“So how was school?”

Silently Marnie helped herself to sea anemone juice.

Her mom tried again. “Did you have a good day?”

Marnie shrugged and drank her juice in one gulp.

“You’re like a tiger shark with toothache,” Aunt Christabel said. “What happened?”

Marnie was determined not to cry. “It was a horrible day and I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.”

She swam out of the kitchen and into her room, threw herself down on her clamshell bed and pressed her face into the sea-moss pillow.

She wished she’d never started Mermaid School. What was the point, if she was going to get into trouble all the time?

Her door opened. Aunt Christabel swam in with Garbo tucked under her arm.

“You should have knocked,” Marnie said, angry now as well as upset.

“I never knock,” said Aunt Christabel. “It’s the secret of my success.” She sat on the end of Marnie’s clamshell bed. “So, what happened at school today?”

“You should know,” said Marnie furiously. “You started it.”

Christabel looked startled. “What did I do?”

Marnie looked her aunt straight in the eye. “You put that sea snake in my bag!”

Aunt Christabel let Garbo go. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said as the little goldfish swam around the cave, sniffing the sea flowers on the rocky walls.

Marnie glared. “I was looking for my bag this morning and you gave it to me and the next thing I know there’s a stinky sea snake inside that swims out and scares everyone and gets me into trouble!”

Aunt Christabel looked thoughtful. “And you think I put it in there?”

“I had to go and see Lady Sealia!” Marnie wailed. “I got a warning because you’re my aunt! I’m trying to be me, Aunt Christabel, and the only thing anyone talked about all day was how I was just like you because I was so naughty. And I’m NOT and now I don’t want to go back to Mermaid School EVER.”

Christabel reached over and brushed Marnie’s tears away with her thumb. “Slow down, minnow,” she said. “I didn’t put anything in your bag. Why would I?”

“Because you thought it would be funny!”

Aunt Christabel raised a perfect eyebrow. “There is a difference between playing a prank and being mean, Marnie. I may be many things, but I’m not mean.”

Marnie suddenly felt uncertain. She wanted to believe her aunt. But if Christabel hadn’t put the snake in her bag, then who had?

Minnow.

A memory tickled the back of Marnie’s mind. Someone else had called her a minnow today.

Watch where you’re going, minnow.

“Orla Finnegan!” Marnie gasped. “She bumped into me on the way to school AND she’s been horrible to me all day. Maybe it was her!” She felt confused. “But why would she be picking on me? I don’t even know her.”

Aunt Christabel clicked her tongue at Garbo, who swam back into her arms. “Enemies move in mysterious ways,” she said. “Like octopuses. Octopuses swim backward, did you know?”

Marnie didn’t. She rubbed her nose. “My teacher Miss Tangle is an octopus,” she said. “She’s another one who thinks I’m naughty like you were.”

“I’ll tell you a secret about Miss Tangle,” said Aunt Christabel, tickling Garbo’s chin. “When she farts, she shoots out ink.”

Marnie gave a startled giggle.

Aunt Christabel smiled. “So, those are the enemies you made today. What about the friends?”

Marnie thought about the little gap in Pearl’s teeth when she smiled. “Pearl Cockle’s nice,” she said, feeling better. “Lupita Barracuda and Dora Agua seem OK too, although I think they just want your autograph.”

“They sound very sensible,” said Aunt Christabel. “Three friends and one enemy then, not counting teachers. I think we know who’s winning.”

Marnie threw her arms around her aunt. “Thank you,” she said into Aunt Christabel’s shoulder. “You always know the right thing to say.”

Aunt Christabel rubbed Marnie’s back. “Come and have dinner. It’ll make you feel better.”

In the kitchen, Marnie’s mom was stirring something on a large hot-water vent that stuck up from the lagoon bed. The shell pan popped and bubbled, releasing lovely smells, and Marnie realized how hungry she was. She gave her mom an impulsive hug as they sat down to large bowls of kelp casserole.

“Sorry I was weird earlier,” she said. “It was a rough day.”

“Tomorrow will be better, I’m sure,” said her mom. Marnie felt her mood dip again. Tomorrow would still have Orla in it. And Pearl, she reminded herself. And Lupita and Dora. But Orla’s mean face stayed in her mind.

“Mom,” she said as they cleared the table after dinner. “What should I do if someone doesn’t like me?”

Her mom stopped stacking the shell bowls in the hotvent dishwasher. “Someone at school doesn’t like you?” she said. “Who?”

“No one,” said Marnie quickly. “I just want to know what to do.”

“Be nice to them,” her mom said anxiously. “When someone is mean, there’s usually something making them sad.”

Marnie screwed up her face. Being nice to Orla would be hard.

“What do you think?” she asked, turning to her aunt.

“Stay out of their way,” Aunt Christabel advised. “And don’t let them see that you’re scared.” She glanced at the arms on the starfish clock that clung to the kitchen wall. “Neptune’s knickers, is that the time? I’m going to be late for my show!”

As she brushed her hair that night, Marnie thought about her mom and Christabel’s advice. It was nice that they were trying to help, but they didn’t have to face Orla in the morning. Marnie was going to worry all night and not get any sleep.

“Would you like a Queen Maretta story?” her mom asked when she came in to tuck Marnie up. “To take your mind off things?”

“Yes please,” Marnie said gratefully. She’d been feeling a bit too grown-up for stories lately, but tonight it was just what she needed.

Her mom clapped her hands. “Go and find your dinner, Horace,” she said.

The large angler fish swimming slowly around Marnie’s ceiling switched off his dangling light and swam out of the room. Now Marnie’s room was lit only by the pinpricks of light from the tiny phosphorescent fish that lived in the walls.

“When Maretta was Queen of the Merfolk, there was a terrible storm,” her mom began. “The coral reefs and lagoon caves broke into pieces. The waters were so rough that the fish disappeared. The merfolk were going to starve if Maretta didn’t do something. So she went in search of the Weathermaker.

“Everyone knew the Weathermaker was a bully who liked nothing better than sending bad weather to Mermaid Lagoon. But even the Weathermaker had never sent a storm this terrible. Maretta battled through the waves to the furthest shores of the lagoon, over to the caves where the Weathermaker lived above the surface.

“‘Weathermaker!’ she called from the wild water. ‘I want to talk to you!’

“‘I’m not leaving my cave,’ came the Weathermaker’s grumpy reply. ‘You’ll have to come to ME.’

“Maretta knew that if she left the water, she would have to give up her voice in exchange for human legs. But her people were counting on her, and she didn’t hesitate. She left the lagoon and walked on dry land to the mouth of the Weathermaker’s cave.”

“What’s it like?” Marnie interrupted, fascinated. “Having legs?”

“I’ve never been brave enough to find out,” said her mom.

“Do you always have to give up your voice in order to have legs?” Marnie asked. “What if you never get it back? And what about your tail? Do you always get your tail back when you go into the water again?”

“I don’t know,” said her mom. “Now, Maretta walked up to the Weathermaker’s cave, ready to have an argument. But to her surprise, the Weathermaker was crying.

“‘No one likes me,’ he sobbed. ‘No one ever visits me in my cave. I don’t have any friends!’

“Maretta forgot her anger and put her arm around the Weathermaker instead. The Weathermaker was cold and rigid, but Maretta hugged him until he started warming up. And as he warmed up, the sun came out and the waves quietened. The storm was over. Maretta had saved her people, and Mermaid Lagoon was calm again.”

Marnie snuggled deeper into her sea-moss covers and yawned. The Weathermaker just wanted a friend, she thought as she floated away to sleep. But she couldn’t imagine risking her voice and her tail to make friends with Orla. No way.