Chapter 2

"YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR A WEEK!" HIS MOTHER said in a clipped

voice, the barbels below her nostrils vibrating with emotion. They did that

when she got mad. And she was angrier than Gray had seen her in a long

while. Even madder than the time when he had talked Barkley into cutting

school and got stung by a jellyfish. But seven days and nights of not

swimming more than a body length away from the reef bed? Ridiculous!

Was he some newborn pup that needed to hide in the greenie? No! Was he a

bottom-feeding muck sucker that rooted in the sand for its meals?

Disgusting! And again, no! Being grounded was no way for a big fin like

him to spend even one day, much less a week!

But Gray's mouth was quicker than his brain so none of these perfectly

good arguments made it into the conversation. Instead he blurted, "Awww,

Mommm!"

"You broke your word to me," she said in a quiet voice.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Gray felt awful. Everyone in Coral Shiver respected his mother, proven

by the fact that she had been chosen to be third in the Line. Gray was proud

of that. Knowing how dangerous the Big Blue was, any shark in the Line

could be your next leader. Usually shivers ranked five after their leader. It

was an honor even though their shiver was small and didn't even have

succession to the fifth, like a real battle shiver, only to the third.

Atlas was leader, of course. Then there was Quickeyes the thresher as

his first and Onyx the blacktip as second. Onyx had these awesome

markings down his flanks, almost like they were put there on purpose. But

how? When Gray asked about the markings he got yelled at by both Onyx

and his mom so he never asked again.

In a shiver, any shark could challenge for position, even for leader. But

if you didn't have experience in the Line, you wouldn't be accepted as a

contender by the full-member shiver sharks.

Since he was still technically a pup, Gray wasn't even a full member of

Coral Shiver yet. "You have to earn the Line's respect before you can join

as a shiver shark," his mother had told him when he was younger. Well, he

hadn't earned any today.

"I know it's wrong to go toward the lagoon, but when I saw the lobster,

I got so hungry!" Gray told her.

His mother sighed. "You're a growing shark, Gray. No one says you

shouldn't eat." She looked him over from head to tail. He was now almost

twice her length. "You just have to be smart about it. You have to do what's

best for everyone, not just yourself. Even if that means you go hungry for a

little while."

"I'm sorry," said Gray once again.

They entered the ancient lava vent, which was the entrance to the

hidden reef and their homewaters. Landsharks lived in a floating base by

the other reef, nearer to their shore. Ours is much nicer, thought Gray as he

followed his mom's swishing tail down the secret path through the giant

kelp bed. There was green-greenie, blue-greenie, and even yellow and

brown-greenie. The greenie was long enough that it looked like just another

giant seaweed bed from above. And if you didn't know where the path

began while swimming in, you'd most likely get lost or hung up. Even

landsharks stayed away because their boats got snared by the greenie that

floated all the way up to the chop-chop. Crabs used their sharp claws to clip

and trim the secret lane of the tangly plant. Supposedly. Gray had never

actually seen them do it and didn't really believe shellheads were smart

enough to follow instructions like that.

"Gray, the Coral Shiver homewaters are a special place," Sandy told

him.

"I know that, Mom. I do live here."

Sandy let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not what I mean. What we

have here is different than many parts of the Big Blue."

Gray got excited. She was talking about the Big Blue in the way that

meant open ocean! Would she let him go to the Tuna Run this year? He

wasn't allowed last time because he was too young. They had to let him go

this season! He couldn't help himself, and asked, "Can I go with you into

the Big Blue for the Tuna Run? To see how it's different?"

"Absolutely not!" she said so sharply that Gray darted into the thick

kelp. When he poked his head out, his mom sighed. She motioned for him

to come out from the weedy bed. "I'm sorry I yelled. The open waters of

the Big Blue are amazing and wonderful in places. But they can also be

dangerous. Sharkkind and dwellers that make their home there aren't as

nice as the ones here."

"Okay, Mom," Gray answered. "I'm not planning any trips away from

the reef. I promise."

"You won't because you're grounded. And Barkley—come out here!"

Gray turned and saw Barkley hiding in the greenie. His eyes popped

open as Sandy stared right at him. He nudged himself forward, smiling

nervously. "Oh, here's the path! Silly me, I got lost. Hello, Miss Sandy."

