2
Swimming











My mom dropped me off at the Velvet cross pool at 2 o’clock sharp. I was the first one there. Valentina welcomed me in.

“Hey Ash! What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, just got accepted into state,” Valentina paused. I knew that she wasn’t that big of a competitive swimmer, but she had to know that this was the biggest honor I had ever received. She looked at me then jumped up from her chair and started squeezing me and yelling in my ear.

“OH MY GOD! This is AWESOME! I’m not a big swimmer or anything, but this sounds huge! ASHY! You are AWESOME! I bet you swam that breaststroke in 13 seconds!” I laughed.

“Not quite, I swam it in 20.”

“Awesome girl! I envy you. I bet my time would be 30 seconds.

“Oh look, here comes Ella.” I told all of my friends the great news and they all were so excited I was so proud. Once everybody got there we headed in. We saw our chairs in the back corner and sat down. The lounge chairs were padded with cushions for the loungers and towels for the swimmers. I was deffinitely one of the swimmers. But I would lounge for a while so I could spend time with my friends.

We sat and gossiped for a while, then got in the hot tub and gossiped some more, then finally, it was time to swim. Most of my friends had on designer bakinis, but I had on a ‘designer’ (if you can call it that) tankini (a two piece that goes down a bit further than a bakini). I got into the pool and swam over to the deep end to dive. I dove a bit and played some games with my friends. We played, Marco Polo, Star, Animal, and a couple of other pool games that I can’t remember the names. I was having a ton of fun, so when my friends decided to get out and get a poolside massage, I stayed in. Maybe it was a mistake, or maybe not, but it would’ve happened anyway, the next time I got in the pool.

I was swimming and diving in the deep end, I was enjoying it, there was nobody else in my end of the pool, so I did what I wanted.

I dove in from the diving board then tried to get the dime that I saw on the bottom of the pool. Suddenly, I realized I was breathing underwater, I tried to propel myself to the surface, but nothing happened. It was like I was being pulled back by some force. I turned around in the water and found myself face to face with 3 mermaids. I tried to scream, but the one with the blue hair was too quick for me, she put her hand over my mouth. Suddenly I realized I was being stripped of my swimsuit by some imaginary force, I tried to scream again for help, but her hand held fast.

“Shush,” the blue mermaid said, “We aren’t here to capture you, only to bring you back to Mermadia, the place of the mermaids and mermen.” I didn’t understand, I tried to talk back but all that came out was bubbles. The other mermaids laughed. The green haired one explained.

“You haven’t received the bubble yet,” She pointed to the necklace of bubbles around her neck and all the other mermaids, (there were four).

“Come,” Said the blue haired one, “We will explain later, meanwhile, I am Bubbly, and this is,” she said pointing to the green haired one, “Algey, and this one is,” she said pointing to the blond twin mermaids, “Coral and Shell.

“I know you may not want to come with us, but you have to, it is your millionth time in the pool and you have received 20 first places which proves that you are a very good swimmer. Of course , swimming with a tail will be different.” She wouldn’t let me protest, she just grabbed me and pulled me over to a crack in the wall.

“Come,” She gestured to all of us. She pulled me through the crack and into a tunnel, it was a dark one, almost like a train tunnel but without the graffite.

She and the other mermaids swam very fast. Faster then I could ever swim on swim team. At least I was attached to Bubbly. I could hear the world above moving farther and farther away as we went deeper and farther away from Denver. I wanted to cry, but of course, I couldn’t because we were in the water. The water turned less and less chlorinated as we reached closer to the ocean. Finally, with one great woosh, we were plunged out of the tunnel and into the ocean. But we still had a long way to go, we sped along at top speed through tons of fish, passed a shark, that was obviously scared of the mermaids, and avoided a few jellyfish, we were pretty much in the middle of the pacific when we started plunging downward, and when I say down, I mean down, we went down at least one million meters, I never knew the ocean was that deep, Bubbly later explained that no one knew about the mer kingdom, and that it was an exception.

We entered a couple minutes later , at the front gates. There was a guard, a mermaid.

“Bubbly! Algey! Coral, Shell! You’re back!” She stared at me, Bubbly explained,
“Our newcomer,” The guard quickly changed her frown to a smile, “Why hello there! Since I won’t be able to see the ceremony, my name is Aqua, I’m a guard in training.” I smiled, I still wondered why I was here.

Bubbly led me through the gates into a world of liveliness. I was led right into the middle of the Crab parade, we dodged through the crowd and dashed across the parade, I was dodging through when a crab pulled me up with his pincher and onto a throne

“This merlady, is the mermaid of the parade!” Everybody threw coral at me, a blessing. Bubbly pulled me down fussing at the crab.

“Oh, stop, she is not the merlady of the parade Thor. Now let her down.”

“But Bubbly-”

“Down, now,” He let me down and on we went. We had to dodge through the crowd of people lining the shelled streets other side till finally there weren’t as many people. But it was still bustling. Merpeople swimming from building to building, carrying scrolls and busily talking to each other. We passed a beauty salon where there we mermaids getting their hair done and mermaids getting massages and so on. We went to the part of town called Slo-op (mermish for Shop). There were rows upon rows of shops. There were 3 - 6 stories of shops on every building. Tail decoration shops, beauty shops, mershoe shops, mermaid bra shops (one article of clothing for the mermaids, a bra) piercing shops, jewelry shops, scarf shops, food shops, candy stores, and the mermaids signature desserts, Coralcream, a delicious mixture of seacream with coral coloring. Delightful, we stopped in for a bite. I got Algae flavor, it was actually good. We continued down the crowded mermaid streets, to the apartments, there were still restaurants and plenty of shops under the apartments, but the apartments were dazzling. Every single one had some sort of decoration representing the persons personality. The one that really stuck out to me was the one with the sports banner ‘The sharks, Seaball of the century.’ It showed a merman with a ball made of a shell. We passed through the neighborhood to find ourselves at a gate made of pearls. Algey knocked 5 times on the gate and it opened. It opened to reveal a stunning sight. There was a castle on a hill made of colored algae. This was no ordinary castle though, this was the royal mercastle. Around the mercastle was a village in itself. It housed all of the royal mermaids and mermen. There were at least 50 guards surrounding the mercastle. If you thought about it, though, the castle wasn’t well protected, there was no bridge or anything around it, just the guards.

Bubble, Algey, Coral, and Shell, all went up to the main entrance and stood in front of the guard. The guard was a good looking young mermen who smiled at us and let us pass through the entrance. At the entrance hall, we met a young girl who motioned for us to follow her. We walked down a long hall and up many levels of stairs, passed many doors until we reached two great big doors. The young girl pulled them open with surprising strength, and we were brought into the hall. There was a carpet that was rolled out to lead to a throne with a mermaid sitting upon it, the mermaid queen. There were tons of mer people surrounding the carpet, I recognized some of them from the parade. This was the entire mer kingdom. Bubbly cleared her throat

“The newcomer my Queen.”

