by Debbie Dadey
Contents
1 LATE-BREAKING NEWS!
2 SHARK PATROL
3 SKELETON
4 MISSING
5 HEADMASTER HERMIT
6 STINKY OLD THING
7 MOVING DAY
8 SHARK!
9 TRAPPED
10 SURPRISE
CLASS REPORTS
THE MERMAID TALES SONG
THE LOST PRINCESS EXCERPT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
GLOSSARY
ABOUT DEBBIE DADEY
To Blakely Fow.
May your life be filled with much joy.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my Pennsylvania critique group for the awesome support: Wendy Greenley, Kathe Everitt, Joanne Alburger, and Tamara Gureghian.
Late-Breaking News!
OH MY NEPTUNE!” PEARL Swamp shrieked as she swam into the huge front hallway of Trident Academy. “Did you see the newspaper this morning?”
Wanda Slug, Pearl’s good friend, shook her head. “No, I didn’t,” she said. “I had to finish my homework before school.” The two mergirls floated out of the way of some fourth-grade merboys who zoomed past them.
Trident Academy was a prestigious school in Trident City. Third-grade through tenth-grade merkids came from all over the ocean to study in the enormous clamshell. The front hall alone was big enough for a humpback whale to take a nap in.
Pearl’s blond hair and long strand of pearls swirled in the water as merstudents rushed around her to get to their classrooms. “My dad made me read the front page,” she told Wanda. “You’ll never believe it! There have been shark sightings in Trident City!”
“What?” Wanda gasped. “Are you kidding? That’s terrible.” Sharks were the number one danger to the merpeople community.
Pearl’s green eyes widened. “I’m serious. I couldn’t even swim here by myself. My father hired a Shark Patrol Guard to escort me to and from school.”
Wanda shuddered. “I’m glad I live in the Trident Academy dorm. I wouldn’t want to be swimming home with a shark on my tail.” Both girls looked at their own mertails and wiggled them gently. Neither girl noticed that the front hall was almost empty of merstudents.
Pearl slapped her gold tail on the shell floor and folded her arms across her chest. “This is ridiculous. What’s wrong with this place? Can’t they keep scary sharks from chasing people? Something should be done.”
“Yeah, but what can we do?” Wanda said. “We’re just third graders.”
Pearl twisted her necklace in her fingers. “I hate being scared and I hate having a Shark Guard. My dad might not even let me go to Tail Flippers practice if things get worse!”
“No!” Wanda gasped. Tail Flippers was the school’s dance and gymnastics team.
Pearl sighed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m going to do something. I refuse to let sharks ruin my life.”
“Uh-oh,” Wanda said, finally noticing the empty hall. “We’d better get to class or Mrs. Karp will ruin our lives!”
Shark Patrol
PEARL AND WANDA MADE IT to class just as the conch shell sounded. Pearl swam up to her teacher’s desk. “Mrs. Karp, did you hear the terrible news?” she asked. “A shark has been spotted in Trident City! Can’t something be done?”
Echo Reef, one of the third graders, raised her hand. “Is it true?” she said in a trembling voice.
“My grandfather saw it in the paper,” Shelly Siren said. She nervously flicked her blue tail.
“Are we in danger here at Trident Academy?” Kiki Coral asked. She was the smallest mergirl in the third grade.
The twenty merstudents looked to their teacher for an answer. Mrs. Karp ran a hand through her green hair. “I am sure the Shark Patrol is doing everything in their power to protect us. We can’t panic,” she said.
“But what if it’s not enough?” Pearl cried. The thought of sharks swimming near the school made her feel sick.
“Remember the first rule of shark safety and you should be fine,” Mrs. Karp said, pointing to the Shark Safety Rules chart that hung from a seaweed curtain. “Shelly, please read rule number one.”
Shelly cleared her throat and said in a shaky voice, “NEVER SWIM ALONE.” Pearl sniffed. Why did Mrs. Karp always call on Shelly? Was it just because her grandfather was a famous human expert? Pearl knew she could read just as well as Shelly.
Rocky Ridge, one of the merboys in class, piped up, “Don’t cry, Pearl. A shark wouldn’t want to bite you. You’re more sour than sweet.”
