“You are, too,” Adrianna said.
“Let’s go back to the P.A.W. and turn our song into a duet,” Shelly said.
Adrianna said, “We’ll practice until…”
“…it’s purr-fect!” both girls said together.
Shelly smiled. “We’d better get started!”
The girls hurried back to the P.A.W. “I hope there’s still a room for us,” Shelly said.
But there was nothing to worry about. When the girls got there, most of the practice rooms were empty.
“What happened to everyone?” Adrianna wondered.
Just then, Mr. Boatman swam through the door of one of the rooms. “Hello, girls! Are you here to practice?”
Shelly nodded. “It was so crowded here before lunch,” she said. “Where did everyone go?”
“I think most purrmaids practiced their purr-formances this morning. Then they left to enjoy Founder’s Day,” Mr. Boatman said.
“How can they be ready?” Adrianna asked. “Shouldn’t they keep rehearsing all day?”
Mr. Boatman scratched his head. “You can always practice more, I suppose,” he answered. “The more you practice, the better you get at something. But being purr-fect isn’t the only thing that matters. I’m going to meet up with my family at sea school to watch the Sand Sculpture Contest. I don’t want to miss all the fun!”
Shelly and Adrianna looked at each other. “Our song isn’t good enough yet,” Adrianna said.
Mr. Boatman purred, “I’ve heard you both sing in class. You’re great. I bet you could have some fun this afternoon and your tryout will still be paw-some.”
Shelly shook her head. “You don’t understand,” she said. “This is our chance to sing with Kelpy Sharkson. We can’t stop working now!”
Mr. Boatman nodded. “You girls have made your decision,” he said. “Good luck!”
Shelly swam straight to the harp in their practice room. “Now that it’s just the two of us, I think we should sing slower,” she said. “That way we can really show off our voices.”
“I don’t think so,” Adrianna said. “This song sounds a lot better with a fast beat.”
Shelly frowned. “I don’t want to waste time arguing,” she said. “We can try it both ways. Then we can decide which way sounds better.”
“Fine,” Adrianna replied. “Let’s sing it fast first.”
Shelly rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed. I know I’m right, she thought. Adrianna will see that in a minute.
The girls started singing. But before they finished the first verse, Adrianna said, “This doesn’t sound right.”
Shelly smiled. She thought, I knew it! But there was no reason to rub it in. “I’ll start again,” she purred. “This time, we’ll go slower.”
The girls sang the first verse of the song again. Now it was Shelly who stopped them. “This isn’t right, either!” she exclaimed.
Shelly and Adrianna sang and sang. After an hour, Shelly swam away from the harp. Her shoulders slumped. “It still doesn’t sound right to me,” she moaned.
“You’re right,” Adrianna sighed.
“We’ve tried everything!” Shelly yowled. “You singing the high part, me singing the high part…”
“Singing faster, singing slower,” Adrianna continued. “But nothing is working.”
“We need help,” Shelly grumbled. “I wish our friends were still here.”
“Do you know what the worst part is?” Adrianna asked.
“That singing isn’t even fun like this?” Shelly said.
Adrianna nodded. “We should just give up,” she said. “We’ll never get a spot in the showcase. We’ll just sound silly next to all the other singers.”
Shelly hung her head. “Maybe you’re right,” she mumbled. She floated to the door and opened it to leave.
But then Shelly’s ears pricked up. “Wait!” she gasped. “Do you hear that?”
Someone was in the practice room next door. The door wasn’t completely closed. Shelly could hear a guitar strumming out a very familiar tune.
I’ll flip my fins and I’ll swim through the sea.
I’ll care for my friends the way they care for me.
The voice made Shelly freeze.
“What’s wrong?” Adrianna asked.
“Nothing,” Shelly purred. “Nothing’s wrong at all.” She spun around to face Adrianna. “Do you know who that is?”
Adrianna shrugged.
