“Atoll Academy, on the other side of the lagoon,” said Pearl. “Lady Sealia’s husband Lord Foam runs it.”
“How do you know that, flounder-face?” said Orla, making Mabel Anemone laugh.
“I just do,” Pearl said, tilting her chin. “And I don’t have a face like a flounder, actually, because flounders have eyes on top of their heads and I don’t.”
Pearl was brave, talking back to Orla like that. Braver than Marnie. But that’s not difficult, Marnie thought gloomily.
“Keep up, first years!” came Ms. Mullet’s voice.
The Music Department was one level down from Lady Sealia’s office and the Assembly Cave. Marnie’s thoughts drifted as Ms. Mullet took them past the practice rooms and classrooms where Marnie had spent most of yesterday sitting in the corridor. She was taken by surprise when Orla barged into her, causing Marnie to scrape her tail painfully on the wall.
“Clumsy,” said Orla, narrowing her eyes.
Marnie tried to be as brave as Pearl. “I’m not clumsy,” she squeaked. “You are.”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Orla, folding her arms.
“Yes you did,” said Marnie a little desperately.
“. . . our Seaharmonic Orchestra is always looking for members, particularly players of the rock tuba and razor-clam flute,” Ms. Mullet was saying. “If anyone is interested, please see Miss Tangle. On we go.”
Orla flipped her tail and shot away down the rocky corridor with Mabel Anemone. Marnie swam slowly after the others.
“What did Orla say?” Pearl asked as they swam past the Oceanography Cave with its large observation window.
“Nothing,” Marnie muttered.
“Orla’s mean, isn’t she?” said Dora.
“Especially to Marnie,” Lupita agreed.
“Everyone’s noticed.”
“I reckon she’s jealous that Marnie’s related to Christabel,” said Pearl.
Marnie hadn’t thought of that.
Dora and Lupita agreed, and then started discussing their favorite Christabel Blue songs.
“I like ‘Wave Goodbye.’”
“‘Clamshell Heart’ is better.”
“She’s so funny on Radio SeaWave,” said Dora, giggling.
“And she has the most amazing clothes in those fashion shoots she does for Fishtales Monthly,” sighed Lupita. “Marnie, can we meet her one day? Please?”
“Sure,” said Marnie absently. She was still thinking about what Pearl had said. Could jealousy really be the reason Orla was so mean to her? It seemed very strange.
Like the Oceanography Cave, the Art Studio had large windows to let in as much light as possible. In the library, the books in their dark blue mussel-shell cases were lined up on rocky shelves as neatly as the stripes on Len the lionfish librarian’s fins.
“You can borrow as many books as you like,” Ms. Mullet told them. “Just be sure to put them back where you found them, or Len will have something to say.”
“I think it’s disgusting, having a poisonous librarian,” Mabel Anemone said as they swam on down the rock. “I’m never going in the library.”
“Lionfish are venomous,” said Pearl. “Not poisonous.” Mabel rolled her eyes at Orla. “Like that even matters?”
“You can eat venomous fish,” said Pearl. “You can’t eat poisonous ones.”
“Good to know for when we eat the librarian,” said Orla sarcastically. The deeper they swam, the darker it became. They passed the Sports Caves with their fishball nets and weightlifting equipment. (“The pressure of the water at this level ensures a good workout.”) The Dance Studio had a barre made out of a wrecked ship’s mast and polished crystal mirrors lining the walls.
“And now the stables,” Ms. Mullet said, pointing at a series of craggy oyster-shell half-doors near the bottom of School Rock.
Marnie drew back. She had never liked seahorses, with their bony heads and sharp teeth. How Aunt Christabel had been brave enough to steal one was beyond her.
Orla noticed her expression. “Is Marnie Blue scared?” she said with interest. She swam closer to one of the stable doors, holding out her hand. “Come on, little seahorse,” she said. “Show us your fangs.”
“Come away from there please,” Ms. Mullet said sharply. “Seahorses bite. The stable master, Mr. Splendid, is away this morning, and has asked that no one enters the stables until he returns.” She snapped her claws to keep the first years’ attention. “Now, the last place to see is on the seabed itself. The hot-water vents are used by our laboratories, Domestic Science Department and school kitchens. No dawdling please.”
“I dare you to go inside a stable,” Orla whispered in Marnie’s ear as Ms. Mullet swam off around the corner.