“You’re the only sour one around here,” Pearl said, sticking her tongue out at him. “I bet you’re just as scared as I am!”
“Class, please pass your homework in,” Mrs. Karp instructed, trying to change the subject.
Their schoolwork was done on small pieces of seaweed and written with orange sea pens and octopus ink. All around the classroom the merkids handed seaweed to the merstudent in front of them. Everyone except Rocky, who tapped his thumbs on his rock desk and whistled a shark song. Several mergirls whispered nervously about the shark.
“Mrs. Karp? Should we be worried?” Kiki asked.
Mrs. Karp looked at the frightened faces of the mergirls and merboys. She didn’t lie to her merstudents. “Of course, when you live in the ocean, as we do, you must always be on the lookout for dangerous creatures who want to eat you. It’s part of the ocean life cycle.”
“That’s just disgusting,” Pearl said. “I don’t want to be part of a life cycle.”
“You mean if we lived on land, we wouldn’t have to worry about sharks?” Echo asked. The whole class knew how much Echo loved everything about humans. She hoped to get the chance to see one someday.
“Only if you went into the water,” Mrs. Karp said. “That’s the one advantage humans have over us.”
“Maybe I want to be human, then,” Pearl snapped.
The entire class gasped. Merpeople were not supposed to speak like that. There was an ancient legend about a beautiful mermaid who had turned into a human. No one knew what had happened to her, but there were creepy stories about a witch chasing her. Merkids told scary tales about it late at night during sleepover parties.
“Humans can’t even breathe underwater!” Rocky said, breaking the tension.
“That’s right,” Kiki agreed. “I heard they even drink water!”
Everyone in the class laughed at the silliness of that idea. Drinking water! Why would anyone do that?
Skeleton
DURING LUNCH PEARL AND Wanda sat together in the cafeteria with other mergirls from their class. As usual, merkids of all ages talked and ate their lunches at polished granite tables decorated with the gold Trident Academy logo. On special days, all the merstudents would wear different colored sashes to show which grade they were in, but today only a few bothered.
“They’re doing it again,” Wanda said, pointing to the front of the lunchroom, where Shelly, Echo, and Kiki stood in front of Mr. Fangtooth, the cafeteria worker.
“He’s such a grump,” Pearl said, pushing her black-lip oyster and sablefish stew around in its shell bowl. “They’ll never be able to cheer him up. Why do they always try so hard to make him laugh? Who cares if he smiles or if he’s happy?”
Still, Pearl and Wanda watched as Kiki, Echo, and Shelly wiggled seaweed under their noses. Mr. Fangtooth shook his head and scraped their crab casserole crumbs into the hagfish disposal. He didn’t crack a small smile or a big grin. The three mergirls sighed and swam back to their table in the corner.
“I can’t even enjoy my favorite dish,” Pearl complained. “All this talk of sharks has me too upset.”
“At least you don’t have to sleep with a shark,” Wanda whined. A
ll the mergirls at their table stopped eating and stared at her.
“What are you talking about?” asked Pearl.
Wanda nodded toward Kiki. “You know that Kiki is my roommate. But her bed isn’t a bed at all, it’s a huge skeleton. It reminds me of a shark, but it’s actually a killer whale skeleton. It’s disgusting. It gives me nightmares!”
“That’s awful,” Wanda’s friend Morgan whispered.
Wanda yawned. “I’m having trouble sleeping, and I’m too tired to do my school-work.”
Pearl could see the huge, dark circles under Wanda’s eyes. Pearl had been jealous of Wanda because she got to live in the school dormitory since her home was so far away. But now Pearl was glad she lived close to school, even if she did have to have a Shark Guard. Who knew what kind of roommate she’d be stuck with?
The girls at the table shuddered, but most of them continued eating their longhorn cowfish daily special. Pearl didn’t eat. She couldn’t eat. She was too horrified.
“That’s terrible,” Pearl said.
“That’s not the worst of it. I’m hardly ever in my room,” Wanda explained. “I study in the library because that awful skeleton is so creepy. I feel like, if I turn my back, it’s going to eat me!”
