Renata touched Reese’s arm for a moment and sighed. She looked back at the culvert. Tell your friend no one gets through there. Last one who tried now has to pick his nose with his thumbs. I can’t even come close, that’s why I have to shoot barnacles from this far away to signal I’m here. Don’t stay here, Renata continued. The shift changes soon, then you’ll have four sentries to fend off instead of two. She stored the slingshot in her cart, then turned to pick up the cart’s handles so she could drag it behind her.
Before Renata could swim away, her prediction came true and two other sentries blasted onto the scene, screeching like a couple of riot police.
What is your business here?
Very serious breach!
Under arrest!
One grabbed Reese around the neck in a headlock while the other held Renata’s hands behind her back. I almost hurtled out of my hiding spot to help them, but Reese caught my eye and mouthed no, urging me to stay put. I slipped back down, afraid of what the sentries might do to Reese and Renata and wishing I could do something to help.
But by then, Grizzly and Omarlin had slipped out of the culvert to see what the commotion was all about.
Take your posts at the entry, Grizzly ordered to the new sentries as he swam to meet them. The newcomers handed Renata and Reese off to Omarlin and Grizzly before disappearing through the mouth of the culvert. Reese winced as Grizzly tied long strands of twine-like seaweed around his wrists. As for you two, we’ll let the Mermish Council decide what to do with you.
My heart broke in a million pieces as they dragged Renata and Reese away.
It took me twice as long to swim back to Toulouse Point without Reese as my guide. It didn’t help that I was completely paranoid and had to dart from one hiding place to another to keep from getting spotted. By the time I’d snuck past the mouth of the canal, I was so exhausted I could barely move my tail.
I wanted to cry when I thought of everything that had just happened. What would happen to Renata? Or Reese? They’d both sacrificed so much to help me, only to find the tidal pool locked up tighter than Alcatraz. Was it even the tidal pool at all? What if the trip was actually a dead end and the sentries were hiding something else past that culvert? Now Reese and Renata were both in big-time trouble and it was all my fault.
I sighed in relief when I recognized the spot where I’d kicked off my flip-flops at Toulouse Point. Only problem was Luke was nowhere in sight.
Okay, universe! I rang out into the ocean, beyond caring who could hear me at that point. I could really use a break right now, you know!
Tell me about it.
I spun around in the water, trying to spot the source of the voice. It wasn’t until I’d swum around the point to the other side when I finally saw Luke standing on the rocky shore. And Cori was with him.
Oh no. What is she doing here? I rang out.
Cori held a cell phone to her ear and looked like she was trying to make a call. Luke kept tugging at her arm, trying to reason with her, but Cori held firm.
I lifted my head out of the water just enough so I could hear, doubting Cori could see me through the choppy waves.
“You found her wallet and her cell. What other proof do you need?” She shrugged Luke’s hand away. “Something’s wrong here, Luke. We have to call someone!”
“I’m sure she’s fine.” Luke grappled with her in a comical display of arm flapping and hand flailing, trying to get the phone away from her. “But here, let me call.”
“I think I know how to use a cell phone, Luke.” Cori held the phone up in the air and squinted at the screen like she was trying to get reception, but thankfully it looked like the sand dunes and boulders were blocking her phone signal. “When are they ever going to put another cell tower in this town?”
We’d better do something before she gets the whole Port Toulouse Emergency Response Team out here, Luke rang.
I should get out—should I get out? I hesitated, remembering what Dad had told me about telling other people about my mermaid secret. Cori would freak if she found out about me. I’d told her a little about what I was going through back at her pool party. I even admitted that it had something to do with Mom, but there was no way she would ever guess the real reason behind all my freakiness. Did I really want to open that can of worms? Maybe she’ll leave soon.
Um, she doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere. Luke scrambled after Cori as she climbed a large rock jutting partway into the ocean, looking for better reception. I laughed as she stretched up on her tippy-toes, turning this way and that way while Luke urged her to get down. She waved him away but in the process, managed to slip off the rock.
