Chapter 14

THE GAME WAS CALLED TUNA ROLL. "IT'S NOTHING like the

actual Tuna Run, but it'll help you work on your quickness and side-to-side

movement. That's a good thing to have at Tuna Run and anywhere else in

the Big Blue," Goblin told Gray.

"Sounds like fun!" said Snork. The sawfish had regained some of his

cheery nature since Gray saw him last.

Streak jabbed Ripper in the flank with her snout. "He'll be swimming

the Sparkle Blue in the first five minutes of a real run."

"Yeah, he's chum," Ripper agreed in his gravelly voice.

"Quiet down, you two," Goblin told them. He explained the game,

which actually seemed fairly simple. There were two teams of six,

symbolizing a leader and their Five in the Line. Both teams faced the same

way. Gray, Barkley, and the other former members of Rogue Shiver were

one team and hovered farther back. Goblin and his Line took their places

closest to the starting end of the field of play.

Gray's team was about twenty good tail strokes, or a hundred yards,

away from Goblin and near the end line of the field. He taught the

landshark measuring system to Barkley, who found it to be both fascinating

and useful. In the game, a single drove of exactly one hundred fish would

try to zip by both teams. For every fish Goblin's group caught they received

one point; any that Gray's team caught were worth two points, as the fish

would have time to gain speed in the water between the two teams. Neither

team could swim outside their own zone, marked by glowing lumos. "The

object is to make quick decisions and catch some fish!"

"Wait, wait," said Barkley, looking absolutely confused. "Are you

forcing some poor dwellers to play a game in which they get eaten?" This

struck Goblin and his team as hilarious. They laughed so hard they could

barely breathe. Striiker and Mari also chuckled. Snork joined in, too, but

Gray was pretty sure the sawfish didn't know why he was laughing.

"Forcing them?" Thrash could barely speak he was laughing so hard.

"He thinks we're forcing them!"

"Like he's going to catch one anyway!" yelled Streak. Barkley gave her

a glare, and she burst into another giggle fit.

"Wisko! Get out here!" yelled Goblin. A fish that Gray had never seen

before streaked forward and stopped between the two groups. This fish

knifed through the water with ease! It shined silver and was shaped like a

long, thin spine with jagged fins pressed close to its body. "This is Wisko,

the wahoo. She's been in charge of our Tuna Roll for the last three years."

"She what?" Barkley asked, now even more confused.

"Watchu want, Goblin pup?" Wisko danced in front of the great white,

tapping him on his head with her tail. For some reason this didn't bother

Goblin at all, and he playfully snapped at the fish. "What's the hold up?

Wahoo! We going or what? Or you too turtle to play today? Wa-hoo!"

"The dogfish is afraid we're forcing you to Tuna Roll with us," Goblin

said dryly.

"Who? Who said that? Him?" After Goblin nodded, Wisko jetted over

to Barkley, hitting him in the face with a tremendous tail slap.

"Hey!" yelped Barkley. "I'm making sure you're not being abused! You

obviously aren't a dumb grouping fish."

"We invented Tuna Roll, dog breath!" said Wisko. "We play by

different rules than the rest of the dwellers in the Big Blue. Hey, did you

know you're named after a dumb land animal called a dog, which eats its

own poo?"

"We're not named after it," huffed Barkley. "It's named after us!"

"So you admit you eat your own poo? Ha ha!" said Wisko as she finned

Barkley's snout with another blazing fast pass. "Wa-hoo!" Barkley got

angry and darted after the wahoo, but never came close to catching her. She

taunted him as he flailed about. "Over here! No, here! Too slow!"

"Only the fastest wahoo are chosen for the Tuna Roll by their leader—

that's Wisko. It's a great honor for them to test themselves against us,"

Velenka told everyone. "They're actually faster than the tuna we'll hunt at

the run."

"Waaay faster! Wa-hoo!" exclaimed Wisko, a flash of silver as she

pirouetted in the water. "We are the fastest of the fast, the quickest of the

quick! So quick, it'll make ya sick!" She flashed by Barkley again, making

him duck. "We're also the best tasting fish in the sea, pups!"

Velenka continued, "Tonight we have to bring dinner to the wahoo who

get by us. As you can see, they are insufferable winners. If they get eaten,

that's also an honor. They call it the Way of the Wahoo." The mako rolled

her eyes as if she didn't totally get the Way of the Wahoo either.

"Wa-hoo! It sure is!" Wisko told everyone. "Getting old and slow is no

way to go! So we dancin' or what, sharkkind?"

All thoughts of how the wahoo might be mistreated went totally out of

Barkley's mind. He stared menacingly at the fish. Well, as menacingly as

Barkley could stare, which wasn't very. "Then I'd love to 'honor' you,

Wisko."

This comment got the dogfish another slap on the snout. "You'll be

feeding me tonight, dog breath! Wahoo!" The fish twisted and swam back

to the starting line, moving to a quirky beat in the tides only she heard.

"That is one odd fish," Shell said.

"Odd or not, it's so on!" Barkley muttered to himself as he ground his

teeth in annoyance.

"Ready!" yelled Goblin, and his entire team swum into a ragged

formation. When he bellowed "SET!" the line moved into a perfect twotiered V-formation with Streak and Churn hovering topside.

Gray's senses went into overdrive. He hadn't noticed before, but there

were loads of dwellers around. Squid, eels, octopi, crabs, and other bottom

dwellers gathered to watch near or on the craggy rock wall facing the field.

