Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (7 page)

The bus to the mall made about nine hundred stops so Cori had plenty of time to give me the third degree.

“So, let me get this straight,” she whispered. We sat in the last two seats of the bus, away from the elderly couple at the front and the group of older teenagers zoned out on their iPods by the middle doors. “You're telling me you're part mermaid and that Luke here is also a mer-boy and you just spent the afternoon underwater with a
tail
? Did I miss anything?”

“Nope, I think you pretty much have everything covered,” I whispered back. Then I considered everything and smiled broadly. “Oh, and I inherited my mermaid genes from my mom—who is very much alive last time I checked, by the way.”

“Your
mother
is a mermaid? You mean she never drowned?” Cori's eyes were so wide I was afraid her eyeballs would pop out. “How long have you known all this?”

“I found out the week we went bathing suit shopping at Hyde's.” I spotted the sign for Port Toulouse Mall as the bus turned off the highway.

“But that was back in June!” Cori cried.

A girl at the middle doors pulled an ear bud from her ear. “Do you mind?”

Cori mumbled an apology and turned to the window, resting her forehead on the glass.

“I'm really sorry, Cori,” I said quietly once the girl went back to her music. “I begged my dad to tell you, but he swore me to secrecy. He was afraid scientists would treat me like a lab rat freak if they found out.”

“Like some kind of science experiment, you mean?” Cori asked, turning from the window.

“Or worse,” I replied, remembering the story in the book
Mermaidia: Fact or Fiction
about the Webbed One who was locked up in a mental hospital and given shock therapy.

Cori considered this for a second.

“I guess when you put it that way…” she said reluctantly.

“So do you forgive me for keeping it a secret?” I asked.

“I'll think about it. But only because your dad made you.” Then she slapped Trey's shoulder. “But you! You knew all this and didn't tell me?”

“Not my secret to tell, dude,” Trey said, turning in his seat. “That's what our grandpa says, anyway.”

“True. All true,” Luke agreed, giving his brother a fist bump.

“Your grandpa? Does everyone in Port Toulouse know about this except me?” Cori asked.

“Not exactly, so you can't tell anyone, okay?” I whispered.

“Who would I tell?” Cori raised her hands in the air and shook her head. “Who would believe me?”

“You've got to promise, Cori.” Luke turned in his seat to look at her. “Please?”

Cori took a deep breath. “If this means Jade might actually find her mother again, I absolutely promise,” she replied.

“Cool.” I nudged her shoulder and rang to Luke.

Thanks, and I'm sorry for earlier.

Don't mention it,
he rang back.
It's been a bit of a crazy day.

Ringing back and forth with Luke in our mer voices reminded me of the first time I'd found out he was mer at Cori's pool party. To us, it sounded like our normal voices but in another frequency. To others, it was an irritating buzz. Cori pulled her phone out of her bag and put it to her ear.

“What is that annoying sound?” Cori stared at her phone when she realized it hadn't rung.

We'd finally arrived at the mall.

“Maybe it's from the construction,” I said. Luke smiled.

The bus drove past the theater, along the length of the mall toward the Hyde's Department Store entrance at the far side of the parking lot, but there was a bunch of heavy equipment and chain-link fencing, making it hard to get around. Finally, the bus stopped and we all piled out.

“Uh-oh.” I nudged Cori as we stepped onto the sidewalk.

“What? Oh.” Cori tensed as Lainey Chamberlain exited the mall entrance and walked toward us, carrying about fourteen shopping bags. Lainey was in our grade at school. She'd had her eye on Luke back in the spring and was not exactly keen on the fact that he'd chosen me over her. Cori had stood up to her in my defense during Luke's end-of-school boat cruise when she found out Lainey had given me the nickname Scissor Lips back in the fifth grade. They hadn't spoken since.

“Jade.” Lainey stopped in front of me, then scanned the rest of our group. “Trey, Luke…and Cori Blake.” She said Cori's name as if chewing on a piece of steak.

Trey and Luke waved and disappeared across the parking lot to McDonald's, leaving us to speak to Lainey. I couldn't decide if they were yellow-bellied cowards or just really sensible.

“Be nice,” I muttered to Cori.

“Hi, Lainey,” Cori said brightly. “How's your summer so far?”

“Spec-tac-u-lar,” Lainey said, pronouncing each syllable. She dropped her bags at the curb and pulled out her cell phone from a really fancy looking handbag. “Just got back from New York. The shopping was ah-mazing. Mother wanted to go check out the upcoming winter trends for her new boutique.”

“Looks like you've been busy shopping here too.” I nodded to her bags, trying to change the subject since Cori had hoped to actually
work
at Mrs. Chamberlain's boutique before her big blowout with Lainey.

“Oh, this mall is
so
bad. It will be much better once my daddy finishes the new wing construction.”

That's when I saw the sign.

Chamberlain Construction presents:

PORT TOULOUSE MALL EXPANSION

Using only environmentally friendly

building products

Going GREEN to serve you better!

“Well, gotta go! Oh, Jade.” Lainey glanced down at my oversized sweatpants and made a face. “Sport Mart is having a back-to-school sale. Might want to check it out.” A long black sedan pulled up in front of the mall and Lainey picked up her bags before disappearing inside.

“That girl is pure evil.” Cori stared at the car as it pulled away.

“Yeah, sorry you had to lose your internship at her mom's boutique because of me.”

Cori squinted. “How do you know about that?” Then, she looked at me wide-eyed. “Are mermaids telepathic? Can you tell what I'm thinking right now?”

“No.” I laughed. “I was underneath the Descousse Marina pier with my mom, growing legs, when you and Lainey had your big fight. Heard the whole thing.”

