But when she reached the parking lot, she glanced down at her ankle. There were bright red welts where the tentacle’s suction cups had grabbed her. She rubbed the skin carefully, wincing.
Shelly climbed into the back seat of her mother’s minivan, numb with shock. Her ankle throbbed. Her best friends thought she was a total freak. And the worst part was Kendall was right. She was a freak. And a cheater. She didn’t deserve the high score. And she certainly didn’t deserve friends. As the car whipped along the ocean parkway, her gaze drifted to the open sea.
One thought filled her head: she had to figure out a way to make this stop, once and for all. She had a terrible feeling the sea witch wasn’t going to let her forget about their deal that easily. She’d escaped this time—but next time she might not be so lucky.
Shelly biked back to the pool later that evening in a panic. The sea witch’s cackles echoed in her head.
You forgot our deal! You owe me a favor!
Shelly had to find a way to put an end to whatever the sea witch was playing at. She had to fulfill her part of the contract she had signed, or the witch wouldn’t stop haunting her and ruining her life. It was the only solution. She had to find the nautilus she’d thrown away—and return to the sea witch’s lair. She had to find out what Ursula wanted from her.
But she also couldn’t trust the sea witch. The “gift” of becoming the fastest swimmer had turned out to be a terrible curse. Sure, she’d won the swim meet and beat Judy Weisberg, but she lost her friends, was still part fish, and had to hide her body. And it was only getting worse.
She biked faster. The sun was just beginning to set. A brisk wind made her shiver as she stowed her bike and clambered up to the pool arena by the school. But the door was locked. She should have expected it would be. It was after hours.
Shelly crept around the outside until she found the window that led to the girls’ locker room. She reached up and pushed it open, then slithered through, landing in a crouch in the dark. She rushed over to the trash bin where she’d tossed the shell—but it was empty.
“I’m so stupid,” Shelly muttered through her teeth. “But I can’t give up!”
If the staff had emptied the bins, then the contents would be in the dumpster outside. She crawled back through the window, careful to shut it behind her, then circled around to the dumpster out back. As soon as she lifted the lid, she was hit by the stench. Pinching her nose, she rooted through the trash until she saw a soft glow coming from the back of the dumpster.
Could it be? She reached farther, almost slipping into the dumpster as she picked through the disgusting trash; then she felt the hard outline of the shell. As soon as her fingers touched it, she experienced the now familiar, but still terrifying, sensation of being sucked down into the ocean and into Ursula’s lair. She pressed her palms against the glass of the crystal ball.
“Took long enough, didn’t you?” cooed Ursula. The sea witch didn’t sound happy.
In the dimly lit lair, Shelly could just make out her dark figure swimming around. She caught a glimpse of tentacles, then a glimmer of Ursula’s wide evil smile.
“I want to take my wish back!” Shelly screamed at the shadows. “This isn’t what I meant! I don’t want to be the fastest swimmer anymore! I don’t want the gills or webbed things!” She held the nautilus in her hand. Her webbed hand. She drew her arm back and then chucked the shell at the glass. It magically passed through the barrier and sailed into Ursula’s lair. For a minute, nothing happened. Then it ricocheted back into the crystal ball—along with something else.
It was the crumpled coffee cup with the two straws.
The one she’d thrown into the ocean before everything went wrong.
Shelly stared at it, then picked it up and inspected it. What did that mean? What did it all mean? She’d thrown it into the ocean only for it to come back to her. Defeated, she sat down and sobbed, gripping the shell hard. “I wish I never signed it. I wish I could take it all back. . . .”
The second those words left her mouth, the lair started to churn angrily with a current.
A cackle echoed from the shadows. “No takebacks, my dearie! You signed the contract!”
The shadow of an enormous tentacled body floated just outside the crystal ball.
“But I didn’t mean for it to happen this way,” Shelly said, feeling her heart lurch. “Please, make it stop.” She held up her hands to show off her fingers. “I’m turning into a fish!”
The sea witch cackled. “Well, how else did you expect to become the fastest swimmer?”
“Please, make it stop,” Shelly begged. “I’ll do anything you want. Just make it stop!”
“Anything, my dearie?”
“Yes, I swear. I’ll do anything!”
“You poor unfortunate soul,” Ursula said in a sympathetic voice. “What fine timing.”
Shelly felt a stab of hope. “Just tell me what you want—I’ll do it.”
The sea witch snorted. “In that case, I want the trident from your family’s aquarium.”
Shelly frowned. “You mean the old trident? In the main exhibit? But that’s just a phony hunk of junk to entertain the tourists. Why in the world would you want that?”
Ursula sighed. “So many questions for someone in your precarious situation,” she said. “It sounds like you don’t want to help me. . . .”
“No, that’s not what I meant!” Shelly backtracked quickly. “I can do it. I just don’t understand why you want it, or why you can’t get it yourself. You have powers, after all. Why me? I’m . . . I’m no one.”
“Oh, come now, dear. You’re just the one.
