“How do you know she doesn’t mean it?” Flip sounded a little hurt. “I am great at magic.”
“You’re a good singer, too,” Pearl reminded him. “Don’t you want to do music for the show?”
“Sure, I guess that would be okay,” Flip said.
“No!” Splash exclaimed. “Lots of dolphins do songs. And even more do magic. We should do something different—like this cool new flip I made up the other day …”
“Aargh!” Echo exclaimed. “You’re hopeless, Splash.”
“What do you mean? I’m just saying what I think,” Splash said.
“Well, I’m saying what I think is best for all of us,” Echo shot back.
“No, you’re not!” Pearl blurted out without thinking. “You’re both just being as stubborn as a squid!”
Echo looked slightly hurt. “Am not,” she said. “Anyway, you’re being stubborn, too, Pearl.”
“Yeah,” Splash said.
Pearl didn’t know what to say. She’d never argued with her friends like this, and she didn’t like it one bit.
“I—I have to go home,” she blurted out.
“Fine.” Echo sounded annoyed. “We’ll decide what to do tomorrow.”
THE NEXT MORNING, PEARL SWAM SLOWLY toward the school reef. For once, she wasn’t very eager to get there. She was still upset about yesterday’s argument. What if Echo, Splash, and Flip didn’t want to be friends with her anymore because she’d disagreed with them and called them stubborn? Not being friends anymore was the worst thing she could imagine.
“Show Off Day sounded like fun at first,” she mumbled to herself. “But now I wish I’d never heard of it!”
She swam into the reef and looked around. She didn’t see Echo or Splash. But Flip was floating near some feathery sea plumes that were growing out of the reef.
When he spotted Pearl, he swam over. “I was waiting for you,” he said. He sounded worried. “I need to talk to you.”
Pearl was glad that he still wanted to talk to her. Then again, Flip hadn’t seemed as mad as the other two yesterday. He hadn’t seemed to care which idea they did. Not like Echo and Splash, who had been so stubborn about only wanting to do their own ideas for Show Off Day.
Maybe I was a little bit stubborn, too, like they said, Pearl reminded herself, feeling guilty. I didn’t want to listen to their ideas, either.
“Okay,” she said to Flip. “What do you want to talk about?”
Flip looked around. “Come over here where nobody will hear us,” he said.
He led the way to a quiet nook behind some large growths of stony coral. Then he turned to face Pearl, looking much more serious than usual.
“I wish we hadn’t gotten into that argument yesterday,” he said. “We’re supposed to be working as a group. But nobody was even listening to anyone else.”
Pearl nodded. “I know,” she said. “But what are we supposed to do about it? Our ideas were all so different.”
“You’re good at helping people get along,” Flip said. “And we’re all friends, right?”
“Right,” Pearl said, hoping that was still true.
“That means we should be able to agree on a plan,” Flip went on. “You should talk to Splash and Echo. Maybe you can convince them to try again.” He blew out a small burst of bubbles. “Because we really need to figure out what to do, or we’ll look silly on Show Off Day! Just like Mullet said.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” Pearl said. “I just hope they listen to me this time.”
The two of them swam out from behind the stony coral. Pearl saw Splash swimming in through the entrance. She also spotted Echo floating nearby, talking to a couple of the other dolphins from their school pod.
Flip rushed off to get Splash, while Pearl swam over to Echo. “Can we talk for a second?” she asked.
“Sure.” Echo said good-bye to the other dolphins, then followed Pearl back toward the two boys. “I was just talking to Harmony. She and the other three from our pod are already practicing a jumping and swimming routine. It sounds like they’re going to be really good.”
Flip heard her. “Really?” he said. “Yeah, Wiggle and Harmony are both great at fancy flips and stuff. But I know we could do an even better performance, if …” He trailed off and looked at Pearl.
Pearl blew out some bubbles, feeling nervous. “Look, you guys,” she blurted out. “Your friendship means more to me than some stupid Show Off Day routine. I’m sorry I was so stubborn yesterday.”
