Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks!. Katie Tsang

      is FeedI

      ng

      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.

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      ‘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.

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      ‘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.’

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      ‘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.

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      ‘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.’

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      ‘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.

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      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.