Trouble at Trident Academy

by Debbie Dadey

  “You’d better stay out of trouble,” Crystal warned.

  “That’s why I’m here,” Shelly said. “We’re going to work on our project so we’ll get finished early.”

  “That’s great,” Crystal said. “I can help you if you’d like.”

  “That’s really nice of—” Shelly started to say.

  “But we have something else to do first,” Echo interrupted her friend.

  Crystal shrugged. “Okay. I have to work at the store soon anyway. Good luck.” Crystal and Echo’s dad ran Reef’s Fish Store, which sold small exotic sea creatures of all kinds. Crystal quickly left, and Shelly worried that her feelings were hurt.

  “Maybe we should have let her help,” Shelly said.

  Echo shook her head. “No, Crystal just wants to boss me around. It’s a pain having an older sister.”

  Shelly was an only child, so she thought it would be great to have a brother or sister.

  “Besides,” Echo said, “I want to show you what I can do.” She did a huge backward flip and twisted to the left and right.

  “Watch out!” Shelly yelled, and fell sideways, knocking a beautiful glass vase off a turtle shell table. The vase broke into a million pieces.

  Echo’s tail did even more damage. She whacked three glowing jellyfish lamps, which rolled across the room. The jellyfish shrugged at Echo and swam out of the shell. Once they left, Echo’s living room got much darker. The only light came from a row of shining plankton that lined the bottom of the shell.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Shelly said. “I didn’t mean to break your vase. Echo, I can’t do anything right. I should just quit everything, including Trident Academy. I know I won’t be able to do all the projects, and I sure won’t be able to make the Shell Wars team.”

  Echo swam through the darkened room to grab her friend by the arm. “Don’t be silly. I was the one who caused this disaster. It was all because I wanted to practice for Tail Flippers.”

  “You did a great flip,” Shelly admitted. “You just needed more room.” Shelly was right. Echo’s shell was full of people-junk that she’d collected.

  But Echo shook her head. “There’s another problem,” she said.

  “What’s that?” Shelly asked. “I’m sure you’ll make the team.”

  Echo slowly lifted her pink tail so her friend could see. A huge black pot was stuck on the bottom. “Help me get it off, Shelly. I can’t go to Trident Academy with this on my tail!”

  Shelly tried hard not to laugh as she helped her friend. She pulled. She tugged. She smacked the pot with her own tail. Shelly poured kelp oil into the pot and tugged even harder. Nothing worked. The pot was stuck fast on Echo’s tail.

  Echo started crying. “What am I going to do?”

  Merbrats

  THE NEXT MORNING, SHELLY sped through the water. She hurried past an older merwoman, who raised her fist in disgust. “Young merbrats think they can just knock over anyone in their way.”

  “So sorry!” Shelly apologized to the woman, who had only been splashed a bit. “I can’t be late.”

  “Rush, rush, rush,” the old merwoman complained. “Why is everyone in such a big hurry, anyway?”

  It was almost time for their second day of school. Shelly had to find out if Echo’s parents had been able to remove the pot from her tail. Echo had been so upset yesterday, they hadn’t even worked on their krill project, and Shelly was worried they were going to be behind the rest of the class.

  She was meeting Echo outside her shell so they could swim to school together. Hopefully the pot was gone and nothing else would go wrong! But when Shelly arrived, Echo’s red eyes told her everything.

  “They couldn’t get it off! This is the worst thing that could have happened to me.”

  Shelly hugged her friend. She didn’t think a pot on her tail was the worst that could happen, but it was pretty bad. “Maybe you could put something over it?” she suggested.

  Echo thought for a moment, then smiled. “That’s a great idea. Maybe this will work.” She reached into a pile near her front door and pulled out a piece of glittery material.

  “What’s that?” Shelly asked.

  “I found it last week. My dad said he thought it was called ‘cloth.’ People wear it,” Echo explained as she wrapped the sparkly material around her tail and the black pot.

  Shelly rolled her eyes. More people stuff! She thought shells and woven seaweed made perfectly fine clothing, but she had to admit, the sparkly cloth looked pretty. “You look fabulous!” she told Echo.

  “Really?”

  “Pearl will probably be jealous,” Shelly said. “Now let’s hurry or we’ll be late.” It was hard for Echo to swim fast with her tail all wrapped up, so Shelly pulled her along. They made it to school just as the conch horn sounded.

