Time for the razzle-dazzle, I thought. As the others fanned out even farther, allowing me more space, I slid down into the water again and leaned back in the ballet leg double position. Lifting my tail in the air, I sculled my arms the way Zadie and Lenore had taught me and waved my flukes back and forth for all I was worth. The audience gave an audible gasp as the shimmertail caught the light.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Scooter filming me with his cell phone. I gritted my teeth and kept smiling. If he put that video online, I was personally going to stuff him into this shimmertail and send him to Davy Jones’s locker!
The music shifted, and the circle of mermaids parted. I headed for the opening.
“Swim pretty, now!” Zadie whispered as I passed her, echoing Esther Williams’s famous phrase. I could tell from the twinkle in her bright blue eyes that she was having fun. I was surprised to realize that I was too.
“I’ll do my best,” I whispered back, and began a slow circuit of the pool. The others peeled off and swam after me single file, like a mermaid parade.
We all smiled and waved as we glided by the cluster of little kids in swimsuits who were seated in the front row. They watched us, eyes shining in anticipation. They were obviously eager for the traditional swim-with-a-mermaid part of the show, which was scheduled to begin as soon as our revue was finished.
The music swelled, signaling the approach of the big finale. While I jackknifed into a surface dive, the other mermaids swam over to where Delphine was waiting by the edge of the pool. I brought my tail down on the surface of the water with a loud SMACK!, propelling myself into a streamline. Surfacing, I burst into the air and flung my arms forward into the butterfly stroke—my favorite. The rest of the mermaids were all back in the center of the pool by now, and I swam faster and faster around them until I was fairly flying through the air. The audience whooped and cheered.
For a moment, I forgot about being on display in a clamshell bra, and I forgot about the butterflies, and I forgot about everything but the feel of the water and the way the shimmertail rocketed me through it.
For a moment, I almost felt like a real mermaid.
And then disaster struck.
With one final thwack of my tail, I dove deep underwater and headed for the center of the tight circle that the others had formed again.
When I emerged this time, they crowded around, lifting me onto the shoulders of the two tallest girls from St. Louis. As they did, I felt a tug on my back and let out a horrified yelp as I started to rise into the air.
Someone had undone the clasp on my bikini top!
My clamshell bra was about to go AWOL, right in front of my family and friends! And possibly a TV audience too, if Carson Dawson managed to get his camera rolling again.
Instantly, I clamped my arms across my chest, trapping my top in place. This wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing at this point in the finale. I was supposed to be collecting a fistful of sparklers from my fellow mermaids, who had retrieved them from Delphine just a few moments ago. It wasn’t quite Esther Williams and her hydraulic-lift-and-fireworks finale, but it was the best imitation we’d been able to improvise.
“What’s wrong with you?” Mackenzie whispered as I hunched over, terrified that I wouldn’t be able to keep what was left of my dignity in place.
“Wardrobe malfunction!” I whispered back, and her eyes widened as she saw my bikini top closure flapping freely.
Zadie saw them too. “Just keep smiling,” she told me, moving in to hide me from the Channel Five team, who had finally managed to plug the camera in again.
Over her shoulder, I caught a glimpse of Hayden. She was smiling the same Cheshire cat smile that Aunt True had worn a few minutes ago, the one that said, I’ve been up to something.
I gaped at her.
Shellina was the one who’d done this?
Anger surged through me, from the tip of my flukes to the top of my tiara. No way was she getting away with this, grand finale or no grand finale.
Without giving it another thought, I tipped backward into the water and smacked down as hard as I could with my shimmertail.
CHAPTER 22
I went home in disgrace.
My parents didn’t even let me say hello—or good-bye—to Calhoun. I barely had time to grab my suitcase before they marched me off to our minivan.
I’d missed Hayden by inches with my tail. From the way she’d carried on, though, you’d have thought it was a direct hit. When my flukes smacked down on the water’s surface, I’d unleashed a tidal wave that soaked not only her but also everyone else within a ten-foot radius. Plus it extinguished the sparklers, ruining the grand finale.
Hayden had hollered bloody murder, and I’d hollered right back. We’d gotten into a fight right there in the pool—or as much of a fight as two people in mermaid tails could get into, with one of them clutching her clamshell bra for dear life and the other coughing and spluttering and pretending she was almost drowned.
With some assistance from my father and the lifeguard’s hook, Sirena had finally managed to haul the two of us out.
“Try and salvage what’s left of the evening,” I heard her hiss to Delphine and Zadie as she hustled us off to the cabana. After the ruckus, though, most of the little kids didn’t want to get in the water with a mermaid anymore—they were probably afraid that they’d get smacked with a tail too. I felt bad about that. But I didn’t feel bad about defending myself. Hayden had been needling me all
