Triumph

Today is the annual Great Big Harbour Cleanup Contest. Everyone got up early that morning and got themselves ready to go. The tugboats at the Great Ocean Docks got ready. And so did Laurie, the little girl whom Theodore is now taking care of.

"Good morning, everyone," Laurie called out to everyone. "Morning," they answered back. "Looks like you're ready to go," said Theodore. "All ready to go!" George boomed. "Yes and yes!" Hank said excitedly. "Everyone," said Theodore, "Today is the day. Today is the our cleanup contest."

"And this time, we have extras," said Foduck. "Yes, yes!" chirped Hank, "Extras?" "Well," said Theodore, and the tugboats turned to Laurie. "Me and my friends have volunteered to help all of you," she explained, "When they arrive, we'll start."

"Right," Theodore agreed, "That is teamwork. We'll do this together." "Good!" George boomed. "Now it's volcano time!" Hank declared. "What?" Foduck asked., "Oh, right." "This time," Emily said, "We will get the job done." "Yes," George agreed, "Eh, when the time comes." "Right," Laurie agreed, "One, my friends hadn't arrived."

"And we have to wait for Lily to sound the horn to start," said Theodore. "Good," Foduck agreed, "Luckily, we had her foghorn fitted yesterday." "Yes," the Dispatcher agreed, "You did do that. Just in time." "Ok," said Foduck, "Let's think about what we're going to do this time and what happened before."

The tugboats agreed that the first time they had a clean up contest, they didn't get the jobs done. Only Theodore won because he did finish what he planned to do. "Even if it wasn't the biggest job," Theodore said.

A few minutes later enough, Marina and Sally had arrived. Laurie immediately met up with them. "Hey, Sally, hello, Marina," Laurie called out to her friends. "Hey, Laurie!" Marina called out, "We're here and ready to go and clean up the trash! Which is what is littering most of the harbour." "Thanks," said Laurie. "Hey," said Sally, "We're in this together."

Laurie smiled at her friends. "Thanks for volunteering to help with the clean up contest," she said. "Right," Sally and Marina replied together. "Well, you know what they say," said Marina, "Volunteering helps others. And idiots." "Okay," Sally replied. "Everyone is happy," said Theodore. "Right," Hank agreed, "Oh and bonus!" "The Queen Stephanie will be the judge this time," the Dispatcher had announced. This made everyone really happy.

Just then, Pearl arrived. "We'll be ready in 20 minutes," she announced, "Please be prepared." "We all are," said Theodore as Pearl left. "Don't worry," said Laurie. "I can wait," said Marina. "Maybe," thought George. "I'll introduce Laure and friends to the queen soon," thought Theodore. Sure enough, the Queen Stephanie was in the big harbour, watching everything, also watching from the harbour entrance were Kulu and Snorri. Kulu is a small canoe and Snorri is a Viking ship. "Let's see," said Snorri. "Yes, Snorri," Kulu replied. But they weren't the only ones watching from a distance.

Minutes later. "Now it's time!" said Theodore. When everyone got ready to go, Lily sounded her foghorn and everyone started the contest. "Good luck!" the Dispatcher called out. Everyone knew what they were going to do. Laurie, Sally and Marina volunteered to clean the shorelines. "Who would confused debauchery with this?" Marina asked to no one. "Never mind," said Sally, "Well, it's ours now." Laurie agreed.

The tugboats had their own ideas of what they are going to do to clean up the harbour. George planned on removing many of the parts of old shipwrecks that have littered the ocean floor. Foduck planned on having Brunswick barge remove many old abandoned container drums from a sandy beach.

Emily decided to collect garbage. "This would make Canso Colossus very happy," said Emily. "What?" Guysborough hollered. Hank volunteered to check for oil leaks on all the ships. "Mister," Hank called out to Halliburton, "Is your oil all right?" "Of course," Halliburton answered.

And Theodore chose to clean all the docks. "This time," he thought to himself, "No holding back." "Cleaning for dangerous stuff?" a voice called. "Yes, Clementine," Theodore called back to Clementine, a big container ship. Everyone else had their own jobs as well. Including Constance and Nautilus.

Other boats including Digby, Rebecca, Truro, Dorothy, Millie, Carla, Bluenose, and Sigrid have also volunteered to help. "Looks like everyone has chosen to clean up today,' said Benjamin Bridge. While this was going on, Laurie and her friends were cleaning up the shorelines. "Not bad," Laurie said. "Yeah," Sally agreed, "I'm glad that Mr. Rodney agreed to take away our loaded garbage bags."

"Yeah," Marina agreed, "He's nice, friends with Mr. Harbourmaster. I should go and listen to his bagpipe playing someday." "Ok," said Sally. But what they didn't know is that most of the work had already been done by an unknown entity. By now, Hank had just finished inspecting Emma Sophia. "All done," said Hank. "Thanks," Emma Sophia replied, "I need that oil tank replaced."

At the same time, Theodore was moving a crane barge to Dock number 37, out of his way. "There you go, mister," Theodore said to the barge. But the barge didn't answer and started his own job. "Well," said Theodore, confused. At the same time, Foduck and Emily had came across a blockage of rubble near Wily's Island. "How careless," Foduck said, "Dumping crushed rocks here."