“I don’t want to,” said Marnie.
“Why? Is the famous Marnie Blue scared?” sneered Orla. Beside her, Mabel snickered.
Marnie’s heart bounced around her chest like a frightened prawn. She gulped, remembering Aunt Christabel’s advice: Don’t let them see that you’re scared.
“OK. I’ll do it if you will,” she found herself saying.
Orla’s eyes flickered. “Fine,” she said. “After you.”
Dora and Lupita hung back with Pearl and Mabel as Marnie put her hand on the latch of the nearest stable door.
“What if Ms. Mullet comes back?” said Mabel nervously. “We’ll get into trouble.”
“This won’t take long, Mabel,” said Orla. “Marnie’s too scared to go through with it anyway.”
“She’ll do it,” said Pearl at once. “You wait.”
Marnie wished Pearl wasn’t so supportive. She had to do it now.
She made herself look over the top of the stable door. Small phosphorescent fish swam about, filling the dark stable with a faint glow of light. A large pair of eyes glared at her. Before she could change her mind, Marnie opened the stable door and went inside.
The seahorse screamed. It beat its scarlet fins and tail and reared, churning the water into a froth. It bared its teeth and snapped at her in rage. Marnie shrieked and stumbled, falling backward out of the stable.
“Shut the door!”
“It’s going crazy, don’t let it out!”
Pearl, Dora and Lupita rushed to shut the stable door before the seahorse escaped. It took all three of them to hold the door shut while Marnie fixed the latch back into place. Her fingers felt like jellyfish. There was no sign of Orla or Mabel.
“MARNIE BLUE!”
Marnie whirled around. Ms. Mullet was scuttling towards them with her claws raised. Behind her, clustered with the rest of the first years, were Orla Finnegan and Mabel Anemone.
“What did I say about not entering the stables?” Ms. Mullet’s eyes swivelled furiously as the seahorse roared and bucked and kicked at the stable door. “Mr. Splendid will be extremely angry that you have upset his animals. Thank Neptune that Orla and Mabel had the good sense to warn me about what you were doing. Detention this afternoon!”
“It wasn’t Marnie’s fault, Ms. Mullet,” Pearl said, looking furiously at Orla. The black-haired mermaid dipped her eyes. “It was—”
“I saw Marnie coming out of that stable, Pearl Cockle,” interrupted Ms. Mullet. “Report to Mr. Splendid after lunch, Marnie. And count yourself lucky that I don’t send a warning scallop to your parents.”
The deputy head swept away with Orla, Mabel and the other first years, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “Just like her aunt.” Orla didn’t look back.
“Orla said she’d go into the stable, but she told on you instead?” Dora gasped.
Lupita folded her arms. “I’m never talking to Orla Finnegan again.”
“Are you OK, Marnie?” Pearl asked.
Marnie was surprised to find that she was fine. Maybe it was Orla’s moment of uncertainty when Marnie had challenged her. Or maybe it was because Dora, Lupita, and Pearl had all stood up for her. Either way, she felt stronger than she’d ever felt before.
“Yes,�
� she said. “Honestly. Don’t worry about me.”
Marnie swam down to the stables after lunch for her detention, wondering what kind of creature Mr. Splendid was. She wished Orla had dared her to go into Monsieur Poisson’s sea cucumber patch instead. A detention in the school’s kitchen garden would probably have been OK.
“Hello?” she called nervously. “Mr. Splendid? I’m Marnie Blue and I’ve come—”
A flash of yellow caught her eye. A magnificent toadfish was swimming slowly towards her, waving his long purple-spotted tail from side to side and beating his frilly yellow fins. If this was Mr. Splendid, he was very splendid indeed.
“Marnie Blue, you say?” said the toadfish in a deep voice. “Any relation to Christabel?”
Marnie sighed. “Yes, Mr. Splendid, but I’m not like my aunt at all, I—”
“Lovely girl, Christabel,” said Mr. Splendid fondly. “Excellent with my seahorses. Particularly Urchin. Urchin never let anyone else ride him but your aunt. How is she?”
Marnie stared. “She’s fine. Thanks.”
Mr. Splendid swam majestically towards a stable door. “I listen to her show, of course,” he said, lifting the latch. “Never miss it. Come along then, Marnie Blue. These stables won’t clean themselves.”
