A few minutes later, Mr. Ray and the children arrived at the Drop-off.

"All right, kids," said Mr. Ray. "Feel free to explore. But stay close." The class gathered around Mr. Ray as he began his science lesson.

Tad turned to Pearl and Sheldon. "Come on," he whispered. "Let's go."

The three friends sneaked away from the group.

"Hey, guys. Wait up," said Nemo. He raced after them. But once he realized where he was, he stopped short. He was at the edge of the reef. The ocean spread out before him. It was so big, so wide, and so blue—it was like nothing he'd ever seen.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed.

"Cool!" said Sheldon, Pearl, and Tad at the same time.

Tad pushed Pearl toward the edge. "Aaah!" she cried. Then he yanked her back.

The small octopus looked down. She was covered in black liquid. "Aw, you guys! You made me ink!"

Nemo felt dizzy with excitement. He was playing with friends! Seeing the ocean! It was all so new.

"What's that?" Nemo pointed a fin at a dive boat floating on the surface.

"I know what it is," said Tad. "Sandy Plankton saw one. He said it was called a butt."

"Wow!" exclaimed Pearl. "That's a pretty big butt."

"Ooh-ooh, look at me," Sheldon said, starting to swim out into the open water. "I'm going to go touch the butt! Aaaachoo!" He sneezed, and the force of his sneeze moved him a bit closer to the boat.

"Aaah!" Sheldon screamed. He raced back to his friends.

The others laughed. "Well, let's see you get closer," Sheldon dared them.

Pearl jumped out, just a little past where Sheldon had been. Then she hurried back. "Beat that!"

Next Tad swam out even farther than Pearl. "Come on, Nemo!" he said. "How far can you go?"

"Oh… um," Nemo stammered. "My dad says it's not safe."

Suddenly, Marlin swam up next to Nemo. He pulled Nemo away from his new friends. Nervous and angry, Marlin scolded Nemo. "You were about to swim into open water!"

"No," Nemo said. "I wasn't going to go out—"

"It's just a good thing I was here," Marlin interrupted. "If I hadn't shown up—"

"But, Dad, no—" Nemo started to say. The other children gathered around them. "Sir, he wasn't going to go," said Pearl. "Yeah," said Tad. "He was too afraid." "No, I wasn't!" Nemo said defensively. "This does not concern you, kids," Marlin said to Nemo's friends. "And you're lucky I don't tell your parents you were out there!" Then he turned to Nemo. "You know you can't swim well."

"I can swim fine, Dad, okay?" Nemo cried. "No, it's not okay. You shouldn't be anywhere near here," Marlin said. "I was right. You know what? We'll start school in a year or two."

"No, Dad! Just because you're scared of the ocean—"

"Clearly you're not ready, and you're not coming back here till you are," Marlin said. "You think you can do these things, but you just can't, Nemo!"

"I hate you," Nemo whispered under his breath. His dad had embarrassed him in front of everyone. Nemo would show them he wasn't scared of the ocean like his dad.

"Excuse me." Mr. Ray swam up to Marlin, shooing the children away. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt things. He isn't a good swimmer, and I just think it's a little too soon for him to be out here unsupervised," Marlin explained.

"Well, I can assure you, he's quite safe with me—" Mr. Ray started to say.

Marlin shook his head, interrupting the teacher. "Look, I'm sure he is, but you have a large class. He can get lost, you know, from sight if you're not looking. Now, I'm not saying you're not looking. You're looking . . ." As the grown-ups kept talking, one little fish gasped. "Oh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!"

"Nemo!" Marlin shouted. "What do you think you're doing? You're gonna get stuck out there, and I'm gonna have to get you before another fish does! Get back here! I said get back here, now! Stop! You take one more move, mister—"

Nemo ignored his father. I'm getting closer, he thought. Closer. There! He slapped the side of the dive boat with his fin.

"He touched the butt!" Tad said in amazement.

"You just paddle your little tail right back here, Nemo!" Marlin yelled. "That's right. You are in big trouble, young man. Do you hear me?Big—"

Marlin froze, unable to speak. But now everyone else was shouting for Nemo to swim back quickly.

Nemo realized everyone was looking behind him. What was going on? He spun around to look. All he could see was his own reflection in a giant diver's mask....