“Me too,” Echo said immediately, touching her fin to Pearl’s. “I’m sorry I wouldn’t listen.”
Splash looked sheepish. “Me three. I don’t want to fight with you guys.”
“Good.” Flip sounded relieved. “See? We still make a great team. That’s why we’re going to be the best at Show Off Day.”
Pearl was relieved, too. She never wanted to fight with her friends again!
She looked around at the others, waiting for them to offer to do her music idea. But Echo and Splash just stared back at her.
“Um, so how are we going to figure out what to do?” Pearl asked at last.
Flip looked uncertain for a moment. Then he brightened.
“I know,” he exclaimed. “A bubble burst!”
“A what?” Splash asked.
But Echo smiled. “It’s something we do in our pod sometimes,” she explained. “It’s a way of leaving decisions up to chance.”
Flip nodded. “How it works is, the three of you each blow one big air bubble.” To demonstrate, he sent a single bubble floating up out of his blowhole. “Then we see whose bubble lasts the longest before popping.”
“Whoever has the last bubble wins,” Echo finished. “And we’ll do that dolphin’s idea for the show.”
Pearl wasn’t sure what to think. If Splash won the bubble burst, she would have to do jumping and swimming, and she still wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. But she supposed it was the only fair way to decide.
“Okay,” she said. “Anything’s better than more arguing.”
“Definitely,” Splash said. “Let’s do it!”
They all swam up to the surface. Pearl took in a deep gulp of air, floating there for a moment watching some seagulls swoop and circle overhead. Then she dove down with the others.
“Okay, on the count of three,” Flip said. “One … two … three … blow!”
Pearl, Echo, and Splash each blew a big air bubble. Pearl held her breath as she watched hers float slowly upward. It was larger than Echo’s, but not quite as big as Splash’s.
“Oh no!” Splash cried as his bubble popped and disappeared into the current.
Pearl was relieved. At least that meant she wouldn’t have to do jumping and swimming for the show!
A second later her own bubble burst. “Oh!” she exclaimed, disappointed.
“Yay!” Echo cried at the same time. “I win! We’re doing magic!”
PEARL WAS STILL A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED that she hadn’t won the bubble burst. But she liked magic just as much as music, even if she wasn’t quite as good at it. Besides, Echo was so good at magic that her plan for the show was probably great.
“What’s your idea?” she asked Echo.
Echo looked excited. “I haven’t worked out all the details yet,” she said. “But I was thinking we could start by guiding a school of pretty fish in to hide us from the audience. Then we’ll guide them to swim off in all directions, so everyone will suddenly see us floating there behind them.”
“I get it.” Flip nodded. “That sounds really cool!”
Pearl agreed. Guiding was a magical skill that all the dolphins had been practicing since the first day of class. It involved magically asking other sea creatures to do something. Most fish and crustaceans were usually willing to be guided by dolphins, although some other types of creatures could be more stubborn. Guiding large schools of fish was harder than guiding one or a few, but Echo’s magic was very strong. With all four of them working together, Pearl was pretty sur
e they could do what Echo had in mind.
“I bet everyone will love that,” she said.
“Yeah.” Echo swam around in a circle. “But that’s definitely not all! After the fish reveal us there, that’s when the show really starts!”
“What do you mean?” Splash asked.
“I want to show off all our magical skills,” Echo said. “So next we’ll call in a few snapping shrimp.”
“Isn’t that using the same skill?” Flip asked. “I mean, we’ll call the shrimp using guiding, won’t we?”
“Yes, but I’m not finished,” Echo said. “Snapping shrimp make lots of noise, right?”
Pearl nodded. There were plenty of snapping shrimp near her home lagoon. They had a special claw that they could use to create a loud snapping sound. Sometimes the noise was so loud that it woke her up at night!
“We’ll guide the shrimp to snap, and then use our physical magic to make the sounds louder and softer.”
“Like music?” Pearl said.
