Ready, Set, Goal!

by Debbie Dadey

  Shelly shook her head. What was bothering her couldn’t be fixed by a doctor. She tried to concentrate on the beautiful vase sitting on a stone table beside them. It was filled with red passion flowers. The color soothed Shelly.

  After a long wait, the rest of the group joined them outside. Kiki, Echo, and Pearl swam up to Shelly.

  “Are you all right?” Kiki asked.

  Shelly didn’t want her friends to be worried, so she smiled. “I’m fine! It must have been a touch of decompression sickness.”

  “That makes sense! Atlantis is deeper in the ocean than Trident City, which can make you ill,” Pearl told them. “My father warned me about it. He said the best thing to do is drink plenty of kelp juice.”

  Shelly nodded. “I’ll do that when we get back to the hotel.”

  “Is it safe to open my eyes now?” Echo asked.

  “Yes, we’re outside,” Kiki said, and Echo popped open her eyes.

  Pearl sniffed. “I can’t believe you kept your eyes closed the whole time we were in the temple. You missed all the good stuff.”

  “Well, I didn’t want to be cursed,” Echo told her.

  Pearl shook her head and her blond hair floated around her face. “That curse is silly. I bet someone in Atlantis made it up to make their city seem mysterious.”

  Shelly smiled. Without meaning to, Pearl had made Shelly feel much, much better.

  “What could be more mysterious than a human city that sank into the ocean?” Kiki asked.

  “All right, merstudents,” Coach Sarah said. “It’s time to head back to the hotel. The Tiger Sharks have practice in twenty merminutes.”

  But as Shelly hopped up from the marble bench, her blue tail whacked the vase next to her. She watched in horror as it toppled over and crashed to the ground. Passion flowers scattered everywhere as the vase shattered into hundreds of pieces.

  “Your school will have to pay for that,” Leslie Levee said, looking at the damage and shaking her head. “Luckily, it’s not an antique.”

  Shelly didn’t feel lucky. In fact, she felt cursed!

  Bubbles

  SHELLY COULDN’T SEEM TO DO anything right at Shell Wars practice. First, she accidently slapped Rocky on the nose with the end of her whalebone stick. Then, every time she was supposed to pass the shell to Adam Pelagic she tossed it too hard and it soared off the kelp field.

  Rocky tapped her on the shoulder. “In case you’ve forgotten, the point of Shell Wars is to get the shell into the treasure chest, not to knock out your teammates!”

  Shelly felt her face turning red. She nodded and looked at the octopus guarding their treasure chest. Usually she was pretty good at sneaking the shell into the chest to score, but today she could only think about the curse.

  Just a few merminutes later, her shell flew onto the wrong playing field and gave the Thonis City team’s octopus goalie a black eye. Half the Thonis team yelled at her and the other half gave her dirty looks. “I’m so sorry!” Shelly wailed to the octopus.

  Things didn’t get any better when Shelly opened the door to her hotel room and slammed into Pearl’s tail. “Ouch!” Pearl shrieked. “Are you trying to twist my fin?”

  “I apologize,” Shelly said. “I’m having a terrible day!”

  Echo put her arm around Shelly. “You’re probably just worried about the games tomorrow. Why don’t you take a nice long bath to relax?”

  Shelly didn’t usually like baths, but maybe one would make her feel better. She went into the bathroom and turned on the warm water in the big shell tub. “Here are some bubbles to make you feel better.” Kiki drizzled in a tiny bit of sweet-smelling liquid as the warm water replaced the cold ocean-floor water. While the tub filled, Shelly went to get some clean clothes from her bag.

  “Look at this,” Kiki said, coming out of the bathroom and holding up the schedule for the championship games. “The Rays are going to perform during halftime at the final game!”

  “That’s tail-kicking!” Echo said. The Rays are a cute merboy band that the girls love.

  “Oooh, I adore the Rays,” Pearl said. “I’d better make sure I brought my Venus comb.” She disappeared into the bathroom.

  Suddenly the mergirls heard a scream. A huge wall of bubbles roared out of the bathroom, carrying Pearl on top. “Save me!” she squealed.

  It took the mergirls an hour and every kelp towel they had, but they finally wiped up all the bubbles. “I don’t know how that happened,” Kiki said. “I only put a little bit of bubbles in the tub.”

