Stink and the Shark Sleepover

by Megan McDonald

  But the Rotten Eggs were one step ahead of them all the way.

  Last of all, they had to find something with two hundred fifty teeth that could bite through a car.

  Sophie looked at Stink. Stink looked at Webster. Their eyes grew wide. “Sharkzilla!” they yelled, jumping up and down.

  Suddenly, Judy came rushing up to Stink, all out of breath. “There you are! I was . . . Mom and Dad and I . . . you gotta go . . . Hall of Wonders, Stink.”

  “Not now. We just have one more thing to find in the scavenger hunt. And we have to beat the Rotten Eggs.”

  “Trust me, Stinker. You don’t want to miss this.”

  “Okay, okay, but make it fast.”

  Stink and his friends hurried after Judy, who led them to the Hall of Wonders. There, just inside the entrance, was a shiny, silvery, seven-foot shark fin!

  Is this . . . was this . . . could it be? “Sharkzilla’s fin!” yelled Stink. He held both hands up to high-five Judy.

  “You won! Good for you,” said Miss D., popping out from behind Sharkzilla’s fin. “You’re the first ones to finish the scavenger hunt. And as a prize for finishing first, you win the Shark Fin Award.” Miss D. handed them shark fin T-shirts that said I HAD A FIN TIME AT THE AQUARIUM.

  Stink rubbed his hand along the giant fin. “Is this the real Sharkzilla’s fin? From the model built for Shark Week?”

  “One and the same,” said Miss D.

  “D is for Dinosaur?” asked Sophie, hopefully.

  “Wrong again,” said Miss D., shaking her head. “Keep guessing.”

  Just then, Riley Rottenberger and her team came rushing into the Hall of Wonders.

  “Last one to find Sharkzilla is a Rotten Egg!” cried Stink.

  “Is it time to go to sleep yet?” asked Webster.

  “Not even close,” said Sophie.

  “Is it time for sharks?” Stink asked Miss D.

  “It’s time for . . . jellyfish.” The sleepover kids followed Miss D. past the Wall of Fish to the Planet of the Jellies. Mimi ran up to Sophie, clutching a red-haired mermaid. Her face was streaked with tears. Sophie’s mom pulled Sophie aside to talk to her.

  In every tank, ooey-gooey, creepy-deepy blobs danced and glowed, zoomed and bloomed in the water. There were blue, green, and pink jellies. There were purple-striped jellies and white-spotted jellies. There were upside down jellies and rainbow-colored glow-in-the-dark jellies.

  “I hope we get to sleep here,” said Webster. “Sleeping with jellyfith would be cool.”

  “Everybody knows you don’t sleep at a sleepover, right, Sophie?” Stink looked around. “Sophie?”

  “Here I am,” said Sophie, coming up behind them.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with Mimi?” asked Stink.

  “She got scared and won’t go to sleep, so Mom has to take her home.”

  “Does that mean we have to go?” asked Webster.

  “Nope. My mom talked to Stink’s mom and we get to stay with the Moodys.”

  “Phew,” said Stink.

  “Phew,” said Webster.

  “Too bad about your little sister,” said Eagle-Ears Riley. “She probably couldn’t sleep because she was afraid of getting stung by the world’s deadliest box jelly. Or whiplashed by a bat ray. Or eaten by a tiger shark.”

  Stink turned as white as a ghost shrimp. “Check out this jellyfish,” he said, changing the subject. “It looks like a broken egg.”

  “That one over there looks like a plate,” said Webster.

  “Look at the one that’s wearing a hula skirt,” said Sophie.

  “That was the egg-yolk jellyfish, the dinner-plate jellyfish, and the hula-skirt jellyfish,” said a man in a blue shirt.

  “No lie?” asked Stink.

  “No lie,” said the man.

  “Everybody,” said Miss D., “this is Marco.”

  “Polo!” said Webster.

  “Marco is our resident jellyfish wrangler,” said Miss D.

  “Cool-o,” said Stink.

  Marco laughed. “Welcome to Planet of the Jellies. Jellyfish are unusual because they don’t have brains or bones or blood. Or teeth or fins.

  “Over here, we have the giant lion’s mane jelly. Its body can grow up to eight feet around and more than eight feet long. Add its tentacles, and it can be longer than a blue whale — the biggest mammal on Earth.”

