7.35 a.m.
The octopus outside my window waved at me. I waved back.
7.55 a.m.
Breakfast: seaweed.
8.20 a.m.
Wetsuit – check
Aqualung – check
Homework – check
Shield – check
Goodbye, Mum – check
Goodbye, Dad – check
8.25 a.m.
Decompression chamber.
8.26 a.m.
Doors open.
8.27 a.m.
Swim to school.
Thinking:
Why didn’t they build this underwater city so that homes and schools were joined up?
Then we wouldn’t have to swim to school?
Then remembered our headteacher Miss Cavani saying that the Health Minister said that forcing all children to swim to school was good exercise and good that we all learnt to swim.
8.28 a.m.
Then remembered that she said that it was also good that we learnt how not to get eaten by sharks.
8.29 a.m.
Glad that I have a shark shield. Just in case.
8.30 a.m.
Thought about school motto: Sharks have as much right to live as we do.
8.35 a.m.
See new sign on the way to school: DON’T PICK THE CORAL
8.36 a.m.
My friend Finula swims alongside me. We talk in USL.
(Underwater Sign Lanuage)
She says that her bedroom is leaking and her homework is spoiled.
I say that sounds like a good excuse –better than saying that the octopus ate my homework. She says, but it’s true, it is leaking. I say that my dad’s got a screwdriver, maybe that would help. Finula says her dad’s got some glue.
It’s fish-glue. We pretend to hold our noses but of course we can’t because they’re behind our face-masks. Laugh – laugh – laugh in USL.
8.40 a.m.
Lots of herring swim by.
8.41 a.m.
Lots of cod.
8.45 a.m. School.
Big queue at the decompression chamber. The boy we call ‘Crab’ tries to get in sideways.
8.50 a.m.
Check timetable:
Lesson 1
Language: Jellyfishish
Lesson 2
Geography: Underwater London: what’s left.
Break time: swimming in the indoor pool without aqualungs.
Lesson 3
History: 2900 – The Arctic–Antarctic Conference on what to do when there is no Arctic or Antarctic.