“You heard me,” Aquamarine said to Hailey and Claire, who were mesmerized by her gleaming tail and by the way the mermaid could dive so quickly, she disappeared in a luminous flash. When she surfaced through the seaweed she was not pleased to see they were still there. “Scram,” she said. “Stop bothering me.”

The mermaid glided into the deep end of the pool, the better to see Raymond at the snack bar. She had been watching him ever since she found herself stranded in the pool. His was the first human face she saw. She gazed at him with a bewildered expression, the sure sign of a mermaid in love.

“They’re closing the Capri at the end of the week. The pool is going to be drained,” Hailey called to Aquamarine. “You’re going to have to go back to

where you came from by Saturday.”

The mermaid started to pay attention. “Where will the people go?”

“What people?” Hailey said. “Everyone’s already gone except for us.”

“Not exactly.” Claire nodded toward Raymond. “Not everyone.”

“He’s going on Saturday, too,” Hailey said. “He’s leaving for college.”

As soon as Aquamarine heard this, she began to cry blue, freshwater tears. No mermaid wants to fall in love with a human, but it was already too late for poor Aquamarine to be sensible. A sensible mermaid never would have

wandered away from her sisters during

a storm the way Aquamarine had.

As for Hailey and Claire, they couldn’t know that a mermaid in love is far more irrational than a jellyfish and more stubborn than a barnacle. “You’ll just have to go back to the ocean,” they advised her.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Aquamarine’s pale complexion flushed blue as she pouted. “I won’t leave before I meet him.”

Up at the snack bar, Raymond was whistling a tune as he cleaned up the counter. Aquamarine tilted her head to listen, hearkening to what she clearly believed was the most beautiful melody anyone had ever been privileged to hear, either on land or at sea.

“Oh,” she sighed as she watched Raymond. Her elbows rested on the edge of the pool. Her sea-blue eyes were dreamy. “If he only knew how I felt about him.”

“I really don’t think he’s your type,” Claire said as politely as she could.

Aquamarine looked stricken. She had never been denied anything she wanted. “Of course he is,” she said.

“Well, for one thing, he lives on land,” Hailey reminded the mermaid.

“You are both so mean,” Aquamarine cried. “You’re meaner than my sisters, and probably just as jealous.”