Bacon Sandwiches
Once the bath drain had gurgled empty and Molly had transformed back to her human self, Ada and Felicity escorted her back downstairs to the front door, where Eddie was waiting for them. Serena had gone back into the living room, where she was muttering urgently to Finn. They were probably wondering whether it was obvious what they were up to: whether their cover was blown for good or whether they could try and trick Molly once more.
Felicity’s stepdad drove them back to Ada’s house in silence. Felicity sat in the front seat, fiddling with the radio. When it was time for them to get out, Molly patted her new ally awkwardly on the shoulder and said, “Thanks.” It didn’t seem enough, really, but she couldn’t go into much detail in front of Felicity’s stepdad. She thought the additional “Cheers for not exposing me as a mermaid to my peers and countrymen” might raise some questions.
Besides, Eddie didn’t know. Not yet anyway.
Did Molly want Eddie to know?
Molly expected herself to freak out at the prospect. If someone had asked her a few weeks ago whether she wanted to share her secret with yet another person, she’d have grabbed Ada by the nostrils and hissed, “Don’t tell him I’m a mermaid! For the love of God, don’t tell him!”
But she found that she did want Eddie to know. She really, really did.
Being able to discuss her secret openly in front of her best friends would make her life so much easier. If anyone would accept the real her, it would be Eddie.
Plus, she liked him. She liked him a lot. And if anything was ever going to happen between them, she wanted to know beyond all doubt that he was for real. That he was all in when it came to Molly Seabrook. What better way to put that to the test than by showing him the giant slippery fish tail she often had in place of legs?
And so, once Ada’s mom and stepdad were in bed, Molly had Ada run her another bath. A very deep one. Then she and Ada ushered Eddie of the Ears into the bathroom, where the three of them waited for the tub to fill.
“Er,” he said. “What are we…?”
“I have something to show you,” Molly replied, taking a deep, steadying breath as her legs started to tingle.
“Are we getting in the bathtub? Because I have to say, this makes me a little uncomf—”
But before he could finish his sentence, Molly’s gleaming white tail had sprung into existence. Ada looked at them both expectantly, waiting for Eddie’s reaction.
Eddie’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Excuse me?”
“Erm, I’m a mermaid,” Molly said awkwardly.
“Right,” he said, nodding as though this was a very normal and obvious development. “Sure. No problem.”
All in all, Eddie handled the whole situation remarkably well. Almost too well, in fact. Molly was slightly worried that he had known already. After all, he had always been a big reader of superhero comic books, always been the type to believe in the more fantastical conspiracy theories of this world. Confirming the existence of mermaids was probably deeply satisfying for him. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he now dedicated his life to discovering what other paranormal beings existed too.
But what Molly really wanted to know was whether this changed how he felt about her. The temptation to use her merpower was overwhelming.
She could find out. She could find out, once and for all, whether he—and Ada, for that matter—truly accepted her as she was, if she could only manage to access that power. Up until now, it had failed her every time but one.
Okay, think.
How exactly had it gone down at the zoo with Felicity? It hadn’t appeared out of nowhere. Something had triggered it.
Molly remembered feeling angrier than she had ever felt, coupled with a deep, dark sense of shame in who she was. The emotions were so potent, they almost blinded her, and soon she felt the exact same emotions emanating from Felicity.
Maybe it was like holding up a mirror. Maybe she really had to lean into her current emotions, and then her merpower would tell her whether her friends’ feelings matched hers. That could be why it hadn’t worked the last few times she’d tried—because she’d been searching for information, not feelings.
It was worth a try.
Sitting on the bathroom floor next to her two best friends in the world, she reached for it. She reached for it harder than she ever had before.
Closing her eyes for no real reason, Molly tugged on the deep affection she had for her friends. She opened the floodgates of emotion behind those feelings: the trust, the acceptance, the laughs, and the love.
Something in Eddie and Ada responded. Hot and cold gushed through Molly’s veins. Her emotions doubled, trebled, until she felt breathless beneath their weight.
They loved her too. They trusted her too. They accepted her too.
Molly’s eyes filled with tears. Rather than poking deeper into her best friends’ emotions, like she had with Felicity, she let go. She had the only answer she needed. She didn’t want to know the intricacies of Eddie’s feelings for her or which of their childhood memories Ada held dearest. Some things were better left private.
• • •
Molly, Ada, and Eddie spent the rest of the evening drinking horrendous gingerbread coffee, watching old Pixar movies, and talking about the absurd and unreasonable rules of clamdunk. It was perfect.
