Cry of the Sea

by D. G. Driver

  “If I see her using it on campus, it will be taken from her until school is out for the summer,” she warned as her claw grip on the thing loosened enough for Dad to wrangle it from her.

  “I’m sure Juniper understands the rules,” my dad replied as calmly as he could, flipping the phone to me.

  “Hmmm,” was all Slater said before slinking back into her office and shutting the door in our faces.

  Dad patted me on the back. “Don’t get caught.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Then we walked out of the office, and in the grand hallway of my school were about two hundred teenagers. I think it’s safe to say that every single one of them either had a cell phone in their hand or to their ear. My dad and I started laughing so hard tears filled our eyes.

  “Well, okay then,” he said with a snort. “Have a great day. Uh, call me on your illegal phone, and let me know what your plans are this afternoon. I’ll be at the beach.”

  He headed out to the parking lot still chuckling to himself over the absurdity. I turned my phone on, but there weren’t any messages on it. With only a couple minutes to spare, I jammed the phone in my back pocket and dashed for my first period class. I’d only gotten a couple steps when I heard someone shout at me. It caught me off guard, and I tripped and fell to my knee. When I looked up Regina and Marlee were standing over me.

  “Why are you running, June?” Regina said with that nasty teasing voice that popular girls perfect. “Did you get dropped off late by your boyfriend again?”

  “Yeah,” Marlee joined in. “Was that him?” She pointed toward the front doors.

  “That was my dad.”

  Regina gave her the “duh” look, but Marlee just shrugged. “You said he was older.”

  “Not like gross older.” Regina turned back on me again. “Did you have another all-nighter this time? Did Daddy come to find you in the middle of the night and threaten to shoot the guy with his bow and arrow?”

  They both snickered. I can’t think of another word for it. It wasn’t a laugh, and it was kind of similar to the sound snakes would make if they could laugh.

  I looked from one to the other as I stood up, trying to put together what they could possibly be saying to me because none of it made any sense. There were so many insults twined together, and they were all ridiculous.

  “I’m going to be late,” I finally said, and I walked away from them.

  “We’re talking to you, Juniper!” Regina shouted, aghast that someone would dare to walk away from her.

  Was I supposed to stay and argue? Defend myself? Cry because the popular girl was insulting me? I didn’t feel like doing any of those things. I saved a mermaid’s life the day before. I was a hero in my own mind. Regina should have been in awe of me. Maybe someday it would all come out, and she would know. Someday when she was thirty or so, when she got tired of hocking beauty products at a department store counter at the mall and realized that I was making a living doing things like helping Killer Whales give birth, she’d think of this day and wonder why she ever thought she was better than me.

  Other kids stared at me as I continued down the hallway away from Regina and Marlee’s calls. A couple of them gestured that I should turn around. A lot of them laughed when they saw me, and I heard some whispered, “That’s the one I told you about” type comments. I ignored them all, turned a corner where I couldn’t hear the girls anymore. I actually couldn’t believe they hollered after me that long. How embarrassing. For them.

  I was just about to slip into my homeroom, when I saw Haley across the hall. She had her cell phone out and was watching something on it. Probably a music video or that internet joke site. I couldn’t tell, but she was really focused on it

  “Haley!” I shouted. “Did you get my email?”

  She looked up at me and said simply, “Yeah,” like it was no big deal. Like I had sent her a message as simple as, “I’m going to school tomorrow, see you there.” Then her attention went right back to her phone. She walked on, disappearing into her own homeroom a couple doors down the hall.

  I stood dazed for a second, unsure about what had just happened. Maybe my message got messed up somehow and the whole thing didn’t go through. Maybe the attached video didn’t open. Something must have gone wrong, because her response didn’t match the gravity of the email I’d sent. I thought about grabbing her out of class and making her talk to me, but as I took a step that direction I heard Mrs. Leapfer, my homeroom teacher, call my name. I knew I couldn’t be late again, so I ducked into my room like a good little girl and tried to think of how I could get Haley to talk to me at lunch.

  The first three periods went so slow. I didn’t see Haley at all as I passed from one class to the other, which was weird, because we usually saw each other all the time. I knew where all her classes were, and for the first time I realized how much she used to walk out of her way just to bump into me in the hall. What could I do to get her to stop being so mad at me?

  Advanced Photography was my fourth period. It was my only elective this semester. The rest of my schedule was jammed with college prep classes so I could get ahead. Smart, said my parents. Stupid, said I. However, I love photography, and I usually enjoy the class. But that day we had a sub, and all she was having us do was look at a PowerPoint slideshow of famous photos projected on a screen. Boring. All around the room I heard the familiar dying cow moo of vibrating cell phones. It seemed like every kid in the class had at least three messages or more come in within five minutes’ time. Kids were checking texts by holding their phones inside their open backpacks under their desks, like the sub really cared or would do anything about it.

  My phone didn’t moo. Mine was the only one that remained silent. It was just as well, because I couldn’t have checked it anyway. I promised to have good cell phone behavior—at least for a day.

