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GREENSBORO — How to describe a shark bite?

In a word: Gross.

“I was freaking out and screaming. You could see the tendon moving around,” said Carley Schlentz, who survived the unidentified shark’s chomp at Topsail Island on Friday afternoon.

Carley, 13, a rising eighth-grader at Caldwell Academy, is the daughter of Angela and Rich Schlentz. She had traveled to the beach with close friends of the family — her one and only trip to the beach this summer.

One minute, she was frolicking in murky, waist-deep ocean water with her friends. The next: She was riding 45 minutes in an ambulance to Wilmington, wondering what the heck happened.

“I knew I was going to be all right,” she said. “I was just freaking out and I hadn’t grasped the concept that, like, a shark had just bitten me.”

Best she can remember, it bit her left leg twice. After the second bite, she jerked away — at which time the shark’s teeth acted like scissors against her skin.

Surgeons in Wilmington gave her roughly 60 stitches near the top of her foot, loaded her down with antibiotics and marveled at her great fortune. She lost little blood, thanks to quick thinking and a tourniquet. Plus, the creature punctured tissue called fascia, but avoided piercing the tendon.

Carley might need a little plastic surgery when she’s older. But she’s expected to make a full recovery.

“It’s the best outcome involving a shark’s mouth and teeth you could ask for,” Rich Schlentz said.

That’s good news, because Carley plays serious volleyball at Caldwell and Proehlific Park. She’ll miss a few volleyball camps in July, but doctors believe she can resume play within a month.

Yes, she’s tough. She even wanted to stick around Topsail for the rest of her vacation. Maybe stay inside and watch movies. Her parents insisted she return to Greensboro.

“It’s, like, a parent thing,” Carley said with a sigh. “They just want me near them.”

Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or margaret.banks@news-record.com