“Hel-uphtt!” Cori yelled. But her cry was muffled as she hit the water with an impressive splash.
Cori! I rang out, but of course she couldn’t hear me. A powerful force took over, making me forget everything my dad ever told me about keeping my identity a secret. I had to get to her!
Within seconds, I had Cori around the waist and I was dragging her to shore. She lay limp in my arms as I swam with all my might to get her to safety.
You got her! Luke rang.
I think she banged her head. My face broke the surface of the water just as Luke splashed into the ocean to meet us.
I coughed up a lungful of water and gasped as the early evening air burned my lungs. Luke dragged Cori to shore and checked her pulse and breathing, which was good, because I was as useless as a beached tuna from where I was sitting, waist deep in the ocean.
“Is she okay?!” I called out between sputters and coughs as Luke turned Cori over to her side just as she was coming to.
“Ja—?” Cori’s eyelids fluttered as she put her cell phone to her ear, which she (amazingly) still had clutched in her hand. Leave it to Cori to stay connected through a near-death experience. Luke pried the phone away from her and waved his hand for me to hide before Cori started really coming around.
But I couldn’t move. My mermaid-to-girl transformation had begun and the pain grabbed me like vice. My lungs burned like someone was forcing steam down my throat and the scales on my tail stung and grew hot as they turned back into skin.
“Jade?” Cori rubbed her head as she sat up on the beach and squinted through half-closed eyes.
Luke looked at me hopelessly and did his best to get Cori to her feet, but she shrugged him away and walked slowly toward me, stumbling a bit as she shook off the wooziness.
“There you are! What are you doing sitting in the water?” Cori looked out over the ocean, then back at me, trying to figure out what she was seeing. “Were you swimming? Why were you swimming all by yourself?”
Just then, Trey came running down the shore, looking like he’d just mowed a lawn, judging by his grass-stained work boots. He waved a pair of sweat pants over his head.
“I couldn’t find any girl shorts but these might fit.” He stopped short when he saw Cori. “Uh-oh.”
“Girl shorts?” Cori was wide-awake now. She glanced at the rock she’d been standing on, trying to process what had just happened. “Wait a second…I fell in the water…” She turned to me. “You rescued me…you had a…”
There was no turning back now. I lifted my searing hot tail out of the water.
“A tail, you mean?”
This time Cori did pass out. Good thing Trey was right behind her to help break her fall.
•••
By the time Cori came around, my legs were back and I’d managed to get the sweatpants on after threatening Trey and Luke with bodily harm if they so much as glanced my way.
“Okay. I’m decent.” I came out of my hiding spot behind one of the granite boulders and tried to get my balance on my newly regenerated feet.
I slipped on my flip-flops and quickly explained what was going on with Reese and Mom to Trey and Luke as Cori groaned on the ground, not quite conscious yet.
“I’m so sorry about Reese, Luke.”
Luke stared out over the ocean. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I should
never have let you go all by yourself.”
Yes, it was childish and maybe I was verging on a mental breakdown after what had just happened, but something about what Luke said ticked me off.
“Let me?” I squeezed the front of my shirt to try to get rid of some of the dampness, then got my wallet and phone from him. “Last time I checked, I didn’t need your permission.”
Weren’t we just friends, after all?
“Sorry.” Luke closed his eyes and shook his head. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Easy, easy!” Trey held up his hands like a referee at a hockey game. “Let’s focus for a second, shall we? At least now you know where the tidal pool is.”
“Where it might be. But how are we supposed to find out if we can’t get through the culvert?” I checked my phone and saw the six missed texts from Cori. It was also past five o’clock. Dad would be calling any second to see if I needed a ride home after my supposed shift at the ice cream parlor.
Sure enough, Cori was just showing signs of life when my phone rang.
“Dad.” What was I going to tell him? He was going to ground me well into my thirties if he found out I’d just spent the afternoon underwater without his permission, especially after the conversation we’d just had the day before. Should I tell him about the culvert and get his hopes up? But who knew if the culvert actually led to the tidal pool?
