The drive to the beach took five hours. 

FIVE HOURS.

The family’s six-seat car was packed. Everyone (Except Star) was talking noisily AND, yes, I say and, the car was full of boxes that were in tall towers that were squishing everyone (Except the parents).

It was a lot for young Star.

Finally, after FIVE HOURS of endless driving, the family arrived at their destination–

A small, bright yellow, one-story house right next to the beach.

Since everyone was tired after the long drive, they unpacked the car quickly and left most of the boxes on the floor.

Star was supposed to share a room with her siblings.

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

As it turned out, all the siblings were like that.

“Why do I have to share a room with you?” Flame whined.

“I’m hating here so far.” Moon said.

“Life officially stinks.” Bat agreed.

The four siblings laughed.

The truth was, at home each sibling had their own room with a bed, a desk, and a closet.

They had never shared a room with two bunk beds and four dressers.

Along with Bat, Star had left everything in her suitcase and had dumped it on the floor, whereas Moon and Flame had put their clothes in their chosen dresser (But they still left their suitcases in the middle of the floor).

Star had agreed to be on a bottom bunk, with Moon above her, whereas Bat was at the bottom of his bunk with Flame on top.

Now the siblings were laying on their beds, complaining about their shared room.

After a short pause, Bat said, “I like the Boy Bunk.”

“How about Boy Buck Bunk?” Moon asked from the top of her bunk.

“Why?” Flame mewed.

“Because a buck is a male deer,” Moon said proudly, proud of her knowledge. 

“I like the name Boy Buck Bunk.” Star declared.

“Me too,” Giggled Flame. “I am officially naming the bunk bed that.”

“Wait. One problem.” Bat said.

Everyone turned to him.

“We’re cats, not deer!” Bat laughed.

Star couldn’t help but join the giggling of her siblings. She had been so worried, but in the end it was a simple joke!

“Your bunk will be…” Flame said, thinking.

“Girl Gunk Funk Bunk!” Bat said, laughing even harder.

“I’m against the ‘Gunk’ part.” Star said.

“Although it’s not my bunk, I’m against it too.” Flame meowed.

“I declare war against Bat’s idea!” Moon yowled, her voice half drowned in Star’s giggling.

Bat threw his pillow at Moon.

Flame started laughing so hard that he nearly rolled off his bunk, although the safety railing was there. 

Everyone joined the laughter until they all fell peacefully asleep.

---

Star woke up when someone shoved her.

Star opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry.

“Pillowfight!!!” 

Star could barely see Bat in front of her, who had made the shout.

Bat slammed his pillow into Star’s stomach.

“Hey!” Star hissed.

Star didn’t feel groggy anymore. With her vision cleared, she grabbed Bat’s pillow and thwacked his head with it.

Bat fell to the floor, eyes closed.

“Bat?” Star asked, suddenly worried.

“You killed me,” Bat giggled, opening his eyes. “You win.”

He stood up and took his pillow from Star.

“Not so fast!” Moon yowled, jumping over her bunk’s railing and onto the wooden floor. “Boys V.S. girls!” 

“But I’m sleeping!” Star heard the complaint come from Flame’s bunk.

“Well, too bad!” Moon said, half-running half-sliding across the orange wood planks of the floor toward the ‘Boy Buck Bunk’.

Star grabbed her pillow, sat up, and faced Bat. “Sorry about this,” she said before she ‘killed’ Bat again.

Flame woke up quickly. He was sitting up in confusion by the time Moon reached his bunk’s ladder. Armed with a turquoise pillow, Moon climbed his ladder with one hand before facing him.

Before Flame had the chance to realize what was going on, Moon whacked his chest with her pillow,

“Hey!” Flame hissed. He yanked the pillow out of Moon’s paws before hitting her side with it, hard.

“OW!” Moon yowled. “That HURT!” 

Moon gave Flame a glare before jumping off his bed. She used the bunk’s safety railing to swing onto Bat’s bed with a small ‘Oof’.

Bat sat up, still on the floor, and looked around to see what Moon’s yowl had been about. When he looked at the door, a startled expression came across his dark tabby face.

“What is going on here?” Someone (The thing Bat was staring at) said.

The other three siblings turned to the door.

Their Pop was there, glaring at them.

“Um,” Flame and Moon said together.

“We were pillowfighting,” Star said truthfully.

Her father glared harder at the siblings. “Pillowfights are only in stories. Don’t do it again.”

“Okay,” The four siblings said, staring at the floor. Star was unsure if 

she’d be able to keep the promise.

