Written by: Karissa Mills
Illustrated by: Karissa Mills
Jordan the turtle was the most mischievous of all the turtles.
Jordan lived in a large hollow rock in the Great Barrier Reef with her mother, Mrs Turtle and her four other siblings, Abby, Prerez, Dakota and Katie.
One sunny Sunday morning, the turtle family decided to go to the Barrier Markets and collect some goods.
When they arrived at the markets it was very busy, as it always is on a Sunday morning. Mrs Turtle led the turtles to the first stall were they bought some bread and butter. Then the turtles set off to the grocery stall, which was about five stalls down.
On the way Jordan saw a pretty bracelet in one of the stalls and stopped to admire it. It was a small silver bracelet with purple diamonds and love hearts engraved on it. Jordan really loved the bracelet and really wanted to buy it.
So she went up to the shop keeper and asked how much it was. It turned out to be four hundred dollars!
Jordan refused to pay that price and turned back to where she thought her family was waiting. She looked left and right, in front and behind, but she could not see them anywhere.
She swam around frantically looking for her family, but all she saw was all different types of sea creatures such as large fish, small fish, pink fish and blue fish. But in the distance she could see something, a turtle? Or was it just another fish?
Jordan decided to go check it out. So she swam towards it and as she got closer she realised that it was a turtle, so she went up to it and tapped the turtles shell.
The turtle turned around and Jordan realised this wasn’t her mother or any of her siblings.
Jordan sank her head down sadly and swam away from the crowd.
She kept swimming until she couldn’t move. Jordan lifted her head and realised she was caught in a net. She twisted and turned trying to get out of the net, but it wasn’t working. She cried for help and no one heard her.
She just lay there caught in the net.
Just then she heard a noise, it sounded like someone coming towards her. She started yelling again and luckily this creature heard her.
The older fish rushed over to her and asked her if she was alright. Jordan recognised the voice, it was Mrs Pike, one of her mother’s good friends from high school. Mrs Pike had come over for dinners and morning teas a couple of times.
Mrs Pike greeted Jordan and helped her out of the net. It took a lot of force to get Jordan out, but they eventually got there.
Jordan looked around not knowing where she was, she asked Mrs Pike, who just said she’ll take her home so she gets there safely.
It was a quiet trip back home with nothing to say.
When they got home, Mrs Turtle was out on the front deck reading a book, in her favourite deck chair.
Mrs Turtle asked Jordan were she had been and she got in a lot of trouble.
Mrs Turtle asked Mrs Pike if she would like to stay for dinner, but Mrs Pike rejected, as she had to get back to her own family, on the other side of the Great Barrier Reef.
From then on Jordan was a good turtle and never wandered off or got caught up in anything again.
The turtle family are at a market place when Jordan gets left behind while window shopping. Upon discovering that she is all alone, she sets off to rejoin her family. She sees something in the distance and gets caught big time.