Drew smiled shyly, slightly embarrassed by what she was about to say. “I thought this was where the party was.”
“Yeah,” said Brando. “The search party!”
The whole room laughed again, louder now, because there were more people. A few minutes later, a nurse came in with a fresh bag of IV fluid and the Dobkins were ushered out of the room. Brando walked Drew to the door. Big Tony, who’d been first in, was last out.
“I’ll see you back on the wee island,” he said before ducking out the door. “Business meeting and all that. Hope you don’t mind I didn’t bring a tie.”
“Not one bit,” said Pamela.
“I might make one out of a palm leaf,” said Tam.
“What was that about?” said Davey once the room was quiet again.
“Oh,” said his mom, “well.”
Davey waited her out.
“All right, well, it turns out that he works in imports….”
Davey turned to his dad for confirmation. “Thinks there might be a big market for Tibetan goods there in England. As long as they’re authentic.”
“And of the highest quality,” added his mom.
Davey looked at them both. They were wearing cat-that-ate-the-canary smiles that made him smile, too.
“Ready for the next group?” said his dad.
“The reporters?” he said.
“Afraid so. Can’t keep them out there forever.”
Davey shrank a little further into his bed.
“Don’t worry,” said Brando, stepping forward. “I can be, like, your spokesman.”
Davey sat back up. “Okay,” he said. He couldn’t think of a better guy for the job.
“Shake on it?” said Brando.
It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that required a handshake, but Davey leaned forward anyway. And when Brando reached over and grasped his hand, he understood. His little brother held on tight.
They both did.
Michael Northrop has written short fiction for Weird Tales, the Notre Dame Review, and McSweeney’s. His first novel, Gentlemen, earned him a Publishers Weekly Flying Start citation for a notable debut, and his second, Trapped, was an Indie Next List selection. NPR recently picked Michael’s middle-grade novel Plunked for its Backseat Book Club. His latest title for young adults is Rotten. An editor at Sports Illustrated Kids for many years, Michael now writes full-time from his home in New York City. Visit him online at www.michaelnorthrop.net.
Also by Michael Northrop
Gentlemen
Trapped
Plunked
Rotten
Copyright © 2014 by Michael Northrop
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Northrop, Michael, author.
Surrounded by sharks / by Michael Northrop. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: On the first day of vacation thirteen-year-old Davey Tsering wakes up early, slips out of his family’s hotel room without telling anyone, and heads for the beach and a swim in the warm Floridian waters — and a fateful meeting with a shark.
1. Sharks — Juvenile fiction. 2. Missing children — Juvenile fiction. 3. Families — Florida — Juvenile fiction. 4. Swimming — Juvenile fiction. 5. Florida — Juvenile fiction. [1. Sharks — Fiction. 2. Swimming — Fiction. 3. Survival — Fiction. 4. Rescues — Fiction. 5. Florida — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N8185Su 2014
813.6 — dc23
2013045351
ISBN 978-0-545-61545-7
First edition, June 2014
Cover art & design © 2014 by Phil Falco
e-ISBN 978-0-545-61547-1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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