  “I snuck in and poured in half the bottle,” Echo admitted. “But I wanted Shelly to really enjoy it!”

  “Neither of you is to blame!” Shelly said miserably. “It was my fault.”

  “But you didn’t add any bubbles,” Kiki said.

  “No,” Shelly said, shaking her head, “but I’m the one with the curse.”

  Curse Trouble

  CURSE!” PEARL SQUEALED. “WHAT ARE you talking about?”

  Echo fell back on the sponge bed and whispered, “Oh no! Don’t tell me you saw a spookfish at the temple!”

  Big tears filled Shelly’s eyes. She was so upset, she couldn’t even speak. Finally she managed a nod.

  “Oh, Shelly.” Kiki patted her arm. “I’m sure the curse isn’t real.”

  Pearl slapped her tail on the floor, causing a leftover bubble to pop. “It isn’t real. It’s just a silly story.”

  “Then how do you explain all the horrible things that have happened to me? I broke that vase at the temple. I hurt Rocky! I whacked a goalie in the eye!”

  “Yeah, but Shell Wars players often get hit during a game,” Kiki told them.

  “But the goalie wasn’t even on our practice field,” Shelly explained. “My shell soared two fields away. That couldn’t have happened on its own!”

  Pearl shrugged. “Maybe it was just a weird accident.”

  “But what about your tail?” Shelly asked Pearl. “And then all the bubbles?”

  Pearl twisted her long strand of pearls and nodded. “Yeah. It sounds like you’re cursed, all right.”

  “Pearl! How could you say that?” Kiki said.

  Echo frowned at Pearl. “I thought you didn’t even believe in the curse.”

  Pearl shrugged. “That was before all those terrible things happened to Shelly.”

  Shelly sank down onto the bed beside Echo. “What am I going to do? I’ll ruin our team’s chances of winning the Shell Wars Championship!”

  “It’s not your fault,” Echo told Shelly.

  “There has to be something we can do,” Kiki said.

  “There is,” Pearl said with a smile. “It’s a good thing I’m here!”

  Pearl’s Cure

  YOU KNOW HOW TO BREAK a curse?” Kiki asked Pearl.

  Pearl nodded. “I read all about it in a recent issue of MerStyle magazine,” she told them.

  “I don’t remember seeing that,” Echo said, “and I’ve read every one.”

  “It was a special issue,” Pearl said matter-of-factly. “My father picked it up for me when he was in New Ocean City.” New Ocean City was known as the fashion capital of the sea, so it made sense that there would be special magazines there.

  “What did it say?” Shelly asked. “Is it hard to break a curse?”

  Pearl frowned. “It won’t be easy, but if we all work together, we can do it before tonight’s banquet.”

  Shelly gave Pearl a hug. “Thank you! What’s first?”

  Pearl twisted her pearl necklace and said, “Let me think. Oh yes, first we need a horseshoe crab.”

  “I saw some at a market near the hotel,” Kiki said. “I could swim over and get one!”

  “Wave-tastic!” Pearl said. “Then we’ll need a shark’s tooth.”

  “Where in the ocean are we going to get a shark’s tooth?” Echo asked. “I’m pretty sure a shark won’t just give us one without a fight.”

  “Rocky has one!” Shelly said. “He found it a long time ago, and sometimes
he wears it around his neck for good luck. Maybe he’ll let us borrow it.”

  “I’ll ask him,” Echo told her merfriends.

  “Anything else?” Shelly asked Pearl.

  “Yes, we need something sweaty and stinky that you’ve worn recently, sea bamboo, and a triangular butterflyfish,” Pearl said as if she was checking off a list of things in her mind.

  Kiki picked up the team schedule. “It says right here that butterflyfish will be served at tonight’s banquet dinner. I’ll get some from the kitchen.”

  “Fin-tastic!” Shelly said. “And I have my sweaty shirt from today’s practice. All we need is some sea bamboo and we’re set.”

  “Okay, Shelly and I will search for the bamboo, and we’ll meet back here in thirty merminutes,” Pearl told everyone.

  “And then we’ll break the curse?” Echo asked hopefully.

  Pearl nodded. Shelly crossed her fins. Operation Reverse the Curse was on!

