(See previous chapters for disclaimer)
Yay! Here's one of my favorite chapters, and one of the longest! You can go ahead and say how horrible Lash is in this chapter, but he's an interesting character to write about, and I enjoy his complexity. Once again, I most likely have factual errors…they wouldn't be able to paint underwater… but I don't really care.
Thank you so much, everyone who reviewed! Yeah, I know this fic defies the laws of nature…but I had to think of something… and for those of you who don't remember, I did mention the Moorish idol war in Chapter 10 of Finding Home, but it's okay if you don't remember it. That was a long time ago… So without further ado…here's chapter 3!
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Chapter 3: Lash Goes to School
The next day, after Goldie and Lash's arrival, Gill opened his eyes and glanced around the surrounding area. The world still looked the same. Had yesterday really happened at all? Gill shook himself. He had just been having another one of those incredibly realistic dreams again, that was it. How could he believe that such a thing had actually happened? He couldn't have found that he had a long-lost sister and nephew here in Eco Valley. No, it wasn't possible. Gill had had dreams about his siblings before, but they were always more like nightmares than dreams. Gill closed his eyes again. Goldie sure was a good figment of his imagination. Maybe if he went back to sleep, he'd have the same dream.
"Heeeeeey! Get uuuuuppp!" a little voice yelled from the cavern's mouth.
Gill's eyes popped open again. Floating just in front of the entrance were two fish with long dorsal fins and black and white streaks with yellow tinge. So, he hadn't been dreaming! Gill quickly pushed up into the water above him and felt ashamed for thinking that Goldie and Lash hadn't been real.
"Gill!" Goldie called. "I need to talk to you!"
At last, Gill emerged from the blackness of his cavern, blinking in the morning light penetrating the top of the sea. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you at this hour," he tried to explain.
Goldie smiled, though. "I was very surprised, and I wanted to find out straight from you. A few local fish I spoke with said that you're an English teacher at the local Eco Valley School. Is that true?"
Gill smiled back at her. "Yes, I am. I was the only one of us that learned how to read and write human language, remember?"
Goldie shrugged. "I just remembered that you were the one that did well in school and was picked on constantly."
Gill shrugged. "Well, I can't say anything because I don't remember you at all."
"Anyway," Goldie began. "I wanted to know if you'd enroll Lash when you go to the school today."
"What?" Lash cried. "School? No! I don't want to go! Don't make me!"
"Lash, come on, honey. You went to school before. It wasn't that bad, was it? Besides, Uncle Gill will be your teacher, and you won't have to deal with some stranger who…"
"What are you talking about?" Lash cried. "He is a stranger!"
Gill couldn't argue that point. There was one thing he'd learned about Lash from the moment he met him- he was very blunt.
"I'm not going!" Lash cried, turning away and crossing his fins.
"You'll…you'll have to excuse his behavior. I've been trying to get help for him, but…well, he's a handful." Lash glared back at his mother.
"It's okay," Gill told her. "I think I can handle him." He dragged the resistant little Moorish idol out toward the direction of Nemo's anemone. He figured that once Lash was around kids his own age, he'd be better. The two strangers and family members floated just outside the rocking pink tendrils of the anemone. Inside, Marlin was busy getting Nemo ready, while Dory waited on the other side.
Gill turned, opening his mouth to try to make casual conversation with Lash, but Lash made it clear that he wanted to be left alone. He crossed his little black fins and turned his tail to his uncle, huffily. At last, Gill began to see orange shapes pushing their way through the tendril forest.
"Hi, Uncle Gill!" Nemo cried. "You're going to teach us today, right?"
Gill smiled. "Of course, every Friday, remember? Anyway, I've got someone here who I'd like you to meet." He glanced back and was relieved to find Lash facing his direction again. "Marlin, Nemo, this is my nephew, Lash."
Marlin was a bit taken aback. He hadn't known that Gill even had any family, but he thought everyone must have family somewhere. The worried father was still a bit apprehensive. He didn't mind Gill being so close to them, but bringing other fish into Nemo's life seemed a little too much.
"Oh, hi, Lash!" Nemo called, trying to be friendly. "Is he going to be going to school with me, Uncle Gill?"
"Wait a minute!" Lash cried, gliding up between Gill and Nemo. "First of all, my name's Whiplash! I hate being called Lash; it's a girl's name. Second, who gave you permission to call him uncle?"
