Amphitrite the Bubbly

by Joan Holub

  He’d heard that Nereus’s oldest daughter, Thetis, was skilled at shape-shifting and was being trained as a seal herder, too. Both could turn out to be useful skills, so she was his pick.

  Also, choosing Thetis would put Nereus firmly on his side in the competition, Poseidon figured. And that would give him a definite advantage in what was already his strong suit. Because if Nereus caused any storms in the saltwater seas during the games, they wouldn’t rage against any team his daughter was on!

  His other choice proved to be a cinch in the end. He’d invite his childhood buddy, Delphinius. He could shape-shift into dolphin form and swim like a fish, er, like a dolphin. But he could also walk on land. His echolocation abilities could help with finding things. Plus, he was smart and loyal.

  Satisfied with his decisions, Poseidon dropped off his two invitations at the front office just before dinner. Ms. Hydra’s efficient gray head opened his invitation scrolls and scanned his two choices. “Good. No conflicts. We’ve had a few captains who chose the same team members and had to select alternates.”

  He’d been about to ask when the invitations would be sent out, when her impatient purple head preempted his question. “Invitations will go out via magic wind after dinner,” she informed him. Thanking her, he headed for the cafeteria. He’d skipped lunch and was starving!

  The godboys and goddessgirls at MOA ate ambrosia, a divine confection that kept them immortal. The cafeteria crew served it in many different forms, such as yambrosia stew and ambrosia salad. Ambrosia and the nectar they drank caused immortals’ skin to shimmer. However, it had no effect on the few mortals who also attended the Academy.

  In the dinner line, Poseidon chose ambrotoni, a carton of nectar, and a couple of sides. “Here you go,” said the eight-armed, octopuslike cafeteria lady as she handed him his plate. The kitchen seemed extra busy today, and the cafeteria lady looked frazzled. No doubt she had extra work on her plate due to the preparation of meals for the upcoming competition.

  Poseidon gave her an encouraging grin. “Thanks!” As an afterthought, he snagged an Oracle-O cookie from a basket of them at the end of the line.

  As usual, he ate his meal with his godboy friends. He gulped down his food super fast, saving his Oracle-O cookie for last. He was dying to ask it for a prophecy, but waited till the others took off for the tray return. Then he tore off its wrapper and eagerly bit into it. “Were my final two team member choices good ones?” he asked it, though he was confident the answer would be yes.

  Instantly, a small, dramatic voice announced: “Thetis could outshine you.” It was coming from the cookie.

  “Whah?” Poseidon stared at the remaining half, his turquoise eyes wide and his mouth full of cookie.

  “Thetis could outshine you,” the little voice said again in answer to his question.

  “Whoa,” he murmured, finishing off the cookie. That didn’t sound good. He wanted skilled team members, but if one of them outshone him, the others might not accept his leadership. Plus, being upstaged could be embarrassing. Hmm.

  The fortune cookies served in the MOA cafeteria were all made by a Trojan princess named Cassandra and her family, who sold them in their shop in the Immortal Marketplace. The cookies all talked, and their predictions were fairly reliable. (As long as they weren’t Opposite Oracle-O’s, that is. Those cookies always predicted the reverse of what was true, but his wasn’t that kind.)

  Worried now, Poseidon leaped from the table. As he rushed his tray to the tray return, his brain frantically searched for an alternative to Thetis. On the list of Nereus’s daughters, he remembered that Thetis had a twin sister. Amphitrite was her name. Since they were twins, she was bound to be just as good at shape-shifting and seal herding as her sister, right? Why take a chance on being overshadowed by Thetis? He would invite her sister to join his team instead. But he’d better hurry.

  He dashed to the front office just in time to catch Ms. Hydra in the act of handing over the seven team captains’ invitations to the magic winds for distribution.

  “Don’t worry,” added Ms. Hydra’s efficient gray head. “Since yours will deliver to the sea, I fixed things so they will transform into bubble-grams to keep them from getting waterlogged.”

  “Wait! I’ve changed my mind!” he shouted just as Zeus’s assistant tossed out the last scroll.

