Dolphin Adventure

“Kylie! Time to get out of the pool,” my mom called. I was swimming in our gigantic indoor pool, pretending to train a dolphin. My mom stepped into the pool room.
“Show’s over,” she said.
“It’s not a show,” I protested “I’m training it,”
“I don’t care, it’s time to get out,” my mom came over and started dragging me out.
“wait,” I said “I have to at least tell her I’m leaving,” so I leaned over and pretended to stroke my imaginary dolphin. Then I pretended to grab its dorsal fin and I dove back in.
“Kylie,” my mom groaned.
Just then my big sister Breanna walked in. She’s 15, 4 years older than me, but she thinks everything should be done her was and she should be treated like a princess. Everything I love, like dolphins she hates. And the only thing that really interests her is boys, bossing people around, and being mean. Well anyways, she walked in and said “Dolphins are so stupid! I mean what’s the point?”
“They are not!” I insisted. “Dolphins are playful and intelligent, oh and don’t try to make up anything, you and what-ever-his-name-is were kissing last night. I saw you,” Breanna stormed out.
“Kylie I mean it. Besides, Dolphin Dreams is on soon,” Dolphin Dreams, I had forgotten all about that. It’s my favorite show. So I hurried out of the pool. This time it was about a dolphin that was going to have her first calf. The calf was born successfully. The show was just ending, when a thing flashed up.
WIN A FREE TRIP TO DOLPHIN DREAMS’ DOLPHIN POOL
(push next for more information)
I pushed next on the remote control. Now this flashed up:

It’s easy. You simply write you’re name and address on a paper along with your three favorite dolphin facts and send it to dolphin dreams. We will have a drawing. We’ll draw two winners, and they each can bring three other people. The winners will be on the show. You will be staying for four days, and we have some dolphins almost ready to have calves, so enter now. We will draw when we have 100 entries.

“Mom!” I shouted. “I’ve gotta enter this thing!” My mom came down the stairs. “What thing,” she asked.
“This,” I said pointing to the T.V.
“fine,” my mom said. “But don’t get your hopes up. There will be over 100 other papers, and they only draw two winners,”
I started writing my paper. When it was done it looked like this:

Kylie McApple 3267 Richland Ave. Los Angeles California
A boy spinner dolphin has a bulge near its tail called a keel.
A girl bottlenose dolphin has a mark on its belly like a division sign. A boy has a mark like an explanation point.
Adult Amazon River dolphins are actually pink!!!!

