Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (14 page)

“Are you kidding?” I crossed the family room and snuggled with her on the couch. “She'll be happy to know she's on the cutting edge of mer-fashion.”

Serena sat at Mom's other side and touched the sundress's fabric. “Prett-ry?”

“Yes, Serena, pretty. So, Mom…” I tried to think of a way to ask her to go to the ocean to rescue my mer-boy crush. It was probably best to stay vague. “Um, Cori and I were thinking of helping Trey with patrols. Would that be okay? I'll even take Serena so you can keep resting.”

Mom squeezed my shoulder. “You want to go underwater to find Luke, don't you?”

Yeah. She totally saw right through me.

“I promise I'll be really, really careful.”

Mom put the TV's volume on mute and set the remote control on the coffee table. “I don't know. Your dad told me about the last time this happened.”

“Yes, but didn't that have a happy ending? You're here, right?” I rested my head on her shoulder.

“But Luke isn't,” Mom said quietly.

“I promise I'll just go tell Luke to go to Eddie's,” I said. “Otherwise, who knows how long he'll be stuck down there?”

“I feel terrible about everything that's happened.” Mom stroked my hair. “I'd go myself but that wouldn't help matters, I guess.”

“Exactly! I, on the other hand, can just crawl back out onto the boat once I'm done. It'll all be fine, Mom. I'll be with Cori and Trey and Serena. Please?” I sat up and grasped her hand.

“Hm.” Mom considered me with squinting eyes. “You'll stick together?”

“Yes.”

“You'll call if anything happens?”

“Yes.”

“You'll…”

“Yes, yes, yes!” I assured her.

Mom put her arm around me and kissed the top of my head. “I keep forgetting you're not twelve anymore.”

“Does that mean I can go?” My phone buzzed. It was Cori texting me. Trey was heading up the canal with the boat to meet us at the lock. “Like now?”

“Go!” Mom laughed. “I'd offer to drive, but I'm pretty sure my driver's license has expired.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

I grabbed Serena by the arm.

“Oh, and I also want to start dating!” I yelled as I headed out the door.

Coreesh?
Serena asked as we arrived at the lock.

Trey was busy filling the boat's gas tank at the pump by the control tower. He was chatting with his grandfather, Eddie, and basically ignoring me. I checked my watch.

“Cori,” I repeated her name, trying to get Serena to say it out loud. “Lunch rush is done so she should be on her way.”

“Cor-eesh,” Serena repeated.

“That's my name, don't wear it out.” A voice came from behind. It was Cori, all right, but with someone else.

“Cori! And Lainey.” I blinked three times, wondering why on earth Cori was with Lainey Chamberlain, considering how things had gone at the rally the day before.

“Yes.” Cori stepped onto the concrete pier that skirted the canal. “Lainey was at the diner. She says she wants to talk to us.”

I was afraid to ask why. Lainey stepped onto the pier and arranged her hair, then faced us.

“Let me start by saying”—Lainey grasped the handles of her shoulder bag—“that yesterday was
the
most embarrassing day of my life.”

I cringed and stole a glance at Cori.

“Yeah.” I turned back to Lainey. “Sorry about that.”

Cori came to my defense. “It wasn't Jade's fault. I was the one who sent you that Facebook invitation, but only because you made fun of Jade's sweatpants.”

“Wait.” Lainey put up her hand to stop Cori from continuing. She turned to me. “I am sorry about the sweatpants thing, but they really do have cute ones at Sport Mart.”

Was Lainey actually apologizing? To me?

“Um, thanks?” I murmured.

“Anyway, I was reading your pamphlet thingy and wanted to talk to you about it.” Lainey pulled out the pamphlet from her large shoulder bag. A furry ball of fluff popped its head from the bag and barked.

Aieeiiiaiiiieee!
Serena hid behind me and grabbed my arm so tightly I started to lose circulation in my thumbs.

Lainey stared at Serena in surprise. “Who's this?”

“Oh.” I hadn't counted on having to tell this story over and over again. I had to keep my story straight. What had I told Bridget? “This is my cousin, Serena. She doesn't speak much English.”

“Oh!” Lainey pulled out her dog and set it on the ground. “Well this is Cedric. Come say hi.”

Cedric wagged his little tail and yipped a couple hellos.

“It's okay,” I said to Serena.

Serena stepped out from behind me and stooped down to take a closer look. Cedric licked her hand. Serena snatched it back in surprise but smiled.

“He likes you,” Lainey said.

