by Scholastic
fishermen’s nets?
“I brought our Dolphin Alert system,” Andrea
suddenly realized. “Maybe we can try it!”
The girls moved quickly. They asked Andrew
to steer the yacht as close to the fishing boats as
possible. Stephanie hooked up the under water
speaker to a music player.
Andrew maneuvered them into a spot between
the dolphin pod and the boats. The dolphins were
Chapter 7:
To the Rescue!
swimming closer and closer to the nets. There
wasn’t a minute to waste!
“Okay, it’s ready,” Stephanie said, and she
dropped the Dolphin Alert speaker into the
water.
“Dolphin Alert, do your thing!” Andrea cried.
The orca whale sounds echoed through the
water. But the dolphins were still swimming
toward the nets. The girls held their breaths.
Would their invention work?
Then, at the last second, the dolphins heard
the warning! They turned around just before they
reached the nets. From the top deck, Olivia had a
clear view of the creatures as they swam away from
the boats.
“It’s working!” Olivia cried. “The dolphins are
changing course!”
The friends let out a cheer. A fisherman on the
nearest boat smiled and waved.
“Good work, girls,” he told them.
The five friends were so happy. Not only
had they seen the dolphins, but they had helped
protect them, too. This was turning out to be an
incredible sightseeing trip!
Now that the dolphins were safe, Andrew
started up the yacht engine again to head home.
The friends chatted about the incredible day
as their yacht pulled away from the fishing boats.
Suddenly, Mia spotted something in the water off
the stern. She walked to the edge, peered down,
and gasped.
“Oh, no. Andrew, stop!” she yelled up to the
top deck.
“What’s going on?” Andrew asked.
“There’s a baby dolphin who got separated
from the group!” Mia called out.
The friends ran over and saw that Mia was
right. Down in the water, a little baby dolphin was
all alone. And he looked frightened.
“We have to help him find his family!” said
Andrea.
Olivia ran to grab a pair of binoculars. “I’ll
look for the pod,” she said, scanning the ocean.
As her friend searched for the group of
dolphins, Emma leaned over the deck and put out
a hand for the baby dolphin. Curious, he swam up
to her.
“Don’t worry, little guy,” she said, gently
patting him on the head. “We’ve got you.”
Finally, Olivia spotted the dolphin pod in the
distance. “There ! Starboard side, Andrew!”
Andrew started to turn the ship to the right.
“Is he following us?” he called down.
“Yes!” Stephanie replied.
But then, she noticed something. The baby
dolphin was following closely—too closely. He
was just feet away from the yacht’s whirling
propeller!
“Stop the engine! The propeller will hurt
him!” Stephanie yelled up.
Andrew stopped the engine. Exasperated, the
girls looked at one another. If they couldn’t pilot
the ship, how would they get the baby dolphin
back to his family?
With a sudden burst of excitement, Andrea
clapped her hands. “I know what to do,” she cried.
With that, Andrea dove into the water! She
quickly swam toward the baby dolphin and held
out a hand to show she was friendly. The dolphin
came closer, and she patted his nose.
Then Andrea swam up to the surface. Her idea
was working—the baby dolphin followed her!
She put her arm around his back and kicked her
feet to direct him toward the pod.
As Andrea and the baby dolphin drew near,
the pod realized it was missing one of their own.
Quickly, they swam back to meet Andrea and the
baby. One dolphin swam ahead of the group, and
the baby chirped happily and swam toward her.
“That must be the baby’s mom,” Mia guessed
from where she and the others were watching
aboard the yacht.
Andrea smiled as the baby nuzzled his mother’s
cheek. Then another dolphin swam up and
stopped next to Andrea. It made a noise, and
Andrea understood. She put her arm around it, and
the dolphin gracefully glided back to the yacht.
Andrea climbed off the dolphin and back on
deck. She was trembling with excitement!
Stephanie kneeled down and patted the
dolphin’s head. The dolphin was making happy
chirping noises.
“I don’t speak dolphin, but I think she’s
thanking us,” she said.
The friends laughed. “That makes me think of
my animals,” Mia said. “I hope they’re okay.”
“Why don’t you call Sasha?” Emma suggested.
“Great idea,” Mia said, taking out her phone.
But her excitement was short lived. “Oh, no.
There’s no signal. I guess we’re too far out at sea.”
“Don’t worry,” Emma said. “I’m sure they’re
fine. We’re heading back now anyway. You can
text her in a little bit.”
Andrew turned the engine back on, and the
yacht slowly drifted away from the dolphin pod.
The girls waved as the dolphins swam away.
