I can swim. It’s really amazing that this is happening. I can never get over it.

We’ve been on the news many times for this which can get sometimes annoying because it’s kind of like paparazzi, they won’t leave us alone. They might end up going to a sanctuary when the babies grow bigger. I’ll be sad to let them go but we can see them any time we want for free. I am really glad we moved into this house. I would have never imagined this happening. I can’t wait to see how the babies turn out. Thank for listening to my story, I’ll catch up with you in a few weeks.