How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel (18 page)

Tuning out the crowd's commotion, I instantly knew what I had to do.

I snaked through the throng of people directly beside the tank, making my way to the front of the group, next to the gate that opens into the middle of the horseshoe where Ashley was presenting.

It was my only chance: I had to get that notebook before she saw it.

“What do you feed the sharks?” someone piped up, interrupting my mental game plan. I darted a look at Ashley, my heart filling with hope.

She smiled easily. “These sharks eat mostly bottom-feeding invertebrates, like crabs,” she said. “That means animals without backbones,” she added quickly.

Yes!
Keep on knowing those answers, so I can get that dumb book. I cheered her on in my head.

Reaching my hand around the gate, I felt beneath the inner knob. I could grab the notebook and hide it, and if she happened to not know any of the answers, I would
help
her like a nice person, instead of being a total jerk. She would never know about the notebook, and I could pretend I'd never come up with this whole mess in the first place.

Jimmying the small sliding bolt, my breath caught in my chest.

It was
stuck
.

Patricia must have locked it for real, from the inside, to stop visitors from coming inside during the presentation.
Noooo.

Dread seized my heart as I peeked up at Ashley again. She was still holding the crowd's attention, but now there were more hands in the air. They were eager to ask her questions, wiggling their fingers to get her to choose them. I prayed to the shark gods they all had super-easy questions. Then a spiky blond head of hair caught my attention at the other end of the horseshoe.

Daz!

He was standing directly across from me on the right side of the tank.

Right beside the gate.

It was the side Patricia and Ashley had entered the tank through, and if they hadn't locked the door coming in, it would still be open. I still had a chance to fix everything.

New hope flickered as I tried to focus all of my attention on Daz. Clenching my fists, I tried to telepathically scream in his mind. We were twins, right? So maybe we had some sort of magical twin ability?

Look
at
me, Daz! LOOK AT ME!

I crushed my stomach into the gate as I leaned as far in as I could.
Come
on, Daz, look up!

And then, the shark gods paid attention.

He looked!

Well, sort of.

He was actually looking at the teenage girl with the pink dress and flippy ponytail beside me, but eventually I did get his attention.

“Daz!” I mouthed, practically bursting with excitement that my telepathic plan had actually almost worked. “
Dazzzz!
” I tapped the gate erratically.

He cocked his head and lifted his shoulders. Classic Daz “sup?” face.

Forcing as much determination in my eyes as possible, I pointed to Ashley's notebook, miming with my hands opening and closing a book. Around us, the crowd laughed at something Ashley was saying. I stared hard, waiting for Daz to clue in.

Daz glanced at the table, then his eyes widened. “Notebook?” he mouthed. He did the same notebook sign with his hands.

“Grab it!” I mouthed. I mimed yanking something out of the air and holding it to my chest.

Daz screwed up his face, then seemed to get it. “Oh!” He pointed to the book, then to me, and gave me a thumbs-up.

He thought I was telling him I'd switched it. That his
Mission: Impossible
–plan had worked.

Guh.

“No!” I shook my head. “I need it back! Grab it now!” I mouthed the words slowly and clearly as Ashley kept talking over the crowd's excited buzz.

Daz frowned, then pointed to himself. “Me? Grab?” He pointed to the book. I could almost see the question marks floating above his head.

I nodded insistently. “Yes!” I grabbed at my gate and shook it, demonstrating to him my side was locked with a frown.

In a flash, he knew what I wanted. He gave me another quick thumbs-up and reached inside the gate for the lock. Neither Patricia nor Ashley noticed him as they continued with the presentation.

Wringing my hands together, I glanced back out over the crowd again. Why couldn't the questions stop already?! So far, Ashley had been a total pro and hadn't even needed her notebook. Maybe this would all be fine and she'd never even need to know about my horrible plan?

One final hand was still in the air, a little boy who was waving with excitement.

I sucked in a breath as Ashley pointed. “Last one?”

“Where do the epaulette sharks live?” he asked, scratching at his buzz cut.

I jerked my head back to Ashley, overwhelmed by a surge of relief. An easy one! She knew where everything lived.
She
had
this!
I bit my lip in anticipation.

But Ashley frowned. Her eyebrows knit together slightly as she blinked at the crowd, silent. Finally, she smirked. “They live right here, of course!”

Nice save.

Boosted by her gutsy move, I stared back at Daz's end of the tank, expecting to see him standing triumphant with the notebook in his hands.

But he was still outside the gate, and instead of a look of victory, his shoulders were slumped with defeat.

My heart fell as he shrugged and shook his head in one slow, sad movement, pointing to the gate.

It was locked too.

This
couldn't be happening
.

The notebook was still sitting on the table, like a rattlesnake poised, ready to strike. Terror raced through me as Ashley smiled again at the crowd, edging toward it.

“Hang on one second,” Ashley said, returning to the question. “I can tell you!”

