Flip's Surprise Talent

by Catherine Hapka

  “I’m glad your pod could come this year,” Splash said. “I bet they’re excited that they finally get to see Show Off Day!”

  “They are,” Pearl said. “They can’t wait to see our performance.”

  Echo reached out and touched Pearl’s fin. “I can’t wait, either.”

  Pearl smiled at her friend. She was glad that Echo and Splash had liked Flip’s idea just as much as she had. The four of them had been practicing almost nonstop ever since. It felt much better being back together working as a group!

  Splash did a flip and nudged them. “Look, my brother’s group is about to start.”

  Pearl nodded and watched as Finny, Shelly, and Mullet formed a line and started to sing. “Wow,” Echo whispered after a moment. “They’re really good!”

  “Yeah,” Flip agreed. “Shelly always comes up with really neat songs.”

  The audience seemed to agree. There were lots of smiles during the performance. When the song ended, the entire cove erupted into a chorus of clicks, whistles, and squeaks of approval.

  “They were really amazing.” Pearl watched the trio swim out of the performance area.

  When they passed, Splash swam up to his brother. “You guys were great!” he said.

  “Thanks,” Finny said. “Good luck when you go. What are you doing, anyway?”

  Splash traded a look with the rest of the group. “Um, it’s sort of a surprise.”

  Mullet smirked. “I’ll be surprised if you babies can get through a whole performance without getting so nervous you quit.”

  “Oh, Mullet,” Shelly said with a laugh. She smiled at Pearl. “Can’t you give us a hint?”

  Splash glanced at the others. “Well … I guess you could say we’re using all our different talents together.”

  Finny looked surprised. “What does that mean? Are you doing a song? Because I’ve heard Splash sing, and, well …”

  “Not just a song,” Echo said with a smile.

  “Wait, I know,” Mullet said. “You’re not trying to do more than one thing in your performance, are you?”

  “Maybe.” Pearl glanced nervously at her friends. “Why?”

  “Because a group tried that last year.” Mullet smirked. “They tried to do flips while they sang.”

  “Oh, I remember that!” Shelly giggled. “They kept getting mixed up and forgetting what they were supposed to do next.”

  “Really?” Pearl glanced at her friends. Splash and Echo looked nervous.

  “I forgot about that,” Splash said. “I remember watching them.”

  Echo nodded. “I felt really sorry for them. They didn’t even finish—they just gave up and swam away after a while.”

  Mullet was smirking harder than ever. “The exit’s that way if you need to do the same thing,” he said, waving a fin toward the break in the coral. Then he flicked his friends with his fluke. “Come on, you guys. I want to find a good spot where we can watch this disaster!”

  “Oh, Mullet, you’re going to make them nervous!” Shelly chided with a giggle. She brushed Pearl’s side. “Break a fin, you guys!”

  The three of them swam away. Pearl felt worried.

  “Do you think Mullet is right?” she asked her friends. “What if it was a mistake to try to do too many things?”

  “I don’t know.” Echo looked anxious. “Maybe we shouldn’t perform at all.”

  Splash did a slow flip. “I don’t want to quit just because of what Mullet said,” he said. “But …”

  “But what?” Flip blew bubbles in Splash’s face. “Forget about Mullet, you guys. Our performance is going to be awesome!”

  “But that other group—” Echo began.

  “That other group wasn’t us,” Flip interrupted. “They probably didn’t practice enough. Or maybe they didn’t work together as well as we do.”

  “We do work together really well,” Pearl murmured, touching Echo’s fin.

  Echo still looked nervous. But she smiled. “We’re compatible.”

  “We’re not just compatible—we’re awesome,” Flip declared. “And we’re going to be awesome today! This is our chance to show off what we’ve learned, remember? All of it!”

  That made Pearl feel much better. “Yeah!” she cheered. “We can do anything if we’re doing it together. We’re going to be great!”

  “Really great!” Echo added.

  “Really, really great!” Splash laughed. “Or at least we’ll have fun, right?”

  They all smiled at one another. Then Old Salty called their names. It was time to perform!

  Pearl still felt a little nervous as she and her friends swam up to take a breath, then took their places in the center of the cove. She wasn’t used to having so many dolphins watching her. But she tried not to think about that. Instead, she focused on her friends.

  “Ready?” she whispered.

  “Ready,” they all whispered back.

  “Let’s go!” Flip added.

  Pearl started to sing. Flip joined in with the harmony. Meanwhile, Echo created a light display, sending pretty sparkles and flashes out in every direction so that the lights seemed to dance along with the music. At the same time, Splash swam in a big circle around them all, doing interesting rolls and flips along the way.

  After a little while, Flip stopped singing, leaving Pearl to continue on her own. She used a little magic energy to make her voice louder so everyone could hear. Swimming over to Echo, Flip touched her fin to join his magic with hers. The two of them summoned a school of beautiful blue tangs, which they directed to swim around Splash, blocking him from view. A moment later, just as Pearl reached an exciting part of her song, Splash suddenly swam up and out, bursting to the surface in a cool spinning flip. The audience gasped with amazement as he landed and the little blue fish spun around him.