"But I've called him Uncle Gill since he got here. See, we met a year ago in a fish tank, and Dory's my adopted aunt, so we just kind of adopted him into our family…"
"He's only your adopted uncle," Lash retaliated.
"It doesn't matter; I can still call him uncle if I want!" Nemo argued.
"But he's my real uncle!" Lash cried. "So you can't call him uncle anymore. He's not your uncle; he's my uncle!"
At last, Gill grabbed Lash's tail and pulled him back beside him. "Alright Lash, that's enough. Nemo can call me whatever he wants to call me."
At that precise moment, a familiar, lighthearted voice rang through the water. "Good morning, Marvin! Good morning, Bozo! Good morning, Uncle Roadkill!"
Gill sighed. "Even Uncle Roadkill."
Dory twirled up, in a good mood, as always. "Hello, everyone!" she called. "You all ready for school? Wait a minute…something's different here…" Dory stopped in the middle of the water and counted everyone. "One…two…three…four…hmm, one, two, three, four…she looked over at Lash in the corner. "Well, hello there!" she called. "Who's this little guy?" Lash glared daggers at her.
"This is my nephew, Lash," Gill explained. "He just got here yesterday, along with his mother."
"Welcome to the valley, Lash," Dory said, trying to be friendly again. You look a lot like your uncle."
"Whiplash," Lash replied.
"Huh?" said Dory. "Was that code? Sorry, I don't speak code, just whale."
"Whiplash!" Lash cried. "Call me Whiplash!"
"Whiplash?" Dory repeated. "Okay, I'll call you that from now on." With that, the group of five began to swim off towards the pickup clearing.
"You're going to like school, um…Whiplash," Nemo said, still unhindered by the young Moorish idol's rude comments. "I'll introduce you to all my friends, okay?" Lash didn't respond, and just stared up at the water, into the distance.
Gill glanced back at them and took a deep breath. Something felt very bad about this. He could just imagine all the disasters that would happen because of Lash's presence. At last, they reached the center of the pickup clearing and Gill began greeting all of the students as they arrived for their English class. Afterwards, he quickly spoke to Mr. Ray and had Lash enrolled.
"Good morning, class," Gill addressed the group of students gathered in front of him. "Today we have a new student. Everyone, please welcome my nephew, Lash."
"How many times do I have to tell you- it's Whiplash!" Lash yelled.
Gill was getting frustrated with this defiant nephew, but he tried his best to hold it in. "…Whiplash."
Later, Lash basically stared at the plants all day, since everyone else was so ahead of him. He tried to listen at first, but then he just grew aggravated and gave up.
Recess came right after a spelling quiz, and Gill was glad to unwind and correct quizzes for a half an hour. Looking after 24 young fish was extremely tiring, and especially with Lash. He made about three normal kids. Gill floated up behind his desk, pulled out a seaweed quill dipped in octopi ink and began grading the stack of papers.
Meanwhile, out in the middle of the clearing, the 24 young fish were separating into their little cliques. There were the two crabs- Psychedelic and Hawaiian Plus, the bullies- Honey Nut and Bobo, picking on a small crab named Noodle, the Mawspot Septuplets, three guys- Kiwi, Bandit, and Banana Split, girls- Molly Polly, Violet Nectar, and Freckles, and finally Nemo's group.
"Over here, Whiplash!" Nemo called to the cross little Moorish idol. Not knowing where else to go, Lash paddled over beside them, although he would have rather not seen Nemo again. "These are my friends, Tad, Pearl, and Sheldon."
"Hi, Whiplash," the butterfly fish, octopus, and seahorse said.
Lash just gave them a slight, grunted "hello."
"So what are we going to do today?" Tad asked. "Tag?"
"Nah, we did that yesterday," Sheldon argued. "What do you want to do, Whiplash?"
"Go home."
The three friends stared at each other in confusion. Was he actually really suggesting that they go home right now? "Um…well, we can't do that just yet," Nemo spoke up. "But we need to find some way to spend the time while we wait. How about Mother May I? That's a fun game. Have you ever played that, Whiplash?" There was no response from the grumpy Moorish idol.
"What about Red Fish, Green Fish?" Dead silence filled the area.