“Ah, so this is Asheley, the girl. We haven’t had many humans come lately to join the merworld. You have a lot to learn.” Replied the queen wisely. I could feel everyones stare on my bare skin. I felt self concious being naked. The other mermaids who had traveled with me went into the crowd to watch.

“So, you have arrived finally dear. This must be so confusing. I will give you your necklace, your tail, and your hair and your bra after I explain. I don’t want you to interupt as I tell the mermaids story.

“You were a human, you lived happily with your family until now. The reason is that you have been in the pool one million times since your birth. You love swimming, my messengers have brought you from the pool to the merworld were you will be able to prosper. You will miss your family, but love here. This is the mercity of the earths water, it is much like your city. You will live with bubbly and work with her until you can have a job of your own. Now, once you are a mermaid, you will be able to move to this castle when I call you, without swimming. It is very simple, Bubbly will teach you everything once you go back to her house. For now, we will have the ceremony.”

She stepped off of her throne and stepped towards me, she summoned a guard carrying my necklace and put it around my neck.

“Speak,” She ordered me.

“U- u - uuuuuh,” I stuttered,

“Good,” she nodded her head. Then she summoned a treat from the pocket in her bra and handed it to me.

“Eat this if you will,” I took the treat and placed it in my mouth. It was gooey and sticky, much like a marshmallow, but good. I swallowed and watched as my bare legs turned into a finlike tail, it was a greeny turquoise. My hair was formed into a shade the same as my tail and was leanthened by a lot, to my waist. My boobs were covered in a bra the color of coral, it sparkled as it was placed on me. I found the voice to speak to the queen.

“Thank you,” I whispered. My voice was much changed from when I was on land, it was silky and smooth, much different from my more manlike voice above the waves.

“You will have to have a speech by tomorrow at breakfast in the town square.

“My mermaids! You will come as well to breakfast at the town square to listen to our newest mermaid.

“My newest mermaid. Your full name will be Mermaidia, in honor of our kingdom. We will call you, Madia. Madia, I wish for you to join Bubbly on your way to her house which will now be yours. Now, the whole mermaid kingdom shall see you leave.” I held Bubbly’s hand as we left, the whole kingdom was watching. As I stepped through the door, the cute guard we had seen at the front gate winked at me. I smiled. He mouthed, ‘Conk me’ , another form of a phone.

We walked passed everything that we had passed on the way to the castle and took another road in the opposite direction. We passed a restaurant center and turned into a gated neighborhood labeled, Land Lily private neighborhood.
She typed in the code (shell, seaweed, fish) and we swam in. We swam down a shell paved road called Seabend, then down a road called seaweed lovers, then down Refoleo (mermish for the sea cottage) we reached a cottage with a path of seaweed leading to its door.

“My house,” announced Bubbly. We walked in the front door to enter a snazzy entrance hall. It had pictures of Bubbly, all with some sort of merboy. She was younger in these pictures, like 17 or 18. She saw me looking at them.

“My boyfriends,” She said.

“You never settled down?” I asked.

“Oh, we mermaids never settle down, we prefer a partying life, lots of boys, they come and go. That’s my collection.” She pointed at the pictures. I was shocked. Collection! They had boy collections!

She saw my face yet again. “Almost everybody is single, you have multiple boyfriends, but not multiple girlfriends. It is a mermaids world down here.” It took a moment for me to soak all of that in. Then I figured I’d have to live with it.

“Oh, and another thing, mermaids live forever unless someone kills them,” my mouth must of looked like a great big tunnel because she rushed to say, “But don’t worry, murder happens once every year to the old people,”

“And it’s not a crime?” I asked,

“Of course not!” She looked shocked. “The queen has royal asasinators for mers above the age of 100!”

“Oh,” I tried to sound casual, but this was too weird.

She changed the subject.

“So, tomorrow I take you shopping, for bras, excessories, shoes for special occasions, makeup, and we can go to the mer spa too, to look extra special for the party.”

“The what?!” I asked,

“The party. You know, the one they’re throwing for your arrival. You want to look your best. I already know which bra shop to go to. You should have a longer bra so just you bellybutton is showing. It’s the newest thing.” I nodded slowly.

“So, your room, I should show you to it. My house has only one level, I am busy all day, then go to parties at night, so I only sleep here basically. So come with.” She motioned with her arm for me to follow. I followed her to the room on the left were she led me in and pointed.

“Your room.” It was furnished with a bed, a lamp, a dresser, a side table, and a picture of a mermaid model. It looked like I wasn’t going to be spending much time in my room either.

“Do you like it? I got all of the furnishings I could find at ‘all of a mermaids needs’.”

“Um...” I hesitated , “Yeah, it’s really nice,”

“ You should get some rest sweety I’ll see you in the morning, shopping day!”

“Yeah... um... night night Bubbly.” I sat down on my bed. I decided to sleep, but I couldn’t, I thought of Mom, and Dad, and Maggie, I missed them. I missed my friends too, I missed Emma, Molly, Valentina, and all of them, not just because they would probably be getting underwater Mani- Pedi’s, but because they were my friends. I wondered if they would miss me, it was a thought pounding in my head, even though I knew they would. I felt like this was sleep away camp, and that I was just back at camp Rocky, that I would be back in two weeks, but I knew that that wasn’t the case, I knew that I would never go back, never get to see them again. When I jumped out of the car and said a quick ‘Bye’ to mom, those were my last words to her, my last goodbye. I sat there for a few minutes, just thinking. Then all of this information sort of became reality, I realized that I would actually never get to see them again. I was unprepared for this sudden realization, and the chemicals of my soul reacted with reality, and I began to cry. Some say that in the water they can’t see you cry, but I could see my tears, the merwater was different so when my tears touched it there was a chemical reaction. I sat there and cryed. I cryed for my mom, my friends, my sister, my dad, molly, for all of my loved ones back at home, I cryed for them and begged to no one in particular, for me to return to them, I cryed nonstop with my head in my pillow and begged and cryed, until a soft hand was rested on my back and whispered softly in my ear,

“You miss your family and your friends.” I recognized the soft voice of Bubbly, “ It was like that when I left, I cryed for weeks, I missed them so. I have never gotten over it. It haunts you so.” I looked up at her sitting beside me on the bed.

“You- you were a human too?”

“Oh no, I was living in the mer kingdom of Zuli, it is in the arctic ocean.”

“Tell me, about Zuli.”