  “Too late. Invitations went out, as you can see,” her sunny yellow head told him in her happy voice.

  Poseidon could only stare as a flurry of eager winds departed with the letterscrolls carrying them to all parts of the world, where they would be read by those who had been chosen for the Temple Games. Including Delphinius. And Thetis . . . who could outshine him. Great. Just great.

  Was it too much to hope that she might refuse his invitation? With a sinking feeling, he supposed it was. Everyone wanted to bring honor to their respective lands. Anyone he’d asked would probably have agreed to participate. If only he’d chosen someone else!

  3

  Invitation

  Amphitrite

  STILL SHOOK UP AFTER THEIR morning’s rescue efforts, Amphitrite and Thetis swam homeward behind their little sister. Halia had no clue what a close call she’d had with landsickness earlier, but Amphitrite and Thetis knew. All was well for now, though, Amphitrite figured.

  Back at their cave home, the girls split up and whooshed to their separate rooms to get ready for classes. Amphitrite pulled her spyglass from under her bed and collapsed it till it was small enough to fit in her net schoolbag along with other school supplies. Next she added an adventure story scrollbook from the MUMS library that she was currently reading for fun. Last of all, she grabbed her comb and tucked it into the pocket hidden among her scales.

  Looping the bag’s straps over her shoulders, she did a corkscrew twist that pushed her out of her room and back into the center of the enormous silver-walled underwater cave where she and her whole family lived.

  In addition to her parents’ room and communal gathering areas, there were fifty small bedrooms tucked high and low along the walls of the cave. One for her and each of her sisters. The rooms were really just alcoves that had been built in natural nooks along the walls, with beaded curtains they could close for privacy.

  Each was labeled with a name, some of which were nearly identical. There were so many sisters that their parents had given many of them the same first names, with numbers as middle names. Which meant Amphitrite had a little sister named Amphitrite Two. And Thetis had two sisters named after her, a Two and a Three. It could get confusing.

  Not looking where she was going, Amphitrite almost bumped into her dad.

  “Heard you went looking for Halia this morning. She didn’t venture onto land, did she?” he demanded in greeting. He had a beard and a long serpentine merman tail, and he wore a netted cloak that was covered with small treasures he’d collected from the sea. Some were gold doubloons or bits of coral or shell in interesting shapes. Others were fishing lures he’d stolen right off the lines trailing from fishing boats!

  “Huh?” Amphitrite faced her dad. “Halia knows she would need your permission for that,” she replied quickly. She hadn’t exactly fibbed, but she crossed her fingers behind her back as she treaded water with slow swishes of her tail.

  Her little sisters didn’t always obey rules. She and Thetis hadn’t either, when they were younger. Their dad’s rules were pretty strict. Mostly they were meant to keep everyone safe. Still, the lure of the land was strong for the more adventurous merpeople, despite the dangers. Amphitrite herself felt it more and more each day. Mostly, she kept her yearnings a secret. Until her slip with Thetis that morning, that is.

  “Your mom and I rely on you and Thetis to keep an eye on things—especially sisters and seals—around here,” her dad went on. “We’re busy. We need to know we can count on you.”

  Amphitrite nodded. “I know. We’ll try to do better.” She and Thetis had seal-herding class twice a week, and she knew her dad expected them to tak
e charge of his seals someday. Borring! Although Thetis was wild about seal herding, Amphitrite definitely was not. However, her dad was pretty much the boss in this part of the sea, and few dared defy his wishes. Including her! Besides, she loved her family and wanted her dad to be proud of her. She tried so hard to like seal herding and to fit in around here. But wouldn’t everyone be surprised to know how she really felt!

  “Hi, Dad,” said Thetis, swimming up to join them. Her pet dragonfish was cowering inside her net schoolbag and darting worried glances around like he expected a bigger fish to attack at any minute. Pets were allowed in class at MUMS. Even scaredy-fish, always-jabbering ones like Thetis’s Dragon.