"Well, I like Red Fish, Green Fish," Pearl began. "I think we should play that."
"Or!" Sheldon suddenly proposed. "We could go exploring!"
That seemed to perk Lash up a bit. "Exploring? Where would we go?"
"Oh, just around the area a little bit," Sheldon said. "Just try to find something interesting."
"You guys," Nemo spoke up. "You know we're not supposed to wander away from the clearing. Uncle Gill would be mad…"
Suddenly, Lash smiled, for the first time Nemo had ever seen. "Aw, come on, Nemo, don't be such a party pooper. And he's my uncle!"
"Well, Nemo's right," Pearl admitted. "I don't want to get in trouble."
"Trouble, schrubble. Who cares about getting in trouble," Lash said. "Life is more than school. There are more important things than obeying all the rules, right Sheldon?"
Sheldon was a little nervous about the rebellious spirit of his classmate, but nodded, approvingly. "Yes, he's right! Why should we have to obey the rules all the time? C'mon, let's go exploring!"
"Sheldon!" Tad cried. "I still think this is a bad idea."
"I'm not going," Nemo announced.
"Me neither," Pearl decided.
"What, are you too afraid you'll get caught?" Lash challenged. "If you're brave, then you'll come with us!"
"We're not falling for that," Nemo called. "We won't go, and that's the end of it."
Lash glared at them. "If you don't come with us, I'll tell everyone else that you're big fat chickens and you're all goody-goody fun spoilers, and you'll have no friends at all."
Slowly, Tad swam out to join Sheldon and Lash. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to risk that," he said.
Nemo crossed his fins. "I won't be threatened into doing something bad. I'm staying right here."
Pearl nervously glanced over at him. Then, she swam up to join the others. "I'm going. Sorry, Nemo."
"Pearl!" Nemo cried. He sighed. "Oh, alright, but we better not got caught."
The five friends looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Then, they all slipped past the coral and seaweed into the reef world beyond. Lash and Sheldon led the way.
"Wow," Lash commented as they swam along. "It's actually pretty nice here. See what they're hiding from us? We shouldn't have to miss all this!"
Bright, multicolored fish swam overhead. A few of them glanced down, wondering what these youngsters were doing out of school, but they mostly paid no attention to the rebel group of students. Nemo had to agree, this reef section was beautiful, but he could just see it some other time when they weren't in school.
"This is really nice," he said from the back. "But couldn't we come see this some other day, like, when we're not in school?"
Lash shook his head from the front. "No. You see, my mom and I move around a lot. I don't stay in the same place for long, so I want to see all that I can whenever I have time."
Nemo clenched in his fins in aggravation. Already he resented Lash and hoped that he'd never have to see him again. Lash may have looked like a miniature version of Gill, but he was nothing at all like him.
At last, Sheldon stopped short. "Uh, I think we should start heading back now, before recess is over. We're not really allowed to go any farther than this."
"Why, what's over there that you're so afraid of?" Lash asked, swimming a bit farther. "Scaredy-catfish."
"No, really, we shouldn't go in there; it's dangerous," Sheldon tried to persuade him. "That's where the spotted groupers live!" Tad and Pearl murmured to each other in fear.
Lash put on his most disgusted look. "Aw, come on. You guys are scared of a buncha spotted groupers?"
Now even the bold Sheldon was beginning to turn on their foolish expedition leader. "Um…yeah. They're carnivores! They could eat all of us! This is the barrier that keeps them from entering Eco Valley and killing everyone! Do you have a death wish?"
"Yeah," Nemo added. "C'mon, let's all get back to the clearing." He turned his orange tail and began to paddle away, followed by Pearl, Sheldon, and Tad.
"Fine then," Lash's defiant voice shot out. "I'm going in. I'm not afraid of anything!" He turned his little tail and plunged into the dangerous beyond.
Nemo whipped around. "Whiplash!" There was no response. "Whiplash?! …Oh no, Uncle Gill isn't going to like this…"
Sheldon shook his little seahorse head. "Just let him stay there. He's the one that got us into this whole mess."
"No," Nemo disagreed. "No matter how much of a pain in the tail fin Whiplash is, we've got to save him from being eaten!"
Tad nodded. "He's wrong, we can be brave- when we need to be!" The four school friends sucked in a big gulp of the water around them, gathering up all of their courage to face the giant meat-eating fish.
