TAILS AND COSMO AT THE BEACH

Chapter Five

"It's raining!" Tails said. "We'd better go inside until it stops and…Cosmo!"

Cosmo was dancing in the rain. "Hooray for rain!"

Marine danced too, only she didn't seem to understand why. "Oi'm getting soaked, mates! Why am Oi doing this?"

Tails face palmed. "Come on you guys!" he said.

"We're not blokes, mate, we're sheilas!" Marine said.

"Huh?" Cosmo looked confused. "What's a sheila? What's a bloke?"

Marine looked even more confused. "Huh? Uh…we're girls, mate," she finally said. "Tails is a boy."

"Oh," Cosmo said. Now she looked even more confused. "I already knew that."

"Then why'd you ask, ye koala?" Marine asked.

"Are we exploring this tunnel or not?" Tails asked.

"Not as long as ye stand in the way so we can't get in, ye didgeridoo!" Marine said, pushing Tails so she could go in past him. "Oi'll go first! Oi'm the captain!"

"We're not on a ship, Marine!" Tails said, letting Cosmo go ahead of him.

"What does that have to do with it?" Marine said. "Watch yer step, ye landlubbers!"

"We're still not on a ship," Tails said, not watching his step. His foot slid on some mud. "Ack!" He slipped and fell, sliding into Cosmo. Cosmo slid into Marine. The three of them went sliding down the tunnel. Reaching the bottom they kept going and crashed into a big shelf Marine had placed down there. A big plastic water bottle fell off the shelf and poured on them. Then a big bag of flour fell on them.

"Is everybody okay?" Cosmo asked, her eyes going around and around.

"I'm really sorry about that," Tails said.

"Crikey," Marine said, waving her arms. "We're all ghosts now we are! Wooooo!"

"I've been a ghost before," Cosmo said. "I didn't look like this."

"You're weird," Marine said.

Tails helped Cosmo up. Then he helped Marine up. Marine put her hand on his face when he helped her up and left a big glob of wet flour on his nose.

"You're sure funny looking, mate," Marine said.

"Don't make fun of Tails," Cosmo said. She looked at Tails. "You do look kind of funny."

Marine had some paper towels. They got as much of the flour off of themselves as they could.

"So what exactly are you using this place for?" Tails asked. "Keeping supplies in case of an emergency?"

"Oi'm always prepared in case of anything," Marine said proudly. "Oi have paper towels, tp, forks, spoons, lots and lots o' cans o' tucker…"

"What's tucker?" Cosmo asked.

Marine looked confused again. "Tucker? Uhh:" She had to think about it. "…tucker is food, mate."

"Oh," Cosmo said, nodding. "Why don't you call it food?"

"Because it's called tucker," Marine insisted. "What are ye, a wallaby?"

"What's a wallaby?" Cosmo asked.

"Well, it's sort of like a little kangaroo, it is," Marine said.

"Oh," Cosmo said. "Well, some people say I jump like a kangaroo."

"Why did you want to hide your supplies from us?" Tails asked. "You didn't think we'd want to steal your food, did you?"

"You can never tell," Marine said. "And that's not really what I was hiding."

"What were you hiding then?" Cosmo asked.

"Oi won't tell ye!" Marine insisted, standing in front of a big barrel. "Ye can't make me, not even if ye rip me toenails out one by one!"

Cosmo stuck her tongue out. "Yuck!" she said. "Why would we want to rip your toenails out?"

"Ye don't know much about how to make people talk, do ye?" Marine said.

Cosmo looked at her funny. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Whatever you're hiding, you can keep it," Tails said. "Come on, Cosmo. Let's go."

"Don't ye want to know what me treasure is?" Marine asked.

"If you don't want to tell us, we won't try to make you," Cosmo said, following Tails back up the tunnel.

"But it's such a great secret!" Marine said.

"We don't care," Tails said.

"Okay, I'll tell ye!" Marine said, taking the lid off the barrel. "There it is! Impressed, ain't cha?"

Tails and Cosmo went back to see what was inside of the barrel.

"Whoa," Tails said.

"What is it?" Cosmo asked.

What is Marine's secret? Find out next time!