Echo shrugged. “Sort of, I guess. But it will mostly be a way to show off how well we can use our magic.”
“Okay,” Splash said uncertainly. “But we only started practicing that stuff recently. Do you think we can do it?”
“Sure we can,” Flip told him. “It’s not that hard. Plus Echo is super at all kinds of magic.”
“And then after that,” Echo went on, “I was thinking we could bring in some fish and crabs and stuff, and guide them all to dance while we create a really cool light display with a rainbow over it all.”
“What?” Pearl blurted out. “Light displays and rainbows? But we haven’t done any of that stuff in class yet!”
“It’s okay, my mom taught me,” Echo said with a wave of her fin. “I can show you guys how to do it.”
Pearl traded a worried look with Splash. Did Echo remember that they weren’t as talented at magic as she was? They hadn’t grown up with super-talented magical mothers, either.
“Maybe we should skip the last part,” Pearl suggested. “We could still do the other stuff.”
“Maybe,” Splash added dubiously.
Echo frowned. “But it won’t be as special without the light display,” she said. “It’ll be fine—you’ll see.”
Just then Old Salty called the school to attention, so Pearl and the others stopped talking.
“All right, everyone,” Old Salty said with a smile. “I know we’re all excited to see what you students come up with for this year’s Show Off Day. You’ll have all of today and tomorrow to work on your performances. Please feel free to consult any of us teachers if you need help. Now let’s get started!”
Most of the students cheered, including Echo and Flip. But Pearl and Splash stayed quiet.
“Do you think we can do everything Echo has planned?” Pearl asked Splash in a low voice.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I can’t,” Splash responded, with a burst of bubbles. “I have trouble just guiding one or two fish, never mind all that other stuff.”
“Stop whispering over there, you two,” Echo said cheerfully. “It’s time to get started.”
“Okay,” Splash said. “But maybe we should talk about your ideas. It might be better to do a less complicated routine.”
“I agree,” Pearl said. “It’s better to stick to magic we know we can do well. Maybe we could just guide the fish and shrimp like you said, and then maybe do some mental messaging to the audience or something?”
Echo shook her head. “Anybody can do that stuff,” she said. “We want our display to be extra special.”
“Yeah!” Flip sounded excited. “We want to be the best!”
Pearl knew that Flip wanted to do well at Show Off Day. And she guessed that Echo wanted to impress her mother and the rest of her pod with her magic skills. But what if they couldn’t do all that complicated magic properly? Instead of impressing everyone, they could embarrass themselves in front of the whole dolphin community!
She wanted to say that to Echo. But she was afraid she’d get mad.
Besides, Mom and Dad always say to try my best, Pearl reminded herself. I’ll just do that—and hope it works.
They got started, practicing guiding a school of fish a few times. Everyone was pretty good at that, even though Splash kept getting distracted and letting his part of the school wander off in the wrong direction.
Finally Echo seemed satisfied. “Okay,” she said. “I haven’t seen any snapping shrimp around today, so let’s practice the light display next. Pearl and Flip, join your magic and try to guide some cool-looking fish over here. I’ll work with Splash on the light display.”
Pearl touched her fin to Flip’s. “I’m not sure we can do this,” she said, feeling nervous.
“Sure we can.” He sounded confident. “Guiding fish is easy.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Pearl murmured.
But Flip wasn’t listening. He was already sending out waves of magical energy toward some pretty blue parrot fish floating nearby. Pearl joined her magic with his, guiding the fish closer.
Nearby, she saw magical lights and sparkles start to form in the water by Echo and Splash. “More,” Echo urged. “Focus your magic, Splash!”
“I’m trying!” Splash sounded frazzled. “But I told you, I don’t know how to do this stuff!”
“Just do what I said!” Echo exclaimed.
Pearl’s eyes widened as a rainbow started to form in the water over their heads. She was so distracted that she forgot about the parrot fish.
“Pearl, you have to help me,” Flip exclaimed. “They’re swimming away!”