"Okay," Nemo said, facing the seaweed entrance. "On the count of three. One…" Tad and Sheldon said their farewells, in case they didn't make it out of this. "…Two…" Pearl closed her eyes, wishing she were somewhere else…anywhere else but here. "…Three!"
The three of them charged together towards the seaweed, where the nightmare of spotted groupers waited for a group of little fish like them to come swimming into their mouths. Suddenly, just before they slipped through the border, a familiar little Moorish idol squeezed out, a look of horror on his face.
"Lash!" Nemo was so shocked he forgot to call Lash by his full name like he wanted.
"They're…they're coming!" Lash was so frantic and shaken, he didn't even notice. He pushed himself passed Nemo and his friends, swimming as fast as his little black fins would take him. The group stared at him as he rushed past.
"Um, what was that all…" Pearl didn't have to wonder for a second more. Just then, three spotted groupers came crashing through the wooden barrier just beyond the group of seaweed.
"AAAAAAUGH!" the little clownfish, seahorse, octopus, and butterfly fish screamed. They jetted away, the same way Lash had just gone. Nemo happened to glance back and wished he hadn't. The huge, hungry spotted groupers were right on their tails! He swam as fast as he could, ignoring the pounding of his little heart and the aching in his fin. Since he was faster than most of the others, Tad pushed Pearl and Sheldon forward, away from the gaping mouths of the carnivorous fish behind them. All this is Lash's fault! Nemo thought. His resentment for the little Moorish idol was even greater than before.
Meanwhile, back at the pickup clearing, everything was calm. Gill had finished grading the quizzes. He looked up to call all of the students back to class. Glancing around, he thought his class suddenly looked smaller than normal. In his head, he counted all the little sea creatures present in the clearing. There's them…and them…and them…and…hey, where's…just as Gill noticed the disappearance of Lash, Nemo and the others, there came a panicked voice, yelling from the distance.
"Groupers!!!" Lash screamed, darting into the clearing. The other students all turned and stared at him.
"Lash!" Gill cried, swimming up to meet his rebellious nephew. "Where have you been? And where are Shark Bait, Ink Jet, Sea Comb, and Thoroughbred?"
"Who?" Lash asked. "There's no time for that! A bunch of spotted groupers got loose and they're headed this way!"
"What?!" Gill cried. He glanced back at the other students. "Everyone, go hide in the coral there. I have to find Shark Bait and his friends!"
The other little fish zipped into the surrounding area to hide, but Gill didn't have to venture out to find Nemo, Tad, Pearl, and Sheldon, because they came swimming in the clearing just as the other students disappeared.
"There you are!" Gill cried. "You know you shouldn't…"
"Uncle Gill!" Nemo cried, interrupting his lecture. "Swim! The groupers are…" The little clownfish never got a chance to finish. The three big red spotted groupers burst into the clearing.
Gill quickly grabbed the five children and dragged them away as the hungry carnivores charged at them. The groupers' protruding lips began to part, opening their mouths, readying for the kill. "Quick!" Gill cried. "Grab my fin!"
"But…" Nemo began to contradict this order, explaining that they were too much for him.
"No buts!" Gill cried, and the five little fish readily obeyed. Nemo, Tad, and Lash grabbed Gill's long dorsal fin, while Sheldon gripped Lash's with his curly seahorse tail. Pearl frantically searched around for some kind of foothold, and at last chomped down hard on Sheldon's nose. Normally, Sheldon would yell and shake her off, but this was an emergency situation. It was better to have a wounded snout than a dead friend.
Gill grabbed onto the biggest piece of coral he could find, and it was a good thing too. Just as he hooked himself to the bumpy coral branch, the groupers began a fierce suction current, trying to suck them into their mouths. A grouper's mouth suction wasn't all that strong, but with three of them doing it all at the exact same time, the normal strength was multiplied by three. Sheldon and Pearl bounced up and down on Lash's bobbing filamentous extension.
"Hold on!" Nemo called to his friends. "We're going to make it!"