11111.60400471
.02.2+
+So then I sent it.(I know,bor-ing) A few weeks later I got a phone call from my dolphin crazy friend Becca. ”Guess what!!” she shrieked. ”I won!” Of course I knew exactly what she had won.
“So you want me to come with you?” I said
“Yes, exactly! Annalee and my mom are coming too,”
“I’m so excited! When does it start?”
“Well, we’ll pick you up at 5:30 in the morning tomorrow, so we can get on the plane and be there by 7:30, that way we still have half and hour to unpack.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, then I’d better go start packing. Bye!” I had just started hanging up the phone when I heard Breanna yelling “Mom! Apparently Kylie thinks she’s going to some place. Probably about dolphins or she and her friend wouldn’t be screaming about it.”
“It’s fine. I told her she could enter…….What?! you mean you won!” My mom said.
“No, but Becca did, and she said I could go as one of her three people.” I said
“Is there an adult coming?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can go. But, just out of curiosity, who’s the third person?”
“Annalee,”I said. Annalee is my other dolphin crazy friend. She is also Becca’s twin. But looking at them you would never know. Annalee has brown curly hair, and Becca has dark blond strait hair. Annalee has brown eyes and Becca has green. They both have glasses, but Becca’s are blue and Annalee’s are redish- purple. I have light brown hair, blue eyes, and no glasses.
I quickly packed some clothes, a couple dolphin books, my sketch pad (for drawing dolphins of course) my camera, my dolphin research notebook, and I guess what you would call my dolphin diary.I just write things about dolphins in it. Like the time I swam with dolphins at sea world, or the time I was at the beach and I looked up to see a dolphin leap from not too far from where I was playing. Then I went to bed almost right after dinner.
The next morning my alarm clock went off at 5:00. It seemed twice as loud as usual. I turned it off. But I could still here an alarm clock ringing. So I ran around a corner and peeked into Breanna’s room, just in time to see her getting out of bed to turn off her alarm clock.
“Why are you up so early?” I asked her.
“none of your business.” She snapped. Then she ran downstairs.
I had to know why she was up so early, so I quietly followed her. Breanna went into mom’s room. “Mom?” she called.
“In here.” Mom’s voice came from her closet. Breanna was facing the closet, so she couldn’t see me so I dove under mom’s bed, where I could listen but not be seen. “mom, I’m going somewhere with Bartholomew.” Breanna said. So that was the boy she had been kissing’s name. I tried not to laugh.
“Where are you going?”My mom asked.
Breanna lowered her voice. “ To the same place Kylie’s going. “
“You mean dolphin Dreams? ”my mom asked, completely surprised.
“Well, we’re not going there for the dolphins. There’s gotta be lots of other things to do. We just thought it would be a nice place to hang out.” Breanna said.
“Is there an adult coming?”
“No.”
“Then you can’t go,”
“But mom, I’m 15! I can take care of myself.”
“Who’s going to drive the car? You and Bartholomew don’t have licenses.”
“We’ll get a Taxi.”
“Who’s going to pay for the Taxi?”
“I will.”
“And where are you going to get that money?”
“Mom! I have my own credit card!”
I could tell they weren’t going to do anything but argue, so I crept out and ran to my room. This was my worst nightmare. I almost felt like crying, but crying wouldn’t help. Besides, I only had 15 more minutes until Becca came. So I threw on some clothes and ran down to the kitchen. I stopped when I heard Breanna talking to Bartholomew on the phone. I know it’s rude to eavesdrop, but it’s also rude for Breanna to snap at me and call dolphins stupid, and tease me. Besides, she listened to me on the phone lots of times. She was explaining to Bartholomew that she wasn’t allowed to go if there wasn’t an adult, and apparently he said he would get an adult to come, so she hung up the phone. That’s when I walked into the kitchen. I barely had time to eat breakfast before the doorbell rang. It was Becca, Annalee, Mrs. Dewinger, and the boy I had seen kissing Breanna. I ran upstairs to grab my bag. Then I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around to face Breanna. “I’m just getting my bag.” She said rudely. Then she lowered her voice. “You won’t tell anyone that me and Bartholomew are, you know, boy-friend and girl-friend, right?”
“As long as you don’t bother me or my friends.” I replied, grabbing my bag. Then I added, “Race you down the stairs!” I ran down the stairs. When I got to the bottom I looked up at Breanna. She was walking very slowly down the first few stairs. “Aren’t you coming?” I asked. “Running will mess up my hair!” she called back.
“Ignore her,” Becca said.
“Come on, let’s go!” Annalee shouted, grabbing my hand and dragging me out the door. We got in the car and drove to the airport. Then we got on the plane and were on it for 2 hours. Finally the plane landed at an air port close to Dolphin Dreams. We looked around until we saw a car with pictures of dolphins on it. It was the Dolphin Dreams Taxi. There was another one next to it. Breanna and Bartholomew were getting into it. So we got into the Dolphin Dreams Taxi and drove to Dolphin Dreams. When we got the Taxi driver showed us our rooms, (One for me, Annalee and Becca, and one for Mrs. Dewinger), and told us to unpack, then meet by the front door at 8:00. So we did that, and when we showed up at the front door, we were in for another surprise. It was Dolphin Dianna, my favorite person from the show. First she showed us the Amazon River dolphins, or botos. There were three adults, and two babies. The funny thing was that both the babies had the same mom. They weren’t twins, because one was a year older than the other. “Most animals can’t get pregnant while they’re still producing milk for their baby, but since a botos pregnancy lasts about a year then the other baby doesn’t need to drink milk by the time the new baby is born, so they don’t fight over milk. But the babies will still stick with their mom for a long time.” Dianna explained.
