17-ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER？

ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER? The next morning, Trap woke me up at dawn. "Wake up, Geronimoid!" he shouted in my ear. "I've decided we need to go SWIMMING. No, make that YOU need to go SWIMMING. Uh-oh. I didn't like the sound of this. "We need to find more oysters," Trap went on. "More oysters. More pearls. Got it, Germeister?" I chewed my whiskers. Why me?" I mumbled. "Why can't you go?" Trap shook his head. "Well, isn't that just like you, Cousin? So self-centered. You need to learn to be a team player," he scolded. "Now, I've divided our jobs. You dive for the pearls. And I'll stay on the beach and watch."

I was too tired to argue. I grabbed a basket. Then I dove into the water. It was FREEZING. Oh, where was a nice, warm wet suit when you needed one? I dove deeper and deeper. There were many tiny colored fish around me. I swam by coral, sea anemones, starfish, octopuses, and more. Finally, I spotted them. Hundreds, no thousands, no gazillions of oysters! I threw them into my basket. Then I swam up to the surface. Far away, I saw Trap waving his paws in the air. What was my crazy cousin up to now? I

wondered. He was yelling something, but I couldn't understand a word of it. It sounded like "Shar... shar..." I rolled my eyes. He was probably telling me I needed to share. Share the oysters. Share the pearls. Share the wealth. What kind of a mouse did he think I was? Of course I would share these treasures with my family! Just then, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Ding! A bell went off inside my brain. Trap wasn't lecturing me about sharing. He was warning me about a giant SHARK! I began to swim like a maniac.