Cry of the Sea (26 page)

I flipped on the computer as Carter walked
into the office.

“Whatcha looking up now?” he asked.

“Dr. Schneider’s at a place called the North
Shore Rehabilitation Aquarium. You heard of it? It’s funded by
Affron.”

“I don’t know it.”

I typed the name into the search engine but
got nothing. I looked up the Affron web page again but couldn’t
find it on their list of charities. I then looked up the area code
of the phone number and got the northeast corner of Washington
State.

“There’s nothing up there but a national park
and the islands,” Carter said. “I can’t think where there would be
an aquarium. Not a substantial one, anyway.”

Islands? I flipped around to Carter. “Which
islands?”

“The San Juan Islands.”

My heart started to race. Juarez Peña had
talked about those islands yesterday. He grew up there with legends
about mermaids and killer whales. They had that
Potlach
event where they threw shell jewelry into the sea during the
summer. My mermaid was wearing a shell necklace when we found
her.

“That’s where the mermaids are from,” I
nearly shouted. I told Carter all about Peña’s stories. He nodded
more enthusiastically with each detail I remembered. “There is an
aquarium up there somewhere on one of those islands. There has to
be.” I felt my eyes grow wide and my heart lurched right up into my
throat. “Oh my God, Carter.”

He nodded at me, his eyes as large as mine
felt. He knew what I was going to say. “They know all about the
mermaids,” he choked out. “They’re collecting them.”

“You don’t think Schneider knew about this,
do you?”

Carter winced and then shook his head. “No. I
don’t. He’s been genuinely surprised at every turn since you guys
showed up with those mermaids on Tuesday morning.”

“Well, he’s caught up in it now,” I said. “I
wonder what they’ve got him there for.”

We heard a loud bang come from the front room
of the center. Carter and I both dashed out of the office and
toward the double doors to make sure no one had snuck in and
knocked over something. Coming from the other direction was Regina
and her crew. Her blond hair was snagged out of its barrettes, and
her lipstick had been licked away. Marlee and Haley looked equally
frazzled. The boys came in behind them, slouched and beaten.

“They. Are. Gone,” Regina announced
dramatically as we skidded to a stop in front of her. “Please tell
me you have a Coke machine and a chair.”

“We have a chair,” Carter returned.

She rolled her eyes and followed him to a
folding chair by the large cabinets. “All the reporters and weirdos
have left.”

“I still don’t understand why we can’t go
too,” Marlee said. “There aren’t any mermaids here.”

Gary snorted, “And there never were.”

“That’s right,” I said. “There are no
mermaids here. So you guys can head on back to Olympia and not
worry about it anymore.”

Regina sneered at me but didn’t say anything.
The boys sat on the big tables while Marlee walked around and
looked at fish in the aquariums. Haley approached me just as Marlee
squealed “It’s so cute!” over the sight of the sea otter. “It’s
like a puppy!”

“What are you going to do now?” Haley asked.
“Go back to the beach?”

What I wanted to do was call Juarez Peña and
ask him if he knew where we might find an aquarium in the San Juan
Islands. However, I couldn’t do that with Miss Nosy and the
Nosettes around.

“I don’t know, Haley,” I told her. “I’m kind
of done with the interviews today. I think I might just go
home.”

“But where
are
the mermaids? Do you
know?”

I grabbed her elbow and led her toward the
office door. I whispered, “Look, Haley, I have some suspicions, but
I don’t know anything for sure. I don’t mean to sound rude, but it
would really be a lot easier for me to find them and take care of
all this without you and your
friends
around.”

“I can get rid of them if you’ll let me
stay.”

I flashed my eyes over to Regina who was
staring at the two of us, clearly unhappy about being left out of a
conversation. We had seconds before Her Highness interrupted, so I
tugged Haley into the office and closed the door. “Do you really
think that Regina will do what you ask?” I paused, trying not to
say it, but it blurted out anyway. “I’m pretty sure it’s the other
way around.”

The hurt in Haley’s eyes was instant, but it
was brief before the anger chased it out. “You don’t understand
anything. If you want to be unpopular and picked on for the rest of
your life, go right ahead.”

