by Nancy Krulik
So Katie raised her hand. And the next thing she knew, she was strapped into a harness and hooked up to a rope.
“Okay, Katie, now all you have to do is reach up and grab on to one of the yellow or red handholds,” Lori told her. “You can use them to pull yourself up. And as you pull, put your feet on the green or blue footholds. Then keep on climbing.”
Katie frowned. Lori made it all sound so easy. But it was really, really hard. It took a lot of strength to pull herself even a couple of feet up the wall.
“Come on, Katie, you can do it,” Lori cheered.
Katie wasn’t so sure. The wall was really tall. And that just made her feel really, really small.
“Whoa!” Katie shouted as her body swayed from the wall.
“It’s okay,” Lori said. “You’re connected to the safety rope. You can’t get hurt. Just grab that yellow handhold. And put your foot on the blue knob to your left.”
Katie Kazoo was no quitter. She reached to her right and grabbed on to the yellow knob, just like Lori had told her to do. She pulled herself up and rested her foot on the blue knob. Then she pulled herself higher and higher and higher still. And then …
Ding! Ding! Ding! Katie reached up and rang the bell at the top of the rock wall.
Woo-hoo! She’d made it!
“Yay, Katie!” Lori called from below.
Some of the other kids clapped.
Katie grinned. She felt like a real mountain climber—if there were a real mountain out in the middle of the ocean somewhere.
“Okay, let yourself dangle and we’ll pull you down,” the man working at the rock wall said.
So Katie jumped out a step. A moment later she was back down on the deck of the ship.
“Great job!” Lori said. “Who wants to be next?”
Carly raised her hand. “I’ll do it. I think I can reach the top. At least I hope I can. It might be tough because I’m not that strong but …”
Katie laughed. She wondered if Carly was going to talk all the way up the wall. Carly stopped talking, though, as she got higher up.
Before long, all the kids had had a turn except Suzanne. She was still staring up at the top of the wall.
“Don’t you want to try?” Lori asked her.
“It’s really, really high up,” Suzanne said. “I sometimes get dizzy when I’m up really high.”
“It’s not that high,” Stan said. “Not like a real mountain.”
“Come on,” Katie said. She pulled her camera from her pocket. “I’ll take your picture.”
That made Suzanne smile. A little.
“Okay,” she said. “I guess I’ll climb. After all, models have to be willing to pose anywhere.”
A few minutes later, Suzanne was slowly making her way up the wall. She put her foot on a green knob and pulled herself up with a blue one. Then she put her foot on a red knob and reached for a green one.
Katie pointed her camera at Suzanne and clicked a photo just as Suzanne lost her footing and started to fall. “Aaahh!” she screamed. “Get me down from here.”
The man who was working at the rock wall quickly lowered her down.
Katie ran over right away. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Suzanne nodded. “You can’t ever show anyone that picture. I didn’t have a chance to smile.”
Chapter 4
“Now this is more like it,” Suzanne said as she and Katie took their seats with the other Minnows in the middle of a row in the crowded auditorium. “A magic show. Do you remember when I was George’s assistant when he put on a magic show at Mandy’s birthday party?”
Katie did remember. She’d never forget it. How could she? Suzanne had ruined every one of George’s tricks. But Katie didn’t remind Suzanne about that part.
“You were a magician’s assistant?” Lizzie asked her excitedly. “Onstage and everything?”
“Well, it wasn’t really a stage. We were at a party,” Suzanne explained to her. “But it was still a real magic show.”
“Wow!” Lizzie said. “So you’re a model and a magician’s assistant.”
Suzanne smiled. “Exactly.”
“Shhh,” Katie said. “The magic show is starting.”
“Hello, everybody!” the magician shouted as he ran out onto the stage. “I’m Marvin the Magnificent. Are you ready to have some fun?”
“Yes!” the kids in the audience answered.
“Great,” the magician said. “Now, for my first trick, I will need a helper from the audience.”
Lots of kids put their hands up. But Suzanne put her hand up the highest. She started bouncing up and down in her seat. “Me! Me!” she shouted. “Pick me!”
