Teenage Mermaid Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t on my shoulder!
    â€œMy purse! My purse! It’s gone!” I shouted.
    â€œIt’s okay. I’m paying!”
    Suddenly the water felt as thick as mud. I was moving in slow motion as I pushed through the sea of dancers. I swam toward the ceiling, dove back to the floor. I shouted to the DJ, but he just shook his head. I scoured every table on the way back to Wave and Tide.
    â€œWave, I lost my purse!” I panicked.
    â€œAren’t the Mud Rakers totally glacial?” she said, bopping her head and sipping her imported frog juice.
    â€œMy purse! It has my new purchase!” I shouted to her.
    â€œWe’ll get you another,” she said, almost relieved.
    â€œSomeone might mistake my medicine for a Shark Attack and wake up with two legs!” I said, glaring at her.
    â€œOh!” she exclaimed.
    Wave, Tide, Beach, and I went off in separate directions: Beach back to the dance floor, Wave to thebathroom, Tide to the galley, and I went to the upper deck. It felt like forever as I swam up the staircases and peered over railings, wondering if my purse had floated outside.
    Deflated, I swam back to our table. My search party wasn’t anywhere in sight. Had I lost them, too?
    â€œIs this it?” Tide called, hanging at the hostess counter, holding my abalone treasure.
    I swam over to him, relieved. But it felt lighter. I quickly opened it. It was empty!
    My heart sank. Even Wave looked frazzled when she returned from her search.
    â€œOh, no!” she shouted, pointing to a preteen mer-scout sitting at a table with his troops, about to open the cork from my bottle. He leaned his head back, ready to gulp the potion down his throat.
    â€œYou’re too young for this!” I said, grabbing it out of his hand.
    â€œI didn’t know! Don’t tell our troop leader! Okay?” he begged.
    I held the bottle tightly to my chest and made my getaway through the ship’s hole.
    â€œWait for me!” Wave said, climbing onto Bubbles.
    â€œSo I’ll see you tomorrow night at my party?” Beach called.
    â€œShe wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Wave answered as we sped away.
    Â 
    We raced to my favorite underwater hideout—an abandoned cave not far from my home. I had fixed it up with sea lettuce curtains, portraits of Earthees I had found at an open-water market, and hot-pink clay chairs. Shelves were adorned with rusty Earthee coins, a bright orange Earthee diving fin, a black high-heeled shoe, a Beatles’ Abbey Road compact disc, Panasonic batteries, and a carving of my parents at their wedding, dressed in white, kissing beneath a water lily patch. I used my hideout to listen to music, read teen mags, or fantasize about an Earthee life when I wanted to be alone. Only Wave knew of its existence.
    â€œHere goes!” I said, eyeing the potion.
    â€œWhy don’t you just hang it on the wall with your other treasures,” Wave suggested.
    â€œI don’t have a choice,” I said, trying to pry the cork off.
    Wave urgently stopped my hand. “What happens if Madame Pearl is wrong? What happens if you grow two heads instead of two legs?”
    â€œThen I’ll be that much smarter!”
    â€œYou don’t know what that stuff can do. You could grow two fins!” she said, pulling it back.
    â€œThen I’ll join the sea circus,” I said, pulling it toward me.
    â€œYou could die!” she exclaimed. “Lilly, you could die!”
    We stared at each other. Her angry eyes turned sad.
    I had never really thought of that. I guess it was my nature. Act now, think later. Talk back to my parents—think about it in my room. Cut class—reflect in my hideout. Save an Earthee now—consider the consequences later. Maybe this was one time I should think before I acted.
    â€œI won’t let you die!” Wave said, jerking the bottle toward her. But suddenly the old glass bottle broke—the jagged bottom