Authors: Nancy Krulik

Something's Fishy (3 page)

BOOK: Something's Fishy

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“Gotcha!” Emma W. called out as she caught up with Kadeem and tagged him on the arm.

“Watch out, George, I’m coming for you!” Kevin warned his best friend.

Toot! Toot!
George began playing his kazoo loudly as he ran.

“Hey, what’s that smell?” Kadeem asked. He pinched his nostrils tight. “It stinks like rotten fish. Must be George’s tooter.”

Katie giggled. It sure did sound like George was passing gas.

“What are you doing, George?” Kevin asked him.

“I’m calling to the other fish for help,” George replied.
Toot. Toot.

“Sorry, George, that won’t work,” Mr. G. called onto the field. “Only herrings can hear that sound. And you’re the only herring in the sea today.”

“Not anymore,” Kevin said, tagging George on the shoulder. “This sea is now herring free. You’ve been eaten by the mighty frog fish, buddy.”

“Spit him out,” Kadeem shouted. “I’ll bet he tastes as nasty as he sounds!”

George turned and blew his kazoo at Kadeem. “What are you laughing at?” George asked him. “You were tagged by a
girl
fish!”

“I’m not just a girl, I’m a
swordfish
girl,” Emma W. said proudly. She chomped her teeth up and down ferociously. “Every fish in the sea is afraid of me!”

“Watch out, Mandy. You’re about to be eaten!” Kevin cried out.

Katie shook her head. That was a bad move on Kevin’s part. Mandy was the fastest girl in the whole grade. He never should have given her any warning. She’d started running as soon as Kevin went after her. Now there was no way Kevin could catch her.

But Emma W. could. It wasn’t that Emma W. was a fast runner. It was just that Mandy was so focused on keeping away from Kevin, she didn’t see Andy and Emma W. at the other end of the field.

Emma W. was right there, ready to tag Mandy as she ran by.

“Gotcha!” Emma W. told Mandy.

“Oh yeah! Teamwork!” Kevin shouted out, giving Emma W. a big high five.

“And now we three can go after Katie!” Emma W. told Kevin and Andy. “Three against one. We’re sure to get her!”

“Look out, Katie Kazoo, we’re coming for you!” Kevin warned.

But Katie didn’t move. She stood right where she was with a big smile on her face.

“You’d better get running!” Emma W. told her.

Katie reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a white sponge with pipe-cleaner tentacles coming out of it.

“You guys had better not come near me,” Katie warned the predators. “This is my sea anemone.”

“No, Katie.
I’m
your sea enemy,” Andy told her. “And I’m gonna swallow you up whole!”

“That’s sea
anemone
,” Katie corrected Andy. “It’s a sea animal that has lots of tentacles. The tentacles sting any fish that come near it . . . except for clown fish. This sea anemone is like my base. As long as I’m near it, you can’t tag me.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Kevin insisted. “There’s no base in the sea. You’re not safe anywhere.”

Katie looked over at Mr. G. He smiled at her and punched his fist in the air.

“Who says?” Katie asked. “In the real ocean, clown fish can hide in sea anemones. That’s how they survive.”

“Mr. G., Katie’s cheating,” Kevin whined.

“I am not,” Katie told him.

“But there’s no way we can capture you as long as you’re with that sea anemone,” Emma W. insisted.

“Exactly,” Katie told her proudly. “You’ll just have to swim somewhere else for your dinner.”

“Hey, quit clowning around,” Kevin insisted.

“I’m a
clown
fish. That’s what I’m supposed to do,” Katie said with a laugh.

“Sorry, frog fish,” Mr. G. told Kevin. “Seems Katie the clown fish has figured out a way to beat the predators.”

“That makes me the winner!” Katie cheered. She was really happy. Katie wasn’t a very fast runner. She hardly ever won at games like this.

“Actually, you’re
all
winners,” Mr. G. told the class.

“Huh?” George wondered.

“I’ve got a big prize for all of you,” Mr. G. said. “It’s something fish like you will really love.”

“What, worms for lunch?” Kadeem wondered.

Mr. G laughed. “No. You can still eat the macaroni and cheese in the cafeteria,” he assured Kadeem. “Actually, your prize is a trip to the Cherrydale Aquarium. You can see real fish swimming in their natural environments. We’ll be going tomorrow with class 4B.”

“Oh yeah! The aquarium!” Kevin cheered. “I can’t wait to see a real live frog fish.”

Toot. Toot.
George blew on his kazoo.

