It was another beautiful day in Bubbletucky.
Beautiful, but unusual.
It was the second week of warm weather in February. While it was the month when the winter starts to whine down, it felt and looked as if spring had already sprung.
"What is up with this weather?" pondered Mail Carrier Kelly as she drove down her daily route, "It's nice but… it's so weird how long it's stayed like this…not even a flake of snow."
Despite being bewildered, she was glad there wasn't any snow to get in her way. Unlike last year: The snowfall was heavy last winter; it was hard for any driver to get around. The Bubbletucky Post Office was closed for a majority of the week and mail piled up like crazy! The delivery days afterwards were hectic! Not to mention the amount of shoveling she had to do to outside of work to keep her driveway clear. She was aching from head to tail! Kelly shuddered in her seat just thinking about it. Why did something so pretty have to cause so many problems?
The snail glanced at the mail bin beside her and sighed. The weather wasn't the only unusual thing that stayed consistent; Valentine's Day was coming up in a couple of days and the holiday caused her to have more mail to deliver than she normally did. Since late January, most of her deliveries consisted of Valentines, cards, love letters, boxes of candy hearts, cherry-filled chocolates and other delectable goodies. For a mail carrier, this holiday was always the busiest time of year- Next to Christmas, of course.
Something else was unusual: Kelly wasn't looking very forward to the holiday this year. She used to love it as a kid. She used to enjoy passing out Valentines to her classmates with the sugar-free candy her dad bought and adored spending the rest of the day with her family. But as she reached adulthood, she allowed her job and her relationship status to change how she viewed the holiday. Valentine's Day had gradually become rather...boring to her. Platonic was great and all but she wished she had something more romantic to look forward to like everyone else. Or at least what felt like everyone else. The holiday was usually focused on that type of love; the emphasis of romance overpowered most of the things pertaining to the date. Seeing this every year was finally getting to Kelly. She was starting to feel left out now…when would it be her turn to experience this side of the special day?
The snail shook her head. "C'mon, Kelly, focus!" she told herself in her mind, "You have a job to do; you don't have time to be thinking about your love-life…besides, there's nothing wrong with being single-"
She stopped herself when she realized how close she was to a yellow building that resembled a pile of bubbles fused together.
"Oh my goodness, I almost missed my next stop!"
She parked the truck once she was in front of it. She hopped out and went to get something out of the back of the vehicle. The door of the building raised and a large orange fish peeked out. He smiled and swam down to her.
"Good morning, Kelly!" he said in a chipper tone as he approached her.
"Good morning, Harold," Kelly replied as she continued to search, "I have…a package for you. If I can find it…"
"You do? Oh! Yeah! The art supplies! Heh, I almost forgot I ordered that. It got here pretty quick."
"A-ha! Here we go!" Kelly grabbed a medium-sized box and handed it over to the teacher.
"Thank you!"
"No problem, just doing my job!" she shut the back and began to make her way to the drop-off mailbox on the street. Mr. Grouper tried to converse with her on the way.
"The art supplies back at the school was supposed to last 'til the end of the year but the guppies have been so creative that they've been using it up pretty quickly. I figured I should order s'more before we ran out mid-way."
Kelly had already collected the letters inside the mailbox and had now made it to the front side of the mail truck but she turned to face Mr. Grouper as he continued to talk.
"I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that they've been using it up as much as they have; I should have thought ahead, really. I'm glad that my students have active imaginations and that they're putting them to good use. And I'm certainly glad they're not using the supplies to mess up the walls or something bad like that." He laughs at the thought of this. "They would never do that of course; they're good kids."
Kelly chuckled a bit. "Well…I gotta get going. I got a lot of things to deliver due to the holiday coming up."
Mr. Grouper quickly frowned. "Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't mean to keep you from getting your work done…"
"No, no, it's ok," Kelly insisted but with a possibility that she may be a little irritated. She got back into her truck.
"Um…take care! Have a good day!"
"You do the same!"
Mr. Grouper swam back to the school with the supplies. He couldn't get what just happened out of his head: Here was Kelly with all this mail to deliver and he was blabbering on about art supplies. He was just trying to be friendly…they never got to talk much because of their jobs. The longest they had ever spent a day together was when she delivered something for Clam Day. They've been acquainted since the beginning of the school year and he wanted to finally try to get to know her better. Today wasn't a good day to start.
