Les Trois Poissons

 

Three teenage sea creatures studying at Anemone High is about to graduate in a month’s time. One sunny Friday morning, all three of them sit in their own classes, their thoughts somewhere else.

“Knock, knock, knock. Jules, are you with us?” The French class professor Mr. Martin calls out.

“Oui,” the young lad says in a startled manner.

“Monsieur Jules, Where’s your paper?”

In haste, Jules the Jellyfish digs into his backpack with all of his uncouth tentacles. All of them interlaced. He now looks like a parasol. The class bursts into laughter.

“Miss Garra, will you help untangle Jules?” The professor calls one of his students who belong to the doctor fish family.

After he gets fixed up, Jules’ paper reaches the professor.

“This topic again, Jules?” The professor stares him in the face, then reads the title of the essay, “l'iniquité du système éducatif envers les méduses. »

“It’s the most unanswered question of all, Monsieur. Why can’t my kind go to the School of Fish?”

“Oh, Mon Amour. You know you’re not really fish, right?”

“Then, why am I called a Jellyfish?”

“It’s just a name, dumb bass,” one of his classmates, Bart, quips. Those within earshot giggles.

***

Tap, tap, tap. Someone is rapping on Sasha’s desk. It’s her English teacher, Miss Crabber.

“Are you okay, Dearie?”

“Yes, Miss.” Sasha straightens the folds on her flowery dress.

Her teacher’s eyes remain suspicious.

“I’m just upset, Miss Crabber. The protest has been ongoing for decades and yet the Ministry of Education still won’t allow high-achieving students like me to enter the School of Fish. I’m literally a star student, and my kind are schooling animals, too.”

“The issue is not whether you’re a stellar learner or a schooling creature. A starfish is just not a fish, my dear.”

***

During lunch, Jules the Jellyfish and Sasha the Starfish meets up with Koddi the Cuttlefish at their usual table. Koddi, who is known to have a magnetic personality, is as down in the dumps as the two.

“Why the frown?” Sasha opens.

“I got ridiculed again for not being a fish nor a cattle. I just don’t get their jokes.”

“Same here,” Sasha sighs.

“Me, too.” Jules chimes in. “So, what are we to do?”

“Why don’t you lay flat, intertwine your tentacles, then we’ll paint you black. You’d pass for a stingray,” says Koddi in sarcasm.

“And we could attach fake fins on you, Koddi. You’d be a poisson that way,” Jules says.

“Great! You two can just disguise a poisson or fish that easily. How about me? I could never look like a fish.” One of Sasha’s arms falls off.

“Ditch your flowery dress and we’ll paint you brown. You can pretend as an exotic saltwater mudfish from Brazil,” Jules’ eyes beam.

Koddi’s brows furrow. “Are you guys serious?”

“Shark serious!” the two choruses.

Bart walks by, looks at them, “I smell something fishy.’ Then, he swims away.