How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel

by Jess Keating

  “Uh-huh,” she said. She turned back to her notebook, where she had a list of the species inside the tank listed. There were lots of scribbled-out words marking up the page.

  “I don’t remember things easily,” she said. “Not lots of things like this. It gets all jumbly in my head, like a puzzle with a zillion pieces.”

  I nodded. “Don’t worry. If you need to use your notebook to help you, that’s okay. Lots of people do, so make yourself some simple notes that are quick to read, and if you do any presenting, you can peek down quickly and see the facts you need, and then look back up to the crowd.”

  She took a deep breath. “The crowd. Right.”

  “Hey, girls!” Logan wove between the cafeteria tables to greet us. Ashley slid a napkin to me and gave me a pointed stare.

  Grateful, I snatched it and wiped the snow cone juice from my lips before Logan could see.

  “Hi!” Ashley cooed, settling back in her chair. “What are you doing here?”

  You know, in school we learned that one of the smallest units of time was a nanosecond. But I think they were wrong. I think the smallest unit of time was the time it took for Ashley to go from looking sad to totally and completely perky again when Logan shows up. Meanwhile I was still stuck back ten seconds ago when we were talking about sharks.

  “H-hey, Logan,” I stammered. I glared at my books. I could tell from the heat in my cheeks you could probably fry an egg on my face.

  He pulled up a chair beside us, stretching out his long legs under the table. It took every cell of my being not to start hyperventilating. Why was this guy so cute?! Was he some kind of android? How come every time I saw him I pictured Kevin as a twenty-year-old? And was it wrong that I wanted to smell him again?

  Gah, stop being a psycho freak of nature!

  “What are you guys up to?” he asked. He leaned forward to pick up a book, settling it open on his stomach. “Ahh, mantas! One of my favorites! I have a tattoo of a manta ray,” he said deviously. “Wanna see it?”

  “Yes,” Ashley blurted.

  I bit my lip to hold back my laugh. At least she’d said something, though. I was still staring at him like a fool.

  He pulled up the sleeve on his work shirt to reveal a toned, tan forearm. “Check it,” he said, flexing his hand. A silvery-blue manta ray wound its way around his arm, with a tail that ran up over his elbow.

  “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ashley said. Her eyes were practically bugging out of her head.

  Not that I could blame her. It was super cool. Usually I don’t like tattoos, but on Logan? He could have a tattoo of old cheese on him and it would look like fine art. I wonder if Kevin would ever get a tattoo? Hmm.

  “Did it hurt?” Ashley asked.

  He didn’t have time to answer. “Hello? Anyone here?” A girl peeked her head into the room. “Oh! Logan, there you are!”

  Ashley and I gawked as she ran over to him.

  “Babe!” he exclaimed. He stood up and pulled her into a hug. Her feet even lifted off the ground!

  Beside me, Ashley rolled her eyes. “Get a room,” she whispered.

  You’d expect that a total hottie like Logan would be dating another total hottie.

  And you know what?

  You’d be right.

  She had long dark hair that was tied into a low ponytail and porcelain skin like a doll. I kid you not, she even smelled like strawberries. She was a walking stick insect in capri pants that smelled like a fruit basket.

  I fidgeted with the spine of my notebook as they kissed. The kiss pact with Liv niggled away in my brain. Should I smell like strawberries? Would that get Kevin to kiss me?

  “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t supposed to get here until tonight?” Logan asked, when they pulled themselves apart. Took them long enough.

  “Early flight!” she exclaimed. “I thought I’d do some poking around here today! I’ve been looking for you for ages,” she said, her eyes sweeping the area before settling on us. Was it just me or did she look sort of nervous?

  “Guys, this is Danielle,” Logan said.

  Ashley’s eyebrow arched. “Hey. I’m Ashley,” she said. I watched with amazement. She didn’t seem fazed at all. Meanwhile I was basically tripping over my tongue, thinking about how these two had been playing tonsil hockey five seconds ago.