"She probably thinks I'm annoying now." He thought as he made his way to the cubbies. "I should have known she'd be really busy this month…me and my big mouth…" the fish blushed out of embarrassment.
"Hi, Ms. Kelly! Bye, Ms. Kelly!" A voice shouted from outside. A blonde mer-child swam through the doorway, looking and waving behind her. She then looked ahead to see her teacher's back facing her.
"Mornin' Mr. Grouper!" she greeted him cheerfully.
The teacher snapped out of his thoughts and turned around. "Oh! Good morning, Deema!"
The preschooler quickly noticed the red tint in his face. She smirked playfully and raised an eyebrow. "You got a little something on your face." She said pointing at it.
"I do? What is it? Is it food?" his expression suddenly got frantic, "Is it a spider?!"
The red area of his face instantly returned to its natural orangey state. Deema couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. "No, but it's gone now."
"Oh," Mr. Grouper sighed with relief. He then chuckled at himself.
As Deema put her backpack in her cubby, she got curious about the package her teacher held. "What's in the box?" she asked him, trying to get a better look.
He smiled and pulled it away from her. "You'll find out soon," he said and began to swim back to the door to close it. Deema's curiosity increased as she went to go join her class circle.
"What's up, Gups?"
"Hi, Deema!" her five friends greeted her.
"So sorry I'm late, my mom was giving my curls a touch up." She bounced the bottom of her hair with her hand. "What'd I miss?"
"Nothing much," said Gil, a boy mer-child with spiked blue hair. "We were just talking about how it hasn't snowed in a while. Then Mr. Grouper tried to explain to us about something called 'climate' and I sorta stopped listening..." he looked off to the side in guilt.
Deema tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What the hay is a 'climate'? Is that some sorta monkey?"
"Climate is the temperature and rainfall of an area over a long period of time." stated Nonny, another boy mer-child with vibrant orange hair and blues glasses that were shaped like scuba googles.
"Oh, ok, yeah, I'm surprised it stopped snowing already… and speaking of surprises…I think Mr. Grouper has a surprise for us!"
"Really?" asked Molly, a girl mer-child with bright pink hair. "What makes you say that?"
"When I came in, he was holding a box and when I asked about what was inside, he pulled it away from me and was like 'You'll find out soon'." She slipped into her best impression of the fish.
"I wonder what it could be…" a purple pig-tailed mer-child named Oona thought aloud.
Deema looked behind her. "Ooo! Here he comes!" she whispered to her friends.
Mr. Grouper approached the circle with the mysterious box slit opened at the top.
"Hey guys, guess what I just got?"
"Is it candy?!" Deema blurted out immediately.
Mr. Grouper laughed, "Nope."
"Is it a bunch of new toys?" guessed Goby, the third boy mer-child of the group, with short indigo hair.
"Nope."
"Is it an empty box and you're just playing around with us?" said Gil, trying to get somewhere.
Mr. Grouper laughed again, "Noooo, there's definitely something in here."
Molly decided to throw a guess out there. "Um, more books?"
"Oh no, we have plenty of those." Mr. Grouper said as he gazed over to one of the various places the books were kept.
Oona gasped, "Is it a kitty-cat?!" her eyes grew wide with excitement.
The teacher frowned a little. "Uh… no, but you'll like what's in here just as much!"
"Then what is it?" questioned Deema impatiently.
Mr. Grouper finally set the box down on the light indigo rug that was in the center of the circle. "It's a box full of…" he paused to look at the children's eager faces, "...new art supplies!"
The eager looks on their faces intensified.
"Supplies!" Deema exclaimed with glee.
"That was my next guess." Gil claimed.
"What type of art supplies?" asked Goby, his creations already forming in his imaginative mind.
"A whole lot of stuff!" Mr. Grouper began to list the items: "There's crayons, chalk, and markers all with a hundred colors to choose from-"
"Even pink?" asked Oona, who had been using up a good majority of any pink art supplies they had.
Mr. Grouper grinned, "Yes, even pink. There's a bunch of different types of paper to use; construction paper, printing paper, patterned paper, shiny paper, there's glue, glitter… "
"Are there any safety scissors in there?" Deema asked "I'm just wondering since Gil broke all the good pairs."
"It was an accident!" Gil got defensive, "I didn't know all of them were gonna break…"
"You were trying to cut rocks Gil, of course they broke!"