“Well, I was a young mermaid, about the age of twelve, when I decided to leave home. I was a very adventurous mermaid and had no idea what I was doing, no idea that I would get lost.” Her voice faltered for a second, but she returned to speaking with a clear of her throat, “I got lost in the middle of the arctic ocean I suppose. Well, I turned back, but did not know which way I was going, it turned out that I went the wrong way. I shouldn’t tell you of all the obstacles that I ran into, but there were many. I was only twelve with no companions, so, evidently, I got hurt permanently,” She said, showing me a mark on her back that looked much like a zinnia flower.

She continued, “One day, I set myself on the back of a whale, he didn’t know I was there, so he swam north, I stayed on his back for more than a week, swimming farther and farther away from my home. I was near here by the time I got off of his back. I swam towards land, though I did not know it, I swam closer and closer to mermaidia.

“One day, I was swimming along to when I saw another of my kind. I yelled out to her, ‘Help!’ But she could not understand, you see, in mermaidia it is a different language then Zuli. But, she knew I needed the help and swam over to me. She started speaking to me in Zuli! I later learned she was a master at the art of travel and language. I never knew I would have such luck. Luck...” She stopped for a second and I put my arm around her. “Well, she brought me here, to mermaidia and brought me to the queen, she told her something I could not understand. Then she told me that she would teach me mermish and that I could live here. I was younger than you Madia. I wanted my family. I cried in the night, and I cried in the day. I didn’t enjoy my life, so one day, I decided to go back.

“I traveled east I went right into land, luckily, some of the human mermaids brought me back. I couldn’t escape, I realized, and it was no use to try to get home with no sense of direction. I lived for 5 years here being homesick and being educated to mermaidia standards which are much higher then Zuli’s. As I said, I lived for five years until I was 17 years old, that’s when Queen Ariana saw to it that I was a human Maid, and that I was to collect the humans from the world above to bring down here as I have brought you. I was and apprentice like Coral and Shell. I kept track of the records of the humans and counting how many times they had swam, and I traveled on the adventures for the humans. I was as happy as I had ever been in Zuli, I loved it and started my life here finally. I became a mermaid that partied every night and danced like there was no tomorrow. I was a little late, but it was wonderful. Of course I still missed my parents, but-” She paused, then continued in a quieter, hesitant voice, “It is a much better life here.” She stopped and wiped a tear from her face.

“I will be your new mother sweet Madia,” and wrapped me in her arms.

After we had recovered, Bubbly sat up. “Would you like to go to your welcoming party tonight?” she asked.

I sat up abruptly. “Yes! Of course!”

“Well then, you will where your garment you have on now since you have no other. It is at seven o’clock. It ends when everybody goes home which is who knows when. Well, it is
6 hundred forty five now, so, we can get there a bit early.”

“Six hundred forty five?” I asked.

“Oh! I forgot, you do it a little different in the human world right? Yes, we do it where we add a hundred instead of the dots, quite simple like yours.

“Well, shall we go to the party? It takes a little bit of time to get there.”

“Umm, sure!” I got off my bed and followed Bubbly out the door and onto the shell paved road.

We went back the way we came up until Seabend, then we turned the opposite way of the entrance we had come in first. We went down seabend for about 5 minutes until we reached another entrance /exit. The gate opened and we swam through. We were on another side of town. This side had tons of brightly colored buildings all with lights from every window, and chinese lantern type things floating through the water. Ww walked passed all of these brightly colored buildings to a big, dark building with no windows at all. We walked up to the front door and knocked.

3
The Party








The door opened and the girl that opened it looked at Bubbly first, then at me. She looked back at all of the people in there and yelled, “She’s here!!!!” The music started and lights were turned on in the once dark room. The darkness of the building was the opposite of what was inside. It was the biggest, brightest party I had ever been to. And the only one that was about me besides my birthday. I walked in and everyone cheered.

“Our newest mermaid!” One called over the crowd.

“Cheers to our newest mermaid!” Another one yelled. Everyone raised a fake glass to their mouth. Well, not everyone. Some people were not glad that I was there. Like a merman. When I swam past him with Bubbly he whispered in my ear ‘You won’t survive a day little princess,’ Bubbly heard and told me to ignore him.

I hung around with Bubbly for a while like a shy child staying with her mother. Finally, Bubbly told me to hang with someone my own size. I went over to the refreshments table. A mermaid with her friends swam over to me.

“Hi! Are you Madia, the new mermaid? Oh we’re so glad to have you! Have you enjoyed it so far? Tomorrow’s shopping day for you, right? Yeah, I know, Bubbly told me. You know, I might be going shopping solo tomorrow, maybe I could join you! By the way, my name’s Pearl.”

“Hi,” I said and gave a smile,

“Yeah, I’m shy too, but don’t worry, I’ll help you meet some people, once you get to know them, you won’t be shy anymore.” It was hard to believe that she was shy. She reached her arm out to mine and I took her hand. She led me over to a crowd of mer’s and started talking.

“Hey guys, this is Madia, the knew one, you know,”

One of the merboys turned around, I realized that it was the guard I had seen at the castle earlier!

“Hey!” He said, smiling. I smiled weakly under his and waved a little.

“Hi,”

Two other mermaids turned around.

“Hi!” They both said together.

“We know you!” Said the blond one, which I realized, looked exactly like her sister. They were Coral and Shell.

“Madia, we finally get to meet you, like actually!” Coral conversed.

“Yeah, it’s always nice to have a new mermaid in the city. We don’t know them all, there is a lot of mermaids! Now we know one more!”

“Yeah,” I said a little unesally.

But Pearl saved me. “What’s it like in the human world?” Pearl asked me. That got me started.

“Well, it’s not much different from down here,” I started. The mers listened intently. “But, we can’t breathe underwater even though we have pools. I live in a house similar to this one, but I spend more time in my house than you do.” I told them all about the human world. They all were very excited to here about it. One of their comments was, ‘Now I’ll get an A plus on my human assignment in history!’ and ‘Boy, you humans live a pretty dull life’ Pearl had to remind him that I was not a human anymore and that I was one of them now. I told them all about it and that got me pretty comfortable with their social group.

After I had told them all about the human world, we sat in silence for a while. Then Pearl broke the silence once again.

“Would you like to join us?” She asked me.

“What?” I looked at her quizically.

“Silly Pearl,” Shell interjected “She means, would you like to join our debate club. We debate for not littering the ocean and for mermaid rights, like letting mermen be gay and mermaids be lesbian. We support all things that while help our city thrive. We also raise money for homeless mer’s. Our Enemy is the group from tar high. They support the opposite of us. You know that guy that you passed, I saw him whisper something to you. Was it mean?” I nodded. “I suspected so. He’s one of the guys from tar high, they don’t like former humans and think they should be killed. Watch our for him and the other debate group, they’ll kill you if they have the chance.”

“So you guys are like lawyers?” I asked.

“What?” Asked Coral. I explained to them what a lawyer was. Once I had explained, they all nodded vigourously.

“So, would you like to join us?” Pearl asked once again.

