"Really?" Emotions of happiness and excitement made their way into Beatrice's eyes. She lit up.

It made the eel feel good about himself. His job wasn't just to help fish eat fancy food or book their hotelrooms, it was also to help others. He was pretty good at it by the likes of it.

"Really. You see, us fish weren't really blessed with hands like you humans. We could really use your help in the kitchen I think. You know how to manoeuvre them, don't you?"

Beatrice let out a little laugh at that question. "Of course I do."

"Good. Well then, you'll help out in the kitchen. Maybe now we can make more complicated meals with your help and maybe you can help us with the food presentation. I've heard it's pretty hard to get everything on the right spot with fins. Not that I'd know. I have these useless small fins." The eel looked at its left fin with disgust. "Anyway, you can work here in exchange for a room. Then you can stay here as long as you want. Until you have your answers."

A job in the kitchen? Beatrice almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. She would be cooking meals for fish. She looked at her hands and felt very grateful for having them.

"Oh and maybe you can teach our cooks how to make human food, that would put our restaurant even further in front of all the others!" The eel had an extremely smug grin on his face. His tail was slithering left and right excitedly. "Oh wow, I'm an actual genius. The boss will be so proud of me for hiring you. She'll finally promote me to team leader..."

Beatrice smiled at him. "That's great!"

"So you are able to cook human food then?"

"Well, not everything, but I know how to make some of it..." All of a sudden Beatrice felt unsure about her cooking skills. She knew how to cook simple dishes like pasta with tomato sauce or rice with vegetables, but would she be able to make restaurant quality food? Not only that, but would she be able to teach a bunch of fish how to cook human meals? She wasn't exactly a good cook.

"Don't worry about that. You'll be fine. They won't know the difference between good human food and bad human food, they'll love it regardless." The eel wasn't even looking at Beatrice anymore. He was typing with his tail on the computer. "What's your name by the way? I have to file you into the system."

"It's eh.. Beatrice Gallagher," Beatrice said, while she noticed the eel looked from his tail to the many keys he'd have to press on the keyboard. "But you can call me Bea or Bee."

"Bee? Like the ones that like honey?"

"Yes, like those insects."

"Oh, good. That's a nice and short name, I'll fill that in." The eel gave Beatrice a satisfied nod. "You can go now."

"W-What? Where?"

"I've got a long queue here waiting for you to leave, just go sit on one of the couches and I'll help you when I'm done."

"Wait! What's your name? I told you mine, but I don't know yours..."

"It's Lenny. Now go sit down before I get complaints about the waiting time."

Beatrice swallowed and just did what was asked of her. She sat down next to the shark, which made her a little bit nervous, but the clownfish didn't seem scared so maybe she shouldn't be either.

Beatrice kept overplaying the conversation she just had with Lenny. He had been nice and cold and direct and empathic and she just didn't know what she was supposed to think about him. Was he trustworthy? Could he be a potential friend?

The shark next to her suddenly turned his big head to her and showed his big, sharp teeth. Beatrice was able to smell his breath. It was disgusting.

Stunned, Beatrice looked at the shark from the corner of her eyes. Was he going to eat her now? Was this the end of her time on this strange earth? She closed her eyes and held her breath. This was it. She was done for.

The shark looked at Beatrice with a puzzled look. He just gave her a smile and she was closing her eyes. Was this some type of human greeting he didn't know about? What a strange species, those humans... "So, you're here for a job interview too?"

Beatrice opened one of her eyes. Was the shark talking to her? Oh no, he was. Maybe she would've preferred getting eaten. Making small talk with terrifying strangers is just... the worst.

"I'm not, but I did get offered a job. They need my human hands and human cooking skills, apparently. I just want to go back to the Old World. I think that surely someone in this enormous hotel-restaurant has the answers." Beatrice was looking at her feet. She'd pick her black shoes over the shark's black eyes anytime.

"Wow, lucky you. Yeah, those hands look a lot better for cooking than these fins. But I'm not here to be a cook, I'm here for the heavy lifting. The shark flashed his teeth in a big smile, not that Beatrice noticed. "I'm pretty strong, since I'm a shark and all. I can carry any box, any place, any time!"

"That's pretty cool." Beatrice didn't know what to respond exactly.

"Pretty cool? It's awesome! I'm getting that job for sure."

Finally, Beatrice felt brave enough to look up at the shark. He seemed to be genuinely nice. Finally, one other person that was probably kind, besides that random squid she met outside. "Yeah, you're right. We learned in class that sharks are apex predators, so you must all be pretty strong."

The shark let out a small laugh. "Humans learn about us? That's great! What else do they say about me?"

"I learned from my friend Damian that you don't sleep. You just have resting and active periods. That's also pretty cool."

"Your friend Damian is a smart guy. What else?"

"Eh, I don't know much else. I know there are a lot of shark species... That's everything. Oh, they made a very famous movie about you called 'Jaws'."

The shark seemed to jump into the air. He cheered loudly, the whole reception was now staring at him and Beatrice. "A movie? About us? That's amazing! Damn, those humans seem pretty obsessed with sharks." He looked over to the clownfish sitting next to him and grinned. "Bet you can't say the same."

Beatrice felt her shoulders finally fully relax as she held back a laugh. She didn't have the heart to tell him...

"What's your name, human?"

For a moment, Beatrice didn't know what to answer. Maybe, she shouldn't say Beatrice. Her name was Bee in the system, after all. "I'm Bee. Nice to meet you."

"Bee? Ha! What a funny name for a human. You're a funny little human, Bee."

"I didn't give myself that name."

"Well then your parents are funny little humans."

"Right." For a moment, Beatrice didn't know what to say and felt a little awkward. Then she realized she should probably ask for the shark's name too. "What's your name, shark?"

The shark grinned. "Glen. At least I'm not called 'Eagle' or something stupid like that."

Beatrice grinned right back to him. "Right."

I wanted to post two chapters in a row today, because they kind of belong together. Meet Lenny and Glen, two lovable idiots. I really enjoy writing about them. Can anyone guess which one of them is my favourite? Also, if anyone sees the parallels between this and Spirited Away, I love you and I'm so proud that you can see the little nods I give to that wonderful masterpiece.