"Who asked you?" Guysborough replied rudely. "Oh forget it," said Emily, "I'll get Shelburne and we'll have to clean this up." "Right," Foduck agreed. Right now, the girls were in for a surprise. "Hey," said Sally, "What the bumping?" "What?" Marina replied to Sally's reaction, "Ok, wasn't this place dirty?" "Probably the same as where we have been cleaning," said Laurie, "Someone must have picked up the garbage before us."

"Yeah," Sally agreed, "But who?" They got their answer immediately when Laurie, out of curiosity, looked around a rock and she got knocked down. "Argh!" she and another voice exclaimed.

"Laurie!" Marina exclaimed and she and Sally ran towards Laurie, "Are you all right?" "Yeah," Laurie answered as Sally helped her up, "I am. But-" "Sorry," the voice said. "That's what happened," Sally said, "And I did mean bumping."

The girls looked to see a boy sitting on the ground. "Oh my!" Laurie exclaimed, "I'm sorry! Are you all right?" "Yeah," the little boy groaned. Laurie decided to help the boy on his feet. "They must have ran into each other by accident," Marina said. "Yeah," Sally agreed."

"Uh, excuse me," Laurie said, "But-""My name is John," the little boy said, "Like you, Laurie, I was abandoned." "Hello, John," Laurie said, "My name is Laurie and these are my friends, Marina and Sally." "Nice to meet you," said Marina. "John," said Sally, "It is."

"Yes," John said in response, "In cause you were wondering, it was me who cleaned up the mess." "Oh," said Marina, "Participating in the Great big Harbour Contest?" "Contest?" John repeated, "I didn't know there was a contest going on. I just chose to clean up the place."

"Wait," said Laurie, "Are you?" "You're," said John. "Orphans?" they both said together. "Whoa," said Marina , "Talk about not Sleeping Beauty." "That," said Sally. "Really?" said Laurie, "You're like me?" "Yes," said John, "I don't have any parents, nor a home." "I was like that," said Laurie, "But now, a tugboat and his friends are taking care of me." "Really?" John said.

"Maybe they can look after you too," said Laurie. "Really?" John replied, "Well, ok." "And since you've did most of our cleaning up," Laurie went on, "Would you like to join us instead?" "John thought about it for a second. "Sure," he said.

"Ok," Laurie replied, "Thank you, John!" "I'll help you all," John said. "But isn't that against the rules?" Marina asked, "Additional help?" "Maybe we'll tell the Dispatcher later," said Sally, "John, you're welcome to help us!"

"Ok!" Laurie and John said together. "Well, said Marina, "We could use some help anyway. Which we've already got."

And so, John helped the girls. They resumed their job with cleaning up the shorelines. John also helped with taking the full garbage bags to the nearby dumpster. But, every time when John and Laurie picked the same piece of trash at the same time, they looked at each other.

While this happened, Marina knew what is going on with the two. "Do you think?" Sally asked. But Marina did not answer. For the rest of the day, everyone took part in cleaning up the Great Big Harbour. And no one wasted any time.

By the end of the day, the contest is over. This time, everyone had done a great job, so therefore, the Queen Stephanie declared everyone the winner. This made everyone happy. "Wait," Theodore exclaimed when he learned about John, "An- another orphan?"

Of course, Laurie, Sally and Marina had introduced John to Theodore and his friends and told them everything. "Well," said Theodore, "I'm glad you had extra help." "We all worked together," said Laurie. "So did we!" Hank exclaimed, "Who's he?" "Hank," said George, "They introduced John to us. That's that boy."

"Yes," said Marina, "So, sir?" "Well," the Dispatcher thought, "He did help. Even if we didn't know about it. But his efforts have paid off and he worked his hardest, so John also is a winner." "Thank you, sir," said John, "And Thanks for introducing me to your friends, Laurie."

"No problem," Laurie replied, this time, she held John's hands. And everyone is a winner. "Theodore," said Laura, "Thank you. For everything." "No problem," Theodore replied, "So now, the Great Big Harbour is cleaner than ever!" "Thanks to all of us," said Emily.

"And there is one more friend," said Theodore. As so, the Queen Stephanie was still in her spot, where she watched the contest the whole time. That's when Theodore and his friends approached her. "Hello," the Queen Stephanie called down, "I see that you've participated well in the cleanup contest."

"Yes," said Theodore, "And I would like to introduce you to our new friends." "Oh, I would like to meet them," the Queen Stephanie said. "Here," said Theodore, "Meet Laurie, Sally, Marina and John. Say hello, everyone." And the four children introduced themselves to the Queen Stephanie.

During the whole time, Laurie and John continued to hold each other's hands. Then they looked at each other. "So, Laurie?" John said. "John?" Laurie replied. "I knew it!" Marina exclaimed, "You two are in love! Almost like a fairytale! Not a fractured one at that!" Everyone was surprised.

"Is it true?" Hank asked. As Laurie and John continued to look at each other, they ended up hugging each other. "Wow," said Queen Stephanie, "I'm amazed." "It happened again," Foduck said to himself, "And it's unbelievable!" "What?" Hank asked. "Look like love spreads fast," said George.

Both Jon and Laurie continued to hug each other for a little longer. "Well," Nautilus said to Constance, "Things are getting more interesting around here, aren't they?" "They sure are," Constance agreed, "So what's next?"

Hours later, when both Laurie and John were getting ready to go to sleep after everyone else had fallen asleep, they kissed each other on the lips. "I love you," they both said at once before they went to sleep together that night.