By Natalie Smith
When Everett came back to the lobby from the aquarium’s bathroom, there were penguins everywhere and in the middle of all the chaos stood Sam proudly with her fists against her waist. Security guards attempted to corral the slippery birds while the front desk workers locked the automatic doors at the entrance. Everett stormed over to Sam, calling out, “Samantha Margaret! What have you done?” Everett knew he shouldn’t have left her alone for this long, but it wasn’t his fault that his lunch has disagreed with him so badly.
She looked up at him with her big, blue eyes, “The penguins wanted to go on a field trip too! They didn’t like being stuck in their room all day like me.” Everett couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of sympathy. But wait! “The reason you’re stuck in your room all the time is because whenever we take you out, you do things like this!”
The overhead speakers boomed above, “Due to a…ummm…technical mishap, the lobby of the aquarium is currently closed to visitors. Please take your time enjoying the exhibits and when you would like to leave, attendants near the end of the tour will lead you to the nearest emergency exit. Thank you for your cooperation.” One of the penguins nudged its beak into Everett’s leg and then waddled off. “Look, that penguin likes you, Mr. Teacher!” Everett resisted facepalming himself as he stared at the excited Sam who was bouncing up and down in her little rainbow sneakers. A security guard in navy blue approached the pair and explained, “Sorry, but for obvious reasons, we’re going to have to ask you to leave the lobby so we can capture the penguins more easily.”
Before Everett could silence her, Sam blurted out, “Nooo! Don’t put them back! They don’t want to! I only let them out a little bit ago!” Everett sighed and glanced over to the guard.
“Excuse me, you did this? H-how did you even let them out?” the guard asked.
“The door with the big red letters wasn’t locked.”
Everett bowed his head down with his eyes scrunched closed, “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left her unattended but I told her to stay where she was while I went to the bathroom.” After more profuse apologizing and the security guard taking down Sam’s name, she was banned from the aquarium and thus escorted out.
Back in the car, Sam asked, “Are you going to tell Mommy?”
Everett pondered for a moment. Her mother would surely be worried and angry with her if he did explain what happened, but as her teacher, he knew that she could only learn so much by being stuck in that room of hers all the time. Sam pleaded, “Please don’t, pretty please with a cherry on top!”
“Okay fine. But if you do something like that again, then I will tell her about this,” Everett conceded.
“Yay!” Sam exclaimed. “Can we go color now?”
Natalie Smith 