Tommy and Jade raced through the glass tunnel, trying their best to make as little noise as possible. They could feel the cold air hitting their skin and running through their hair. The scattered reflection of the blue water from up above moved across the floor. He reached the end several seconds before she did, and quickly turned around to give his sister a knowing grin. Before she could even open her mouth, he knew what she would say next.

“You started before I did,” She said, in a singsong voice, her face illuminated a deep shade of blue. “You started like two whole seconds before me!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He laughed as he rubbed his eyes. “You said that the last time I beat you, Jade.”

Leaning against the banister, she rested her head on her crossed arms and he propped his chin up with his right palm. They stood there in a comfortable silence, peering through the glass at the fish, the coral, the sand, and everything else in between. Jade felt as if she could stand there in the middle of the Pacific Exhibit for hours.

“Look,” she whispered, and pointed towards the left corner of the tank at two clownfish circling around their sea anemone. “They remind me of us.”

Tommy didn’t say anything, but he knew that it was an adequate response. He stood on his toes and craned his neck to have a better look at the fish she was pointing at. The two fish looked nearly identical, with their white and orange stripes and tiny fins. He thought of how he and Jade shared the same pointy nose and the same dark wavy hair and the same patterns of freckles. Staring at her was like staring at a more feminine version of himself.

He had thought she was crazy when she had told him about her plans during their class day trip to the city aquarium. A stunt like that was surely impossible.

“Okay, remember that time when Ryan Framo told us about that time when he was ten when he hitched a ride to his uncle’s house all the way in Sacramento during the summer?” She blurted out excitedly after dragging him behind one of the decorative pillars in the Tide Pool Exhibit.

He had scrunched up his nose. “Ryan Framo’s the biggest liar ever. Everyone knows that.”

“Whatever, okay, that’s not the point.” She said, hastily dismissing what he had just said. “We can do that, too, kind of. Maybe not across the state but closer.”

“What? Where?” Tommy was confused, to say the least.

“Here!” She said as she folded her map over and over again, pressing the creases with her fingertips. She looked at him intently, making sure that she had his full attention. “When we’re lining up for the head count, we can sneak out of the line and spend the night.”

He didn’t know how, but she somehow got him to agree with this crazy idea that only she could come up with. And he almost hated to admit it, but she was right. Right about how simple it would be. After slipping away from the class line, they had gotten rid of their bright yellow name tags and blended in with the afternoon crowd. When the aquarium intercom announced that they would soon be closing, they hid behind an old stairwell near the back of the building, crouching down on the cold cement floor and peeking out from the light blue wall every two minutes.

When the coast was completely clear and the corridors were dark and it felt like it was just the two of them and a sea of fish in the entire world, Jade turned to her brother with a playful smile.

“Don’t say it.” He frowned, knowing full well that she’d say it anyway.

“Itoldyouso,” She grinned and whispered it in his ear quickly. “That was way too easy.”  

Looking back now, it all seemed like it happened an eternity ago.

Jade rocked back and forth on her heels, wondering where they could go next. She ran her fingers up and down her arms, trying to keep the cold air from biting at her skin. As he glanced sideways at her, Tommy handed her the green sweater he had on, his favorite green sweater, with the stitched on pockets and the worn-out zipper.

Suddenly, the echo of heavy footsteps and a bright beam of light from around the corner caused them to whip around. They looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

“Someone’s coming.” Tommy whispered, his eyes wide and hands curled into fists.

Jade stayed silent, but he could see her eyes quickly darting around the room. “Here.” She grabbed his wrist just as she had grabbed it hours earlier, and pulled him behind a large visual display of a leatherback sea turtle with a happy cartoon smile, carefully stepping over the metal supports. They stood with their backs pressed up against the cold wall, keenly listening to the jingling of keys and the echoing steps as they grew closer and closer. Tommy felt like he was in a dream, that any moment he’d blink open his eyes, breathing heavily, only to be greeted with the sight of the glow-in-the-dark stars on his bedroom ceiling. He looked at Jade, who had her eyes fixed onto the floor. He was so close to her that he could smell the bubblegum in her mouth and count all the freckles on her face.

They both had their hands over their mouths as they heard a voice quietly humming a song and heavy footsteps pass by right in front of their hiding place.  It was like something out of those spy cartoons they would wake up early to watch on Saturday mornings. She looked up and saw the silent panic in her brother’s eyes, and wondered if she looked the same. They couldn’t get caught, they couldn’t. They had come so far…

He must have squeezed his eyes shut, because he found himself opening them several seconds later. Still not making a sound, they both listened to the metal keys and the footsteps and the humming as they grew fainter and fainter, until they could only hear the soft sound of their breathing. They lowered their hands, slow and delicate, as if they were made of glass, and stared at each other with their mouths slightly ajar.

Tommy stood on his toes, trying to take a look over the edge. He then turned to Jade, who was still holding onto his sweater. He wished he knew what to say to her, but instead watched as a toothy smile slowly spread across her face like honey.

“We haven’t seen the sharks yet, Tommy.” She whispered with that gleam in her eyes that he knew so well, then slipped out from their narrow space up against the wall.