The Albino Ray
It was near the end of the stingray migration for them to return to the Great Barrier Reef, although there was one who never left the reef in the first place. It was a sweet ray by the name of Pearl, but there was one problem with her that made her stand out compared to other rays...she was an albino.
Because of her being an albino, she was rejected as a pup and never joined the migration. Instead she either buried herself in the sand or hid in caves in rocks. She looked up when she heard the others returning, but didn't come out of hiding.
One morning though, she was shortly brushed by a young clown fish, which made her flinch slightly.
The little fish turned around and saw her eyes and screamed lightly
"Oh I'm sorry, did scare you?" Pearl asked "I didn't mean to if I did."
The little fish calmed down and spoke up "Only a little, but now you actually sound sweet."
"I try to be...if I wasn't so shy." Pearl admitted, coming out of the sand, revealing herself completely
The little clown fish saw her and looked amazed "Woah, you look just like Mr. Ray, but white. I think the rest of the class will like you."
"You really think so?" Pearl asked, her light blue eyes widening a little, "Oh, my name is Pearl, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Pearl, I'm Nemo, and I know they're going to love you." Nemo responded and started to swim towards where the rest of his class meets up
Pearl giggles slightly, "Wait for me." she called out and swam quickly after him.
The other students watched in amazement at the first albino stingray they've seen. Most of them said things like "Wow, she's pretty and white." "She's like the sand." "Why haven't we seen her before?"
Pearl giggled again, then explained herself "I'm Pearl, and I'm white like this, because I'm an albino, which means I was born without a certain pigment in my skin, causing me to look the way I do and…."
Pearl soon heard singing and hid in the sand, out of fear of being found.
"Mr. Ray!" The children all exclaimed as he came to land
"Welcome, explorers…" he began to pick of the scent of a second ray, a female one.
"We learned about albinos from someone who looks like you, but she's white!" Jimmy explained
"Her name is Pearl." Nemo added, but looked around, but couldn't see her anymore
"Oh, I feel your friend is here, it's an instinct, much like migration, though I've never heard of an albino stingray." Mr Ray explained, then saw a pair of blue eyes in the sand, "There you are!"
"P-please, don't come any closer." Pearl spoke up, clearly frightened
"Oh come on out, there's nothing to be afraid of." Mr Ray told her, then started to blow the sand away to reveal her, and she really was a white albino
"Except being different." Pearl responded, looking away
"Actually, that's quite fascinating about you. You must be really rare, since I've never seen you during the migration." Mr Ray brought up
Pearl sighed, unhappily "Because I never went out of fear of rejection. It's all I've ever known, even by my own family."
The kids all gasped from that, not thinking that could be possible.
"Well, why don't you hang around with us, Pearl was it?" Mr Ray offered
"Yes, I'm Pearl," she responded "And are you saying you need an assistant or something?"
"Oh, I would love that." Mr Ray told her, now meeting her eyes, gazing right into them "Plus, you'd be a great teacher."
"I might not know the stuff you do, but I hope you have room for a dance teacher though, I'm great at dancing and used to do it a lot as a pup." Pearl explained
"Ah, and I sing. This might work out after all." Mr Ray brought up "It would make the class a lot more fun."
"I say, no time to waste then, let's get to where we need to be and get started." Pearl responded, sounding excited, then whispered to him "Perhaps I can even show you my secret dance moves."
"Sounds interesting, perhaps I'll meet you for that later, as in, a bit of a date." Mr Ray whispered back to her
"Oh, sounds like a plan." she whispered back, then turned back to the kids "Alright, are all of you ready for a fun day today?"
The kids all cheered in excitement then half of them climbed up on Pearl, the rest on Mr Ray and headed to the drop off for a very interesting new style to the class, as well as possibly a new permanent teacher. Mr Ray sure hoped she would. Even though, he just met her, she was already catching his attention, especially as she gracefully swam next to him. He would take it slow with her at first so he wouldn't scare her off, but hoped she'd warm up to him eventually.
To be continued….