Mermaids in the Backyard Read Online Free PDF

as she made herself a sandwich.
    By the time she finished eating, the shirtwas dry. She knew she should take it off—she was lucky she hadn’t ruined it, wading into the ocean like that.
    But it reminded her of her old home, her old best friend, her old life. Now that the mersisters were gone, that seemed more important than ever.
    She went upstairs and looked at the sea sponges Coral had given her. They were on her dresser, where she’d set them when she’d changed her shorts. While she was eating, they’d dried into hard little lumps.
    “Yuck,” she whispered. She almost swept them into her trash can.
    But even though they were kind of gross-looking, they were the only thing she had to remind her of her new friends. Just like her Cubs shirt was the only thing she had to remind her of Tara. Picking up thesponges, she stuck them in her pocket.
    She wandered back outside. Her heart jumped as she saw movement by the old-man rocks. It wasn’t the mermaids, though. Just Matthew poking around in the tide pool.
    “Hey, New Girl!” he called, squinting up the hill at her. “Check out what I just found!”
    He splashed out of the pool clutching a plastic bucket, the kind little kids used to build sand castles. Lindy wondered if he’d stolen it from his baby sisters.
    “Awesome shirt,” he said when he got closer. “Where’d you get it?”
    Lindy glanced down at her Cubs T-shirt. “Where do you think? I’m from Chicago, remember?”
    “Oh yeah.” He shrugged. “I guess you’re a baseball freak like me, huh?”
    “No way,” Lindy said quickly. She wassure she didn’t have
anything
in common with Matthew. “I don’t care about sports.”
    He gave her a funny look. “So why are you wearing a Cubs shirt?”
    “My best friend gave it to me.” Lindy played with the hem of the shirt and thought about Tara. “It was a going-away present.”
    “Okay. Anyway, you’ll never believe what I just caught. Look—it’s a real sea horse!”
    Matthew shoved the bucket at her. It smelled like rotten fish, and Lindy almost jumped away without looking. She didn’t want him spilling his stinky, fishy water on her shirt.
    Then she saw a small yellow shape inside. A
familiar
shape.
    Finneus!
    “Cool, huh?” Matthew bragged. “It’s going to look awesome in my tank at home.”
    Lindy bit her lip. Finneus was cringing in the cloudy water at the bottom of the bucket. His dorsal fin was flat against his back.

    Matthew looked in at the sea horse. “Hey, you!” he said loudly. He tapped on the side of the bucket. “Come on, swim around!”
    “M-maybe you should let him go,” Lindy said.
    “Let him go? Are you crazy?” Matthew stared at her. “No way! I bet I’m the only person around here with a pet sea horse.”
    The only person
above
the sea
, Lindy thought. She knew Coral and Sealily must be worried about their pet. How had the shy little sea horse ended up in Matthew’s bucket?
    Matthew tapped on the bucket again. “Stop that,” Lindy said. “You’re scaring him.”
    “Make me.” Matthew tapped harder.
    Lindy felt like crying. Poor Finneus! He would be miserable stuck in a tank with loud, annoying Matthew taking care of him.He might not even survive! She had to think fast.
    “You caught him on my family’s property, right?” she said. “That means he’s really mine, not yours. And I think you should let him go.”
    Matthew rolled his eyes. “Make me,” he said again. Then he grinned. “Wait, I have an idea. If you like this sea horse so much, I’ll trade him to you—for that shirt.” He pointed to Lindy’s Cubs T-shirt.
    Lindy stepped back and tugged at her hair. “No way,” she said. “Um, but I’ll trade you something else. How about my allowance for next week?”
    Matthew shrugged. “Uh-uh. It’s the shirt or nothing.” He turned and walked toward his own house.
    “Wait!” Lindy said, feeling desperate. Shecouldn’t let him take Finneus home!
    “What?” Matthew stopped and looked