Dolphin Tale (one direction)

Chapter 2

I taught Joe about our Dolphins. Even though he'd worked with dolphins before and he knows a lot about Dolphins generally, all Dolphins are different, so I had to teach him about each dolphin individually. The Dolphins loved him straight away! We currently have 5 Dolphins: Coral, Bruce, Bubble, Echo, Kalina. Bruce liked Joe straight away. Bruce is the daddy of the family really, although none of them are actually related. I wasn't sure on the name, Bruce, but when we bought him, the last owner said we had to carry on calling him Bruce because he'd already lived quite a while knowing his name is Bruce, and it wouldn't be fair to start calling him a totally different name.

"Coral really loves you, doesn't she?" He laughs, as coral swims past, clapping her hands and almost smiling at me.

"The feelings mutual." I grin. "You're a very fast learner, I wonder if you'll be ready for the show tomorrow."

"We'll have to ask your Dad."

It was 7 o'clock by now and everything seemed to be going really well, the Dolphins were on top form, so we pretty much had an hour just to play with them. They knew their routine for tomorrow.

"What time do shows start?"

"Around 3." I answer

"Oh, cool. I really would love to help."

"I'm sure if you asked my dad he'd let you. We practice for a bit before the show anyway, they're not always this well behaved. You can come to our house tonight, if you want, and ask him. Oli and I are having a film night, you can join us."

"Ah, great! That sounds well good thanks! But I'd better ring my mum and just check with her. I'm 20 years old but she still loves knowing what I'm doing all the time!" He laughs.

"Same with my dad, but it's probably worse for you, I spend most of my time here, so he knows where I am."

"So you're not a people person? More of an animal person?"

"You got that right, I have friends, don't get me wrong, but I'd much rather be here with my Dolphins than somewhere with my friends. I'm not that close to them, anyways, I'm only really close to Oli."

"Oli, hm?"

"Yeah, he's great."

"Ah, I see. Great." He winks at me whilst raising his eyebrows.

"Ew, no. Not like that! We've been friends since we were tiny, I'd never think of him as anything more than friends. He's one of the typical lads at school, anyways. He could get any girl at school."

"Ah, he's one of those people. So, do you know everyone here at the centre?"

"Sure do! Everyone here is really nice, my dad tends to only hire people who he thinks are friendly. The animals have to like them, too, and plus, there's a lot of interaction at the centre so they have to be good with people."

"He must have thought I was nice then, that's good! I love working at Sealife centres. Do you have any injured animals here? I love visiting them and helping them, I'd like to be a vet someday, maybe. I've started my course to become a vet. I just love helping animals."

"Bit of a Samaritan you, aren't you?" I joke.

"Pretty much sums me up." He laughs, sliding into the pool. It was really safe to get in with the Dolphins once they know you. It's safe getting in even if they don't know you, but it's pretty deep if you don't have a life jacket.

"Can people swim with the Dolphins here, then?" Joe asks.

"Sure they can! Costs a lot though! I'm 'qualified' to swim with them, but I prefer just to do the shows, some of the people who want to swim with them annoy me, you know? A load of small children touching my dolphin, I get a bit possessive." Joe laughs, probably knowing I'm not joking. "I do sometimes do the swimming though, I don't really mind. Especially now because one of our men just left."