Cry of the Sea (15 page)

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 that 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 absent, 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?”

“What did you think when you stuck it on the
Internet?”

“That people were going to ignore it?”

“That evidence of real-life mermaids wasn’t
going to be a big hit?”

“You aren’t stupid, June. How did this
happen?”

“What were you smoking?”

I went ahead and put Dad on speaker, so they
could hear each other rip me apart.

I explained what I had meant to do, but that
didn’t help. They just started all over again with a new round of
angry questions.

“Why did she need to know that?”

“Did you think of asking me first?”

“You put your friendship with this girl over
the safety of the mermaids?”

“What about the oil spill and the sea
life?”

“Did you think about anything besides
yourself?” they asked in unison, as if rehearsed.

There was a pause, as they registered what
just happened. And then they both laughed.

“Yeah, you guys are really funny,” I said. I
noticed how tight my muscles were, my arms crossed, my body pressed
up against the passenger door as if trying to get away from Carter
and the cell phone, which I had stuck in the drink holder.

Carter raised his left hand and literally
wiped the smile off his face. He looked at me, his eyebrows raised
in the middle in some kind of mock sincerity. “I’m sorry, June.
You’re right. It wasn’t funny.”

“Nothing about this is funny,” Dad agreed.
“But we do need to lighten up. You made a mistake –“

“Boy did she,” Carter said, followed by a
corny whistle like were suddenly in a
Little Rascals
skit.

“And now we have to fix it.”

Carter steered onto the highway headed west.
“We’re going to the Center now. Will you meet us there?”

“I can’t,” Dad said. “There are already
looky-loos showing up out here. We’ve had a dozen or more people
come with cameras just in the last hour. I don’t understand how
this happens. How do people find out about Internet videos anyway?
I don’t think I’ve ever even watched one.”

“I don’t understand it either,” I
mumbled.

“Well, Carter, let me know what’s going on
over there with the mermaid and Dr. Schneider. I’m going to try to
keep these idiots out of the water.”

“Yes, sir,” Carter said.

“And June?” Dad said. “Do not do anything
else unless I say okay. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Dad.”

He hung up. Carter was silent. I felt like I
wanted to throw up.

I thought Carter might launch into a new
string of complaints or at the very least tell me what his plans
were for the rest of the day. I knew he probably hated me right
now. Any hope I’d had of anything happening between us was dashed.
He thought I was a dumb, high school kid who deemed her popularity
more important than major scientific finds or ecological issues. I
had no hope of convincing him otherwise. I didn’t know why he even
bothered to pick me up and take me with him, except maybe to keep
me from causing any more damage.

Carter didn’t talk at all as he drove toward
the ocean, even though I badgered him with questions about the
mermaid and the Center. I wanted to know if he’d been there yet and
knew what was happening. It seemed he wanted to save the impact of
the bad news for when we got there. He also needed to keep some
concentration on his radical driving so we wouldn’t be killed.

I subtly adjusted myself in the seat so I
could hang on tightly to the armrest on the door. I knew it annoyed
guys if they saw people clutching to car parts for life when they
drove. My dad always complained about it, but I had to hang on
because Dad liked to drive as close to the car in front of him as
possible and then switch lanes really fast. He also had a thing
about driving so close to the side of the road he’d go up on the
curb. Still, as much as I hated to insult Carter’s driving when he
was already pissed at me, I also feared a sudden lurch through the
passenger window every time he careened around a corner.