“Come on,” Liz said with a sigh. “Let’s get some breakfast.”

Liz turned around and walked out of the room. Bat, Flame, and Moon followed him guiltily.

But Star didn’t follow. She suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. Right now she wanted to hide from her family.

Little did she know, one day she would get that wish.

“Mom, may I go outside now?” Star asked. Her parents had forced her to have some breakfast, and now, an hour later, the pillowfight was forgotten.

“No, you need sunscreen, water shoes, and a bathing suit.” Star’s mom replied.

“But I hate sunscreen!” Star complained, paying attention to only the first item on the list. “It makes my fur all sticky and bad-smelling and when it dries it takes days to wash out. DAYS!”

“Fine. Get a sunburn. But you still need water shoes and a bathing suit.”  Star’s mom said, giving up. Everyone in Star’s family knew how much Star hated sunscreen.

“Yay!!!” Moon cheered, bouncing around the small room. She too hated sunscreen.

“No.” Star’s mom said, turning to Moon. “You are responsible.”  A pause. “Put this on,” She then added, handing Moon the sunscreen.

“Boo! Dislike responsibility!” Moon said, walking to the bathroom with the sunscreen in her paws.

“Oh, and Star?” Star’s Mom asked as Star started racing to her room. “Don’t go outside until me or Liz is out there with you.”

“Okay,” Star said before continuing to rush to her room. She pulled her water shoes and swimsuit out of her suitcase before slipping off her nightgown and putting the needed things on.

When she ran back to the small kitchen, her father was going outside with Bat behind him. Star followed them out the door.

The first thing Star got was a blast of salty air, which startled her so much she stopped in her tracks.

Star’s surprise was quickly replaced with awe. With Liz and Bat no longer blocking her view, Star was able to see the magical scene in front of her.

This was even better than in stories!

A huge white-sand beach stretched out in front of her, with a seemingly endless blue-green ocean beyond the sparkly sand. Seagulls flew in the air, squawking noisily, and sandpipers ran around the shoreline, dodging the waves that washed across the bottom of the bright beach. Star could see a pelican bobbing gently across the water far beyond where the sandpipers ran, and beyond that the gentle waves grew tall and strong, able to wash even the strongest dragonborn away.

Seashells of every size, shape and color were scattered everywhere, and they were packed more closely near the shoreline. A single glance told Star

that she would not run out of shells to bring home.

Liz walked around the beach, tracing pawprints all over the perfect sand. After a minute of searching, he seemed to have found what he was looking for. He, with the help of Bat, rolled out a beach blanket on the chosen spot. Liz laid down on it and closed his eyes.

Star ran across the beach toward the water. When she reached it, sandpipers darting in every direction in their attempt to get away from her, Star lifted one of her front paws and lightly touched the water.

The water was surprisingly cold, for the time being in summer and it being near the hottest time of day, sunhigh, plus being filled with the sharp-scenting, almost burning, salt.

Star drew her paw out of the freezing waters and started washing it with her tongue to dry it off, and instantly regretted doing so. The water that soaked her paw’s fur was so salty it tasted like the time when Star had accidentally poured a whole shaker of salt in her mouth, when she had mistook it for sugar two years ago.

Yellow Battle turned away from his father and bounded toward Star. Each time he took a leap, he sent up a huge cloud of white, sandy dust. His leaps were taking him so fast toward Star that, when he had reached his watching sister, he had to awkwardly slide to a halt to prevent himself from crashing into her. His scrambled halt had sent up another big cloud of sparkly dust, so the siblings had to wait for the cloud to clear to see each other again.

Star heard Bat sneeze. Some sand-dust had gone up his nose. When

the dust settled a few seconds later, leaving the two siblings with bits of sand in their fur, Bat said, “Dad’s asleep. I don’t think we should go into the water without him watching.”

Star nodded. That made sense. And, anyway, she wasn’t a good swimmer, and she didn’t want to wade too far out and then accidently drown.

A sudden movement caught Star’s eye, and she looked left, at where she’d seen the flash of color. She lowered into a crouch to not scare the thing away, and she was just able to see her brother’s confused expression and tilted head before she saw the flash of red again.

This time the creature didn’t disappear, instead it stood on the sand before starting to dig a hole in the moist, light-gray sand near the shoreline.

That hole you’re digging is going to flood when it becomes high tide tonight, Star thought at the critter.

The creature was  about the size of a dove, and six bright red legs poked out beneath a shell that was the white color of the sand around it. Two red stalks peeked out under the shell, and each stalk had an eye on top that was focused on the hole that it was digging. It was digging using the small red pincers that were on it’s two front legs. The tiny crustacean didn’t notice that Star was watching it.

