PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Control Number 2019953514
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4197-4518-8
Paperback ISBN 978-1-4197-4519-5
eISBN 978-1-68335-928-9
Text copyright © 2020 Lucy Courtenay
Illustrations copyright © 2020 Sheena Dempsey
First published in 2020 by Andersen Press Limited.
Published in 2020 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
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It was easy to miss if you didn’t know it was there.
“That’s the point, Marnie,” said her mom. “Lady Sealia doesn’t want everyone to know there is a mermaid school in the middle of Mermaid Lagoon.”
On the other side of the kitchen table, Marnie’s aunt, Christabel, peered over the top of her Fishtales Monthly magazine.
“All sorts of strange people could turn up,” Aunt Christabel said. “Like me.”
Marnie laughed and took another mouthful of Coral Crunch (with seaweed milk) as she gazed out of the cave window at the large pink rock rising in the distance from the lagoon bed. It was hard to tell where the water ended and the rock began.
Today was Marnie’s first day at Lady Sealia Foam’s Mermaid School, and she had so many questions, she felt like she was going to burst. Was Lady Sealia fierce? What about her deputy, Ms. Mullet? Would she have to ride a seahorse? Would everyone be annoyed or impressed that Marnie’s aunt was Christabel Blue, famous singer and radio personality? And most important of all: would she make any friends? That was the part she was really worried about.
“But what is the school like?” she asked.
“Dreadful,” said Aunt Christabel.
“Perfectly lovely,” said Marnie’s mom, at the same time.
Marnie felt anxious. “It can’t be both,” she said.
“Lady Sealia’s is perfectly lovely,” Marnie’s mom repeated. “IF you are good and IF you stick to the rules.”
Aunt Christabel lowered her sunglasses. “But Marnie isn’t going to do any of those things, I hope,” she said.
“So it’s going to be dreadful.”
“I will do those things,” said Marnie firmly. “I’ll be the perfect student.”
“Pity,” said Aunt Christabel.
“You’re going to be fine,” Marnie told herself as she brushed her long silver-blonde hair after breakfast, and polished her coral pink tail so it gleamed. “No one will care that Christabel Blue is your aunt and you will be NORMAL and FIT IN . . . Oh!” she burst out. “But I do hope I make friends and don’t have to ride a seahorse!”
Her mom was waiting by the front door when Marnie returned to the kitchen. Her mom’s hair was in an untidy knot on the back of her head, and she had only put one shell earring on this morning. She was so different from Aunt Christabel, it was hard to believe they were sisters.
“It’s very important that you make a good impression, Marnie,” her mom began. Behind her, Aunt Christabel snorted.
“You won’t have much to do with Lady Sealia,” her mom continued, “but watch out for Ms. Mullet. She’s fair and kind, but very strict.”
“She’s a silly old crab,” said Aunt Christabel, turning the page of her magazine.
“She doesn’t like mermaids to be late and she hates it when students forget things,” her mom went on. “I once forgot my homework and she wouldn’t let me outside to swim at breaktime for three days.”
This was the worst thing Marnie’s mom had ever done at school. It wasn’t very impressive, to be honest.
Marnie wrapped her arms around her fluttery tummy. “I know, Mom,” she said. “You’ve told me a hundred times.”
Her mom pushed a loose strand of hair away from Marnie’s eyes. “Have you got everything?”
Marnie had a moment of panic. Where was her bag with her shell pens and her seaweed hair bands for gym class? She’d packed it ages ago, and she was sure she had put it beside the cave door last night.
“Looking for this?” asked Aunt Christabel, lifting a shimmering pearl-covered backpack with one of her perfect aqua fingernails.
“Thanks, Auntie,” Marnie said with relief. “I packed it days ago. Please can we go now?” If we don’t leave soon, she thought, I’ll lose my nerve and I’ll never go at all.
