Turtle had always been the quiet one in his family, melting into shadows and flopping around like a puddle. His oldest sister, Orca, was already going to the University of Pantala, but when she comes home for Summer Vacation, she always got a lot of attention. Finn and Cerulean were twins and they both went to Pyrrhia College. When they come home for winter, spring, and summer breaks, mother usually ignores them even though they were extremely loud. Tsunami has the most drama in her life, from being friends with mother's least favorite person's son, Riptide, to not liking Whirlpool, the person that mother wants her to marry. Octopus was Turtle's favorite sibling, he was only older by one year and was very nice to Turtle. Anemone got the most attention from their mother, but she can be very difficult to be around. Auklet was only 6 and liked Turtle more than Anemone, which Turtle appreciated. Coral mostly only paid attention to her daughters, because they would inherit the family business one day. Gill paid attention to everyone in the family, but he mostly took care of the boys. Turtle had grown up in Florida and he had gone to Jade Mountain Elementary School, but he was literally the most unpopular kid there so he didn't really no anyone really well. From grade 1 to grade 4, he had one best friend named Ripple, but in grade 5 he moved away and Turtle was back to being lonely. 

Today was his first day in high school, and he desperately wanted to make a good impression and get some friends. But all his worries went away when he ran head first into a rainbow haired girl. 

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It was a bit after lunch and I was about to go to my next class when I heard shouting, it sounded a bit like Anemone so I decided to check it out. 

When I got closer to the shouting, I could clearly identify Anemone's high pitched voice and maybe... Kinkajou's? 

I finally arrived at the commotion and was not that surprised, Anemone and Kinkajou were having a shout-athon (marathon, but instead of running there's shouting), they were yelling about something to do with Kinkajou's phone. Kinkajou was accusing Anemone of stealing her phone because she was jealous of how popular her Shipping social media account was, and Anemone was yelling all the reasons why she didn't want Kinkajou's phone.

I try to put myself between them but it was impossible, so I tried a more peaceful solution, by trying to solve the problem. 

"Anemone," I said, "Did you actually take Kinkajou's phone? If you did, you should give it back."

"Well, well, isn't that cute. Turtle's trying to protect his new girlfriend. Mother won't be pleased that she's sooo pathetic, wait... no, mother doesn't care about you." 

Anemone's comment cut deeper than she probably thought it would. Now students were peeking out of there classes to see what the huge commotion was.

Kinkajou must have seen the injured look on his face, because she quickly shot back a nasty comment about Anemone and the way her mother treated her like a precious and delicate china doll.

"Anemone, do you have her phone?" I asked in a warning tone, but all she did was roll her eyes at me.

"Listen, brother, why don't you go sit on a reef and let me and Kinkajou solve our own problems."

"I would," I replied "But if I did, your argument would never end."

Then, at that moment, one of the school's most feared teachers, Mrs. Kestrel came storming into the hallway. 

"GET TO CLASS NOW!" she shouted and all the students who were watching, including Kinkajou, Anemone, and I quickly scrambled to class.

On the way to our next class Kinkajou said "Thanks Turtle for helping me with Anemone" and gave me a grateful smile. 

I felt my cheeks turning red, but I smiled back and decided that I would confront Anemone when I got home.

My last thought before I walked into the classroom was "Maybe I do have a crush on Kinkajou."