  In class, Mrs. Karp held up a small, almost-see-through creature. “Who can tell me what this is?”

  Rocky’s hand shot up immediately, and Mrs. Karp nodded toward him. “Lunch!” he exclaimed.

  Mrs. Karp frowned and nodded at Pearl. “That is an Antarctic krill,” Pearl said smugly. “It is the main food of the blue whale.”

  Mrs. Karp pointed at Kiki. “Can you add anything to Pearl’s explanation?”

  Kiki stood on her tail and spouted off information. “Krill are shrimp like crustaceans that form a large part of the zoo plankton and our food chain.”

  “What did she say?” Rocky asked. “What’s a zooplankton?”

  Shelly wondered the same thing, but Mrs. Karp continued with the lesson.

  “Very good,” Mrs. Karp told Kiki. “Now, who can pick out other crustaceans from this aquarium?” Mrs. Karp tapped a glass box that was filled with different sea creatures. Shelly knew about most large sea life, but she wasn’t sure what a crustacean was, so she looked down at her tail. When no one raised their hand, Mrs. Karp called on Echo.

  Oh no, thought Shelly. She was afraid the other merkids would tease Echo if they saw the pot. She held her breath as Echo floated to the front of the room. “Look at her tail,” several students whispered as Echo swam by.

  But then Kiki said, “It’s so pretty.”

  Another girl named Morgan added, “And so shiny.”

  Shelly relaxed. Everyone liked Echo’s cloth. Everything was going to be fine. But then Echo’s tail banged on the teacher’s marble desk. Boing! The pot made a horrible noise.

  “Echo has a musical tail!” a boy named Adam yelled. The class laughed, and Echo’s face turned bright red. For a terrible moment Shelly thought that Echo would rush away, but thankfully Mrs. Karp silenced the class.

  The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful until lunchtime. All the mergirls in the class swarmed around Echo. “Where did you get that? What’s it called?” one asked.

  Echo smiled and patiently answered all their questions, but she ate lunch with just Shelly. “Whew, I’m glad they didn’t see the pot,” Echo whispered.

  In fact, Echo made it through the rest of the day without any problems.

  AFTER SCHOOL ON THE WAY TO MERPARK, Shelly told Echo, “If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll help you swim home after Shell Wars practice.”

  “Thanks,” Echo said. “If I can’t try out for Tail Flippers, at least I can cheer you on.”

  Shelly felt bad. It didn’t seem fair for her to try out for Shell Wars if Echo couldn’t be a Tail Flipper. Maybe she should sit with Echo instead of practicing. Shelly started to tell her friend that she’d changed her mind about trying out, but then she had an idea. If her plan worked, it would solve everything.

  Harlequin Shrimp

  DID YOU SEE THAT?” SHELLY asked Echo. The two mergirls were swimming over to Shelly’s home after Shell Wars practice. Actually, Shelly swam slowly and pulled Echo along.

  “I think that’s a harlequin shrimp,” Echo said, pointing to a blue-and-white-spotted creature. “It’s just like the picture in the dictionary. Quick, catch it for our report!”

  Shelly did hurry, but she wasn’t
fast enough. Rocky came out of nowhere and snatched up the shrimp, along with the starfish it was eating.

  “Hey, that was ours!” Shelly complained.

  Rocky laughed and swam off with the bright blue-and-white shrimp. “Not anymore.”

  Shelly wanted to chase him, but she swam back to where Echo waited.

  “Did you get it?” Echo asked.

  “No,” Shelly answered. “Rocky did.”

  “I used to think he was cute, but not now,” Echo said.

  Shelly giggled. “Who? The harlequin shrimp or Rocky?” she teased.

  Echo laughed. “Rocky, silly.”

  “You thought Rocky was cute?” Shelly asked.

  “A little bit,” Echo said with a shrug.

  “Let’s go,” Shelly said. “But keep your eyes open for sea cucumbers. Mrs. Karp told me that emperor shrimp live on them. The more shrimp we collect, the better grade we’ll get.”

  The friends looked for specimens. They saw a hammerhead shark’s shadow and huge vent tube worms, but no shrimp or krill.