  Their dad gave Thetis an approving smile. As usual, she was spared the lecture that Amphitrite had just been given. Which wasn’t really fair, since both sisters were responsible for looking after the younger ones. But Thetis was given a pass. She was pretty much the star of the family, excelling at everything. It was kind of hard to live up to her example at times!

  “Well, you two had better be off,” said their dad. “You don’t want to be late for class.” Both girls gave him a quick hug. As they started off, he added, “Fingers crossed that we get an invitation to the Temple Games soon. It would be nice for the Undersea to be represented!” Smiling at the thought, he punched a fist in the water. The force sent a huge underwater current that would probably rock a few hapless ships when it eventually reached the surface of the Aegean Sea.

  “Yeah! Bye, Dad,” both girls chimed. Then they whooshed off.

  In minutes, they reached the school’s entrance, which was formed by the prow of an ancient sunken pirate ship. The door in the schoolship was really just a large hole that had probably been caused when it had wrecked on some sunning rocks during a storm long ago. High above the entrance on the front tip of the ship there was a beautiful painted lady carved from wood. Sometimes before tests, the girls knocked on her on their way inside, hoping she’d bring them good luck.

  The two mermaid sisters had the same first period shifting class. It wasn’t Amphitrite’s favorite class by a long shot, though it might have been if she’d ever experienced any success at it. But unlike most other students, she could only go through the motions and learn the rules, not actually shape-shift.

  The amazing Thetis had learned to switch from tail to legs way back when they were toddlers. By now, she could transform into many other things. On land, she could become a burning flame or even take the shape of a lion. Undersea, she could become a serpent to scare other creatures away, or a seahorse to hide from danger.

  Today Thetis was coaxing Amphitrite to attempt a simple form and function shift. The idea was to magically transform herself into a patch of sunlight through willpower. A handy blending-in skill if you were ever caught on land by mortals or undersea by predators.

  “Imagine you are a tasty plankton roll baking on a sunning rock,” suggested Thetis, causing them both to giggle. “You’re getting warm . . . then hot . . . then hotter . . . then sizzling,” she went on.

  Dutifully, Amphitrite thought warm thoughts and chanted:

  “Golden scales to golden light.

  Change girl to sun, shining bright!”

  “Anything?” Thetis asked, studying her sister’s face hopefully.

  “Um, maybe a little tingle in the tip of my left tailfin? I’m not sure,” Amphitrite replied, though she was pretty sure that was just wishful thinking. Despite her frustration, she remained ever hopeful. She could hardly wait till her very first shift happened. If it happened. Exchanging her tail for legs and walking on land would be a dream come true! Even if it only lasted a few minutes.

  After shifting came sunning and singing class with Ms. Siren. Usually S and S was held in the MUMS gym, but today the class was going on a field trip to poke around an old shipwreck in hopes of finding sheet music on board. If they found some, they could learn some new sailor songs to sing. Amphitrite hoped she might also stumble across a new adventure-story scrollbook she could read after she finished the one in her bag. Any scrolls they found would be treated with magic to keep them from rotting underwater.

  Once aboard the sunken ship, she and Thetis began searching through a cupboard behind a waterlogged piano. Suddenly they heard a mermaid near them give a yelp of surprise. They both looked over in time to see that a bubble as big as her head had bumped up against the girl.

  “Jumping jellyfish! Sneak up on a merperson, why don’t you?” the girl scolded the bubble as it bounced off her and bobbled around underwater.

  “A giant bubble! Run away!” wailed Thetis’s pet dragonfish. He had detached himself from her bag so that he could explore freely, but now he dashed over and clung to it again.

  “Don’t tell me you’re scared of a bubble,” Amphitrite teased Dragon.

  “Only of ones bigger than me,” he replied in his small voice.

  As the bubble bounced up to the ceiling of the wreck to bump another student, both sisters gazed up at it. “It’s not one big bubble. It’s four small bubbles stuck together, see?” Thetis said, pointing.

  Amphitrite squinted at the quadbubble. “Yeah, and I see letters and words inside it!”

  “Think it’s a message? I wonder who sent it?” said Thetis, squinting too.

  Dragon peeked out. “Probably a dark force of evil,” he said shakily.

