Turtle Troubles
by: Grace P.
“Oooh! This one looks like a heart!” exclaimed Tina. “I just love collecting rocks. It makes me so happy.”Tina, a young turtle about nine years old, waded through the shallows of the pond in front of the little hole in the hill that Tina and her mother called home. Her mother was watching close by.
“Be careful Tina, and don’t forget to clean out the inside of your shell so that things don’t start to pile up,” warned Mrs. Turtle.
“Yes ma’am, I know. You’ve told me about a thousand times,” said Tina. “I’m finished collecting for now anyway, and I’ll clean my room later. I want to go visit Katie Kookaburra now.”
“All right dear, just don’t forget to clean, and be nice. You know how I feel about you hanging out with that Kookaburra girl,” said Mrs. Turtle nicely as she watched Tina stroll away into the forest.
Soon after a reasonable jog through the forest, Tina came upon the big gum tree that Katie called home. Katie was a young kookaburra, not much older than Tina; she also had a knack for being able to find something wrong with everyone except herself. Once she had picked on a little platypus named Perry about having both a beaver tail AND a duck bill - so much that he had to move.
“Hi, Katie. What’s up?” asked Tina as she knocked on the trunk of the gum tree to wake up her feathered friend.
“Ka-ka! Nothing much besides the fact that Bailey Bunny got the WORST hair cut that I’ve EVER seen!” exclaimed Katie.
Then slowly and shamefully Bailey walked by.
“Oh my goodness! That’s even worse than I thought. I mean it looks like one of the dingoes tried to skin her alive,” said Tina trying to hold back the laughter.
“Kha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” screeched Katie in her surprisingly loud cackle of a laugh. “You’re so right, and those ugly, green glasses of hers really top it off.”
Now Tina knew it was wrong to make fun of others, but it was worth it to get to hang out with the cool kids like Katie, right?
After Tina returned home to the pond, she swiftly started back at her rock collecting, when suddenly, POP!
“Oh no! My shell! My wonderful shell! It’s fallen off!” yelled Tina as she ran inside to ask her mother for help. “Mom, I was out collecting rocks again and suddenly my shell felt real tight, and then I couldn’t fit anymore, and now I can’t get back in!”
“I know. I told you that you should keep it clean. The reason you can’t fit in any more is because there was too much stuff in it,” said Mrs. Turtle calmly as she washed the dishes. “You’re simply gonna have to wait six months for a new one to grow back.”
Tina simply groaned.
The next day Tina decided to go tell Katie about the “funny” thing that had happened to her shell.
“Hey Katie, you’ll never guess what happened. Yesterday I was…” started Tina but Katie quickly cut her off.
“Kha-ha-ha-ha!” shrieked Katie. “You look hilarious!”
“Oh… well I was just wondering if you wanted to play hide-and-seek with me today,” asked Tina.
“Play with you? Kha-ka-ka! You are so ugly looking that if you hid I would never come looking for you!” said Katie, and then she burst into laughter.
Tina was shocked! She thought Katie was her friend, but she was now certain that she wasn’t. Then from out of nowhere came a small, shy voice.
“I’ll play with you,” said the voice.
It was Bailey!
Sure that would be great!” replied Tina.
So quickly Tina started to count; Bailey went to go hide behind an old high top tennis shoe, and they were good friends from that day on.