The next morning, though, Molly returned to the lighthouse, where all her stress and worry came flooding back.
The Seabrooks were in danger. The Waverleys were out to expose them, just as Mom and Margot had suspected all along. They needed to act, but Molly couldn’t tell them without admitting they had been right and she had been wrong.
She decided to start with Margot. She was slightly less likely to yell than Mom, although not by much. To sweeten her up, Molly whipped up a batch of bacon sandwiches on soft white bread, loaded a tray with ketchup and pulpy orange juice, then headed up to Margot’s room. She somehow managed to rap the secret knock with her one spare knuckle.
Despite the fact that it was after eleven, Margot was still in bed, her covers tangled around her plaid pajamas. She always did this once school broke up for vacation—slept and slept and slept as though she’d never had a single wink in her life until now. Mom had long since given up fighting it and decided she didn’t care as long as Margot played her part in the chip shop and kept on top of her schoolwork.
“Morning,” Molly said cautiously.
Margot sat bolt upright, her hair a bird’s nest on top of her head. She hadn’t taken her eyeliner off the night before, and it was smudged all around her eyes like a panda. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean? Why?”
“You never say morning. You usually just grunt in my direction.”
Honestly. There was no getting past Margot and no point in trying. Molly sat down on the edge of the bed, arranged the tray in the middle of the duvet, and picked up a sandwich.
“I messed up,” she said, taking such an enormous bite that ketchup plopped straight onto the sheets. Margot looked like she’d never cared about anything less in her life and picked up a sandwich of her own.
“Standard Molly,” Margot echoed Ada through a mouthful of crust. “What did you do?”
Molly was so tired she couldn’t even be bothered to be nervous. “I went to a party at the Waverleys.”
“I’m going to murder you,” Margot said matter-of-factly. “Pass me that knife.”
“I know, I know,” Molly grumbled, licking her fingers. “But I get it now. They’re bad news.”
“What happened?”
Molly stared intently at the tray. “They tried to trick me into transforming in front of everyone.”
“That sounds about right.”
Molly gaped at Margot. “You knew?”
“Not for definite. But I had my suspicions.”
“How?”
“You know I told you a few weeks back that I don’t like the deep sea anymore?”
Margot finished one sandwich and went straight in for another. Molly felt like she should probably offer some to her other sisters before Margot devoured them all. “I used to be the most gung ho Seabrook about exploring. But then last month, I went down for a jaunt one night when I couldn’t sleep, and these mermen followed me.”
“What?” Shivers ran up and down Molly’s arms.
“I think they were…bounty hunters? Or something? They said there was a price on my head and I needed to go with them. They had a huge net. I managed to get away with my merpower, but it was terrifying.” Margot shuddered at the memory.
No wonder Molly’s sister had been so skittish about going down to Balaena or even just swimming to the clamdunk game. It really wasn’t safe.
Margot chewed her bacon thoughtfully. “I think we used to be someone down in Meire, Molly. Criminals, public figures, something like that. And I think that’s why Mom doesn’t want us going back down there at all. It’s not just because of the pollution.”
Something clicked into place. The Waverleys were bounty hunters. Clever ones. They bided their time until the right moment, then exposed Molly to her friends. But there was one thing they didn’t plan on: how great those friends were. How powerful their bond. How those friends would never betray Molly by taking pictures and reporting her to the authorities.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Molly asked. “About being followed? That’s so scary, Margs.”
Her sister shrugged. “Because you were only just starting to embrace mermaid life. I didn’t want to ruin it for you so soon. I’d had a good few years of loving it before reality hit.”
Molly mulled all this over. “There’s still so much I don’t understand.”
“Like what?”
Filling Margot in on the random clues she’d collected—the word Marefluma, the hunch about Murielle—Molly finished, “I think you’re right. Something happened in Meire that made us leave. Maybe it was to do with who we are or maybe not. But I want to get to the bottom of it.”
Dipping in for a third sandwich, Margot exhaled heavily. “Right now, all that can wait. The most pressing thing is, what are we going to do about the Waverleys?”
Molly finished her juice and tucked her feet up under her. “I’m not sure what we can do. I just need to be more careful around them.”
“No, Molly.” Margot’s voice was firm and big sisterly. “They’re dangerous. They’re going to keep at it until they get what they want, and that’s for us to be banished. We can’t let that happen.”
“So, what do we do?”
A mischievous grin spread across Margot’s face. Molly knew right then that a prank was afoot. A jolly big one at that.
“Beat them at their own game.”