PLEASE HELP ME ASAP 30 POINTS Fears by Mary Clarence

I snuck a sidelong glance at Fern. As always, she looked confident, calm, and completely prepared for what we were about to do.

Up until a few years ago, you wouldn't have caught me near the ocean, let alone in a boat on it! I had always been afraid of the vastness of the ocean. Who knew what was lurking down there? Who knew what was out there waiting to drag me down to the depths? Lately, though, I'd started to realize life was too short to spend being afraid of the things I couldn't control. One by one, I had been facing my fears. With Fern's help, I had taken flying lessons to overcome my fear of heights; I had made myself get on roller coasters. And now I was facing my greatest fear—the great unknown ocean.

We'd been on the boat for about an hour and were moored at a buoy. Fern and I were dive buddies, which meant that we were to check each other's equipment before we jumped in and stick close to each other in the water. We'd dived in a protected shallow pool in the sea yesterday, but this was our first dive in open water. When I realized just how dark the waves were, I felt my old fears resurfacing. Anything could be beneath them, and you wouldn't know.

"Are you nervous? I kind of am," Fern said in a stage whisper while we were lining up waiting to jump in.

"Yeah, a bit," I admitted. I didn't want to tell her just how nervous. What if I panicked? What if I forgot how to breathe? Was that feeling ever going to go away? I would have loved to yank it out of myself and throw it into the sea.

Actually, I had a lot of confidence in our training. On this shallow beginners' dive decompression wasn't going to be a concern. I knew my equipment would protect me if I got in trouble. And I'd be surrounded by helpful instructors. But even with all the fears on my mind, a few of my brain cells kept worrying about how I looked in my wetsuit. And that's how I knew I was going to be okay.

Before I could get truly nervous though, it was Fern's turn to jump into the secret-keeping waves, then mine. We swam together to a buoy line and began pulling ourselves down the rope to the sandy sea floor. I noticed immediately that despite the dark water, I could actually see quite far—and in color. Fern's mask was as vibrant as it had been on the boat. It did get a bit darker as we descended, but somehow it also got brighter—as if the sea floor were reflecting what little light there was. When everyone was down, we all moved off toward the reef.

Despite my nagging fear, I was mesmerized by this strange world. Everywhere my eye fell, there was something different to see. I'd never been surrounded by so much variety in shape, color, and texture. So many amazing creatures. Fish darted in and out of waving corals. Larger fish loomed, like harmless shadows. Small translucent shrimp-like creatures approached my mask. I could tell, by their quicksilver speed, that the littlest creatures were accustomed to the approach of larger predators.

When Fern waved and pointed to a silvery green eel, sliding effortlessly toward an anemone while potential prey scattered before him, I realized that fear is natural. It helped all these creatures survive from day to day. The trick is learning to know when to use it to survive, and when it's only getting in the way of living. As I reached out to tickle a neon-colored sea slug, I certainly felt as if that trick were getting easier.

Read this sentence from the passage:

"I could tell, by their quicksilver speed, that the littlest creatures were accustomed to the approach of larger predators."

What does the word quicksilver mean?

frightening
valuable
unpredictable
dangerous