Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Sharks!. Katie Tsang
IN the shark net, but I told her that
was impossible.6
3. When I asked Na-Na (that‘s my grandma –
she lives with us) what an aquarium was,
she told me it was like the big fish tanks
at the seafood restaurants in Chinatown,
which we go to on special occasions.
Na-Na always picks out a fish that is STILL
SWIMMING in a fish tank for us to have
for dinner. One time I named the fish, but
then it came out on a plate, so I don‘t name
the fish from the tank ANY MORE.
6 It actually sounded very possible and EXTREMELY scary. But I didn‘t
want to worry her so I put on a brave face. All part of being a big brother.
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So I thought that the aquarium was
going to be like a giant fish tank where you
picked out your dinner. When I told Bernard and Zoe that their mouths dropped open.
‘EW!’ said Zoe.
I frowned. ‘Zoe, you eat fish. Just
yesterday you had fish fingers for lunch,’
I said.
‘That’s different!’ she spluttered. We were
on the bus on our way to the aquarium.
‘How?’ I said.
‘It just IS! Tell him, Bernard,’ she said.
Bernard frowned and
then took out his thinking glasses. He only wears them when he is thinking VERY HARD.
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‘Well,’ he said. ‘Fish fingers come in a box.
So obviously it is a completely different
thing.’
‘Yeah!’ said Zoe. ‘And fish
don’t even have fingers.’
‘Exactly! Why are they
called fish fingers?’ I said,
wiggling my own fingers.
‘I don’t know,’ Zoe said loudly (the more
unsure about something she is, the louder she gets). ‘They just are. But I do
know you don’t eat the
fish at the aquarium.’
I shrugged. ‘Try telling Na-Na that.’
And then we arrived at the aquarium.
CHAPTER 3
alIEn eNcOUNter
From the outside, the aquarium looked a
lot like the Space Museum. It was a BIG
building and we had to queue up to go inside.
‘Hey, Sam Wu-ser,’ someone further
back said with a snort. ‘Do you
have a stupid outfit for the
aquarium too?’
It was Ralph. Only Ralph thinks
it’s hilarious to call me Sam Wu-ser
because it rhymes with loser. And only Ralph
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snorts like that. I took a deep breath and
tried to remember what my dad had said
to do about Ralph. His
advice was:
‘Just ignore
him.’
NOT
that easy!
Ignoring Ralph is
Ralph pushed
his way up through the
queue until he was right
behind me. He started poking
me in the back. ‘Hey! Hey!
Sam Wu-ser! I’m talking to
you! Hey! Hey!’
This was, as you might
imagine, very hard to ignore.
‘He doesn’t have his
outfit on because we’re going to the
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aquarium not the Space Museum!’ said Zoe.
‘OBVIOUSLY.’
I was, in fact, wearing a
T-shirt, because it is the best show ever.
I made it myself. And in honour of the
aquarium trip, I’d even drawn on space
turtle Stephanie. I didn’t feel
the need to point this
out though.
Ralph was
quiet for all of
FIVE SECONDS.
But then he
barrelled on.
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‘Hey. Hey, Sam. I heard there is a submarine simulator in there. Bet you are too scared
to get in it. Especially after what happened
at the Space Museum.’ He started
laughing, but it wasn’t a real laugh, it was some sort of pretend villain laugh. Then
he pushed past me, because Ralph always pushes in queues, and went to the front.
‘I’d like to put him in a submarine
simulator,’ Zoe muttered. ‘And send it to the BOTTOM OF THE SEA!’
‘Yeah!’ said Bernard. Then he patted me on the shoulder. ‘Don’t listen to him, Sam. Everyone has forgotten about—’
‘Don’t say it!’ I said. ‘We don’t talk about it,
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RemeMber?’
‘Sorry!’ said Bernard. Then he coughed.
‘But, um, you aren’t going to get into the
submarine simulator, are you?’
‘Bernard might have a point,’ said Zoe,
tugging on her ponytail.
‘I wasn’t planning to,’ I said. ‘But please
can we stop taking about it?’
They nodded. Spaceman Jack, my
favourite character on ,
never has to deal with this kind of thing.
He NEVER does anything embarrassing,
but if he did, his friends would definitely
NEVER bring it up.
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‘Come along, you three, hurry up!’ It
was our teacher, Ms Winkleworth. ‘We have
lots to see – and we don’t want to be late
for the feeding at the shark tank!’
THe
FeedIng?