The Tale of Carrot

Chapter 2

A few days later, Dara had to go to school. It was show and tell day at Parkland Elementary School in her class and Dara wanted to brag about her new fish.

Parkland Elementary School sat right beside Como Lake, a 1 kilometre perimeter lake, perfect for fishing or running.

Dara's class was in session and they started show and tell first thing in the morning. The students all gathered in a circle seated on a carpet. Well, more like an oval. Dara was holding her bag of goldfish in her arms and fellow classmates eyed the fish curiously. Everybody was busy chatting away until their teacher spoke up.

"Alright students. Who wants to go first?" Their teacher, Mrs. Mikaelson asked.

Everybody put their hand up immediately except one person. Mrs. Mikaelson scanned through all the raised hands.

"Dayna, why don't you go first?"

"Fine..." Dayna reluctantly stood up with her object in hand. She faced her classmates and talked about her item, which she held out in her hands. "It's a pencil box that I got from Staples. Inside it, it's filled with many pens, pencils and sentimental objects. If anybody touches it without permission, I'll tear out their liver and destroy things they care about."

Everybody widened their eyes in surprise with mouths gaped open in disbelief. Mrs. Mikaelson looked horrified.

"Okay, that's enough time for you. Let's give everybody else a turn. We'll be right back, children," Mrs. Mikaelson pulled Dayna out of the circle to have a chat about threatening fellow peers. "I told you not to threaten your classmates again!" she scolded not so quietly. Mrs. Mikaelson and Dayna stepped out of the classroom quickly.

During that entire fiasco, Dara wasn't paying attention at all to Dayna. She was busy admiring her fish. Carrot and others were still cooped up in the tiny bag, but Dara's mom changed the water so it was cleaner than before. The top of the bag wasn't tied, so one small fall and Dara's fish would go bye bye.

"Pretty fishies." Dara murmured to herself.

Dayna and Mrs. Mikaelson came back into the classroom to resume show and tell.

"Who wants to go next?" Mrs. Mikaelson quipped as if nothing happened moments ago.

Again, everybody raised their hands.

"Dara, I believe you have something interesting to share with us. Please tell us all about what you brought."

Dara stood up and pumped her fists in excitement. She turned to her classmates with a smile on her face.

"These are my new fish! I just got them a few days ago and they're my best friends. They're the most important things in my life so far. This one is named Carrot." She pointed to the baby fish. Some of the students snickered at her name choice. She pointed to another goldfish. The goldfish was carrying little fish eggs. "I named this one Meanie, because she's a mama and my Mommy is a meanie beanie."

Mrs. Mikaelson facepalmed herself while the class snickered.

"I named another one Name, because I can't think of any other names," Dara continued to speak. "The other two just don't have names."

"Thank you for sharing with us today, Dara." Mrs. Mikaelson said. Dara nodded and sat down on the carpet.

The rest of show and tell went by in a blur. Things shown by peers varied from books to injuries to electronics. Nobody was really paying attention to the last presenter and the presenter looked crestfallen. Mrs. Mikaelson returned to her desk to do some marking, while she let the students socialize.

Dayna got up and went to the washroom, leaving her pencil box lying on the ground. Dara approached it curiously and itching to see what was underneath it. She was about to open it up when one of her classmates noticed her and widened their eyes.

"Honey, you shan't open the pencil box, girl. Dayna's gonna kill you."

"I don't care, I want to see what's inside!" Dara protested.

The girl put up her hands in surrender and shook her head. "I'm just warnin' ya. Don't come complaining to me when she kills you."

Dara shrugged her off and opened the pencil box. Inside were indeed pencils and pens, but there was something else. Dara picked them up gingerly and studied them. She tapped impatiently on the shoulder of the girl who warned her.

"Look!"

The girl whipped her head around and looked at what Dara was holding in her hands.

"Pokémon cards?" She inquired. "That's the thing that has sentimental value to her?"

"She's a secret geek! Everybody look!" Dara held out the Pokémon cards.

Everybody gasped in surprise and started murmuring to each other. Dara smiled in glee. Dayna's secret was out.

Dayna suddenly burst through the closed classroom door. Everybody stared at her.

"What?" She snapped. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

Everybody pointed at Dara accusingly. Dara was still holding the Pokémon cards in her hands with Dayna's pencil box opened in front of her.

Dayna's eyes seethed with rage and her nostrils flared. Dara swore she could see smoke coming out of her ears and her face was turning red. She could just imagine her with horns, a pointed tail and trident.

"I told everybody to not touch my pencil box!" Dayna fumed.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know-" Dara exclaimed in a panic.

"Sure you didn't." Dayna rolled her eyes. She was looking at Dara's bag of fish sitting on the floor. She stomped over to the fish and picked them up.

"Don't you dare hurt my babies," Dara sniffed. She ran to Dayna and tried to pry the bag of fish out of her hands.

Dayna stood on her tippy-toes and held the fish high in the air, out of Dara's reach. She shuffled over to the open window with Como Lake in site.

"NO!" Dara screamed as Dayna carelessly threw the bag of fish out the window and into the lake. Dara tried to grab the fish before they plummeted into the water, but it was already too late.

"That's what you get for touching my pencil box." Dayna sneered.

Dara burst into tears and ran out of the class into the washroom.

All of the other students didn't interfere and just stood back and watched the entire incident. The girl from before who warned Dara muttered an "I told you so" to herself.

Mrs. Mikaelson came out of her little office in the corner which was isolated from the rest of the class. She looked at the scene in front of her quizzically.

"What'd I miss?"

As that happened, Carrot and others were still safely in the bag as they were chucked out of Parkland's widow. When the bag splashed into the water, a wave of water shot into the bag and all the fish traveled up, swimming against the current. The fish broke free from the bag and were swimming in freedom in the lake water. All the fish stayed in their little group and swam through the waters near a fishing dock.

"Free at last!" Carrot squeaked out.

~-~End of chapter two~-~

A/N: That folks, is the end of Dara's story. Maybe in the epilogue, I can make her die. If I write an epilogue, that is. Please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes; I'll fix them when I finish this story. Maybe. I'm gonna eat pizza now.