  “Whoa,” said Stink.

  “It has a deadly sting. Sherlock Holmes even solved a mystery where the murder weapon was a sting from a lion’s mane.”

  “Hey, Stink,” Riley asked, “would you rather get stung by a Portuguese man-of-war or an Australian box jellyfish?”

  “A Portuguese man-of-war sting is like getting struck by lightning,” said Stink. “And an Australian box jellyfish has enough poison to kill sixty people. So neither.”

  “Here comes the blue blubber jelly,” said Marco. All the kids watched the eerie blue blob pulse to its own rhythm.

  “It looks like a bell,” said Sophie.

  “Sea turtles love to eat these,” said Marco.

  “Do they eat the stinging part?” asked Riley.

  “They sure do,” said Marco. “Guess what. People in China and Japan like to eat jellyfish, too.”

  “No way!” said Riley’s friend Maisy.

  “Yes way,” said Marco. “I tried it once.”

  “Ooh. What do they taste like?” asked Stink.

  “Think of a rubber-band salad,” said Marco.

  “Yuck!” said Maisy.

  “Someday you just might eat a peanut-butter-and-jellyfish sandwich,” said Marco.

  “No way!” said Stink.

  “This red guy here is the bloodybelly comb jelly. It lives in the ocean. If it swallows any prey that glows, the red helps to hide it from predators.”

  “Ooh. Gross. It looks like a kidney. Or a heart,” said Webster.

  “Are you ready for a smack?” Marco asked. Stink jumped back.

  Marco chuckled. “I don’t mean a slap. A smack of jellyfish. That’s what you call a group of jellies. Here they come.” A smack of jellies floated by like small spaceships.

  “Don’t they look lip-smacking good?” Marco asked.

  “Eeew!” everybody groaned.

  “Look, they’re all swimming upside down,” said Riley.

  “Invasion of the Mushroom Planet!” said Stink.

  “And that one has a blue belly button,” said Sophie.

  “That’s his jelly button,” said Stink.

  “Good one,” said Marco.

  The dark room was hushed while people watched the creatures float, swim, and sail through the water.

  “Before I go, I want to show y’all one last thing.” Marco put a hand into the tank and dragged it through the water. Some of the jellies lit up and glowed in the dark. They floated and tumbled and turned and danced, putting on quite a light show.

  “See? You didn’t know you had tickets to the Moon Jelly Ballet, did you?”

  “I read that jellyfish went to outer space,” said Stink. “Is that true?”

  “It’s absolutely true. Thousands of moon jelly babies rode on the shuttle Columbia so scientists could study how they’d grow in outer space.”

  “Invasion of the jelly aliens!” said Stink. “The Jellians!”

  “So, who would like to help me light up the jellies?” asked Marco.

  “No way!” “Gross!” “Are you nuts?”

  Marco looked at Webster. “Not me,” said Webster. “Even dead jellyfith sting.”

  Stink raised his hand. “I’ll try.”

  Marco showed Stink where to put his hand in the tank. The jellies lit up and glowed like a string of blue and white twinkle lights.

  “Moon jellies make the best night-lights ever!” said Stink.

  “Night-lights are for babies,” Riley said. Stink gave her the stink eye. As he did, his hand brushed against a jelly. “Aagh! My finger!” Stink pulled his hand away super fast.

  “Did you get stung?�
�� asked Webster.

  “No. Just cooties. Good thing only this finger touched it,” said Stink, holding up the index finger on his right hand.

  “Gross! Jellyfish cooties!” said Riley.

  Stink waved the Jellyfish Finger in the air. “Stinger Finger!” he cried. All six of the FINS backed away.

  “I thought I wanted to be a pro smeller for NASA,” said Stink. “But now I want to be a jellyfish wrangler. I could change my name to Sting.”

  Marco reached out to shake Stink’s hand. “Good to meet you, Sting.”

  When do we get to see sharks?” Stink asked.

  “Follow me to Sharks Ahoy!” Miss D. called out.

  “Cool!” said Stink. “Dun-dun, dun-dun,” he sang as they walked around the rotunda, past penguins splashing in the Palace of Ice, and up a spooky, green-lit ramp.

