A Tale of Two Sisters

by Debbie Dadey

  Echo nodded. She was worn out too. Carrying the heavy sculpture made her arms feel like floppy jellyfish tentacles, but she was determined to get it safely to wherever it had to go.

  Miss Haniver, their art teacher, had transformed the school’s front hall into an art gallery. There were displays of artwork from students of all different grades. Echo saw her own class’s mollusk sculptures. They were nowhere near as fancy as the shark and whale ones Crystal’s fifth-grade class had made, which Echo had to admit were pretty spectacular.

  Crystal and Echo carefully set the sculpture down on a large marble table in the center of the room. Looking around at the other pieces of art, Echo realized that Crystal’s was by far the best. Echo felt proud of her sister and how hard they had worked together.

  “Perfect,” Crystal said. She slowly floated around the sculpture, examining it from all angles. “It just needs one more thing.”

  She held up a small piece of seaweed. Written on the seaweed were the words ART BY CRYSTAL AND ECHO REEF.

  Echo’s heart flopped around like a fish in her chest. “But Crystal, I don’t deserve that. I almost ruined the whole thing! Plus, I only helped smooth the clay. You did all the real work.”

  Crystal shook her head and smiled. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have finished without you. This is as much yours as it is mine. Sisters share!”

  Just then an announcement came over the conch shell from Headmaster Hermit. “Welcome to Trident Academy’s 975th Parent Night,” he boomed. “Please proceed to the auditorium for our opening remarks and entertainment.”

  Crystal glanced at the doorway. A steady stream of merparents and merstudents floated in. “I hope Mom and Dad get here in time to see you perform,” she said. “Speaking of which, don’t you need to get ready?”

  Echo hadn’t told her sister that she wouldn’t be performing with the Tail Flippers. Before she could say anything, one of Crystal’s friends came up and hugged her. “Your sculpture is the best!”

  “Thanks, Fay. Your clay narwhal is adorable,” Crystal told her classmate.

  Echo spotted Kiki from across the room and waved. “See you later, Crystal,” she said. “I’m going to say hello to Kiki.” Echo knew Kiki might be feeling lonely because her parents weren’t going to be able to come for Parent Night. They lived too far away to make the trip. Plus, Echo didn’t feel like telling Crystal why she was missing her Tail Flippers performance.

  “Hi,” Kiki said. “I just saw Crystal’s sculpture. It looks fabulous!”

  Echo grinned. “I know. It was hard work, but we did it. Plus, she even put my name on it!”

  “That’s wavy,” Kiki said. “So she’s not mad at you anymore?”

  “She doesn’t seem to be,” Echo said. She hated to admit it, but she’d actually had a good time working with Crystal. It was like when they’d played together as small fry.

  “I have something awesome to tell you,” Kiki began, but she was interrupted by the pounding of sharkskin drums.

  “It will have to wait until after the program,” Echo said. “It’s starting now.” The mergirls scooted into the auditorium just as the lights dimmed. Echo tried to see if her parents or Shelly had arrived, but it was too dark. Echo and Kiki took seats near the doorway.

  The program lasted quite a while. First the Trident Academy Pep Band played a seashell rhapsody that had everyone tapping their fins. The Shell Wars team did a small scrimmage. Echo cheered when Shelly scored a goal.

  “I love that song,” Kiki sighed after the chorus performed “Ode to Seaweed.”

  “Me too,” Echo said. “This is so much fun.” But her heart sank when the Tail Flippers bounced onto the stage without her. As they flipped in time to the music, Echo couldn’t help wishing she was up there too.

  After the program, everyone poured out into the school’s enormous entrance hall for refreshments and to look at the art show. Coach Barnacle floated up to Echo with a huge frown on his face.

  “Echo Reef!” he boomed, staring down at her. “You’d better have a very good excuse for why you didn’t perform with the Tail Flippers tonight!”

  Friends

  ECHO WAS STILL TRYING TO figure out what to say to Coach Barnacle when her parents and Crystal swam over to them. “Echo! We were worried when we didn’t see you with the other Tail Flippers,” her father exclaimed. “What happened?”