Her eyes narrowed on the dogfish. "Hello to you, Barkley. Now, both of

you get to class." And with a whisk of her tail she was gone.

"Grounded a whole week. Bummer," remarked the dogfish matter-offactly. "By the way…told you so."

"By the way," Gray answered, "quit being a flipper."

Barkley led them around the main area of the reef. Most days at least

one or two of the groups representing the different types of reef dwellers

would meet about something or other. Anemones, starfish, sea cucumbers,

jellies, tropicals, even shellheads, would speak with each other. Gray didn't

know why. It wasn't as if they were smart like sharkkind. Most dwellers, or

non-sharks, never spoke to sharkkind in general except when something

important happened.

Even so, Prime Minister Shocks set the schedule so there wouldn't be

what he called "unpleasantness" between groups that might make a meal

out of each other. A group of urchins was talking with a cluster of brightly

colored tangs. Gray knew these different groups each had their own

hierarchy, even the shellheads supposedly, but didn't believe they could

have anything interesting or important to say. They were colorful, though.

He'd give them that.

Gray loved the riot of colors in the reef. Between the dwellers, algae,

greenie, corals, mollusks, and plants, it was like an undersea rainbow. He

saw a rainbow in the sky once, and it was a pale imitation of the undersea

world. And at night the reef glowed even more spectacularly in places

where the lumos gave off their pretty lights.

"Oh, I see a spot! Follow me!" said Barkley as he swam forward to

claim an area near the front of the class and close to Miss Lamprey.

"What a sucker fish," muttered Gray. The dogfish heard and glared.

Miss Lamprey held class in different areas around the reef depending on

what was being taught that day. Gray settled in, getting a few irritated looks

from groups of angel and parrot fish whose view he accidentally blocked.

One particularly annoying parrot fish went right through his mouth and

yelled "Move it, wide load!" He almost told the parrot fish he wasn't fat,

just big cartilaged, but he knew Miss Lamprey would make him repeat

everything to the entire class if she heard. The fish swam around his eyes to

be annoying before finding a new place a tail length away. Gray swallowed

the urge to put the fish in its place by eating it. He was hungry again.

Lately, Gray was always hungry. But he definitely didn't want to get into

more trouble by eating a reef dweller.

His mother raised him to never harm anything that lived on or around

this particular reef, just as every reef dweller did. There were exceptions, of

course. The bottom feeders had their own disgusting ways of eating

anything and everything, but sharkkind kept to a higher standard.

"It's not what we do here, Gray," she told him from his earliest days. "If

a fish has color, find another. Silver or brown, gulp it down." That's what he

learned when he was a pup. Or, even more of a pup than he was now. There

was a difference between dumb fish that grouped together and mindlessly

swam around (those you could eat) and the smarter ones who could hold a

conversation (those you weren't supposed to eat). That's not to say any

shark, being big or tough enough, couldn't eat whatever he or she wanted.

But the decisions you made spoke to what type of citizen of the Big Blue

you were. His mother said that sharkkind who chose to hunt intelligent

ocean dwellers were more than bad sharks; they were evil. Gray thought it

was worth the wait to find a cluster of dumb fish anyhow. There were

always more of them!

Besides, breaking the rules carried consequences. One of Barkley's

cousins, Hegger, ate a scarlet grouper when he and Barkley were little.

Despite the name, a colored grouper was not a mindless, grouping fish. And

this particular scarlet grouper lived on the reef. Anyway, Hegger was

accidentally stung by an urchin the next day and almost died. Hegger swore

it was a payback and he was probably right. Urchins were low down,

poisonous sneaks who did that sort of thing.

The lesson in Miss Lamprey's class today was about current and drift in

the open waters of the Big Blue. Gray barely listened. When was he ever

going to experience that? Never. Gray allowed himself to float upward a bit

to stretch his flippers.

"Umm, Gray?" whispered Barkley. Gray looked over at the dogfish who

smugly reminded him, "You're grounded, remember?" Technically he

wasn't a body length from the reef bottom.

Gray grimaced and lowered himself. "Thanks, buddy. Who would have

thought you could be so helpful with your snout so far up Miss Lamp—"

"Gray!" yelled Miss Lamprey, cutting him off. "Would you please stop

bothering Barkley and pay attention?"

"Sorry, Miss Lamprey." Gray settled almost on the seabed. He sighed

and couldn't wait for moonrise. This day was a total bust