  Reverse the Curse

  WE DID IT!” ECHO SAID. An hour later, everything they needed to break the curse was spread out on a sponge bed in their hotel room.

  Shelly nodded. “We searched all over Atlantis for the sea bamboo.”

  “I had to tell the cook a fib in order to get the butterflyfish. I said that one of our team members wasn’t feeling well,” Kiki said.

  “That wasn’t a lie,” Shelly reminded her. “Ever since I saw the spookfish, I’ve felt terrible!”

  “Rocky made me promise to give his shark’s tooth back before tomorrow’s game,” Echo said. “It wasn’t easy getting him to let me borrow it.”

  “You can return it at the banquet tonight,” Pearl said. “Now we have to take all these things to the temple.”

  “The temple!” Shelly squealed. “That’s where the trouble began.”

  Pearl nodded her head before wrapping the fish, crab, bamboo, and shark’s tooth inside Shelly’s sweaty shirt. “Exactly, but don’t worry. Even if we see the spookfish again, the cure will be with us.”

  “Well, I’m going to close my eyes again, just in case,” Echo said.

  “Me too!” Shelly and Kiki said together.

  Pearl put her hands on her hips. “We can’t all close our eyes, or we’ll never get this done!”

  Echo took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll do whatever it takes to help Shelly.”

  “Me too,” Kiki agreed.

  Shelly smiled. She had the best merfriends in the ocean! “Well, if you guys keep your eyes open, I will too! Now let’s do this!”

  The mergirls swam out of the hotel doors.

  A few minutes later, they were floating in front of the temple. “Now what?” Shelly whispered to Pearl.

  “Why are you whispering?” Pearl asked.

  Shelly shrugged. “I don’t know. Aren’t curses secret or something?”

  Echo shivered. “Let’s just bubble down and do this. It’s sort of exciting to see the temple up close with my eyes open, but this place still gives me the creeps.”

  “Breaking the curse is as easy as swimming,” Pearl explained. “We just have to go inside and lay these objects on the floor. Then we each need to thump our tails on the ground three times, turn around three times, and—”

  “And what?” Kiki asked.

  “And cross our tails with our eyes closed,” Pearl finished, “while saying ‘Curse of Atlas be gone.’ ”

  “Ooh!” Echo squealed the moment they swam inside the temple. “It’s so beautiful!”

  “Shhh,” Pearl hissed. “We’re not really supposed to be in here.”

  Shelly gulped. What if someone kicked them out before they broke the curse? “Let’s hurry,” she whispered.

  Pearl quickly spread out Shelly’s smelly shirt with the fish, crab, bamboo, and shark’s tooth. The mergirls tapped their tails three times, turned around three times, and crossed their tails. “Okay, close your eyes and say it,” Pearl told them.

  “Curse of Atlas be gone!” they shouted.

  Shelly felt better until she heard Leslie Levee say, “What are you mergirls doing here? Tours are over for the day!” The merlady stood beside them, her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

  “Oh no,” Echo gasped. “We’re in trouble now!”

  Pearl snatched up the shirt with the fish, crab, bamboo, and shark’s tooth. “Swim for it!” she shouted.

  AquaDome

  THAT WAS SO SCARY, I almost fainted,” Echo told her merfriends when they were safely back in their hotel room.

  “It wasn’t too bad,” Kiki said.

  “We’re lucky Leslie didn’t chase us,” Pearl admitted. “We made it just in time to get ready for the championship banquet.”

  Moving like black marlins, the mergirls dressed up and swam next door to the AquaDome, where the lavish dinner was taking place.

  Every team in the playoffs, as well as their coaches, managers, and gymnastics teams, was already sitting at long tables. Fabulous food covered every tabletop, and delicious smells floated in the water.

  But Shelly wasn’t hungry. She pushed her piece of cookiecutter shark around on her shell plate and barely noticed the huge silver bowl of stalked jellyfish with blue buttons sauce on the table. “Do you think the cure will work?” she whispered to her merfriends.

  “It already has,” Pearl said matter-of-factly. “Nothing bad has happened since, has it?”

  Shelly thought for a minute before breaking into a huge smile. “You’re right!” She hugged Pearl. Shelly felt relieved. She was so glad she had told her friends. They had worked as a team, and together they had reversed the curse!