Fish of all sorts and colors hovered with the tide; smallest in the front,

largest in the back. There were even a few whales in the distance, although

they'd need very good eyesight to see the game. All of this was interrupted

by Goblin shouting, "ROLL!"

A hundred shining wahoo cried in unison, "WAHOO!" and accelerated

past the start line the instant after Wisko snapped her tail as the signal to

move. Goblin's team stayed in their formation until the last second, then

blasted out every which way. Streak, a very fast blue shark, got one. All in

all, only two or three wahoo were caught.

"Stay together until they're right on us, then break!" yelled Mari.

But Gray's team couldn't hold their formation like Goblin's, and the

fish were past them in a fin flick. It would have been nice to know that

teams did that before the game, he thought sourly. The wahoo easily

avoided them. In fact Gray was pretty sure Wisko herself shouted "Wahoo!" into his ear and gave him a slap on the snout as she whizzed by.

While the wahoo were amusing earlier when they were having fun with

Barkley, now they were super annoying to Gray.

Goblin's team was in stitches, laughing so hard they had to call a timeout.

"Did you see the look on Gray's face?!" yelled Churn.

"Nothing compared to doggie!" agreed Streak, still gnashing her teeth

from her meal.

Goblin and Velenka explained the rules more fully between rolls, which

referred to the rounds of wahoo swimming through the field. There were ten

rolls to a game, and each team got to be up front for five of them. "Ohh,

you're taking too long," Goblin told everyone. "Now you're gonna get it."

Goblin pointed with his fin as Velenka added, "Tyro had an off day

when he created the wahoo."

The ninety-seven wahoo who made it across the line in the first roll

were still slapping fins with each other and hurling insults at the sharkkind.

But when Wisko snapped her tail, they swam into a tight formation.

"WHO-ARE-WE?!" she shouted, each word more of an exclamation

than a question. The entire formation of wahoo began doing the same slow

fin moves: three strokes one way, then a tail clap with the wahoo on their

left, then three strokes to the right and a tail clap to the nearest wahoo the

other way. They moved together perfectly in this massed victory swim, and

sang in time to their tail claps!

We are the wahoo, the speedy, speedy wahoo!

WA! HOO!

You are the drifters, the jelly, jelly, drifters!

SO! SLOW!

We are the wahoo, the speedy, speedy wahoo!

WA! HOO!

You are the drifters, the jelly, jelly, drifters!

SO! SLOW!

"What the heck are they doing?" Snork asked.

"Right now? Insulting us," snorted Striiker.

"Don't let it get to you," said Mari. "Huddle up!"

Mari tried to explain the strategy for the game, but Gray couldn't hear

her at all. It turned out that the gathered dwellers were cheering as loud as

they could for the wahoo! The entire bowl-shaped stadium was alive with

their energy. A school of glowing lantern fish circled the edge and all the

dwellers rose when they went by—even the bottom feeders who couldn't

swim raised a claw or tentacle—which made it look like there was an

undersea wave rolling around the edge of the field! And lumos of all sorts

were blinking together forming pictures in the shape of a wahoo!

Shell nodded. "Yeah, the dwellers always root for the fish."

Tuna Roll was incredibly fun and exciting! How could anything else

compare? After Gray caught his first wahoo, Tuna Roll immediately

became his favorite thing ever. First, wahoo were delicious, just as Wisko

said they would be. And second, after having been so embarrassed by the

fish, it felt absolutely wonderful to catch one! The game ran for four more

rolls, with Goblin's team in front. After taking a small break, they switched

positions and went five rolls with Gray's team in front. At the end of all ten,

whichever team had the highest total score won. And flip, Rogue was

getting killed! The score was twenty-one to seven heading into the last roll.

Goblin accounted for eight points on his own!

Cheers from the dwellers rose as Gray began what was called the

"sound off." "Ready! Set! ROLL!" he shouted.

The wahoo streaked past their line with a swimming start. Wisko was

playing again! She angled the cluster of a hundred wahoo to the right. Gray

was at the diamond head of the formation—there were so many cool terms

in this game—and moved to intercept. Wisko was the fastest of the wahoo

and blew by them. But the stragglers, if any fish so fast could be deemed a

straggler, were forced to change direction. Striiker ate one wahoo in a single

bite. Mari and Gray each struck home as Barkley just missed. Both Goblin

and Ripper were successful, though, further increasing their team's score.

Gray's team lost but, wow, this game was fun!

"What a beat down!" yelled Streak as Goblin and the rest joined them.

"Ah, they didn't do too bad," commented Velenka. "Especially with a

rookie at diamond head." The mako brushed her tail against Gray's flank,

earning a scowl from Mari.

Wisko led the other wahoo through a song that started out sad but ended

with a rousing chorus, commemorating the wahoo who were eaten during

the game. They finished by shouting, "On your way to the Sparkle Blue!

WA! HOO!" After the song ended, Wisko brought all the remaining wahoo

to Goblin. "Time for the losers—that's you—to feed the winners—that's us.

See you at Slaggernack's."

"We'll be there," Goblin told her.

The rest of the wahoo swam by, bumping fins with sharks who'd done

well.

Wisko passed him and said, "Not bad for a pup."

Barkley hadn't caught a wahoo. Not even close. He wasn't feeling good

about himself and began to swim away.

"Hey, dog breath," yelled Thrash. "Not so fast."

"What? It's over, right?" asked Barkley.

"Oh, you wish!" Streak told him.