“I’m not going to be unpopular for the rest
of my life. Only for eight more months. Then guess what? I’ll be
out of high school. Hopefully, I’ll take off halfway through the
summer for California and get ready to start college. Regina won’t
be popular there. No one will have ever heard of her. So, I don’t
really care if she likes me or not.”

“Well, I care,” Haley said weakly. “We’ve
both wanted this since elementary school.”

I shook my head. “No. I haven’t. Just
you.”

“If we’re so different, then why have we even
been friends?”

Now I was the one hurt. “Because I like
you
, Haley. I wanted to be friends with
you
. Only
you. Not them. And I thought you wanted to be my friend too. If I’d
known you would dump me the second Regina offered to include you in
the Use and Abuse Club, I’d have done things differently.”

Her voice dropped to a crackly whisper so
quiet I could barely hear her. “They don’t use and abuse.”

“Really?” I asked. “Then how did they get
here? Do you think I invited them? When this mermaid thing is over,
they’ll be done with you and you’ll be nothing to them again. Go
back home and forget about it. Tell them the mermaids are gone and
we have no idea how to find them.”

A spark flashed in Haley’s eyes, a kind of
intensity I’ve never seen before. She took a step toward me, and I
took a step back, stumbling over Dr. Schneider’s office chair. “But
if we found the mermaids it would be different, June. If we found
them, we’d be popular and famous as a whole group. We’d have a
stellar senior year. Go out as Queens of the School, leaving a
legacy behind us. Come on, June. We’ve been losers our whole lives.
Do this for me. Please, I’m begging you.”

“I don’t want...”

And just like that the flash was gone. Her
eyes filled with that sadness I’ve always known in her. That
hopelessness at being permanently on the bottom rung of the social
ladder. She plopped onto the upholstered chair in the corner, right
on top of all the papers and files.

“I’m not going to California,” she said.
“I’ll be stuck here going to the same college they’ll probably go
to. I’ll have to deal with them for a long time. And I won’t have
you anymore. Please. I need this. Let me be part of the rescue or
whatever it is that you have to do to find the mermaids.”

I didn’t know what to do. Haley had been the
center of my life for so long, and I didn’t want to let her down.
Carter was new to me, and I didn’t want to let him down either. He
would be furious with me if I dragged Haley and the high school
crew along with us. It would be one more mark on my “too immature
for him” list. Then, of course, there was my mermaid. I had to
consider what would happen to her. Would seven teenagers barging
into the building up there be effective or stupid?

“You’re not going to let me join you, are
you?” Haley said, her voice cracking and tears forming in the
corners of her eyes.

Carter opened the office door a crack and
stuck his head in. “Time is slipping away from us, June. We’ve got
to get moving.” He looked at Haley and saw that she was crying. I
caught the very quick irritated sigh he gave, but I also watched
him stifle it as he stepped fully into the room and closed the door
behind him. “You two all right?” He pulled a tissue from a box on a
shelf and handed it to Haley.

“Yes, thanks,” Haley said, her eyes wide with
adoration for this guy who had in one gesture treated her better
than any boy she’d ever met in her life. “We’re fine.”

“She wants to come with us,” I said. “I know
you probably don’t want that.”

Carter smiled that charming smile at me that
I loved so much, and I knew he was about to make everything work
out. “Actually, I think we’re really going to need that blond
dude’s truck. If we find our silver girl, how are we going to get
her away from that place?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” We both smiled at
Haley. She looked from Carter’s face to mine and back again trying
to understand what we were saying exactly. When the clarity popped
in, she practically flew toward me for a hug.

“Really? Thank you! Thank you, June! Oh my
gosh! I love you!” Then she hugged Carter, who kept his face toward
me as he laughed. “I love you too,” Haley said. “I hope you and
June fall in love and get married and have little perfect
babies.”

Regina slammed the door open. “I am so tired
of sitting out there. It stinks, and I’m bored.” She looked at all
of us hugging and laughing. “Did I miss something?”

Carter pulled away from Haley. “Call your
parents to get permission. We’re all taking a road trip north.” He
pushed past her and walked over to Ted and Gary to discuss using
the truck.

