Wish Upon a Starfish

by Debbie Dadey

  “How did you meet Angelfish Molie?” Echo asked Mrs. Karp.

  “I used to work for her,” Mrs. Karp explained.

  “You worked for Angelfish Molie?” Pearl asked. She couldn’t imagine why a teacher would work for an actress!

  “Yes,” Mrs. Karp answered slowly. “You could say I was her . . . guard.”

  Pearl was shocked. Before she could ask another question, Mrs. Karp put her finger to her lips. “Shhh. The show is about to start.”

  The seaweed curtain went up, and out came Angelfish in the most gorgeous costume Pearl had ever seen. Her skirt was made of glowing comb jellies, and her top was covered with rubies and emeralds that glittered in the low stage lights. Soon the whole audience was laughing at Angelfish’s jokes.

  Pearl couldn’t tear her eyes away from the stage, especially when Angelfish’s character fell in love with a handsome meractor. It was so romantic! Pearl almost fainted when he hugged Angelfish tightly and told her he loved her.

  Echo giggled at that moment, and Pearl felt like tail-kicking her. Didn’t Echo know this was a serious part?

  It was a long play—more than two merhours—but Pearl didn’t mind. It could have been twice as long and she still would have loved it. After the curtain fell, the audience clapped and whistled. It was just like in Pearl’s dream—only this time she wasn’t the one on stage.

  The mergirls and Mrs. Karp left the theater and stepped into the Plaza Hotel’s lobby. Shiny light gleamed off the brass walls and polished floors. Everything sparkled! But Pearl’s eyes twinkled from her excitement.

  “Well, merladies, what did you think?” Mrs. Karp asked.

  “It was great,” Shelly said.

  “Mervelous,” Kiki agreed.

  “Splash-errific,” Echo said with a nod.

  “Shelltacular.” Wanda sighed.

  Mrs. Karp looked at Pearl. “Pearl, you’re so quiet. Didn’t you enjoy the play?”

  Pearl was so inspired she could hardly speak, but she managed to whisper, “Oh, Mrs. Karp. It was the most wonderful night ever. Thank you so much for introducing us to Miss Molie.”

  Mrs. Karp smiled. “You’ll have to remember to thank Angelfish for the tickets tomorrow at tryouts.”

  “I will!” Pearl said.

  Now she was sure that more than anything she wanted to be exactly like Angelfish Molie. Pearl wanted to be a star. And tomorrow she would get her chance when Angelfish cast her as the little human!

  Play Time

  THE NEXT DAY AT SCHOOL, Angelfish’s performance at the Grand Banks was all Pearl could think about.

  “Your next project,” Mrs. Karp said, “is to choose two sea stars and compare and contrast their characteristics.”

  “What does compare and contrast mean?” Rocky blurted.

  Mrs. Karp smiled. “I’m glad you asked. Let me explain.”

  Pearl tried to pay attention to her teacher—after all, some starfish, or sea stars, were kind of cute—but she was too excited! Pearl just knew that Angelfish would choose her to be the star of the play. Pearl was surprised that she even had to try out. After all, no one else in the third grade wanted the part of the little human as badly as she did. And no one deserved it as much as Pearl!

  In fact, Pearl was sure Angelfish would be so impressed that she’d want to be friends. Maybe they could practice their lines together, or go shopping for new jewels and sparkling costumes.

  Finally, after what seemed like the longest day in merhistory, the last conch shell sounded. Pearl shot out of her desk and was the first to enter her school’s Finn Auditorium.

  But when she arrived, the horrible shark statue from the lobby of the Trident Plaza Hotel was sitting right in the middle of the stage!

  Pearl’s heart pounded with fear. She couldn’t forget the time a great white shark had chased her into Trident Academy. Pearl had almost been eaten! After that, she had hoped never to see a shark—even a statue—at school ever again.

  “What is that doing here?” Pearl screeched.

  To Pearl’s surprise, Angelfish Molie swam over to her. “Oh, that was my idea. I borrowed it from the hotel because I thought it would be the perfect prop for your play. There is a scene where the little human has to flee from a shark.”

  Though she was happy to see Angelfish, Pearl shuddered. She really disliked sharks and everything about them. And she’d been scared of that statue ever since she’d been a little fry.

