Ivy and Bean Doomed to Dance (8 page)

“Okay,” said Ivy, pulling out a list. “The first thing we do is find a good hiding place.”

But they couldn’t find a good hiding place because Ms. Aruba-Tate was calling them over to the alligator pit. The second-graders clustered around the pit and stared down at the alligators.

“Look!” Bean nudged Ivy. “There’s money in there!” Bright coins sparkled in the slimy alligator water.

Ivy looked. “No way am I going in an alligator pit to get money,” she said.

“Oh. Right.” Bean stared at the money. What a waste. The alligators seemed dead anyway. They didn’t even move. Maybe she could just slip in and out.

One of the alligators spread its mouth wide in a yawn.

Maybe not.

“Stay together!” called Ms. Aruba-Tate, leading them from the alligator pit to a dark hallway. “Now we will see Coastal Zones.”

Ivy nodded at Bean. Coastal Zones sounded like a good place to make a getaway.

“When do we eat lunch?” yelled Paul. “I’m starving to death.”

“Now,” whispered Ivy. She and Bean started to walk backward.

“There will be no eating inside the aquarium,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “Ivy! Bean! Stay with the group!”

“Boy, does she have sharp eyes,” Bean muttered.

Coastal Zones turned out to be tide pools. Tide pools were good because you got to stick your hands in them. Ivy and Bean decided to run away later. Ivy held an orange starfish, which was really called a sea star and had eyes at the ends of its arms. Pretty neat.

A sea anemone wrapped its soft tentacles around Bean’s finger. She hoped it didn’t hurt when she pulled her finger away.

After Coastal Zones, there were penguins. Bean and Ivy liked penguins, but Zuzu loved them. She cried when it was time to go. Eric said he was going to freak if they didn’t get to sharks soon, so Ms. Aruba-Tate let them skip shrimp and move straight to sharks.

“I want to see sharks,” said Bean. “Then we’ll go.”

Ivy nodded. She wanted to see sharks, too.

As it turned out, sharks were not that exciting. For one, they were small. And they swam around in circles, zip, zip. They didn’t care if the second grade wanted to see them or not. They just zipped around.

“Come along, boys and girls,” called Ms. Aruba-Tate. “Let’s investigate the Kelp Forest.”

The Kelp Forest. Boringsville. Bean nodded to Ivy. Ivy nodded to Bean. They waited beside the shark glass while the rest of the class surged forward. Ms. Aruba-Tate was listening to Emma tell about the time she was seasick. She didn’t notice Ivy and Bean.

No one noticed.

In a minute, they were all alone with the sharks.

Now that Ms. Aruba-Tate’s class was gone, Bean and Ivy could hear the sharks. They could hear them move through the water.

“Come on.” Ivy pulled on Bean’s sleeve.

“Wait a second.” Bean leaned close to the glass wall. Bean wondered if they could hear her. “Hi,” she said. The sharks swam around, their black eyes empty. They didn’t care. “Let’s get out of here,” she said to Ivy.

They turned and scurried down a hall lined with little tanks of fish.

When they got to the end of that hall, they turned down another.

And then another. They had done it.

They were runaways.

OCEAN LIFE GONE BAD

Ivy and Bean came to a gray room. It didn’t have any ocean life in it. What it did have in it were a lot of dishes.

“We must be near the cafeteria,” said Ivy.

A man walked into the room pushing a cart. He didn’t look surprised to see them, but he didn’t look happy either. “No kids in here,” he said. “Cafeteria’s that way.” He pointed to a door.

“Okay,” said Bean. She and Ivy went through a different door.

Now they were in a dark hallway. A dark, small hallway. They could just barely see the sign on the wall. It said, “Life without Light: Creatures of the Deep Sea.”

“Perfect!” said Ivy.

“Perfect? For what?” asked Bean. It didn’t look perfect to her. It looked dark.

“Life without Light.” said Ivy. “It’s great for sleeping. Plus, no one will be able to see us.”

Bean looked around the little hall. “We’re going to sleep in here?”

“No. This is just where they put the sign. The fish and stuff are in there.” She pointed to a doorway.

Together they walked into a long, narrow room. At least Bean thought it was a long, narrow room. She couldn’t really tell because it was so dark. It was even darker than the hall.

“Why don’t they turn on some lights?” whispered Bean. It seemed like a whispering place.

“It’s showing what it’s like in the deep sea. The sun doesn’t get all the way down there,” whispered Ivy.

“So that’s all? Just a dark room?” Bean shook her head.

“I don’t know. I can’t tell. Do you see fish tanks anywhere?”

Bean looked hard into the darkness. She could see some glimmering on the wall. Maybe it was glass. Or something else. Bean started to get a worried feeling. “Why aren’t there any people in here?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Ivy said again. Bean could see the outline of Ivy’s head as she looked from side to side. “Maybe the sign was old. Maybe there’s nothing in here.”

For a moment, they stood there in the dark. It was so quiet that they heard the sound of the quiet. Bean began to think of all the things that might be slithering silently toward them.

“Ivy? I’m not liking this so much,” she said.

Ivy linked her arm into Bean’s. That was better. A little. “There’s got to be a light switch in here somewhere,” said Ivy. “If we walk around, I bet we’ll find one. And once we turn on the light, we’ll figure out where to hide our backpacks.”

Slowly, with their arms out, they walked toward the wall. Bean’s hands brushed against cool glass. No light switches there. She felt around its edges.

“Hey,” said Ivy. “Here’s a button thing. Should I push it?”

“Um,” said Bean. “What if it opens a trapdoor and water gushes out?”

Too late. Ivy had pushed the button. The wall in front of them began to glow with red light. For a second, they blinked at the brightness. And then they saw. Behind the glass was black water rising high above their heads. They pressed their faces to the window. Was it just empty water?

“I don’t see any fish,” Bean began to say—and then a massive mouth came hurtling toward them, shining with thousands of needle teeth. “YIKES!” Bean took an enormous leap backward, dragging Ivy behind her.