Trouble at the Zoo (2 page)

In the parking lot, families were already spilling out of their cars, attaching snorkels, masks, flippers, goggles, or floaties, and making their way toward the zoo entrance. There was lots of excited chatter.

Holly Brown, aged six, was dressed up like a blue swimmer crab. She had been looking forward to coming to Bindi’s birthday ever since the day she was born (so she said), and this year her dream had come true. Today also happened to be her brother’s birthday, so normally she would be hanging around while her brother and his friends threw sand at each other and had competitions to see who could eat cake the fastest or who could do the biggest burp after drinking lots of fizzy drinks. Yuck! She was glad she wasn’t ever going to be a boy! This year Holly’s mum and dad had promised her they would all go to Bindi’s birthday.

Holly’s brother, Zac, stood out from the rest of the excited crowd. It wasn’t that he looked any different. He was wearing goggles, like plenty of other kids, and his mum was trying to slather him in sunscreen, like plenty of other kids.

The difference was that Zac Brown wore a frown.

Not one single other person, young or old, big or small, was doing anything but smiling.

Holly just couldn’t understand it. She knew her brother really loved animals, especially reptiles, so even though he had been the grumpiest brother a sister had
ever
had to put up with during the car journey here, she knew he’d really enjoy being at Australia Zoo today.

It’s just that to look at him, you wouldn’t know.

“Hurry up, Zac. I don’t want to be last in the line to get in.” Holly was holding her mum’s and dad’s hands, and skipping fast, making a beeline toward the entrance.

Zac was sulking behind them. “There’s no rush, okay. We’ll be waiting in line forever anyway. And it’s not even nine o’clock yet.”

Mr. Brown, who was dressed as a sea monster and covered head to foot in seaweed, turned and gave his son one of those stern
be nice to your sister
looks, before he was dragged away.

Zac watched as a bakery van pulled up to the zoo entrance and two delivery men maneuvered a large birthday cake out of the van’s back doors. Well, on the plus side, he did love cake, and that cake looked big enough to feed an elephant! He moved closer to the delivery men. Perhaps he could run up and sneak a taste of the icing. It looked
really
good. He inched a little closer.

Mrs. Brown glanced over at her son. “Zac, keep out of the men’s way. Come over here and join the line.”

Zac sighed as he watched the cake being carried through the front entrance. No, he did not like the way his tenth birthday was turning out, and it had only just begun.

All over the zoo, staff members dressed as dolphins, swordfish, slippery eels, and every underwater creature you could think of were buzzing around, helping set up for the day’s many activities.

Bindi, Robert, and Rosie made their way around the zoo, taking in the extraordinary sights—slippery slides and music stages were ready for action, aquamarine helium balloons were tied to signposts, and enormous bubble machines were getting a test run.

A few of the zoo’s employees, with walkie-talkies in hand, were busy making sure the three kids didn’t see anything that would spoil the surprises the day had in store.

“Keeper One to Keeper Three?” a zookeeper dressed as a puffer fish whispered into his walkie-talkie as he sped past the kids in a golf buggy. “There’s a mermaid, a sea horse, and an octopus heading to the croc enclosures now. Move that cake outta there, pronto!”

Over by the crocs, a dolphin and two clown fish were moving the whale-sized birthday cake when the walkie-talkie crackled through its message. The three froze in position for a moment, and then started scampering off in the opposite direction. The clown fish kept hold of the cake while the dolphin answered the call. “Copy that, Keeper One, or should I call you Puffer Fish One? Cake taking a detour via the Tasmanian devils, over.”

Just past the croc enclosure, Bindi waved to a starfish setting up a popcorn stand. “The zoo is always an amazing place,” she said to Rosie and Robert, “but today it looks even more amazing than usual.”

“Yeah,” piped up Robert. “Maybe everyone should dress up as underwater creatures every day.”

“That’d be cool,” said Bindi. “Although I wonder if it would confuse the animals if their keepers began looking like animals themselves?”

Rosie pointed to a creature who was busy trimming a tree nearby. “Is he dressed as a snail? That isn’t an underwater creature, is it?”

