I’m in love!” I shouted to Waverly. I twirled around in her pastel pink bedroom that evening as we dressed for Beach’s party. I told her everything—about waking up naked, about my new clothes, my new legs, my new name. But I told her mostly about the dreamiest dude I’d ever met. “His kiss was way more magical than anything Madame Pearl could have sold me.”
I still felt dizzy, from Spencer, and from my transformation back into a mermaid. At first, my tail moved in slow motion, but as I talked to Waverly, I grew stronger.
I had missed school, but that wasn’t unusual for me. What was unusual was that instead of hanging out at my secret cave, I had gone to Earth.
“You can’t be in love with an Earthee! It’s prohibited,” she said. “But at least you got the necklace back!”
“Oh, no!” I gasped. “I forgot! I was having so much fun, the necklace was the last thing on my mind.”
“Lilly!” Wave scolded.
“I’ve never felt so alive! The pier, the wheel, the candy. Spencer.”
“Well, if you play your cards right at Beach’s party tonight and your mom learns you’re dating a primo heartthrob with a trust fund, maybe she’ll let you off easier. And you and Beach can live happily ever after.”
“Beach? No way! Spencer is way dreamier. He gave me a swan and he invited me to watch fireworks!”
“Fireworks?”
“Yeah, those colored explosions that fill the sky every year.”
“The only colors you should be thinking about are the ones on your outfits.”
“You have to understand, Wave. The way you feel about Tide is the way I feel about Spencer. I can’t help it if he lives on Earth. That’s just logistics.”
“You just met him, girl.”
“But I feel like I’ve known him all my life. I know now that something in my life was missing. Love.”
“That’s the potion talking. It’s screwed with your head.”
“He’s interesting, intelligent. He’s totally glacial.” I let out a sigh of love.
“Forget him!” she said, putting shell clips in my hair.
“Why can’t you be on my side? Don’t you want me to be happy?”
“Yes, but here. In the Pacific. If word gets out of your antics, you’ll be sent to the Atlantic. Then you’ll really be far away from Spencer.”
The Atlantic? I felt far enough away from Spencer as it was, and we were only separated by a few miles and an Earthly atmosphere. The Atlantic would be like living in the core of the Earth.
“You’re right,” I said reluctantly.
“Of course, I am. We’ll go to Beach’s party. You’ll become his girlfriend. And you’ll stay in the Pacific,” she said, brushing my hair. “And now and then we’ll hang out on the rocks at the edge of the pier and look up at Seaside High.”
My stomach ached as if an octopus were turning around inside it. I knew Wave was right. I must forget Spencer.
Wave and I arrived at Club Atlantis totally decked out—Wave dripping in an opal dress and I in a skintight lion-fish print top and tail with golden glitter sprinkled in my hair. Club Atlantis was an open-water dance club fashioned after a historical outdoor Earthee Roman city that had succumbed to the water. Arched columns lined the entrance, and Earthees carved out of rock lined the walls.
A neon sign blinked HAPPY 16TH BEACH. Merkids hung out everywhere—on the steps, in the gardens, over the statues—practically the whole school was there. We floated to the amphitheater where the Screaming Eels were playing “Electric Sunset.” I found Beach in the first row. He did look scorching—in a hunky sort of way. And he was flexing for everyone. He was showing off his Shark tattoo to two babes when we arrived.
“I didn’t see you at school today,” he said very sternly.
“I was studying for tonight,” I replied. “Here’s your present.”
“You can put it over there,” he said, pointing to a table just below the stage covered with a mound of presents.
I returned from Present Island to find Wave and Tide dancing with Beach. Beach pulled me close, weighing me down as he hung his thick arm on my shoulder.
“It’s good to see you two so snuggly!” Wave said.
I glared at her.
Suddenly the Screaming Eels stopped playing and the lead singer announced a special guest.
“Surprise!” a sexy mermaid in heavy blue eye shadow, a very low-cut red-laced top and matching fin tail called, as she floated to center stage. “Who’s the birthday boy?”
Beach floated over Present Mountain and swaggered onstage. “Me! It’s me!”
“Well happy birthday, baby!” she sang, giving him a huge hug. The Screaming Eels jammed and the mertart danced. His finball mates hooted and hollered, while pristine mergirls giggled out of embarrassment. Wave turned to me with a cheesy smile.
“Why did you bring me here?” I shouted above the music. I swam up the aisle through the gardens and out the front arch.
“Wait!” Waverly called, following me.
“This is what I have to look forward to for the rest of my life? Beach and his finball friends?” I untied Bubbles’ leash. “I don’t fit in here! I never have, don’t you understand?”
“Lilly—”
“I have to get my heart back—and I’m not talking about that stupid necklace this time.”
“But you can’t! You can’t!” I heard her plead as I sped off.
I woke up early the next morning for the first time in my life. Three cans of shark mace and bundles of clothes filled my backpack. I raced Bubbles straight to the Underworld. If a shark spotted me, I’d have him for breakfast! That’s how fueled by passion I was to see Spencer again. And fortunately for the sharks, there were none in sight.
CLOSED. The stone sign hung heavy on Madame Pearl’s shop like an anchor weighing down my dreams. No clarifications. No “on vacation,” or “back in five minutes,” or “out to lunch.” The word was simple but made my life complicated!
“Madame Pearl?” I yelled. “Madame Pearl?”
There was no response.
“Have you seen Madame Pearl?” I asked a beggar outside her window.
