“Now,” Principal Reamer continued, “it’s time to declare the winners of the recent school elections.”
“Serena,” I whispered and nodded to the stage. Serena slipped the papers back into the envelope and placed it on the table, then took my hand. By then, Cori and Trey had arrived with drinks from the refreshment table.
“Election?” Serena whispered in my ear.
“Yeah. Hey, you pronounced it right.” I nudged her shoulder and smiled.
The principal ran through the results for School Council president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer.
“And now for the individual grade representatives.” Principal Reamer turned over her paper.
I squeezed Serena’s hand and caught a glimpse of Lainey standing alone near our table.
“Hey, Lainey,” I called to her in a loud whisper and offered her my other hand. She shrugged and let out a little laugh, then took my hand.
“And our new ninth-grade representative position goes to…”
The gym went silent and a few people looked our way. The election battle between Lainey and Serena hadn’t been a silent one and I’d been caught smack-dab in the middle of it, so people were probably wondering why all three of us were holding hands like Girl Scouts kumbaya-ing around a campfire.
Principal Reamer cleared her throat before announcing the winner.
“Raymond Fresco!”
I actually laughed, hearing Raymond’s name. Like that loud, snorty, wild-eyed laugh I excelled at so much.
Trey and Cori looked at me like I was a crazy person.
“Come on, you gotta admit. That’s hilarious!” I said breathlessly as I tried to calm my laughter. But it was too late. I cackled like a ticklish hyena and tears streamed down my cheeks, probably destroying whatever makeup Mom had managed to get on my face.
“Raymond did have nice signs,” Serena said with a giggle. “Even if they were not pink-screened.”
Lainey laughed out loud.
“See? Even Lainey thinks it’s funny.” I turned to Trey and Cori, but they were already laughing, too.
“Sorry you guys lost, though,” I said to Serena and Lainey. “I know you both worked really hard.”
“Oh, well.” Lainey raised her hands in defeat. “I guess it was time for me to retire anyway.”
“Also, thanks.” I lowered my voice to a whisper while Principal Reamer continued reading the results from the other grades. “For, you know, Serena, and for keeping our secret.” Lainey had only just found out about her dad the night before. She could have done a lot of damage spilling our mer secret in the meantime. But she hadn’t.
“The thing is…” Lainey said, looking around to make sure no one was listening. “When I saw you guys in the pool like that—and then your mom—a lot of things started to make sense. Cori explained why you’d worked so hard to shut down my father’s construction site to save your mom. And then when I found out about my dad—”
“I’m sure that freaked you out, huh?” I asked.
“Yeah. And…well, I guess you could say I saw you in a whole new way once I understood you a little bit more.”
I thought about that for a second. It was true. From Lainey’s point of view, I probably seemed as mean to her as I thought she was being to me. I’d avoided her like the plague, trying to keep my mer identity a secret; I ruined her father’s big construction project; and I’d let my feelings get in the way of the school election. How many of my problems with Lainey had I brought on myself?
And as far as Lainey was concerned, how much of the way she acted came from being misunderstood? Ignored? “I have to say, I think I understand you more now, too, Lainey. That can only be a good thing, right?”
“Definitely,” Lainey said with a smile. Then, a familiar mischievous expression puckered her lip-glossed lips. “Now, if you’ll excuse me—my date totally bailed on me so I think I’ll go see if Raymond Fresco has a girlfriend.”
Lainey headed over to his table.
“Yo, dudes!” Trey sat hunched over his phone and waved his hand to get our attention over the music that had just restarted.
“Dudes?” Cori yelled. “You show up here with three gorgeous dates on your arm, then ditch us for the snack table and call us dudes? Really romantic.”
“Sorry, but Luke just texted me to tell me he’s on his way over!” Trey replied.
My heart rate tripled at the mention of Luke’s name. My phone buzzed, too.
fluke1019: heard trey stole my date
hurricanejade: get here soon b4 cori clobbers him LOL
fluke1019: poor trey. i guess i got all the smooth moves in the family
hurricanejade: haha…he could use some brotherly chips
hurricanejade: lobsterly tips
hurricanejade: lobsterly lips!!