The snail overheard the comment and turned to the kids indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’m not a garden snail, but a sea snail. Look at the stripes on my shell. I’m a Cabestana snail, of course.”

Rosie giggled. “Well, excuse me, Mr. Snail. I do apologize. I don’t know as much about gastropods as I should.”

“Apology accepted,” said the snail, bowing solemnly, “because you’re such a polite mermaid. Oops, nearly forgot. Happy birthday, Bindi. You’re in for a
whale
of a day.”

“Ha ha. Thanks, Mac.
Catch
ya later,” Bindi replied.

Rosie groaned. “Oh no, the under-water jokes have started already and the zoo isn’t even open yet!”

An announcement came over the PA system. It was Terri. “Five minutes till showtime, guys. Take your starting positions. Bindi and Robert, stop ‘sea-horsing’ around, and start running!”

The siblings rolled their eyes good-naturedly at their mother’s joke. Rosie gave her friend a quick hug good-bye and raced toward the admin entrance, where she would be in charge of organizing the music for the zoo opening.

A large shiny scallop shell had been placed just inside the zoo’s entrance. Sparkling sand had been spread around the base of the shell and a watery blue curtain hid the scene from view.

Bindi and Robert had just reached the shell when Terri came over to join them. She gave both kids a quick hug. “Showtime?”

Bindi had a last-minute attack of butterflies. “I hope everything goes okay today!” she said as she glanced toward the entrance.

Terri smiled. “Bindi Sue, we’ll make sure it does!” Bindi squeezed her mum’s hand and turned to Robert.

Brother and sister high-fived each other. “Showtime,” they said in unison.

“Three…two…one…Open those gates. Welcome, everyone, to Bindi’s Eleventh Birthday Underwater Extravaganza!” From the admin office, Rosie switched off the microphone and pressed play on the CD player. A medley of underwater songs started up, the first of which was one Bindi had chosen especially for Robert and his costume—
Octopus’s Garden
.

Robert and Terri were busy operating the bubble machines, and thousands of bubbles floated into the crowd. Little kids jumped and popped as many bubbles as they could.

As the guests flooded in through the gates, people were looking around. “Where is she? Where’s Bindi?”

The sea curtain was pulled away and the large scallop shell was revealed. Slowly the shell opened and Bindi the sea horse hatched out, waving and smiling at everyone.

Once the applause had died down, she welcomed the crowd. “It’s fantastic to see you all here and thank you so much for helping me celebrate my birthday today.”

Bindi loved seeing heaps of people enjoying her zoo and caring about wildlife. She was glowing with happiness as she continued her speech. “Proceeds from today will go toward preventing whaling in Antarctica. Whales are the gentle giants of the ocean, and we just have to protect them. Earlier this year my family and I went to Antarctica, and we did see whales, but there seems to be fewer and fewer of them every year. I really believe we need to continue fighting for their survival.”

The crowd clapped in support.

Bindi continued, “We have lots of fantastic things to see and do at the zoo today, so please enjoy yourselves. And I’ll be seeing you all later on at the Crocoseum.”

The zoo staff was busy on their walkie-talkies as streams of people made their way into the zoo and was on hand to help with any questions.

Robert was pumping the last bit of bubble mixture out of the bubble machine when he decided it was time to take a turn on the slippery slide. As he went to leave, a boy, who looked about ten and was wearing goggles, caught his eye. He was frowning as he walked through the entrance gates. “Now that’s not right,” thought Robert to himself. “That boy obviously needs to laugh and he is lucky that Robert the Octopus is here to help out!”

Robert ambled over to the older boy. “Hey there, goggle man,” he said, flicking out a few tentacles. “What did the boy octopus say to the girl octopus?”

The boy looked slightly taken aback. Why was this octopus talking to him? “Ummm, don’t know,” he replied uncertainly.

“Can I hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand?” replied Robert, laughing at his own joke.

The boy wearing the goggles didn’t even crack a smile. “Oh, right, I get it. Eight tentacles.”

Robert was horrified. Not even a smirk? Who was this kid? Hmmm, in his experience kids who didn’t have a sense of humor were trouble. He’d better keep an eye on this boy.