  “Ana,” I said when she turned to me. There. I could talk again.

  “Wait,” she said. “Ana Wright?” Whipping a notepad from her purse, she rushed toward me.

  I edged away. “Um, yeah?” I said.

  “Would you mind if I asked you a couple questions?” she asked. “I would love to get a statement from you for my college newspaper! I’m writing a piece about your grandfather!” She tapped her foot. I got the distinct feeling that hanging around this girl for more than five minutes would give me a twitch. She was intense. Her eyes bored a hole in my head.

  “A statement?” I croaked.

  “You know,” she said, waving her hands dismissively. “Shep Foster’s very own granddaughter working at the zoo! I’d love your opinion on the exhibits and the work you’re doing here.”

  “Okay, sure,” I said.

  “Can you take me through some of the daily tasks here?” she asked, holding her pen stiffly above her notepad.

  I sat straighter. “The student ambassadors just try to help out with background stuff,” I said. “We help prepare food, or clean, or do some super-small presentations with kids. It’s all volunteer work, and it goes toward school credit each year.” I wanted to make it sound glamorous, but let’s face it, cleaning poop and fish heads wasn’t exactly a red carpet walk. “Ashley and I are helping in the new marine exhibit.”

  She nodded. She hadn’t written anything down yet.

  “Shep is like the most exciting person ever,” she said, blinking fast. “Does anything crazy happen here? The drama must follow him everywhere.” Her words felt like tiny arrows piercing me, fast and sharp.

  “He’s exciting, all right,” I said. I tried not to roll my eyes. “But generally things around here are pretty…normal. For a zoo, I mean. All the zookeepers make sure that everything stays on schedule and safe.” I rambled off our zoo director Paul’s usual speech. It was one of the first I’d learned when I started to hang out here.

  “Is he going to be around for the first presentation in the new Adventure Zone?” Her voice was light, but there was a hard look in her eyes. She reminded me of those journalists that showed up when I did my presentation in June, always starting sentences and waiting for me to finish them. And maybe mess up. If there was one thing I knew from Grandpa, it was that newspapers loved when people said the wrong thing or caused a big uproar.

  “Dani, baby,” Logan said, pulling her under his arm. “Ana probably doesn’t want to deal with your questions right now,” he said.

  He leaned closer to me to fake-whisper. “Dani’s a journalism student and an animal nut,” he said with a knowing nod. “She’s been so excited about coming here she hasn’t shut up about it in weeks. Meeting Shep Foster and his famous granddaughter.” He waved his hands in the air and gave me a wink.

  Oh, my heart. Logan seriously had to stop winking at me like that if I was expected to use proper words.

  “Oh, shush,” Danielle said. Her face flushed, giving her cheeks a peachy glow. Not that I could blame her. If Logan had his arm around me, I’d probably be a puddle on the floor right now. I didn’t know how that girl was even staying upright with those eyes staring at her.

  Maybe she’s the android.

  “We’ll leave you guys to your notes,” Logan said.

  The two of them walked away, locked in some sort of love-octopus hug. It seemed like they had more than two arms each. Did getting a boyfriend suddenly mean you sprouted an extra arm for all that hand-holding and hugging? I w
ondered for a moment how Danielle seemed so not nervous kissing Logan, but when I thought about kissing Kevin, I could barely think straight.

  “I don’t like her,” Ashley said when the door shut behind them.

  I scoffed. “Of course you don’t. She gets to kiss Logan.”

  “It’s not only that,” she said. “She gives me the creeps. She’s one of those girls who is super nice to your face, but I bet she’s a real jerk.”

  I stared at her, surprised. “What? Are you actually talking about people being mean?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  Ashley glared. “Forget it,” she said.

  The chill from her words made me shiver.

  She shook her head. “I’m just saying. I don’t like her.”

  “Yeah, well.” I sighed heavily. “Luckily you don’t have to hang out with her. It’s not like you had a chance with Logan in the first place. He’s like twenty years old.”

