Trouble at Trident Academy (4 page)

I
T WAS HORRIBLE,” ECHO TOLD HER
older sister, Crystal, later that after-noon at their shell. “I thought for sure we were going to get kicked out of Trident Academy on our first day!”

Crystal shook her head. “You shouldn't have made faces at Mr. Fangtooth. Then
you wouldn't have ended up with worms in your hair. The headmaster has spies everywhere, so you have to behave yourselves.”

“We were only trying to cheer up Mr. Fangtooth,” Shelly explained.

“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?”

T
HE 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.

D
ID 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.