Gill fought furiously with the current. It took him back to the days of his youth when he had been trapped in a sunken boat nicknamed "Shock Rope Ship". He had fought with a current similar to this one at the back of the boat in order to get out. If he could survive that one, surely he could survive this one too. Gradually, the suction power from the groupers' mouth died down as they gave up on this resistant prey. They closed their mouths and swam off in search of other fish they could eat. Gill relaxed and the other kids slowly let go of each other.
"Phew," Tad commented. "That was a close one."
"Mmmerl?" Sheldon tried to say. "Ooogan et oh ow."
Pearl at last released his snout and he flexed it for a moment, getting it to work properly again. "I'm sorry," the little octopus apologized, "What did you say, Sheldon?"
"I was telling you that you could let go."
Lash looked very pale-faced and shaken. He turned away as Nemo whipped around to stare at him. "Well, at least your fin gave them something to grab onto," he said, his anger bubbling up and out of him now. "Seeing as you almost killed them!" Lash stared at the sandy sea floor, unable to speak for the moment.
Gill glided up next to Nemo, staring at his nephew with shock and utter disbelief. "Lash… You…" He shook himself. "We'll save it for later. Right now, we have an emergency situation!" He shot up above the clearing. Many fish saw him from the surrounding reef areas and knew in an instant that something was very wrong. Gill sucked in his breath. "Groupers!" he yelled to the residents of Eco Valley, warning them of approaching danger.
The fish closest to the pickup clearing sliced through the coral and seaweed, relaying the message to the more remote portions of this section. "Groupers!" "Groupers!" "Groupers!" At last, the message reached a certain blue fish hovering just outside of a familiar pink anemone.
"Huh?" Dory said, straining to make out the calls of the faraway messengers. "Groupies?"
Marlin poked his striped head from between the anemone tendrils. "What'd you say, Dory?"
Dory put a yellow-tipped fin up to the side of her head. "The fish are calling to us! They're saying 'Warning! Three groupies are swimming loose in the valley!"
Marlin gave her a confused look. Then he thought for a while and went into a panic. "Dory! Not groupies, groupers! Spotted groupers! Nemo! He's still at school! C'mon, Dory, we have to find Nemo!"
Dory put her head in her fins. "Wait a minute. I'm confused. Didn't we already find him?"
"Just come with me!" Marlin yelled, streaming from his safe anemone to the pickup clearing, pulling a baffled Dory along behind him. When Marlin and Dory reached the clearing, something was already brewing. "Nemo!" Marlin cried. "Nemo, where are you?! We've got to get home!" He stopped short. Maybe staying at home was a bad idea. To avoid the groupers, it would be best if they moved around from place to place instead of staying put and waiting for the doom. "Uh, scratch that. Nemo!"
Little Nemo came paddling up, and Marlin was surprised to find a smile on his orange face. "Hi, Dad! Did you come to help?"
"Help?" Somehow Marlin never seemed to know what was going on. He thought they were in the middle of a reef-wide crisis, and expected everyone to be panicking and rushing madly about. Everyone seemed calm and focused in the clearing. "What's going on here?"
"Help?" Dory asked. "Sure, I'll help. What do you need help with?"
Nemo swam along, leading his father and his adopted aunt a little further into the reef. "Well, we've got a plan for getting the groupers back where they belong. See, one of my friends let them out, and now we have to trap them back in their own little area. So, we built a sturdy barrier out of the sticks and rocks that were lying around. It's hidden in the seaweed just above the area and held up by a seaweed rope attached with a trigger. We need someone to lure the groupers over to their area, so that once they're in, we can pull the trigger and they'll be trapped again."
Marlin frowned. "That sounds dangerous. Whose idea was this anyway?"
"Gill's."
"Of course."
"I offered to bring them, but he wouldn't let me," Nemo explained. "Then I told him to make Lash do it, but Lash was too chicken…"
"Well, good for him," Marlin replied. "You children are much too small and weak to be baiting spotted groupers. You'd be lunch in no time." At last, the three of them reached the area where Gill and the other students were floating around a latch sticking out of the sand.
"Okay, kids," Gill was telling them, "I need you to be on time with that trigger. As soon as the groupers go by, press it!" The little fish nodded and gathered around the latch. Gill turned and began to swim away, but stopped short when he noticed Marlin, Dory, and Nemo in front of him. "Uh…hello. Didn't expect to be seeing you down here so soon."
Marlin crossed his fins. "Nemo told me all about this plan of yours. Now, I just came here to tell you that I don't appreciate you putting all of our children in danger!"
