H2O: A Mermaid Tail

22

I woke up at the bottom of the pool, at 3 in the morning. I climbed out and dried off. I walked sleepily to my room and change my clothes. I put on my marine park uniform and walked down to the kitchen where my mom was eating her breakfast before going to work.

"Hey, mom. Can I ride with you to work today?" She nods. I grab a granola bar and go to the car. I climb in and slam the door shut, eating my breakfast.

I've make appearances at every marine show since the fiasco with Cleo. The owner has me speak a LOT, seeing as I appeal to a lot of age groups. He has me doing a lot of at home work too, editing videos and drafting letters to associations and conventions. A lot of money has come into the park because of my letters, but it's never enough. There's always more injured or sick dolphins to help. My mom climbs into the drivers seat and we go to the park.

"Any reason you're not swimming or going to the cafe instead?" I nod, and she drops the subject. She knows when to let things go, and in grateful for that. We reach the park and I hop out, happy to be seeing the new dolphin we recently rescued. We walk over to her enclosure. She's swimming in circles, and when my mom trys to come over to her, she swims away quickly.

"Sick or wounded?" I ask.

"Wounded. She hurt herself pretty bad trying to get out of a fishing net." My mom walks to the entrances and unlocks them, preparing for the rest of the employees. We stay and watch over her for an hour, and the first one to get there is the head trainer. He comes over and sits by us, studying the frantic dolphin.

   I get up, leaving my mom with him, and go to the sound and light booth. I test everything, like I do every morning. Without me doing this, we could have had quite a few near misses with faulty lights or sound equipment. Everything was in working order, so I turned on the signs and the security cameras. I walk out, and Bella's there. She spots me and walks over.

"Hey Lee. I'm heading over to Will's, want to come?" I shake my head.

"I'm planning on staying here all day. I have to transfer some videos to the educational screens, and there's some old sound equipment I'm going to get in working order again to sell, so we can raise a bit more money." She nods and gives me a hug, then runs off to Will's.

I stay true to my word and go into the dark basement to get the equipment. I pull it out into the sunlight and look it over. The outside is in great condition, and it looks more vintage than old, which is always a good selling point. I pry off the back and cringe. The wires are old and rusted, there's snapped cords, and the plugs at the bottom need repairing. I leave the equipment there and go get my toolbox that I keep in the sound booth. It has extra wiring and rust removers, and some cords. I go back and get to work.

    About an hour later, it's pretty much done. I grab a towel and wipe the oil off of my hands. I had a stripe of it on my forehead where I wiped away sweat, but I didn't know that. I stand up and look down at the equipment, admiring my own handiwork.

"Hey Lethia! I forgot you worked here!" I turn to see Sophie there, smiling. I smile back, finally in a good mood because of my work.

"Hey Soph. What are you doing here?" She tells me about a fundraising concert that Rikki's cafe is putting on for the dolphins.

"I'd really love it if you sang there. It's perfect, I mean, you work here so you can talk about the dolphins and what they mean to you, it'll be great!" I grin. This is amazing!

"Yeah, sure! It'd be an honor. I was planning on selling is equipment online, but after the concert I guess we could auction it off. The park has got loads of stuff like this, and I know they'd LOVE to part with it." She smiles and gives me a tight hug.