“He's cute,” I said.

“Thanks! Daddy bought him for me yesterday.” She scruffed her dog behind the ear and adjusted his faux-leather doggie vest.

“So, why are you here, exactly?” Cori asked.

“Well.” Lainey straightened and stuffed the pamphlet back in her bag. “That pamphlet made me really mad at first. I thought you guys were doing all that stuff because you hated me.”

“Lainey, it's not like that—” I began.

“I know,” she interrupted. “Because then, I actually read the pamphlet and saw some of the stuff people were saying on the Facebook page about the Monarch butterfly and I just wanted to tell you I think it's really cool what you guys were trying to do.”

“You do?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes! I mean, there's no reason to shut down a whole construction site over it, but Daddy and I talked about all the things he could do to make the mall project even more environmentally friendly than it already is. He says he needs that paper I gave you first, though.”

“The Environmental Assessment, you mean?” I asked.

“Yes, and,” Lainey seemed to choose her words before continuing. “Daddy also asked if you could invite your Butterflies versus Boutiques Facebook people to a beach party at Toulouse Point Park to tell them about his new plans. So”—she looked from Cori to me—“do you think you could do that?”

Cori and I stared at each other, confused.

“I guess,” I replied, not exactly sure what I was agreeing to.

“Oh good. Because I've already got forty-seven replies to my Facebook event so far, and I need you guys to invite as many people as you can.”

“When is it?” Cori asked.

“Tonight! I wanted to ask Luke to bring his guitar, but he hasn't returned any of my texts. Do you know where he is?”

“No clue,” I replied. Which was pretty much the truth.

“Oh, sorry. You guys broke up, right?” Lainey gave me her best pouty-lipped look of sympathy.

I secretly rolled my eyes. It was good to know that Lainey hadn't lost all her evil ways. But ‘broke up'? Could you break something up that was never together? All I knew was that I liked Luke. Really liked him. And if anything happened to him, I wasn't sure if I could ever forgive myself for dragging him into this big mess.

“Anyway,” Lainey continued, not waiting for my answer, “do you think I could get that Environmental Assessment thing from you? Daddy was really upset when he found out I'd given it to you. He says he really needs it to go ahead with his plans.”

“Yeah, sure. I think I have it home somewhere,” I said, but meanwhile Cori waved me on board because another boat was waiting for the gas pump and Trey was firing up the engine to get out of the way.

“And you'll invite everyone to the beach party, right? You come too, Serena!” Lainey called out.

“We'll definitely try to make it if we can!” I rushed Serena onto the boat and moved a couple of orange buoys so we could sit next to Cori on the padded bench in the stern.

“But wait a second. Where are you guys going?” Lainey called after us. She stood on the lock's pier, clutching her bag.

“Sorry, Lainey. We really have to go!” I called out.

“That was weird,” Cori muttered as I settled onto the seat next to her.

“Yeah,” I replied. But it really sounded like Lainey and her dad were trying to make things right, so I felt really bad when the boat shoved off and we left her standing on the dock all by herself.

•••

Lainey fumbled with her shoulder bag and chased us all the way along the canal, screaming.

“Just keep going!” I waved to Trey. I felt terrible for leaving Lainey, but I didn't exactly feel like explaining our little mer scavenger hunt to her. It was already midafternoon and there was no telling where Luke was by then.

We traveled down the mile-long canal and left Lainey waving her arms at us at the end of the canal's concrete pier. Soon we were sailing out into Port Toulouse Bay and out into the great blue yonder.

“Watch her for me?” I asked Cori, motioning to Serena, who was huddled like a baby on the bench seat in the stern of the boat. “I need to talk to Trey.”

Cori flashed me a peace sign and looked down at her phone. “I'll just do my good deed for the day and post Lainey's beach party invitation on Facebook to make up for ditching her at the canal and everything.”

“Cool.” I got up to join Trey in the cabin of the boat. He held the boat's steering wheel with one hand and punched a few keys on a computer screen. I took a closer look, seeing it was a fish finder.

“That won't work,” I pointed to the screen. “Luke says mers can block the sonar signals on those things.”

“True,” Trey said without looking up, “but do you think we just tossed Luke into the ocean down in Florida without a backup plan? Cause that would be really stupid, you know.”

He was still mad at me. Big time.

“Look, Trey…” But what could I say? This was my fault. I should have never asked Luke to help me, considering he was a mer and everything. “I'm really sorry. I never wanted anything to happen to Luke, trust me.”