“Oops.” Pearl spun around, sending out another burst of magical energy. But she was still distracted by the rainbow, too. She turned to look at it—and accidentally sent her magic toward Splash instead of the fish.
“Hey!” he shouted in surprise as the energy hit him, sending his own magical energy bouncing off in the wrong direction.
“Oh no!” Echo cried as a bunch of bright, spinning magical sparkles shot wildly across the cove—right into Bay’s face!
The teacher looked surprised. She swam toward the group.
“What’s going on over here?” she asked.
“Sorry, Bay,” Pearl said. “Our magic got a little out of control. We didn’t mean to do that.”
“I see.” Luckily, Bay didn’t sound mad. “What are you four working on?”
Echo quickly told Bay about her plans. When she finished, Bay looked concerned.
“That’s a lot of pretty advanced magic for first-year students,” she said. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to use skills we haven’t practiced in class yet. I think perhaps you should skip the light display and rainbow.”
“I guess you’re right.” Echo sounded sheepish. “Thanks, Bay.”
Bay nodded and swam off. Pearl was relieved, but she could see that Echo was disappointed.
“It’ll be okay,” she said, touching Echo’s fin. “Our show will still be good even without the light display.”
“No, it won’t,” Echo said with a sigh. “Just doing guiding and basic sound stuff won’t impress anyone at all!” She shrugged. “Maybe we shouldn’t do magic after all.”
“You mean you want to do one of the other ideas?” Splash said.
“Maybe we should,” Flip said. “Without the light stuff, the magic display would be boring.” He pointed a fin at Pearl. “You came in second in the bubble burst. Pearl. Let’s do your idea.”
AT FIRST PEARL WASN’T SURE WHAT TO THINK or say. “Oh,” she said. “Um …”
“Hurry up and tell us more about your idea,” Flip urged. “We’ve already lost tons of time. We’ll need to make up for it so we’re still one of the best groups.”
“O-okay,” Pearl stammered. She did her best to focus, trying to remember all the great ideas for songs that she’d had the day before. “I guess I was thinking we could combine all our special dolphin songs into one big song?”
On the first day of school, Bay had reminded the Music class that each adult dolphin had a unique dolphin song. Part of what she was doing in class was helping each young dolphin start to develop his or her own special song.
“That’s a great idea, Pearl,” Flip said. “I’m sure it will impress Bay—and everyone else, too!”
“Good.” Pearl smiled with relief. “Then maybe we should start out by each doing a short solo of part of our song. Then we can create different harmonies by combining the songs together, first in pairs, and then all four of us.”
Splash did a flip, looking nervous. “That sounds complicated.”
“Don’t worry.” Pearl gave him a reassuring fin rub. “I’ll help you.”
“Okay, you start, Pearl,” Flip suggested. “Then I’ll do my solo after yours.”
Pearl nodded. Swimming up to the surface, she took a deep breath. Then she returned to her friends and started to sing.
Pearl had been working hard on her special song. She was proud of it, and glad that she’d get to show it off to her pod and everyone else.
When she finished her part, Flip sang his solo. It sounded good.
Next it was Echo’s turn, and she started to sing. Her voice was never quite as strong as Pearl’s, but usually it was pretty nice. Today, however, it sounded weak and a little shaky. Pearl was confused—until she noticed little bursts of magical sparkles floating around her friend.
“Hey,” she said. “What are you doing, Echo?”
Echo stopped singing. “What do you mean?”
“Those sparkles.” Flip swished his tail to send the last of the pretty lights floating off on the current. “We’re supposed to be doing music, remember? Not magic.”
Echo shrugged. “I just thought a light display might make the performance more interesting.”
“Well, it’s making your song sound bad,” Flip told her. “That makes us all look bad.”
“Why don’t you try again, without the magic?” Pearl suggested.
“Fine.” Echo looked annoyed. She swam up for air, then started her song again.
When she finished, it was Splash’s turn. His song was loud, but not very good. He kept messing up the melody, and getting faster and faster.
Flip's Surprise Talent Page 2
