Ready, Set, Goal!

by Debbie Dadey

  Contents

  TRIDENT CITY

  CASTE OF CHARACTERS

  1 TIGER SHARKS SCORE!

  2 PARADE

  3 END OF THE OCEAN

  4 FLAG FISH

  5 THE CURSE OF ATLAS

  6 SPOOKFISH

  7 BUBBLES

  8 CURSE TROUBLE

  9 PEARL’S CURE

  10 REVERSE THE CURSE

  11 AQUADOME

  12 THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

  JOURNAL WRITING

  THE MERMAID TALES SONG

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  GLOSSARY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For Brian Johnson—

  so happy to have you in our family

  Tiger Sharks Score!

  SHELLY SIREN SWUNG HER WHALEBONE stick with all her might. She held her breath as she smacked the shell and it soared through the water. Poseidon Prep’s octopus goalie spread out his eight tentacles to stop her from scoring.

  A split mersecond later, the shell whizzed through a tiny space between the octopus’s arms and slammed into the treasure chest behind him.

  Shelly’s friend Echo Reef screamed from the sidelines, “Goal!” just as the announcer bellowed, “Trident Academy scores!”

  Shelly let out a sigh of relief.

  “The Trident Academy Tiger Sharks win!” yelled the referee.

  Echo and the Tail Flippers gymnastics squad flipped around and around on the side of the kelp field. The entire crowd from Shelly’s school, Trident Academy, roared in excitement. Her teammates lifted her up on their shoulders. Rocky Ridge cheered, “Go Shelly!”

  Shelly felt embarrassed. She usually didn’t like attention. But she was filled with excitement when Coach Barnacle swam over and told them some exciting news.

  “Congrats, team! We’re going to the Shell Wars Championships!”

  “Sweet seaweed!” Shelly said. The Shell Wars Championships were the biggest games in the entire ocean. Teams from all over competed for the Golden Trophy. Not only that, but the matches were held in the faraway glittering city of Atlantis. Shelly had heard it was the most fin-tastic place ever, filled with fascinating human objects.

  Rocky’s father, Mayor Ridge, swam up to a podium on the field and announced, “Congratulations, Trident Academy! In commemoration of this wonderful turn of events, I declare tomorrow Trident City Shell Wars Day. Every merperson will get the morning off from work and school. We’ll have a parade in front of the Trident City Plaza Hotel to honor all the team members of the Trident Academy Tiger Sharks.”

  Echo and the rest of her gymnastics group gathered beside the Shell Wars team. One of the Tail Flippers, Pearl Swamp, tapped Mayor Ridge on the shoulder. “Mayor, can the Tail Flippers be part of the parade?”

  “Of course!” Mayor Ridge said with a smile. “These championship games will be the biggest thing to ever happen to Trident City in my lifetime. A Trident Academy team hasn’t gone in over a hundred years! Let the celebration begin!”

  Parade

  EVERYONE IN TRIDENT CITY IS here for the championship parade,” Shelly told her teammates. She was perched on the flat back of an enormous manta ray as it floated slowly down the street. Shelly’s teammates were scattered around the ray’s back. They all waved at the huge crowd. After the parade, the Trident Academy Shell Wars team and the Tail Flippers would be off to Atlantis.

  “Hooray for Trident Academy!” yelled a merlady named Lillian. “You are mer-velous!” Lillian was the new bride of Mr. Fangtooth, their school’s cafeteria worker. Mr. Fangtooth, who was usually very grumpy, actually smiled as the ray passed by them.

  Shelly pushed her long red hair out of her face and waved to the crowd. She stopped smiling when she spotted her grandfather. He wouldn’t be going to Atlantis with the team, and Shelly would miss him. For as long as she could remember, it had been just the two of them living in their small apartment above Trident City’s People Museum. Shelly had left him only once before, when she and her merbuddies had visited Neptune’s Castle.

  “Have fun, Shelly!” Grandfather yelled.

  Now Shelly had to grin. She knew her grandfather would be cheering her on from Trident City. Behind the manta ray, the Trident Academy Pep Band blasted out a lively tune.