“What are their names?” Becca asked.
“The older babies name is Bubblegum, the little baby’s name is Rosie, The mom’s name is Cherry, The adult with the scar on it’s fin is Scarlet, And the one that’s a little more gray is Leela. She’s Scarlet’s grown up daughter”
“Why are Bubblegum and Rosie grayer than Cherry and Scarlet and Leela?” I asked.
“Because babies are born gray and get pinker as they get older.” Dianna answered.
“Wasn’t there a show back in October about Rosie being born?” Annalee said
“Yes,” Dianna answered. “The babies are born when the rivers start to fall, which is usually around September or October.”
“Why are there trees in there?” I asked
“Because during the rainy season, the forest floods, and they sometimes chase fish through trees. We like to keep things as close to their natural habitat as possible, so during the rainy season, we pour water in until it floods the forest in their tank, and we give them live fish. “ then she added “Want to help?”
“YES!” we shouted. There were two huge buckets of fish that were still alive. It took all four of us to carry it. We dumped the fish in then went back for the other one. Once we had dumped that one in we watched them for a while. Sure enough, some of the fish swam through the trees and so did the dolphins.
“Here’s some dolphin fun fact sheets,” Dianna said. “Then we’ll go have lunch and maybe we can swim with Leela and cherry and the others.”
Here’s what the fun fact sheets looked like:
Did you know that…
Botos don’t swim as fast or jump as high as marine dolphins?
Botos can paddle one flipper forwards while paddling the other backwards?
Botos can turn their head from side to side?
Now you know!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After lunch we met by the front door again, but this time in our swimming suits. We walked to the boto’s pool. “Botos are very shy.” Dianna said. ”So it’s just going to be you three in the pool with them. Try not to splash too much and don’t grab at them.”
“Can we get in now?” Annalee asked.
“Yes,” Dianna answered “Now I’ll be right back.”
We slipped into the boto pool. Bubblegum came up to me. I looked around to see where Cherry was. She was pretty close, watching me suspiciously. Bubble gum was swimming around my legs. She nudged my hand with her long snout. I started stroking her. But then Cherry decided that was enough. She clicked and whistled. Bubblegum reluctantly followed her as she swam away. But I wasn’t alone for long. Pretty soon Leela swam over, followed by Scarlet. Then Dianna came back with some camera people. We were going to be on the show! I waved at the camera. Becca and Annalee did the same thing. Then we got out and helped Dianna get the fish. After we poured them in Dianna looked at her watch. “Dinner time,” she said.
“But they just ate,” Annalee said, pointing to the dolphins. Dianna laughed.
“Not them, us!” she said. “I’ll meet you by the front door tomorrow at eight.”
The next morning we met by the front door again. Just like the day before; we fed the dolphins, and talked about them. Then we went and had lunch and met at the front door in our swimming suits. And like the day before, we swam with the dolphins and were on the show. But this time Cherry decided I was okay, and when Bubblegum swam up to me, she and Rosie followed. They swam with me for awhile, then swam off to Becca. But Leela came up to me. I looked to see why Scarlet wasn’t with her. She was over with Annalee. Then Leela bumped my hand with her head. She wants me to pet her! I thought. So I started petting her she turned over. I stroked her belly. After awhile she swam away. Then Dianna called us out of the pool to help her with the fish. And we went in for dinner.
The next day when we met by the front door there was a boy with us. He looked about 15, so I figured he was Breanna’s boyfriend, Bartholomew. “Is your name Bartholomew?” I asked.
“Yes, but-but how did you know?” He said stammered.
“Breanna’s my sister.” I explained.
Just then Dianna showed up. “Are you ready to meet the spinners?” she asked.
“Yeah!” we all shouted. She took us over to the spinner pool. The spinners were literally spinning and twirling. They all had dark gray backs with lighter gray bellies, except for one, which had a white belly. They also had a stripe that ran from the eyes to the flippers. There were four of them. ”These are short snouted spinner dolphins, but there are also long snouted.” Dianna was saying. Then I leaned over and whispered to Bartholomew, ”Why are you here instead of off with Breanna?”
“I found out she hates dolphins and we broke up. She’s flying back home.” Bartholomew whispered back. Poor Bartholomew.
“Do you guys want to do a dolphin cross-word puzzle with me?” Dianna asked.
“Yes!” we all shouted. Then Becca asked, ”Shouldn’t we feed the dolphins first?”
“No,” answered Dianna, “They feed at night, but I probably should introduce you to the dolphins.”she pointed to the one with the white belly. “This one is Kaylee. She’ll be having a baby really soon, maybe in the next two days.” Then she pointed to the biggest one. When It jumped up, I saw its Keel and knew right away that it was a boy. “This is Paggle.” Dianna said. “The smallest one is Michala. And the one with the little scar on it’s flipper is Twirler.”
“How did you know that boy’s name was Bartholomew?” Becca whispered.
I figured since Breanna broke up with him it was okay to tell. “He’s Breanna’s X-boyfriend.” I whispered back. The suddenly Annalee let out a scream and fell into the dolphin pool with a big splash. A few seconds later she came up, holding onto Paggle.
“What happened?” Becca asked. Annalee looked embarrassed.
“I don’t know. I guess I just slipped and fell in.” She said as she climbed out of the pool.
“Well, then should we start on that cross word puzzle?” Dianna asked.
This is what it looked like:

