"Guppies, guppies! Where are my little guppies?"
The six girls padded out of the locker room and stood in line in front of
Triton. Triton was a big chested, muscley man with long white hair and a white
beard. He had sun tanned skin and deep blue eyes.
"We're all here, daddy," Aquata chimed.
Her younger sister, Andrina, nudged her in the ribs, "No we're not. We're
missing- One guess who."
Triton picked up his clipboard, he was the father of those seven girls, but he
was also their swim coach. All of his daughters were excellent swimmers.
"Role call," he said and looked down to his clipboard.
In age order the girls all replied:
"Aquata."
"Andrina."
"Arista."
"Attina."
"Adella."
"Alana."
Triton nodded and checked off things on his clipboard. He paused and waited but
didn't hear what he wanted to. He looked up and searched the line of his
daughters.
"Where is Ariel?" He asks. No one responds, they all look down to their feet.
"Ariel?!" Triton booms.
The girls flinch back but don't say anything.
"Arista, where is your sister?"
"I don't know, daddy."
"Sebastian!" Triton's voice thundered down the shell and seaglass covered hall.
"Sir?" Sebastian, Triton's red haired, twenty-nine year old, assistant trainer,
came rushing out of the office. He stood at Triton's side, wearing his usual red
polo, red and white swim trunks and flip flops.
"Ariel is missing," Triton says.
"Missing?!? But we have a meet to go to!"
"Exactly," Triton sighs and runs a hand over his weathered face, "Girls, to the
Dolphin."
The Dolphin was Triton's boat and how the girls got to all of their meets.
Ariel poked her head around the rotted wood post of the Crow's Nest- it was a
part of a broken ship that had gotten stuck in the sand. And not far from the
Crow's Nest was the rest of the ship. The whole side had been torn away and had
become the popular place to hang out.
Ariel's big red bangs fell into her eyes for then tenth time in the last five
minutes.
"Isn't it wonderful?" She sighs wistfully.
"Yeah, real swell," her friend grumbles as he comes up behind her, "Ariel, let's
just go back home."
Ariel turns around to look at her best friend; he was wearing a bright yellow
sleeved shirt, jeans, a shell necklace, and had blonde hair with blue streaks.
Originally, his hair was supposed to be black but they dye streaked and turned