  When the parade was over, Mayor Ridge made a speech congratulating the team again. Then it was time to leave! After saying good-bye to their families, the team and the Tail Flippers, along with Coach Barnacle and Assistant Coach Sarah SeaLion, stayed on the huge manta ray, which would sail through the ocean to Atlantis.

  The water grew colder as the ray left Trident City behind. Everyone onboard scrambled to find a comfortable seat for the long trip. Luckily, Shelly’s two best friends had saved her a soft sponge. They waved her over.

  “That was one shell-tacular parade,” Kiki Coral said as Shelly plopped down beside her.

  “I’m so glad you became the team manager,” Shelly told Kiki. “This trip wouldn’t be as fun without you and the Tail Flippers.”

  Earlier in the school year, Kiki had volunteered to manage the Shell Wars team. That meant she had to keep track of all the equipment. She was also in charge of making sure that every team member knew about the game schedules. It was a very important job, but Kiki was up for the challenge!

  “What do you mean there are no snacks?” someone complained from the front of the ray. Shelly turned to see Pearl with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

  “Pearl!” Kiki called. “Come here! I brought snacks.” Kiki opened a small crate filled with goodies.

  “Yum!” Shelly said. “Cuttlefish candy!”

  “Help yourself,” Kiki told her. “My mother sent these to me.” Kiki’s family lived far away in the Eastern Oceans, and her parents often sent treats from home.

  Pearl squeezed onto the sponge seat beside Shelly and sniffed. “Thanks. If I’d known they were going to starve us, I would have brought my own,” she muttered, grabbing a handful of candy.

  After munching on snacks, the mergirls sang “Shark, the sharpnose sevengill” until their voices were hoarse and Coach Barnacle yelled for them to get some rest. Shelly tried to nap, but her eyes just wouldn’t close.

  After many hours of traveling, Shelly glimpsed the city of Atlantis in the distance. The tall, shiny buildings gleamed and sparkled in the water.

  Shelly shook Echo awake before pointing ahead. “There it is!”

  “Wow! It’s just as beautiful as the stories say.” Kiki sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Did you know that Atlantis used to be a human city? It sank to the bottom of the ocean many years ago.”

  “I know!” Echo squealed and wiggled her pink tail. “I can’t wait to explore it.” She loved anything that had to do with people.

  The manta ray pulled up beside a sprawling stone building with a sign that read BEST OCEAN HOTEL. Hundreds of merkids were practicing their Shell Wars moves in front of the hotel. One group worked on tossing a shell into a treasure chest while another threw shells back and forth. Not one of them missed a shot!

  “Whoa!” Rocky said from the back of the ray. “Those players are splashing good!”

  Shelly gulped. Every player looked fin-tastic! It was hard to believe that Trident Academy would be playing against them tomorrow.

  Pearl stared at the other players with her pointy nose held high. “They’re okay, but they can’t touch our team. Go Trident Academy Tiger Sharks!”

  Shelly smiled. Still, she didn’t take her eyes off the other teams. What would it take to win the championship games? Would her team be able to swim as fast? Pass the shell as quickly? Shelly liked to think she was a good player, but was she good enough?

  End of the Ocean

  EVERYONE OFF THE RAY!” CO
ACH Barnacle bellowed. “Coach Sarah will hand out your room assignments. Kiki will pass out the schedules. Go straight to your rooms, unpack, and then meet back here in exactly thirty merminutes. Coach Sarah will be taking you on a tour of Atlantis while I attend a meeting with the other coaches. After that, the team will gather back here for a quick practice. Then tonight we will all attend the official Shell Wars banquet at the AquaDome next door.”

  The ray swayed as everyone leaped off their sponge seats and floated toward the hotel doors. With all the pushing and shoving of her teammates, Shelly lost track of Echo and Kiki. Outside the hotel, Shelly took her room key from Coach Sarah. “You’re in number fifteen,” Coach Barnacle’s assistant told her. “You’ll be sharing with a few other mergirls.”

  Inside, the hotel’s bright-blue walls were lined with red doors, each with a number on it. Shelly found room number fifteen and pushed open the heavy door.

  “Pearl!” Shelly said.