"I wasn't cutting rocks, Deema, I was digging them up with the scissors."
"Then why didn't you use a shovel?!"
"I couldn't find one!"
"Settle down, you two, there are plenty of safety scissors in the box." Mr. Grouper assured. He motioned for all of his students to get up. "C'mon over and take a look inside."
The kids came closer as he lifted the flaps and sure enough, there was everything he listed. They all peered at the colorful utensils in amazement. Oona swam over to her teacher and gave him a big hug.
"Thanks for the new art stuff, Mr. Grouper!"
Her action had slightly caught him off guard. He smiled and embraced her with his fin. "You're welcome, Oona."
"Group hug!" declared Deema, attaching herself to the fish's back. The others followed in suit.
Mr. Grouper felt so loved! He chuckled as he began to glow a lighter shade of orange. "Aww, you're all welcome…" He motioned towards the supplies, "Well, go on; make some art!"
The kids let go and dug into the box, checking out and pulling out this and that. Oona grabbed a box of crayons while Molly marveled the shiny paper, glitter and glue. The boys settled on sharing a box of markers and a pack of construction paper.
Deema inspected a new pair of scissors, studying the funky looking design on the handles. "These are better than the old ones!" she opened and closed them a few times. She then turned around to see where Mr. Grouper had gone.
The fish had swam over to a bookshelf near a window. In his fins, he held opened a thick chapter book with dark colors on its cover. Deema began to think as she watched him scan through the current pages. She then turned her attention to her friends.
"Y'know… Mr. Grouper does a lot of cool things for us."
Gil agreed, "Yeah, he's the best."
"…Since he's always doing cool things for us, I think we should do something cool for him for Valentine's Day!"
"Like what?" Molly asked
Oona, who was already hard at work with a new pink crayon sprang up.
"Ooo! I know! We can make a humongous Valentine's Day card! We can add glitter and stickers,"
"Yeah! And drawings!" Goby joined in.
Deema thought about it, "That's a pretty good idea, Oona… but I feel like we should do something more. Something…specialer."
Molly smiled, "I don't think that's a word, Deema."
"It isn't." Nonny confirmed.
"Well, you know what I mean." said Deema, "While the idea is nice, we should do something more than a card. Where would we find humongous paper, anyway?
"Oh…" Oona noticed the flaw in her plan and lowered her head. She then shrugged it off, "I tried."
"We could just tape the papers we do have together..."Nonny murmured, but no one heard his suggestion.
"What type of stuff grown-ups like to do?" Deema then asked.
"Reading the paper." Goby responded. "Maybe we could make our own for Mr. Grouper, we won't need really big paper, just a lot of normal ones."
"Hmmm, another good idea but I don't think we've hit the right amount of special yet. What else do they like to do?"
"Falling asleep in front of the TV." said Gil.
"That doesn't sound special at ALL!"
The blue-haired boy burst into laughter, "Ha! I know, I just wanted to see what you would say."
Deema smiles and rolled her eyes at this. "Ha, ha, funny boy. Ok, what else do adults like to do that isn't about reading, sleeping or watching TV?"
Oona tried again, "My mom likes getting back rubs from my dad."
Goby's face cringed, "Uh…I don't know about you guys but I'm not rubbing Mr. Grouper's back."
"I wouldn't blame you," said Gil, "that would be way too weird."
"Mmm-hmm." Deema and Molly agreed, Nonny nodded.
"Oh. Yeaaaah…that would be strange if we did that." Said Oona, realizing what she suggested.
They all thought in silence for a while…
Molly then spoke up, "…My parents like to go on dates."
Deema gasped, now this was an idea she could go with! Why didn't she think of it before? She struggled to respond through her excitement. "That! We should totally do that!"
The blonde guppy's outburst confused Oona a little. "We're going on a date with ?!"
"What? NO!" Deema quickly shot the question down and clarified what she meant: "We're gonna get someone to go on a date with him!"
"Oh, ok." said Oona, relieved. "But how are we gonna do that?"
"Yeah, how are we?" Goby wondered the same thing, "There are so many fish-and other folk-in the sea. How are we gonna find the right one to date our teacher?"
Deema got nervous; she didn't want to give up on this idea. It was just the right amount of special; it was perfect! She thought frantically in her mind….
