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Meredith M.
Ms. Peterson
Honors English 9
October 26, 2015
Tortellini and The Replacements Replacement
Every first child dreads the day there's a second child because they suddenly
have to split the parent attention with their new sibling. Well, animals are the same
way, even cold blooded reptiles including Tortellini.
His hard dried out shell slowly drifts up and down as the baby monster stomps
his way through a layer of brown mulch. Tortellini, the tortoise, may come off as
intimidating, but underneath his green dome, he is as soft as a melted marshmallow. As
soon as the light overhead flickers on and the cold, watery romaine lettuce falls and
scatters both inside and outside of his food bowl, a little drizzle of rain sprinkles out
among his jungle from a bottle overhead. Disturbed from his long night's sleep, he
toddles over to his jumbled up leaves and cautiously extends his neck. The muscles in
his neck are filling in the empty skin flaps the farther he goes. Finally, after what looks
like a dislocated giraffe neck, he chomps down taking a chunk of lettuce. He repeats
this until the three leaves have diminished into nothing. Little did he know, that soon his
world would be six leaves of lettuce and a female duplicate of himself. She would sleep
in his old dug up spot,walk in his worn down footsteps, and feast out of his half of the
food, but most importantly, she would infuriate the old Tortellini. To him it was like he
was getting rejected out of his own home.

Soon enough, he did. Out on the streets, he trotted a little slower and hung his
unfilled neck a bit lower. The little girl who used to care tenderly for him had abandoned
him. Now, she only care for the youthful Sandra. Flashbacks from the good old days
brought tears to drip a if he was a leaky faucet. The stream rolled on and on for months,
until he came across a weeping rock. Concerned on how a rock could possibly cry, he
shivered nervously as he surrounded the rock to find the little obnoxious green monster,
Sandra. A moment after the discovery, he felt a surge of sympathy. She sobbed out
about the newest tortoise in uneven chunks. From then on the two lost tortoises moped
around until they no longer could. Any fulfillment left had drained them in a scurry. Now,
completely empty, they pondered back to the rock to rest in hope of any type of energy
coming slightly back to them, but just then, it started to pour as if the tears they shed
came pounding back with no mercy what so ever. Unamused, they sat in silence once
they reached their destination. For days, they overlooked the petite pellets designing
scattering patterns in the river. As the hours got longer, the river got higher Soon, it early
breached the spot where Sandra and Tortellini laid motionlessly. Thats when the most
peculiar thing happened.The water broke its somewhat elegant design with bubbles
submerging from underneath the dark, cold water. Tortellini struggled to get his head
elevated enough to see dozens of healthy and young outstretched necks like the one he
vaguely remembers himself having marching onto the banks of the river. The tiniest of
the herd yakked about anything of interest which happened to be just about
everything.The much larger ones lead the small turtles and had to direct them
constantly, because they wandered off aimlessly. Once the mini turtles spotted the two
dying tortoises, they rattled off questions like no other. Every high pitched voice

squealed, What is that? Who are they?.The low, hoarse response from Tortellini only
encouraged the annoying chirps, until finally, the parents cooed their children to sleep
and arose in a more mature version of the previous conversation. Very shortly, they had
awaken the story of Tortellini and his replacements replacement, also known as the
tortoise that had consumed Sandras spot. The turtles chuckled, pointing out that the
two of them didnt have to sorrow to death here, for they were made to survive out in
the rivers and the banks. This was an astonishing idea. In fact, it was too crazy of an
idea to be true considering that they had everything happened to them with marvelous
pink bows on the side all their lives. Who was there out here to give them food and
water on a daily basis, and once they got the necessities what would they use for
bowls? Thankfully, the turtles invited and welcomed Sandra and Tortellini into their tribe
for as long as they wanted. Whether it be until they had the gist on how to manage on
their own or until the future generations of turtles had to find a permanent resting spot
for the two gleaming tortoises.