Great Reef Games Read online

  TO BARBARA, WHO IS MY FAVORITE SUPER SMARTIE –KJE

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1: GREAT REEF, GREAT RACE

  CHAPTER 2: A TREASURE MAP

  CHAPTER 3: SAILING IN THE SKY

  CHAPTER 4: CLUED IN

  CHAPTER 5: A SMART DECISION?

  CHAPTER 6: GOOD REFLEXES, BAD BALANCE

  CHAPTER 7: A BAD MORNING

  CHAPTER 8: NOT A MERMAID

  CHAPTER 9: WHALE OF A FINISH

  TEASER

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  COPYRIGHT

  Sage Stevens surveyed the beach bungalow and took a deep breath. The smell of the salt in the air reminded her why she was there. It wasn’t for the lunch buffet that stretched the length of the banquet room. Nor was it to make friends with the other contestants. She didn’t even care about the breathtaking ocean views and sending home postcards with pictures of tropical fish.

  The only reason Sage was in Australia was to win the next leg of The Wild Life, a competition where kids traveled the world and explored the wonders of the animal kingdom.

  Sage twisted one earring to keep calm. She’d been up since dawn. Despite the time change, she hadn’t needed an alarm clock. Her brain was wired for competition. She had gone ahead and woken up her three teammates using the cuckoo call that they’d picked up on the first part of the race. The birdcall had come in handy in the Amazon rain forest, but no one had been happy to hear the chirping cackle again at 6:47 that morning. If Sage had known the second stage of the race wouldn’t start until after lunch, she might have let her teammates sleep. After all, they’d need their energy for the challenges ahead.

  Sage nudged Mari so they didn’t lose their place in line. Mari was only a year younger, but Sage still felt the need to look out for her. Maybe it was because Mari reminded Sage of her sister. They were both Smarties, for one. “Smartie” was a name Sage used for kids who were unusually intelligent, so smart they couldn’t hide it. Mari could spout facts about nature in her sleep. Her knowledge about animals and habitats had made all the difference to Team Red on the first leg of the race.

  “Good luck holding on to first place.”

  It took Sage a moment to register that the comment was aimed at her.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Thanks,” she responded, matching stares with Eliza, the tallest member of Team Purple. Eliza was a Smartie, too, and she wanted everyone to know it.

  “I heard this part of the race is about power. Brainpower.” Eliza had a smug smile. Her lips stretched out in a flat line and didn’t let her teeth show.

  “Team Red is up for it,” Sage answered. She reached past the other girl for a biscuit. “Excuse me,” she said, and turned away.

  As they made their way through the buffet line, Sage put two links of sausage onto Mari’s empty plate. “You have to eat if you’re going to compete,” she said absentmindedly. It was the phrase her track coaches always used when they were handing out snack bars before a big meet.

  Mari looked up at Sage with her deep brown eyes. “I’m a vegetarian,” she said, her words soft but even. “I don’t eat meat.”

  “In that case, I’ll take those,” Sage said, piercing the sausages with a fork. “There are all kinds of pasta and cheese and peanut butter sandwiches at that end,” she suggested, motioning to the far side of the room. The long table was crowded with every kind of food imaginable: fruit, grilled fish, nuts, jerky, veggies, and dips.

  Mari nodded, her thick dark braid swaying as she walked away.

  As soon as her plate was full, Sage looked for the other two members of their team. She spotted their bright red T-shirts, and headed toward the table they’d claimed. Russell’s plate was piled high with deli-style sandwiches and fruit. Dev’s plate, on the other hand, looked like the picture on a poster for the five essential food groups. There were equal portions of each protein and vegetable. Sage noted that his peas did not touch his carrots or mashed potatoes. She had seen inside Dev’s hiking backpack—it was just as organized.

  Just as Mari and Sage sat down across from their teammates, Dev and Russell stopped talking. Russell hadn’t said a thing to Sage since she’d woken him up that morning, but he had shot her a few foul glances. She wondered if they didn’t want her to hear what they were saying. It was a moment before she realized that a hush had fallen over the entire bungalow.