She soon pounded her fist in her palm, her eyes sparkled and a grin spread wide across her face.
She knew just the one.
"Oh my gosh, guys! When I was coming inside the school, Ms. Kelly, the mail carrier, was leaving. And when I said 'good morning' to Mr. Grouper, his face was kinda red. Since he had the box, that means he went to see her before I came to school. Being around Ms. Kelly must have made him blush! I think he likes her! "
"OooOOOooo!" Molly and Oona exclaimed together and giggled.
"Ok, but what does having a red face have to do with liking someone?" Goby questioned.
Deema began to explain: "Well, sometimes people's faces turn red when they see or talk about someone they really really like. My big sister's face turns red when she talks about a boy from her class." she got a little sidetracked and looked away for a moment, "Heh, and she thinks I don't know…" she got back on track, "So… who wants to hook up Mr. Grouper and Ms. Kelly for Valentine's Day?"
Goby decided to go with it, "I do, I can't think of any other ideas."
"I'm in too," said Gil "It's better than doing nothing."
"It is pretty special," said Molly, joining their side.
"It's really special!" added Oona.
"I don't think we should do this." said Nonny, loud enough for his friends to hear this time. "It sounds too intrusive."
"What does that mean?" Oona asked him.
As usual, Nonny answered her. "When you're being intrusive, it means you're somewhere that you don't belong or shouldn't be in. In this case, Mr. Grouper's business. What if he already has something planned for Valentine's Day?"
Deema wanted to say something, but he had a point. She turned around to her teacher. Did she really want to risk ruining the plan? Only if the risk could end up saving it. It was worth a shot. She swam over to the book nook.
"Hi, Mr. Grouper!"
The orange fish lowered his book and gave the blonde mer-child his attention.
"Hello, Deema!"
"I have a question."
"What's that?"
"Do you have anything planned for Valentine's Day?"
"Other than coming to school, no, I don't. Why?"
"I was just wondering!" she flashed a smile.
"Oh, ok then."
Deema swam away and Mr. Grouper went back to his book. She came back to Nonny and presented the direction she came from with her hands.
Nonny stayed persistent. "He could still be married."
Deema swam back over. "Hi, Mr. Grouper!"
"Hello again, Deema."
"Mr. Grouper, are you mare-reed?"
"No…" he sort of sighed, "it's just me-"
A high pitched bark was heard. Mr. Grouper looked down to see Bubble Puppy by his side. He chuckled, "It's just me and Bubble Puppy… for now, I suppose." He raised an eyebrow at his student. "Why?"
"Juuuuust wondering…again!"
The teacher chuckled some more, "Ok then."
Deema swam back to her friends with Bubble Puppy close behind. The orange fish wondered if he should be concerned, but he decided it wasn't something he should be worried about. This was Deema after all, he was convinced she was just fooling around with him.
The girl once again presented with her hands. Nonny still didn't want to give up. "There could be other reasons why his face was red. Maybe he hurt himself or he was embarrassed about something. He also has the ability to change colors…"
Deema just smiled at this. She got closer to Nonny and put her arm around his shoulder.
"Nonny, Nonny, Nonny, Nonny…. Nonny." She shook her head every time she spoke his name, "Don't you want to do something special for Mr. Grouper?"
"Yes."
"Then what's the problem?"
"I told you, I don't want to be intrusive. We should do something else."
"Like what?"
"I…I don't know, just something else."
Deema placed her hands on his shoulders, rocking him a bit. "Come oooon, Nonners…"
The other guppies joined in the begging and pleading, layering over one another:
"Yeah, Nonny, c'mon!"
"Please Nonny?"
"Don't you wanna help us do something special?"
"It's for Mr. Grouper, Nonny… "
"OK!" The mer-child finally shouted, startling his classmates and even himself. Nonny clasped his hands over his mouth. They all looked at their teacher to see if he had heard Nonny's outburst. Mr. Grouper didn't hear a thing; he continued to read on as if nothing happened.
"Wowzers, that must be one good book." Deema remarked.
Nonny sighed, "Ok," he said a lot more calmly and in character, "I'll help with the date…"
The other kids cheered softly.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Oona wondered.
The curly-haired mer-child peered over to Mr. Grouper again to make sure they weren't being watched or listened to. "We still have another day left. I think we should go back to the plan later on. For now, we should do something else. I don't want you-know-who to catch on."