“Oh!” I had forgotten about her asking me, I was so engrossed with the topic of there club. “I would love to!”

“Great! Now we have to give you the rules. Lucas, would you do the honors?” She looked over at the guard.

He stopped looking intently at the light fixtures and put his attention back to us. “Sure,” He replied.

“Great!”

“Alright,” He glanced around a bit uncomfortably. “Rule number one, never hurt your opponent. Rule number two, never give in,” He started picking up the pace and looking less dull. “Rule number three, always have a party at the end of a debate even if you lost. Rule number four, the girls at the after party can never do each others hair.” All the other girls groaned at the same time.

“Lucas!”

“OK OK, I get it, rule number five, if you win, rub it in the other teams face. That’s all.”

“Thank you!

“You got it Madia?”

“Yup!” I replied.

“4 turns into five!” Shell laughed happily.

“Member five will be a great addition to our group.” Coral continued.

Then I felt a tug on my arm.

“Shall we dance?” Lucas asked me.

“Oh!” I was surprised that he asked me.

“Sure, but I’m not a great dancer- beware.”

“It’s easy. YOU just swish your tail and talk while I get food.”

I laughed. “It’s that easy,” We walked out onto the dance floor and I started to dance. A couple of other mermaids made conversation with me and I told them about the human world until Lucas told me to stop- they were just trying to get good grades for there human projects in mer school- only once a week for a hour. After I talked with the other mermaids, Lucas engaged me in conversation about the mer world.

“It’s pretty nice. You know, we basically party everyday, parties like this one.”

“Nice,” I said, a bit uncomfortably. I was not comfortable around Lucas, that was the fact. I did not know him. All I knew was that he was a somewhat social, good looking guy! I mean, I wasn’t going to pour my heart out to him. I didn’t know what to say. I would let him do the talking.

“The mermaid world is awesome, especially merball.” He conversed.

“Sounds nice,” I said. He seemed to recognize my thoughts. He motioned for us to go off the dance floor and join the other guys.

“Nice time dancing?” A new mermaid asked. Lucas’ face turned red.

“This is Cary, Madia.”

“Hi!” Cary gave me a big smile then quickly changed her expression on Lucas.

“You and I need to talk.” She said, frowning, “On the dance floor.” And she pulled him away.

Pearl looked guiltily at me. “Did I forget to tell you that Cary is his- well- Leaf?”

“What?” I asked Pearl.

“Umm,” Now she looked really guilty. “Well, I forget the word that you use in the human world. I this it’s umm... Girlfriend?” That was when I left.

4
Shopping













“Please Madia! What happened at the party?” Bubbly had been pestering me all night about what had happened at the party and I simply wouldn’t answer, I don’t know why it shook me, I guess I was just mad at Lucas, not about me, but about cheating on his girlfriend. I’m like that, I feel bad for others first before I feel bad for me. But now it was starting to seep in, he had danced with me... still, no reason to feel bad for myself. I was a little shaken, because of the unkown. Well, anyway, that day after my party was Shopping day. I could at least be excited for that. I woke up in the morning with a fresh set of thoughts such as, ‘Yay! Shopping day! I get to pick out new outfits and experiment the mermaid world, their food, and their food, and so much more!’ I had always loved studying other cultures.

In the morning I teared up a little but made it through with a little encouragement from Bubbly.

That morning I got a pleasant surprise. There was a knock on the door, I quickly ran to answer it. When I opened the door there was a fantastic looking Pearl standing right in front of me with shopping bag in hand.

She quickly started talking. “Neighbors?! Great! I live on Seabend. Last night I asked Bubbly where you were staying since she seemed to know you best. I’m so excited for shopping! Did you know that Bubbly and I are very close?” She put her bag on the chair nearest to her and quickly walked to Bubbly’s room. I heard a scream, not a scary scream, but a you-just-walked-in-on-me type of scream. Then I heard a lot of scolding coming from the Bubbly side of the matter. I smiled, I really knew Pearl by now. Energetic, outgoing, pretty, nice, friendly. She was going to be a fun shopping companion. I was excited.

Pearl came back into the room. “Hey,” She said putting her hand on my arm, “I’m sorry about last night,”

“You don’t have to be, it wasn’t you, plus he didn’t hurt me.”

“Well then, who did he hurt?!” Pearl looked at me with a look saying Come on! He didn’t hurt her!

“Cary is a jerk, don’t feel bad for her.” She continued.

“Why shouldn’t I?” I said with a sassy look.

“Well...” Pearl hesitated, then started speaking really fast, “ShekilledqueenarianandpretendednottobyearningthefavoroflucasandIdon’tknowwhattodoandIneedhelpcrackingthecaseandlucasisblindandshe’sjustuseinghimsodoNotfeelbadforher!”

“Wait wait! Slow down!” I yelled.

She calmed down, then started talking again. “Whenever I see her face I want to scar it for life. She should not be allowed in the mermaid world. She killed queen Ariana.” She sighed, “I saw it with my own eyes, I saw her stab the queen with her shell made of gold from the human world.” She sighed again, “I guess I should tell you the whole story.

“Well, the truth is, Cary used to be in the mermaid prison. She was there for blackmailing her old leaf for his gold shell. She still has the shell.

“Well, she got out. Then she quickly got a job at a restaurant near the entrance of the mer world. I worked there too. I did not know a thing about her and her past. She earned the favor and friendship of me. I brought her to our club and introduced her to everyone- including Lucas.

“Then one day, she asked me to come with her. I had no idea where we were going, but we were headed towards queen Ariana’s palace. I asked her if we were to work for the queen, but she turned to me with a sudden cold look and said with an unusually high pitched scream type voice, “No questions!” I was surprised at her coldness but continued until the gait, where Lucas stood guarding at the time. I smiled and greeted Lucas with a shout and a wave, but Cary was quick to cover my mouth. We passed through the gaits and into the palace. We headed towards the queens chambers. I wanted to yell and ask Cary what we were doing, but I was loyal to her, and thought we were bringing something wonderful to the queen and didn’t want to give us away. Of course we were bringing the Queen a surprise, but not a good one.

