by Liz Kessler
I hovered in the water, flicking my tail to make sure it had fully formed. It glinted purple and green as I batted away a pair of tiny silver fish swimming along its side. Every toss sent little bubbles dancing up to the surface.
I let myself sigh happily. Everything felt better while I was a mermaid.
I swam along the tops of the coral, glancing down at the underwater forests as I made my way to school.
Bright green bushes waved at me as I sailed over them; rubbery red tubes nodded and bobbed from side to side. A pair of golden sea horses weaved their way around long trails of reeds that swayed and dipped in the current, their tails entwined. Gangs of paper-thin fish with bright yellow tails and round-bellied blue fish with black eyes all darted purposefully around me. I tried to remember what they were all called, just in case it came up on the ocean studies test, but they weren’t familiar. There was something new to see here every day. I could never tire of Allpoints Island, even if Mom had had enough of the place.
I came to a cluster of rocks at the edge of a tunnel and waited. School was at the other end of the tunnel, in the Emerald Caves. Shona and I had started meeting up here so we could go in together.
A few of the others from my class smiled as they went past me. Most of the class were mermaids. There were a few merboys and two human boys and two girls. I hadn’t gotten to know that many of the others yet, although Shona and I hung around quite a lot with two other mermaids, Althea and Marina. I was the only one who was half-and-half. The only semi-mer. There was a name for us, even if there were hardly any of us in existence!
I’d gotten used to being the only one, I suppose, even though I sometimes wished I weren’t. It would just be so cool to have someone else who knew what it felt like to transform like I did. It would be better than cool, in fact. It might help me feel that I fit into the world somewhere, that I wasn’t quite such a total misfit.
Well, there was one person. The only other one like me I’d ever met, but he hardly counted. For one thing, he was an adult; for another, he was the most untrustworthy, sly person you could ever meet: Mr. Beeston. My mom’s so-called friend. Who’d turned out to be so much of a friend that he’d spent years spying on us and reporting back to Neptune!
Anyway, that was all history now. At least he wasn’t trying to drug us or lie to us anymore.
“Emily!” A familiar voice tinkled across to me, sending Mr. Beeston far from my mind. Shona!
She swam toward me, clutching her tote bag against her side. It was silver and gold and covered in tiny pink shells. Shona always had the prettiest things. She was the kind of mermaid you imagine mermaids to be, all girly and sparkly, with shiny long blond hair. Not like me. I was trying to grow my hair, and it was past my shoulders now, but it still never looked anything like Shona’s: sleek and beautiful and, well, mermaidlike, I guess.
“Have you studied?” she asked excitedly as we followed behind a group of younger mermaids with their moms. Holding hands with one another as they swam, they raced ahead to their class, leaving their moms chatting as they glided along behind them.
“Dad tested me this morning,” I replied. “Think I got them all, but I don’t know if I’ve learned the right fish.”
“We have till this afternoon, anyway,” Shona said. “And you know what this morning is, don’t you?”
I smiled as I answered her. “Beauty and Deportment. What else?”
B&D was Shona’s favorite class. Nothing made her happier than learning a new way to style her hair or get the best shine out of her tail or swim with perfect elegance. I was more interested in shipwreck studies and siren stories, but the whole idea of mermaid school was still so new to me that I didn’t really mind what we did or what we learned, as long as it wasn’t long division!
We swam on down the channel. You had to feel your way along the walls as you swam along the first part. My heart rate always sped up here. The walls, slimy and wet and cold, set off too many memories of what had happened when I’d discovered the kraken in a slimy, dark tunnel.
We soon rounded a corner, and the tunnel opened up again, growing lighter and filling with color. I smiled away the memories. I never told Shona how I felt going along that channel. I always wondered if she felt the same way, but it was something we never talked about. She’d been with me when I woke the kraken and was probably as eager as I was to forget about it.
We bumped into Althea and Marina as we reached the fork that led down to our class. Marina swam hurriedly over to us, her long gold tail flicking rapidly from side to side. “Hey, I overheard Miss Finwave talking to one of the moms on the way in,” she said with a grin. “And guess what?”
Shona’s eyes opened wide, glistening even more than they usually did. “What?” she replied in the same excited tone as Marina’s.
“We’re going on a B and D outing!”
“Swishy!”
Althea turned to me. I must have looked puzzled. “It means we get to go out exploring the reef and the rocks,” she explained.
“What, you mean like when we studied the creeks through the island?”
She shook her head. “That was a geography reef trip. More scientific. This one will probably have something to do with looking for material to make new hairbrushes or finding the perfect rocks to sit on the edge of.” Althea pretended to yawn as she spoke.
Marina punched her arm and laughed. “Come on, you know you love it,” she said.
Althea grinned back at her friend. “Yeah, I suppose it beats this afternoon’s OS test.”
We went on talking as we followed the fork that led up to our classroom. It still took my breath away every time I arrived here. A cave filled with smooth greeny-blue water. Above, shimmering stalactites drooped from the high ceiling in thin folds like pterodactyls’ wings or pointed down to the pool like sharp bundles of arrows frozen in midflight. All around us, blue and green and purple lights glimmered and winked, dancing on the surface of the deep pool. We swam into the cave, taking our places among the rest of the class.
