literature

Just Chill Out

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It was the second-to-last day of school, and a class of sophomores from the local high school was currently on a field trip to the city’s aquarium. Most of the students were happily chitchatting as they toured through the exhibits, but one of them wasn’t. His name was Geoffrey, and he wasn’t enjoying the trip at all. Being the star of the school’s soccer team, he had hoped to be spending the day at school playing it. Instead, here he was touring a stupid aquarium with the rest of his class. Even worse, they had an annoying tour guide leading them and answer the questions on a work sheet they were given.

“Now then, as we leave the River fish exhibit and enter the next building you’ll start to notice that the temperature has begun to drop. That is because we are moving on to one of our newest exhibits, the Penguins, and they require a much cooler environment to live in.” The tour guide announced

You could just hear the various reactions from the group, ranging from “Ahhh, how cute.” To “Who gives a care.” Geoffrey found himself agreeing with the later, though for the entire trip he had been sour to the idea of being there in the first place. He scowled as the group continued on, and for a moment he had thought that the tour guide had given him a smirking look. Shaking the idea out of his head, Geoffrey followed behind the rest of the group. The trip required them to walk between buildings, and in the near summer heat it didn’t take long for them all to feel a bit warm and sweaty. So when they arrived in the Penguin exhibit everyone was relieved.

People started crowding around the bars in front of where the penguins were being held while Geoffrey stayed back watching. The penguins weren’t doing much anyway, mostly just sitting or standing in various places. There were several kinds of penguins in the environment, ranging from Galápagos Penguins to…

“As you can all see, we are currently missing one penguin from the exhibit, a male Emperor Penguin. It was part of a set of two, and the female arrived here no problem. However, some complications arose with the arrival of the male one. However,” Geoffrey noticed the man looking at him again, “I believe we’ll be getting one any moment.”

Geoffrey was about to just leave the room and head to a different exhibit when the tour guide placed his hand on the shoulder.

“What do you want?” He asked, grumbling about the delay.

“Young man, I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to not be in the best of mood. I insist that you come over and take a good look at the penguins. They tend to be a playful little bunch, once they get going.”

Geoffrey wanted to say no, but before he could get the chance he found himself right in front of the exhibit. Deciding to humor the tour guide he started to lean over the rail to ‘look’ at the penguin. There wasn’t any glass, and so he was able to lean in pretty far. Suddenly, he found himself falling into the freezing water. It was a massive shock, to say the least. He instantly felt himself numb over as he called for help. He saw the tour guide standing nearby, but he was just talking about penguins.

“Now, one of the more interesting things about the Emperor Penguins are their adaptations to the freezing environment of Antarctica. The waters where the penguins live are approximately. 28.8 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much lower than the penguins normal body temperature of 102 degrees.”

Geoffrey felt his torso begin to warm up as the man continued speaking.

“To prevent a massive lost of body heat the penguins have two weapons; their feathers and a layer of fat. The fat is sub-dermal, which means it appears a good way into the skin. Now, the feathers work…”

Geoffrey was unable to pay much attention as the tour guide began explaining the details of the feathers. He was much more concerned about the changes that were beginning to happen to his body. It started with some simple inflation as he felt a layer of fat starting to appear in his skin all over his body, matching exactly what the man was saying.

Meanwhile, he felt a prickling sensation as feathers began appearing all over him. He could hear the man describe the colors and other facts about feathers, though he didn’t really need them as he could see it in action. The feathers were small, spear shaped and were very densely packed. They were a deep black color on his back and the tops of his arms while the underside of his arms were white like his stomach. Around his chest and ears they were a yellow color. He saw his hair fall out as black feathers began appearing there as well.

Horror struck as he realized what was happening. The more the man spoke the more and more like a penguin he became. Right now he was just a large feathered freak, but how much longer would that last.

“Wait, please stop, I don’t want to be a …” He started pleading

“Penguins communicate with each other through a complex series of calls in order to differentiate among parents, mates, and chicks.”

The tour guide continued on describing the beak and vocal chords of the penguins. Geoffrey continued pleading, but it was all in vein. His mouth began hardening and extending out into a thin, black colored beak, and soon Geoffrey was only wailing out penguin calls.