This was the first teacher Marnie had met who actually liked Christabel. She followed the toadfish cautiously, listening to Mr. Splendid talking to the seahorse inside.
“Sandy, my dear. We have a visitor to clean you up today. Try not to bite.”
Sandy snapped her jaws once or twice as Marnie took the stable brush and started clearing up the manure on the rocky floor of the stable. It smelled worse than Garbo’s, and there was a lot more of it.
“Monsieur Poisson will fetch it later for the kitchen gardens,” said Mr. Splendid. “Marvelous fertilizer for his sea roses.”
Marnie grimly swept and scrubbed and ducked away from the seahorses’ darting teeth. She didn’t like their googly eyes or their hard, ridged bodies. Although she was enjoying Mr. Splendid’s stories of Aunt Christabel as she worked.
“Never seen such a fine rider. She used to race Urchin from the top of School Rock to the bottom, and no one could ever catch her. She took him out a few times without permission too.” The toadfish smiled at the memory. “Not one for rules, your aunt.”
“Oh, I know,” said Marnie.
The next seahorse was Andrew.
“I can’t for the life of me remember why we called him that,” said Mr. Splendid as Marnie tried to sweep up the manure from under Andrew’s long, curled green tail. “Good boy, Andrew.”
Finally they reached the angry seahorse’s stable.
“You’d better let me clean out Typhoon,” advised Mr. Splendid. “We don’t want to deliver you back to Ms. Mullet in pieces. Typhoon was the one you decided to visit this morning, wasn’t he?”
Marnie flushed and nodded.
“I don’t imagine you’ll be visiting him again without permission,” said Mr. Splendid with a slow grin. “Or with permission either. Typhoon’s tricky.”
The toadfish swam into the stable and came out again a few minutes later with a shovel of manure and the clear outline of a bite on one of his yellow fins. He dumped the manure outside the door as Typhoon screamed in defiance, and handed the shovel back to Marnie.
“Right,” he said. “Just Urchin left.”
A low growling noise was coming from the stable door at the end of the row. Marnie hadn’t noticed it on the tour.
“You said Urchin only let Christabel ride him,” she said, feeling uneasy as the growling continued. “Is he like Typhoon?”
“Oh much worse,” said Mr. Splendid cheerfully. “No one dares to ride him these days. But he won’t bite a Blue. I’m sure of it.” He paused. “Quite sure, anyway.”
Gripping the shovel for courage, Marnie peered inside the growling stable. At first, she could see nothing. Then suddenly, a long, bony blue face loomed over the top of the stable door, jaws wide and teeth on display. Marnie flinched backward.
“Hold steady,” Mr. Splendid said. “He’s just having a sniff.”
Marnie squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the gentle whiffling of the water as Urchin sniffed her. Please don’t bite me. Please . . .
Something hard settled on her shoulder. She opened one eye, hardly daring to breathe as the seahorse snuffled and pushed against her.
“Told you,” said Mr. Splendid in satisfaction. “You smell like a Blue. Give him a scratch and he’ll be your friend forever.”
Marnie cautiously put up a hand and scratched Urchin between his wide, bulgy eyes. The seahorse made a purring sound and fluttered his pale blue fins.
“There you go, you old devil,” said Mr. Splendid. “You can let Marnie clean out your stable now.”
Marnie swam to oceanography, thinking about Urchin. It was amazing that he had recognised her because she smelled like her aunt. She couldn’t wait to tell Christabel.
“Marnie!” Pearl was waving from the Oceanography Cave. “Mr. Scampi says a large school of blue tang is about to swim past. Come on! We saved you a seat.”
Dora and Lupita grinned at Marnie and beckoned her over to the big observation window.
Mabel Anemone was sitting alone at the front of the class. Marnie looked around for Orla, but couldn’t see her.
“What did I miss?” Marnie asked, swimming up to her friends.
“Just some boring stuff about ocean weather,” said Lupita.
“The good part’s about to begin,” said Pearl eagerly. “We have to count the blue tang when we see them.”
A large black lobster at the front of the classroom waggled his claws at her. “Marnie Blue?” he said.
“Sorry I’m late,” said Marnie quickly, taking a seaweed scroll and shell pen out of her backpack. She hoped Mr. Scampi wasn’t another one of the teachers who hated her aunt.
