Taking Off

Chapter 13

Tia was up and about at nine am the next morning. Her sickness had completely vanished, and she was so happy, she wanted to take that medication home with her. She took her time in the shower, humming happily to herself. She decided to wear a summer dress that day, and she was happy she did, when she saw the sun shine through the glass sliding doors in the main room.

Elijah woke up half an hour later, running around to get ready in time to get down to the lobby. It seemed they were always late because of him. Plus, he was sure he'd have to face the wrath of Tia Anderson when he walked out of his door.

He was wrong, however. He walked out and found her merrily humming as she watched Spongebob Squarepants on television. When he listened closely, he realised she was humming the Spongebob theme song.

"I take it you're not sick anymore," he said, running a hand through his hair quickly, and straightening his t-shirt. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd done that.

"Nope. Those tablets are miracle workers," she replied, not looking away from the television screen.

"I'll keep that in mind, in case I get sick," he replied, walking to the couch. He looked at the screen. They stayed like that for a while; both smiling at Spongebob on screen.

Finally, though, she looked up at him. "Are you ready, then?" she asked. He looked at her.

"Well, obviously."

"Then why are we still here?" she asked, getting up quickly. She grabbed her bag and ran for the door.

"I dunno. You were the one watching TV," he replied, but she had already left the room. He switched the television off and followed her out, making sure to lock the door behind him.

-

In the lobby, the group was gathered, as Figg began her morning speech of the days' activities. Tia and Elijah actually had time to eat some breakfast that morning, so they were in better moods than they'd been since they landed, and they listened with concentrated interest.

"I don't know if any of you remember, but on Monday I told you all that every second day, we'd be doing an activity that will be focused on 'conquering fears,'" she began. Some people nodded. Tia looked nervously at Aladdin. What fear could she be putting them through now? "Well, if you forgot, I'm reminding you now. Today is a fear day. And the fear is, the fear of water!" she revealed. Most of the students looked around, confused.

"Water?" a girl piped up. Figg nodded.

"Yes. We're going to the Melbourne Aquarium where we'll all be having the 'shark walking experience,' which sounds exciting to me. But I imagine lots of you might be a little afraid," she explained further. As she said 'shark' there was a lot more tension felt throughout the group. Almost all of them didn't like the sound of this activity. Tia was one of them. Elijah didn't mind it, but it wasn't something he was dying to do.

"Walking with sharks!" one boy exclaimed. "You can't be serious!"

"I'm very serious. Don't worry. It's completely safe and there'll be professionals with us. We're not going to let anything happen to you," she assured. "Now, let's get going."

With that, everybody followed her out of the hotel and piled into a minibus she'd hired that was driven by a nice old man named Maurice. The Aquarium was not very far away and so the students didn't have to wait long to face this activity. They all jumped out of the minibus and stood, waiting for Figg to tell them their next move. She was approached by an Aquarium worker and they spoke together for a few minutes, leaving the group standing there awkwardly.

"Okay," Figg said, turning back to them all. "This here is Callum. He'll be one of the professionals helping you with this activity today."

Callum smiled and waved at them. "It's nice to meet you all. We have a right treat for you all. It's going to be amazing," he said, beaming. The students eyed him. Tia wasn't sure 'amazing' was the right word to use in this situation. "We'll first get you to sit through a ten-minute theory lesson, just to make sure you all know what you're getting yourselves into, and then we'll go in – two students at a time," he explained. "Let's go in, then!"

-

Once inside the Aquarium, the group was led to a big room with a projector at the front of the room. There were a couple more workers setting stuff up in there as well. The students each took a seat and waited for further instruction.

"Okay, now I want you all to listen very carefully, okay? We don't want any accidents to happen," Callum began. Seeing the horrified expressions on everybody's faces, he hastily added, "Not that we'd let anything happen. It's completely safe. Trust me. You're all going to have a blast!" he assured, excited.

"Do we have to do it?" Vanessa asked from beside Tia. Callum looked at her, unsure of how to answer.

"Umm. We can't force you to do anything you don't want to do. But we really want you to and we'll annoy you so much with our insistence that you do it, that you'll do it just to shut us up," he replied. There was laughter throughout the group. "If you have any other questions, keep them in mind and if we haven't answered them in our presentation, you can ask them when it's done." With that, the lesson begun.

-

"I can't believe we're doing this!" Tia exclaimed, as she, Aladdin, Vanessa, and Elijah sat awaiting their turn to walk with the sharks. The presentation had gotten her quite excited. "Never thought I'd be doing anything like this." Aladdin nodded beside her.

"I know! I'm a little scared. I mean – sharks! Kinda creepy," he commented, shivering. Tia patted his shoulder.

"I thought you were only scared of snails," Elijah remarked. Aladdin smirked.

"Not only scared of snails. Most scared of snails," he corrected. "I guess I'd rather be walking with sharks than in an enormous pit of snails." He gagged at the thought.

"Wow. That would be so disgusting," Vanessa said, shaking her head.

"Ugh, I know right!" Tia agreed.

"Imagine them crawling over your bare feet," Vanessa added. Both girls almost choked.

"That wouldn't be so bad," Elijah stated. The other three gave him a very disgusted look, clearly thinking he was mad. "Think about it. For a million dollars, would you rather have your feet in a pit of snails or walk with sharks? I think the snails would be easier," he added. He looked at the other three. The girls were thinking but Aladdin still looked very disgusted.

"The sharks any day!" he replied, quickly.

"Hmm, I actually don't know," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, now that you put it like that," Tia said. "But then I guess, we're doing the shark thing now and we're not being offered a million dollars," she added, making Elijah nod.

"I guess that's true. I wouldn't stick my feet in a pit of snails just for fun," he agreed. Tia laughed, not even bothering to cover it up with a cough, making Elijah smile, which made Aladdin and Vanessa exchange another knowing look. This look, however, went unnoticed by both Tia and Elijah.

"Okay, Tia and Aladdin? It's your turn," Callum said, coming over to them. The pair watched the pair who'd just come out. They looked rather exhilarated, which made Tia quite happy to be doing this. They had to change into special outfits that included wetsuits, gloves, boots, weight belt and the special Shark Walker helmet. They nodded to one another and entered the depths of the Oceanarium to spend twenty minutes with sharks and stingrays and fish.