  “Oh my Neptune,” Pearl said. “Enough mushy stuff! Eat! You have a big game tomorrow.”

  Kiki passed Shelly a platter. “Try some of these oyster-thief pastries. I’ve heard they’re delicious.”

  Shelly took a fluffy pastry and passed the rest on to Pearl. “I’m excited about the games now,” Shelly told her merfriends.

  “I have a feeling the entire team is going to do a shell-tacular job,” Pearl said, grabbing a big pastry.

  “Merladies and mergentlemen, may I have your attention, please?” a burly merman announced from a podium at the front of the room.

  “That’s the director of the Shell Wars Championship Games,” Kiki whispered.

  The merman continued, “My name is John Veron, and I’d like to welcome you all to the ten-thousand-seven-hundred-and-eighty-ninth Shell Wars Championship Games. I am excited for the tournament to begin tomorrow! Each of you is here tonight because you’re a star player, and you should be proud to be representing your merschools. More than that, you play as part of a team. And teamwork makes the dream work!”

  Everyone in the large room clapped, stomped their fins, and cheered. Shelly felt thrilled to be part of such a wonderful tradition. Mr. Veron went on to explain how the championship playoffs work. The next morning would be filled with short elimination games, and the winners of those would play in the afternoon. The final winners would play in the evening.

  Now that the curse was gone, Shelly couldn’t wait for the games to begin!

  The Championship Game

  BY THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, SHELLY was exhausted. The first game of the day had been easy, but the second had been rough as barnacles. Trident Academy had made it to the final championship round, but the team they were playing against, the Atlantis Viperfish, were the toughest opponent they’d ever faced.

  By the halftime show, Shelly could barely shake her tail. Luckily, the Rays sang a fin-tastic song about being champions. With new energy, she soared back onto the kelp field as fast as a sailfish.

  The next thing Shelly knew, it was down to the game’s final few merminutes, and the score was tied. Coach Barnacle called a time-out. Shelly and her fellow players huddled on the sideline.

  “I’m proud of you all,” Coach Barnacle said. “You’ve played your best, and that’s all any coach can ask. For the final plays, we’ll do the flea-flicker followed by the squid toss.”

>   Shelly gulped. Usually at the end of the game, Rocky would toss the shell to Adam or another player, who would zoom toward the goal. But for the flea-flicker, Adam would give it back to Rocky, who would fling it to Shelly. Then Shelly would swim like her tail was on fire and try to score before the other team even knew where the shell was. It was a special move they had practiced only a few times.

  Coach Barnacle patted Shelly on the shoulder. “You can do this,” he told her. But Shelly wasn’t so sure. Could she really score when it counted the most?

  Shelly looked toward the side of the field. Echo, Pearl, and the rest of the Tail Flippers were cheering “Go Trident Academy Tiger Sharks!”

  Then Shelly saw Pearl wave to her, and yell, “Go Shelly!”

  Shelly took a deep gulp of water. Thankfully the curse had been broken. She knew she could do this! She got in formation, and when Rocky shouted the signal “Barracuda,” she was ready.

  The shell zipped back and forth between Rocky and Adam, then came soaring to her. She snagged it with her stick and swam like a great white shark was chasing her. As soon as she was close to the treasure chest, she flung the shell with her stick. It whistled through the water as the Atlantis goalie reached for it.

  Shelly couldn’t believe what happened next.

  The shell went into the chest!

  “Score!” the announcer yelled just as the conch sounded to end the game. “Trident Academy wins!”

  Rocky, Adam, Shelly, and the rest of the team floated for a mersecond in shock. Then Rocky grinned and yelled, “Fin-tastic!”

  Suddenly John Vernon stood on the field with the golden trophy in his hands. “Merladies and mergentlemen,” he announced, “it is my great pleasure to present this trophy to the Trident Academy Tiger Sharks. And congratulations to all our teams for a championship well played!”

  Coach Barnacle took the trophy and lifted it high into the water. It was like a signal for the celebration to begin. Trident Academy fans soared onto the field like a shoal of herring. Everyone cheered, and Shelly saw Sarah SeaLion dump kelp juice onto Coach Barnacle’s head.