Sea Stars & Wishes

Chapter 4

Lyrika

Lyrika half -jogs up the staircase to the second floor of the aquarium. Her bag bouncing off her back, causing the small glass jars inside to clink together. She looks down at her watch and smiles. Just in time. She makes her way over to the sea star pool where her classmates are standing around and waiting.

"Didn't expect you to be late," Cassidy teases, nudging her with her shoulder.

"I'm right on time," Lyrika playfully responds, setting her bag on the floor.

"You made it! Didn't want to start without you here," Layla walks up to Lyrika. She hands Lyrika a pair of long tweezers.

"Okay! We can begin!" Layla announces to the group, "I'm so glad that all of you were interested in feeding the sea stars."

"Everyone but you is doing it for the extra credit," Cassidy leans in and mumbles to Lyrika. Lyrika rolls her eyes. Mr. Sutton had sent out a text that morning to everyone offering half a point worth of extra credit if they participated in any marine animal feeding, and they could do it twice earning up to a full extra credit point. Lyrika didn't need the half extra credit point; she genuinely wanted to learn as much as she can about sea stars while she is here.

"The first thing we'll start with is putting on our gloves," Layla begins, starting the group in motion by putting her gloves on her hands. Everyone else quickly follows, grabbing a pair of gloves from the few boxes spread out around the pool. Lyrika pulls the gloves over her hands and turns to Layla, awaiting the next step.

"Next, I'll walk around and everyone will grab a piece of shrimp from the bucket. Use your tweezers," Layla grabs a fairly small bucket and starting to walk around to each student, giving them time to grab a shrimp and securely hold it.

Layla comes to Lyrika last. Lyrika grabs a shrimp and holds the tweezers tightly so the shrimp doesn't fall to the floor. Layla resumes her position and grabs a pair of tweezers herself, quickly grabs a shrimp.

"Now, everyone will pick a sea star close to you, and let your neighbor know which one you plan on feeding so you don't accidentally bump into each other," Layla announces.

"I'm going to go for that tanned one," Cassidy tells Lyrika pointing towards a Sand Sifting sea star.

"Have fun, that one is barely sticking out, and the belly is on the bottom," Lyrika chuckles then points to a honeycomb star, "I'm going for that one."

"What you're going to do is stick the tweezers and shrimp into the water and gently push the shrimp under the sea star's head until you feel its tube feet grab a hold. When you feel resistance, let go of the shrimp, and you're all done!" Layla demonstrates as she explains to the group. Everyone watches as she feeds another sand sifting star. It takes a moment, but then she pulls her tweezers out of the water, shrimp-free.

"What do you mean 'its head'?" one of Lyrika's classmates raises her hand, confused and slightly mortified.

Layla smiles, clasping her hands together in excitement, "technically sea stars do not have arms. They have rays, but we like to refer to them as heads because at the end of each ray there is an eye that helps them see light and shadows."

Lyrika takes a small step towards the pool, looking down into the water. The yellow-centered and blue ray honeycomb sits perfectly on top of the sand below her. She pushes the tweezers into the water and slowly sifts the shrimp into the sand to go underneath one of the sea star's heads. It's small, but Lyrika feels the resistance and releases the shrimp for the sea star to eat. She slowly pulls her tweezers back out of the water.