Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (3 page)

I skippety-skipped to Bridget's the next day, scooped a bunch of ice cream, and didn't even mind working my whole shift with Chelse as she carried on with her texting drama. Apparently, her cell phone break was over and a few glances at her screen revealed that the carnage had indeed spread over to Facebook. Was no virtual place safe from the frenzied fingers of Chelse Becker?

Friday afternoon lunch rush was finally over. I just had to get through a few more hours of scooping duty and then the next day's Mer-to-Mom Rescue Mission planning could begin. Finally, some answers!

I took advantage of the slow down in customers and scarfed down an order of Bridget's cheesy nachos with extra jalapenos and washed it down with a bowlful of Wig Wag Wigout, my own special creation of Nutter Butterscotch Ripple ice cream with Wigwag chocolates crumbled on top.

I was in my happy place.

“Rumor has it that all your ice cream is made with real cows.”

My stomach did a somersault as I looked up and saw who it was. Luke held the Holstein cow tip jar from the counter up to his face, trying to match its cow-like expression. He set it back down and it toppled over, sending the cover rolling across the countertop. I scrambled to help him catch it, and our hands brushed against each other. My face felt hot and I wondered if the moment could be any cheesier. It was like a scene from a chick flick, except I felt like I was playing the part of the awkward best friend instead of the charming love interest.

“Luke…” I stole a glance at Chelse to see if she could bail me out and serve him while I faked a trip to the bathroom. I couldn't talk to Luke! Not without rehearsing every itty-bitty detail in my head to avoid making an idiot of myself like I had the day before.

Chelse looked my way and rolled her eyes. My real-life troubles obviously paled in comparison to her virtual ones. I flashed her a thanks-for-nothing eye bulge and turned back to the takeout window to face Luke.

I was on my own.

“If you're looking for suggestions, I just had the Nutter Butterscotch and it is delicious. I recommend a crumbled Wigwag topping. My specialty.” I tried to keep my tone as businesslike as possible, but I was sure I sounded like my brains had been scooped out and put through a salad spinner.

Luke braced his hands on the counter and looked over the cooler lid to scan our selection. “As good as they all look, I'm not really here for the ice cream.”

“Oh. Well, you can get frozen yogurt at Mug Glug's,” I offered. What was
wrong
with me? I owed the guy an apology, big time, and all I could do was blow him off with dairy-related chitchat.

“Cori says you get off your shift soon,” Luke said.

“Um, no…actually I work until five.” I made a mental note to kill Cori.

“Actually, she's off right now.” I felt someone yank the dish towel from my shoulder and flick the back of my leg. Speak of the devil.

“Ouch. And you're early,” I whispered to Cori, turning toward her.

“And
you're
welcome,” she whispered back. She looked up at Luke and smiled. “Jade will meet you in the parking lot out back in a couple minutes.”

“Got it.” Luke drummed his fingers on the counter, then gave an adorable salute before disappearing past the ice cream parlor window.

I turned and grabbed the towel back from Cori. “What are you trying to do to me? What am I supposed to say to him?”

“How about ‘I'm sorry' closely followed by ‘How's your mom?' and then finish it off with a ‘That Cori is
so
awesome, isn't she?'”

“Ha ha.” I folded the dish towel until it was an itty-bitty square then shook it open again and tossed it on the counter.

“Seriously, Jade—you can do this.” Cori unhooked the time sheet clipboard from its nail and handed it to me.

“Weren't you the one who told me to stay away from the Martin boys?” I took the clipboard from her. “Are you saying you weren't right, after all?”

“Yeah, well…it's not that I'm always
right
, I'm just never wrong. So, step away from the ice cream cooler. You are being relieved of your duties.”

I looked at her with an exasperated smile.

“All right, all right.” I found my name on the time sheet and signed out. “I might as well apologize so I can breathe my last breath with a clear conscience before I die of embarrassment.”

“Good girl.” Cori held out her hand for the clipboard but Chelse took it from me before I could hand it over.

“A friendly word of advice?” Chelse signed out for her break and shoved the clipboard back onto its nail. She tossed her cell phone into her purse and swept by me. “Guys suck.”

“Wow,” I whispered to Cori once Chelse was out of earshot. “That was weird.”

Cori pulled down the lever to fill a sugar cone with swirls of soft-serve vanilla. “Yeah, well, not sure if you've been on Facebook lately but there's a really embarrassing video of Chelse being posted and shared. I'll admit I snuck a peek. It's kind of cringe-worthy.”

“Really?” I glanced over as Chelse pushed through the diner door. I knew it was probably wrong, but I was dying to know. “What's the video of?”

“Just something stupid. I'll tell you more about it later, but go. Luke's waiting for you, remember?”

Remember? I pictured Luke making that adorably silly cow face and sighed. Luke Martin was kinda hard to forget.

•••

Luke was sitting on the curb of the back parking lot when I came out of the kitchen door. He stood when he saw me and slid his hands deep into the pockets of his cargo shorts.

I felt for the toe ring I had strung on a chain around my neck. It brought me back to that night in the tub, the first time I'd ever changed from feet to flippers. The weirdness between Luke and me would be a big bummer, since I really wanted to talk to him about this whole mer thing. Who else could understand what it was like to be me?

Luke looked like he was debating what to say, judging by the way his eyebrows scrunched together and the slow breath he was exhaling. What if this was the final showdown? What if I didn't get a chance to apologize before he dumped me for good?

“Luke, I…” I began, but the rest of the words got stuck in my throat like a dry cracker.