Gill shook his head. "Calm down. I wasn't going to let the kid lead the groupers back here."
"Well, then who's going to do it?" Marlin stopped after this sentence, afraid that someone would tell him to bait the goupers, but it didn't come.
"I am," Gill replied. He swam further up and out of the pickup clearing. "You can stay if you want, and make sure none of the kids get hurt. I'll be back with them on my tail, so be ready to drop the barrier!" Marlin, Dory, and Nemo watched as he drifted farther and farther into the ocean until he at last disappeared from view.
Marlin took a deep gulp of the water around him. "And now…we wait."
Dory glanced around and swam up to greet Nemo's friends. "Hi guys!" she cried. "You're that little guy's friends right? Whirl, Wilson, Lad, and Hash?"
Lash burst out laughing. "You called me Hash!"
Dory brought the tip of her fin up to her mouth. "But…isn't that your name?"
"No," Lash managed to speak between chuckles. "How many times have I told you? It's Whiphash!" He cracked up again, pressing his fins to his sides in laughter.
"Whiplash!" Sheldon cried. "Get serious. Mr. Gill will be here any moment with the groupers."
"I…I know," Lash said, wiping his eyes. "But…she called me Hash!"
Just then, Dory jumped out of the way as a black-and-white streak suddenly went whipping by. Three big, red streaks closely followed. The students all slammed on the trigger in the ground and a solid barrier dropped into place, trapping the groupers back where they had come from. A cheer erupted from the group of students as they gave each other high-ones, claw-shakes, and all sorts of celebrative gestures.
Nemo wasn't celebrating just yet. He glanced up into the water around the area where the groupers were trapped. "Where's Uncle Gill?" His forehead creased in worry. Thankfully, he spotted a familiar figure approaching them from the distance.
Gill whooshed back down into the clearing. He was panting and wheezing, but also smiling. "Whew! Now that was a good workout!"
The children all zoomed up and tackled him. "Mr. Gill!" "You're okay!" "You were great!" "You saved Eco Valley!"
Gill glanced up from the crowd and noticed the only one of his students not in the congratulatory group. Lash shrank back at the glare of his uncle. Gill pushed the other students aside. "Excuse me for a moment, kids, but I have to have a…talk…with my nephew."
---
It was two days later, and Lash stared out at his peers, playing dodge ball with a bunch of rounded sponges. This was only his second day of in-school suspension, but already he was sick of it. Yesterday he had watched, painfully, as Mr. Ray took his classmates for a wonderful field trip while he remained in a coral cage next to his uncle.
"I'm here to keep watch on you and make sure you don't find a way out of that cage." Gill had advised him on the first day. "Although I'd be very surprised if you did. We all made sure it was young-Moorish-idol-proof." Lash had just grumbled and turned around in the cage.
No one had been more shocked then Goldie. She had already known that Lash was a troublemaker, but she just couldn't believe that her son would foolishly put so many lives in danger. Her reaction was to give him additional punishment. Now, when Lash came home from "imprisonment" as he now called it, he was forced to do all sorts of chores in the cavern. When a few neighbors dropped by their cavern they were shocked at how spotless it was, especially for a cavern. When asked how she kept it so clean, Goldie just muttered something about forced labor.
Finally, after three more school days, Lash's sentence was up, and Gill let him out of the cage. It was recess during that time, and the other little fish swam up to him.
"Hey, Lash!" Honey Nut called. "You wanna play dodge ball with us?" In this week, Lash had become somewhat of an idol to frequent troublemakers like Honey Nut and Bobo, while Nemo and his friends had completely abandoned him.
It wasn't wholly their fault, though. As soon as Gill returned to Nemo's anemone after the long lecture, Marlin made a big speech of his own about keeping Nemo away from Lash. "I don't want that kid anywhere near my son! He's a bad influence, and I don't want him putting pressure on Nemo!"
But, after all this time stuffed inside a cage, Lash just shook his thin little head. "Nah…I'm too tired." He napped for the rest of the day, in a shaded section of the reef clearing.
---
The next day was a Skimmer day, so after sending Lash off to school, Gill returned to Goldie's cavern for a little visit. Mr. Skimmer had made much progress with the young fish of Eco Valley; now they could count up to 20 and do a few simple addition problems. At first Gill worried about Lash being so far behind in all of his subjects, but Goldie told him otherwise.