The other mergirls laughed, but not Pearl. She knew a skeleton couldn’t eat anyone. But when she was six years old, she had seen a shark skeleton in the front hallway of the Conservatory for the Preservation of Sea Horses and Swordfish. For weeks afterward she’d been so scared she’d needed a jellyfish nightlight to fall asleep.
“I want to see it,” Pearl said.
Wanda shrugged. “I’ll take you there after school.”
Pearl shook her head. “I want to see that skeleton right now.”
“We can’t,” Wanda explained. “We’re not allowed to go to our dorm rooms during school. That’s the rule.”
Pearl rolled her eyes. “Rules are for people who don’t know better. Let’s go.”
FIVE MINUTES LATER, PEARL STOOD IN front of Kiki’s enormous killer whale skeleton. Each rib was as big as Pearl’s arm. The nest of gray heron feathers inside the skeleton didn’t make it any less dreadful.
“See?” Wanda said. “I told you it was hideous.”
Pearl didn’t argue. Memories of the skeleton in the Conservatory for the Preservation of Sea Horses and Swordfish came flooding back.
“You shouldn’t have to be scared all the time,” she told Wanda. “I’m going to help you. I may not be able to do anything about the sharks in Trident City, but this is something I can fix. Just you wait and see.”
Missing
SWEET SEAWEED!” PEARL SNAPPED to her Shark Guard. “This is so embarrassing. What if someone sees you?”
The Shark Guard shrugged. He looked huge next to Pearl. “Just doing my job, miss.” Pearl groaned and floated off toward Tail Flippers practice. It was after school and MerPark was quickly filling up with merkids practicing Shell Wars, a game where a small shell is hit into a treasure chest guarded by an octopus. Pearl saw Rocky and Shelly smacking a shell back and forth.
Tail Flippers practice was held just past the Shell Wars field. Pearl crossed her fingers that no one would notice the big hulk following her. She wasn’t so lucky.
“Hey, Pearl,” Rocky yelled. “Who is your babysitter?” He waved his long whale bone Shell Wars stick at her
“Don’t you worry about it. Just go play your nasty Shell Wars.” Pearl swam off as quickly as she could, but she could still hear Rocky’s teasing.
“Pearl has a babysitter. Pearl has a babysitter.”
“That Rocky is such a pain,” Pearl complained to Echo and the other mergirls at Tail Flippers. Luckily, she had made it to practice before Coach Barnacle. He was very strict about team members being on time.
Echo giggled. “I think Rocky is kind of cute, though. Goofy, but cute.”
The other girls laughed and started stretching their tails. Pearl pulled off her perfectly matched, white pearl necklace and gently placed it on a rock near the practice field. Her Shark Guard floated over to a nearby merstatue and leaned against it.
“Your necklace is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen,” Kiki said, swimming up beside Pearl. Pearl ignored her compliment.
“Aren’t you Wanda’s roommate?” Pearl asked as she looked Kiki—and her unusual purple tail—up and down. A few other mergirls floated onto the field.
Kiki nodded. Her long black hair swirled around her. “Wanda was the first person I met when I came here,” Kiki said with a smile.
“Well, you’re not a very nice roommate. It’s terrible that you make Wanda sleep with a stinky old shark carcass,” Pearl growled.
Instantly, Kiki’s smile disappeared. “It’s a killer whale, not a shark.”
“It’s still disgusting!” Then Pearl asked her, “Why are you here, anyway? You aren’t a Tail Flipper. You didn’t even try out.”
Shaking her head, Kiki replied, “I’m allowed to be here. I came to watch Echo. She’s my close friend.”
Pearl frowned. “I bet Echo doesn’t even know you sleep in a horror chamber. I think I’ll tell her how creepy it is!”
Kiki was too shocked to answer.
Just then Coach Barnacle swam onto the kelp field. “Okay, merladies,” Coach announced. “Let’s get to practicing.”
Kiki sped off the field toward the Trident Academy dormitory. She didn’t stay to watch Echo or the Tail Flippers.
Echo called out, “Let’s catch up later, Kiki.”
“Good riddance,” Pearl said.