Shelly grabbed Adrianna’s paw and pulled her into the hall. “That’s Kelpy Sharkson!”
“How do you know?” Adrianna asked.
Shelly grinned. She couldn’t count how many hours she’d listened to Kelpy’s music. “I would know her voice anywhere in the ocean!” she replied.
“What should we do?” Adrianna wondered. “Should we go meet her?”
“I can’t be this close to Kelpy Sharkson and not say hello!” Shelly cried.
Adrianna nodded. “You’re right. We can tell her the mayor is my uncle. Then she won’t mind us introducing ourselves.”
Shelly and Adrianna peeked in through the small gap in the door. They watched Kelpy finish the song. As soon as she strummed out the last note, the girls clapped.
“That was really wonderful!” Shelly exclaimed.
“You’re amazing!” Adrianna added.
Kelpy smiled. “Thank you!” she purred. “I didn’t know I had an audience. I’m—”
“Kelpy Sharkson!” Shelly and Adrianna shouted together.
Kelpy laughed. “I feel special. You know who I am, but I don’t know your names.”
Shelly swam over. “I’m Shelly Lake,” she said, shaking Kelpy’s paw. Then she looked back at her classmate. “And that’s Adrianna Rivers,” she added.
“Nice to meet you both,” Kelpy said. “Shelly, do you know the chefs at Lake Restaurant?”
“They’re my parents!” Shelly replied.
“The food at the party was so good!” Kelpy cooed. “My favorite was the Garden Urchin Roll. Yummy—and healthy!” She smiled at Shelly. “Your family did a paw-some job.”
“And my uncle, the mayor, did a good job, too,” Adrianna said. “He was in charge of finding the chefs for the party.”
“Yes, I suppose he did,” Kelpy agreed. She put her guitar down. “Was I singing too loud?” she asked. “Did I bother you?”
“No way!” Shelly cried. “We were done practicing.”
“Are you ready for the showcase tryouts?” Kelpy asked.
Shelly shook her head. Adrianna said, “We were going to try out. But now we can’t.”
“Oh no!” Kelpy replied. “What happened?”
Shelly bit her lip. “We were going to sing with our friends,” she explained. “But they said we were taking the fun out of it.”
“Actually, they said we were ordering them around.” Adrianna shrugged. “I guess I can be a little bossy. Sometimes.”
Shelly giggled. “Just sometimes?”
Adrianna frowned. But Shelly put a paw on her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I can be purr-ty bossy, too. I just think things should be done the right way, and that’s usually…”
“…my way!” both girls exclaimed together.
Shelly turned back to Kelpy. “When we tried to sing by ourselves, it didn’t sound right.”
“Not my way or her way,” Adrianna added.
“So we’re giving up,” Shelly said. She stared at her tail and tried to keep from crying.
“Hmmm,” Kelpy said. “Would you like some advice?”
Shelly’s head snapped up. Advice? From a real star purr-former? “Yes, please!”
“Here’s the thing about music,” Kelpy explained. “It’s supposed to make you happy and bring purrmaids together. You feel the songs you love with your heart more tha
n you hear them with your ears.”
“Is that why music makes you feel less lonely, even when you’re alone?” Adrianna asked.
“And why a song feels different when you’re by yourself instead of with your friends?” Shelly asked.
Kelpy nodded. “Exactly! Both of you understand. Most of the time, I think music sounds better when I’m with friends.”
“I agree,” Adrianna said.
“I think as long as you’re not having fun or feeling happy, the song isn’t going to sound right to you,” Kelpy said.
Kelpy’s advice made a lot of sense. Shelly thought about things that were fun and made her happy. Suddenly, she realized what she and Adrianna were doing wrong. She purred, “Thank you so much, Kelpy. You helped me figure out how to make our song purr-fect.”
“What?” Adrianna asked. “How?”
“I’ll show you in a minute,” Shelly answered.