  “Look over there,” Echo said.

  “Is it an emperor shrimp?” Shelly asked.

  “No, it’s Mr. Fangtooth,” Echo whispered. The mergirls hid behind a merstatue as Mr. Fangtooth wiggled toward the Big Rock Café. Through the open windows they watched as he sat at a table by himself, and a merwaitress brought him food.

  “He looks so sad,” Echo said, peeking around the merstatue.

  “Maybe he doesn’t have a family to cheer him up,” Shelly said. She was grateful she had her grandfather.

  “At least we got him to smile yesterday,” Echo said.

  “And we were sent to the headmaster’s office for it,” Shelly reminded her.

  Echo nodded. “Still, maybe we could make him smile again, and keep him smiling.”

  “That’d be nice, as long as we don’t get in trouble,” Shelly said. “I like Mr. Fangtooth a whole lot better than I like Pearl.”

  “Pearl was bragging about how great her report was going to be,” Echo said. “I don’t think it’s nice to brag.”

  “It isn’t,” Shelly said. “But we’d better get to work on our reports. Let’s go to my house.” Shelly didn’t tell Echo about her plan, but she secretly hoped her grandfather could get the pot off Echo’s tail.

  “Maybe your grandfather can help us with our reports,” Echo said.

  Shelly shook her head. “No, we have to do it on our own.” If Echo wouldn’t let her sister help, why should they ask Shelly’s grandfather?

  “I bet your grandfather would like to help with our schoolwork,” Echo said.

  “Sure he would,” Shelly said. “But we should do this without him.”

  “Why?” Echo asked. “He’s really smart. And we could get a good grade.”

  Shelly rolled her eyes. Her whole life, people had been telling her how amazing her grandfather was. She loved her grandfather, but she liked doing things on her own. “No, I don’t want to ask him.”

  Echo put her right hand on her right hip and banged the pot on the seafloor. “Well, I want to.”

  Shelly scrunched up her nose. Usually she agreed with Echo, but just then she was tired and grouchy. “Well, I don’t.”

  “I do!” Echo yelled.

  “I don’t!” Shelly yelled back.

  “Then I don’t want to work with you!” Echo shouted.

  “Then I don’t want to work with you, either!” Shelly shouted back.

  Echo swam away as fast as she could with the pot on her tail. Bump. Bump. Bump. The pot thumped along the ocean floor.

  Shelly wanted to swim after her friend and tell her she was sorry. But she didn’t. “I never even got to tell her my plan,” Shelly said to herself. She had the horrible feeling that she’d never be friends with Echo again.

  Pearl

  I DON’T BELIEVE IT!” SHELLY GASPED. It was the next morning. She had decided to stop by Echo’s shell to apologize and help her friend get to school. But Echo wasn’t alone. Pearl was holding Echo’s hand and helping her. Tied around Pearl’s tail was a smaller, but still sparkling, piece of cloth just like Echo’s. Shelly wondered where Pearl had managed to get the fabric.

  Shelly waited behind a kelp plant in MerPark to let Echo and Pearl pass. “I have only one page finished for my report,” Echo admitted.

  “I haven’t started yet,” Pearl said.

  “You haven’t?” Echo asked.

  “No, but I’m not worried,” Pearl said. “My dad promised to get me some shrimp. And if I were you, I’d just get your father to bring some home from his store. Reef’s has tons of shrimp and krill.”

  “I never thought about that,” Echo said.

  “You’d be silly not to ask him for help,” Pearl said. “It’d be so easy.”

  Echo nodded. “Maybe. My dad does have lots of neat shrimp, but I don’t know if he would give me any.”

  “You could take them when he wasn’t looking,” Pearl said.

  “That would be stealing!” Echo said.

  “No, it wouldn’t. It’s your store too, isn’t it?” Pearl asked.

  Echo frowned. “I guess you are right.”

  “Of course I’m right,” Pearl said. “Now let’s get to Trident Academy.”

  Shelly watched her best friend swim away with Pearl. When they were out of sight, Shelly floated slowly to school. All she could think about was Pearl teaching Echo how to do terrible things. Somehow Shelly had to find a way to get Echo away from Pearl.