But her mom wasn’t finished. “One last thing,” she said. “Don’t go near the East Lagoon Rocks. Ms. Mullet will tell you all about it, I’m sure, but I’ve seen for myself the dangers of not listening to her. Your aunt—”
“—sat on the rocks and some humans spotted her and Mermaid Lagoon was almost discovered,” Aunt Christabel said. She dropped to the kitchen sofa with a heavy sigh. “If I had a sand dollar for every time I’ve heard that lecture, I would be rich.”
“You ARE rich, Chrissie,” said Marnie’s mom.
“Is that new, Auntie?” asked Marnie, noticing the large sparkly ring on Christabel’s finger.
Aunt Christabel beamed. “Isn’t it gorgeous? I love sparkly things,” she said. “So does Garbo. Do you know, she stole my crystal mirror the other day? I found it in her bowl. So naughty.” She smiled fondly at the snoozing goldfish in her lap. “Just like her mommy.”
“I know Aunt Christabel was always in trouble, but I won’t be,” Marnie said. “I promise.”
But her mom’s large blue eyes were worried. “Just be careful. You’re just like her, you know.”
Marnie didn’t feel at all like her glamorous aunt. Christabel wasn’t scared of making friends or riding seahorses. The only thing they had in common was their singing voices. Marnie’s voice was just like Christabel’s: high and pure and perfectly in tune. But that was all.
“Christabel never meant to get into trouble, but somehow or other she always did,” her mom said. “Your grandpa once got so angry with her that he snapped his trident in half.”
“Oh, fishsticks!” said Aunt Christabel. She was now lying full-length on the sofa with Garbo. “Some rules are meant to be broken, and Ms. Mullet was a silly old crab. Still is. I wasn’t that bad.”
Marnie’s mom put her hands on her hips. “Singing rude words at the Clamshell Show?”
“A joke!”
“Putting a razor clam in Ms. Mullet’s shell purse so that it spat at her when she took out her lipstick? Stealing that school seahorse?”
Through her anxiety, Marnie felt a little stab of relief. She wouldn’t steal a seahorse in a million years. She was terrified of them. So she really wasn’t like Aunt Christabel at all!
“You’ve made your point,” Aunt Christabel said, rolling her violet eyes toward the cave ceiling. Garbo opened her golden mouth in a perfect O and closed it again. “Marnie, darling, don’t listen to me. Enjoy your first day at school. Be good in all your classes.” She gave a naughty grin. “Otherwise you’ll turn out fun and gorgeous like me, and not old and boring like your mother.”
Even close up, School Rock was hard to spot. If Marnie squinted, she could see the place where it broke the surface of Mermaid Lagoon, rippling in the morning light over her head. She clung to her mom with one hand and clutched the strap of her school backpack. She’d never swum this far from the cave before, and it was a little scary.
“Don’t steal food from the kitchen,” her mom was saying. “Your aunt once stole some oysters from the school garden hoping there were pearls inside. The cook, Monsieur Poisson, was furious!”
“Were there?” asked Marnie, interested. “Pearls inside the oysters?”
“That’s not the point,” her mom said.
By now, Marnie could see caves and doorways all over School Rock. There were also signs, hanging on seaweed ropes, saying things like OCEANOGRAPHY, SEAHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, and ART STUDIO. It was all so interesting that Marnie forgot to be scared.
The biggest sign of all hung above a large cave mouth filled with pale blue water and waving plants.
“‘Nature canary essay,’” Marnie read. “What’s a canary?”
“Natare, canere, esse means ‘Swim, sing, be,” her mom explained. “It’s the school motto. Come along now, we can’t be late.”
There were other mermaids swimming around them now, with skin and hair and scales in every color, all heading towards Lady Sealia’s. Marnie realised no one else was holding hands with their mom.
“I’ll be OK now,” she said, quickly pulling free. The last thing she needed was for everyone to think she was a baby. “Bye, Mom!”