Star didn’t realize that she had wanted to play until now. She wiggled in joy, ready to pounce on the critter. Those tiny red legs reminded Star 

of the feather toys she had at home, nobody thinking or wanting to bring them to the beach until now.

Someone threw a shell by the crustacean, purposely to harmlessly scare

it away. The blue clamshell hit the wet sand with a loud Crack, and it 

split into four smaller pieces.

The red-and-white crab jumped back in surprise before scuttling quickly away, diving into a nearby hole that was flooded with seawater. The sand-colored shell made the critter that lived in it bled in with the nearby sand, and Star lost sight of it.

An annoyed hiss sounded behind her. Star turned her head to see her older brother glaring at her.

“Why did you try and catch it?!” He cried. “That poor innocent thing would have died of terror even if it managed to escape you!”

Star looked at the ground. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

The anger in Bat’s eyes faded away, and then he looked sadly at the broken blue shell. “It’s OK,” he said. “I’m just sad that the shell nearest to me was that pretty one. That I happened to throw.”

The shell was pretty. Or, at least it’s fragments were. Each piece of shell was a light blue, with darker blue swirls on it. Star could see that the shell could possibly be put back together, like a puzzle, but those crack lines would never disappear.

Star patted Bat to make him feel better. Just as she did, an idea sparked like a fire in her brain.

“I know!” Star cried, and Bat looked at her hopefully. “The shell split into four pieces. Me, You, Flame, and Moon can have a piece. I know that 

Flame loves shells, and Moon’s favorite color is light blue, just like me.”

Bat nodded enthusiastically. This way the shell wasn’t wasted, and 

each of the four siblings had something that they liked that the shell had. But for Star, this was a win-win. She liked shells. Her favorite color was light blue. The shell was pretty to her. This was a clamshell, and Star’s favorite kind of shell was a clamshell. And  Star would have a non-lame souvenir of the place she had dreamed about for months before she had come here.

“That’s a Brilliant idea!” Bat mewed happily. “You gather up the shell; I’ll tell our siblings about this. We’ll meet in the kitchen.”

Before Star could say ‘Okay’, Bat had already raced up the gently sloped beach and was at the door. As he went inside to tell his getting-ready-to-go-onto-the-beach siblings, Star grabbed the pieces of clamshell carefully. They were heavier than she’d thought they’d be, and she nearly let go, but she regained her balance in time. She looked at the blue-green sea. I’ll swim in you later, Star thought. She walked to the back door of their bright yellow house and went inside.

As Star walked down the short hallway of the house, she heard Bat talking to Moon and Flame about the broken shell in the sibling’s bedroom. Although she couldn’t hear exactly what Bat was saying behind the bedroom door, Moon’s curious reply – or question, maybe – was full of interest. 

That must be a good sign, Star thought. She hoped that her siblings would agree. She didn’t want the shell that cracked to scare away the crab 

to be wasted – especially since the shell had been thrown to make the crab run away before she killed the silly-looking thing.

Star reached the end of the hallway and walked into the kitchen. Nobody was there, since they had already had breakfast and cleared the table. AND the four Tabaxi siblings had wiped the table clean themselves.

Even if the kittens made no crumbs, whenever they had a meal or a snack at a table, their mother made them wipe the table clean. If they ate a Z-bar over the carpetless part of the wood floor at home, their mother made them sweep the floor. At home, the siblings were not allowed to have food and lidless water cups in the carpeted rooms.

Star slid into the chair nearest to her. It was a pretty dark brown color, with hints of tan here and there. The  chair, it’s buddies, and the table matched, their color a bright pop with the orange wood of the floor and ceiling. 

Star set the seashell pieces in the middle of the table. She decided to play a game of I Spy by herself. She looked around the room.

I Spy… that picture of a seagull on the wall!

The picture’s frame was made of the same dark brown wood that the table was made out of. The paper picture in the frame was colorful, having a big, white seagull flying over the blue-green ocean with a cloudless blue sky around it. The seagull in the picture had bright red feet, a bright red beak with a black tip, and the end of the seagull’s tail was the same black color. 

Behind the seagull was a small, yellow-sand island with grass in the 

middle. Growing at the middle-right of the grass patch was a palm tree with long, green leaves and two brown coconuts.

I Spy… that pink plant on the table!