  Whatever was happening in the cellular world was apparently very exciting. Fingers frantically tapped messages. People started leaning over desks to whisper in other kids’ ears. This had to be about more than where they were meeting up for lunch. At first I guessed there was a fight being held somewhere on campus. That usually got a buzz going. But then I began to notice that after each exchange whisper or rapid fire of texting fingers, glances shot my way. Oh, they tried to be subtle at first, but they quickly became super obvious. I got it. Regina was spreading more rumors about me.

  The thing I didn’t get was why anyone cared. I wasn’t popular. No one really knew me well. And it wasn’t like kids getting it on was a new thing around the high school. It happened all the time, so they say—I didn’t really know this for sure. But it happened enough to know that every girl who had sex with a boy did not became an instant headline. Lord knew Regina wasn’t a virgin. So what was the big deal?

  And what really sucked about it all was that I hadn’t done what I was getting a rep about. I wasn’t sure if Carter even liked me.

  I sat there, getting madder and madder about the whole thing as the clock ticked as slowly as it could toward twelve o’clock. All I wanted at that moment was to go sock Regina in the face and call her a hypocrite. I began to cringe at the sound of each cell phone moo and was about ready to pop out of my seat and say a thing or two to this class of people I’d been teaming up with for projects for the past three years. If anybody knew me, it was this group. They were mostly nerdy, yearbook staff types. Not your typical top of the list kids. How dare they look down on me? Shoot, if I had really made it with a college boy, they should all worship me. Like, they wish!

  The phone of Nathan Price, the guy right next to me, a pimple-faced kid I’d known since sixth grade, buzzed. Who did he know that made him three phone calls more popular than me? I’d had it.

  “What?” I shouted at him. “What are they telling you?”

  Nathan snapped his head toward me like I’d just scared the crap out of him. “Jeez, June. Calm down.”

  “No, I will not calm down. What is everyone freaking out about? What did I do t
hat was such a big deal?”

  Nathan’s eyes were real big, and I wasn’t sure how to read it. They didn’t look accusing, that was for sure, but it was some kind of mix of fear and awe. Weird. Then he asked, “Is it true?”

  I sighed. “Why do you care?”

  “Because it seems kind of unbelievable.”

  “What?” I nearly shouted. Why was it so unbelievable? It’s not like I’m hideous or something.

  “I mean, I can’t figure out how it happened?”

  Um, duh, boy meets girl. Remember that class in junior high? “Look, Nathan...”

  I didn’t know what I was going to say exactly, just that it was going to be pretty mean, but he interrupted me to add, “If you faked it, you did a good job.”

  “Faked it?” Faked what? Did he think I was trying to get everyone in the school to think I was a slut? “I didn’t fake anything. I mean...”

  “Because the pictures look real to me.”

  Now he had me. “Pictures? What are you talking about?”

  “It’s all over the Internet. Look.” He started to hand me his cell phone but then stopped himself. “Wait a second.” Nathan got up and went to the substitute teacher. I didn’t hear everything he said, but I think I heard something like “...by someone in our class.” She nodded like she really didn’t care, and next thing I knew he was typing in a YouTube link onto the class computer. The PowerPoint slideshow came to an abrupt stop, replaced by a loading video. A moment later a picture of me was frozen on the screen. Nathan hit play.

  There I was on the beach, frazzled and dirty, trying to hold up one of the dying mermaids so my dad could get a better angle with the camera. I heard his voice droning on about the discovery, but the words were nonsense in my ears. All I could think was How? How? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

  Dad’s voice continued as the camera zoomed in to get a good shot of the gills on the mermaid’s neck. “The mermaids have mere moments to live unless we can get them to a tank of water and get the oil cleared away from their gills.”

  Then my own voice from the video cut through the loud noise of my brain protesting the reality of all this: “Dad. Stop taping. We don’t have time. They’re dying.” And a second later, a much more urgent, “Dad!” Then the video stopped.

  Everyone in class was staring at me, even the substitute who had now pulled out her own cell phone probably so she could type the link for all her friends to see too. No one spoke.

  “Is it real?” Nathan asked.

  “How did this get on the Internet?” I asked.

  “It was on Regina’s wall this morning. Haley sent it to her. I thought you knew.” When I didn’t answer right away, stunned to silence by what he’d just told me, Nathan asked, “Is it real or a hoax?”

  “I’ve got to go.” I grabbed my backpack to the sound of my classmates calling out to me to answer Nathan’s question. Just as I was about to walk out the door, I turned and looked at them all. These were people I liked to think of as friends, and I was kind of glad that it wasn’t the subject of my virginity that had them all hyper-texting each other. Having no idea what to say to them, I raised an eyebrow and acted really mysterious as I threw out, “Does it look real?” Then I took off before I had to answer any other questions.

  I was halfway to Haley’s classroom when the bell rang for lunch. A wave of kids came toward me from every door. As soon as people saw me, they rushed at me with their questions about the video being real, if the mermaids talked, did they survive, where were they now, and so on. I couldn’t move any further down the hall, blocked completely by curious teenagers who had never before uttered a word to me.