By the time we reached the Queens chambers, Cary led me into a corner and turned on me. She started talking and glaring at me with surprising hatred. ‘You will Never tell anyone that we have been doing this’ She ordered me, ‘and you will not’ She said with an evil smile, ‘because I am going to kill you’ She smiled and stuffed a ton of seaweed into my mouth so that I couldn’t be heard as I tried to raise the alarm. But she wasn’t going to kill me yet, first she had to make to with the Queen at the time- Ariana. Ariana was a most loved queen, she was smart,nice, and ruled the kingdom with a majestic hand. We all loved her dearly, but Cary had a bloodthirsty mouth and quietly entered the chamber. There lay the queen, sleeping safe and sound, right before her speech of loyalty, and speech to unite the whole kingdom, but more on that later. Cary walked over to her, then sounded the alarm - ‘The Queen has been killed!!’ She screamed as a great actor. Then she grabbed out her gold shell and thrust its sharp end at the queens heart, then rubbed the blue blood that had spewed onto the shell, on me. Then she thrust her shell at me - but - I wasn’t killed, the shell bounced off me like I was the deep sea fish Lobscrecj! It was magical, but I didn’t care about that at the moment, I just swam out the window of the queens house and towards home. On the way, I passed by a mermaid a little older than me, Bubbly. She took one look at me and started comforting me with an arm around my shoulder. She brought me to her house and I explained everything. That’s how I met Bubbly.

The seaweed had fallen out of my mouth, and I swam towards the club meeting. I was surprised to find Cary there - with Lucas, him comforting her and hugging her. I looked at them, then at Coral and Shell. I swam over to them and told them. They were shocked. I confronted Cary, but she acted like nothing had ever happened, and Lucas did nothing to support me - Nothing! He just held her closer!

“And in the now, we might have to turn on our own club member to fight for queen Ariana! And -” She paused then said a little quieter “- me.” I was just quiet. I thought about death, and how I just as well might be dead to my parents, oh why did I have to come to this world?

Pearl interrupted my thoughts, “So,” She said, I could tell she was uncomfortable by the tone of her voice, “Ready for shoppi-

“Hey Bubs!” She waved to Bubbly, who was coming out of the room behind me, “Sorry for the break in earlier! Just a little mistake!”

“And a mistake it was,” Bubbly replied, smiling.

“Thought I could go shopping with you two today? I need some clothes for the big competition at the end of the year!”

Bubbly leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “‘End of the year’, 4 Very important words!” I laughed, Pearl laughed along as her good natured self.

We ventured out onto the street, and came out the same way as the night before, except this time, we didn’t turn on the street with our party building, as we had done the night before, we kept on going until we reached a dead end that said, ‘Do Not Cross‘ In very big, red, letters. Bubbly didn’t pay attention to that, she just swam over it, - one of the many advantages of being a mermaid. From there, we reached a long alleyway. We swam on there for a while, making many twists and turns, until we reached the back of a big, white building, I realized that we had entered Slo-op!

“We have to start the day off by going to Aurora - our department store here in Mermadia.” Bubbly said.

“OOOOOH!” Screamed Pearl “I’m so excited!” She reached out to touch my arm, “You’re going to LOVE It!” She raced inside the twirling door, with me close behind, Bubbly following with a smile on her face. Then, once I entered the store, a realization hit me,

“Bubbly!” I cried, turning around to face her, “My speeech! Breakfast!” I had a look of chagrin on my face as I looked in her eyes, but her face was calm and had a look of a hidden emotion saying, ‘Oh silly new maid, don’t you know the ways of the mermaid world?’ But then her face changed to a soft, forgiving one and she explained,

“Oh! I forgot, in the human world breakfast is the first meal, am I correct? Well, in mermadia, Breakfast is the last meal of the day, you will have your speech then.” I sighed with relief, and kept on swimming (and racing) to catch up with Pearl.

“So, ready to totally rock this place - and so many more?” She asked with a big smile,

“Oh yeah!” I replied.

“So,” Pearl looked down at her map then at the elevator unto which we were standing in front of. “Looks like our first stop is floor 7, that’s the start of the extensive women’s section that goes on for 8 floors, Then there’s the top floor, shoe section.”

“Shoes?!” I asked, shocked,

“Oh yeah, we have these fin coverers that we call shoes.” I was amazed. We entered the elevator and soon landed on the seventh floor. I stepped out to enter a brightly colored room filled with racks of clothing everywhere you could see:A shoppers paradise. The entry room led to another, and others branching off, and another, and another.

Pearl grabbed me by the hand and marched forward.

“I have a guide to this place,” She talked as she walked, “You have to go to the back room if you want to get the best quality, most ‘In’ bra’s. The other stuff is on the other floors.” We walked back into the maze of rooms filled with many colorful clothes until we reached a room marked “A Shoppers Danger: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone Ladies.” Pearl didn’t look twice at the sign and brushed through the curtain - but quickly stepped back with her hand over her mouth. It looked like she had been seriously injured in the mouth, but I could see the glimmer in her eyes. I followed her as she stepped through the curtain and paused for a second - I’m not a shopping freak, but this was too much, I mean, I can’t describe it, but I know what the first thing I did was - start grabbing, and grab I did, I grabbed every piece of clothing in sight, because that was what Pearl was doing, and it was fun, very fun in fact, and I was enjoying every moment of grabbing clothing and enjoying it.

Soon, we were at the checkout of women’s clothing, floor one, and were off to were Bubbly was, we decided to skip the other floors, there were so may other unique shops in Slo-op. We met Bubbly downstairs on the first floor where she had grabbed some Seaweed - apparently it gave us some energy for the day ( they don’t have coffee of course ).

Bubbly looked up and gasped. “Girls! What have you gotten yourselves into?!” she was staring at our 8 shopping bags with a look of horror and amusement on her face.

“Shopping,” Pearl said casually.

“Did you go to all 8 floors?” she asked.

“Nope! Only one!” Pearl replied. She didn’t seem to be getting it that Bubbly was not that happy.

“Come on’ Bubs! We didn’t shop THAT much,” Apparently she was getting it. I was silent the whole time, only because I didn’t want to be the one Bubbly spurged all her anger on. Well, she didn’t spurge her anger on pearl either. She just smiled a smile that said ‘I’ll let you off this time, but don’t you try again’. I was just fine with that.

We stepped out of Aurora and onto the streets of slo-op, Bubbly said that she was going to shop with us this time around, Pearl and I reluctantly said yes. Bubbly recommended that we go get a massage until lunch.

We explored the area of slo-op and ate lunch at a fabulous restaurant, then it was time for me to go home with Bubbly and prepare my speech.

We departed from Pearl at Bubbly’s house. When we got inside, Bubbly pated a chair and she sat down in the other.

“So, your speech. Not many get to do this,” She expained to me what my speech should be about, and we worked through the kinks. I was satisfied when we headed to breakfast.

5
The Speech









We excited at the main entrance and went to the front gate. Bubbly pressed in the code and we entered. I swam slower, I was scared about my speech. Speaking in front of the whole mermaid kingdom? I didn’t like the sound of that. I had always gotten a bit nervous standing in front of my class at school!

Bubbly led me through the main road onto the street were the parade was the day before. We continued down this street to a part called Downtown. Well, I was familiar with that word. We walked into the town square and Bubbly led me up to the head of the table in the center of the town square. Bubbly had planned for her to introduce the speech. And I was Glad.

