Remembering how the wave swept her out to sea the last time she’d been out there, Shelly ran to the catwalk and peered into the frothy waves. There was no sign of Enrique. Her heart hammered. What if he never came up? But then he suddenly broke through the surface.
“I love nature!” He plunged back under the water and popped up again. “Come on, fish girl!” he called out, splashing water toward her. “Let’s see what you can do!”
Shelly hesitated. The last time she fell off the catwalk, she’d almost drowned. But that had been due to a big wave. An unnatural one, she realized now. And back then, she didn’t have special superpowers, as Enrique called them. She dove into the water, feeling the brisk crack of the surface breaking around her, then the reassuring touch of seawater on her skin and in her gills. Nothing felt better—or more natural—to her. She swam down deep, then aimed for the surface. She broke through it, almost like a dolphin, leaping out of the water, then diving back down. A wild pod of dolphins swam by and joined her in her underwater revelry, swimming around her and nudging her on. Enrique watched in awe.
She stayed under for a long time, then surprised him by surfacing behind him. “Boo!”
He startled, then grinned. “Watching you swim like that—well, it’s incredible.”
“So you’re not freaked out?” she said. “You don’t think that I’m totally disgusting?”
“Okay, to be honest,” he said, bobbing in the water beside her, “I am a little freaked out. It’s not like you meet a half-fish, half-human every day, right? But disgusted? Not at all!”
“Really?” she said.
He nodded. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Ugh, more like a horrible nightmare,” she snorted.
“Nightmare? You can breathe underwater. And probably swim faster, too.”
“Yup, I crushed the other swimmers at the last swim meet and broke the official record.”
“No joke?”
She nodded, remembering her victory and feeling excited about it for the first time.
“When I dove into the pool, it felt like I belonged there. It was the most incredible feeling in the world. . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“I’m guessing there’s a catch?”
“It’s a long story,” she said. “Basically, if I don’t help the sea witch steal the trident from the main exhibit, then this will all become permanent. I’ll turn into a fish for all eternity.”
He blinked at her, taking that in. “Wait . . . the trident? Why would she want that old thing? You’d better tell me the whole story. Start from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”
They waded out of the ocean, onto the beach, and walked back toward the aquarium, and Shelly told him everything from the beginning: Dropping the cup in the ocean. The nautilus and the nightmare. Making her wish and signing the contract, then waking up with gills. When she finished, he studied her.
“Wow, that is some story.”
“You don’t believe me,” she said.
“Oh no, I believe you,” he said, pointing to her gills. “Anyway, that’s too crazy to make up. Plus, like I said, I’ve heard of the sea witch. I just didn’t realize the stories were real.”
“Wait, that’s it!” Shelly said excitedly. “Maybe the old stories can help us.”
“Right, there’s an old myth about her. My grandfather used to talk about it. Something about her haunting sailors who got lost in storms . . .”
“Anything else?” she said.
Maybe he knew about a way to help Shelly that didn’t involve the trident at all.
He shook his head. “It was a long time ago. I’m sorry. I don’t remember very much.”
“Right,” she said, feeling crushed. “Thanks anyway.”
“But I have an idea,” he said, perking up. “There’s a special library at the private college with a lot of history about Triton Bay. Old books, original documents. My brother told me about it. Maybe we can do some research.”
“That’s so nerdy,” she said, nudging him. “And so awesome at the same time.”
“Totally is,” he said with a thumbs-up.
She bit her lip. “Maybe we can find out more about the sea witch—she said her name was Ursula—and why she wants that trident so badly. I don’t trust her. Not one bit.”
He nodded. “And maybe we can find a way to stop this fish transformation from happening to you. I mean, I do love fish and all, but you make a pretty great human—”
Suddenly, the wind whipped up. A bolt of lightning struck the sea. It flashed with bright emerald light—unnatural light. Shelly waited for the deep rumble of thunder that always accompanied lightning. But instead, cackling rose from the waves. The laughter grew louder.
“Did you hear that?” Enrique said, casting his gaze out to the ocean. “What was that?”
Shelly swallowed hard against the sick feeling in her stomach. “That’s the sea witch. She must have been listening to us.”
They backed away from the water. The laughter died down, drifting away. But it had been unmistakable. And for the first time, Shelly had a witness. That meant something important.
She wasn’t dreaming.
This was real.
“We have to do something,” Enrique said, looking afraid.
“Yeah.” Shelly studied her hands. “And whatever we do, we have to act fast.”
“You get it?” Shelly asked Enrique as he appeared by the bike rack at the aquarium the next morning.
Feeling jittery and scared, she had raced as fast as she could to meet Enrique. When she’d woken up that morning, she’d noticed her skin had started to take on a greenish sheen. Scales had also started to appear on her arms, delicate and smooth like those of a fish. She wore long sleeves to hide them and kept them pulled down over her hands. She didn’t have much time. She felt tense. If Enrique had failed at what he’d set out to do, she didn’t know what else they could try.
But he winked at her. “Mission accomplished,” he said with a grin, pulling the card out of his back pocket. He handed it over. The ID card showed the pimply face of his brother, Miguel. Uneven bangs flopped into his brown eyes. STUDENT was printed