Gah! How did “brotherly tips” become “lobsterly lips”? I stopped before autocorrect got me into even more trouble. There was a very long, very painful pause before my phone buzzed again.
fluke1019: }O< <--fisherly lips ok?
“I couldn’t figure out how to do a lobster.” I turned just as Luke reached our table.
“Luke!” I didn’t care how it looked. I jumped from my seat and bear-hugged him in my flip-flops and fancy dress. He wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the floor and swung me around. Just once, which was impressive since I probably outweighed him, so I appreciated the effort.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Luke whispered in my ear. “We had a slight delay.”
“What kind of delay?” I asked. But that’s when I spotted him. “Oh! Serena…”
But Serena’s eyes were already glued to the big double doors where Luke had just entered. Standing in the doorway was a familiar, round-faced teenage guy, holding a box.
“Reese,” Serena said, springing from her chair.
Reese’s mom, Bridget, was with him. She waved to me and whispered something in Reese’s ear. He smiled and held out his arms for Serena as she ran toward him.
“That is so awesome,” I whispered to Luke.
It was almost comical seeing Serena and Reese together, now both of them with legs, because Reese was about three inches shorter than Serena, even in her flip-flops. But she didn’t seem to mind.
Reese caught Serena in his arms while a few guys who had asked Serena to dance looked over and shook their heads, wondering who the new dude with the scraggly long hair was. Unsteady as he was on his new feet, Reese stumbled back and they both ended up in a heap on the floor, laughing.
Serena grabbed Reese’s hand and pulled him up. He turned to wave good-bye to Bridget before walking to our table.
Mother tells me I should never show up for a date empty-handed, Reese rang.
He placed a box on our table and opened it. Inside were three wrist corsages.
“Aww, that is so sweet!” Cori cried, then turned to Trey. “See? Corsages—that’s romantic. Mental note for next time, okay?”
“Who do you think ordered them?” Trey said as he placed a corsage on Cori’s wrist.
“Really?” Cori asked, her eyes shining with happiness. “You did?”
“Of course,” Trey said sweetly, then kissed her.
Did you? I mouthed as he looked over her shoulder while they hugged.
No. He mouthed back, bringing a finger to his lips.
I put a hand to my mouth to stifle a laugh.
For you. Reese placed a corsage on Serena’s wrist and kissed her hand.
“And you.” Luke slipped mine on. I didn’t buy them, either.
“I don’t care. I’m just so, so happy you’re here,” I whispered.
Luke brought a hand to my cheek and looked at me for a long time. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world.”
I thought about our human and mer worlds and how much life had expanded over the past few months. We’d both gained whole new families.
“Sorry I broke up your reunion, though.” I suddenly felt really bad, considering how m
uch Petra adored him. “You really didn’t have to rush back.”
Though I was glad he had.
“And miss awkward dancing in the middle of our high-school gym with you?” Luke led me onto the dance floor and spun me once before pulling me close into a slow dance.
“Wow. It’s almost like you planned that,” I said, amazed that we’d managed to pull off a semi-respectable dance move.
“Maybe I did.” Luke’s face was so close to mine that our noses almost touched. The small scar over his eyebrow where I’d maimed him with my braces back in fifth grade looked faded and almost invisible.
“Luke Martin?” I asked, thinking of Folly Porthouse sailing her ship across the Atlantic to retrieve her fiancé at the end of the war. Surely, if she could do that, I could do what I was gearing up the courage to do.
“Yes?” he replied, his breath warm and sweet on my face.
It was time for me to make a bold move. “May I kiss you?”
“Well, that depends.” Luke’s eyes crinkled at their corners. “Are you okay with having a boyfriend who visits his mer parents on alternate weekends?”
“That sounds like the best of both worlds to me,” I replied, then kissed him.