"Well, before I came here, he went to school in our reef section for about two years, so he already knows most addition and subtraction. As for English, well, he can write, just not very well." Gill was actually a bit surprised to discover all of these things that Lash could already do. "Yup," Goldie continued, sitting up a few coral pots on a shelf of the cavern. "Lash is pretty bright, he just doesn't apply himself." She sighed. "It's a shame."
So far, at least Goldie was adapting to the environment of Eco Valley. She had a few friends that she regularly corresponded with, and her cavern was one of the cleanest and best designed in Flat Plat Acres.
Gill studied his surroundings and shook his head. It was just like a female Moorish idol to keep her space spotless. There were times that he thought Goldie was just another stereotype, the same as all other fish like her. But then, there were times that he thought there was just something very different about her. After all, she was only half Moorish idol…there was something very special about Goldie, but he couldn't tell exactly what.
Just then, Goldie turned around and smiled. "It's good to have you over here again, Gill. I've missed seeing you when Lash had suspension."
Suddenly, Gill's heart began to pound and he didn't know why. Thankfully, the pounding wore off as a notorious little fish came paddling into the cavern.
"Hi, Mom! Hi, Uncle Gill!" Lash seemed to be in a good mood. He seemed to be in too good of a mood.
"So, how was school?" Goldie asked as she picked up a seaweed brush and began to sweep the floor of the cavern.
"It was great!" Lash cried as he laid his supplies on a nearby shelf. Gill and Goldie stared at each other. Either he was lying, or he was really starting to like school. They both hoped the latter was the case.
"So, um…what happened?" Goldie continued to ask.
Lash turned around and grinned at them. "My math teacher had a nervous breakdown!"
Suddenly Gill remembered Skimmer and his terrible fear of young Moorish idols. "Oh no!" he cried. "Skimmer! Lash, you better not have done anything to him!" He began to swim out of the cavern entrance. "And if you have…" he continued, calling back to Lash. "Then you'll get another week in suspension just like last time! You hear me?!"
Lash smiled and shrugged. "I didn't have to do anything. He flipped out just at the sight of me." He choked as he held back laughter.
"Whiplash," his mother scolded him. "It's not nice to laugh at people with…problems."
Lash couldn't hold back the wide grin that was now plastered on his face. "Yeah, but…but it was so funny! He thought I was some kind of monster or something!"
Goldie quickly slapped Lash's long snout. "Well maybe you are, so just hush!" Lash rubbed his snout and swam away to his room, looking a bit hurt.
---
Gill zoomed through the reef, and straight down into the pickup clearing where he could already see the long brown skate with his head half-buried in the sand.
"They're…they're back! They've…come to get their revenge on me! Please! Please don't let them kill me! I don't want to die!"
"Mr. Skimmer," Gill gently said to him.
"Huh?" the frantic skate teacher poked his head out of the sand again. "G-Gill! Thank God! Did you see them? The others came back again! They're alive!"
Gill swam closer and looked Mr. Skimmer straight in the eyes. "Calm down." Instantly, the skate's brown body relaxed, as if Gill was holding him in a trance and he had to obey his orders. "Now, listen to me. All the others, except for one, are dead. That one is not out to get you. She would never, ever harm. The one you saw today was that one's son. He does not know about you or the war or anything else related to that family." Mr. Skimmer flinched a bit when Gill said "the war", but other than that, he seemed to be listening. "If Lash does anything to hurt you, tell me immediately. I'll show him who's boss. Okay?"
Slowly, Mr. Skimmer nodded, and Gill swam away, hoping that would be the last time he'd have to calm the obsessive skate.
---
After this little incident, the days flew smoothly past with little or no problems. Goldie and Gill made sure Lash didn't cause any more trouble with Mr. Skimmer or Mr. Ray, although he seemed to have calmed down now and gotten more used to this school system. Aside from the occasional frolic through Mr. Johannsen's yard, Lash seemed to have become a quiet, obedient kid.
The only thing Gill worried about was Friday. Normally, he'd be teaching all day Wednesdays and Fridays, but this Friday was a special day. Every now and then the children had "extra classes" on Friday, sometimes music and sometimes art. This Friday was art, and Gill was worried about how Lash would behave around art supplies. In his nightmares he imagined his little nephew with Honey Nut and Bobo, smearing paint and glue all over everything.