The plant had a tall, tan stem that reflected the light of the chandelier over the table in an odd way. On top of the stem was a pink flower that looked a little like a pom-pom. The pom-pom flower had a few light green, spikey leaves that were poking out here and there. Star could see that the pom-pom flower was made out of smaller flowers clustered together. The leaves were poking out of the few small gaps between the flowers. When Star felt the leaves curiously. They didn’t feel like real leaves, and the ‘spikes’ on the sides of the leaves weren’t sharp at all.

Of course!  Star thought. With this house’s real owners gone a lot, the owners can’t take care of their plants. And the people that visit here, like how we are vacationing here, might forget to water the plants. So if you want plant things but can’t have real plants, why not buy nice non-real ones like this one?

That explains the odd feeling of the leaves and flower petals, and how that stem reflects light. But that’s a real pot, just with fake soil.

The pot had chipped a bit at the rim, but it was still a really nice pot. The soil was actually small bits of twigs and brown seashells, and Star knew this with a closer look.

Just as Star started looking for another I Spy, Bat came into the Kitchen, followed by Moon and Flame.

“Ooooooh, the shell is prettier than I thought!” Moon mewed, gazing at the shell’s pieces.

Bat made a sound that sounded like a mixture of a snort and a quickly hidden giggle. “Even though I told you it was very pretty,” he said.

“It’s prettier than pretty. It’s glamorous! Delicate! Intricate! Ultra-super-shiny!” Moon mewed, Bouncing around the table.

“Wow,” Star said. “I thought you’d like it, but I didn’t think you’d like it this much.”

Flame ran to the sibling’s bedroom to get something and quickly returned. He had a book in his paws whose title was The Ultimate Guide Of Shells; Species, Facts, and Shell Crafts. Flame started flipping through the pages with a curious look on his face and an occasional glance at the broken shell.

“Woooah, where did you get that?”  Star asked him.

Still searching through the book, he responded. “After breakfast, I put Bat’s clothes in his dresser for him and put our suitcases under his bed. 

They were just able to fit. I had to crawl partly under the bed to put them there, and when my eyes adjusted to the dark I found this book and a flashlight. Whoever was staying here before us must’ve had a Read In The Middle Of The Night When Nobody Can Catch You base right there, like the one you had under your bed when you were just a year old, Star. They must have accidentally forgot to pack their things there when they left.”

“I get it,” Moon said.

“Do we all want a piece of the shell?” Bat asked.

“Definitely,” Moon and Star mewed together.

Flame didn’t seem to hear. He continued to flip through the Shell Guide with an in-thought look on his face. He might have ignored Bat, but that was unlikely because he had never ignored his siblings before. 

The other three siblings watched him, waiting for an answer.

“Hmm. This book shows different kinds all over the world, but that shell isn’t in the book. Maybe I–” Bat broke off when he saw his siblings staring at him. “Uh, did you say something?” He asked. “Uh-oh, is there a big crumb on the table?”

Star couldn’t help but giggle at Flame’s ‘Crumb Worry’. She thought that his unusual mind powers would tell him what the Bat had said, but his powers must’ve not worked then. Maybe his special ability didn’t work in the constant  flow Star thought it did. Maybe it came in in waves, in a pattern, so it didn’t work all the time. Or maybe Flame didn’t activate it then because he thought he could read his sibling’s faces.

“Can’t you activate your mind powers?” Moon asked, echoing Star’s 

thoughts. 

“I don’t want to waste them?” Flame mewed. 

Star knew he was hiding something, but he had already revealed a huge secret to his siblings (That he had the mind powers); and only to his siblings. Star didn’t expect him to tell them another one so soon.

“I said ‘do you want a piece of the shell’,” Bat meowed. “Moon and Star want one, and I’m going to have one. There’s one left.”

Bat tilted his ears at Moon, and Star and Flame turned to her to see that she was already dancing around the room, one of the blue shell’s pieces 

in her paws.

“I’ll definitely have one,” Flame said with a nod. He sat in the chair to the right of Star, and took one of the shell pieces out of the pile for himself. 

Star noticed that it was the smallest piece.

Bat turned to his younger sister. “You had the idea,” He said to her. “You have the biggest piece.”

“No, you should have it,” Star objected. “You broke the shell, before I had the idea. You found it. You stopped me from eating that crab or- whatever-it-was. So, You should have the big piece.”

“No, You should have the piece.” Bat said.

“NO, You should.”

“NO, You.”

“NO. YOU.”

“YOU.”

“YOU.”

“No, YOU HAVE THE BIG PIECE OR I WILL LITERALLY DIE,” Bat said.