“Is this some kind of joke?” Regina
asked.

“Nope,” I answered. “We’re going to try to
find the mermaid. You’re going to help.”

“That is what I wanted to hear,” she replied.
She threw her most winning popular girl smile at Haley and thrust
out her arms for a hug. “You are such a great friend, Haley. I
don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Haley grabbed my hand and said, “I think
you’re a great friend, too,” while pulling me right past Regina and
out the door.

Chapter
Seventeen

Ten minutes later we were loaded in the cars
with some fast food and every cell phone in use as everyone called
their parents to announce we would be getting home pretty late.
Haley chose to ride in the back seat of Carter’s car. Regina and
Marlee followed in their car, and the boys rode in the truck behind
them. We all decided squishing five of us into one car was not
going to be fun for anyone, even though Regina was pretty ticked
off that she was going to be out of the conversation for the next
three hours.

Haley didn’t actually tell her mom where she
was going specifically, just that she was still helping my parents
and me. It wasn’t a total lie. She knew her mother would never be
okay with her driving all the way up to the islands just below the
Canadian border. The others didn’t have any problem getting
permission for whatever stories they made up. They were the stars
of the school, after all, and that made for trusting parents. I
don’t know that they would have been so enthusiastic if they’d
known I was dragging their kids to a secret aquarium to barge
inside and perhaps get us all arrested for trespassing. That
knowledge might have garnered a different response.

I called my own mom to let her know what was
going on. She picked up the phone after two rings. “No comment,”
she said before I could even get out a hello.

“Mom! Wait! Don’t hang up!” I shouted into
the phone. I could sense my mom raising the phone back up to her
ear.

“June? Is that you? I’m so sorry, honey. If I
made you feel bad. I didn’t mean to do that.” It was an unusually
panicky tone for her, so I figured she meant what she was saying.
Still, I didn’t say anything when she paused for a response. “Where
are you? Your father and I have been worried sick.”

“Look,” I didn’t have time to ask permission
or deal with parental issues. “Carter and I are going to the San
Juan Islands up near Vancouver to find Dr. Schneider and the
mermaids. I don’t have an exact address, but when I get it I’m
going to send it to you. When I call you I want you to immediately
send that address to every news correspondent on our list. Don’t do
anything until then but have it ready to go. Let’s give those
mermaid seekers out there a target. That target is going to be
Affron. Got it?”

My mom started in with all her usual
criticisms and suggestions. I was too young. Maybe she should go
with me. Or instead of me. I didn’t have time for all that. I still
had to get hold of Juarez Peña. I told her I had everything under
control and hung up on her. I’m sure that put her in a snit, but
what else could I do? She’d get over it one day. And if my whole
plan bombed, as it very likely could, she’d have this moment to
pick at me with for the rest of my life.

I pulled up Peña’s number on my contacts
list. He was thrilled to hear from me. I told him what I suspected
about Affron having a secret aquarium, that Schneider was there,
and that we thought they knew about the mermaids.

“You know that your story gets more
outlandish every day, right?” he said to me. “Especially after the
porpoise thing this morning and you taking off right afterward.
Everyone’s been calling you a fake and a liar. Your mom’s going
nuts trying to keep your story fresh, but she has no new details to
add, and your dad’s screaming at anyone who talks to him because
all the mermaid seekers are out in rented boats stirring up all
that oil. The traffic is out of control along the whole coast, and
now you want people to believe that Affron Oil is collecting
mermaids in a secret tank up near Canada?”

“I know it sounds farfetched, but I thought
if anyone believed me it would be you. You’re the one who told me
about all that mermaid tradition stuff up there.”

“Oh, I believe you, June. I might be crazy
and the only person who really does, but I definitely believe you.”
Then he gave me a plan to follow. He said to stay on the 5 freeway
all the way past Mount Vernon and then to Anacortes where he’d meet
us at the ferry station and go with us to the aquarium. “I’m pretty
sure that if it is anywhere, it is probably on the Orcas Island. I
know San Juan Island pretty well and can’t think of where it would
be hiding. Orcas Island is the next biggest island, and its name is
so cleverly coincidental.”