Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks!. Katie Tsang
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Who
WHat?
Before I had a chance to think about
all the ways a live shark-feeding was more than a little dangerous, we were shuffled
into the aquarium.
It was nothing like the fish tanks in Chinatown.
‘See, Sam! How COOL is this?’ Bernard waved his arms around. I tried to look
at everything all at once but it was impossible.
It was as if we were underwater but somehow breathing air. It was like being on a spaceship in water – dark and filled with aliens! Luckily, I have lots of experience
with aliens from watching
so I was TOTALLY fine. But otherwise I might have been a tiny bit afraid.
21
‘That thing isn’t a fish,’
I spluttered, pointing at this HUGE
PURPLE BLOB that was somehow
floating above my head. I could hear Captain
Jane (she’s the captain of TUBS, The
Universe’s Best Spacecraft) in my head,
telling me to take a deep breath and stay calm.
‘What IS that?’
‘It’s a jellyfish!’ said Zoe. Her eyes were huge.
22
‘LIKE THE POISONOUS
KIND?’ I said in a very calm but
also very loud way.
‘Yep! That’s right,’ said a friendly voice from
above me. I looked up. It was someone who
worked at the aquarium. Her name tag said
‘Betty’. ‘That is a jellyfish! One of forty-eight
species we’ve got here in the aquarium.’
23
‘Ohhhh!’ said Zoe and Bernard and everyone else. They all seemed way too excited about the fact that we were
now trapped underwater, surrounded by POISONOUS JELLYFISH.
‘Mmmmm,’ I said, nodding as if I too was
excited. ‘But, Zoe,’ I whispered, ‘what if it
gets out?’
‘It can’t get out!’ she whispered back. We’d been pushed forwards till our noses were almost touching the glass.
‘That’s what we thought about Fang!’ I
said in a louder whisper. ‘And
we were pretty wrong
about that!’
As I’ve told
you, Fang is my
FIERCE SNAKE
sidekick. He escaped
from his tank once. With the help of Butterbutt,
my sister’s cat. It’s
kind of a long story.
But the point is, he wasn’t
supposed to get out of
his cage and he did. So I
didn’t think Zoe could blame me
for being a little . . . antsy7 about
the possibility of super-dangerous creatures escaping from their cages.
‘That was totally different!’ she said. ‘And anyway, Butterbutt isn’t here.’
‘You never know with Butterbutt,’
I muttered darkly.
7 Antsy but definitely NOT scared.
25
‘Okay, everyone,’ said Betty the guide,
leading us over to what looked like a pool of
sea monsters, ‘it’s time for the petting
tank! Everyone is going to get a turn to
touch some of their favourite sea creatures.
We’ve got starfish, sea slugs and
stingrays! Who wants to go first?’
I stared at Aquarium Guide Betty. ‘Touch
. . . a stingray?’ Didn’t Betty hear herself?
It says STING in the name! Who would want
to touch a STINGray? That’s like asking,
‘Who wants to pet this SPIKY porcupine? Or
this POISONOUS scorpion?’
‘We’ve got a volunteer!’ said Betty. She
reached out and pulled me forwards.
‘Sam won’t do it!’ Ralph said with a
snort. ‘He’s too scared.’
26
‘No he’s not!’ said Zoe. ‘Right, Sam?’
‘Right,’ I said. I tried to smile bravely but
my mouth wasn’t really working.
I
was
totally
NOT
scared!!
It was rubbery and slimy and VERY unpleasant. It felt deadly. And I wasn’t even touching the stinger!
My whole class gasped.
Bernard gave me a thumbs-up. I really
hoped the stingray didn’t decide to, you
know, STING ME.
‘You all right?’ said Betty. ‘You seem to be
a bit shaky.’
‘I’m fine! Fine!’ I said. ‘The water is just . . .
cold. Really cold. Brrr!’
Betty raised her eyebrows. ‘It’s room
temperature.’
‘SO COLD,’ I said. I wanted to pull my
hand out of the water but I didn’t know how
to do it without everyone noticing.
‘Um, it is probably someone else’s turn,’
I said.
‘I want to try!’ It was Regina, Ralph’s twin
sister. She isn’t awful like he is.
29
She is actually kind of nice. She also
doesn’t snort as much. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her snort even once.
‘Well, come on up!’ said Betty, who still hadn’t let go of my hand.
Regina SQUEEZED in next to me and
put her hand straight into the water. ‘This
is so cool,’ she said, grinning at me.
‘Oh yeah,’ I said casually. ‘Super cool.’
Then Betty let go of my hand and I whipped
it out of the water so fast that I splashed Regina.
‘Sorry!’ I said.
She laughed.