  Pearl smiled. So far, the show was going perfectly! Then she remembered what came next and felt nervous again. Could they do it?

  As the blue tangs dispersed, Flip swam over beside Splash. He did a backflip while Splash did a forward flip. Then they switched, and Flip did a forward flip while Splash did a backflip.

  Meanwhile, Echo swam over and lined up next to Pearl. When the boys finished their flips, all four of them came together and started singing, blending their voices into Pearl’s song. Splash looked a little nervous, but he kept his voice steady and didn’t get confused even once! Pearl was happy about that. She’d given him extra help with his singing in yesterday’s practice.

  Still singing together, the whole group swam forward in unison and did a series of flips. The crowd whistled in approval.

  But the performance wasn’t quite over yet. When they stopped flipping, all four friends joined fins to mingle their magic. As Pearl and Flip started the last part of the song, they focused on guiding the blue tangs again, just as they’d practiced. At the same time, Splash was helping Echo create a sparkly rainbow that arced over them all. The audience gasped and burst into applause as the last few notes of the song died away.

  “We did it!” Pearl whispered, rubbing her friends’ fins.

  “We did it.” Echo smiled. “Together!”

  As they swam out of the center, Pearl and her friends were mobbed by their classmates. “That was great, you guys!” Harmony exclaimed.

  “Yeah,” Wiggle added. “How’d you ever think of such a cool performance?”

  Pearl traded a look with her friends. “It was Flip’s idea,” Pearl said.

  “But we did it together,” Flip added.

  Bay swam over. “Wonderful job, all of you,” the teacher said. “I’m proud to have such creative students. Especially ones who realize how all of our dolphin skills are meant to work together in harmony.”

  “Thanks, Bay,” Echo said.

  Just then Pearl’s pod swam toward them. “Pearl, that was wonderful!” her mother exclaimed, rubbing her snout against Pearl’s. “You and your friends really are learning a lot in school!”

  “Yeah, you were the best of an
yone, Pearlie!” Squeak cried, spinning around and around in excitement. “Can you guys teach me how to make those sparkles? And do those cool flips? And sing like that, too?”

  Echo laughed. “You’ll learn how to do all this stuff when you go to school, Squeak,” she promised.

  Squeak blew out a frustrated stream of bubbles. “But I don’t want to wait that long!”

  Everyone laughed—even Squeak. Pearl’s father rubbed Pearl’s fin.

  “We’re proud of you, Pearl,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Pearl said. “But I couldn’t have done it without my friends, especially Flip.”

  Flip looked surprised. “Really?”

  “Really!” Echo said with a laugh. “It was all your idea, remember?”

  Splash nodded. “You’re always telling us how great you are at everything,” he told Flip. “I guess you were right!”

  “And you’re especially good at getting us to work together,” Pearl added.

  “I guess I am good at all that stuff.” Flip looked pleased. “It’s a good thing my friends are good at everything, too!”

  Pearl smiled, feeling so happy she could burst. Show Off Day was even more fun than she’d imagined. But the best part was how it had showed her that Shelly was right. Pearl and her friends worked best when they worked together.

  “We’re compatible,” she whispered.

  Flip glanced over. “What was that, Pearl?”

  Pearl smiled at him. “I’ll tell you later,” she said. “Come on, let’s go watch the rest of the Show Off Day performances together!”

  The cub blinked nervously at the crowd. He opened his mouth to reveal a row of white baby teeth and gave a squeaky growl. His little paws trembled and he looked very weak and frightened.

  “Stand back, please!” Mr. Pinch announced as the visitors pushed forward to get a better look. “Make way for the vet.”

  Zoe’s mom knelt down slowly next to the cub. “There, there, little one. I’m not going to hurt you,” she soothed as she examined the lion’s eyes, ears, teeth, tummy, and paws. The cub shrank away, snarling as fiercely as he could. Zoe’s mom looked up. “You found him just in time, Uncle Horace. It looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks.”

  Zoe and Meep shared a worried look. The cub seemed confused and very scared. He kept turning his head from side to side, as if he was looking for someone in the crowd. Zoe desperately wanted to explain that everyone at the Rescue Zoo was really kind and wanted to help him. But she couldn’t talk to him in front of the crowd — she had to keep the animals’ secret.

  Zoe felt a gentle tug on her hair, and realized it was Kiki trying to get her attention.

  Great-Uncle Horace was standing next to her. Leaning closer, he whispered, “My dear, this little chap needs help. Will you promise to look after him for me?”

  Zoe stared at her great-uncle and then nodded. “I promise. I’ll try my very best to help the cub.”

  CATHERINE HAPKA has written many books for children and young adults. She lives in Pennsylvania and enjoys reading, horseback riding, music, gardening, and travel. She also likes going to the beach and looking for dolphins, magical or otherwise.

  #1: Pearl’s Ocean Magic

  #2: Echo’s Lucky Charm

  #3: Splash’s Secret Friend

  #4: Flip’s Surprise Talent

  Text copyright © 2015 by Catherine Hapka

  Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First printing, September 2015

  Cover art © Hollie Hibbert

  Cover design by Jennifer Rinaldi Windau

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-94087-0

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