She held her breath as she cranked in her combination, expecting the fish stench to assault her. But when the door swung open, her locker didn’t smell fishy at all. The sudden disappearance of the smell was as strange as the appearance of the fish in the first place. How could the fish smell simply vanish? In fact, her books and smattering of pens were dry, without any stains or any indication that her locker had been filled with fish and slimy garbage. Once the shock wore off, she felt relieved. Why was she upset the fish smell was gone?
That was a good thing, wasn’t it?
No dead-fish smell.
One less problem. Maybe the day would get better after all. Maybe she wasn’t cursed.
A familiar voice echoed down the hall. “Don’t worry, we cleaned up your locker,” said Kendall, sashaying up to Shelly with Alana and Attina in her wake. “We all got to school early so we could surprise you.” Her eyes darted to the fresh spray paint. “But we couldn’t get that off.”
“Don’t worry,” Alana added. “We reported it to the principal.”
“Yup, she’ll have it removed and repainted by this weekend,” Attina said with a smile. “Your locker will be back to normal—and as good as new. Maybe even better than new.”
“You cleaned my locker?” Shelly said, feeling gratitude for her friends. They still supported her even though she’d lost her race and cost them the swim meet.
“Of course, silly,” Kendall said. “You needed our help.” Her eyes darted to the spray paint. “Judy and Little River are so lame,” she added.
“Yeah, hashtag lame,” Alana said.
“You think Judy wrote this?” Shelly asked, nodding at the blue lettering.
“Like, of course,” Kendall said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Who else would pull such a dumb prank? They probably did it to celebrate their win yesterday.”
“Uh . . . right, of course,” Shelly said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and resting a hand on her scarf. She couldn’t let them see her neck. She didn’t need more problems.
“But you know what this means, right?” Kendall asked.
“Uh, what does it mean?” Shelly asked.
Kendall made a face. “Even more reason for payback next race!”
The twins giggled. “Hashtag payback,” said Attina.
Kendall hooked her arm through Shelly’s and pulled her down the hall toward class. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back,” Kendall said with a wink. “We’ll handle it for you. Oh, and odd choice with the scarf. But I don’t hate it. Right, girls?”
Attina and Alana nodded.
As they walked into class, Shelly felt a ripple of happiness. Her friends had her back after all. They did care about her. They cared when she’d almost drowned. And they’d cared when she’d been pranked. They’d even cleaned up the mess for her. The swim meet and the fishy locker were just flukes. Plus her wish ensured that stuff like that would never happen again.
Moments later, Mr. Aquino called the class to order. “Today we’ll be talking about fish anatomy,” he said, flipping off the lights and turning on the projector. An image of a goldfish appeared. “You probably learned a lot during our aquarium field trip,” he added.
Snickers rang out in the classroom. Nobody liked science class except for Shelly. She tried to focus on the lesson, but her hand kept drifting up to check on the scarf. Suddenly, she felt a wad of wet paper hit her cheek. She jerked her head around. Normie made a kissy face.
Fish lover, he mouthed. His friends giggled from the back of the room. So they’d all seen Judy’s latest prank. Shelly shrank down in her seat, feeling annoyed.
Mr. Aquino aimed his laser pointer at the goldfish’s neck. “Class, what are these called?”
Shelly’s mouth dropped open in shock. The little laser point hovered over the slits in the fish’s neck. She knew exactly what they were called. But that wasn’t why she was freaked out.
She reached under her scarf and touched her neck, feeling the slits.
When no one answered, Mr. Aquino shifted his gaze. “Shelly, care to enlighten us?”
But she couldn’t say it. Her mouth felt dry, like it was filled with cotton balls. She quickly pulled her hand out from under the scarf. She suddenly remembered the sea witch’s words, and somehow, it all fell into place: Oh, you’ll be the fastest swimmer. You’ll swim like a fish!
This was the gift from the sea witch. Ursula had given her gills! But that wasn’t what Shelly had meant when she made her wish. She didn’t mean for it to happen like this. Another spitball hit her cheek.
Fish lover, Normie mouthed at her.
The silence stretched.
Shelly started to feel like she couldn’t breathe. Her chest felt tight. Her lungs screamed. Since the slits had appeared on her neck, breathing seemed harder. It wasn’t her imagination, either. It had something to do with the gills. She was certain.
Mr. Aquino looked worried. “Shelly, is everything okay?”
But all she could think about was her neck, and Normie, and the horrible nickname, and how if the other kids saw her, well, her new fishlike parts, it would only get worse.
Much, much worse.
“Uh . . . can I use the bathroom?” she managed to utter, then grabbed the hall pass and bolted from class. She had to figure out more about the gills—and how to make them go away before anyone could notice them. Shelly rushed into the bathroom, checking to make sure nobody was in there. Fortunately, it was empty. Slowly, she unwrapped the scarf from her neck, revealing the gills in all their fishy glory. She breathed deep, watching as they flared open, then sealed up.
It would be kind of cool—if they weren’t on her neck. Like a crazy science experiment.
She was reaching up to touch the gills when she heard something.
The sound came from one of the stalls.
It sounded like something wet flopping around.
“H-hello?” she stammered, quickly rewrapping her neck. “Is anybody in here?”
Nobody answered. It sounded like the noise was coming from the closest