  They followed Miss D. into a glass tunnel that went right through the shark tank. Sleek, slippery sharks swam around them on all sides. Stink gazed in silent awe at the monsters of the deep, with their black beady eyes, pointy snouts, and razor-sharp teeth.

  At last, Miss D. broke the silence. “Here we have a shiver of sand tiger sharks.”

  “They’re all teeth,” said Sophie, shivering. “That one needs braces!”

  “Sand tiger sharks go through over three thousand teeth in their lifetime. They look mega-mean, like the great whites,” said Miss D., “but they aren’t really known to attack humans.”

  “Awethome,” said Webster, fiddling with his loose tooth again.

  “Just think,” said Stink. “If we lost three thousand teeth, and we got a dollar from the tooth fairy for each one we lost, we’d have three thousand dollars!”

  “Sharks have an amazing sense of smell,” said Miss D.

  “Me, too,” said Stink.

  “Yes, but could you smell one drop of blood in a million drops of water? That’s about twenty-five gallons.”

  “No way,” said Stink.

  “And did you know sharks burp?” said Miss D.

  “They do not,” said Rotten Riley.

  “I’m afraid so. These sharks come up to the surface, gulp in air, and hold it in their stomachs. This helps them float.”

  “Burrrp!” Riley burped on purpose.

  “Do sharks have boogers, too?” asked Anna.

  “Shark snot!” said Riley.

  “So, who wants to touch a shark? Anybody?” asked Miss D.

  The room fell super quiet. “Stink will,” said Riley. Three of the FINS started urging Stink forward.

  “Snot after that!” said Stink.

  “You can touch it with your Jellyfish Finger,” said Riley. “Since it already has cooties.”

  “I was only kidding,” said Miss D.

  “Phew,” said Stink. “I thought you were serious.”

  “But if you did touch a shark, it wouldn’t feel smooth. A shark’s skin is sandpapery, like a cat’s tongue.”

  “Miss D., have you ever touched a shark?” asked Sophie.

  “I have.”

  “So is the D for Dangerous?”

  “You’re getting warmer,” said Miss D., smiling.

  Just then, a spotted shark swam by.

  “This toothy guy right here,” said Miss D., “is Mr. Spock. Can you guess what his favorite TV show is?”

  “Star Trek!” said Webster.

  “Shark Trek,” said Miss D. Stink and his friends cracked up. Then they gave Mr. Spock a Vulcan hand salute.

  “Sand tiger sharks feed at night, so who would like to go behind the scenes and watch a shark eating dinner?” Several hands went up in the air.

  Miss D. pointed to Stink and his friends. “Why don’t you three come with me? The rest of you can head to the gift shop until it’s your turn.”

  “I’m with them,” said Riley Rottenberger, sliding in next to Stink.

  “No, she’s —”

  “That’s fine,” said Miss D. “After me.” Miss D. led them to a catwalk over the tanks. From up there they could see pipes and tanks and more pipes!

  “That’s our wave-making machine,” said Miss D. over the roar of the water. “The sharks swim in a tank that holds over six million gallons.”

  “Who knew Niagara Falls was up here,” said Stink.

  “Stink,” said Riley. “Would you rather go over Niagara Falls without a raft or fall off Mount Rushmore without a parachute?”

  “I’d rather watch a stuntman do those things in a movie,” said Stink.

  “Would you rather get bitten by a moray eel or chomped on by a tiger shark?”

  Stink shifted from one foot to the other, thinking it over.

  “What’s the matter? Shark got your tongue?” Riley cracked herself up.

  “I’d rather the moray eel bite the tiger shark,” said Stink.

  “Here’s Ariel,” said Miss D. “She’s getting ready to feed Mr. Spock.”

  “What does she feed the sharks?” Sophie asked.

  “Fish, mostly. They like bony fish. And squid. And skates.”

  Ariel took a silvery fish from a bucket and attached it to a long pole. She stuck the pole in the water and SMACK! The shark attacked the pole, chomping down with his huge jaws and — presto — in the blink of an eye, the fish was gone. Mr. Spock gulped the whole thing in one big bite.

  “Shark attack!” said Riley.

  “That was mega scary,” said Sophie.

  “Mega creepy,” said Riley. “But I wasn’t scared.”

