• I floated lazily through the water, flapping my fins to keep good speed. My boyfriend, Sam, zoomed ahead of me, disrupting the peacful water and making me spiral. "Sam!" I hissed. "Stop it! You and your friends,"- I gestured to his juvinile delinquent friends with my tail- "Are going to attract a predator!" Sam laughed, swishing his fins around to push water at me. I sped at him and crashed into him. Sam's friend, Kyle, flapped out of the way just in time for me to miss him by a centimeter. Sam and I landed in the sand with a thump, sending pebbles and stones spiraling into the water. Sam shoved me off of him. "Max! What was that for?" He coughed. His friend, Max, said, "What did I do?!" "Oh not you, you dumb ray," I snapped. "Me!" Max gave me a sting with his tail, and I yelped. I gave him a What The Crap?! expression and turned back to Sam. "What do you mean? It was for A) Making me spiral by zooming by me, and B) Pushing water at me. You know how sensitive my gills are!" I exclaimed. "Max, I'm just having a little fun! So is Kyle, Wyatt, Mitchell and Max! We're juviniles, for stinging out loud! What did you expect?!" Sam choked in surprise. He was shocked I didn't know that. Gianni, Sierra and Andrea spiraled up to us. "Wassup?" Gianni asked.
    Let me introduce me and my pod of Sting Rays:
    Me(Max, I'm a girl), an almost black Sting Ray, logical and intelligent.
    Gianni, almost black, likes to laugh.
    Andrea, charcoal gray, likes to goof off.
    Sierra, pale gray, likes to make jokes and be funny.
    Sam, my boyfriend, charcoal gray, likes to show off.
    Kyle, Sam's BFF, gray, likes to follow Sam.
    Wyatt, Sam's and Kyle's BFF, pale gray, likes to follow Sam.
    Max, Sam and Kyle and Wyatt's BFF, dark gray, follows the crowd.
    Mitchell, almost black, everyone's friend(except mine!), follows the crowd.
    Lexi, tan and black leopard shark, a BFF to all of us rays, logical and smart.
    Krysta, my mother, almost black, very smart.
    "Oh nothing," Sam said. "Just Max being all protective about the supposed 'predators'" Sierra turned to me. "You know there ain't any sharks around here, except for Lexi, but she's a friend," she said, for once not trying to be funny. "I know there isn't any sharks, but still," I said. "What if a pod of rival Sting Rays found us and mauled us?" Max agreed. "Oh, Max! You always play the 'What If' game!" Sierra pointed out to Max. He was quiet. "Yeah, Max. I'm not trying to gang up on you or anything, but if you expect the worst, you usually get it. When you expect nothing, you leave the water open to decide for you; and, odds are, you'll get something way better," I said. "But, still, that's not really fair," Max said quietly. I sighed. "Max, life isn't fair. You just have to deal with the stings, go with the flow, and keep moving forward," I said, getting ready for my big speech. "I know our life hasn't been that great lately. We've had little food, murky waters, little sunlight, and our homes are being destroyed my those huge things that the No Gills have built. What were they again? Pinwheels? No, ocean gene... genraraptor... no... gener... ators?Generators? Yeah that's it, ocean generators. Anyway they build more and more of them in the water, when they have plenty of land and room up above the surface. It's also been making changes to our water, and us Sting Rays get the worst of it, because we stay so close to the shore, where they build the big ocean generators, and we're very climate sensitive. I know, I know, it sucks shark eggs, but we're just gonna have to deal with it. A No Gills is bound to find us and stop building the ocean generators soon. Until then, we'll just have to look for a better place to live." Everyone was-- for once!-- silent. I turned around and floated back home, gliding on currents.
    I dipped behind the outcropping that was my home. "Mom? I home!" I said, singing operatically on 'home'. "In my room hon, be right out!" My mother called. "Okay! I'll be out on the roof, see if I can catch a few rays! Get it? Ha!" I said. I headed out on top of the outcropping and layed down in a shaft of sunlight.
    My house is awesome. It is a rocky outcropping with a smooth pebbly floor. Seaweed had grown in circles, and soft spiraling seaweed had grown off to the side of the circles. There were three 'bedrooms' in my house. Mine, my mom's, and a guest room. In my room, I had dark colored pebbles, and dark spiraling seaweed.
    My mother came out on top and flattened out. "Wow, there's actually sunlight!" My mom said. "Yeah, mark it on the calendar!" I chuckled. My mom put on a poker face and said, "We don't have one, I need to buy a new one." I closed my lips, but I couldn't hold it in, and niether could my mom. We burst into howling laughter.
    To be continued....................................................................................................