  That’s when Bull Gordon strode into the room, the heels of his cowboy boots announcing his entrance. The Wild Life race’s host wore his trademark fedora, an enormous shark tooth tucked into the leather band. Like all great adventurers, he had a notable scar on his tanned chin. He also had disarmingly white teeth, which he flashed at all the contestants as he approached the front of the room.

  “So you survived the Amazon,” Bull announced, one thumb hooked through the belt loop of his jeans. “All the teams logged impressive times, but some fared better than others with the actual clues.”

  When they heard this, the members of Team Red locked gazes. The clues had been their strength. They had stolen the win from Team Green in the last moments of the first leg, all because Russell had known the answer to the final question.

  “But that’s in the past,” Bull continued. “The Great Barrier Reef has its own set of challenges. It is one of the most diverse marine habitats in the world: a string of living coral so long it can be seen from space.” As he scanned the room, his eyes narrowed. “It’s also fragile. Life here is a delicate balance, and you have to respect it. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you will get a time penalty … or worse.”

  Sage’s forehead crinkled as she tried to figure out what Bull was saying. Would they get disqualified? There was no way her team was going to be disqualified. She would not let that happen.

  “So, protect the reef first,” Bull announced. “Then protect yourselves. You are in Australia, where everything is bigger, more beautiful, and more dangerous. You have to get serious.”

  Sage smiled tightly. Bull Gordon could save his advice for the other contestants. They all seemed like amateurs. Sage was born serious, and she planned to win.

  EXTREMELY SMALL, EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

  While coral reefs cover less than two percent of the ocean floor, they provide shelter for one-quarter of the ocean’s animals.

  The Great Barrier Reef is the largest group of reefs in the world. Together, these reefs stretch nearly 1,500 miles along the northeastern coast of Australia.

  The reef is home to more than 1,500 species of fish. The fish dine on everything from the sea grass that grows in the shallow waters to tiny plants and animals that float in from the ocean. When they aren’t eating, they are hiding! The reef, with its many nooks and crannies, is a good place for that.

  The fish are hiding from predators. More than 130 species of sharks and rays call the reef home. From the bottom-feeding nurse shark to the large tiger shark—a super predator—many hunters depend on the reef for food.

  Without a word, Bull Gordon handed each team an envelope and exited the room. Sage tore open the red team’s to find their start time. “One thirty,” she announced. “That’s in five minutes. Go to the bathroom, grab travel food, and meet back here.” Sage nudged Mari with her elbow and prompted the boys with a hasty glance.

  By winning the previous leg of the race, they’d earned the first departure time. Sage wasn’t about to let it go to waste. On the way back from the bathroom, she grabbed an energy bar—then several more, just in case her teammates needed them.

  It still wasn’t clear how they had all ended up together: Dev, Russell, Mari, and Sage. It seemed like a lot of the kids on the other teams had known one another before the race. Ru
ssell had a bunch of friends on Team Green, but the organizers had put him on Team Red. Sage thought that was kind of weird. The organizers seemed to like to group certain kinds of kids together. Team Purple, Eliza’s crew, was full of Smarties. The blue team members were all über-athletes. But Team Red didn’t fit that mold. They didn’t have much in common with one another.

  Sage, Mari, and Dev had all sent in single applications. Then the organizers had plucked Russell from his friends and matched them together: four complete strangers. Sage didn’t like leaving things to luck. She wasn’t sure about working with three people she didn’t know. But so far, they had made a pretty good team. They each had a role that helped the team win. While they all knew about wildlife, Mari’s knowledge was deeper and her brain faster with the clues. Dev was a tech guru with a mechanical mind. Russell was their strength, not only in body, but also in spirit. And Sage was the leader. It was her job to keep them working like a team.

