Banished

=8=

The next morning, I woke up with the sun shining brightly on my face. I got up and got ready without breakfast. I didn't think I could stomach it. So I went out by my sister in the living room and tried to calm my heart.

"Good morning," she said, trying at a smile. But I could tell that the nerves were hitting even her.

"Morning," I sat next to her on the couch and pulled one of my legs against my chest. "You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess. I have no idea what this will be like. I've never done anything in front of a crowd."

"I hope Checkers behaves today."

"Hey, even if he doesn't, we can pretend it's part of the show."

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess. C'mon, let's go. No point waiting around worrying."

We got ready for the show and found a box outside our door before we left. It read, Wear these for the show - Shiva. We opened it up and found brand new wetsuits inside. They were much nicer than our all black ones we currently wore. These new suits were seagreen with a darker green on the legs and arms and back, almost in the same markings that Checkers and Chess had.

I raised my eyebrows. "Woah."

"What? These are beautiful!" Logan smiled and held hers up to the light.

"I guess they're expecting a lot from this show."

"I mean, the orcas were here for a while. That's a lot of money they spent keeping them before we got here."

"That's true. Nothing like a little more pressure."

"Aw, you'll be okay. It'll be fine. You've worked with Checkers, all that's left is to just do it. Let's get changed and get a little practice in before."

-

A few minutes later, we were in our new wetsuits and in the pool with the orcas. We went over the plan for our entire show and practiced it. Everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. Checkers didn't do anything I asked him, and I was almost in tears by the time the audience started trickling in. Of course, he did the tricks that my sister asked him to do with Chess.

I hid behind a rock while the seats were filled with people, trying to calm down. "I can't do this."

"You have to. Like I said, we can make it look like part of the show. And if worse comes to worse, I'll tell him what to do and you make it look like you gave him the signal for it." Logan hugged me.

"I'm lucky I have you. Thanks," I hugged her back.

Before I knew it, it was time for the show to begin. We swam out, stood on the platform in front of the audience that was sunken into the water by a few feet, and fixed our microphones.

"Welcome to the orca pool!" I spread my arms out wide and smiled at the applauding people. "We have a wonderful show planned for you today, would you like to see it?"

Logan laughed at the cheers and choruses of "Yes!" and continued the monologue, "Great! Sit back and enjoy the show! Make sure to take lots of pictures!"

We both turned to the back of the pool, where two giant dark shapes raced towards us. Logan signaled the jump and they both did a short, flawless jump. Checkers and Chess turned left when they got to the end of the pool and turned on their sides, waving at the crowd. The cheers were deafening.

Then came the first real trick. Mine. With a deep breath, I pointed to the sky. Checkers lurched straight out of the water and cleared it by a foot with his tail. When he fell back into the water, I looked open-mouthed at Logan. She grinned and put her hands up. "I did nothing! That was all you!" and laughed.

My shock and awe turned into pride, and I reached down to scratch the now waiting Checkers. I gave him a few fish and he swam deeper, waiting for his next signal, just like we had practiced.

Chess jumped flat out over the water, swam down and, almost immediately after, came back up with Checkers. They both jumped into the air twirling. The splash that resulted got the audience wet and they laughed and cheered more.

The rest of the show went off without a hitch. By the end, I was beaming with pride and pleased with how we had done. I was happy that Checkers decided to work with me, at least for the real show. For the finale, we dove into the water and swam to the surface, laying on our backs. Checkers and Chess leaped over us, swam under, and lifted us with their heads a foot out of the water. The crowd screamed. They loved the show.

When we were done and the orcas had gone back to leisurely swimming, Logan pulled me into a fierce hug. "I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed.

"Thank you! I can't believe we did it!"

"I can. I knew you'd figure it out."

"We're nowhere near you and Chess, but maybe we'll work towards it. Someday."

"I bet you will. Come on, follow me." She dove down and I was forced to take a gulp of air and follow her. We swam down to the bottom of the shallow end, only about fifty feet, and stayed at the bottom. Checkers and Chess swam over to us. Checkers bopped his nose on my forehead and opened his mouth, sticking his tongue out to the side. I stroked his nose and swam up.

By the time we got back to our apartment, both Logan and I were exhausted. We had stayed back to talk to some of the audience members and answer questions. When we got inside the door, I collapsed on the floor. "That was so much."

"I know," Logan sighed, sitting down in a chair. "Wanna skip dinner?"

"I'm okay with that."

We went to bed and crashed until late the next morning.