Since she’d been swept up by the storm and set down at the Capri, Aquamarine had felt a taste of freedom. More important than the terrible food and the chlorinated pool was the idea that she could do whatever she pleased. She tossed her head and fixed the girls with her sea-blue eyes. “No one can tell me what to do anymore. Not my sisters and certainly not you. Anyway, it’s too late. I’ve already made up my mind. I’m staying right here for as long as I want to. And no one can tell me otherwise!”

At the end of the day, the girls ran to Claire’s grandfather’s car and when he said “What’s new, Susie Q’s?” they let out a gale of giggles, convinced that no one would believe that they’d stumbled upon a mermaid who refused to behave. When they got to Claire’s grandparents’ house, they raced past the half-packed boxes in the living room and looked through the crates of books in Claire’s room, hoping to find a solution for Aquamarine’s predicament. Although they discovered references to many unusual creatures of the deep, from dolphins that were said to rescue lost sailors to sea-serpents twice the size of a whale, they couldn’t unearth a single bit of advice on what to do with a mermaid who’d fallen in love.

That night, the girls had dinner at Hailey’s house. Through the kitchen window they could see the new people, the ones who’d bought Claire’s grandparents’ house. They were getting a final tour of the yard to ensure that once they moved in they would know how to best care for the garden. They’d be aware of which plants would bloom to be day lilies and which ones would forever remain weeds. A red-haired girl of twelve trailed after the new people. She looked uncertain and lonely and she stopped to smell the roses that Claire’s grandmother had planted beside the back door.

“Maybe she’ll be your new best friend,” Claire said.

“I’m never even going to talk to her,” Hailey assured Claire.

“Never?” Claire said hopefully.

“Not unless there’s a fire and I have to shout for her to get out of the house.”