  One of the race agents was at the door with a clipboard. Sage stood next to her and watched for the others, her mind churning, trying to anticipate the challenges the day would bring. When the whole team was there, the agent glanced up, her thumb hovering above the knob on a stopwatch. “The next team starts in ten minutes,” she said. “Make the most of it.” Sage nodded. As soon as the agent’s thumb moved, Sage yelled, “Go, go, go!” Her muscles exploded, all the tension from waiting turned into energy. At last, the race had started and they were on the move. Sage felt more at ease now. She glanced back. Her teammates were all behind her. The bright sun glinted off the white sand and clear blue water, a row of palm trees offering the only shade.

  Sage would race anywhere. It didn’t really matter that this was paradise. The sand felt hot on her feet, filling the creases of her water sandals.

  Even though it was winter in Australia, the sun’s rays were still strong. As Sage neared the dock at the far end of the beach, she saw Bull Gordon. He was standing with Javier, Team Red’s guide.

  “We’re coming!” Sage called, waving as she came to a stop. She was certain her teammates were all relieved to see Javier. He had been a good chaperone in the Amazon.

  “Team Red,” Bull began, “you are currently in first place. Therefore, you get first choice of the yachts. The yacht will be your home base until you reach the end of the race course tomorrow.”

  Sage’s eyes swept over the multilevel vessels. “We’ll take the one at the far end of the dock. The Aqua Adventure.”

  Bull Gordon looked to the other team members.

  “It looks like they all have about the same type of motor, so I don’t think any one vessel has more power,” Dev commented. Sage recalled how the green team had managed to get a much faster boat during the last leg.

  “In that case, it doesn’t matter to me,” Russell said with a shrug. Mari nodded.

  “Very well, Aqua Adventure is yours. Remember to respect the reef,” Bull said with a stern gaze. “Javier, give them this clue on board.”

  Javier took a red folder from Bull and nodded. Bull glanced at the four contestants. “What are you waiting for?” he asked. “It’s a race!”

  With that, they were off.

  Sage was the first to the yacht. She waited for Javier on deck to make sure she’d get ahold of the clue. The rest of the team gathered around as she opened the folder. “Treasure map,” she read aloud.

  “Awesome,” Russell said. “Do you think there’s a real treasure, like with jewels?”

  “Let me read the clue and we’ll find out.” Sage tried not to sound huffy. “This is a map. It will show you how to keep the ocean’s greatest treasure safe. Find the right path to the coordinates and you will find your next challenge.”

  “That isn’t hard,” Dev said, gesturing to the clue. “It’s just using north, south, east, and west and finding the coordinates on the map. We locate the spot and go.”

  “No,” Sage contended. “Check it out. This map is like a puzzle. It’s all different colors.”

  “It’s a zoning map,” Russell figured out. “Look. It tells you where you can go and what you can do. There’s no fishing here, and you can’t even swim in the places that are pink.”

  They all stared at the numbers on the clue and the map for a while. “All right, team,” Sage announced, tracing around the coast of Australia with her finger. “We need a path that will take us out beyond these parts of the reef, and we can’t go through restricted spots.”

  At once, Russell, Dev, and Mari settled at the small table in the boat’s seating area and got to work finding the best route.

  “The clue said this was a treasure map. So, in this scenario,” Dev thought out loud, “the ocean’s greatest treasure is—”

  “The reef, of course,” Mari finished for him. “The map shows us how to keep the reef safe.”

  It wasn’t long before they had highlighted the fastest—and safest—path for a boat of their size to take. Sage ran along the yacht’s galley and handed the proposed route to the captain. The man in the white hat with a golden anchor above the brim looked at the sheet and nodded.

  Sage smiled when she heard the engines fire up. She looked at her watch. Her team was fast. She dared the other teams to try to catch them.

  CREATURE FEATURE

  CORAL

  SCIENTIFIC NAME: many families, including Acroporidae and Faviidae

  TYPE: Anthozoa, along with sea anemones and sea fans

  RANGE: in shallow, tropical waters

  FOOD: small plants and animals called plankton; sometimes tiny fish

  The coral that makes up the reef is an animal. Actually, it is hundreds—even thousands—of tiny animals living together in a colony. A single coral creature is called a polyp.