  Ashley looked unimpressed. “Whatever. In ten years he’ll be thirty and I’ll be twenty-three. That’s not that big of a difference.”

  I scrunched my nose. “Yes, it is! He’d never go out with you!”

  Ashley’s frown began to twitch. “Okay, fine. In fifteen years then. I’ll be”—she counted in her head—“twenty-eight. And he will be thirty-five.”

  “You know that means he’ll almost be our parents’ age then, right?” I loved bursting her little bubble.

  “Ahh! Why do you always have to ruin everything?!” She shoved me on the shoulder, but for a moment I could see the glimmer of something else in her eye. And it wasn’t hate this time.

  It was Ashley joking around.

  It was totally creepy, but almost…nice.

  “Hey,” she said suddenly. “Did you figure out what you’re going to wear for opening day? I want to get a new top for the presentation.”

  “I don’t know.” I hung my head. I had tried to figure out how to get a better swimsuit for under my zoo uniform without having to actually shop for one. Training bras were one thing, but swimsuits? That was a whole new level of awkward. “Everything I have at home doesn’t fit anymore,” I admitted.

  “I can help you, you know,” Ashley said. She blinked at me expectantly.

  “What do you mean? Help me with an outfit?” I couldn’t stop my voice from squeaking like a mouse.

  “Obviously.”

  “I think I’m good,” I said. I had no idea what she had in mind, but Ashley’s help wasn’t something I was eager to beg for. Although she did have great style. But still. Had to be a trap. This wasn’t hanging out at the zoo together. Shopping would mean the mall. Her territory. At least here I was surrounded by sharks and crocodiles and other creatures that could keep me safe. Once I learned to control them like an army, that is.

  Ugh, I’m turning into Daz.

  “Oh, come on,” she said, glaring at me. “Let me help already. We can go shopping at the mall and get new suits. I haven’t gone shopping in weeks,” she whined.

  I stiffened. This had to be some sort of joke. Some evil plot to get me in a dressing room so she could grab all my clothes and leave me in the dust, wandering naked through the mall. Can you imagine that headline?

  “Shopping?” I asked. “Together?”

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  Now it was my turn to give her a look. Because you’ve hated me since first grade. Because you make my life a living hell. Because you volunteered to work in the zoo simply because you enjoy torturing me.

  But I didn’t say any of that.

  Because I wasn’t sure of any of it. At least, the last bit.

  “Oh come on, Ana,” she said. “I know we’ve been jerks to each other, but maybe we can just…drop it for the summer. You know?”

  Jerks to each other? Since when was I jerky to her?

  She clucked her tongue when she saw the question in my eyes. “There’s no reason why we can’t help each other out.”

  There was the catch.

  “What do you need help with?”

  She batted her best doe eyes. But underneath, her face was hard, like she was trying to look strong. “I’m nervous for the presentation,” she said finally. “I just want a chance to practice for someone, and Patricia is too busy, and my sister is always at the gym for swim trials.” She shrugged. “And you’re here.”

  I hesitated.

  “And you already know what I have to say, so you can actually be helpful. You know?” She tapped her foot. “We can make those memorization notes together for me to use.”

  The walls began to feel tight around me. I guess it sort of made sense for us to help each other out. Or did it? I tried to imagine telling Bella or Liv about going shopping with Ashley. That would be like telling them I’d suddenly taken up Latin for the fun of it. Since when did being almost thirteen come with so many tough decisions? But Ashley wasn’t acting like any of this was tough. She was confident and acting like this was no big deal.

  But was that part of her trick?

  “I’ll have to think about it,” I said. I hated myself for being so wishy-washy. I wanted to know for sure what I wanted to do, instead of feeling like one giant question mark. But this felt too weird to be true.

  Ashley nodded. “’Kay, give me a call tonight if you want to go. We can meet tomorrow afternoon. That will give us almost a week to get our outfits ready for next Saturdayyyy,” she said in a singsong voice. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a teeny pink notecard with a kitten on it, with her telephone number written in calligraphy. See what I mean? Ashley had a card like a businesswoman.