“What was that for?” Mandy asked him.

“I’m just sending a message to the herrings at the Cherrydale Aquarium,” George replied. “Get ready, guys. The big tooter is on his way!”

Chapter 5

“I want to find some clown fish!” Katie shouted out excitedly as she peered into the glass that enclosed the giant tank at the Cherrydale Aquarium. It was shaped like a giant glass cylinder, even taller than Katie’s house. You could walk up a ramp and see stuff from all different angles.

“The Great Barrier Reef tank is really beautiful,” Emma W. added. “There’s a starfish and a crab and . . .”

“Did you know clown fish can live up to five years?” Katie asked Suzanne and Miriam, who were walking with her. “That’s a really long time for fish. And they got their name because their coloring is sort of clownlike, and . . .”

“Whatever,” Suzanne said, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t you think this is fun?” Katie asked her best friend.

“Sure,” Suzanne assured her. “It’s just that I have so much more on my mind. I’m thinking about the food we’ll have and the games we’ll play at the class 4B engagement party.”

Katie sighed. Once again, Suzanne was making her feel left out. And she wasn’t the only one. From the look on Emma W.’s face, Katie could tell she was kind of sad about it, too. Then suddenly Katie saw a small flash of orange, black, and white swim past.

“Hello, clown fish! I’m a clown fish, too!” Katie said, pushing her face up against the aquarium glass. But the clown fish didn’t even seem to notice Katie.

“I think you’re taking this be-a-fish thing too seriously,” Suzanne said. “You’re not
really
a clown fish, Katie.”

“Hey, it’s me! Katie Kazoo, Clown Fish Girl!” Katie said louder. But the fish didn’t look her way.

“I don’t think it can hear you through the glass,” Jeremy told her.

“Come on, over here,” Katie urged the fish, tapping on the glass to get its attention.

That worked. The little fish looked startled and then swam away . . .
right in the direction of a gray shark
!

“Oh no!” Katie cried out. “A shark! Watch out, clown fish!”

At the very last minute, the orange-and-white fish changed direction and swam off, hiding itself in a sea anemone’s tentacles. The nurse shark swam off without even bothering it.

“Wow! That was close!” George said.

“You’re not kidding,” Kevin said. “A few more seconds and that clown fish would have been a shark’s supper.”

Katie frowned. And it would have been all her fault.

“Luckily that sea anemone was there,” Emma W. told Katie.

“Come on, dudes,” Mr. G. urged the kids. “Let’s go up to the top of the aquarium so you can look down into the top of the tank.”

Katie and her friends followed Mr. G. up the winding ramp around the tank until they reached the top. They stopped right in front of a protective railing.

“Okay, guys, now take a look,” Mr. G. said.

Katie did. “Oh wow!” she exclaimed as she looked into the water. The fish had looked beautiful before when she’d been looking at them through the glass. But now, staring down at the whole Great Barrier Reef, with nothing between herself and the fish, well . . .

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Emma W. told Katie.

Katie nodded. That was exactly what she’d been thinking.

“Check out that diver down there,” Kevin said. “He just fed a shark!”

“Man, he’s really brave!” Andy exclaimed.

“What’s that funny ball over there?” George asked, pointing. “The white one with the pointy things coming out of it.”

“That’s a porcupine fish,” Ms. Sweet told him. “He must feel threatened by the shark. When porcupine fish are scared, they swallow a lot of water so they blow up like a balloon. Their quills stick out all over. It makes them really hard to eat.”

“Cool,” George said. “Hey, look at me. I’m a porcupine fish.” Then he took a big sip of water from his bottle and held it in his cheeks. But when he coughed, the water spurted out of his mouth and all over his shirt.

“Gross, George,” Suzanne said with a sigh.

“Oh, look at those blue-and-black fish,” Emma S. said. “They’re gorgeous.”

“I wish we could see them closer,” Katie said. “We’re so high, and they’re swimming so close to the bottom of the tank.”

“I can make them come closer,” Kevin said. “When I feed my goldfish, they always swim up to the top of the tank to get the food.” He reached into his lunch bag and pulled a piece of bread from his sandwich.

“That’s a good idea, Kevin,” Katie said. “They’re probably hungry, anyway.”

“Exactly,” Kevin agreed. “Here, little fishies. Come and get it!”

“Kevin, don’t!” Ms. Sweet warned and came running over. She lunged for his hand before he could drop any bread into the tank.

“But I was just . . .” Kevin began.