几分钟后，雷老师和孩子们就到了峭壁。

“好了，孩子们，”雷老师说，“自由地去探险吧。但是，别走远了。” 雷老师开始上科学课了，学生们围在他身旁。

泰迪转向珍珠和希顿。“快点，”他小声说，“我们走。”

三个好朋友从队伍里溜走了。

“嗨，伙计们，等一下。”尼莫说。他在后面追赶他们。但是，一旦他意识到自己到了什么地方，他突然停了下来。他来到了大堡礁的边缘。大海就展现在他面前。大海那么大，那么宽阔，那么湛蓝——和他以前看到的完全不一样。

“哇!”他惊叫起来。

“太棒了!”希顿、珍珠和泰迪异口同声地说。

泰迪把珍珠往边上推。“啊!”她大叫。接着他使劲把她拽回来。

小章鱼往下看了看。她身上都是墨汁。“呀，你们这些家伙！你们都害我吐了!”

尼莫兴奋得都晕了。和朋友们一起玩！看大海！这一切都那么新鲜。

“那是什么?”尼莫用一只鱼鳍指着海面上漂浮着的一艘潜水船问道。

“我知道那是什么，”泰迪说，“山迪叔叔看到过一个。他说，那叫屁屁。”

“哇!”珍珠大叫，“那屁屁可真大。”

“哦，看我的，”希顿说着，准备向那片开放的水域游去。“我要去摸摸那个屁屁！阿……阿……嚏!”他打了个喷嚏，打喷嚏使的力气使他离船更近了一些。

“啊!”希顿尖叫着。他快速游回到朋友身边。

其他人大笑。“好了，看你们的了。”希顿向他们发出挑战。

珍珠跳出来，比希顿游得更远一点。然后，她赶紧回来了，说道：“超过你了!”

接着，泰迪又比珍珠游得更远。“来吧，尼莫!”他说，“你能游多远?”

“哦……呃，”尼莫结结巴巴地说，“我老爸说，大海很危险。”

马林突然游到了尼莫身边。他把尼莫从新朋友身边拉走。马林既紧张又生气地训斥尼莫：“你竟然想游到开放的水域!”

“没有，”尼莫说，“我没打算过去——”

“幸好我来了，”马林打断尼莫的话，“要是我没来——”

“但是，老爸，不——”尼莫开始解释。其他孩子围在他们旁边。“先生，他没打算过去。”珍珠说。“是的，”泰迪说，“他太害怕了。”“不，我不怕!”尼莫辩解道。“这不关你们的事，孩子们，”马林对尼莫的朋友们说，“算你们走运，我不会把你们游过去的事告诉你们家长!”然后，他转身对尼莫说：“你知道，你游得不好。”

“老爸，我可以游得很好，好吗?”尼莫大喊。“不，不行。你就不该来这附近，”马林说，“我说得没错。你知道什么？我们还是晚一两年再上学吧。”

“不，老爸！就因为你害怕大海——”

“很明显，你还没有准备好，在你准备好之前不能再来这儿，”马林说，“你觉得你能做这些事，但是你就是做不来，尼莫!”

“我讨厌你。”尼莫轻声地说。他的爸爸让他在所有人面前难堪。尼莫会证明给大家看，他可不像他老爸那样害怕大海。

“对不起，”雷老师游到马林跟前，把孩子们赶走，“我可以做些什么吗?”

“你知道，我很抱歉。我不是故意要捣乱。他的游泳技术不行，我只是觉得让他一个人来这儿有点为时过早。”马林解释道。

“嗯，我可以保证，他跟着我很安全——”雷老师开始说。

马林摇了摇头，打断老师的话。“听我说，我确信他跟着你很安全，但是你班里学生太多。要知道，你一个不注意，他就会走丢。我不是说你没注意。你注意……”大人们说个没完的时候，一条小鱼惊得屏住了呼吸。“哦，天哪！尼莫游向了海面!”

“尼莫!”马林大喊，“你知道你在干什么吗？你会困在那儿的，我要赶在另一条鱼之前抓住你！回来！我说了马上回来！停下来！你再敢往前游一下，先生——”

尼莫不理会父亲。我靠得更近了，他想。更近了。那儿！他用鳍拍打着潜水船的一侧。

“他碰到那个屁屁了!”泰迪惊讶地说。

“赶紧摆动你的小尾巴游回来，尼莫!”马林叫嚷着，“好吧。你有大麻烦了，年轻人。听到了吗？大——”

马林呆住了，说不出话来。而此刻其他人都在大喊，让尼莫快点游回来。

尼莫意识到大家都在往他身后看。出什么事了？他猛转过身想看个究竟，却只看见自己在潜水员巨大面罩上的投影……