She reached toward the table as I clutched the gate, torn between wanting to scream and wishing I could launch myself X-Men style across the fifteen-foot space to wrangle the notebook from her hands.

Why couldn't I be a mutant?!

She picked the notebook up.

The rushing in my head grew like a million bees, swarming with frantic desperation, as her perfectly arched eyebrows furrowed with concentration.

She began to flip open the cover.

No!

I pictured the Anti-Ashley list waiting for her, ready to explode like a mean-girl grenade and ruin everything. All because I was trying to be someone I didn't even
want
to be.

Don't!

I couldn't take it.

My eyes flitted down at the tank. All the sharks were gathered by their mangrove rocks, shying away from the noisy crowd. A reckless thought began to unfurl inside me.

Time slowed to a halt as Ashley's eyes drifted down to the page. I willed her to drop the book, to sneeze, to stumble—
anything—
to keep her from seeing one those scribbled block letters I wished I could unwrite.

I couldn't let her see it.

I couldn't let this happen.

I
couldn't be a Sneerer.

So I jumped.

Or rather, I
dove
.

Leaping over the low wall of the tank, the entire audience scattered back in surprise the moment I hit the water. A giant wave splashed over the edge, raining down on the kids in the front row.

I was a breeching whale, decked out in a lime-green zoo shirt and the most desperate look in the history of mankind. Cameras flashed wildly, and the last image I could make out before my eyes blurred with salt water was the notebook falling to the ground, and Ashley's eyes widening with shock as she saw me.

I'd done it. I'd stopped her. She hadn't seen the notebook.

Then there was nothing but blue.

Well, that and the sharks.

California sea lions have a thick layer of blubber to insulate them from cold water.

—Animal Wisdom

“Ana Jane Wright!” Mom's voice sounded like it was being strained through a can of gravel. “What in God's green earth were you
thinking
?!”

I pulled the towel closer around me. After they'd fished me out, pretty much everyone in the crowd was eager to see that I was still alive. The crowd watched and hushed whispers filled the exhibit as Mom dragged me into the back room, while Grandpa stepped into the spotlight to get some of the attention away from us.

It had been only a couple feet of water, but man, that can sure create a splash if you're trying. I'd shooed away the paramedic a hundred times, promising him I was more embarrassed than anything.

And it was true. Being dripping wet in my clothes in front of a crowd of strangers
was
embarrassing. But a part of me was proud I'd done it. Did I wish that maybe I'd thought of something
else
to distract the crowd, like screaming “Fire!” so I
didn't
have to jump into the tank?

Big yes.

But sometimes when you really need it, your brain just decides to check out and you aren't left with a lot of ideas.

Try explaining that to my mom.

“It was an accident!” I pled. But I was pretty sure my mom knew better. She had those special mom powers and could read me like a book.

“I was looking right at you!” she exclaimed. “One minute you were up there watching Ashley looking like you were having a coronary, and the next”—she clapped her hands together hard—“you jumped! I saw you! What would possess you to
jump
into
a
shark
tank, young lady
?”

“Mom, stop! It was an accident!” I pulled the towel tighter around my shoulders. “It was only the touch tank. I couldn't have gotten eaten or anything,” I pointed out.

She glared at me. “Ana, you have told me the truth about everything in your life so far, and you are
not
going to start lying to me now. Now
spill
it
.”

Daz shifted on his feet beside her. He had crept in while she was interrogating me, and now he was staring at his shoes and looked as guilty as a monkey in a banana farm. But he wasn't saying anything. I had to hand it to him—he was doing his best to cover for me, even though he knew about the notebook and the truth behind my dip in the tank.

“I…”

Was there any way to get out of this without outing myself as a horrible person? Could I make up something
sort
of
true, without telling her the
whole
truth about Ashley and that stupid notebook?

“Um…”

The salt water must have numbed my brain because nothing came to mind. All I could hear was the rushing of water still in my ear. I tapped the side of my head with my palm, trying to shake it out. Ashley stepped through the door and stared at me. Worry was written all over her face. It made telling the truth that much harder.

“I was trying to distract the crowd,” I said finally. “I mean, I wanted to get Ashley's attention.” I couldn't look her in the eyes.

Mom perched her hands on her hips. “Why exactly would you want to do that? It wasn't your turn to present. It was
Ashley's
,” she said. Her eyebrows knit together. “Is that what this is about? You wanted to be the center of attent—”

“No!” I said. “Honestly, it wasn't! I was trying to help her.” Ashley's head cocked as she listened, doing her best to look like she wasn't. Her cheeks were red.

There was no way out of this.

“Help her by jumping into a shark tank? Ana, you could have been
hurt
! You know that the circumstances when you're allowed near the touch tank are very specific, and if you don't respect that,
you
can
be
hurt
!” She was still wringing her hat in her hands, twisting the fabric.

