Today was weird.
Okay, not that weird. Weirder things have happened. But today was definitely weird.
The quiet one wasn't here. She didn't show up to write with me. The crazy lady said something about a "car accident" and that "Felicity won't be coming back". I'm not sure what that means, but it sounded like really bad news.
But that wasn't the weirdest part.
After that, all the kids got up and made lines on the whiteboard underneath names that I couldn't read. One of them had almost all the lines. The crazy lady read it and nodded like she was agreeing with whatever it meant.
Then she walked over to the tank and gently dumped a new guppy in.
The new guppy is really pretty. She's a rosy pink at the front, fading into a golden yellow at her tail. The tips of her fins are dark blue. She doesn't have any special markings as Nike did, but she's still really pretty.
And the crazy lady said, "Reebok, meet Felicity."
The kids call the new guppy the same thing they called the quiet one!
Well, of course, they did. If they had just had a talk about bad things that happened to her, they would want a memory of her to keep. And Felicity the guppy is definitely worthy of being that memory.
She seems kind of distant. Scared, I guess. I remember my first day here. It was really strange and scary and loud. I didn't like it much, but Nike helped me settle in. Even though we got here at the same time, she seemed much more comfortable here than I did.
Do you know what I think I'll do?
Right now I'm in Nike's shell. After I'm done writing, I'll go up to her and offer her my place in the castle. It's too big for me, really, but it's nice when you first arrive. You feel protected. And I like Nike's shell better anyway.
I'll do what Nike did. Tell stories, sing songs, play games and such. I'm not as imaginative as Nike yet, and I've never tried to sing, but I can do my best. I hope it helps.
Felicity's also the quiet one, for now. So I should introduce her to the thing that the quiet one liked most of all.
Stories.
Maybe she'll help me write about Motorcycle Mike if I ask nicely.
I'll swim up to her and say, "Do you want to help me write this story?"
Just like the quiet one did to me.
And then maybe, just maybe, she'll say, "Yes."
YOU ARE READING
Diary of a Lonely Guppy
General FictionA guppy fish the kids call Reebok is left alone in a tank in a school classroom after his tankmate, Nike, jumped to her death out of the tank. He feels lost and alone. Then he meets the quiet one, a girl at the school. She's different from all the o...