The Queen was seated at the other end of the very long table. I had to squint to see her crown. The table was like a maze. It had many different tables branching off of it. I looked around and saw the debate club waving at me. I smiled and waved back, frowning, to see that Cary was with them. But I smiled as warmly as possible. Coral, Shell, and Pearl gave me a big thumbs up. Another mermaid who I didn’t recognize was sitting with them. She gave me a thumbs up. Pearl mouthed “Debate club too Awesome” I smiled and waved at her. I glanced around the crowd and saw the millions of mer’s, staring at me. I shivered, but Bubbly put a hand on my shoulder and whispered “It’s ok, I had to do it too.” I looked up at her, but she had already looked away.

Then the instruments started blowing, and the queen stood up, and everything went blurry in my eyes. And then, I started crying - big, raindroppy, tears that seamed like they could drown the whole ocean in their amount. I vaguely remember swimming away from the table , and Bubbly calling for me, and I not replying. Then she swam after me, and followed me, to where I was planning to go - the tunnel. Then she cried out to me,

“No! No Ash- no Madia!” I stared at her for a moment.

“You called me by my real name,” I said, and smiled a watery smile, “I miss that name Bubbly - and - and -” I stuttered, “I have to go back - back to where I belong.”

“No Madia,”

“Yes,” I turned toward the tunnel to go back to the human world, but she grabbed my hand and blurted, “You can’t turn back!” Then covered her mouth.

“What?” I asked her quizically.

“You can’t turn back Madia. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, on the verge of tears once again.

“You can’t turn back from your mermaid self, into a human again, you are changed, and even if your tail could change into legs again - you can’t change - and no,” She had seen the look in my eyes at the sound of tail changing into legs,

“- there is no sea witch, I know that story that you humans made up about us. You don’t even know that we exist.”

“We? But, I’m a mermaid now.” I looked at her with a somewhat challenging look in my eyes, “Bubbly, I thought that I was one of you now - am I still and outsider? Still a person of another world intruding upon the sacred ground of the mers?” I fake tossed something away, “I didn’t even want to come here, you took me here, You - Bubbly - you did. Why? It’s not like you need more mers!” I threw up my hands, but , as angry as I was, I was still observant, and I saw the look that crossed her face. It was a cloudy look. Her face fell and she drew her lips in.

“What?” I asked. She went out of her thought,

“I’ll tell you later. Now, go back to the cottage - the speech will be next year, after this had all worn off. For now, I need to go tell the queen that you are not prepared for your speech yet.” I was ashamed. I swam slowly back to her home and swam through the door. I was surprised at the sight inside. It wasn‘t light inside, like I had left it. I turned on the lights and saw the guys from Tar High lined up against the wall - like an album picture. I just stared before the guy in the front started talking.

“Started chickening out on your piece I heard?” I stared at him,

“Yeah, like we would want to come to YOUR Speech. Ha! You don’t belong here HUMAN. You missed someone up there didn’t you?” I always got silent at these moments. I stared at him. I always get uncomfortable about BIG kids, who are older than me. I always just stare at them. My mom always said that I had some sass, but she didn’t know about my problem with these types of situations - especially with boys. I don’t know why, but I have always been kind of shaky with boys older than me. These, had short hair at least. Long haired ones creep me out.

“I did.” I said those 2 words with no confidence whatsoever. They knew what i felt inside.

“Scared, huh kid? You know, we would come over and comfort you, bag of bones, but we need to get on with our day, or - should I say... night.” He hissed that last word and turned to his friends. They were all silently laughing underneath those mock - serious grins.

“I don’t know what you want, but get out.” I looked at them straight in the eye as I said these words, but they did not seem to give a flinch.

“Well kid you want us to-”
“Your still a kid yourself!” I interrupted him, this time lashing out with my words, instead of sinking into the darkness.

He glanced at his friends in mock surprise, “Oh! So she says we’re still kids, hmmm... I think she’ll have to do fella’s. What do you say?” They all nodded their heads.

“That’s not ‘saying’,” I said, under my breath.

“What’s that girl? Did she just contradict my speech?”

“Why such proper grammar?” I asked.

“You have to have proper grammar to be a arguer.”

“Oops, I was wrong, no proper grammar in That head.” I pointed at his head then turned my finger.”

“Well fella’s, this KID,” he said staring me in the eye, but I dare not contradict him, “Will have to do. Let’s tell her what we plan to do with her.” They nodded their heads in unison.

Then they spoke all together, “Kill the queen and her.” The main one finished for them,

“To make it look like YOU killed her. And our experienced ‘Queen Killer‘ Will help us too.” Cary stepped out from the shadows. I immediately figured out what was happening.

“You - You!” I stared at her in her Tar High clothes. I knew what was happening. Cary was staying beside Lucas so that she could remain on the good side, but have killed two queens. She was only staying with Lucas to stay on the good side of town. The mermaid world has its pros and cons.

Once the whole group had stepped out, the six of them lunged at me and hauled me into a sack which was then placed on the backs of the leader and Cary.

I was gagged as I was thrust into that sack, so I couldn’t yell out when I heard the voices of the debate club.

“Tar high huh?” That was Shell. Before I heard the voices, I had already felt Cary slip from under me and swim away to some unknown place.

“Yeah” That was the voice of the leader.

Lucas joined in. “Say, what’s that on your back man?”

“Just our grub, for the party tonight, that you of course are not coming to.”

I tried to say the word liar but the gag prevented me from saying the word. But I did move a little.

“Then what was that movement on your back?” It sounded as if Pearl had joined the conversation.

“Just... ummm. Don’t worry about my private business.” I felt him lurch forward and push through them, then grumble, “Out of my way!” I was pulled around in many back streets, their hideout was very secretive. Sometime later, I felt Cary join us again. I wanted to scream at her for being such a traitor, and for killing the Queen. I also wanted to cry my heart out. I wanted Bubbly’s hand to be on my shoulder, and I wanted more than anything else to have my mothers hand on my shoulder, I wanted to here my dads praise, and I wanted to here my sisters annoying, chatterbox mouth screaming at me for not picking up her dolls. The thought that I would never see them again scorched my heart, and I knew that a piece would be missing forever more.

Finally, we stopped and I felt my capturer lurch forward, as if to open a door, but I heard not sound of any such thing happening. I was thrown down onto a bed and the sack was untied, but they still kept me gagged. I crawled out. I was alone, in a room that was barred at the door. I was left in the room all by myself with no food or anyone to watch me. I was on a bed that was made of some type of metal made in the ocean. This tiny part of being captured had worked in my favor. I was dog tired and felt like I could sleep for 100 days. I rested my head on the single pillow on the bed, then conked out. I slept for what seemed to be about 2 minutes before being grabbed by one of the tar high and being shaken awake.

“Breakfast,” He grumbled.

“And you had to wake me up for that?!” I asked. He turned sharply towards me.