It felt strange swimming without her mom. Marnie tried to keep up with the other mermaids all moving towards the pale cave with the waving plants, but their tails beat the water and the currents swirled around and it was difficult to swim in a straight line.
“Oh!” she gasped as someone crashed into her.
She caught a glimpse of long black hair and a beautiful rope of pearls.
“Watch where you’re going, minnow,” snapped the black-haired mermaid, gliding past with a sweep of a long shiny tail and a flash of blue-purple scales.
“Sorry,” said Marnie.
“What are you saying sorry for?” said a voice beside her. “SHE crashed into YOU.”
Swimming beside Marnie was a small mermaid with long red hair, glasses, and pale, freckled skin. Her golden scales reminded Marnie of Garbo.
“I’m Pearl Cockle,” said the red-haired mermaid. She smiled, showing a gap between her teeth. “Who are you?”
“Marnie Bl—” Marnie stopped. She wasn’t sure if she wanted everyone to know her last name yet.
“Pleased to meet you, Marnie Bler,” Pearl said. “Are you new?”
Marnie nodded.
“Me too,” said Pearl. “Are you scared?”
Marnie nodded harder.
“Me too,” Pearl said again. “But school is just one of those things you have to do, isn’t it? If you want to go to college, I mean.”
Marnie was impressed.
“Do you want to go to college?”
“I’m going to be a marine biologist like my mom. She works in the Indian Ocean a lot of the time.” Pearl lifted her chin. “I miss her when she’s gone but her work is super-important.”
The crowd of mermaids around the pale blue cave mouth with the waving plants was beginning to break up into different lines.
“First years!” called a voice. “Over here please!”
The voice belonged to a large octopus with a chunky coral necklace and a shell-encrusted glassescase round her neck. She was using all eight of her arms to beckon the first years in the right direction. There was a lot of flapping around as everyone tried to line up straight. It was harder than it looked.
“Good morning, first years,” said the octopus. “I am Miss Tangle.”
“My sister Sheela says hello, Miss Tangle,” said someone at the front of the line. “She told me that you were the best teacher she ever had. I’m Orla. Orla Finnegan.”
With a sinking heart, Marnie recognized the black-haired mermaid.
“Thank you, Orla,” said Miss Tangle warmly. “How is your extremely talented sister?”
“She’s doing well, Miss Tangle. She’s got a job singing in the Gulf of Mexico.”
The first years gasped, and whispered together. The Gulf of Mexico was famous for its beauty, but also for its dangers. Not many mermaids chose to work there.
“Brave as well as talented, it seems,” Miss Tangle said heartily. “How is she coping with the hurricanes and cruise ships?”
Orla’s cheeks turned pink. “She doesn’t mind them a bit, Miss Tangle.”
“What a suck-up,” Pearl whispered in Marnie’s ear.
Marnie giggled. Miss Tangle gave her a sharp glance and she stopped. She didn’t want to get into trouble before she’d even set tail inside the school.
“Into the Assembly Cave now,” Miss Tangle said, waving several tentacles. “Lady Sealia will address you all and then take you on your school tour.”
Marnie’s eyes widened as they all swam into the pale blue cave. It had no roof. They were so close to the surface of Mermaid Lagoon that if Marnie swam up a few feet, she would be able to put her head above the water. There was a wide stage at one end, and the walls were decorated with portraits of the same mermaid, over and over again.
“Lady Sealia must really like having her portrait painted,” Pearl whispered to Marnie.
Marnie stared at the long white hair and shimmering silver-white scales in each portrait. She’d enjoy having her portrait painted too, if she looked as magnificent as Lady Sealia.
The first years swam to a row of coral seats at the base of the stage and sat down.
“Register?” said Miss Tangle, peering around.
A large scallop swam toward the octopus, gracefully opening and closing its fan-shaped shell, and sank into Miss Tangle’s outstretched tentacle. The octopus readjusted her glasses on her beak. She peered inside the scallop’s shell, where Marnie could see a list of names.