Mr. Scampi flicked his antennae. “Take a seat and start counting.”
Marnie had barely sat down when there was a flicker of color outside the window. The mermaids gasped. A rippling wave of bright blue fish glided past, their fins glowing with color.
“Onetwothreefourfive,” Pearl said very quickly. “Sixseveneight . . .”
The room filled with the sound of counting voices.
“Tang are extremely poisonous,” Mr. Scampi said, raising his voice over the noise. “You are strongly advised never to eat one.”
“What’s the difference between venomous and poisonous again, Pearl?” asked Lupita.
“Shh,” said Pearl, cross-eyed with the effort of counting the tang. “Seventeeneighteennineteen . . .”
“You can eat venomous fish but not poisonous ones,” said Dora. “I think.”
Marnie counted twenty-five tang and then lost her place. “Where’s Orla?” she asked Lupita, who had given up at eleven.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” said Lupita.
“No one talked to her at lunch, Marnie,” Dora said, leaning in close. “Not even Mabel. Orla sat down at a table and everyone else left. Imagine!”
“Nobody likes a tattletail,” said Lupita darkly. “Orla Finnegan is a tattletail AND a liar AND a scaredy catfish for not going in the stable after you like she said she would.”
“Thirtythreethirtyfourthirtyfive,” said Pearl.
Marnie felt guilty. She didn’t like the thought of anyone sitting alone in the Dining Cave. Not even Orla Finnegan.
“But lunch was ages ago,” she said. “Why isn’t she in class?”
“Fifty-three!” Pearl shouted as the last tang swept past. Everyone else had stopped counting. “There were fifty-three, Mr. Scampi.”
“Excellent,” said Mr. Scampi. “Write it down.”
Lupita wrote “fifty-three” in large curly letters on her seaweed scroll. “Good riddance to bad oysters,” she said. “I don’t care if I never see Orla Finnegan again.”
Marnie invited Pearl, Dora, and Lupita back for dinner after school, but only Pearl could c
ome. The others made Marnie promise to invite them another time, and swam home reluctantly in the opposite direction.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that Orla wasn’t around this afternoon?” said Marnie as she and Pearl skimmed along, enjoying the feel of the cool water on their tails. “So far, she’s usually sat at the front and sucked up to teachers. Even with everyone giving her the silent treatment, she wouldn’t skip class.”
“She was there for the start of oceanography, when Mr. Scampi was talking about that hurricane,” Pearl said. “I saw her by herself at the back.”
“What hurricane?” said Marnie.
“Oh! I forgot you missed that part,” said Pearl. “There’s this really bad hurricane that’s just struck the Gulf of Mexico. Force nine, Mr. Scampi was saying.”
“The Gulf of Mexico?” said Marnie. “Orla’s sister works in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Pearl looked puzzled. “Oh yes. I forgot that. But why are you worried? I thought you hated Orla.”
“Orla hates me,” Marnie pointed out. “Not the other way around.”
Marnie was scared of Orla, but she didn’t hate her. Marnie wasn’t the hating type.
“I’m sooo nervous about meeting your aunt,” Pearl confessed.
Marnie pulled her thoughts away from Orla. “She’ll make you laugh as soon as you meet her, I promise,” she said. “Want to race there?”
Pearl flipped her golden tail and took off. Laughing, Marnie chased her. They ducked through the seaweed and dodged the little shoals of fish, and Pearl sneezed when she got too close to the coral reef.
Suddenly Marnie stopped and cocked her head. She could hear crying. Leaving Pearl practicing somersaults on the lagoon bed, she swam to an outcrop of coral and looked behind it cautiously.
Orla Finnegan’s eyes were as red as the coral she was sitting on. Crouching with her arms wrapped around her tail, she glared at Marnie.
“This is your aunt’s fault,” she spat. “It’s ALL HER FAULT!”
Marnie struggled to understand what Orla was talking about. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her thoughts scattering like bubbles. “I don’t—”
Orla reared up like Typhoon the seahorse. “She didn’t play my sister’s song on Radio SeaWave.” Her voice was as cold as an Arctic current. “She promised to play it. She PROMISED. Sheela was going to launch her singing career in Mermaid Lagoon. But instead she had to go to the Gulf of Mexico for work and now she’s missing in the hurricane! Your aunt’s a liar. I hate her and I hate YOU!”
Mermaid School Page 3
