Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret (4 page)

“Make sure you visit soon, won’t you?” Mom said, gulping back a tear. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

Millie blew her nose loudly into a huge hankie, then stuffed it back into her pocket. She’d decided to stay at Allpoints Island to be with Archie. She said two weeks apart had been more than enough, and she wasn’t doing it again. If he was needed here, then she needed to be here with him. It was quite sweet, really. “I’ll visit so often you’ll be sick of me,” she said with an attempt at a smile. Her lips wobbled, and smudgy mascara lines wriggled down her cheeks.

“We could never be sick of you!” Mom said.

Millie squeezed Mom’s hand one more time, then she reached out for me. “Come on you, give me a big hug.” She folded me into her arms and gripped me so hard, I thought I was going to suffocate.

Just then, Dad called from the water. He and Mr. Beeston were going to swim alongside us to begin with, just till we got out of the bay and through the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. After that, Archie had arranged for a group of Neptune’s dolphins to take us all back with
Fortuna
.

Archie was untying the ropes now. He was coming along for the first part, too. He gave Millie a kiss and gently wiped her cheek with his hand — getting mascara all over his palm. “I’ll be back soon,” he said.

And then we were off. Out on the open sea again. Heading home to Brightport.

I didn’t know what to expect as we approached Brightport. Half of me imagined it would have changed completely. The other half expected everything to be exactly as we’d left it. It had been more than six months since we’d left, and so much had happened in between. It was hard to believe we were really going to be back there at all.

But we were. I could see the town come into view in the distance as the dolphins pulled us toward the bay: the harbor where Mom and I used to live on our boat,
The King of the Sea;
the line of shops and guesthouses along the promenade; the pier with the amusement arcade that Mandy Rushton’s parents owned at the end of it.

Mandy Rushton. I hadn’t thought about her for a while, and I couldn’t hold back a queasy feeling in my stomach when I thought of her now. She’d bullied and taunted me for years. But when she ended up at Allpoints Island earlier this year, we became friends again, like we had been when we first knew each other. The only problem was, Neptune had put a memory drug on her and her parents when they left the island, because of all the things they’d seen. Now I didn’t know if she’d remember that we were friends again or if that memory had been wiped away, along with the mermaids and the sea monster.

I’d find out soon enough.

Aaron joined me on the deck. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing a little farther around the bay at an enormous tangle of hoops in the sky. I’d never seen it before, but Archie had told us about it.

“It’s the kraken,” I said.

Aaron’s eyes widened.

“Not the actual kraken itself, obviously.” I laughed. “It’s a roller-coaster ride, part of the new theme park Mandy’s parents built.”

“Cool!” Aaron said with a self-conscious glance at me. He’d picked up words like
cool
and
swishy
from Shona and me — except he hadn’t quite mastered the art of sounding natural when he used them. Having lived in a castle cut off from the entire world for his whole life, there were still things that he had never done before, like get excited about stupid things with other kids, or go on roller-coaster rides. So he didn’t quite have the language for them yet.

Just then, Dad poked his head out from the water. He and Mr. Beeston were pulling us into the bay. We all agreed it would be less conspicuous than a whole load of magical dolphins dragging a big, weird-looking yacht behind them. We didn’t want to attract too much attention before we’d even arrived.

“Nearly there now,” he called up to me. “Go tell your mom to get ready to land. We’ll be mooring on one of the far jetties off the pier — near where you used to live on
King.
”

With one last glance at the approaching coastline, I hurried indoors. Butterflies were chasing each other around and around in my stomach now. What would be in store for us here? Would things work out or would it be a massive disaster?

There was no turning back now. One way or another, we were about to find out.

“Well, Jake wants her to go to Shiprock School of course, but I think she should go back to Brightport High.” Mom was pouring cups of tea for herself and Aaron’s mom as the two of them discussed the ins and outs of our new life.

