Trouble at Trident Academy (5 page)

BOOK: Trouble at Trident Academy
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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 away 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

E
CHO 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.”

Echo wiped away a tear. “Do you really think so?”

Shelly nodded. “She wore a sparkly cloth today, didn't she?”

Echo laughed. “That's right, she did.”

“I bet my grandfather can get that pot off,” Shelly said, finally glad to be telling Echo her plan.

“That's a great idea!” Echo yelled. “He
is, after all, an expert on human things.”

Shelly shrugged. Not only was Echo fascinated with human stuff, but so was Shelly's grandfather. He was the director of the People Museum and knew more than anyone in Trident City about human beings and what went on above the sea. There had been many afternoons when Echo had been content to wander around the museum with Shelly's grandpa, looking at useless human tools. But Shelly had been bored to tears.

BOOK: Trouble at Trident Academy
12.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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