Marvin the Magnificent stepped down from the stage into the audience. The closer he got, the higher Suzanne bounced. And the louder she shouted, “Me! Me!”
Marvin stopped right near Suzanne and Katie. He smiled. And then he reached out and pointed right at Katie.
“How about you?” he asked her. “Would you like to be my assistant for this trick?”
Katie didn’t know what to say.
Suzanne, on the other hand, had plenty to say. “Why her? She has no experience.”
That made Katie mad. Why did Suzanne always have to be picked for everything?
So Katie said, “Sure. I’d love to.”
Katie didn’t even glance at Suzanne as she walked onstage.
“Okay, now I want you to hold this empty hat,” Marvin the Magnificent said as he and Katie stood before the audience. “Show everyone that there’s nothing in there.”
As Katie held up the hat for the audience, she noticed some movement in the row she had been sitting in. Suzanne was storming out of the auditorium. Lizzie was following right behind her.
But Katie wasn’t going to let Suzanne ruin her fun. She smiled at Marvin the Magnificent and handed back his hat.
“So, do you like birds?” he asked Katie.
Katie nodded. “Are you going to pull a bird out of that hat?”
“Not yet,” he said. “Can you say the magic word?”
“Abracadabra!” Katie shouted.
“Actually, I asked you to say the magic word,” the magician told her.
Katie giggled. She knew what he meant. “The magic word,” she repeated.
The magician grinned and reached into the hat. He pulled out an egg. “That’s almost a bird,” he joked. “Now say that other magic word.”
“That other magic word,” Katie repeated.
“No,” Marvin the Magnificent told her. “I meant abracadabra.”
Katie laughed. Marvin the Magnificent was really funny. “Abracadabra!” she exclaimed.
The magician cracked the egg into his hat. He took a fork and beat the egg like he was making scrambled eggs. Then he reached into the hat and pulled out a beautiful, white dove.
“Wow! How did you do that?” Katie asked.
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Marvin the Magnificent told her. He put a gold-colored medal around her neck. “Thanks for your help.”
“You’re welcome,” Katie told him. As she walked off the stage and back to her seat, she looked down at the medal. It had a picture of the cruise ship on it. It was really cool. Katie decided she was going to wear it all day long. She didn’t care at all what Suzanne might say about it.
Chapter 5
“Nice medal,” Suzanne said that evening as the two families sat down at their dinner table in the Caribbean Sunset dining room.
Suzanne didn’t sound like she really liked the medal at all. In fact, she sounded like she was mad at Katie for wearing it.
“Did you see my new earrings?” Suzanne asked everyone. She pulled back her hair and showed off her orangey-pink coral earrings that were shaped like roses. “I got them on the Promenade Deck. There are jewelry stores, clothing stores, and a souvenir shop. There’s a hair and nail salon, too. Just like Sparkle’s Salon. It’s like a mini Cherrydale Mall. Only prettier.”
“Do they have
a candy store like Cinnamon’s Candy Shop?” Katie asked excitedly. “Or a pizza place like Louie’s?”
Suzanne shook her head. “There are no food shops on the Promenade Deck.”
“I guess they figure there’s enough food here in the dining room,” Katie’s dad said. “Have you guys taken a look at this menu? There are so many things to choose from. I’m thinking of ordering one of everything.”
“You’d end up with one big stomachache,” Katie told him.
“Probably,” her dad agreed. “Or just one big stomach.”
Katie giggled. Her dad was so funny.
“Cookie!” Heather shouted suddenly. “Cookie!”
“No cookies until you eat dinner,” Mr. Lock said. He looked down at the menu. “How about some nice macaroni and cheese?”
“Cookie,” Heather repeated.
Suzanne rolled her eyes.
“I’m starving,” Katie said. She looked at the section of the menu that said VEGETARIAN DELIGHTS. “Mmm. They have personal-sized pizzas with vegetables.”
Suzanne pulled her hair back even farther and shook her head so everyone at the table would look at her earrings again.