  “Oh!” Pearl said. “If I’d known my room was going to be so ordinary, I would have stayed home.”

  Shelly sighed. It was just her luck to share a room with the most spoiled mergirl in Trident City. She looked around. Two sponge beds were covered with red kelp blankets. Big scallop shells and cockleshells decorated the walls. “It looks totally wavy to me,” she said, dropping her bag next to one of the beds.

  “Hey! That’s my bed,” Pearl said.

  “Fine.” Shelly immediately pushed her belongings over to the other sponge. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

  Then the door swung open wide. “Thank Neptune! We found it,” Echo said.

  “Hi,” Kiki said with a wave. “We went to room fifty-one by mistake.”

  Pearl’s eyes got really wide. “For shark’s sake! Do you mean I have to share this tiny room with three other mergirls? And share a sponge bed?”

  Shelly looked at Echo and tried not to laugh.

  “Like it or not,” Kiki said. “We don’t have much time. We have to meet out front in just a few merminutes. I’ll share a sponge with you, Pearl. I’m the smallest and I don’t take up much space.”

  Pearl rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything else.

  “Come on,” Echo urged them. “Let’s go. Coach Sarah is taking us on a tour of Atlantis. I can’t wait!”

  Flag Fish

  THEIR TOUR GUIDE, LESLIE LEVEE, waved a flag fish and motioned for the Trident Academy group to follow her across a black rock bridge. “The city of Atlantis was built by Poseidon,” she informed them, “for his son Atlas.”

  “Who is Posy Den?” Rocky asked.

  “It’s pronounced Po-si-don,” Kiki explained. “It’s the Greek name for Neptune, the original king of the sea.”

  “What is a Greek?” Rocky asked. Then he shook his head. “Never mind, I really don’t care. Anyway, check that out!”

  All the merkids looked toward a huge white-marble building with pillars of gleaming gold. Its enormous doors opened wide beneath a carving of the first sea god. “I’d like to live there,” Pearl said.

  “I don’t think that’s someone’s house,” Kiki said. “I think that’s a—”

  Leslie Levee waved her flag fish at Kiki. “Float along now! We have lots to see.”

  Kiki’s face turned red as the tour guide led them forward. “This city was built in circles,” Leslie explained. “We just left the outer circle by crossing over the first of three main bridges that protected the Temple of Poseidon from invasion. Of course, attacking armies aren’t what caused Atlantis to sink.”

  “What did cause it to sink?” Shelly asked, very curious.

  Leslie Levee shook her head. “No one knows for sure, but most merfolk suspect it had to do with the volcano.” Leslie pointed into the distance, where Shelly could see steam rising from a large vent.

  Pearl must have seen it too, because she asked in a worried voice, “It’s not going to erupt while we’re here, is it?”

  “No, Atlantis sank over three thousand years ago. I think we’re pretty safe,” Leslie Levee said with a little smile.

  Still, Pearl gulped. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Now, without further interruption, we’ll move over the red bridge and through the city’s residential area, where most of Atlantis’s merfolk live. Then we’ll tour the temple.” Leslie Levee pointed to the marble-and-gold building on the hill.

  Pearl groaned. “So it’s not a house. Boring!”

  Echo gasped. “Oh no! If that’s Poseidon’s temple, we can’t go inside!”

  “Why not?” Shelly asked. She was surprised that Echo didn’t want to visit a building that was made by humans.

  Echo’s dark eyes were wide as she whispered, “Don’t you know about the curse?”

  The Curse of Atlas

  WHAT CURSE?” SHELLY ASKED AS they floated over the red stone bridge.

  Echo shuddered. “I can’t even say it, it’s so terrible.”

  “It’s just a legend,” Kiki explained. “Some merfolk believe that if you see a spookfish while you’re inside the temple, you’ll be cursed by Atlas.”

  “And what is the Curse of Atlas?” Pearl asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Kiki admitted.

  “I know,” Rocky blurted out, squeezing between Shelly and Pearl. “It means that rotten, horrible, awful things will happen to you!” He wiggled his fingers above his head in a creepy way.

  “Don’t be silly!” Pearl snapped at Rocky.