Luke held out his hand for me.

“Walk?” he asked, nodding to the path that followed the canal to the beach.

I nodded and took his hand.

Luke's hand. In mine. What did this mean?

We walked along the mile-long canal that separated the Atlantic Ocean from the fresh water of Talisman Lake. Luke's grandpa, Eddie, was in charge of opening and closing the canal's lock when boats wanted to sail through. But the canal's lock served another purpose. The Mermish Council used Talisman Lake as a prison and the lock kept the criminal mers, “Freshies,” from escaping.

“You totally knew I was down there that day, didn't you?” I remembered how Luke had looked into the water the day I finally got Mom and Serena through the locks to the ocean.

“I almost dove in when I saw you were down there, but I figured that would blow your cover.”

“Thanks for nothing. I was freaking out down there!” I slapped his arm as we continued walking. “So, I still don't get why you never said anything to me. All that time, when you knew about me…”

“Grandpa thought I shouldn't. He says mers have been able to stay alive because we keep each other's secrets, which I guess kinda makes sense.”

“I guess.”

“We haven't really had much of a chance to talk about this whole mer stuff since Cori's pool party, and I know that's mostly my fault.”

“No, wait a sec.” I squeezed his hand for him to stop. “I need to apologize. I'm so sorry about jumping all over you yesterday. How's your mom. Is she doing okay?”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, thanks. We were all pretty freaked out for a while there, though. What about you? Any news about your mom?”

“Not really. It's kind of driving us nuts. My dad and I are planning a search and rescue mission tomorrow, though, to keep from going crazy.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Got any contacts at the Mermish Council?” I asked hopefully.

“Hmm…” Luke considered this for a second. “If I knew what a Mermish Council was, maybe I could be more useful.”

“I think it's in that mer handbook they forgot to give us.” I laughed. “Anyway, I'm happy things worked out with your mom. And
really
happy I got to apologize before Cori strangled me with a dish towel.”

“That Cori is
so
awesome, isn't she?” Luke said in an exaggerated tone as we continued walking.

“She told you to say that, didn't she?” I asked.

“Yep.” Luke laughed.

Cori, Cori, Cori.

A warm ocean breeze swept up from Port Toulouse Bay, smelling of salt and summertime. The canal trail hooked up with the wooden boardwalk running along Toulouse Point Beach. Moms were out pushing jogging strollers along the boardwalk while a few guys tossed a football near the lifeguard tower. We reached the far end of the beach, where the sand gave way to a rocky shore that led to a point of giant granite boulders.

“So.” We sat on a large log of silver-colored driftwood. “
Is
there actually a mer handbook? Because I'm mostly clueless when it comes to this mer stuff.”

“Tell me about it.” Luke leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought you were the expert.”

“Hardly.” Luke looked out over the ocean, then glanced over his shoulder to me. “You remember the first time you crashed into me at Dooley's pharmacy?”

“Technically, you crashed into me, but yeah, I remember.”

“I felt like there was something different about you that day, but I wasn't sure if it was you or because of what had just happened to me.” Luke stood and crouched next to a puddle of ocean water left over from when the tide had gone out. He fished out a small crab. It waved its claws blindly in the air as Luke eyed it closely.

“You'd just gotten back from your sailing vacation with your family,” I said.

“Yeah, but it was a bit more than just a vacation.” Luke walked down to the edge of the water and placed the crab carefully in the water, then turned back to me.

“How so?” I asked.

“Well, my mom and dad had always told me I was adopted.” He finger quoted
adopted
.

“So you always knew you were a mer?” I plucked a couple of starfish from the puddle and joined Luke at the edge of the water.

“Yeah, Grandpa was the one who found me washed up in a puddle like this when I was a baby.” Luke shaded his eyes to look out into the ocean, then turned back to me. “At first, when I was little, I thought it was just a bedtime story, but when I was about nine, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa explained it all to me. But it wasn't until this past spring that I knew what it all really meant. Grandpa knows another Webbed One in Florida…”

“A human who is part mer, like you and my mom, you mean?” I remembered the term
Webbed
One
from Dad's
Mermaidia: Fact or Fiction
book. But Webbed Ones were far from fiction. In fact, Finalin and Medora had pulled me under the waters of Talisman Lake when they'd seen my webbed toes. “And me too, I guess.”

“Yeah. So we sailed there to get help for my first time and everything.”

“You mean, the first time you ever changed back to a mer since you were a baby was just this past spring?” I tossed the starfish into the water and wiped my hands on my shorts to dry them.

Luke nodded. “Yup.”

Then, something occurred to me. Luke wasn't
exactly
like me. I was born human. And since my human DNA was so strong, I just had to crawl out of the water to change from mer
back
to human. Luke was different, though.

“So, if you're a Webbed One, but were born a mer, you must need a tidal pool to change back.”

“Yeah. The tides in and out of a puddle like this were enough when I was a baby but the older you get the more complicated it becomes. There was a large pool on Bobby's property in Florida. We tried a few others, but they weren't as good and took much longer.”

“Just like your grandpa told my dad. The pools aren't really magical at all, are they?” Huh. Dad's Merlin 3000 sounded like it was on the right track. “So, how long does it take you to change exactly?”

“It gets easier each time. By the fourth time, I was down to about two days.”

“Two days?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?” he asked. “How long does it take you?”

“No more than a couple minutes, but usually I puke or pass out.”

Luke laughed and I'm sure I blushed, remembering the time he'd found me passed out next to Talisman Lake mid-transformation.