  Crystal nodded. “I was looking forward to seeing that special new flip of yours.”

  Echo didn’t know what to say. Kiki saved her by explaining, “Echo couldn’t perform because she didn’t go to practice today. It was the rules.”

  “But why did you miss practice?” her father asked.

  “Yes, Echo,” Coach Barnacle said, thumping the ocean floor with his brown tail. “Why did you miss practice? You know I can kick you off the team for missing both practice and the performance tonight.”

  Echo gasped. Her worst fear was to get kicked off the Tail Flippers team!

  “She missed it because she was helping me finish my sculpture,” Crystal told the adults.

  “Oh, Echo,” their mother said. “You gave up performing just to help your sister?”

  Coach Barnacle brushed a tear from his eye. “That’s so sweet.” Then he cleared his throat and threw his hands up in the air. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again!”

  “Yes, sir,” Echo said quickly. “Thanks for giving me another chance, Coach.” She let out a sigh of relief as Coach Barnacle floated away to speak to Mayor Ridge.

  Mrs. Reef gave her younger daughter a big hug. “Echo, I’m so proud of you. You’ve really shown me that you can get along with your sister. In fact,” she continued, “I think you’re both behaving well enough to have this back.” Her mother pulled the human treasure out of her merpouch and offered it to them.

  Echo shook her head and backed away. She took a deep breath and thought about what Crystal had said to her. Sisters share.

  “No, give it to Crystal. She found it first.” Echo bit her lip. It was a very hard thing for her to say. She loved human objects so much, but she knew it was the right thing to do.

  Crystal frowned. “But you gave up performing with the Tail Flippers just to help me. You deserve it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Kiki interrupted. “Shelly and I know how to solve this problem.”

  “You do?” Echo asked.

  “We do,” Shelly said, swimming up beside them. She was still dressed in her Shell Wars uniform. “Grandfather rattled around in all his storage closets and found a human object that looked just like yours. Kiki had seen one in a book before.”

  “That’s what I wanted to tell you earlier,” Kiki told Echo.

  “Do you know what it is?” Echo’s mother asked.

  Kiki grinned. “Yes, I think so. May I see it?” Echo’s mother nodded and handed the treasure to Kiki.

  Kiki grabbed the round disk in the center and pulled. It popped into two pieces. “Oh no!” Crystal cried. “You broke it!”

  Kiki shook her head. “No, it was made for sharing. Look closer. See what it says?”

  Shelly, Echo, Crystal, and Mr. and Mrs. Reef gathered around the treasure. Each piece of the broken circle had a jagged edge where it fit into the other piece. Both parts had a chain attached. One said BEST. And the other said FRIENDS. Echo couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed the tiny words before!

  “It’s a friendship necklace,” explained Kiki. “One person wears one part of it. The other person wears the other half. Humans use them to show that they’re friends for life!”

  Echo looked at Crystal. She was sorry that she’d fought with her sister over a human object—especially one that was made for sharing.

  Their mother laughed and put one chain over Echo’s head and the other over Crystal’s. “Well, that’s perfect. I’m glad my daughters are friends again.”

  Echo grinned and gave Crystal a hug. “Best friends!”

  Class Reports

  ORANGE FIDDLER CRAB

/>   By Shelly Siren

  The thing I like best about the orange fiddler crab is that one of its claws is huge compared to its body. It lives near water in mud or sand and is awake during the day. It digs a hole to live in, complete with escape routes.

  JAPANESE SPIDER CRAB

  By Echo Reef

  The Japanese spider crab is the biggest of all crabs. Its legs are twice as long as most mermen are tall. It also lives to be about one hundred years old. I think it would be great fun to ride on the back of a Japanese spider crab!

  GHOST CRAB

  By Rocky Ridge

  The ghost crab is the coolest crab. It hides during the day and comes out just before dark to hunt. It will eat anything, even other crabs! I wonder if it can disappear like a real ghost.