  After the rest of the third graders and their teacher had floated into the auditorium, Mrs. Karp clapped her hands. “All right,” she said. “Everyone please swim up to the stage and select a script to read from. Each script is for a different part in the play, but there are enough to go around.”

  Pearl hated to go near the statue, but she closed her eyes and grabbed a script. She darted away from the shark as quickly as she could.

  “Let’s begin with the merboys,” Angelfish announced. “Everyone with a prince script, sit over here.”

  Pearl looked down at her script. “Oh no!” she cried, dashing toward her teacher. She had been so scared of the statue that she had accidentally picked up the script for the evil witch.

  “Mrs. Karp,” Pearl said, tapping her teacher on the shoulder. “There’s been a terrible mistake! I grabbed the wrong script. I don’t want to try out for the witch. I want to play the part of the human girl.”

  “I’m afraid there aren’t any of those left,” Mrs. Karp told her. “But don’t worry. Angelfish and I will choose the best merstudent for each part, no matter what you read.”

  “You mean I’ll still be the star?” Pearl asked.

  “Everyone is a star in this play, but you could certainly get any part, no matter which script you have,” Mrs. Karp explained.

  Just then, Wanda shrieked, “ARGH! Shark!”

  Pearl was glad someone else was afraid of the shark statue. But Wanda wasn’t looking at the statue. Instead she pointed to a scary-looking fin moving across the back of the auditorium! Pearl’s heart thumped in her chest. Was there a shark loose in Trident Academy?

  Mrs. Karp smacked her tail on the auditorium floor. “Rocky Ridge, get out from behind those seats immediately!”

  Rocky floated into the aisle with a grin on his face and a fake shark fin on his head. “But Mrs. Karp, I want to try out for the part of the shark,” he said.

  Wanda shook her finger at Rocky. “You scared the seaweed out of me!”

  “Don’t get your tail in a knot,” Rocky told her. “I was just kidding around.”

  “All right, let’s get busy,” Mrs. Karp said, turning everyone’s attention away from Rocky and Wanda.

  Pearl thought tryouts went very well, in spite of the horrible statue. Even though she had to read the part of the witch, she still wanted to do a good job. So she made the witch sound very evil, indeed! She figured that stars always do their best—even when they’re reading for the wrong part.

  “Pearl, you were wonderful,” Wanda told her.

  “So were you!” Pearl told her best friend—and she meant it. Wanda had read for the part of the little human, and she was so good that Pearl thought for a moment that she really was the little human. Wanda was probably the finest actress in the whole third grade—besides Pearl, of course. Pearl was fins and tail above everyone else.

  So at the end of the afternoon, when Angelfish announced the parts, Pearl couldn’t believe her ears.

  Stolen Dreams

  THE WITCH?” PEARL SHOOK her head. Maybe she’d misheard. She checked to make sure she didn’t have sand in her ears.

  “Yes.” Angelfish nodded and looked at her rock pad. “Pearl Swamp will play the part of the witch.”

  “But I . . .” Pearl was so upset that she could barely speak.

  Angelfish smiled. “You’ll make a great witch.”

  Rocky snickered. “She’s a witch all right.”

  One stern glance from Mrs. Karp silenced Rocky, and Angelfish continued reading off the names of which merstudent got wh
ich part.

  Tears filled Pearl’s eyes as she choked back a sob. She was afraid she would start crying at any moment. How could she have been chosen to be the stinky old witch? She wanted to be the star. She should be the star! Angelfish had obviously made a mistake.

  “Adam Pelagic will play the part of the prince,” Angelfish announced. He smiled a goofy smile as Rocky patted him on the shoulder.

  “Rocky will be King Neptune. Echo, Kiki, and Shelly will play the sisters. Morgan will be the mother. And, finally, the part of the little human will be played by . . .”

  Pearl held her breath. Surely Angelfish would call her name now. Pearl just had to be the little human!

  “Wanda Slug!”

  Several mergirls clapped, but Pearl gasped. Wanda was supposed to be Pearl’s best friend! How could Wanda do this to her?