“Those earrings are lovely, Suzanne,” Katie’s mother complimented her.
“She just had to have them,” Mrs. Lock explained. “She seemed so upset about not being able to be in the magic show. But I knew these would cheer her up.”
“They’re real coral,” Suzanne boasted. “Lizzie helped me pick them out. She and I had a great time on Deck Five. I like her a lot. I know we’re going to spend a lot of time together on this cruise.”
Katie frowned. Suzanne was making it sound like Lizzie was her new best friend or something. Even though Katie knew she was acting that way because she was mad about the magic show, it still hurt.
“Did you see the way they folded the towels in the bathrooms of our cabins?” Katie’s mom asked everyone.
“Ours was shaped like a monkey,” Katie said. “When I came in, it was hanging from the light fixture. It was so cute.”
“Ours was an elephant,” Suzanne told everyone. “They had to use three towels to make it. It was huge.”
“I wonder how they do that,” Mrs. Lock said.
“They’re giving a whole class on towel folding,” Katie’s mother told her. “Right after dinner in the Clamshell Lounge.”
“Oh, maybe Lizzie and I can go together,” Suzanne said. “I bet she would love to learn how to make a towel elephant.”
Katie tried not to feel bad when Suzanne mentioned Lizzie’s name. But it was really tough. Especially because Katie knew Suzanne was doing it on purpose. Still, Katie felt better a little while later when their waiter, Mario, placed a pizza with vegetables in front of her. It smelled delicious.
“I asked the chef to put extra mushrooms on it,” Mario told her.
“Thanks,” Katie said. She picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. Mmm. It tasted even better than it smelled.
For a while, Suzanne forgot about being mad. She seemed happy to be eating her spaghetti with clam sauce and talking about all the cool stores on the Promenade Deck.
But just as Mario brought Katie her slice of chocolate pudding pie, Lizzie came walking over to the table. “Hi, Suzanne,” she said. “I love your pink dress.”
Suzanne smiled. “I wore it to dinner because it matches my new earrings.”
“Are you going to play miniature golf tonight with the other Minnows?” Lizzie asked her.
“I was going to go to the towel-folding class instead,” Suzanne told her.
“Oh.” Lizzie looked really sad. “My mom said I have to go with the club. She doesn’t want me wandering around the ship without a counselor.”
Suzanne shrugged. “Well, I guess we could go play mini golf for a little while.”
Lizzie smiled so widely, Katie thought her teeth might pop out of her mouth. “Really?” Lizzie asked excitedly. “Oh, I’m so glad! You’re so nice, Suzanne. I’m so glad I met you.”
Suzanne laughed. “I hear that a lot,” she said. “I’m a very good friend.”
Katie giggled. Suzanne wasn’t wrong. She could be a very good friend. Especially to herself. In fact, there wasn’t anything Suzanne wouldn’t do for Suzanne.
Chapter 6
The next morning, the ship had docked in the island harbor. But Suzanne was in a very grumpy mood. Everything seemed to make her angry.
“That was the worst miniature golf,” Suzanne complained as the Locks and the Carews walked down the gangway. “It took me forever to get the ball into those little holes.”
Katie figured Suzanne was mad because last night she had gotten the worst score of all the kids in the Minnow group. It had been a hard miniature-golf course. In fact, Katie had done pretty badly, too. The only kids who got decent scores were Stan and Dan. But they’d played on a lot of cruise ship mini-golf courses.
Still, Katie wasn’t upset about anything. How could she be? She was on a beautiful island with palm trees and sunshine. And soon she would be arriving at Dolphin Reef, the park where she and her parents could swim with dolphins.
What could be more exciting than that?
“I smell the sea!” Katie exclaimed happily.
“So what? That’s all we’ve been smelling since yesterday,” Suzanne reminded her.
“But it smells better here,” Katie said. She sniffed at the air. “Mmm. Something smells like coconut, too.”
“That’s my sunscreen,” Suzanne said. “I bought it in a shop on the Promenade Deck.”