“Jade! Where are you? I dropped by Bridget’s to pick you up but she said you got off hours ago.” I could hear the panic in his voice. I couldn’t make him worry more.
“I’m fine, Dad. Just hanging out with Cori and the gang.”
Trey and Luke waved their hands in the air at me. Trey pretended to eat a hamburger. Luke traced a giant M in the air with his fingers. A smile grew on my lips, realizing what they were planning. “Uh, Dad? We were thinking of grabbing a burger at McDonald’s. Is that okay?”
By then, Cori was at my side, gaping at me as I spoke to Dad. “What happened to me? Why was I passed out on the beach?” she whispered.
I waved my hand in front of my face and made a shh motion as I tried to listen to Dad’s response.
“I can give you kids a ride over. Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”
“Oh, no. That’s okay. We’ll take the bus.”
“Okay, but don’t stay out too late. Remember, we’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Dad said.
“I won’t,” I replied, feeling a little bit guilty that he was still planning the next day’s Mer-to-Mom rescue mission.
“And be careful!” he added.
“I will! Love you.” I hung up and looked at the phone for a minute, wondering whether I was making the right choice by waiting to clue him in to what was going on, before turning to Luke and Trey. “Okay, okay. No use getting my dad’s hopes up if the culvert just leads to a secret mer-mobster hideout instead of a magical tidal pool.”
Cori was still looking at me as if I were telling a really suspenseful horror story, like we used to do at summer camp. But this had better have a happier ending than my famous campfire slasher stories where everyone ended up with an ax embedded in their skull.
“Magical wha…? What the heck are you saying?” Cori snapped to attention. “‘Mer’ as in mermaid? Is that why you were sitting in the water? And did I imagine it or did I actually see you with a tail?”
I flipped my phone shut and grabbed Cori by the arm.
“Come on! I’ll explain on the way.”
The bus to the mall made about nine hundred stops so Cori had plenty of time to give me the third degree.
“So, let me get this straight,” she whispered. We sat in the last two seats of the bus, away from the elderly couple at the front and the group of older teenagers zoned out on their iPods by the middle doors. “You’re telling me you’re part mermaid and that Luke here is also a mer-boy and you just spent the afternoon underwater with a tail? Did I miss anything?”
“Nope, I think you pretty much have everything covered,” I whispered back. Then I considered everything and smiled broadly. “Oh, and I inherited my mermaid genes from my mom—who is very much alive last time I checked, by the way.”
“Your mother is a mermaid? You mean she never drowned?” Cori’s eyes were so wide I was afraid her eyeballs would pop out. “How long have you known all this?”
“I found out the week we went bathing suit shopping at Hyde’s.” I spotted the sign for Port Toulouse Mall as the bus turned off the highway.
“But that was back in June!” Cori cried.
A girl at the middle doors pulled an ear bud from her ear. “Do you mind?”
Cori mumbled an apology and turned to the window, resting her forehead on the glass.
“I’m really sorry, Cori,” I said quietly once the girl went back to her music. “I begged my dad to tell you, but he swore me to secrecy. He was afraid scientists would treat me like a lab rat freak if they found out.”
“Like some kind of science experiment, you mean?” Cori asked, turning from the window.
“Or worse,” I replied, remembering the story in the book Mermaidia: Fact or Fiction about the Webbed One who was locked up in a mental hospital and given shock therapy.
Cori considered this for a second.
“I guess when you put it that way…” she said reluctantly.
“So do you forgive me for keeping it a secret?” I asked.
“I’ll think about it. But only because your dad made you.” Then she slapped Trey’s shoulder. “But you! You knew all this and didn’t tell me?”
“Not my secret to tell, dude,” Trey said, turning in his seat. “That’s what our grandpa says, anyway.”
“True. All true,” Luke agreed, giving his brother a fist bump.
“Your grandpa? Does everyone in Port Toulouse know about this except me?” Cori asked.