  “Thank you, everyone, for trying out,” Mrs. Karp said. “We’ll start rehearsing tomorrow after school. Please take your scripts home so you can study your lines. And don’t forget your sea star homework!”

  Pearl could barely move. It all felt like a bad dream!

  Wanda floated over with a big smile on her face. “Pearl! I’m so excited that we’ll be in the play together. Can you believe I got the part of the little human?”

  “Yes, it is hard to believe,” Pearl muttered.

  “It’s so exciting!” Wanda giggled. “I’ve always wanted to be in a play, but I never thought it would actually happen to me. The Little Human is my favorite story ever.”

  Pearl knew she should be happy for Wanda. Pearl should pat her friend on the back and hug her. But she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  Instead Pearl could do only one thing. “I have to go start my homework,” she blurted.

  She swam away from the tryouts and the awful shark statue. She swam away from her hopes of being a star.

  If yesterday had been the best day ever, today was the worst. Not only had she lost her dream, but her best friend had stolen it from her!

  Witch Switch

  NORMALLY, PEARL LOVED Trident Academy’s lunch special of star puffer fish stew, but the day after tryouts, she just pushed it around her shell bowl. Her stomach twisted as she listened to Wanda talk about the play.

  “I studied my lines almost all night,” Wanda told the other mergirls at their table, “but there are so many! I just don’t know how I’m going to learn them all.”

  “I can help you practice,” Morgan offered.

  Pearl smiled as she looked up from her stew. That was it! She knew Wanda hated memorizing things.

  “Wanda,” Pearl said slowly. “If the little human part has too many lines, we could switch. You could be the witch instead.”

  Every mergirl at the table stared at Pearl. Wanda shook her head. “I do want to be the little human. I just meant it will be hard to learn all those lines.”

  “But the witch part is much easier,” Pearl insisted. “I want to help you by playing the harder part.”

  “Pearl, are you trying to take Wanda’s part?” Morgan asked in a shocked voice.

  “Well, I deserve to be the little human, not Wanda!” Pearl cried. “If she was really my friend, she’d switch with me!” Pearl slapped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d actually said it out loud, even though it was true.

  Just then Echo glided by with her lunch tray. “Pearl!” she said. “How could you say that?”

  Wanda put her hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “I didn’t know being the little human meant so much to you.”

  “Well, it does!” Pearl snapped. “I was supposed to be the star.”

  “I guess I could switch parts with you,” Wanda said softly.

  Pearl looked at her best friend. She noticed that Wanda had a tear in the corner of one eye. Even though she felt bad for Wanda, Pearl couldn’t help being excited, too. If Wanda really did give up her part, Pearl’s dream would come true. She could be the star after all!

  That was why even Pearl was shocked by what came out of her own mouth.

  “No, you should be the little human,” Pearl said. “You were picked tails down.”

  “Are you sure?” Wanda asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

  Pearl wanted to yell, No! But she didn’t. Instead she nodded and said, “Yes, I’m sure. Don’t worry. You’ll be great.”

  She bit her lip. Now it was Pearl’s turn to cry. Would her sea star dreams ever come true?

  Quitting Time

  WHY DIDN’T I LET HER switch with me?” Pearl muttered to herself that afternoon at play practice.

  Wanda and a group of mergirls clustered at a corner of the stage, giggling and practicing their lines. Pearl sighed. She didn’t think she could stand listening to that every day. It was just too painful to watch her best friend practice the part Pearl had wanted.

  Suddenly she smiled. She didn’t have to listen to them. She could just quit.

  Once Pearl had made up her mind, she didn’t waste a mersecond. She soared over to Mrs. Karp and announced, “I am quitting the play.”

  Mrs. Karp’s eyes grew wide with surprise. “But I thought you loved plays.”

  “I do—er—I did,” Pearl sputtered. “But actually being in a play isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.” She didn’t add that it would have been fun if she’d been chosen to play the little human.

  Mrs. Karp frowned at Pearl. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  After she handed Mrs. Karp her script, Pearl took one last look at the stage and at the scary statue of the shark. She wanted to kick that shark in the fin! After all, if she hadn’t been scared of the statue, she would have picked up the right script. Then she would have been chosen to be the little human instead of Wanda. Pearl fought back tears as she hurried out of the auditorium. Mrs. Karp had said the script didn’t matter, but obviously it had.