“OH, OKAY THEN. I WILL HAVE THE SUPER-IMPORTANT ULTRA-

MEGA-BIG piece.” Star said.

“Hey, guys!” Moon said, stopping the argument from going any further. “Can we name our shell piece?”

“Uh, sure, it’s your shell.” Bat said.

“It’s name will be Glamourus then,” Moon mewed.

“Oooh, a fancy name. What’cha thinking of?” Flame said. He was still flipping through the book, checking to make sure he didn’t skip a page.

“Uh, the name is Glamourus.” Moon said, confused.

“How do you spell it?” Bat asked.

“G-L-A-M-O-U-R-U-S,” Moon said, even more confused.

“That’s not how you spell the word ‘glamorous’.” Flame said in his know-

it-all voice. “Glamorous is spelled ‘G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.”’ 

“I didn’t mean the word ‘glamorous’.” Moon said, getting annoyed. “I know I’m spelling it wrong. You see–”  

“Oh, I get it!” Star interrupted. “The name may sound like the word ‘glamorous’, but Moon doesn’t mean the word version. She wanted a fancy name, and since the word ‘glamorous’ means fancy, pretty, or cool, she took the word and changed the letters a bit. It’s still pronounced ‘Glam-OR-us’, but it’s spelled differently.” 

Star looked at Moon, hoping she was right.

“Star’s right.” Moon said.

“Oooh,” Bat and Flame said together, finally getting it.

“I think we should all name our shells,” Moon said. “Tricky, special, names will do.”

“Sure,” Bat said. “Sounds like fun.”

“FINE,” Flame said. “I’m TERRIBLE at names, but I’ll give it a try.”

“Me, too,” Star said.

For the next few minutes, the siblings sat at the table with pencils and paper, trying to think of names.

“I have a name,” Flame said, breaking the long silence. “It’ll be Uniqke. Pronounced You-KNEE-k, and spelled U-N-I-Q-K-E.”

“I have a name, too!” Star mewed. “Mine will be Willoaw. Pronounced Will-OH, but spelled W-I-L-L-O-A-W. 

Everyone turned to Bat, ready for him to tell them his shell’s new name.

“Eh dof ah va hame hef,” He mumbled.

“Huh?” Moon asked. Bat looked embarrassed. Flame gave Bat a nod, like he knew exactly what Bat meant.

“I… didn’t understand.” Star mewed.

“I dof haf a fame pet,” Bat repeated. 

Flame opened his book of Ultimate Guide Of Shells  and started searching through it.

“Uh… what’s the name, Bat?” Star asked.

“I don’t have a name yet,” Bat said.

“Oh,” Moon said. “So all the people here that aren’t good at making 

names have one now, and the one that’s good at making names doesn’t?”

Bat looked even more embarrassed. 

“It’s OK, Bat,” Star said, giving him a comforting blink. “I get it. I’m good at some things, but some days nothing comes to me, or it’s really hard to get an idea to come. It was pure luck that the name Willoaw came to me.”

Bat looked less embarrassed now.

“You’re right,” he said, lifting Star off the ground in a big hug.

Star wriggled out of his grasp and slid back into her chair. “I’ll help you brainstorm a bit. What are the basics of what you want?”

Bat thought for a few seconds. “Well,” he finally said. “I want it’s name to start with a ‘P’, have at least five letters… aaannd…”

“How about the name ‘Prett–” Moon started to say.

“But not be the name ‘Pretty’,” Bat finished.

Star heard Moon say “Aaaww, man,” quietly.

“How about the name ‘Perfern’?” Flame asked after a second.

“What does it mean and how is it spelled?” Bat asked, sounding interested.

“Well, in the name ‘Perfurn’, I guess the ‘Per’ part means ‘Perfect’, and, well, ‘Fern’ means, well, ‘Fern’.” Flamed mewed. “I spelled it ‘P-E-R-F-E-R-N’, but if you choose it as a name, it’s your name, so you can always change it.”

“I like that name,” Bat said. “I’ll go with ‘Perfern’, but I’ll change the spelling to ‘P-U -R-F-E-R-N’.”

“We all have names for the shells now!” Moon yowled happily. “And all the names are perfect.”

Suddenly Liz entered the room. “Oh, there you are.” he said. “Want to help me make peanut butter-salmon cookies?”

“Definitely!” Moon and Star said together.

“Make sure you give me the biggest one!” Bat called as Star followed her father and older sister out of the room.

“Okay!” Star yowled back.

“Can we add chocolate chips this time?” Moon asked.