When the day finally arrived, and when the angelfish teacher swooped down with her box of art supplies, Gill just held his breath and hoped for the best. "Okay, class," the angelfish explained after everyone had an easel and some paper set up in front of them. "Today's assignment is abstract painting, meaning you have the remaining class time to paint whatever you wish. Make it appropriate, as at the end of the time, you will be sharing your painting with the class. Okay, you may begin."
Gill watched in horror as Lash jetted over to the box holding the paints and other supplies, but surprisingly, he didn't topple it over. He picked up a few brushes and a tube of blue paint. Thankfully, when Lash acted calm and obedient, so did his two closest followers, Bobo and Honey Nut. Gill sighed with relief and went back to grading and organizing papers in peace while the little fish painted.
Nemo painted a portrait of his family- him, his father, Dory, and Gill. He glanced over at what his friends were doing. "What're you painting, Pearl?" he asked his octopus friend.
Pearl gripped the paintbrush between two tentacles. "It's supposed to be us using octopus' ink for our lessons, but…I can't paint all that well."
"No, it's pretty good," Nemo told her.
"I'm painting a sunken ship!" Sheldon said, showing Nemo his paper.
"Aw, that was my idea, too," Tad complained, showing Sheldon his painting. At least their sunken ships looked totally different.
At last, Nemo couldn't help himself and glanced over at what Lash was painting. He gasped. The little Moorish idol had constructed a beautiful sea, using different shades of blue. He was putting the finishing details on a figure in the corner that looked very much like…him. "Wow…" Nemo commented. "That's an awesome painting, Lash. Is that you in the corner?"
Lash didn't even acknowledge Nemo's presence. He stared at the paper, his face screwed in a look of pain. His black fin trembled as he brought it up to the top of the paper. He whipped the bunch across the top, creating a white streak, arching down into the depth of the sea. Lash floated a little backwards to get a look at his work. He turned his face and threw his brush to the sea floor.
"Wh-Whiplash?" Nemo spoke up. "Um…is something the matter?" Lash didn't answer; he just turned away from his painting and refused to speak for the rest of the time they had to paint.
At last, the angelfish teacher announced that time was up and everyone was to form a circle and present their painting as they went around the circle. "This is my family," Nemo said when it was his turn. "Some fish might argue that Aunt Dory and Uncle Gill aren't really family, but I'll always consider them part of my family."
"Mine shows how useful we octopi are to the world," Pearl explained.
"Sunken ships," Tad said, showing his painting. "Two of 'em," Sheldon added, displaying his. "They sunk together!"
Now it was Lash's turn. He whipped out his painting and showed it to the rest of the class. "Woowwww," the other little fish marveled.
"That's quite a beautiful painting, Whiplash," the angelfish teacher commented. "You're very artistic." Lash just stared at the sea floor, without saying a word.
At this moment, Gill looked up from his stack of papers. He had expected to hear Lash's little voice at that moment, bragging about his artistic abilities, but nothing like that came. The little Moorish idol actually looked a little…depressed.
"So…could you tell us what it's about?" the angelfish asked. "That's you in the corner, is it not?"
Lash's body began to shake. "It's a bad painting."
The angelfish teacher shook her head. "No, it's not. It's a very good painting. Could you tell us more about it?"
Lash shook his head again. "No. It's a bad painting." His trembling fins suddenly ripped the piece of artwork in half. The two pieces floated down to the sandy ground. "I don't want anyone to see it." All of the students, the angelfish, and Gill stared in shock.
"Well," the angelfish began recovering and trying to keep the class going. "If you didn't want to show anyone, you could have just told me, and…"
Lash shook his head. "Just…just let it go."
The angelfish shrugged. "Okay…who's next?"
From his distant watching spot, Gill stared at his little nephew with new light. He watched as Lash withdrew from the rest of the group and stared away, troubled by something inside of him. Perhaps his nephew was more than just a rude, troublemaking brat. Perhaps there was something Lash was hiding from everyone else, burying it deep inside of him where he thought no one would ever find it, covering it with his attitude and bad behavior. But perhaps…just perhaps…