At the front of the pool, a long scroll hung from the ceiling. It always had a message for us in swirly, loopy writing when we arrived. Today it read:
Emerald Class:
Please remember that we have a test this afternoon. This morning, you will not need reeds and scrolls, so don’t unpack your bags. Leave them somewhere safe for now and please wait for me to arrive.
Underneath it was signed Miss R. Finwave.
“Told you!” said Marina. “We must be going out first thing.”
A moment later, Miss Finwave arrived and the class hushed instantly. Her blond hair shone as she swam into the class. It trailed all the way down her back, glistening and perfectly combed. Her tail was sleek, thin, and pale pink, with tiny gold stars all along it. It hardly twitched when she moved. She always seemed to glide rather than swim.
She was one of the prettiest of the adult mermaids on the island, and one of the youngest. We always took note of her and tried to do what she said — and tried to stay in her good graces. She knew exactly when to praise and when to tell someone off. And she did the praise so nicely and the telling-off so sharply that we all knew which one we wanted to get more of.
I patted down my hair and tried to sit up straight. We were all perched on rocks just under the surface. Shona always looked exactly like the mermaids in textbooks. I tried to copy her but usually slipped off the edge or got pins and needles in my tail from sitting awkwardly.
“Excellent, Shona,” Miss Finwave said as she looked around the classroom. “Lovely posture, as always.” She glanced at me. “Nice try, Emily. Coming along quite well there.”
I couldn’t keep the edges of my mouth from twitching into a smile. I know that “nice try” isn’t exactly a gold medal, but it’s better than a telling-off for slouching, which was what one of the boys behind me got.
“Let’s have straight backs, please, Adam,” she said as she glanced around. A moment later, she nodded. “Much better.”
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br /> Once she was happy that we all looked our best and were paying attention, Miss Finwave folded her arms and surveyed the class. “Now then, children,” she said. “This is a very important day. Can anyone guess what is important about today?”
One of the mermaids in my row put her hand up. “Is it the ocean studies test?” she asked.
Miss Finwave smiled gently. “Good girl, Morag. I’m glad you remembered the test,” she said. “But that’s not what I’m thinking of. Anyone else?”
Shona raised her hand. “Is it the Beauty and Deportment outing?” she asked shyly.
Miss Finwave pursed her lips. “Well, who told you we were doing anything like that?”
Shona blushed, but before she had a chance to say anything, Miss Finwave continued. “In a roundabout way, it has something to do with that. I shall explain. In fact, I have a very important announcement to make.”
Then she lowered her voice so that she sounded even more authoritative than usual. “We are extremely privileged at Allpoints Island to be receiving a visit from our king today.”
She paused as the class erupted in gasps and whispers. “All right, that’s enough, thank you,” she said firmly. The classroom hushed instantly.
“Now then, I am not at liberty to tell you too many details about this visit. Normally a visit from our king would be preceded by many weeks of preparation. This visit is different. It has been kept secret under Neptune’s strict orders. What I can tell you, though, is that a few of the adults in positions of responsibility here at Allpoints have been asked to conduct some extremely important work.” She smiled proudly. “I am one of those adults,” she said, “and I have decided to enlist your help. That is why he is visiting us. I just heard the news this morning. Aren’t we lucky, children?”
She beamed around at us all. Most of the class stared back at her with wide eyes, excitement shining on their faces. All I could think was, Not Neptune. Not here. Please, no. I’d met Neptune only twice, and both times it had led to trouble. BIG trouble.
“I thought it would be nice to combine this project with a Beauty and Deportment lesson,” Miss Finwave continued. “You will, I’m sure, be as delighted and honored as I am to hear the news of this visit.”
I gulped.
“And I am confident that you will make me proud,” Miss Finwave went on. “I know you will be as polite and well behaved as you can for our most distinguished guest.”
She looked around the class as though assessing her opinion of us, just to make sure that she was right and could trust us to behave, or daring us to prove her wrong.
Her eyes fell on me. “I know you won’t let me down,” she said sternly. I didn’t know if she was talking to the whole class or just me. There was no way I would let anyone down, though. I’d nearly gotten myself imprisoned the first time I met Neptune and was nearly crushed to death by a sea monster the second time. I’d melt into the background and keep my mouth shut this time, for sure. He wouldn’t even know I was there.
Miss Finwave nodded. “Listen carefully, all of you, so you understand what to do. For now, all you need to know is that we are looking for jewels.”
“Might have known,” Althea whispered to me. “Why else would Neptune come here, if it wasn’t for gold or treasure? What else does he care about?”
“Thank you, girls,” Miss Finwave said with a sharp glance in our direction.
“Sorry, Miss Finwave,” we replied mechanically as half the class turned to stare at us.
“We will split up into small groups, and each group will choose a small area of the island and its surroundings, particularly the bays and beaches,” she said. “You are searching primarily for crystals, gold, that kind of thing. But you will also search for anything you can find with which to adorn yourself in some way. That is where B and D comes in. Remember, children, you are dressing to meet your king!”