“Yeah, well, enjoy your day,” Robert said before racing off, his tentacles streaming behind him.

The slippery slide was already full of kids. Hoses squirted water onto the slides and kids propelled themselves down, screaming and laughing. Bindi and Rosie were waiting in line.

“Are you having fun, birthday girl?” Rosie asked.

“You bet,” answered Bindi. “I can’t believe everyone dressed up and looks so amazing! The photos from today will be hilarious.”

“They’ll have to be better than that one your mum took of us this morning!”

Rosie had spent precious minutes rearranging sequins and chiffon after Robert’s surprise entrance into the photo.

“Oh, don’t remind me. I think I’ve got a bruise from where Robert’s elbow hit me in the leg.” Bindi rubbed her shin, remembering the incident.

“Who knew octopuses had elbows?” Rosie quipped, and both girls laughed.

Bindi looked around the zoo. “I haven’t seen your parents yet, Ro,” she said. “What costumes are they wearing?”

Rosie pointed to a pair of sea turtles over by the karaoke stage. “They’re helping with the music. Considering how much my parents love to sing, the kids will be lucky if they can get anywhere near the microphone!”

Behind the girls in the line, Rosie noticed a boy arguing with his little sister. She looked close to tears. Rosie turned to Bindi and gave her a quiet nudge. Bindi turned around and decided to help.

“Hey there, little crab,” she said to the girl. “What’s your name?”

Holly went from miserable to thrilled in an instant. Bindi Irwin was talking to her! Holly just beamed, too excited to speak.

Zac looked at his sister, embarrassed. “Holly, say something,” he encouraged.

“Ummm, uh, um, I’m a blue swimmer crab named Holly and it’s my brother’s birthday today too,” she finally blurted out.

“Oh, really. Well, what’s your brother’s name?” Rosie smiled at Zac. She thought he was sort of cute, even though he was wearing goggles.

Holly was getting her voice back and it was growing louder and louder by the second. “His name’s Zac, and I’m Holly—oh, I’ve said that already, haven’t I? Ummm, happy birthday, Bindi!” She started jumping up and down.

Zac was now looking mortified. “Calm down, Hol.”

Bindi smiled at him. “Come on, Zac, you know what little brothers and sisters are like.” She pointed at Robert, now poised at the top of the slippery slide, about to rocket himself headfirst down the slide. “Look at Robert up there. He’s totally uncontrollable!” They couldn’t help but laugh at Robert careering down, the kids on either side of him getting faces full of wayward tentacles as he flew past.

“Well, it was nice to meet you two,” Bindi smiled at the Brown kids.

Holly gave Bindi an impromptu hug and Zac looked away moodily, still wishing he was somewhere else.

Rosie rolled her eyes at his behavior and she and Bindi got to the top of the slide, held hands, and whooshed down the slippery slide, giggling all the way.

Later on, while Bindi was bringing around an eastern water dragon for people to pet, she bumped into the Brown family again.

Bindi smiled as she recognized Holly and Zac from the slippery slide. “Hi, guys. Would you like to pat the—”

Zac interrupted her, looking really enthusiastic, “It’s an eastern water dragon. I know, I love them. What’s this one called?”

Bindi was a little taken aback by Zac’s change of mood. “This one’s called Mardi. And she is the sweetest creature.”

“Hi, Mardi.” Zac patted the dragon carefully, with one finger along her spine. “I’ve always wanted to have a lizard. I like eastern water dragons but I also really like monitors and blue tongues. Although perenties are really cool too.”

“Well, the eastern water dragons have a great life at the zoo. We have heaps of them and they get to roam freely around the place. They’re really good at keeping an eye out for any leftovers that the other animals leave behind.”

Bindi turned to Holly. “Hey, Holly, keep your crab eyes on the lookout. You might see one of these beautiful girls sunning herself on our tortoises. They love the warmth of the shells, and the tortoises don’t seem to mind one little bit.”

Holly grinned. “How cool.” She gave the dragon a tentative pat because, quietly, she much preferred animals covered in fur.