Trouble at Trident Academy (6 page)

BOOK: Trouble at Trident Academy
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“And if he can't get your pot off, then I'll find one to put on my tail so we'll match,” Shelly said. “We'll have a pot-tail club.”

Echo smiled at her friend. “You are the best merfriend in the whole world.”

“Come on, let's go find Grandpa,” Shelly said.

GRANDPA SIREN TOOK ONE LOOK AT ECHO'S
tail and grinned. “Are you sure you want it off? You never know when a good pot could come in handy.”

“Grandpa! She really wants it off,” Shelly pleaded.

Grandpa Siren rubbed his chin. “I wonder … ,” he said as he floated off to his storeroom of extra human gadgets.

Bang! Crash! Bang!

“What's he doing in there?” Echo asked.

Shelly shrugged. Her grandpa came out of the storage area with a large wire basket full of small glass bottles, which he immediately began searching through.

Echo picked one up labeled
DANGER: MOTOR OIL
. “Will this help me?” she asked.

Grandpa immediately snatched the bottle away. “It would help, but it would also pollute our water. It's deadly to ocean life.”

Echo gulped and backed away from the bottles. Grandpa continued looking until he held one up. “This should do the trick.”

He poured the tiniest amount of yellow liquid over Echo's tail, and immediately the water filled with round blobs that bounced off each other. “What
is
this stuff?” Echo asked.

“Vegetable oil,” Grandpa explained. “I just applied a drop, but I think it worked.”

Echo squealed as the pot slid off her tail.
She gave Grandfather a hug. “You're the greatest!”

“Now we can finish our projects,” Shelly said. “And look! You've
already
caught two shrimp.” Sure enough, two glowing hinge-beak shrimp floated in the bottom of the pot.

Grandpa raised his furry eyebrows. “Girls, do you need any help with your assignment?”

Shelly looked at Echo. Echo giggled. “No, we're supposed to do it on our own.” And that's exactly what the friends did.

AFTER THE GIRLS HAD WORKED FOR
several hours, Echo said, “I don't want to go to school tomorrow.”

“But our projects are turning out great,” Shelly answered. “We even found two snapping shrimp.” Shelly almost wished they hadn't found the loud creatures. Their popping noises were driving her crazy.

“I'm afraid the kids will make fun of me,” Echo said.

Shelly thought her friend might be right. Even though the pot was finally off Echo's tail, Rocky and Pearl did like to tease, and a pot on a tail was kind of funny. But then Shelly remembered something her grandfather had told her: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

“But words
do
hurt my feelings sometimes,” Echo said.

“They only hurt if you let them,” Shelly said. “Just pretend you don't care. If you don't get upset, everyone will stop teasing.”

“Will that really work?” Echo asked.

Shelly nodded. “Of course it will.” She sure hoped she was right.

Best Merfriend Ever

H
EY, POT-TAIL, WHER E'S YOUR
pot?” Rocky asked the next morning at school.

“Right here,” Echo said, holding up the pot that now held Shelly's and Echo's projects.

Rocky grinned and said, “I liked it better on your tail.”

Shelly was surprised and happy that Rocky didn't say another word. Echo had been worried for no reason.

Mrs. Karp splashed her tail sharply, and all the merstudents quickly found their desks. Shelly and Echo proudly turned in their reports, but they couldn't believe their eyes when Kiki turned in at least a dozen seaweed pages and a small chest full of shrimp and krill.

“Wow,” Echo whispered. “She must be really smart.”

Kiki overheard this as she sat down in her seat. She shrugged. “I'm so sorry I hit you in the stomach at practice yesterday. I felt so bad, I came back to school and worked late on my report.”

“It's okay,” Shelly said. “I wasn't hurt.” Now
she
felt sorry. She hadn't said goodbye to Kiki when she'd left the park yesterday. Shelly hoped she hadn't hurt Kiki's feelings.

Mrs. Karp frowned when Rocky turned in two small seaweed pages with a harlequin shrimp and Pearl handed in four shrimp that clearly had prices marked on their tails.

Pearl swam back to her seat and muttered, “My dad had to work late. He said the project was silly anyway.”

Shelly had to admit she'd actually enjoyed working on the project. She'd never known there were so many different kinds of shrimp in the waters around her home.

At lunchtime, Echo and Shelly sat at a table together. Wanda and some other mergirls who boarded at Trident filled up Pearl's table. Many of them wore sparkly cloths tied around their tails.

“See what you started?” Shelly smiled. “Now
everyone's
wearing something glittery around their tails.”

“How funny is that?” Echo said with
a giggle. “Maybe something even funnier would make Mr. Fangtooth smile. But what can we do?”

Shelly took a bite of her glasswort sandwich before looking around the lunchroom. She saw Kiki floating over to a small table in the corner. She was going to eat lunch all by herself. “Would you mind if we made someone else smile today?” Shelly asked Echo.

“Who?” Echo asked.

Shelly nodded toward Kiki. “She's new to Trident City, and I think she's a little lonely. Her family lives far away.”

The two friends stared at Kiki. She wasn't smiling, and she looked like she'd
rather be anyplace but Trident Academy.

Echo smiled. “I told you that you are the best merfriend ever. Let's go sit with her and make her feel at home.”

And that's exactly what they did.

Class Reports

SNAPPING SHRIMP

By Shelly Siren

M
y favorite shrimp is the snapping shrimp, even though it is noisy. It's only the size of my finger, but when its jaws snap shut, it sounds like a hundred merpeople cracking their knuckles. I was lucky to find one, since they usually live in warm, shallow waters.

HARLEQUIN SHRIMP

By Echo Reef

M
y favorite shrimp is the harlequin shrimp. I like the blue-spotted ones the best, although the purple-, red-, and orange-spotted ones are nice too. The only thing I don't like about harlequin shrimp is that they eat starfish. I like starfish a lot, and I hate to see them hurt.

CLEANER SHRIMP

By Rocky Ridge

C
leaner shrimp are the best because they eat dead stuff out of a fish's mouth. One time I let a cleaner
shrimp live in my mouth for a month. I didn't have to brush my teeth until my dad saw it and made me spit it out.

ANEMONE SHRIMP

By Pearl Swamp

BOOK: Trouble at Trident Academy
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