“You!” He pointed his finger at me, “You do not talk to anyone of us that way!”

“Oh, shut up,” I said under my breath. It seemed like everything that I said had to be under my breath. Well, everything that was WORTH saying.

6
Captured







I had always watched movies on the land where the hero was captured and got saved by either his accomplice or some other hero. If the lady was captured, the man would save her. Yes, and the hero never lost hope or anything. Well, that is sure not what it’s like in real life. When I was trapped in that room, only I could save myself - because no one was coming to save me, at least not yet. The problem was that no one knew where I was, or, even that I was gone! They might have figured it out by then, but they surely didn’t know where to find me. Well, as I was trapped in that cell, crunching on my food, and pondering over what Bubbly, and Pearl, and Coral and Shell, that new girl, and Lucas where doing. Did they even care that I was gone? I mean, they hardly even knew me then, maybe they where just being nice and didn’t care if I went missing. But as I ate my food, something happened outside. It was the sound of screaming, I listened closer, but didn’t get a sound again. Then someone was thrown into the room with me.

It was Pearl.

“MADIA?!” She cried.

“It’s me! How did you end up her too?!”

Her face fell. “Probably the same way that you did. They’re slowly picking us off one by one! I didn’t know that you would be here.” I thought about the world above. Why had I gotten myself into this mess? Then I reminded myself that I hadn’t got myself into this mess. Then I started to blame the mermaids. Then I went to sleep.

The same days past. We talked, ate, slept, and moaned. We waited for another one of the debate team to show up. But they never did. Well, they did - but in a different way.



. . .






We hadn’t been keeping track of the days. But on a particularly boring day in the cell, there was a tap at the wall. Pearl and I weren’t quite sure that it was a tapping, but we listened.

When we heard the crunch Pearl was quicker than I. She grabbed the spear from around her neck that I hadn’t noticed before. She turned her head to me, sensing my stare at the spear.

She spoke gruffly, “Gift from my mother, in case I need to protect myself,” Then she turned her attention to the wall and thrust the spear into it. The wall, which was made of what looked like concrete, crumbled. Pearl kept up this motion for five minutes. It was a powerful spear, and the weapon on the other side of the wall was powerful too, so we reached each other very quickly.

Suddenly, Pearls face lit up. Her eyes brightened and she dug her hand into the chipping. I was surprised at what she pulled out. A letter.




This is what it said:






Pearl, and possibly Madia,

This is from coral and shell and Reef too.Madia, Reef is the last member of the club. But, mainly I am writing it, Lucas. Hey, I’m sorry about the party, and if it angered you. Well, we are trying to save you. If this letter has come to you it has come from my pick picking at the wall of your cell, which we tried to enter but could not. In fact, I am writing this with my pick. We will save you, but have to hide you somewhere. We all might have to possibly go into hiding. Anyway, the point is not to worry. We are close to saving you. With every good thing we have ever said to you in mind


Lucas. Shell. Coral. Reef

We stared at the letter for the next five minutes. Then Pearl rushed to the crack in the wall. She reached her hand inside, crumbling around in the rubble of stones. Then she sighed, and she looked stricken. It was a terrible face she made. Almost a mix of anger and anguish. But what she said next surprised me the most.

“We’ve gotta‘ get out of here.”

7
The Escape




“But how?”

“What do you mean how?! Obviously, we climb through the crack!” I was surprised at her sudden mood change. It was like she was angry.

“What do you mean Pearl? Come on! Talk sense. You cannot climb through a hole that your hand, which is unusually small, can hardly squeeze into!”

Her face softened. “Madia, I was waiting for the right moment to go. But listen, you have to be secret. The rest of the team hasn’t figured out how WE can escape all by ourselves. Now,” She squeezed my shoulders in her hands like she was a mother about to talk to me about puberty. “I should have expected you wouldn’t know about it. After all, you are new to the mermaid world.

“The trick is, we squeeze through the hole because we are mermaids. Unfortunately it does not always work in our advantage that we can do this whenever our queen needs us, but I have a feeling that she does.” Her face wore a smile, but when she said those last seven words it fell off. I realized what she meant. At the beginning Bubbly had told me that whenever the queen called the mermaids they would be able to come to her. It must be the same when the magic knew that the queen needed some special mermaid out there. And that was us.

“The tar high tackled two members of the debate team,” Pearl continued, “The founder and the newest member. They knew that the rest would focus on getting the two members out of their heavily guarded cells, not even being able to find them in the first place. So while all of the members tried to get them out of the cell, the tar high members could get to the castle, to kill the queen, since she has not picked a successor yet. And after they killed her - well, they would become the leaders.” Pearl had gotten riled up during her tirade, but she quieted at the end.

“Our kingdom would fall apart!” She sobbed, “ All the stuff my ancestors had worked to build a strong, stable, wonderful place for the mers to live! And they would tear it apart! They would, shell by shell.”

“Oh, Pearl,” I said. We were both acting like mothers to each other. It was kind of weird since I had only met her a night ago. But she was so damn nice.

Pearl’s mood changed so fast. First she was irritated, then she was a sobbing mess, and now she got up, wiped her tears and swum toward the crack.

“Follow me,” She whispered. I swam towards the crack and watched as she disappeared through it. I followed her. Surprisingly, my head kind of shrunk like I was as flat as a piece of paper. I slipped through and found myself in part of the mermaid world that I had never seen before. But when I saw Pearl it made my heart skip a beat.

Pearl was on the ocean floor, out like and candle when it’s raining. I shook her, knowing I couldn’t yell, but whispering loudly ‘Pearl! Pearl wake up!’. My first instinct was to pour a glass of water on her, or put sea salt under her nose. But I knew I couldn’t do that. So instead I grabbed the first thing I saw
Seaweed. I rapped it around her head and pulled. It didn’t work. Instead, I got a piece of silvery hair in my palm. So I tried all the plants in sight and put them under her nose. Nothing. Then I had the idea which was gory but worked: I pulled off her bra. Her eyes opened up immediatly and she looked at me.

“Madia?” Then she seemed to realize where she was, “OH! Yes I - oh,” She looked down at her chest, “Oh! Oh! Madia you little rascal!” She tickled my arm, grabbing the bra and strapping it back on. Then she looked serious again.

“Madia, you are new to the mer kingdom, therefore not knowing what is within the boundaries and what is not.” She paused.

“Madia, this is pricklefischorry. Pricklefischorry is the place where all the dead mers go when, well, when they are dead. And in Pricklefischorry, there lives the prickle fish. And, well it eats mermaids. Dead or alive.” Her face turned a deadly white color.

“And it looks as if we are being surrounded by them right aaaaaaaaah!” Her face seemed to be ripped in half as a white beast with Prickly fins bit at her fin. She managed to rip away in time.