As our lips touched, Luke pulled me close, and our last few months together swirled through my mind.
The first time I bumped into him at Dooley’s Drugstore. Kissing him at Cori’s pool party when I found out he was a mer, too. Losing him to the ocean after he’d helped me rescue Mom from the tidal pool. How he’d played his guitar for me on Port Toulouse Beach.
We’d been through so much both on land and at sea.
“Ouch!” I cried as Luke stepped on my flip-flopped foot.
“Sorry!” he replied. “I told you I wasn’t much of a dancer.”
“Maybe you should stick to skateboarding,” I suggested with a smile.
“Now you’re asking for it!” Luke warned.
I laughed as Luke twirled me around and around, making me dizzy and giggly as the colorful lights swirled all around us.
Did I have the best of both worlds, too, I wondered, as Luke caught me mid-twirl and pulled me close again.
I rested my head on his shoulder as we slow-danced in the middle of the gym floor. I glanced from Cori, touching the petals of her wrist corsage while Trey held her hand, to Lainey dancing around Raymond Fresco, then to Reese and Serena doing a weird mer-dance next to our table while a few people looked at them like they were from outer space.
I really did have the best of both worlds. The very best.
“Hey, Luke?”
“Yeah?” he replied, looking into my eyes.
You wanna go show Reese a few awkward dance moves on those new legs of his?
“Let’s do it!” Luke squeezed my hand as we headed off the dance floor to drag Reese and Serena and Cori and Trey back along with us.
I was starting to understand this whole “girl power” thing, after all. Folly Porthouse didn’t just wait around for stuff to happen. She made things happen.
Was I anything like her? Was I brave? Was I fair? Was I kind?
Maybe I didn’t have things totally figured out yet—like how to be friends with girls like Lainey Chamberlain or how to be somebody’s girlfriend when I barely knew the first thing about dating.
But spinning and dancing and funky-chickening in the dizzying colorful lights of my high-school gym—surrounded by friends who were brave and fair and kind—I hoped Great-Great-Grandma Folly would have approved.
Hi, guys! I know more about skateboarding and guitars than I do about cooking, but I roast a mean marshmallow and hope you’ll try these s’mores (in honor of my buddy Reese) at your next campfire.
Ingredients
• Marshmallows
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• Graham crackers
Campfire Method
1. Roast the marshmallow until golden brown.
2. Place a peanut-butter cup on a graham cracker, then the marshmallow, then another graham cracker.
3. Wait a minute until the peanut-butter cup gets gooey.
4. Eat it.
See? I told you I wasn’t much of a cook.
If you don’t have a campfire, don’t worry. You can do this in the microwave, too.
Microwave Method
1. Place a graham cracker on a microwave-safe plate.
2. Place a marshmallow on top of the graham cracker.
3. Microwave for 10 to 15 seconds. The marshmallow will puff up and melt.
4. Take it out of the microwave, add a peanut-butter cup, and top it off with another graham cracker.
5. Wait a minute until the peanut-butter cup gets gooey.
6. Eat it.
At least both methods end up with you eating it.
Enjoy!
—Luke
Writing a book is a lot like playing underwater hockey without a snorkel, but it is a process made much easier with a winning team of critique pals, friends, and family.
Many thanks to my agent, Lauren MacLeod, who drafted me from her slush pile and who always makes me feel like I have a “one-man advantage.” Thanks also to my editor, Aubrey Poole, for her fancy stick handling and for helping me get the puck to the net.
Marcelle, Charlotte, and Gord: you are my winning hat trick and my constant sources of support and inspiration. None of this happens without you.
Hélène Boudreau never spotted a real mermaid while growing up on an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, but she believes mermaids are just as plausible as giant squids, flying fish, or electric eels. She now writes fiction and nonfiction for kids from her landlocked home in Ontario, Canada. Her first book of this series, Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings, was a 2011 finalist for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Crystal Kite Award.
You can visit her at www.heleneboudreau.com.
Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels Page 17