Shelly tried to shake Kelpy’s paw again. But Kelpy pulled her into a hug. “You’re welcome,” Kelpy said. “I’m glad I could help!”
“We’ll see you later!” Shelly said. “Come on, Adrianna! I know what we have to do!”
Shelly zipped through Kittentail Cove as fast as she could swim.
“Slow down,” Adrianna begged.
“We’re almost there!” Shelly shouted.
“Where are we going?” Adrianna asked.
Shelly smiled over her shoulder. “To sea school,” she replied. “To find what was missing from our song.”
“Of course!” Adrianna said. “That’s where our friends are! They’re the missing part.”
It only took a few more minutes for Shelly and Adrianna to reach sea school. The Sand Sculpture Contest was under way. This year’s theme was Enchanting Creatures of the Land. Groups of purrmaids worked on their creations. Shelly saw a lion, a hippopotamus, a giraffe, and even a human!
Shelly looked right and left, trying to spot their friends.
“I hope they’re still here,” Adrianna purred.
“I see Ms. Harbor over there,” Shelly said. Their teacher was working on a pile of sand. It didn’t look like much more than a blob.
“Maybe she’s seen the girls,” Adrianna said.
But before they could swim toward Ms. Harbor, someone said, “Aren’t you two supposed to be practicing at the P.A.W.?”
Shelly would know Kelpy Sharkson’s voice anywhere in the ocean. But she would know the voice she just heard anywhere in the entire universe. She spun around and squealed, “Angel!”
“Not just Angel,” Coral said. “Umiko, Cascade, and I are all here, too.”
“But what are you doing here?” Cascade asked.
“We were looking for you,” Shelly replied. “We wanted to know if we could spend the rest of Founder’s Day with you.”
“What about trying out for the showcase?” Coral asked.
Shelly and Adrianna shrugged. “We’d love to go to the tryouts,” Adrianna said.
“But we’d rather sing with you while we enjoy Founder’s Day than sing by ourselves onstage,” Shelly said.
Angel, Coral, Cascade, and Umiko looked at each other. Then Umiko said, “You’re lucky you found us here. We were just about to leave.”
“Can we come with you?” Adrianna asked.
“Yes, you can,” Angel answered. “We’re going back to the P.A.W.”
Shelly’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t understand,” she said.
Cascade said, “We realized that we haven’t been very good friends. We didn’t help you rehearse the way we should have.”
“We get to go to Founder’s Day events every year,” Coral said.
“But this might be your only chance to sing with Kelpy Sharkson,” Angel continued. “Even though we aren’t very good singers, we want to support you.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Coral asked.
Shelly reached for Coral’s paw and Angel’s paw. Adrianna did the same with Umiko and Cascade. The girls floated in a circle, holding paws. “We’re lucky to have great friends like you,” Shelly said.
“Well,” said Angel, “luck isn’t as important as practice. We need to get back to the P.A.W. so you two can finish practicing.”
Adrianna shook her head. “We’re not singing without you,” she purred.
“But we’re terrible singers,” Umiko said.
“We won’t do a good job,” Coral said.
Shelly smiled. “Everything is better when we’re with our friends,” she declared.
Adrianna nodded. “Shelly and I would rather sing with you than do a solo,” she added.
“Actually,” Cascade whispered, “it’s not a solo if both of you sing. It’s a duet.”
That made the girls giggle.
“So,” Shelly asked, “will you sing with us?”
“We really want you to,” Adrianna said.
“Even if that means we probably won’t win a spot in the showcase?” Angel asked.
“If we’re all together,” Shelly purred, “we’ve already won.”
Back in the practice room, the girls sang “Purrmaids Like Us.” They had so much fun that they sang “A Moment Like Fish.” Then “Since You’ve Been Swimming.”
A dozen songs later, the girls were out of breath. “Just one more?” Shelly asked. “I want to sing ‘Castaway.’ ”
“We can’t say no to that!” Adrianna laughed.