“Tree!” Heather said. She pointed up to one of the palm trees. “Pretty tree.”
Katie smiled. “The palm trees are pretty, Heather,” she told Suzanne’s little sister.
“Lizzie and her family are going on a special tour of the island,” Suzanne said. “They’re going to get coconuts right off of palm trees. And they’re going to get to crack open the coconuts and drink the milk.”
“That sounds like fun,” Katie said. “But not as much fun as swimming with a dolphin. I wonder what my dolphin’s name will be. I bet we get to be buddies this afternoon.”
Suzanne frowned. “Only you would want to be friends with a fish,” she said.
Katie wasn’t going to let Suzanne ruin her day. “Dolphins aren’t fish,” she told her. “They’re mammals, just like us.”
“Well, I don’t want to spend all day in the water,” Suzanne went on. “My skin will get all prunelike. And my hair will be a mess.”
Katie sighed and didn’t answer.
“There’s the sign for Dolphin Reef,” Katie’s mom said. “That’s where we’re supposed to go.”
She pointed toward the end of the dock. Katie could see part of a small enclosure. There were lanes like in a swimming pool. Katie’s heart started beating a little faster. This was so exciting! Any minute now she’d be face-to-face with a real, live dolphin!
Chapter 7
“Welcome to Dolphin Reef. I’m Steve, your guide on your dolphin encounter. I’ll be introducing you to your new dolphin buddies. Today you will all be hanging around with Flippy and Flossie. I know you are going to love them.”
Katie was so excited, she could barely sit still on the dock as Steve explained all the fun things she was going to get to do with Flippy and Flossie.
“After you put on your life jackets, I’m going to lead you down to the water where you will each get to step out onto a platform in the water and meet your new dolphin friends,” Steve explained. “The dolphins are very friendly. In fact, I’m sure that after a few minutes, at least one of them is going to want to give you a big kiss.”
Suzanne groaned. “Just what I need—a kiss from someone with fish breath,” she said. “Why couldn’t we have gone to the coconut grove with Lizzie and her family?”
Katie pretended she didn’t hear Suzanne. Instead, she asked Steve, “How will we know which dolphin is Flippy and which is Flossie?”
Steve pointed to his right arm. “Flippy ha
s a black spot right in the middle of his right fin. He’s hard to miss.”
“Kind of like a freckle,” Katie said. She had a few freckles herself.
“After you get a kiss, Flippy and Flossie will take each of you on a speedy ride down one of the lanes! The dolphins will push your feet until you stand and soar through the water.”
“Is that okay with the dolphins?” Katie asked. “I mean, what if a person is too heavy for them to push?”
“Flippy and Flossie are very strong,” Steve assured her. “These dolphins are very, very well cared for. We love our dolphins, and they are treated much better than most working animals. Nothing you do here today will hurt them. I promise.”
Katie was glad to hear that. She would never hurt an animal. Ever.
“Just how long is our swim with the dolphins?” Suzanne’s father asked.
“Each person will get fifteen minutes to swim with the dolphins,” Steve told him. “But you are free to spend all day at Dolphin Reef Park, looking at our other wildlife and enjoying our beautiful beach.”
“Only fifteen minutes?” Katie asked. This was the first thing all day that did not make her happy. “Why so little time?”
“It’s hard work for the dolphins,” Steve explained. “They take a break every hour for a rest and a fishy treat.”
“I work longer than that on my science homework,” Katie murmured under her breath. “And I don’t always get a snack after I do my work. Boy, dolphins have it really easy.”
“Okay, everyone. Let’s put on life jackets,” Steve said.
Katie wanted to take a picture of her parents in their big, yellow life jackets. But she had left her camera in a bag back in one of the lockers by the dock.
“May I go get my camera?” Katie asked her parents. “I’ll be back in a flash.”
“Sure. Our stuff is in locker 427,” her mother said. “But hurry. You don’t want to miss out on all the fun!”
“I’ll hurry,” Katie promised. “I can’t wait to play with the dolphins—even if it’s just for a little while.”