  “Mega awesome!” said Stink. “That was jawsome!”

  Stink, Sophie, and Webster went to the gift shop before it closed. The shop had stuffed sharks and starfish. Mermaid dolls and robot crabs.

  Stink and his friends zoomed around, looking at stuff.

  “Stink,” said Rotten Riley. “Would you rather be crushed by two tons of beach plastic or get sucked into the Great Pacific Garbage Vortex and never come out?”

  “Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I’d build a giant raft out of all the plastic trash and sail my way out.”

  Riley ran off to check out the plush penguins with her fellow FINS.

  “Psst. Stinkerbell. Over here.”

  Stink swiveled around and peered through a rack of puppets. Judy!

  “Can I borrow some money, Stinker?”

  “What for?”

  “For a Siamese fighting fish. They build bubble nests out of spit.”

  “Sorry. I’m all out of money.”

  “But I thought you had ten dollars?”

  “Not any more. I adopted a shark. I’m giving the money to the aquarium to help feed a tiger shark.”

  “Good thing,” Judy said. “I don’t think a tiger shark would fit in the bathtub.” Stink cracked up.

  “I can’t decide what to get,” said Webster. “A man-eating shark hat or a kit to build a model of Plastiki out of recycled stuff.”

  “Plastiki!” said Stink.

  “What’s Plastiki?” asked Judy.

  “It’s a real-live boat that a crew of people built out of plastic bottles,” said Webster. “They sailed it across the ocean to Australia so people would stop and think about all the plastic that ends up in the ocean.”

  “Rare,” said Judy. “Sophie, what are you getting?”

  Sophie held up a hermit crab habitat. The small tank had a palm tree, a bridge, a sponge, and a water dish. A tiny crab poked out of a coconut-shell hut. “I got a real pet hermit crab! Pinchers and all.” She reached over and pinched Stink’s arm.

  “Youch!” said Stink. “The Stinger Finger is going to get you!”

  “What’s its name?” asked Judy.

  “Mr. Crab Cakes,” said Sophie.

  “I had a hermit crab once,” said Judy. “His name was Harvey. He came to a bad end.”

  “Please don’t tell that story,” said Stink. “I mean it.”

  “Tell it!” said Webster and Sophie.

  Stink stuck his fingers in his ears. “Row, row, row your boat . . .” he sang.

  Judy pulled Stin
k’s hands away from his ears.

  “Stink, I promise I won’t tell your friends about the time Harvey the Hermit Crab was in my pocket and he went through the washing machine — tsunami city!” Judy zipped her lips. “My lips are sealed.”

  Stink glanced at the clock. Uh-oh. It was getting closer and closer to the sleep part of the sleepover.

  Miss D. turned out the lights in the rotunda. Glow-in-the-dark stars were hanging from the domed ceiling, making it look like a night sky.

  “D is for Dark?” Sophie asked Miss D. “Miss Darkness?”

  Miss D. shook her head no. Miss D-is-not-for-Darkness took out her laptop and projected some flames up on the wall. The flames flickered and popped and glowed.

  “It looks like a real campfire!” said Webster.

  Miss D. shook a spray can and gave the air a few tiny squirts.

  “I smell nature,” said Riley.

  “I smell Christmas trees,” said Sophie.

  “I smell s’mores,” said Webster.

  “It’s pine forest mist air freshener,” said Miss D.

  “It smells like a real campfire!” said Stink.

  Everybody sat in a circle around a virtual campfire (battery-operated candles). They pretended to roast (real) marshmallows over the (pretend) fire.

  Before long, Sophie started to slump. Webster’s eyelids started to droop. “Guys!” said Stink. “You can’t fall asleep yet. You have to stay awake for midnight snack at ten o’clock. Waffles!”

  Stink tried to think of something that would keep them awake. He saw a door just off the ramp to Sharks Ahoy that said KEEP OUT.

  “What’s behind that door?” Stink asked Miss D.

  “Don’t you know?” Miss D. asked in an almost-whisper.

  “Tell us!” everybody said, perking right up. “Tell us, tell us, tell us.”

  “This is the story about a creature who lived right here in this very aquarium. See that dark, empty tank? That was her home, once upon a time.”

  “Her who?” everybody asked.

  “They called her Bloody Mary. She was a vampire squid.”