Great, now I can’t even speak, and I think I must of hit upon a mating call. Geoffrey thought as he saw a female penguin stuck its head up for a moment.

Now a feather and beaked freak, Geoffrey was wondering how much further this man was going to go. There couldn’t be much left since by this point he had described the technical stuff what could be left. Apparently there was, as one of his classmates raised her hand.

“Excuse me, but I have a few more questions. How tall are emperor penguins, and how much do they weigh? With all that fat and such I’d expect them to be pretty heavy.”

The tour guide laughed a little before he spoke. “Actually, they don’t weigh that much. A full grown Emperor Penguin can be about two feet tall from head to tail and weigh up to 82 pounds.”

Here we go again. Geoffrey thought as he began feeling his body shift. His bones could be heard creaking and shifting as they adjusted to his new height of two feet while his organs went through a similar. He also felt his muscle and fat disappear as his weight was brought closer to the size of a penguin. So now he looked more like a feathered human midget than the lean soccer player he was when he started

However, the rest of the changes were spurred on without the assistance of the tour guides information. The bones in his arms began shifting again and flattening out a bit until they created a pair of two perfect penguin flippers. Both his neck and spine began extending out to create his new penguin neck and tail. His feet went through a similar flattening process like his arms, though instead of becoming flippers they shifted into three-toed bird feet as webbing also appeared. His small stature made his chest seem a bit puffed out, so the only part looking close to human was his head (minus the beak), but that was quickly fixed with a little more shifting with the bones.

Some minor changes later and where there once was Geoffrey the human was now Geoffrey the penguin. Getting out of his now useless clothes and the water, he waddled his way onto the land. Turning around he could see his former classmates as well as the tour guide.

“Ah, there we go. See, told you that we’d have ourselves an Emperor Penguin any minute. Now then, let us proceed to the “Rivers of the World” exhibit.”

As Geoffrey tried calling out to them in penguin the group turned around to leave. At this point it’s safe to say he was depressed. He would never play soccer again, now that he was a penguin trapped in the aquarium. However, as he stood there he felt something pushing against him. Looking up, he saw the female penguin from earlier mimicking his movements. His eyes darted around, hoping to find the penguins mate. However, all the others were paired off, and she was the only Emperor Penguin. Mating season entered his mind, but then he remembered from class that it was only till April. So why was she going through the motions of it unless she was just playing with them.

“They tend to be a playful little bunch, once they get going.” Of course, I guess being the only Emperor Penguin around could get lonely. Maybe I’ll just play around with her for a little bit, but then I’m out of here.

Several years later another sophomore class arrived to see the penguin exhibit. This was of an especially important one, as the aquarium was proud to say that the pair of Emperor Penguins had finally succeeded in hatching an egg with a healthy chick.

“Now over here we can see the happy penguin couple of Geoffrey and his mate. We received them over three years ago, and Geoffrey over here took pretty quickly to his new environment. I have to say that in all my years I’ve never seen such a happier little penguin.”

On the other side of the railing Geoffrey was standing with the newborn chick underneath his protective fur. His mate was nearby pruning herself. As he listened to the tour guide speak he had to agree with it. Ever since that day three years ago since he was transformed into a penguin he had been happier than any moment in his life before. And now he had a newborn chick and a mate to enjoy it with, as well as all his penguin friends. In fact, he had gotten pretty close with the rest of the penguins, even feeling sadness when one of them (a female Galápagos) died, leaving her mate all by his lonesome.

However, his thoughts were interrupted as he heard a splash, and a girl fell into the exhibit.

““Now, one of the more interesting things about the Galápagos Penguins are their…”

As the girl began to become covered in feathers, Geoffrey had only one thought.

Here we go again.
I am so terrible at titles.

Anyways, I wrote this in honor of school letting out for the summer where I live. Of course, for poor Geoffrey here before he can enjoy the summer and play soccer he is transformed into a penguin during a school trip. However, it has a happy ending that I hope doesn't sound cheesy/cliche/ any other word that means those two.
© 2008 - 2024 Whammyman5
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burningphantom13's avatar
Is there only an aquarium? Or are there more TF exhibits? :D