“Madame who?”
“Pearl…”
“All the madames are down the street,” he said. “Can you spare some change?”
“Have you seen Madame Pearl?” I asked a tattoo artist in the next store. He was painting a sea dragon on a merman’s back.
“You’re too young to come in here,” he scolded, waving his tattooing pen at me. But I held my ground.
I was afraid he was going to paint a serpent on me!
“I’m looking for Madame Pearl.”
“Next store.”
“She’s not in. Do you know where she lives?”
“No one knows where she lives.”
I let out a sigh of despair.
I hurried back and banged on her door. Maybe she’d slipped in while I was gone. The heavy door slowly opened with the current.
“Madame?” I called, peeking in.
No one answered.
“Madame, it’s Lilly from the other day. The girl who wanted legs.”
I looked everywhere. I pulled back the curtain on her potion room. If only Madame Pearl was psychic and sensed how much I needed her! But did I really need her? I noticed the stacks of books and shellboxes on the shelves.
Did the potion call for the eye of a shrimp or a frog? The tongue of a lizard or a turtle?
I looked at the stacks of stone-bound books. Mood Potions. Party Potions. Just Plain Magic.
I picked up Just Plain Magic and scanned the pages.
“SPELLS—Employer, Spouse, Neighbor. ILLUSIONS—Disappearing, Card tricks, Conning. TRANSFORMATIONS—Transgender, Anti-aging, Earthee.”
There it was! It should be as easy as following a recipe. I’ve done that before—I make a killer seaweed stew. I lay the heavy page on a stone bench. It read:
EARTHEE
1 eye of shrimp
1 tongue of frog
1-inch leg of octopus, unfrozen, no skin
Dash of seaweed
Pinch of sea salt
Sprinkle of magic
Combine ingredients and shake vigorously.
Drink under a crescent moon.
Return to sea before following moonrise.
400 calories
Could it be that easy? Thank goodness Madame Pearl was well organized. She had labeled all her ingredients. I grabbed and cut, dashed and pinched, combined and shook the contents. But what about the magic? I found an unmarked box of gold dust—surely that must be the sprinkle of magic. I added it to the horrible yet heavenly sweet mixture and sealed it with a cork. My Earthee potion was ready to go. Hey, I was pretty good at this. Maybe I could open my own shop.
“You forgot the magic!” a voice shouted.
Startled, I dropped the bottle, but before I could reach it, a thick hand grabbed it.
“Madame Pearl!” I said, breathless.
“Didn’t you read the sign?” she asked sternly, floating before me, my bottle clutched in her hands.
“I was desperate! I need another bottle.”
“The first potion didn’t work?” she asked skeptically. “I don’t do refunds.”
“It worked perfectly! But I need to make one more trip.”
“I thought you spent all your savings?”
“Well…”
“So were you going to leave me your lunch money?”
“I was going to write an IOU. Please, Madame Pearl!” I pleaded. “I’d explain, but you wouldn’t understand—”
“Wouldn’t I?” She glared at me hard. “You’re in love!”
“I thought you weren’t a psychic.”
“You don’t need to be a psychic to spot love. You have all the signs. Irrational behavior. Defiance. And that special sparkle in your eyes.”
“It shows?”
“It’s oozing out of your heart. Besides, no one would go back to Earth, with its polluting cars, salty codfish, or those painful high heels—unless they were in love.”
“How do you know so much about Earth?” I asked, amazed.
She paused. Then she pushed back a stack of boxes marked EDIBLE HERBS, dug her thick hands into the sandy floor and pulled out a photograph protected by clear plastic. It captured a handsome man in a sailor suit, holding a white flower.
“I spotted him on a ship while I was swimming one day a long time ago,” she confessed in a dreamy voice. “We stared at each other for miles—he on the boat, I in the water. He invited me aboard, but of course I couldn’t go. But I followed his ship to dock and I met him early the next morning as an Earthee. He was like a Greek god, and in those days I had a slim figure and golden curls. That was so long ago,” she said, tugging at her bulging black skirt. “We were passionately in love. We wed within hours. But I stole away in the night. And I never went back.”
“Why not?”
“I wasn’t brave—I mean—foolish enough.”
“But don’t you regret it now?”
“I wasn’t much older than you,” she said, trying to convince me I was being immature.
“Please, Madame Pearl, let me have the second chance you’ve always wished for! Don’t let me make the same mistake!”
“I could lose my shop!”
“I could lose my soulmate!” I exclaimed.
The word touched her heart and she gazed thoughtfully back at the picture. “Sometimes, when I hear a boat go by, I hear his voice call my name.”
“Madame Pearl,” I said, looking at her shell clock.
“But you won’t take any steps with this potion you made,” she suddenly declared in her normal, practical voice. “You need magic!”
“But I already put it in.”
“You added golden dust. I can see it shimmering. It won’t hurt you. It might make you tired. But it won’t give you legs.”
“Then what do I do?” I asked desperately.
“Hold the bottle to your heart,” she said, handing it to me.
I held it fast.
“Now close your eyes and think of him.”
“Is that what you did last time? Think of your old love?” I felt a sudden connection with the old woman.
I closed my eyes, and a huge smile came over my face.
“That’s enough,” she said.
I uncorked the bottle and gulped the potion down before her eyes. This time I didn’t even flinch. “How much do I owe you, Madame Pearl?”
“You’re not going to come back just to pay me,” she said, gazing again at her sailor, so I quietly drifted away.