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Dee trotted quickly along the sand. She wanted to run. She wanted to run as fast as she could, but her legs wouldn't go any faster. Maybe she was just tired from track or maybe part of her knew this was wrong and wanted to turn around. Either way it was too late now. It was easy enough getting out of the school because everyone was in their classroom for exams, but the door she had used to escape had locked behind her and if she tried to return she would most likely be caught by one of the faculty members. She had made her decision and she was going to be in big trouble, but at least this way she might get to enjoy herself before she got caught. She had come too far now to just turn herself in. The school was growing smaller in the distance and the ground around her had turned entirely to sand. When she finally reached the water's edge she stopped to catch her breath. She bent over and rested her hands on her knees, panting profusely. "I'm so out of shape." she thought. Her mind drifted back to track practice. Her over-achieving friend had beaten her out of the last spot on the varsity team, so now she was the only upperclassman on JV. They didn't talk about it afterwards; they left the try-outs without saying a word to one another. Her friend was good at everything and everyone loved her. Her parents expected her to be good at everything, especially sports. Instead, she was failing science and watching her friend outdo her in everything else.


All the sudden her feet felt really cold. She looked down. The tide had come in and gotten her track shoes soaking wet! She yanked off her shoes and socks and tossed them onto the nearby sand. She wouldn't need them anyway, she was quitting.

Dee sat down on the cold, wet sand. She picked up a stick and idly traced little figures in the damp sand. She stared out at the ocean. She remembered a short story that she had studied in English class. It was about a young girl who finds a terrifying sea monster from ancient times who was badly wounded. Because of her youthful innocence she has was not afraid of the monster and nutured it back to health. When the others from her village find out about the monster they forced the girl to show them where it is and set out to destroy it. The monster fought back and the young girl cried and wailed and begged for them to stop. In its rage, it accidentally gobbles up the little girl. Once it realized what it had done, it became greatly saddened and sank back into the sea, never to be seen again.

"That poor girl" she thought. "But her downfall was more glorious than mine will be, and she isn't even real. All my life I’ve wanted to be a Paleontologist, but what kind of paleontologist fails science? Maybe I could just be an archeologist. They just sneak around on public property and dig up dinosaur bones right? How much education would someone need to do that?” She began poking an object jutting out of the sand with her stick, pretending like she was an archeologist. I few seconds later she had unearthed a shell.

"Shells!" she had suddenly remembered, this would be the perfect time to collect shells. Whenever she came to the beach after school the tide was always in and she couldn't reach them. Later on in the evening, when the tide went back out, there would be so many people there collecting them that all the good ones were quickly scooped up. But at this time of day the shore would surely be full of shells. She ran to the waters edge and gazed down at the hundreds of glistening shells beneath the waves. She reached for the shells but the tide quickly drew them away again. As she readied herself for the next wave of shells when something else caught her eye. It was much too large to be a shell and it was clear and jelly-like. She saw it slowly began to drift away again and grabbed it before it could be reclaimed by the sea. As soon as she pulled it out of the water she felt the chilly ooze spread throughout her hands, sending a shiver down her spine

"EW!" she exclaimed, dropping it onto the sand. She stared in wonder and disgust as the jelly-like substance saturated the surrounding sand with its ooze. "Those are definitely not fish eggs..."
She kneeled down and poked them with her finger. They were starting to dry-out a little and they felt more solid. She picked it up again and saw that it was actually a cluster of strange looking eggs, but unlike fish eggs the clearly visible yokes swirled with color. She couldn't take her eyes off them. She was suddenly overcome by an incredible sensation that spread rapidly throughout her entire body. She felt like she was flying. Drifting through an endless sea of color. But before she knew it, she was back on earth again, staring at the beautiful eggs. Then she realized something, she had seen these somewhere before. She had been doing research for a biology project when she came across a picture of an egg cluster similar to the one she was holding. The poster gave no description except of a caption that read "Pikaia." The post had been followed by a series of replies and questions about the egg. When she went back later add a comment herself however, the forum was gone. All she could get was a blank screen that read: "This page has been omitted due to illegal material. If you are not returned to the home page within in 5 seconds, click here.” So whatever she was not just any cluster of eggs.

[The ending has been removed due to the fact that it was written specifically for the contest and since it was not chosen it would most likely conflict with the Pikaia plot. A new ending along with more revisions coming soon]

About Dee

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