“Bye! Don’t lose each other!” Andrea called.
“Be careful!” added Mia.
By this time, the rays of the setting sun were
streaking the sky with orange. Olivia admired the
beautiful sunset from the top deck. She was about
to comment on it to her friends when, without
warning, she heard a loud beep coming from
behind her.
It was Andrew’s navigation system. It beeped
several more times, then the screen went blank.
“Oh, great,” Andrew said with a sigh. “The
GPS is out.”
“Maybe I can help,” Olivia offered.
“It’s linked to that computer,” Andrew said,
pointing to a nearby laptop.
Olivia started typing on the laptop. Ms.
Stevens noticed that the yacht had stopped
moving again and called up to the deck.
“Is there a problem, Andrew?”
“We lost our navigation system, but Olivia’s
trying to fix it,” Andrew replied.
Olivia looked at the screen. She was just typing
in another command when the computer screen
went blank, too! “Uhh, we might want to have a
Plan B,” she said.
“You’re telling me,” Andrew said. “Without
GPS, we have no way of knowing where we are.”
Soon it would be dark. If they couldn’t get the
GPS back up soon, they could be lost all night!
Ms. Stevens stayed calm. “Quite a challenge,”
she said. She turned to Andrea and her friends.
“What do you girls think we should do?”
pointed out.
“We could send a Mayday signal to the Coast
Guard,” Andrea suggested.
Ms. Stevens nodded. “Yes, that’s one solution.”
Stephanie looked thoughtful. “We know we
traveled northeast to get here, right?”
“Yeah,” Andrea agreed.
Chapter 8:
Dancing with
Dolphins
“That means we need to go southwest to get
back to the dock,” Stephanie said.
“We can figure out southwest, like sailors used
to,” Emma said. “ They didn’t have GPS.”
Mia looked out over the ocean. “I know! We
can use the sun as a compass point. It sets in the
west.”
“And it’s starting to set now,” Andrea said,
pointing. The girls got up and walked to the
yacht’s rail. The sun was sinking low on the
horizon.
“If that’s west, then southwest should be that
way,” Mia said, pointing.
Emma looked. “Yeah, out by the dolphins. I
think the dolphins are pointing the way home!”
She was right. In the distance, the dolphin pod
eagerly jumped and splashed in the water, heading
southwest.
“It’s their ocean,” Andrea exclaimed happily.
“They would know!”
Andrew steered the yacht toward the dolphins.
Meanwhile, Olivia had not given up on the GPS.
Adjusting some of the computer’s wires, she
rebooted the system.
“Try the GPS now,” she told Andrew.
He flipped the switch back on . . . and the
screen lit up, showing the direction in which they
were going!
“Southwest!” Olivia said. “We were right!”
Ms. Stevens smiled. “Good work, everyone!”
Now that they were heading back within
cell-phone range, Mia’s smartphone suddenly
beeped. Sasha had sent her a photo of Molly and
the kitten. Both of the pets looked happy as could
be, nuzzling and licking Sasha’s face.
“Look! My little guys are doing great,” Mia said
with a grin.
“I think this calls for celebration music,”
Andrea declared. She plugged her music player
into the yacht’s sound system. A bouncy tune
came from the speakers.
The summer is on, we’re hanging out.
Such a pretty day to take a ride.
We have so much fun, just playing ’round
You always find a way to make me smile.
We’re like the perfect team.
We’re looking out for each other!
Everywhere we go,
We stick together.
Cruising with the girls,
Friends are forever!
Some of the dolphins swam closer. They
slapped their tails on the water to the beat of the
music. The girls danced on the deck, and as they
did, the dolphins began jumping and twirling in
the water, too.
“Look! They want to dance with us!” said
Stephanie.
The friends continued to rock out on the deck
while the dolphins danced in the water. Emma, Mia,
Stephanie, Olivia, and Andreaall smiled.
Today had been the perfect day. They’d been
on a fabulous cruise, they’d seen dolphins, and
they’d even rescued the dolphins from danger.
But best of all, they had done it together. As
the yacht sailed home over the sparkling water, the
friends knew Andrea’s song was right.
Nothing was better than being together!
The LEGO
®
Friends have entered a school science
contest to create an invention that will protect dolphins
in the wild. The prize is five tickets aboard a special
dolphin sight-seeing cruise! Mia, Emma, Olivia, Stephanie,
and Andrea hope their group project will win. Little do
they know, a dolphin family is in danger on the high seas.
And the girls’ invention may just be the only thing that
can come to the rescue!
www.LEGO.com