I glanced at Shona. She was smiling as though someone had just told her she’d won the lottery. If mermaids have a lottery, which I don’t think they do.
“You will use all you have been studying this term in B and D and combine this with a bit of initiative and a touch of local knowledge. Then you will come back to class and share your findings. There will be a gold starfish for whoever finds the finest jewel, and another for the best-decorated child, when we return. Remember, use anything you can to enhance your appearance just that little bit — for our guest, for me, for each other, and, most important, for yourselves. Now, any questions?”
Shona and I decided to go out on our own. We picked North Bay. That’s where I lived with Mom and Dad on Fortuna. There is something about our bay that seems to sparkle more than all the others. I was pretty sure anything glittery would wash up there eventually. Also, it has more boats than the other bays. Shona reckoned that made it a good place to find things, as there were so many nooks and crannies around the underside of the boats where lost jewels could easily get stuck. Some of the oldest boats were lived in; most were abandoned and unused.
Millie lived in North Bay too, on our old boat, The King of the Sea. Millie is Mom’s best friend, who came with us to Allpoints Island. She used to have a kiosk called Palms on the Pier in Brightport, where we lived before we came here. Recently she’d started doing tarot readings and hypnotism for some of the mer-families because they were so impressed with the way she helped deal with the kraken by hypnotizing it. She’s a funny one, Millie. Most of the time, she’s obviously the world’s biggest phony, but just occasionally she gets something right and you have to take back everything you’ve said about her.
I thought it might be a good idea to search near her, as she always had crystal balls and fancy jewelry herself. Perhaps she’d dropped something over the side that we could use.
Shona swam ahead. She was determined to win the gold starfish for best-decorated mermaid. I went along with her, too distracted to concentrate properly. Neptune. In our classroom. Today!
“Imagine, Neptune coming to our class!” Shona said, reading my thoughts, as she so often did.
“Yeah, imagine that,” I said, without any of her enthusiasm. I thought back to the times I’d met him so far and how I’d managed to get on his wrong side both times. Not that he was especially known for having much of a right side.
We had an hour before we had to get back to class with our findings. Gliding silently into the bay, I scoured the seabed for anything that could be used as a mermaid accessory. It wasn’t the kind of thing I normally bothered with, but I wanted to try to look the part, at least, for Miss Finwave, and for Neptune. And Shona was so excited by the whole idea, I didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm.
Mostly the seabed was just pure white sand, soft and powdery. Every now and then we swam over a rock. We’d dive down and scrabble around it, coming back up with lengths of golden seaweed to wrap around our tails, or shells that had holes worn right through the middle. Great for necklaces, if we could just find a thin chain somewhere.
“Come on, let’s try this one.” Shona swam ahead toward an old fishing boat that lay wrecked on the seabed.
We swam over the top of it. The front end had been smashed against a huge rocky layer of coral and lay exposed and ruined. Algae and seaweed had grown around it over the years. Groups of fish swam in and out of the wreckage that had become part of their habitat. Two black-and-white harlequins pecked at the rotting wood, covered as it must be by now with the tiniest forms of sea life, perhaps a small breakfast for this pair. A lone parrot fish swam into the hull of the boat. We followed it in.
“Nothing much here,” I said as we looked under the frayed benches and all around the edges of the boat.
“Hey, look at this.” Shona swam into the wheelhouse of the boat. Spongy coral had somehow made its way in, filling the little room as though it were a greenhouse. Shona was pulling at some delicate purple sea fans. “I could wear them in my hair,” she said, holding one up against her head. It looked like a feathery hat.
“Nice,” I said, t
ugging at a blue-and-pink vase sponge. “Hey, maybe we could use this in class. Miss Finwave could put flowers in it.”
“Swishy idea!” Shona grinned.
Pink jellyfish lined the bottom of the boat. “Shame they’re poisonous,” Shona said as we swam back out into the bay with our findings. “They would have made nice cushions.”
I laughed. “Where to next?”
“How about your boat?”
“Fortuna?”
Shona nodded happily. “It’s so old I bet all sorts of things have gotten lodged underneath it over the years.”
“OK. And then King,” I insisted. “I want to see if we can find any of Millie’s discarded lucky pebbles!”
“Come on,” Shona said. “Let’s go.”
We swam all around the edges of Fortuna. Portholes lined the lower level. Some had glass in them. The biggest one near the front, the one Dad and I used for getting in and out of the boat, didn’t. The whole lower floor was half submerged. That was how Mom and Dad managed to live there together.
Green ferns reached up all around the front end of the boat. It was like an underwater garden, except that we never had to water it!
“Let’s take some of these,” Shona said, grabbing at the ferns. She held them against her tail. “We can wear them as skirts.”
Under the ferns I spotted some silver seaweed, thin and wispy. It was just the thing to help turn our shells into necklaces. I carefully ripped out some strands.
Swimming around the boat, we scavenged under the rocks, trailed along the hull with our fingers, batted fat red fish out of our way, and created sandstorms as we burrowed for treasure, picking up anything colorful that we could carry.
“Come on,” Shona said. “We’ve got enough of the B and D stuff. I really want to find some of the jewels. Think how pleased Neptune would be!”