Manatee Blues by Laurie Halse Anderson Page A

guys.”
    Sunita was invited, but she has to go to her grandparents’ sixtieth wedding anniversary. It’s the kind of thing you can’t miss.
    Maggie takes a lollipop out of her backpack. “Keep an eye on David,” she tells Sunita as she unwraps it. “We don’t want him wrecking the place while we’re gone.”
    “Hey!” David protests. “I wouldn’t do that. Besides,” he grins, “I’ll be busy with Trickster.”
    David isn’t coming with us either. He has been working with a special horse at Quinn’s Stables. He had already promised to help Mr. Quinn out at a competition this weekend. David wouldn’t miss that for the world.
    Sunita smiles. “We’ll take care of the clinic. You guys take care of the manatees. Take lots of pictures, Brenna. Manatees are adorable.”
    “You should see all the film I have.” I pick up the camera hanging around my neck and look through the viewfinder at Sunita and David. “Squeeze in together. Move closer to David, Mag.”
    Maggie leans next to David, sticks the lollipop in her mouth, and crosses her eyes. David holds up two fingers behind Maggie’s head. Sunita, sitting on the other side of David, smooths her hair down neatly.
    “Wait for me!” Zoe calls. She drops her magazine and runs around behind the others. She rests her chin on David’s head and gives the camera a brilliant Hollywood smile.
    Click!
I snap a quick picture of my friends. “Perfect!”
    The woman at the check-in counter picks up her mike. “U.S. Air flight 1072 to Tampa is now boarding all rows.”
    People all around us collect their briefcases and carry-on luggage before joining the long line to get on the airplane. An electric tingle starts in my toes and shoots up to my head.
    This is it!
    As Maggie and Zoe get in line with Dr. Mac, I walk over to Mom and Dad, still standing by the window that looks out onto the parked plane.
    Mom hugs me first. “Have fun,” she says. She tucks an escaped strand of brown hair behind my ear. “Be polite, watch your temper, and think before you open your mouth.”
    I sort of have a reputation for blurting things out—especially when I lose my temper—but not on this trip. “I’ll be a perfect angel,” I promise.
    “Have a great time, kiddo,” Dad says. He gives me a bear hug, his beard scratching my cheek.
    “And hang on to that camera.”
    “I’ll sleep with it around my neck,” I say. “Here. Let me get a picture of the two of you.”
    Through the viewfinder, my parents look small, out of place in the airport terminal. They belong back home in our little forest.
    I press the shutter release.
Click!
    “You’d better get going,” Mom says. She gives me one more quick kiss. “Be a good girl,” she says.
    Suddenly I realize this is the first time I’ll be away from them for more than a day.
    I hug her tightly. “I love you.”
    I hurry to the door and give the attendant my boarding pass, then wave to everyone one last time.
    “Bye, guys!” I shout, jiggling the bracelet on my wrist.
    Mom and Dad wave back. David puts his thumbs up against the sides of his head and wiggles his fingers at us like antlers. Sunita mimics holding a camera and mouths, “Take pictures.”
    “Ready?” asks Dr. Mac.
    “Let’s rock!”

Chapter Two

    M y first minute in Florida!
    As I step out of the airport terminal in Tampa, the heat wraps itself around me. It’s got to be one hundred degrees. The air is heavy and smells like the ocean, the sun so bright I have to squint.
    Zoe fans her face with her magazine. “I forgot how hot it gets here in the summer. The best time to come to Florida is April, not July.”
    “This way, girls,” Dr. Mac calls. “We’ve still got about a half-hour drive to Bay City ahead of us.”
    Maggie, Zoe, and I follow her to the rental-car parking lot, dragging our suitcases and backpacks. Dr. Mac is the mother duck, and we’re the ducklings.
    The attendant at the car lot, a young guy with a great tan and bleached-blond hair,