  Most kinds of coral build their own skeleton. They do this by releasing small amounts of limestone each day. The type of coral determines what shape the skeleton will take: staghorn coral looks like antlers, brain coral looks like a brain, and lettuce coral looks like the makings of a healthy salad.

  Like any living creature, coral needs certain things to survive. Coral needs food. It needs a healthy, safe place to grow. The seawater cannot be too hot or cold. It can’t be too dirty. All these things contribute to the health of the reef.

  The trip was choppy. The yacht pitched against the waves for almost an hour. Sage couldn’t sit still, so she went up to the deck where she was spritzed by the sea’s spray. When the boat chugged to a stop, Sage searched the horizon. She spotted a small, lush island with a ring of sand all around, but it was too far away to swim.

  She stormed down the ship’s stairs to find Javier sitting with the rest of the team. “What’s up?” she demanded. “We’re here, right? Did we get another clue?”

  “Give it a minute, and you’ll figure out what to do,” Javier answered. “Why don’t you put on a wet suit while you wait? It’ll keep you from getting too cold, and it will protect you from box jellyfish.”

  “Jellyfish?” Russell repeated, his body straightening with a jerk. “Those things are super venomous. No way am I going in that water if there are jellyfish.”

  “You’re right,” Javier agreed without sounding concerned. “Some species are extremely toxic. One touch of a tentacle can kill you, but they aren’t common in winter months. We’ll all be on the lookout, and the suit is good protection. If you see one, everyone has to get out, pronto.”

  The other three were busy forcing their limbs into the thick fabric of the wet suits, but Russell was full of doubt.

  “Don’t worry, man,” Dev tried to reassure his teammate. “If you get stung, we can just pee on you.” He tried to keep a straight face. “I read that pee can neutralize the toxins.”

  “That’s an old wives’ tale,” Mari said as she pulled her braid from the back of her suit. “White vinegar is what doctors used to recommend, but even that might make the tentacles release more venom. The treatment is complicated, so it’s best just to avoid getting stung altogether.”

  “Exact
ly,” Russell said, his face expressionless. “And not just because I don’t want Dev to pee on me.”

  Sage was just as relieved as Russell that Mari had dispelled that rumor.

  “If you’re worried, check the water for tiny animals like shrimp,” Mari suggested. “You probably aren’t going to find any jellyfish if they can’t find any food.”

  Sage watched as Russell scanned the waves around the boat. It was obvious how much he trusted Mari’s advice, because he heaved a sigh of relief. The water looked clear.

  Just then, a motorboat appeared from behind the nearby island. Javier waved it down. “Get ready for your first challenge,” he announced. He held out a canvas box and raised the lid. Inside was what looked like a smartphone, with a short antenna. “The ancam!” Dev declared, plunging his hand into the box.

  “You sound so excited,” Russell said in a mocking tone. Dev had hated the ancam at first, but had quickly mastered the tiny device that combined a walkie-talkie and camera. It was how they received directions and clues from the race organizers. It was also how they submitted their answers, so they could move on to the next clue.

  “It’s time,” said Javier. “Get yourselves over to that boat.”

  “You got it?” Sage asked Dev, making sure he would take charge of their communications device. Dev held up the ancam and gave a confident grin.

  Sage instinctively checked for both earrings, then dove in. The chill of the water made everything feel real. The race really was on now. With powerful strokes, she made her way to the other vessel.

  After she climbed the ladder to the small deck, she looked back at her teammates. Dev wasn’t far behind. His thick black hair was even straighter than usual, wet against his dark skin. Russell, despite his athletic frame and busy schedule of team sports, did not appear to be a strong swimmer. His kick was sloppy, and his breathing lacked an even rhythm. But Mari was struggling even more. When she finally reached the ladder, Sage reached out and gave her a hand. Mari looked disoriented with the salt water streaming down her tanned face. “You okay?” Sage asked.