Ava first came to the Seven Golden Secrets workshops only writing a single paragraph. Now she can tell a whole story.

HELPING A FISH HAVE A GOOD CHRISTMAS, A 9-YEAR-OLD SPINS HER WRITING FINS

Dear Readers: When I first read this, I had no idea it was going to be a holiday story. So I just told you the big secret. But it’s a fishy-good read anyway. Diana

Penelope the Fish

By Ava Pfannerer, 9

Penelope was beautiful. She had turquoise scales and was a fast swimmer. As a matter of fact, Penelope was the fastest swimmer at Deep Ocean High School.

So far, I bet you think Penelope is perfect. Well, she is not. Remember how I told you she was a beautiful turquoise color? Well, that’s the color of the ocean so hardly anybody could see her.

It is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is she doesn’t have to worry about being eaten by a bigger fish. The bad thing is she couldn’t have any friends, because they couldn’t see her!

She would try to flap her fins around to move the water, but everyone just freaked out and swam away because they thought the faint spot they were seeing was a ghost.

One day, Penelope was sitting on a patch of seaweed. Then she saw a big purple fish bossing around a poor, little pink fish. Penelope felt so bad for the little guy. Then she had an idea.

She swam over to the mean purple fish and she started flapping her tail around moving the water. The mean purple fish couldn’t see anything and got scared.

“What?” screamed the mean purple fish, swimming away as fast as he could.

Suddenly, Penelope heard:  “HO, HO, HO!”

“Santa?!” Penelope cried.

“Penelope, you were very nice,” said Santa, who sat on his sleigh with reinfish.  “Now I will give you your wish.”

He turned Penelope a green color, so all the other fish could see her.

“Thanks Santa,” she said.

“No problem,” barked Santa and whisked off in his sea sleigh.

From then on, Penelope was happy as a clam.