  I took it from her and stuffed it into my pocket. “All right. I’ll let you know.” I gathered my books and left as quickly as I could without looking like a total freak.

  I had some thinking to do.

  Chapter 9

  Giant cuttlefish have green blood.

  —Animal Wisdom

  So cuttlefish are like the Incredible Hulks of the sea then?

  In the safety of my own room, nestled next to the hippos and away from Ashley’s eagle eyes, I pulled out my Anti-Ashley notebook. Technically, her asking me to go shopping wasn’t a mean thing. But it was about her, so I still counted it as an Ashleyism for the notebook.

  “Okay, Darwin,” I said, poking him in his feathery shoulder with the pen cap. “You need to help me here.”

  He stared at me with his dark, beady eyes and scratched at his cheek lazily with one long claw. Darwin was always a bit of a slacker when you needed help. Not like the real Darwin, I bet. He looks super helpful in a nice-old-man kind of way.

  I started a new page and wrote in my big, bubble letters.

  To Go or Not to Go: The Pros and Cons of Shopping with Ashley

  “Well?” I tapped my pen against my chin. “Let’s hear it. Something good about shopping with Ashley.”

  Darwin blinked.

  “Useless bird,” I mumbled. “Okay. How about this?” I started to write.

  Pro: I desperately need a new swimsuit. My navy blue one is too small, and it rides up my butt and digs into my shoulders like nobody’s business. The last thing I need is someone snapping a picture of me in that monstrosity and plastering my wedgie in all its glory over the Internet.

  I frowned to myself, as Darwin skittered around my desk and bobbed in front of my mirror. He ducked his head, preening his shoulder with his beak and cooing at his own reflection. What a complete diva.

  “You’re right,” I said. “She’s totally vain. So she’d probably make shopping all about her, and I’d be stuck watching her do her runway walk in great outfits the whole time without actually getting any help.” I wrote that in the cons list.

  “But on the other hand,” I said, my hand poised over the paper. “If she does help me, the fact that she’s vain could be a good thing. I could use someone who actuall
y knows how to look good and buy the right clothes, you know? She always looks awesome, and it would be a huge pro if she could help me look even remotely hot.”

  Darwin didn’t look convinced.

  “Trust me,” I added, filling in more of the pros column. “It is crazy hard to look good in a swimsuit. I need all the help I can get.”

  Darwin whistled and gawked at me. Clearly he agreed.

  “But!” I shouted suddenly, startling him. “The whole thing could be a trap!” I scribbled some more, rambling. “I mean, if she wanted to go shopping, why wouldn’t she go with Rayna or Brooke, or even her mom? Why would she ask me? That probably means it’s definitely a trap and her only goal here is to get me in some awful position with some super-sketchy swimsuit of horror so she can post it online for the whole world to see.”

  I puckered my lips in contemplation. Darwin cocked his head, bobbing excitedly. He started making shrill kissy noises, peppered with the flirty whistles.

  “Ugh, that’s right.” I agreed. The realization hit me like a rhino stampede. “The kiss pact.” I wrote in the pros column. “Getting Ashley’s help with looking good would definitely help out with Kevin. I don’t have much time left!” I glanced to my desk calendar. The summer had practically just started, but it felt like school would be here faster than Daz could eat a bag of Cheetos. Time was already running out.

  I had to get Kevin to kiss me. There was no way Liv would ever let me hear the end of it if I failed. And as much as I hated to admit it, Ashley was pretty much the only girl I knew (who wasn’t, like, my mom) that I could ask for help with kissing tips.

  “I’m pretty sure that counts as more than one pro,” I explained, underlining it a few times.

  Staring at my list, I knew what I had to do.

  Already I felt like I was going to throw up. The last time I’d felt so nervous about something was right before I did my big crocodile presentation when school ended. I had really wanted to see if I could do it, but part of me felt too paralyzed to move.