TOMMY-ELESEAL
By Lucy R.

It was the very first day of Seal-a-Garten in Elephant town. Now, you may be asking:
“What’s Seal-a-Garten? Where the heck is Elephant Town? What kind of name is Elephant Town…and is that an insult?”
Well, you’re soon to find out!
Sweet little Tommy-Eleseal was flopping down the big brick school’s cool, colorful, hallway. He held Mommy Elephant’s soft trunk and, and Daddy Seal’s blubbery flipper.
“Hmm, let’s see here Tommy,” muttered Mommy. “Tiger-Garten, Snake-a-Garten, Rabbit-Garten, Kindergarten……” she said, looking for the right room. “Ah, here we go Tommy, Seal-a-Garten!” Said Mommy Elephant as they came to a big decorated door, with a shiny blue tile next to it that read: “Seal-a-Garten, Room 110”
There were little paper smiling seals with rosy cheeks pasted on the door, numbered one to twenty-four, pink seals for the girls and blue for the boys. “Grab your seal!” Exclaimed the red bubble letters on the door. Daddy Seal grabbed Tommy’s seal and, and Mommy Elephant helped stick it to Tommy’s fuzzy little seal body.
Poor Tommy knew something wasn’t right. He was going into Seal-a-Garten, right? But he was an Elephant-Seal…hmmm. He held his elephant head low to the floor in shame, so low that his soft little trunk skimmed the blue and purple carpet.
“Tommy-Eleseal! That is NO WAY to treat your trunk!” Gasped Mommy. Tommy picked his trunk up just a wee bit.
“Now don’t worry son, I asked the teacher if you can be in Seal-a-Garten, and she said it was A-OK! Now, have a great day at your first day!” said Daddy Seal. The two showered Tommy’s big floppy ears with slobbery kisses and sent him in.
The classroom was big and very air conditioned, with a high ceiling. The alphabet was on the wall in those same bold red bubble letters, capital and lower case. Tommy had to admit, it was impressive. Of course, all the other seals were already seated on a carpet decorated to look like Antarctica, looking at him expectantly with round faces.
“Why good morning sweetheart, welcome to Seal-a-Garten! We’re playing the name game right now, would you like to come sit in our circle and tell us your name?” Asked the plump, glasses wearing Seal-a-Garten teacher, a little too enthusiastically. You could tell she’d been teaching for way too long.
Tommy sat hesitantly down in the circle, and the two seals beside him scooted away. The other seals were whispering and giggling meanly, their beady black eyes staring. The seals all said their name one after another:
“Sealy, Luseal, Mary-Seal.” Were the last three. Finally, it was Tommy’s turn. Oh, why couldn’t he be a normal seal with a normal seal name?
“My name is…..um…its---ah…” Blurted out Tommy. Oh, holy elephant butter, he had forgotten his own name! “Uuuuummm, it’s….” The seals were giggling louder now. Suddenly, the class of seals burst out laughing, their blubbery little bellies jiggling this way and that. Poor Tommy buried his elephant head in his flippers, turning redder and redder by the second. Even the teacher was smiling.
“He’s not even a seal, he’s a---he’s a---Seal-a-Phant!” Wheezed one of the seals meanly. Tommy wanted to burst out and tell him that technically, he was an Eleseal, not a Seal-a-Phant! Phsh, who’s ever heard of that? But before he could do so, a new student wondered in shyly, with his whirly bird cap and his red and blue backpack.
Tommy had always wanted one of those whirly bird caps. And a brand new backpack all to himself! Jeez. But what Tommy-Eleseal admired most about the new student was his elephant head, and his seal body. And with that, Tommy triumphantly yelled:
“NOOOOO! IT’S TOMMY-ELESEAL! MY NAME IS TOMMY-ELESEAL!” The room went quiet, except for the timid voice of the new student.
“H-hey! T-t-that’s my n-name t-too!” He stammered. Wow. Tommy had never met anyone that had so much in common to him. The new student plopped down beside Tommy, and while the rest of the seals were saying their names, Tommy whispered to the other Tommy:
“Hey, you wanna be friends?”
“Sure!”
And for the rest of the year, despite the other guffawing seals, Tommy-Eleseal was best friends with the other Tommy-Eleseal!
THE END!!!