Aurelia aurita. http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/reef/reef2547.htm
Once upon a time, there was a Moon Jellyfish named Squishy. Squishy lived with his mom and dad in the Gulf of Mexico. Every morning Squishy and his family would go out to breakfast at the local diner, where they served delicious fish and zooplankton. Unfortunately, the local gang of Portuguese Man of War jellyfish, who were known as “P-Unit,” would always steal their food because they were a harmful species of jellyfish. One morning, P-Unit floated into the diner and sat down at the table with Squishy and his family.
They said, “Moon Jellies, give me your food or I will sting you and eat you.” Squishy’s father answered, “I am so sick of you, P-Unit! You jellies are so mean. Take our food, we are leaving for good!”
This incident made Squishy and his family very upset so they decided to move to the Caribbean Sea, far away from their normal habitat. In the Caribbean Sea there were no Moon Jellyfish, only foreign creatures and other types of jellyfish.
One day Squishy went to school and he decided to sit down at the lunch table with the popular group of clown fish. Squishy said, “Hi clown fish what are your names? Can I sit with you guys? I’m new to this school, my name is Squishy.”
The clown fish immediately decided that Squishy was not cool enough to be friends with them and made fun of him. They said, “You don’t have a skeleton or a brain! You’re 95% water! We don’t want to hang out with you!”
This made Squishy very sad, even though he knew that they were telling the truth. Squishy wished that other jellyfish attended his school so he wouldn’t feel so left out.
That night Squishy went home and cried to his parents saying, “I hate it here I don’t want to be a jellyfish. Jellyfish are so not cool! None of the other sea creatures here have tentacles! I’m never going to make any friends.”
His parents consoled him and reminded him that jellyfish are the best creatures around. They said, “Squishy, remember jellyfish are the most amazing species of creatures around, our species has been around for about 540 million years. No other fish have been around that long. Moreover, we’re not fish. We are unique. And hey, we’re transparent, I bet no other fish could blend in to their surroundings like us."
This made Squishy feel better about himself; however, everyday at school he was continually taunted and his feelings were deeply hurt. Until one day, a new student arrived.
The teacher said, “Class today we have a new creature with us, his name is Glowy, he is a purple jellyfish.”
Later, at recess, Squishy saw the clown fish making fun of Glowy. They were yelling out, “Ew! Glowy is so ugly, he has so many, long tentacles!” Squishy floated over and confronted the mean group of fish, “You clown fish are horrible! All you do is make fun of us jellies. We are such an amazing species of underwater creatures. I bet you didn’t know that jellyfish could sting you!” With those words Squishy hit the clown fish with his tentacles, stinging them slightly. (Moon jellyfish can only harm small animals.)
The Clown Fish quickly apologized. They said, “I’m sorry Squishy, don’t sting us. Jellyfish are very cool, I mean I can’t go for long periods of time without eating, and I can’t shrink to half my original size. Glowy I’m also sorry, I can’t glow the dark by feeding off sea spark.”
From that day on, Squishy and Glowy became very good friends. They also graduated from school as the class presidents and the most popular creatures around, by acting like themselves and appreciating their unique body composition.
The End.