Aaron and I were playing chess at the table. He’d taught it to me recently. He’d spent years learning but never had anyone to play against. He was winning. He always did — except occasionally, when he pretended not to notice a really good move so he could let me win.

He and his mom were staying in one of the cottages on the beachfront. They were converted fishermen’s huts, so they were all quite tiny and smelled like haddock, but they cost a fortune to rent in high season. Mr. Beeston had had a word with one of his old fisherman contacts and managed to get it cheap for a few weeks, just till the season began.

“I don’t know what to do about Aaron,” his mom replied. “I mean, mer-school would make sense in a way, but then it might be nice for him to get a chance to mix with normal boys his age, too.”

She glanced over at us. “I mean, human boys,” she added quickly.

Aaron put down the bishop he’d been holding. I was quite glad, actually, as I think he’d been about to take my queen with it. “Has anyone thought to ask us what
we
want?” he said, echoing the question that had been in my mind the whole time they’d been talking.

“It’s us who’ll have to go there,” I added, “so shouldn’t we have some say?”

“Of course you’ll have some say,” Mom replied a bit sharply. “But we’re the ones who will have to make the final decision.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because we’re your parents,” Mom snapped. Maybe I was embarrassing her by arguing with her in front of Aaron and his mom, but I didn’t care. It was my life they were talking about, mine and Aaron’s, and it wasn’t fair that they got to make all the decisions.

“Are you the ones who got bullied at school last year?” I asked, irritation heating my cheeks. “Are you the ones who only recently discovered a whole new self and for the first time in your lives had the chance to go to school with others like you? Are you the ones who will have to live our lives?”

All three of them were staring at me now, mouths open, eyes round and wide. I felt like I’d reached the important part of the speech, but I didn’t know what came next. Luckily, Aaron stepped in.

“Look, you’re right,” he said to the others. “This is an important decision. So why don’t we take it gradually?” He looked at all three of us. “How about a compromise? What if we go to Shiprock School for what’s left of the school year, while we all find our fins in Brightport, and then discuss it again over summer vacation?”

Mom and Aaron’s mom looked at each other. “I suppose there are only a few weeks left,” Mom said.

“And it
would
give us time to think about what to do in the long run,” Aaron’s mom added.

Mom looked at me. “We’ll have to see what your dad says first.”

I laughed. There was no way Dad would say I should go to Brightport High. That was settled, then. I was going to mermaid school again! And, even better, in a few days Shona would be there too. As I felt my whole body relax, I realized how much I’d been worrying about the idea of going back to Brightport High. I wasn’t ready to exchange the life we’d had at Allpoints Island for one where I got taunted and bullied — not yet.

Aaron moved his knight. “Checkmate,” he said. “You lose. Sorry.”

But he was wrong. I hadn’t lost anything. I was back in Brightport and was about to go to mer-school with my two best friends. “No, I don’t,” I said, grinning at him. “I win!”

Arriving at Shiprock School, we felt like celebrities. It seemed as if half the school crowded around us. Most of them went straight to Shona — hugging her and squealing with delight when she said she was back to stay. When she explained who Aaron was and reminded them about me from when I visited before, they fell on us too, firing questions and welcoming us to the school. A million light-years from the kind of reception I’d been dreading at Brightport High! This was
definitely
where we belonged.

The school bell rang and we followed everyone to the lines that led inside.

A couple of boys dragged Aaron off to his line.

“See you at lunchtime,” I called. Since he was a couple of years older than Shona and me, he was in a different class. I pointed to the other side of the playground. “Meet you over there at Shining Rock.”

Aaron nodded and swam off. It felt weird watching him swim away. We’d hardly spent a moment apart since we’d been back in Brightport.

“Come on, you’ll see him in about two hours.” Shona pulled at my arm. “Think you can survive till then?”

“Of course I can!” I replied, forcing a laugh out. “I’m not — I mean it’s just —”

“Anyway, it’ll be nice for us to have some time on our own together,” she said. “It feels like we haven’t done that for ages.”