CHAPTER 4

      EVIL SHARK LORDS

      Now that I’d obviously done the BRAVEST

      thing anyone could do at the aquarium, I felt

      much more relaxed.

      ‘That was great!’ I said to Bernard as

      we made our way through the rest of the

      aquarium. ‘Did you see me wrangle that

      stingray?’

      Bernard blinked. ‘You mean when the

      guide put your hand in the water?’

      ‘I touched it too!’ said Zoe.

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      ‘Yeah, but I think the one I touched was

      the scariest one,’ I said. ‘Definitely the

      ringleader of the group.’

      ‘I don’t think stingrays have leaders,’ said

      Bernard.

      ‘These ones do,’ I said. ‘I could just tell.’

      Bernard frowned. ‘I’ll have to look it up

      later.’ Bernard loves to look things up. It is

      kind of his superpower – being smart and

      knowing facts. Zoe’s super power is being

      super fast. My super power is being SUPER

      BRAVE, obviously.

      We turned the corner and in front of

      us was the biggest tank we’d seen yet.

      THE SHARK TANK.

      Maybe the stingrays weren’t the scariest thing in the aquarium.

      ‘Gather in close,’ said Betty. ‘But don’t rap on the glass – we don’t

       want to bother the sharks.’

      ‘Of course we don’t want to bother

       the sharks,’ I said to Zoe. ‘Who would

       want to bother A SHARK?’

      Then I saw who was rapping on the glass.

      Ralph. Of course. If anyone was going to annoy a shark it would be him.

      ‘Did you know that sharks are older

       than dinosaurs?’ said tour-guide Betty.

       ‘They’ve been around for over FOUR

       HUNDRED MILLION YEARS.’

      Bernard gasped. As I said, he loves facts.

       He raised his hand. ‘Does that mean that

       they are like dinosaurs that live in the sea?’

      ‘Kind of!’ said Betty. ‘But unlike the

       dinosaurs, they’ve managed to survive all

       these years. Masters of survival!’

      And then I saw one. My very first shark

       sighting. It was NOT going to be my last.

      It looked just like the sharks in the

       movies but BIGGER and MEANER. It

       had big black eyes and rows and rows of

       razor-sharp teeth. And I was sure it was

       looking right at me.

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      ‘Whoa,’ said Zoe.

      ‘Whoa,’ said Bernard.

      I didn’t

      say anything. I

      couldn’t believe that

      I was staring at a REAL

      LIVE SHARK. Which could EAT ME.

      A few other sharks swam by too, but the

      first one – the one staring me

      down – was definitely the

      scariest one. NOT that

      I was scared of it. But

      everyone else probably

      was because it was a

      very scary shark.

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      ‘And we arrived just in time for the feeding!’ said Betty.

      Oh no! The FEEDING! With all of the excitement, I’d forgotten about the FEEDING.

      Ralph cheered. ‘This is going to be the best!’ he said to his friends. ‘I can’t wait to see the shark DESTROY something.’ Then

       he bared his teeth like a shark.

      ‘Ralph,’ said Regina. ‘Please calm down.’

       But she looked excited too. Everyone looked excited. I didn’t get it! How could you be excited when we still didn’t know WHAT or WHO was going to get fed to the sharks?

      In one episode of

      they

      went to Shark Planet, which was run by

       the Evil Shark Lord, and he almost tricked

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      Spaceman Jack into being his dinner!

      Doesn’t everyone know that sharks are evil masterminds? How else do you think they have survived for MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of years?

      The sharks were swimming faster now –

       all of them except the big one. The big one just kept moving in slow circles, going slower every time it passed me, Zoe and Bernard. It was looking at me. I was sure of it. Every time it

       swam by, its eyes fixed on me. Even Bernard said, ‘Why is that shark looking at us?’

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      ‘It’s not looking at us,’ scoffed Zoe. ‘How

      can you even tell what it’s looking at? Its

      eyes are on either side of its head! It’s

      looking everywhere!’

      ‘Well, if it is looking everywhere then that

      also means it is looking at us,’ said Bernard.

      ‘So I’m technically right.’

      ‘The shark isn’t looking at us,’ repeated

      Zoe.

      And then, as if the shark was LISTENING

      (which it probably was, because, as I said,

      they are SNEAKY MASTERMINDS), it

      slowly turned and came right at us!

      We all took a step back from the tank.

      Even Zoe.

      ‘Now can you admit it is looking at us?’

      I whispered.

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      Then the shark . . .

      UNHINGED ITS GIANT

      JAWS AND SHOWED

      US ALL ITS TEETH. AND

      IT WAS STILL COMING

      TOWARDS US.

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