I ended up surrendering to the cake’s siren song and asking for a second piece. The shimmertail had really added to my workouts this week, and I was hungry all the time. I was going to be in great shape by the time I returned to summer swim team.
Thinking about home and swim team got me thinking about our friends back in Pumpkin Falls. I drifted over to the corner of the porch where Cha Cha and Jasmine were standing—they’d both surrendered to the siren song of Delphine’s dessert too. “Have either of you heard from the guys today?”
They both shook their heads.
I pulled out my cell phone and tapped out a text to Scooter and Lucas and Calhoun.
A few seconds later the three of them popped up onscreen.
“Are you eating again?” Scooter looked incredulous. “And it’s always sweets!”
“Mermaids love dessert,” I replied calmly, zooming in on the layer cake. I could almost hear him drooling.
“We had fudge earlier too,” Cha Cha added helpfully.
Scooter groaned.
“Maybe my dad will make brownies for us if I ask,” Calhoun told him. Calhoun’s father was an enthusiastic baker.
Lucas peered over my shoulder. “Where’s Mackenzie?”
“Back in our cabin,” I said, without going into details. I didn’t want to get into what had happened at the Brewster Store just yet. “So, anything new on your end?”
“Nothing,” said Lucas.
“Nada,” said Scooter.
“Zip,” said Calhoun. “Well, not entirely zip. Officer Tanglewood’s been giving us a hard time because we haven’t found the trophy yet.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Well, we’ll be home soon. See if you can fend him off until then.”
“What happens if nobody finds the trophy?” asked Jasmine.
I shrugged. “They’ll just make another one, I guess. It’s not that big a deal.”
“But it won’t be the same.”
“Of course it will,” I told her. “It’s just a dumb silver pumpkin.”
“It’s not dumb!” she said hotly. “It’s tradition!”
“Guys,” said Calhoun, “it’s not worth arguing about. And not to change the subject or anything, but my dad says the cast list will be posted tomorrow.”
Cha Cha and Jasmine both squealed at this news.
“Ladies! Shell phones off!” said Sirena, who was seated on a nearby sofa deep in conversation with Zadie and Lenore. Well, with Zadie anyway. Lenore seemed to be mostly listening, as usual. “It’s almost time for lights-out.”
Jasmine grabbed Cha Cha’s hand. “Let’s go tell Mackenzie!”
I followed them outside, but I wasn’t ready to return to Whelk just yet. I tried texting Hatcher to see if he was still awake, but he didn’t respond. So I sat in the hammock for a while, brooding about Mackenzie spilling the beans to Dr. Appleton, the likelihood that I was going to make a complete fool of myself in the revue, and how complicated and tangled life seemed sometimes. And then I went to bed.
Friday was a blur of rehearsals and preparations for Saturday night’s show, punctuated by a flurry of excitement after lunch when Calhoun texted us a photo of the cast list.
“I can’t believe I’m Mabel!” boomed Cha Cha, clutching her phone and hopping up and down in excitement.
Mabel was the female lead. Jasmine was excited too, even though she didn’t have a major part. She’d been cast in the chorus as one of the “maidens”—the daughters of the Major-General.
“That means Hatcher is my father,” she said, giggling.
My brother had gotten the part of the Major-General. I could only imagine the jokes that would be flying around our dinner table back at home, since a major general outranked a lieutenant colonel. My father was going to have something to say about that.
It was so typical of my brother to land the lead role! He’d never acted before, never sung in public before—well, besides church, which didn’t count—he’d just tried out on a whim and knocked it out of the park. Sunflower smile, sunflower life. It was like he was sprinkled with stardust or something.
“Ooo, Cha Cha!” said Jasmine, looking at the rest of the list. “Calhoun got the part of Frederic, Mabel’s true love.”
Cha Cha turned pink and laughed it off. I laughed too, but I wasn’t laughing on the inside. Neither of my friends knew about my crush. Mackenzie was the only one I’d confided in. I slanted her a glance, but she was still ignoring me.
Calhoun had talked Scooter into auditioning, and like his sister, he was in the chorus, and would be doubling up as a pirate and a policeman. Calhoun’s sister, Juliet, had been cast as Ruth, Frederic’s nanny, which we all thought was kind of funny. She’d hardly have to act at all—she bossed Calhoun around all the time anyway.
Lucas was the only one of my friends who, like me, hadn’t tried out. I was pretty sure it was because his voice was changing and tended to go shooting off into the stratosphere unannounced.
“I wish I could stay and be in the play,” said Mackenzie. “You guys are going to have so much fun!”
“Why don’t you?” said Cha Cha. “I’m sure there’d be room for you in the chorus.”
My cousin shook her head. “I can’t—my parents have planned a vacation for us to Yellowstone National Park. We leave next week.”
“How about you, Truly?” asked Jasmine. “Are you sure you don’t want to get involved?”
I shook my head. “Not my thing.”
The rest of the afternoon found us logging serious pool time. Zadie and Lenore put us through our paces, making us practice our routines over and over until we had them down cold. By dinnertime, we were all so tired that the only thing we had the energy for afterward was lolling on the sofas in the living room watching Splash.
“Ladies, I think we should declare an early curfew tonight,” Sirena said when the movie was over. “Tomorrow is a big day. You owe it to yourselves to be mer-mazing!”
Mer-mazing? Ha! Unless something “mer-aculous” happened, like I got sprinkled with some of Hatcher’s leftover stardust, I was pretty sure I was still on a collision course for