As soon as they finished the last note of the song, someone clapped and shouted, “That was fin-credible!”
It only took a moment for everyone to recognize the purrmaid at the door. “Kelpy Sharkson!” Umiko gasped.
“I can’t believe it!” Cascade exclaimed.
“We love your music!” Coral said.
Kelpy grinned. “Thank you!” she said. “I was looking for my friends Shelly and Adrianna when I heard you singing. You’re really good!”
Shelly said, “I think we’re finally ready for the tryouts!”
Kelpy’s grin disappeared. “The tryouts are over,” she said.
“What?” Adrianna yelped. “We missed them? This is a cat-tastrophe!”
Shelly checked the clock on the wall. “We must have lost track of time,” she moaned.
“I can’t believe how late it is,” Angel groaned.
“We were having such a good time, I never even looked at the clock,” Coral said.
“Me neither,” Umiko added.
Shelly squeezed her eyes shut so the tears wouldn’t fall.
Then Cascade said, “We did have a lot of fun, though.”
Shelly looked up. “You’re right, Cascade,” she said. “We did have fun.”
“A lot more fun than we had earlier,” Adrianna agreed.
The other girls smiled and nodded. Shelly said, “So far, singing with all of you has been my favorite part of Founder’s Day.”
“Then you girls didn’t miss much!” Kelpy purred. “If singing together made you happy, you figured out how to do it right.”
“And if anyone knows how to sing the right way, it’s Kelpy Sharkson!” Angel said.
Everyone laughed. Then Adrianna said, “Still, it would have been nice to sing in front of everyone.”
Shelly nodded. “You’re right, Adrianna,” she said.
“You two would have been great,” Coral said.
“No,” Umiko said, “you two would have been paw-some.”
“All six of you are paw-sitively amazing!” Kelpy exclaimed. “You know, I am the star tonight,” she said. “I could make you all my backup singers. Then you can still purr-form at the showcase. We just need to leave soon to make it to dress rehearsal.”
Shelly felt butterfly fish fluttering in her tummy again. Singing with Kelpy Sharkson would be a dream come true. But when she opened her mouth,
she didn’t say yes. Instead, she said, “I don’t think we should do that.”
“What do you mean?” Adrianna yelped. “Why not?”
“I don’t understand,” Kelpy said. “I thought this would make you happy.”
Shelly exclaimed, “Oh, Kelpy! It would!”
“Then why are you saying no?” Kelpy asked.
Shelly bit her lip. “I’ve wanted to sing with you ever since I heard your first song, Kelpy. It would be fin-credible to be onstage with you.” She took a deep breath. “But I don’t think it would be fair to all the purrmaids who tried out for the showcase.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this again,” Adrianna said, “but Shelly’s right. I really wanted to be in the showcase, too. But there were other purrmaids who deserve this chance. They followed the rules.”
“And it really is better to follow the rules,” Coral said.
Shelly giggled. Of course, Coral would still be thinking about rules!
“So what are we going to do instead?” Umiko asked.
“We could just stay here and keep singing,” Cascade suggested.
Shelly looked at the clock again. “If we aren’t singing in the showcase,” she said, “we don’t have to go to dress rehearsal. That means we have time to do some other Founder’s Day activities before the show.”
“I have another idea,” Kelpy said. “A lot of purrmaids wouldn’t care about what’s fair or what the rules say. Most would just think about what was best for them. Only really paw-some purrmaids would give up their dreams just to do what’s right.” She smiled and picked up her guitar. “I really like to sing with paw-some purrmaids.” She strummed her guitar strings. “Would you sing with me before I have to go to dress rehearsal?”
Shelly’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t know what to say. She turned to Adrianna. She was speechless, too.
Coral put her paw on Shelly’s elbow. “The rules don’t say you can’t sing with Kelpy before the show,” she said.
“Actually,” Cascade whispered, “the rules don’t say anything about before the show.”
Purrmaids #5 Page 3