I soared through the water, my flippers propelling me forward, and forward, and forward……………… Finally, arriving at the perfect momentum I spun around with the exact force coming to a stop right before Liz, my gymnastics coach. She laughed, then clapped for me, “You are doing so great Alexi!” she exclaimed, “You are definitely going to win the Gymturtle show!” I blushed with pride, well as much as a turtle can blush anyways. See, I’m Alexi, daughter of Oma and Letti, two great gymnastic stars who used to be wildly popular, but have been losing their talent ever so slowly. I have been wanting to find out why for years and the only way for me to do that was to participate in the show in which they started losing their powers. The thing is, the Gymturtle Extravaganza was one of the hardest shows to win and I needed to win it. So of course when I mentioned it to Mom and Mother, they hired me the best coach they could find, Liz! The only person who knew why I was actually doing the show was my best friend, Salem. She was a turtle just like me, but we had totally different personalities. Speaking of, here was Salem swimming towards me! As soon as I saw her, I smiled, but then seeing the look on her face, the smile dropped. “Hey Liz!” she said quickly before turning to face me. “Have you noticed the water drop?” she asked frantically. I frowned a bit, “No, I can’t say I have” As soon as I started paying attention to the sea, though, I could tell that it had changed. We all looked at each other, frightened. We decided to check our houses to find our parents and friends, then meet up in front of my house. As soon as I swam into my house though, I knew it was empty. Since I had time to spare, I decided to look around my neighborhood park to try to find some of my other friends. Everyone was missing! I had a bad feeling about what was about to happen……. Suddenly, a colossal wave hit me from the back and I felt so scared! As soon as I could, I went to find Liz and Salem. It wasn’t easy though, sand was scattered everywhere and coral was flung everywhere in sight. The only way to find them was through sound. I sighed. I was amazing at school, always getting A+ on my work. The only thing which I had trouble with was sound location. In my defense, it is really really hard. I shook myself. Why was I thinking about school, when I really should be thinking about Liz, Salem, and sound? Huh. Salem and sound. Salem was amazing at soundcation (sound location). I knew if I gave her a turtle call, she would trace her way back to me. Perfect. I knew I only had one chance to make it right, so I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. I let loose a sharp click cry then fell silent. I silently prayed hard for Salem to hear it and trace her way back to me. 5….4…..3…..2…..1…. “Hi!” I heard Salem call from behind me, Liz right next to her. “Great click call! Ms. Are would be proud!” I snorted a bit then hugged my bff. “Sooo,” Liz ventured. We separated quickly. “Did you find anyone?” she continued. I shook my head sadly, “No, I even checked the park!” “Yeah, I didn’t find anyone either,” Salem said sadly. “I did find something pretty interesting though! Follow me!” Liz exclaimed. Keeping a close on my friends, I swam through the water cleanly, determined not to lose Salem and Liz. Soon we reached the shore, a place where we came all the time to eavesdrop on the humans. “Translate for us!” Salem nudged. I concentrated and then turned back to my friends. “It’s not good news. The current drop we felt earlier, that’s because a tsunami happened.” My friends looked at me blankly. I sighed. “A tsunami is basically a giant wave,” I explained. They nodded, not understanding for a bit, then realization set in and they sat up straight. “Will it happen again?” Liz asked frightfully. I listened for a bit longer then concluded no, it wouldn’t happen again. Suddenly, I heard the familiar creak of the gates. A flood of friends rushed in and Oma and Letti surrounded me in a hug. They were breathing heavily. “Didn’t you hear the alarm?” they asked. “No,” I admitted, “I was too busy training” They hugged me again and I was happy. The Gymturtle Extravaganza could wait. I was with my family and friends, right where I needed to be.