  “There’s no wavy way I’m going in there,” Echo said firmly, crossing her arms. “I don’t want rotten, horrible, awful things to happen to me.”

  “Echo’s afraid of a little bitty fish,” Rocky teased.

  “Spookfish are pretty rare anyway. I’ve never seen one in my whole life,” Kiki told Echo.

  Shelly agreed with Kiki. “I’ve only seen pictures of them. Besides, that curse is just an old story. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  But Echo stopped short when they came to a wide white bridge with statues carved into the stone.

  “This is called Kleite’s Bridge,” Leslie Levee announced. “Next, we’ll be entering Poseidon’s temple. The building is thousands of years old, so please look but don’t touch anything inside.”

  Echo shook her head. “I’m not going.”

  “But you love human objects!” Kiki exclaimed.

  Echo wrapped her pink tail around a nearby statue and refused to swim forward.

  “We can’t just leave you alone in a strange city,” Shelly whispered. “Coach Sarah told us to stick with the group.”

  Leslie Levee waved her flag fish at Echo and asked, “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes,” Echo said at the same time that Pearl said “No.”

  “We’re coming,” Shelly said. Then in a low voice, she told Echo, “Just close your eyes, and I’ll pull you along.”

  Echo nodded, squeezed her eyes shut, and let Shelly tug her across the bridge and through the temple’s doors.

  “Oh, it’s so beautiful!” Pearl squealed once they were inside.

  Echo whimpered. Shelly could tell Echo wanted to see, so Shelly described everything to her merfriend. “This huge room is filled with even more pillars of gold, and the ceiling has a carved ivory picture of Poseidon with gold, silver, and copper fish all around him. The walls are made of polished silver that look like waves of water.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kiki whispered.

  “It’s even prettier than the front hall of Trident Academy,” Pearl admitted.

  “Tell me more!” Echo cried.

  Just then Shelly glanced past her friends through an open doorway and gasped. She couldn’t believe what she saw!

  “What’s wrong?” Echo asked.

  “Nothing,” Shelly said quickly.

  But something was wrong. Very wrong.

  Spookfish

  SHELLY CLOSED HER EYES TIGHT. When she opened them, what she had seen was gone. But it had been there! The dreaded spookfish had stared right at her with i
ts strange barrel-shaped eyes before slithering away. It had happened so fast. Shelly looked around. Had she been the only one to see it? No one else seemed upset, but Shelly sure was.

  “And now, students,” Leslie Levee said, “we’ll be floating down one of the temple’s main hallways. You’ll see engravings of Poseidon and his family in the copper walls.”

  The whole group swam forward, except for Echo and Shelly. Echo still had her eyes closed. “Aren’t we supposed to be moving?” she asked Shelly.

  When Shelly didn’t respond, Echo asked, “Shelly! Are you all right?”

  Shelly gulped. She knew she was being silly. After all, the curse was just an old made-up legend. Wasn’t it?

  She towed Echo down the hallway and bumped right into Kiki. “Oops, sorry,” Shelly whispered.

  Kiki took one glance at Shelly and asked softly, “Are you ill? You look like you’re ready to throw up.”

  Rocky, who was floating nearby, pushed away from Shelly and hollered, “Don’t puke on me!”

  Leslie Levee jerked around with a stern look on her face. “There will be no throwing up in the temple! Coach SeaLion, please take that student outside.”

  Coach Sarah SeaLion swiftly guided Shelly toward the entrance, leaving Kiki to lead Echo.

  Once she was outside, Shelly closed her eyes. She really did feel sick. Was it because of the curse? Through the temple’s open doors she could hear Leslie Levee telling the students about Poseidon’s son Atlas. “Because he revolted against the Olympians,” she explained, “Atlas was forced to carry the heavens upon his shoulders for the rest of his life. This is an engraving of that story.”

  Shelly shuddered. Was that what would happen to her because she’d seen the dreaded spookfish? Or would it be something worse? What had Rocky said? Rotten, horrible, awful things will happen to you!

  Shelly and Coach Sarah sat on a long marble bench near the temple’s entrance. “Do you need to see a doctor?” Coach Sarah asked.