Z C C D P N L Dolphins
Y A B O T O H Spinner
W L P L N V M Fun
M F O P Q U T Swim
I E O H G L F Keel
W A L I B E S Calf
S P I N N E R Boto
P O O S A K U Pool


After we did the cross word puzzle we went in for lunch. Then we met at the front door in our swimming suits. When we got to the pool Becca asked Dianna “Isn’t it normally just the females around when the calf is born? Where will Paggle go?”
“You see that gate? It’s in front of a tunnel that leads to a smaller pool. We’ll put Paggle in there for the first few days when the calf is born.” Dianna answered.
“But Paggle will be all alone!” Annalee cried.
“You can go in there with him, when it’s time to put him in and keep him company, if you want.” Dianna said.
Annalee nodded. I could tell she really liked Paggle. Then we dove into the pool. Paggle swam right up to Annalee. Becca seemed to be making friends with Twirler. Bartholomew had decided not to get in, but he was sitting by the side, stroking Kaylee, who had swum right up to the side of the pool. But what about me? Who would be my dolphin friend? I thought. Then like an answer to my question, Michala bumped against me. I had completely forgotten about her.
“Hi Michala!” I said. Michala squeaked and whistled at me. She leaped up and spun around once. Then she did it again. “Michala, what are you doing?” I sputtered.
“She’s trying to teach you how to spin.” Dianna guessed.
“Hey look, Twirler’s doing it too!” Becca said. Michala whistled at be then spun around again. That’s when I got a great idea. Maybe I could spin like Michala. So I climbed up on the side of the pool. Then I jumped and twisted around once before I hit the water. Michala clicked and whistled. I had done it right. After what seemed like just a few minutes it was time to go in for dinner.
The door to the hotel opened. In the doorway stood Diana. “Girls. Wake up.” She said. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was only 2:00 a.m. “Kaylee’s having her baby.” Diana continued. After she said that, we were all out of bed, dressed, and out the door in seconds. I looked at annalee. She had her long-sleeve shirt on backwards, and was wearing shorts with it. In her rush to get to the pool, Becca had put on a striped shirt, with flowered pants. As for me, my clothes were okay, since I had laid out clothes before I went to bed, so I would be ready for today, but I was wearing one flip-flop, and one boot. Finally we reached the pool. Annalee went down to where Paggle was, and the rest of us watched Kaylee. She was lying on her back, while Twirler held her up. She flexed her tail, and squeaked to the other dolphins. They answered back. Michala swam around Kaylee in smaller and smaller circles.
“In the wild, they would do that to protect Kaylee,” Diana said.
“I see a tail!” Becca cried. And sure enough there was a tail. A few minutes later, there was a whole calf, right next to it’s mother. It wriggled around, trying to get to the surface. Michala swam up to the calf, and guided it to the surface,to take its first breath of air.
“ You three probably should be getting back in bed now.” Diana said. Then the next day we thought of names for the calf. Finally, we decided to call it Dreamer, because he was born during the night. Then we brought Michala and Twirler in the pool with Paggle, because Diana said that Kaylee and Dreamer needed some time alone. It also meant that we could swim with the dolphins, since we weren’t allowed to be in the pool with Dreamer. After a while, something wonderful happened. Dreamer swam up to the gate to look at us. I swam over, with Michala by my side. “Hi,” I whispered. At that moment, Diana snapped a picture. I would keep it forever. Then after swimming for the rest of the day, Diana said it was time to go. I said good-bye to all the spinners, Botos, and Diana. The next day we would be leaving first thing in the morning. But as we got in the car the next morning, I thought, I’ll never have to pretend to have been swimming with dolphins again. I all ready have, on my dolphin adventure.

THE END!

Where the Wild Flowers Grow

I lived in a small log cabin with my Grandma and my pregnant cat Pussy-Pussy. The cabin was in a big field full of flowers. There were all kinds of flowers: roses, pansies, violets, lilacs, you name it. I loved that house.

Well, that is, I lived there until one day in September. I was playing in the field with Pussy-Pussy. Suddenly there was a huge explosion, like a firework. I looked up to see a helicopter getting ready to drop a bomb. I ran inside.

“Grandma, a bomb!” I shouted. She pushed me into the basement. Then she gave me Pussy-Pussy. She was about to climb in herself, when BOOM! The bomb exploded.

“Grandma?” I called. No answer. “Grandma!” still no answer. I climbed out of the basement through the trap door. The house was burned down, and there was still a fire.

“Stay there.” I told Pussy-Pussy. Then I grabbed two buckets from the basement and ran to the stream by our house. After five trips the fire was out. But half the flowers were dead. And so was my grandma. I pulled Pussy-Pussy out and we sat there, not sure what to do. We sat there for about four hours, until our neighbor, Mrs. Toddle, who lives about a mile away, came over.