“Dora Agua?” said Miss Tangle.
“Here, Miss Tangle,” said a brown-haired mermaid with a blue tail.
“Mabel Anemone?”
Next to Pearl, Marnie felt worried. What would happen when everyone heard her last name? Her family were the only Blues in the whole of Mermaid Lagoon.
“Lupita Barracuda?” said Miss Tangle.
Marnie heard a sneeze to her right and turned.
“Do you have a tissue?” Pearl whispered. Her eyes looked red and puffy. “I’m terribly . . . allergic to coral.”
Marnie opened her bag to find a tissue for Pearl.
“Marnie Blue?” said Miss Tangle.
At that moment, a bright green sea snake shot out of Marnie’s bag. From the look on its face, it hadn’t enjoyed being inside there very much. It writhed irritably in the water, tying itself in complicated knots.
“She’s got a SNAKE!” someone squealed.
Suddenly everyone started shouting and screaming. Coral chairs fell over and broke on the cave floor, one of Lady Sealia’s portraits slid off its hook in the swirling water and disappeared into a bed of seaweed, and the first-year mermaids splashed and squealed and tried to get as far away from Marnie as possible. The snake, meanwhile, untwisted itself and shot off into a dark corner.
“MARNIE BLUE?” repeated Miss Tangle, raising her voice over the chaos.
Marnie put her hand up.
“Here, Miss Tangle,” she said in a small voice.
Lady Sealia Foam’s long white hair was brushed smooth to her head and her scales glimmered in the watery light. She looked older than her portraits, and quite a bit angrier.
Marnie squirmed on her rock chair in front of the headmistress’s crystal desk. There was a limpet in the middle of the seat, and it jabbed uncomfortably into her bottom.
This wasn’t the way she had wanted to start school at ALL.
“I didn’t put the snake in my bag, Lady Sealia,” she burst out. “I didn’t!
”
Lady Sealia narrowed her pale grey eyes. “I hope, Marnie Blue, that we are not planning on acting like this the whole year,” she said in a silvery voice that matched her scales.
“No, Lady Sealia,” Marnie whispered.
“Dilys is very disappointed,” said Lady Sealia.
Marnie stole a glance at Dilys, the dogfish in the corner of the headmistress’s crystal-lined study. Dilys didn’t look disappointed. Dilys was asleep, her whiskers twitching, probably dreaming of catfish.
“Are you going to tell my mom?” Marnie asked miserably.
Lady Sealia wafted away the question. “Everyone deserves a second chance. But with your . . . unfortunate connections, that second chance is all that you will get.”
Marnie gritted her teeth. Why was she related to such a famous troublemaker? I’m not like my aunt, she wanted to shout.
“With all the excitement this morning, there is no time left for my usual assembly and tour of the school,” Lady Sealia said, admiring herself in the small crystal mirror she was holding. “Ms. Mullet will give it tomorrow instead.”
The headmistress set the mirror down, picked up the silvery hairbrush from her crystal desk and started brushing her glowing hair with long, even strokes.
Marnie waited uncertainly.
Lady Sealia lowered her brush. “Why are you still here?”
“Sorry, Lady Sealia,” Marnie said hurriedly, backing out of the room. Dilys opened one eye, then closed it again. “Um, bye.”
The corridor was full of scallops flapping up and down, delivering messages between classrooms. Pearl was floating outside Lady Sealia’s door, ducking whenever a scallop came too close.
“I thought I’d wait for you,” she said. “We can go to music class together.”
“Thanks,” Marnie said.
Pearl glanced at her as they swam down a long corridor. “Everyone is saying your aunt is Christabel Blue,” she said with interest. “Is it true?”
“I guess.” Marnie wasn’t in the mood to talk about Aunt Christabel.
“That’s amazing!” Pearl’s eyes were bright. “I’m her biggest fan. What’s she like in real life?”
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