  But Pearl sat next to Echo in the library. Pearl sat next to Echo in the lunchroom. Shelly looked to see if Echo wanted to make Mr. Fangtooth laugh, but Echo didn’t even glance Shelly’s way. Shelly swam over to an empty granite table in the corner and sat by herself.

  “Hi,” said a small voice. Shelly looked up from her lunch of leftover clam casserole to find Kiki. “May I sit here?” Kiki asked.

  “Sure,” Shelly said. “How do you like Trident Academy?”

  Kiki shrugged and sat down. “It’s okay, but I miss my parents and brothers.”

  “How many brothers do you have?” Shelly asked.

  “Seventeen,” Kiki said.

  “Seventeen!” Shelly shrieked. “Are you kidding me?”

  Kiki laughed. “No, I really do have seventeen brothers and not one sister.”

  “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I’d like some,” Shelly told her.

  “It’s okay, but very noisy. I always thought I wanted to go somewhere quieter, but the dorm rooms at Trident Academy are almost too quiet in the afternoon.”

  “Wow, you live in the school dorm?” Shelly asked. “That sounds so cool.”

  Kiki shook her head and whispered, “I have Wanda for a roommate. She snores really loudly.”

  Shelly laughed, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Echo look at her. Echo frowned and said something to Pearl and the other mergirls at her table. They all looked in Shelly’s direction and burst out laughing. Shelly had a terrible feeling they were laughing at her.

  AFTER SCHOOL, SHELLY FLOATED OVER to Shell Wars practice. Kiki was already warming up by gently tossing a shell back and forth with a group of merkids. Kiki waved as Shelly took her place on the field.

  In Shell Wars, two teams try to shoot a small shell into the other team’s treasure chest and whoever scores more goals wins. Each chest is guarded by a goalie, which just happens to be an octopus! The players use long whale bones to slam the shells with all their might! If anyone touches a shell with their hands or body, they’re out of the game, so it’s important to pay attention.

  “Watch out!” Kiki yelled.

  Whack! The shell hit Shelly right in the stomach. She hit the ocean floor hard.

  “Oh my gosh!” Echo screamed. “Is she hurt?”

  “Serves her right,” Pearl snapped. “Shell Wars is a gross game. Who wants to play with a dirty old shell?”

  “I might not like Shell Wars, but Shelly does, and she’s my friend,” Echo said, swimming aw
ay from Pearl.

  “Are you all right?” Echo asked Shelly as she sat up.

  Shelly held her stomach, but she smiled. “I am if we’re friends again.”

  “Are we friends again?” Echo asked.

  Shelly nodded, and the two mergirls hugged. Pearl stuck her nose up in the water and swam home alone.

  “You want to come over to my house after practice?” Shelly asked Echo.

  Echo nodded and giggled. “I’m so glad we’re not mad at each other anymore.” The friends hugged again before Shelly went back to practice and Echo sat down to watch.

  Neither mergirl noticed that Kiki had come over to check on Shelly as well. They didn’t see Kiki standing beside them. Neither one noticed when she swam away either. “It’s like they ignored me on purpose. I didn’t mean to hit Shelly,” Kiki whispered. She floated off with tears in her eyes.

  A Neat Trick

  ECHO WATCHED THE REST OF Shell Wars practice. She had to admit that Shelly was good—probably even better than Rocky, and he boasted that he was the best player in the whole ocean.

  “You’re awesome,” Echo told her friend as the merkids finished scrimmaging and Shelly swam over to the sidelines.

  “Thanks. I really hope I can make the team! Now let’s go to my shell to work on our projects,” Shelly suggested, giving Echo’s arm a little tug. As the girls swam by a cluster of sea lilies, they didn’t realize that Echo’s sparkly cloth was caught. In one quick merminute, it fell off and the teasing began.

  “Echo has a pot tail!” yelled Rocky. Several other merboys and mergirls followed Rocky’s pointing finger to the black pot still stuck on Echo’s tail.

  “Pot Tail! Pot Tail!” Rocky called after her.

  Shelly wanted to bang the pot on Rocky’s head, but she needed to get Echo away from his teasing, so she swam quickly toward home, pulling Echo with her.

  “I’m so embarrassed,” Echo said when they were safely inside Shelly’s apartment.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Shelly said. “If Pearl had seen it, she’d be wearing a pot on her tail tomorrow too.”