  PORCELAIN CRAB

  By Pearl Swamp

  Crabs are very ugly. But the porcelain crab is a pretty bluish color, even though the rest of it is kind of creepy-looking. Can you believe the porcelain crab will shed a claw if it needs to escape? Then it will grow the claw back. Isn’t that just icky?

  COMMON LOBSTER

  By Kiki Coral

  This lobster doesn’t begin to have babies until it is six years old. The problem is that people like to eat this kind of lobster, and because it takes so long to start having babies, it is in danger of disappearing from the ocean.

  REFRAIN:

  Let the water roar

  Deep down we’re swimming along

  Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.

  VERSE 1:

  Shelly f lips her tail

  Racing, diving, chasing a whale

  Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.

  VERSE 2:

  Pearl likes to shine

  Oh my Neptune, she looks so fine

  Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.

  VERSE 3:

  Shining Echo f lips her tail

  Backward and forward without fail

  Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.

  VERSE 4:

  Amazing Kiki

  Far from home and f loating so free

  Twirling, swirling, singing the mermaid song.

  Author’s Note

  I HAVE TWO BROTHERS, BUT I always wanted to have a sister, like Echo. My brothers and I did have plenty of arguments growing up, but we managed to have good times too. We had to dry the dishes every night after supper, and we would sing songs to make it more fun. In the summer, we would go for long bike rides and take picnic lunches with us. We would also spend many afternoons playing baseball with all the kids in our neighborhood. In the wintertime, we made snowmen. Once, when it snowed a lot, we made forts and tunnels that we crawled through with our dog, Spike. It would have been nice to have a sister, but my brothers were pretty fun! You can find out more about me at www.debbiedadey.com, and I hope your parents will like me at www.Facebook.com/debbiedadey.

  Your mermaid friend,

  Debbie Dadey

  Glossary

  BARNACLE: Adult barnacles affix themselves to one spot, like a rock or ship.

  BARREL SPONGE: This sponge can get quite large, but its surface is hard.

  BOXFISH: The spotted boxfish will ooze poison slime from its skin to keep predators from eating it. Luckily, mermaids are immune to the poison.

  CLAM: There are 14,000 types of clams. They have a shell that connects on one side.

  CONCH: If you go to the beach and someone offers to sell you a conch shell, please don’t buy it. Conch are at risk for extinction because people have collected their beautiful shells for many years.

  CORAL: Daisy coral grows to look like a field of beautiful flowers.

  CRAB: Marine crabs are arthropods and tend to live alone on the bottom of the ocean.

  CUP CORAL: The Devonshire cup coral is one of the few corals that live alone. It will attach itself to a rock or even a shipwreck.

  HAGFISH: This fish should be named “slime-fish” because it can squirt slime out of the pores on the side of its body!

  JELLYFISH: The deep-sea jellyfish looks like it is wearing a ballet tutu!

  LICHEN: Black tufted lichen is found on sunny rocks and has small bumps on its branch tips.

  MAGNIFICENT FEATHER DUSTER: This worm has lots of brown-and-white tentacles that look like an old-fashioned feather duster.

  MEGAMOUTH SHARK: This huge shark is thought to attract food with a glowing mouth.

  MOLLUSK: Oysters and octopuses are part of this family of creatures.

  NARWHAL: This thirteen-to-twenty-foot-long whale lives in polar waters and is known mostly for its unicorn-like tusk.

  OCTOPUS: When an octopus is threatened, it will squirt an ink-like substance.

  ORANGE SEA PEN: This creature looks like an old-fashioned pen made from a sharpened feather.

  PLANKTON: Tiny creatures that float with the ocean currents and live near the surface are called plankton. Some plankton glow!

  RIBBON WORM: This thin worm can grow to be as long as the width of a football field!

  SAILFISH: The sailfish’s long, spearlike jaw looks similar to the swordfish’s upper jaw, but the sailfish also has a huge, sail-like dorsal fin. It folds the fin away for fast swimming.

  SEA CUCUMBERS: The deep-sea cucumber crawls along the ocean floor, eating the organic matter it finds.

  SEA LAMPREY: This eel-like creature has no jaws. It uses a sucker that attaches to other fish to suck out food. Due to poisoning and trapping, it is becoming rare.