  “Please let me through,” I cried, trying to squeeze sideways between a small gap created by two skinny Freshmen. I broke through the immediate cluster and began to run. Coming toward me from the other direction were all four members of the Student Council walking side by side so that they filled the width of the hallway and no one could pass them. People had to slam their bodies flat against the lockers to make room for the wall of popularity passing. Right behind them Haley’s head popped up and down between their heads like she was trying to figure out where she should be in the line, but while they weren’t telling her to go away, they weren’t exactly letting her in either.

  I skidded to a stop in front of them.

  “Wow, Juniper,” Regina said. “Looks like you’re in a hurry. More mermaids on the beach?”

  “Haley,” I said, gasping for breath. “What did you do?”

  “I thought the video was cool, and I forwarded it,” she said. “Everyone loves it. You’re, like, super popular now. Of course, I have to keep telling everyone that it’s real, because I know you don’t know how to even do basic Photoshop, let alone edit a video like that. You’re pretty lame with the tech stuff.”

  “Can we go see them?” Marlee asked. “Are they pretty? You can’t really tell from the video.”

  “What? No! You can’t see them.”

  “That’s because they aren’t real,” Gary said.

  “They are real,” Regina snapped at him. Then she turned super sweetly to me and said, “Right, Junie?”

  I didn’t answer. “I didn’t give you permission to forward that video, Haley. I just wanted you to know why I was late yesterday, ‘cause you wouldn’t talk to me.”

  Regina nodded, “Saving mermaids is a very valid reason, we think. Haley has completely forgiven you. Us too. In fact, we’re 100% behind your little Recycling Club now.”

  Ted scratched his head, “We are?”

  “Yes, we are,” Regina said. “And we’re all going to join. Can’t have trash going out in that ocean with beautiful mermaids swimming around, can we?” Regina put a hand on my shoulder. “Of course, you have to take us to see them. That’s how it works. We get to be first.”

  “What is going on here?” I asked.

  Haley almost exploded with joy, “We’re popular, June, that’s what!”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that it was Carter. Trying to move away from them as much as they would allow, I answered.

  “Get out here, now,” Carter’s voice insisted. “I’m in the parking lot and need you to come with me. Hurry.”

  “Did you see...?”

  “Yes, and no time. Come now.”

  I slipped the phone back in my pocket and shot a hard look at Haley. If she thought she was mad at me yesterday, she had no idea how I felt about her today. “I’ve got to go.”

  “More mermaids?” Marlee squeaked. “Can we go?”

  “No and no,” I answered, pushing past her and heading for the front hallway.

  Haley started to follow me. “Can I come?”

  I pivoted back to her for just a second and said, “You’ve done enough damage, thanks.”

  I walked as fast as I could through the throngs of teenagers who mercifully were a little more interested in getting to the cafeteria before the burritos ran out than stopping to talk to me. As I pushed the front door open Mrs. Slater stepped out of the school office and hollered, “Juniper Sawfeather, come back this instant!”

  Knowing full well that a suspension would probably be in my future, I continued on my way. At the bottom of the front steps Carter waited for me in his car, motor running. He had his hand firmly on the horn to make sure I noticed him. I waved my hands frantically to let him know he could stop any time he wanted and sooner would be better than later. I got in and flung my backpack into the back seat.

  Before I even said hello, Carter told me, “I tried to get you out of school earlier, but the administration people said no way.” He hit the gas before I even had my seatbelt on.

  “Is everything all right?” I asked, thinking something was wrong with the mermaid and forgetting my personal trouble for a second.

  “No,” Carter said coolly. “Nothing’s right at all.”

  He sped off, ignoring just about every traffic law that I remembered from my driving test last summer. His charming smile was abs
ent, replaced by a clenched jaw and muscles popping intensely out of his neck. For the first time he looked more like the adult he claimed he to be. The high school was shrinking in the rearview mirror when it dawned on me what was happening.

  “You’ve seen the video.”

  “It’s gone viral,” he said. “We need to get to the center—fast!”

  My phone buzzed again. I looked at the screen and saw DAD CELL.

  I was in so much trouble.

  Chapter Ten

  I thought about not answering and telling Dad later that Mrs. Slater took the phone from me again. But the tension in the car made me positive that Carter would not back me up. I hit the answer button on my phone and said a very weak “Hey, Dad.”

  “What the Hell is going on?” he yelled. “Did I tell you to put any of the footage on the Internet? I don’t recall giving you permission to do that. Your mom is about to lose her mind. What on Earth were you thinking? Haven’t we taught you anything? This is the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen you do. Do you know how this has hurt our mission? What impact your actions have had on our work? Do you have any idea what this is going to do?”

  His rant was even longer than that, actually, but it was hard to catch every insult and guilt trip he blared at me. After a few minutes he paused for a breath. I hardly knew what to say. All I could do was whisper, “I didn’t know this would happen.”

  And then it started all over again, with Carter in the seat next to me joining in.

  “You didn’t know this would happen?”