1 Seafari!

 

  WOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

  SMAAAAAAAAACK!!!

  CRAAAAAAAAASH!!!!

  DOINNNGNNNNGGG!!!

  Okay, I can see that this might take a little bit of an explanation. I’m Harvey Hammer, a hammerhead shark, and I’m trying to…

   

  Think up the next installment of my King Krusher and Hammer-Boy comic, where Hammer-Boy chases evil Cruz the Catfish Burglar.…

 

  Dodge the mountain of books on the kitchen floor and not get crushed by them.…

 

  “HAAAARVEY!” That was my older sister, Hettie.

  She’s always shouting at me. (She would say “raising her voice.”) But I could tell she was really angry because she had her fins folded over her chest.

  “That’s my term paper research you’ve knocked all over the place!” she screeched.

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t expect a whole library right in my path. I’ll clean it up,” I said.

  Well, I tried to say that, but… DOINNNNNNNGGGG… my hammerhead got stuck between the oven and the refrigerator, so it was hard to talk.

  “Oh, Harvey! You’re always into into something. Let me help,” Hettie said.

  She grabbed my tail and tried to pull me out, but my hammerhead flubbered like crazy.

  Why couldn’t I have a sleek tiger-shark head? Not one that looked like it escaped from a toolbox! It was always in my way.

  Finally, with one last tug from Hettie, I popped out.

  Once I was free and things had settled down, I held up one of the fallen books.

  The cover had a picture of a little leggy air-breather who looked like he was jumping up and down on some strange device.

   

  THE SCIENTIST’S GUIDE TO

 

  LEGGY AIR-BREATHERS

 

  (LABS)

 

  (THAT’S YOU HUMAN BEINGS. NOT SHARKS.)

 

  “So weird,” I said.

  Hettie answered, “It’s not weird. It’s science. I bet they probably think we are weird.”

  I guess she was right. I asked her, “Isn’t doing science homework during vacation the most weird of all?”

  “Harvey, you’d lose your hammerhead if it weren’t attached to your body. Mom and Dad are taking us all to Seafari Park to see real humans in their natural habitat, remember?”

  Oh wow! Hettie was right, I had forgotten. And I soooooooooo wanted to go to Seafari Park to see those LABs.

  Visitors to the park can see people throwing pebbles into the ocean, lying on towels, and getting angry when they get sand in their snacks and sandwiches.

  I mean, the LABs even call them sandwiches—why would anyone get annoyed when there is actual sand in them? So weird!

  Spike, a puffed-up puffer fish from my class—who isn’t exactly my best friend—went there last semester. He bragged how he got so close to a LAB, he poked it with one of his spines and made it run away. Everyone at school treated him like he was a superhero.

  But I’m the one who knows all about superheroes. I bet I could get just as close as Spike. Plus, if the humans saw me, they’d be way more scared of me.

  I had to prove I was as brave as Spike. As Hammer-Boy would say, Mission on!

  That was going to be the best day ever. At least, that was my plan.