Cori shook her head. “This cannot be real.”

“It's all pavement and buildings around here,” Luke said when they returned. “Are you sure this is right?”

I glanced at the McDonald's across the parking lot, closer to the road.

“It has to be. I could see the golden arches from the water.” I looked around for some open space where a tidal pool might be.

Cori stood on the sidewalk as the bus pulled away, still muttering about how she couldn't believe what was happening. Finally she looked around, trying to get her bearings.

“So what are we doing at the mall exactly?” Cori asked.

“Looking for a magical tidal pool,” Luke whispered in her ear, trying to hold back a smile.

I laughed. It was kind of fun to mess with her head.

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.” Cori put her fingers in her ears and hummed.

“Maybe it's closer to the mall,” Trey suggested.

We walked up to the chain-link fence by the construction site and tried to look between the signs advertising the mall expansion. Could the tidal pool be in there? Was Mom just inside that fence? “I can't see past these signs.”

Just then, a car backfired in the parking lot, making Cori jump in surprise.

“I seriously don't know how much more of this I can take.” She put a hand to her chest.

Seconds later, a great blue heron rose from within the construction site a few hundred feet away.

“Herons usually mean there's water!” Luke said.

“Let's get past these signs to get a better look,” I suggested, hoping Luke was right.

The fence stretched from the mall by Hyde's and continued for several hundred yards toward the ocean. We followed it through a marshy area and down to a secondary gravel road that ran along the shore.

“It looks like the fence goes along this road then turns back up to the mall in a big rectangle,” Trey said.

I looked back up the hill toward the mall and could still make out the McDonald's golden arches off in the distance, just like earlier, underwater. “Does anyone see a culvert around here?”

“There's a bit of a hump in the road up ahead,” Luke said.

Luke and I followed the raised ground across to where the ocean met the large rocks at the shoulder of the road. We climbed the rocks and peered into the deep water.

“Do you see anything?” Trey called from the road where he waited with Cori.

“Yes!” I yelled. “But it's under a couple feet of water.”

It was the same gray metal tunnel I'd seen with Reese. We'd found it! Now, how were we supposed to get through it?

“How big were those mer-dude's spears?” Luke asked as we turned back to join Cori and Trey on the dirt road.

“Big!” I said, shivering at the thought. “So, unless we want to get skewered, we're going to have to find another way in.”

“Mer-dudes with spears?!” Cori cried, scanning the open ocean. “Next you'll be telling me to watch out for sea witches.”

“I haven't seen any sea witches yet, but there's a pretty scary mermaid named Medora in Talisman Lake.” I searched for the hump in the road again and followed it as it ran straight through to the construction site. I peered through the fence. The evening sun glittered off what looked like water through the brush. Could that be the tidal pool?

“There are mermaids in Talisman Lake?” Cori cried. “I learned to swim in that lake!”

“And you lived to tell the tale.” I laughed to reassure her and checked the height of the fence to see if we could climb it, but it was about ten feet high and topped with a coil of barbed wire. “How big is this mall expansion going to be, anyway?”

Just then, a frighteningly loud rumble made us plaster ourselves against the fence as a large truck passed, followed by a huge cloud of dust. We coughed and waved our hands in front of our faces as it passed. The truck kept following the road for another hundred feet or so, then disappeared as someone swung open a large gate to let it through at the far end of the fencing.

“Come on!” I yelled. “That's got to be the way in.”

We ran to the gate just as a beefy security guard clanged it shut and secured it with a large lock. He must not have noticed us, because he turned back to the orange and white construction trailer and started climbing the steps to go inside.

“Hey, wait!” I yelled, and coughed away the dirt cloud kicked up by the heavy truck.

The security guard paused at the top of the steps. “Can I help you?”

“We need to get in there!” I called.

“This is private property, miss,” he answered. “Only authorized personnel allowed.” He reached for the trailer door.

“Just a second!” I yelled. But what could I say? That my mermaid mother might be stuck in there? How was I supposed to wheedle my way into a locked construction area, skirted by a ten-foot barbed wire fence? And why such tight security, I wondered.

The security guard opened the trailer door midway. A television blared in the background. He turned to glare at me. “Look, all I want is to watch the last ten minutes of
Ultimate
Survivor
, and for the last truckload of dirt to get here so I can finish my shift and go home. So whatever you want, make it quick.”

“Uh.” I looked to Luke, Trey, and Cori, but they shrugged hopelessly. I turned back to Grumpy McGrumpypants. “How much space is this mall expansion going to take, anyway?”

“The whole darn thing,” the security guard answered, waving his arm back and forth to show that he meant everything. “They're putting in a new wing off Hyde's then landfilling the rest to plant some sort of urban garden or something. Now, unless you wanna get mowed over by a truck, I'd suggest you scram.” He went into the trailer and slammed the door.

“The whole thing?” I whispered. I leaned on the fence next to Luke, wishing I could just walk through it, or under it or over it, but each option was as hopeless as the next.

“They're hiding something in there. I just know it,” Luke said. “Why else would they have such tight security?”

Luke's phone rang. He stepped away to answer it, then put his hand over the receiver to talk to Trey. “It's Mrs. Clarke. She wants to know when we're going to go back to finish the raking.”

Trey slapped his forehead. “Oh no. I completely forgot when you called me about the girl shorts.” He put his hand out for the phone. “Here, let me talk to her.”

“Hello, Mrs. Clarke?” Trey said. The rumble of a truck sounded in the distance. “Just a second, I'll move somewhere where I can hear you better.” He covered his ear with his hand, and he and Luke moved down the road to try to sort out their lawn-mowing customer.