“Quiet now, Pearl,” Coach Barnacle said. “Please show me your backflip.” Nobody said no to Coach Barnacle. He wasn’t an ordinary merman. He was a Centauro-triton. His tail looked like a dolphin’s, and he had a fin running along the back of it.
The team worked on their backflips and round-off front handsprings. Pearl was dizzy as Coach Barnacle taught them their very first complete Tail Flippers routine. It was hard to listen to the music he hummed and remember when to flip and when to spring. When they finished, Echo slumped to the ocean floor. “That was exhausting,” she said.
“You said it,” Pearl agreed. “I hope Coach doesn’t work us that hard every time!”
Pearl was so tired, she forgot to tell Echo about Kiki’s skeleton.
Echo nodded. “I bet my tail will be sore tomorrow!”
“No kidding,” Pearl said, rubbing her own golden tail. As she looked around MerPark, she noticed her Shark Guard taking a nap next to a statue. Pearl wondered if she should tell her father about her guard sleeping on the job. She swam slowly over to the rock where she’d left her pearl necklace. She was so worn out she didn’t know if she’d have the strength to lift it over her head. But when she reached the rock, she made a surprising discovery.
“My necklace!” Pearl screamed. “It’s gone! Someone has stolen my necklace!”
Headmaster Hermit
SHE TOOK IT!” PEARL POINTED her finger across Headmaster Hermit’s large office at Kiki.
Kiki slid down in her polished marble chair and whispered, “No, I didn’t, Headmaster. I promise. I didn’t touch Pearl’s necklace.”
Headmaster Hermit tapped his chin with his long black tail. “Perhaps you forgot and left your necklace at home, Pearl. After all, pearls are not appropriate jewelry for merstudents at school.”
The headmaster frowned at Pearl, but it didn’t stop her from leaping up from her chair. “I know I wore it, sir. You can even ask my Shark Guard if he saw it. Kiki admired my necklace when I put it on the rock. I’m sure she has my pearls!”
Kiki spoke softly. “I did tell Pearl it was pretty, but I didn’t take it. I would never steal anything!”
“I am sure you wouldn’t,” the headmaster stated. “But in light of the problem, perhaps we should check all of the rooms. We cannot have this kind of behavior at Trident Academy.”
“If you look in Kiki’s room first, you’ll find it,” Pearl blurted. “She also has a horrible shark in t
here. I bet that’s against the rules. Just like stealing!”
“A shark!” Headmaster Hermit shouted and slapped his marble desk with his tail. “What is going on here? Don’t we have enough trouble without joking about sharks in dorm rooms! That is not funny, Miss Swamp!”
Kiki held up a hand in explanation. “A skeleton, sir! It’s a killer whale skeleton, not a shark.”
Pearl sniffed. “It looks like a shark.”
The headmaster let out a deep breath and said, “Well, let’s go take a look at this room, if you don’t mind, Miss Coral. We won’t do it without your consent.”
Kiki sat up straight. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Come this way, girls,” Headmaster Hermit said as he floated out the door.
Pearl swam behind him, determined to find her necklace. Kiki followed with her head down, and bumped into Echo and Shelly, who were waiting outside the headmaster’s office. Shelly still carried her whale bone stick from Shell Wars practice.
Echo floated over to Pearl. “What happened?” she asked as the headmaster swam ahead toward the girls’ dorm.
Shelly put her hand on Kiki’s shoulder. “Are you all right?” Shelly asked.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine,” Kiki said.
“I’m not fine,” Pearl said. “She stole my necklace.”
Shelly scrunched up her nose at Pearl. “Kiki wouldn’t do that!”
Echo looked from Pearl to Kiki and said, “You didn’t, did you, Kiki?”
A tiny tear slid down the small mergirl’s cheek. “Do you really think I would steal Pearl’s necklace?”
“If you didn’t steal it, then where is it?” Pearl demanded.
“Ladies,” Headmaster Hermit called to the girls. “Come along now. Let’s proceed.”
The head of Trident Academy enlisted Mrs. Karp’s help to look through the dorm rooms one by one. At last they came to Kiki and Wanda’s room and carefully searched it together.