Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks!. Katie Tsang

      ‘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.’

      ‘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.

      ‘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.’

      ‘No he’s not!’ said Zoe. ‘Right, Sam?’

      ‘Right,’ I said. I tried to smile bravely but my mouth wasn’t really working.

      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.

      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. ‘That’s okay! It’s just water.’

      Just STINGRAY-INFESTED WATER, I thought, but I just nodded as if I wasn’t at all worried about the contents of the water.

      I turned around and gave Zoe and Bernard a big grin.

      No more Scaredy-Cat Sam here! Spaceman Jack and Captain Jane would have been proud.