  SEA LETTUCE: Sea lettuce grows along the shoreline in most parts of the world. It is eaten by animals and people.

  SEAWEED: Can you grow twenty-four inches in one day? Giant kelp, a type of seaweed, can!

  SHELL: Many animals, including oysters, use shells as a home. You may find pretty shells washed up on the shore.

  SPONGE: Sponges are common on rocky reefs, shipwrecks, and coral reefs. They can be circular or tubelike.

  SPOTTED REEF CRAB: This slow-moving crab likes to feed at night, which means it is nocturnal.

  VIPERFISH: Sloane’s viperfish is a long, thin deepwater fish with a large head and huge, barbed teeth.

  WHITE SEA WHIP: Sea whips look like strings waving from the ocean floor. They are related to sea fans.

  YELLOW SPLASH LICHEN: If you see yellow spots on rocks near the shore, they are probably yellow splash lichen.

  Splat!

  “Five arms stretch out wide

  No brains; no blood; velvety

  Starfish cling to life.”

  “I really like that,” Kiki Coral told her teacher.

  “It’s a haiku,” Mrs. Karp explained. “Five claps for the first line, then seven, then five for the last line.”

  “Boring,” Pearl Swamp whispered under her breath. Mrs. Karp peered through her tiny glasses at Pearl, who slid down in her seat.

  “Do you think the Rays’ music is boring?” Mrs. Karp asked Pearl.

  Pearl sat up straight and tossed her long blond hair behind her shoulder. “Of course not!” The Rays were the most famous boy band in the entire ocean. They had sung at Pearl’s last birthday party.

  “Did you know that many of the Rays’ songs are poems?” Mrs. Karp said. “Of course, they are different from a haiku.”

  “Really?” asked Shelly Siren. Shelly was the only student at Trident Academy who had actually performed with the Rays at Pearl’s party. When their backup singer had gotten sick, Shelly had filled in for her.

  Mrs. Karp nodded and surprised her entire third-grade class by singing one of the Rays’ songs.

  “Shark, the sharpnose sevengill, lived near to me.

  We swam together every day

  And became the best of friends.

  Then someone told Shark he should eat me.

  And now I miss him terribly

  But our friendship had to end.

  Shark, the sharpnose sevengill, lived near to me.

  I’ll always treasure our friendship

  And hope s
omeday he’ll see

  That sharks and merfolks can be friends.

  One day it will be.

  But until that day, I guess I’ll say

  Shark, I miss you still.”

  Pearl rolled her eyes, but most of the class tapped their tails in time to Mrs. Karp’s voice. When she finished, everyone clapped except Pearl.

  “That was totally amazing!” Echo Reef said.

  Mrs. Karp grinned and took a little bow. “What do you think about poems now?” she asked Pearl.

  Pearl shrugged. “I guess some poems are pretty wavy.”

  “I think poems should be silly,” Rocky Ridge said before singing to the class in a funny voice:

  “Food fights can be fun.

  Especially at lunchtime.

  Splat! Right in the face!”

  Rocky acted out the splat and fell onto the floor.

  Mrs. Karp hid her smile behind her hand, but Kiki couldn’t help laughing just a little. “That was very creative,” Mrs. Karp told Rocky, “but I hope you don’t plan to have a real food fight.”

  Rocky shook his head, but Kiki noticed the grin on his face. Kiki knew Rocky would love to throw anything, especially food.

  “You’ve given me a wonderful idea,” Mrs. Karp told Rocky. “Everyone will write their own poem for our next class assignment. It can be a haiku or a song or whatever type you’d like. We’ll talk about other kinds of poems in class tomorrow.”

  Pearl frowned at Rocky. “Thanks a lot!” she snapped. “More homework!”

  Shake Your Tail

  AT LUNCHTIME KIKI SLID into a round table in a corner of Trident Academy’s cafeteria. Shelly and their merfriend Echo joined her.

  “Wasn’t it fun when Mrs. Karp sang in class?” Kiki asked.

  Shelly smiled. “I didn’t know she had such a nice voice.”