  Pearl was almost to the front door of Trident Academy when she felt a tug on her gold tail. She swirled around to snap at whoever had grabbed her, but she stopped short when she saw who it was.

  “Angelfish!” Pearl gasped. “I mean, Miss Molie.”

  As Angelfish smiled, Pearl could see why she was a star. Her smile was so big it seemed to light up the entire front hallway of the school.

  “Sorry to tug on your tail,” Angelfish said. “I came by to help JoJo again this afternoon, and she told me that you quit the play.”

  Pearl nodded. “I did.”

  “That’s the problem,” Angelfish told her. “I don’t think you should.”

  Pearl couldn’t help herself. Something about Angelfish and her big smile made Pearl want to tell her everything. “But I wanted to be the star,” she blurted. “I wanted to be the little human so badly.”

  “I know. JoJo was going to choose you for that part, but I talked her out of it,” Angelfish told her.

  Pearl stared at Angelfish in horror. “Why would you do that to me?” Pearl said in shock.

  That Sea Star Spark

  LET’S TALK,” ANGELFISH SAID. She pulled Pearl over to a small rock table and chairs.

  Pearl didn’t want to listen to Angelfish. How could Pearl ever have admired the meractress? She might be a great star, but she was also just plain mean.

  As if she could read Pearl’s mind, Angelfish patted her on the arm and said, “I didn’t do it to be cruel. I did it to help you.”

  Pearl pulled her arm away. She longed to swim home and never come back to Trident Academy again.

  “Let me explain,” Angelfish began. “I wanted you to play the part of the witch because it’s such an important part.”

  “It is?” Pearl asked.

  Angelfish nodded. “The evil roles are often the biggest ones. Without them, most plays would be a little dull.”

  Angelfish went on, “Plus, just between us mergirls, I knew it would be the most exciting part to play. Much more fun than the human girl.”

  “Fun?” Pearl repeated. What was Angelfish talking about?

  “Oh yes,” Angelfish said
with her huge smile. “The evil characters are always more enjoyable to play than the sweet ones.”

  “They are?” Pearl asked.

  Angelfish nodded. “Mean characters are a blast. You wouldn’t want to be that way in real life, but it’s so fun to pretend.”

  “But I wanted to be the star,” Pearl said sadly.

  Angelfish shook her head. “But being a star isn’t the best part of acting. The best part is being onstage.”

  Then she leaned in to whisper, “Pearl, I think you have the makings of a fin-tastic actress. You have that sea star spark. And the part of the witch needs that spark!”

  Pearl gasped. Angelfish thought she had a spark? A sea star spark?

  “Please come back to the play and see if I’m right,” Angelfish said.

  Now Pearl didn’t know what to think. If Angelfish was telling the truth, then Pearl would have more fun than anyone in the school play—even Wanda!

  “Please, Pearl?” Angelfish asked again. “Just give it a try.”

  “All right,” Pearl said slowly.

  She took a deep gulp of water and swam back into the auditorium. After Angelfish had a quick word with Mrs. Karp, Pearl dived right into rehearsals.

  She looked at her script and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she screamed at Wanda, “You will never escape from me!”

  Wanda was so startled by Pearl’s performance that she forgot her next line. Pearl had to whisper it under her breath.

  As they continued to rehearse, Pearl realized that Angelfish had been right after all. It was fun to play the mean character. Wanda got to say a lot of sweet lines, but Pearl was able to scream, slap her tail, and make terrible faces. It was totally wavy!

  After practice, Wanda said, “Pearl, you are an amazing actress!”

  “Thanks. You make a good little human,” Pearl said with a smile.

  The Curtain Falls

  THE WEEKS OF REHEARSALS seemed to fly by. When the night for the play finally arrived, Pearl was almost sad. She was excited to perform in front of a real audience, but she’d loved practicing with her class, too. Every merstudent had something special to add. When Adam was so nervous he accidentally sang his line, Mrs. Karp had liked it so much she had him sing a whole song. Pearl was surprised at how nice his voice was. Morgan had everyone laughing at the funny voice she used for the mother. Pearl was beginning to see what Mrs. Karp meant about how each part was important.