“I know!” I said. “I didn't think of that. But I really did want to help her. She had the wrong notebook…” I trailed off.

Ashley's lips pressed together tight as she listened.

“She was only going to use her notes to help her—” Mom stopped short, turning the full force of her glare onto me. I shriveled down in my chair.

“Wait.
What
did
you
do?
What do you mean the
wrong
notebook?”

Pretty sure her eyes were burning a hole in my forehead now. Humiliation spread over me again. I didn't want to face it. But I was done being a wimp. I'd spent too long trying to be someone else, changing who I was to adapt to scary stuff in my life. If I wanted to be confident, if I really wanted to be
myself
, I would
own
the fact that I had been a super jerk, even if it was momentarily. That felt crummy, but I had the sneaking feeling it would be the closest thing to brave I'd been since summer started.

I glanced up at Ashley. My skin felt pinched from the salt water, but I was pretty sure it was because I was shrinking down to nothing. I wanted to disappear.

You
have
to
be
brave
now.

“It wasn't supposed to happen,” I said quickly. “I switched our notebooks, and then—” I sucked in a breath. Mom's reaction made me wince.

“I realized it was a horrible,
mean
idea!” I rushed on. “It wasn't me. I mean, I know it
was
technically me. But not really.” I struggled for the right words. Mom's glare darkened as my story unfolded. Saying it out loud made it sound ridiculously dumb. “Obviously I was a gigantic jerk.”

I stared at my sopping wet shoes, but Mom wasn't letting me get away that easy.

“And…”

“And when I saw you were about to read it, I got…I panicked,” I said, turning to Ashley.

Understanding finally dawned on Mom's face. Her shoulders drooped. Shame crawled over my skin like a centipede.

“What was in the book, Ana?” she said in a low voice.

I shrugged. “Just some mean stuff I'd written.” I couldn't speak above a whisper. “I was so angry!” A prick of tears tickled behind my eyes. Ashley was still staring at me with a tight frown.

“Since when do you behave in such a vicious way?” Mom said coldly.

The words sliced through me like knives. I knew it was true. I'd probably known it all along. But I especially didn't want to hear it out loud coming from her. That made it real, and already I wanted to put that person behind me and bury her in a notebook that never got opened again.

“I know,” I said. “It was a dumb idea.”

The lines around Mom's mouth seemed deeper than normal.

“Ana…that is
appalling
,” she said.

“I know! That's why I had to stop it from happening! I messed up before. I know that! I
did
try to fix things. Only I didn't know how!” I said. “All I could think of was to jump into the tank when I saw she was going to see it!”

Mom sank down onto the bench, like her legs were noodles. For a moment, she looked like she was going to yell at me again. She rubbed her temples with her fingertips. Clocks around the world stopped.

“You do realize you're grounded right?” she said finally.

I nodded.

“And you should never
ever
do something so mean again, no matter how much you don't like someone?”

I nodded again.

“And next time, maybe don't pick the shark tank as a distraction.”

“Yes, Mom,” I said.

“I'm proud of you,” she said. I peeked up at her.

Mom kneeled in front of me and gripped me by the shoulders. “You're in huge trouble, kiddo. But I'm proud of you. You made a big mistake, but you tried to make it right in the end. I think you owe Ashley an apology.” She stroked the wet hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear.

“I know,” I mumbled. I had a feeling this was coming, but that didn't make facing her any easier. Mom dragged Daz out of the room, but not before she shoved me in Ashley's direction.

“Be honest,” she whispered hastily.

Ashley stepped forward.

“So,” Ashley said. Her mouth was turned up in a look of disgust. But could I blame her? “You wrote a whole book about why you hate me, huh?” she said plainly.

I forced myself to look at her. This was worse than facing a shark any day. “I'm really sorry, Ashley,” I said. “I didn't want you to see it. I was super angry, and I thought being like that would fix things. I didn't know what else to do to get you back.”

She gave a small snort. “No kidding. Get back at me for what?”

I tried not to sound mean. I just wanted to tell her the truth. “For making it look like I left that lock open,” I said. “I mean, I know why you did it. I shouldn't have said that awful stuff about you. I was upset too.” I let the words tumble out fast. “I was mad at you for doing that, and then I got
really
upset when Patricia blamed me for it, and well…that really sucked.”

Ashley's eyes widened. “Ana, I keep telling you. I
didn't
leave the lock open,” she said.

I blinked at her. “Seriously, Ashley, it's okay. I'm not mad, and like I said, I was wrong. I never should have done that, and it was my fault for being such a jerk that Patricia kicked me out.”

“No! I mean it! I swear.” Her hand flew to her chest. “On my best pair of jeans, I did
not
leave that door unlocked.”

My jaw dropped. “But my name was scrubbed off the list!” I said. “And I
know
I had it coming, I—”

A loud commotion echoed outside the door, cutting me off. Men yelling. A woman shrieking.

Ashley's head whipped around. “What the—?”