“Not exactly, so you can’t tell anyone, okay?” I whispered.
“Who would I tell?” Cori raised her hands in the air and shook her head. “Who would believe me?”
“You’ve got to promise, Cori.” Luke turned in his seat to look at her. “Please?”
Cori took a deep breath. “If this means Jade might actually find her mother again, I absolutely promise,” she replied.
“Cool.” I nudged her shoulder and rang to Luke.
Thanks, and I’m sorry for earlier.
Don’t mention it, he rang back. It’s been a bit of a crazy day.
Ringing back and forth with Luke in our mer voices reminded me of the first time I’d found out he was mer at Cori’s pool party. To us, it sounded like our normal voices but in another frequency. To others, it was an irritating buzz. Cori pulled her phone out of her bag and put it to her ear.
“What is that annoying sound?” Cori stared at her phone when she realized it hadn’t rung.
We’d finally arrived at the mall.
“Maybe it’s from the construction,” I said. Luke smiled.
The bus drove past the theater, along the length of the mall toward the Hyde’s Department Store entrance at the far side of the parking lot, but there was a bunch of heavy equipment and chain-link fencing, making it hard to get around. Finally, the bus stopped and we all piled out.
“Uh-oh.” I nudged Cori as we stepped onto the sidewalk.
“What? Oh.” Cori tensed as Lainey Chamberlain exited the mall entrance and walked toward us, carrying about fourteen shopping bags. Lainey was in our grade at school. She’d had her eye on Luke back in the spring and was not exactly keen on the fact that he’d chosen me over her. Cori had stood up to her in my defense during Luke’s end-of-school boat cruise when she found out Lainey had given me the nickname Scissor Lips back in the fifth grade. They hadn’t spoken since.
“Jade.” Lainey stopped in front of me, then scanned the rest of our group. “Trey, Luke…and Cori Blake.” She said Cori’s name as if chewing on a piece of steak.
Trey and Luke waved and disappeared across the parking lot to McDonald’s, leaving us to speak to Laine
y. I couldn’t decide if they were yellow-bellied cowards or just really sensible.
“Be nice,” I muttered to Cori.
“Hi, Lainey,” Cori said brightly. “How’s your summer so far?”
“Spec-tac-u-lar,” Lainey said, pronouncing each syllable. She dropped her bags at the curb and pulled out her cell phone from a really fancy looking handbag. “Just got back from New York. The shopping was ah-mazing. Mother wanted to go check out the upcoming winter trends for her new boutique.”
“Looks like you’ve been busy shopping here too.” I nodded to her bags, trying to change the subject since Cori had hoped to actually work at Mrs. Chamberlain’s boutique before her big blowout with Lainey.
“Oh, this mall is so bad. It will be much better once my daddy finishes the new wing construction.”
That’s when I saw the sign.
Chamberlain Construction presents:
PORT TOULOUSE MALL EXPANSION
Using only environmentally friendly
building products
Going GREEN to serve you better!
“Well, gotta go! Oh, Jade.” Lainey glanced down at my oversized sweatpants and made a face. “Sport Mart is having a back-to-school sale. Might want to check it out.” A long black sedan pulled up in front of the mall and Lainey picked up her bags before disappearing inside.
“That girl is pure evil.” Cori stared at the car as it pulled away.
“Yeah, sorry you had to lose your internship at her mom’s boutique because of me.”
Cori squinted. “How do you know about that?” Then, she looked at me wide-eyed. “Are mermaids telepathic? Can you tell what I’m thinking right now?”
“No.” I laughed. “I was underneath the Descousse Marina pier with my mom, growing legs, when you and Lainey had your big fight. Heard the whole thing.”
Cori shook her head. “This cannot be real.”
“It’s all pavement and buildings around here,” Luke said when they returned. “Are you sure this is right?”
I glanced at the McDonald’s across the parking lot, closer to the road.
“It has to be. I could see the golden arches from the water.” I looked around for some open space where a tidal pool might be.
Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath Page 5