  Amphitrite grinned. “Let’s pop it and see.” She curled her tail, preparing to push off toward the four-celled bubble that was bobbling around overhead. But just then it unstuck itself and floated away. Joined by other students who had just noticed the strange bubble too, Amphitrite chased after it. Dragon groaned and muttered something about bubble rhyming with trouble, but no one listened.

  “Who got the bubble-graaam?” Ms. Siren sang out as it floated past her. She had an amazing voice and could sing all kinds of songs, from folk to pop rock to classical, and everything in between. But her favorites were sea shanties.

  Amphitrite swished her head toward the teacher. Bubble-gram? So that bubble really must contain a message of some kind!

  “You can all stop chasing it,” the teacher sang out. “It will only pop when it bumps whoever its message is meant for.” She clapped her hands together. “Everybody back to work. Ignore the bubble unless it happens to break for yooou!”

  Reluctantly, everyone went back to searching the ship. And the bubble-gram continued its journey, bumping students at random, yet never popping. Finally, it headed back toward Amphitrite and Thetis.

  “Yikes! It’ll flatten me like a sand dollar!” Dragon zoomed away to hide behind an old wooden desk covered with barnacles.

  The bubble-gram bumped Amphitrite’s arm. To her surprise, one of its bubbles broke. Pop!

  Stunned, she silently watched as letters and squiggles spilled from the bubble to form a map in the sand on the floor of the shipwreck. Before she had time to study the map, however, another of the bubbles burst. “Be at the Delphi temple tomorrow morning,” a tiny voice called out.

  “Me? Why?” Amphitrite asked, still not understanding.

  “Shh—there’s more,” said Thetis, who had seen what was happening and swum up beside her. So far they were the only ones to have noticed that the four-part bubble had begun to burst.

  A third bubble burst. “You are hereby invited to participate in the Temple Games.”

  Amphitrite and Thetis looked at each other, their eyes wide. “Temple Games?” Amphitrite repeated in astonishment. Instant, impossible hope rose up in her.

  “You’ve been invited to the Temple Games!” said Thetis, hugging her.

  Then the last bubble burst: “This message is for Thetis Of-the-Sea,” it chirped. Of-the-Sea was their last name, given that their dad’s official name was Old Man Of-the-Sea.

  “Thetis?” Amphitrite echoed dully. Looked like the bubble-gram had mistaken her for her twin, even though they looked nothing alike. Now this bad-news bubble had just burst her bubble!

  Frowning, Thetis swam down to
study the map. Amphitrite did too. It appeared to show the way to the Temple at Delphi in Greece. They’d studied temples in land geology class, so Amphitrite knew that they were fancy buildings dedicated to Mount Olympus immortals.

  “The bubbles must have burst in backward order,” Thetis murmured. “So we heard the last part of the message first and the first part of it last.”

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that out already,” Amphitrite replied. Despite her disappointment, she didn’t want to spoil Thetis’s happiness at being chosen. So she smiled and wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Congratulations on your invitation!” she said, making her voice sound perky.

  “Not so fast!” Thetis shot a secretive look over at the other students and Ms. Siren. They were all excitedly exclaiming over a trunk full of sea shanty music someone had discovered on the opposite side of the ship. “No one heard that message but us.”

  “So?”

  “So you should be the one to go to the games.”

  Amphitrite drew her head back in surprise. “What? But you were invited, not me.”

  “I don’t really want to go, though. I’d rather stay here,” said Thetis. “You’re the one who wants to travel and see the landworld. Well, here’s your chance. For the whole week of the games!”

  “But . . .” Amphitrite quickly sorted through the zillion reasons why what her sister was suggesting was impossible. Settling on one, she replied, “But I can’t shift.”

  Thetis rolled her eyes, grinning. “So? Maybe whoever sent the invitation doesn’t even care whether I can shape-shift. Just go. Pretend you’re me. Tell everyone your name is Thetis. Who’s going to know?”

  “That would be . . . ,” Amphitrite began, shaking her head. But before she could say, “cheating,” Thetis interrupted.