I sighed in the darkness of the small, wooden crate. A sudden jerk from the truck made me bang my head on the side of the crate. I groaned in annoyance, but remembered my promise and sighed again. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea, but I knew I had to, and I wasn't backing out now.

It had been 'The Day'. My goodbye party had looked more like a funeral in my old home, the otter habitat in the California Aquarium. My wooden crate had been waiting for me at the side of the habitat, and I had been staring into it.

"Are you sure?" My mother, Helen, who was standing right beside me, had sniffed. "You know you don't have to. Me or one of the other otters could always pretend to be you, and go in the crate instead !"

"I'm sure." I had said firmly. "Anyways, it's not like you could go in instead of me. You have all the pups to take care of!"

Helen had then turned around and looked in my eyes that could turn into green or brown at the right moments. "Okay. Then promise me that you will take care of yourself–"

"I promise!" I had immediately replied. "Besides, Dad will be there! With him around, I might not be so clumsy all the time!" We both laughed. It was true. I was very accident-prone.

"And," My mother went on. "I want you to have the best, most funnest experience of your life!"

"No problem," I had replied, eyes shining.

And then, with one final goodbye to all the other sad otters, I had stepped (more like stumbled) in the crate, and left sunny California behind for New York City.

I started crying from homesickness again. It was unfair. The zoo peeps of the world thought that there were too many otters in the California aquarium, so they had decided to transfer a few out of there to other zoos. Some of my cousins had already been transferred elsewhere, but I was the only one who was moving to New York–the farthest from home sweet home.

Suddenly, the truck lurched to a stop. This was the hardest jerk, and it made my crate fly forward and bang against the truck wall, my luggage tumbling all around and even on top of me. I winced and gasped in pain. Wondering how many bruises I had received, I glanced down. One here, another here, ow that place hurt too…this had to be the worst transportation vehicle I had ever been on. I would sue if I were a human. But since I wasn't, maybe I would just settle for a lash out at the truck driver once he opened my crate.

I heard some human voices outside yelling and giving orders to each other. Soon my crate was being lifted. Finally. I got up in a crouching position, tensed and readied myself to attack my careless driver. My box was put down on something, and I heard what I thought were crowbars yanking at the side of my crate. Here we go…

A side of my crate burst open, and I immediately sprang out under the dark gray sky, eager for some human skin to latch onto.

But there was nothing.

Instead, I dropped through the air and splashed in…water? Shocked, surprised and totally immersed, I thrashed about till I reached the surface and gasped for air, completely drenched. I shrieked in a totally non-otter way and jumped out onto a soft carpet of grass. Oh it was on!

But as I looked around, I couldn't spot any humans to attack. Instead, I just saw the pond I had fell in, my crate, nice grass stretching out in all directions, a stone slide, bushes, the entrance to a cave, and brick walls towering over at the side of the habitat. MY DAD'S habitat? This place looked awesome! Bright and colorful and everything!

I walked about, until all thoughts of revenge on humans and being drenched were totally forgotten (I was never one to hold a grudge, anyways).

"Marlene?"

I gasped and spun around to a dark-brown otter. "Hey, Dad!" I greeted Robert, running over (and stumbling a bit) to hug him at the entrance of the cave.

After a quick embrace, he stepped back to glance at me. "Whoa, you sure have gotten bigger! Not to mention more beautiful." He remarked.

I blushed. "It's been a while."

"It sure has! The last time I saw you, I was getting ready to transfer to this old place! Three years can sure change people you know," he replied.

"I brought some stuff."

"Great! Let's go get them."

With that, we went back to my crate and peeked in. I had brought my Spanish guitar (I love Spanish guitars!), a sack of oysters (a good-bye present from Helen), an art kit (I love art!), and a first-aid kit (for obvious reasons).

My dad helped me bring it all into the cave, which I would now share with him. We put it all in one organized pile, talking all the way, and me almost dropping my guitar before he reached out to help me with it.

Then Robert decided to give me a tour of the zoo, but after looking at the gray sky that had grown darker, he decided against it. "It's always been raining or cloudy like this for a long while," he said sadly. "How about I give you the tour tomorrow, okay, honey? It's definitely going to rain. Hard."

I agreed, and went to sleep that night on my new concrete bed. Somehow knowing that this new twist in my life was going to be awesome and terrible at the same time, with many exciting adventures waiting for me... raining or not.