“MADIA!” She shrieked as another one tried to take a bite, “SWIM! AWAY NOW! I AM COMING! NOOOOOW!” And she swam, fast, as I followed, not quite as fast. The Prickle Fish kept on biting at me, I pulled away, painfully every time. As I flipped my fin something lodged into my brain for the first time - Tar High was not part of the mermaid world! They were outside of its boundaries which meant they were not part of it! It surprised me so much I almost lost speed, but I kept going until suddenly the Prickle Fish stopped, as if a wall was keeping them from moving on.

Pearl stopped and lay down on the ocean floor. I did as well. We looked at each others wounds.

“They’re only able to swim within the boundaries of the graveyard.” Pearl explained.

“I figured,” I replied. We were so exhausted we just sat there rubbing our wound until we had the energy to explain it to ourselves.

I started. Pearl had the answers, so I was going to tell my story and let her fill in.

“So, the Tar High people brought us to the graveyard, or their dungeon. They kept us in there knowing that one: our team members would never find us, two: they would be able to get to the castle and kill the queen while we were gone.

“So, wait, Pearl!”

“What Madia?”

“I just realized something! If our team members could never find us since this was out of the boundaries, how do you explain the note?!”

“You’re right Madia! They,” She said they in such a menacing tone I had no doubt she meant tar high, “must have given us the note to stall us even more! Oh my god! I can’t believe that we didn’t realize that before!”

“Anyway,” I continued, “We come out and find ourselves in Pricklefichorry, the place they had no doubt that we would be killed. So far, their plan was working perfectly - until now.”

“You’re about right,” Pearl replied, “How where you captured?”

“Well, to make a long story short, I walked into Bubbly’s house and they jumped on me. They stuffed me in a bag and took me to there camp. They gagged me of course. When I heard you guys outside I wanted to scream that I was in the bag, but of course I couldn’t.”

“That’s odd, I was captured the same way! I was going to your house to see Bubbly, you know, to get advice, and Bubbly wasn’t there - but they were. They put me in a bag and brought me here. And they put some magic on the wall, so that when I tried to get out with the queens magic, I could. But when I got there I fainted, which was good because the Prickle Fish don’t like people who are between dead and alive. So when you came out, we had time for you to get me back up and ready to run.

“Madia, what’ll we do next?!”

“I don’t know.” Suddenly an idea struck me, “Wait! I know - but you might not like it.”

“Madia, you know we can’t go back to Mermadia yet -”

“I know - we have to go to Zuli.”

“What?”

“Zuli, where Bubbly was brought up.” I covered my mouth, but since I told her I had to explain.

After I told her Pearl didn’t want to go.

“But surely Madia it’s too dangerous! I mean, oh if you must!” I had been nodding my head the whole time she had been talking.

8
Packing Up And Saying Goodbye


“Madia, this will have to be secret.” Pearl and I had been talking about what to do about Bubbly and the debate club.

“But yes, the debate club. We will definitely say goodbye to them.”

“But what about if they want to come with us.”

“We’ll say that only we will be able to do it. We will have to be firm. They can survive without there leader for a time.”

“Pearl, I don’t think we should tell the queen either.”

“Well, we should tell the guards to be on their security for the next year.”

“Year!”

“It will take a while to get to Zuli, and we need to stay there for a while. And you can’t expect Tar High to be so dumb as to strike this soon. I hope they don’t think we’re THAT dumb. They probably haven’t even figured out we’re gone yet. We now know just how smart the Tar High dudes are!”

“You’re right, we have to warn them. But we really should warn the debate club. They could do so much to protect the queen, really.”

“You’re right as well, they could watch for Tar High, and they could help protect the queen since we’re gone and they know that we are safe. Now they won’t come looking for us.”

After all that conversation, we had been swimming quite quick, we arrived at Pearl’s home. She held a finger up at me.

“I only have to get a few keepsakes and I’ll be right out. Do you have anything?”

“One bra, I’ll be right out.”

“Perfect, see you in a sec.”

I didn’t really have a bra, but I was turning over the thought of Pearl, about what a good friend she was to me, and how I had taken that for granted in the human world. But not here. Here I was so grateful to the debate club for befriending me - and I was so grateful to Bubbly for being my mom in the mermaid world, never like my real mom, but we shared so much in common. I went to her cottage and picked out one of the matching bras Pearl and I had picked out.

When I went back outside, I saw that Pearl had picked out the same bra, but I didn’t say anything.

Pearl reached for my hand and pulled me forward.

“You’ve never been to the rest of the clubs‘ houses have you?” I shook my head in response.

“Well, we’ll go to Coral and Shell’s first - they live in an apartment in town. Then we’ll head over to Lucas’s - he lives right in front of the entrance to a fancy neighborhood. Finally we’ll go to Reef’s. She is a fifth cousin of the Queen so she lives fairly near the castle. I can introduce you to her. She joined 1 year before you.”

“Perfect!” I replied. We walked in silence the rest of the way, I imagined the houses that they lived in, but couldn’t put an image into my mind.”

We arrived at the twins house about 5 minutes later. It was an quaint little apartment with lots of seaflowers hanging around the door decorating it.

Coral opened the door to us. Her mouth dropped open like a codfish.

“You - you escaped!?” She stuttered.

“Yes - and it turns out that the dungeon was in Pricklefischorry.” Her mouth dropped open even more. We went inside and explained it to her and her shocked sister. After they figured it out, we explained about our reasonings to go outside of the mermaid world, (we didn’t give away Bubbly’s secret to any of them). But after that they solemnly wished us good luck.
Next, we headed towards a gate across the street that said : private, Bed of Seaweed Deluxe Housing No Solicitors.

Right in front was a group of 4 houses connected to one another. Each had the last name of each of the owners. The one that said “Shramewn” was the one Pearl headed towards. In times ahead I would learn that every last name in the mer world was from the ancient mer language, and Lucas’s meant “Sea Fairing Ship Man”. We went up to his house and I rang the bell. When Cary opened the door we stepped back.

“I should have known!” Pearl whispered to me. “Now we can’t tell him, he’ll tell her! Oh no, they’ll be after us now!”

Cary stepped out, “What do you want?” She was very good at acting even though we already knew she was part of Tar High.

“Lucas and I are having Private time.” Suddenly Lucas come to the door. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised. I was expecting warmness, but then I realized that the letter Tar High gave to us, pretending it was him, wasn’t real.

He stared coldly at us, “If you have to always be mean to my girlfriend, then I will have to be out of the debate club!” And he slammed the door.

Pearl and I stared at the door. Pearl seemed to be shaking all over as she spewed her thoughts at me, “She’s been giving him ideas! I bet she’s told him we were threatening her or something, or that we weren’t captured, but just scaring him. Oh I hate her! And now Tar High is after us. Madia, we need to get out of here - now.