Tiger Shark
Hannah Mills

I was nine years old and it was my first trip to Hawaii. My mom’s side of the family had decided to have a family reunion on Maui, so we were all invited to come and spend Thanksgiving. Well, about halfway through the trip we all had a boat trip planned to go out to the reefs, look at the fish and go scuba diving.
The boat was called Maui Fever and it was very fancy. There was a window on the bottom of the boat so you could see into the water, and it had a slide and all sorts of snazzy things to entertain yourself with. The beginning of the trip started off with all of us flying through the waves, our hair catching in the wind and our skin baking in the sun. We had three different reefs to visit, and the first one was called crescent reef. The reef wasn’t actually an underwater reef. It was more like the bank of an island. It was a bird reserve and birds flew everywhere above us. It wasn’t a very nice place to be on the deck of the boat, because poop fell almost every five seconds, but once in the water you could see the variety of fishes, and the clear blue water was amazing. We were supposed to spend an hour at each reef. It felt too soon to leave the first place, but I got back on the boat and sat on the top deck drying in the sun.
The second reef was a little different. You couldn’t even tell we were anywhere amazing by being on the boat; you had to get out your scuba gear and swim deep beneath the waves. Seeing as I was only nine I was not allowed to scuba dive, so I spent most of my time playing on the slide. Up and down I went. The cool water was such a relief after waiting for minutes to go down the slide. It wasn’t even that great a slide, it was metal, hot and dented, but it was the most fun I could have, and I was making the most of it. Well, after a while I was the only one left playing on it; I guess I was the most focused. I went down in about fifty times and the lifeguard had gotten to the point where he would cheer me on every time I would go down.
I was taking my millionth turn down the slide when suddenly I looked below me and there was a huge fish. I mean whale sized, to me.
“SHARK!” the lifeguard called, “EVERYONE OUT OF THE WATER!”
I was just flying into the water as he called this and I immediately wanted out. Just as I splashed into the water I opened my eyes and below me was this whale thing that was apparently a shark. I was so afraid. My mind froze, but fortunately it was in the position of “GET OUT OF THE WATER NOW!!”
I swam as fast as I could for the little rope dangling off the side of the eight foot boat. I grabbed the rope and pulled myself as quickly as I could out of the water, but I wasn’t very strong and it was taking much too long for my taste. The life guard was pulling on the rope trying desperately to get me out of the water faster, but I was slippery and frantic and I wasn’t doing a good job of helping him. I fell again into the water and finally they just yanked me out with something else, I didn’t know what it was. But as soon as I was on the deck I seriously collapsed.
Later I found out it was a tiger shark which is indeed one of the most dangerous sharks in the world. They said that even though we probably had a very small chance of actually getting bitten, that I had the biggest chance only because I was small and probably not very intimidating to it. All the other people in the water were close to the stairs, and the scuba divers didn’t have anything to worry about because they don’t attack them. At the next reef, I went swimming again, I wasn’t even afraid.