“No need to tell me, Lila,” she said. “I saw the explosion. Now where’s your grandma?”

“Dead,” I answered quietly.

“Oh,” said Mrs. Toddle. “Then get in my car.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To the orphanage, where else?”

To your house, I thought. But instead I said, “then I have to get something.” I bent to pick up some of the few flowers that were left. I would press them when I got to the orphanage.
The car pulled up on the orphanage driveway. “Go on,” Mrs. Toddle said, pushing me towards the door. Then I watched as she drove away.

A lady came out. Her name tag said Tonia. She looked at me, holding Pussy-Pussy, very disapprovingly. “That cat will have to go,” she said.

“What?!” I shouted. “She’s the only thing I have left.” Tonia ignored me.

“Now you give her to me and we’ll take her to the animal shelter, or we’ll have her put to sleep.”

I realized I had no choice. “Okay, but I get to go with you,” I said. We got in her car.

When we got to the animal shelter I told the person who works there, “She’s going to have kittens soon. And make sure nobody adopts her unless I don’t come back by February.”

It was almost dinner time. I was at the dump, looking for a box to put my flowers in. After 10 more minutes of searching I found the perfect box. The person who threw this away must be very picky, I thought. The box only had a few cracks in its glass top. I looked at the sun. It looked like it was sitting on top of a mountain. Dinner time. And I ran off to dinner with the box in my hand.

At dinner I was sitting by three girls. Their name tags said Rayla, Ranay, and Rubi. Sitting across from me were twins, Ben and Zack. We sat there in silence for a minute. Then Ranay looked at her plate. “Eww!” she said, pointing to her potato.

“I want it!” said Rayla. So Ranay threw her potato to Rayla, but she missed and it landed on Rubi’s head.

“Meanie-pooh,” Rubi said, throwing the potato back at Ranay. She missed and it hit one of the boys without a name tag. Pretty soon food was flying all over the place.

“Ugly alien.”
“Picky eater.”
“Squash is so disgusting.”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“You are such a bad aimer. You can’t hit me! Ouch!!”

Everybody was throwing food and fighting, except for me. I sat there eating quietly, while food flew all around me, sometimes hitting me. “Um, could you stop it?” I said, peeling green beans off my head. They didn’t pay any attention, so I got up and left. When I got to the room I would be sleeping in, I was disappointed to see I was with Rayla, Ranay, Rubi, and two other girls. Oh well.

I lived at the orphanage for a month. Then a family came and adopted me as a servant. I must have had a very sad face at dinner one night, after I had worked there for three months, because Mrs. Merry, the mother of the family I worked for, asked me if something was wrong.

“Is anything wrong?!” I repeated angrily. “My house got bombed, my grandma is dead, my cat is still at the animal shelter, and you ask if anything’s wrong!”

“Ungrateful child!” Mr. Merry snapped. And I was sent back to the orphanage, where I was immediately adopted by another family. But not as a servant.

It was a week until Christmas, and the lonely little girl in the family wanted a big sister for Christmas, so they adopted me. The first day after I was adopted we made wish lists. It was a complete mess. The four boys acted like I didn’t even exist, and I did the same, because I didn’t know anybody’s name. I didn’t even know my full name until they told me it was Lila Lunders.

“Lila, is something wrong? Isn’t there anything you want?” my new mom asked.

“Well, there is one thing,” I said, “but first I have to know if anyone’s allergic to cats.”
“No, and what a dumb question. It’s not like you’re going to get a cat,” the oldest boy said.

“Now, Matt, be nice to Lila,” my new mom said.
I wrote something on my wish list. One of the boys looked over my shoulder.

“Who’s Pussy-Pussy?” he asked.

“My cat,” I said.

“Are the kittens yours too?” the little girl asked.

But before I could answer my new dad asked, “Where does your cat live?” They asked me question after question until it was time to go to bed.

On Christmas morning even the adults were excited. My mom handed me a huge present. “Open it!” she shouted. Inside were four kittens, and they all looked like Pussy-Pussy.

“But where’s Pussy-Pussy?” I asked.

Mom and Dad stopped bouncing. “She died giving birth to the kittens,” they said.

“But you still have her kittens,” dad pointed out.

And it’s true. Even though I’m old now, and the kittens have died, I still have their kittens and their kittens and their kittens, and now my house is pretty much overrun by cats. But that’s okay, because they all remind me of my best friend Pussy-Pussy.

THE END