Trey's mouth twitched. “It's not just that. Well, it used to be just me and him and…never mind.”

That's when I got it. The trip to Florida, their whole life, it had been Trey and Luke, two brothers with a secret to keep. Now, here I was, swooping in and shutting Trey out. I gave him a friendly punch in the arm. “Would it help if I promise to never go on any more death-defying mer adventures without you?”

Trey looked up and tried his best not to smile.

“Aw, come on!” I pinched my cheeks and flashed him a goofy grin. “How can you stay mad at this face?”

“No fair.” He laughed and grabbed me around the neck and noogied me like a fourth grader.

“Get off me, you moron.” I laughed, shoving him away. I pushed the hair away from my face and tried to get a better look at the computer screen. “Okay. So are you going to show me how this thing works or is it a Martin Family trade secret?”

Trey punched a few more keys and turned the screen my way. “Bobby was great with Luke back in Florida, but just in case something went wrong, my grandpa programmed this fish finder to track him underwater.”

“It can do that?” I asked, trying to make sense of all the blips and colors on the screen.

“It can now. Mers do have natural sonar-blocking skills like noise-canceling headphones, but my grandpa put a tracker in Luke's watch.”

“The watch he wouldn't give up if his life depended on it?” I remembered how he'd held onto it for dear life when I had given my watch to Reese as a peace offering.

“His life kind of
does
depend on it. We didn't tell Luke about the tracker because he was big on doing this whole mer thing on his own, but Grandpa told him the watch was super-expensive and if he ever lost it he'd fillet him like an Atlantic salmon. It's kind of the same technology as the black box they have on airplanes but a little more low-tech, so we need to be pretty close to be able to track it.”

“Like, how close?” I asked.

“At least a mile. The closer the better. I got a faint signal this morning, about three miles offshore, but I had to turn back to get gas. That's where we're heading now.”

“Oh, awesome!” I glanced out the side window to see where we were going, but it all seemed like a big blue blur.

“Hey, guys?” Cori said from the door of the cabin.

We both turned.

“I think I know why Lainey was freaking out so much back at the canal.” She pulled Serena into the cabin behind her. A fluffy ball of fur peeked out its nose from the folds of Serena's flowing chemise.

“Serena!” I sighed, wondering how far Lainey would go to save Cedric from an accidental dognapping.

Cedric perked up and licked Serena's face. Cori rolled her eyes.

“This will not end well.”

•••

After an hour or so of sailing, we finally got a faint signal on the sounder.

“See that?” Trey pointed to the screen. The screen flashed “FLUKE1019” whenever it detected his signal.

“Like his cell phone,” I murmured, remembering that I'd left his cell phone on my bed.

“That's the same signal I saw earlier, but he could be anywhere within a mile from here. How do we get him to come to us?” Trey asked.

Serena looked up from scruffing Cedric's neck. Her eyes widened in alarm. I heard the ringing too.

“I hear him!” I cried.

“What?” Cori asked.

“Cut the engine for a second?” I motioned for Trey to put the boat in neutral, then strained to hear the faint ring coming from underwater. “Serena, you can hear it too, right?” I nodded toward her, hoping she'd understand.

“Yer-shh.”

Cori, Serena, and I rushed out to the main deck of the boat and scanned the water just as the CB radio signal went off.

“
Lady
Sea
Dragon
from Lock Control, come in!”

Trey answered the call. “This is
The
Lady
Sea
Dragon
, go ahead, Grandpa.”

“Hey there, Trey. I just picked up a signal on the First Response Channel. Seems they got an urgent call from a Miss Chamberlain about a diabetic passenger named Cedric on board? Apparently he needs his insulin medicine. Just wanted to give you heads up that the Coast Guard is on its way.”

“Rawrff!”

Cedric perked up from Serena's arm, right on cue. She let him down onto the deck floor where he ran around chasing his tail, then plopped down on the deck, ears twitching.

“A diabetic dog? Leave it to Lainey.” Cori shook her head.

“Thanks, Grandpa! We may be coming close to something out here, but we'll keep you posted.” Trey hung up the CB radio and turned to us. “Now what do we do?”

We'd finally found Luke, but now the Coast Guard was hot on our tails. Would we be able to find him again if they hauled us back to the harbor? And how much time would we lose in the meantime?

“How fast can this boat go?” I asked, in case we needed to make a quick getaway.

“We use it for water-skiing, so pretty fast,” Trey answered. “But the Coast Guard boats are just as fast, if not faster.”