The tentacles were already gathering round her body, stroking her torso and pulsating as they oozed mucus trails across her hair. Kate grimaced as one slid over her face, pulling at her cheeks, and her screams became muffled – though perhaps more genuine – as the feelers slimed across her mouth. With a sudden slither, she was pushed back on to the surface of the Jellyfish, right at Lana’s feet. The squeaking slurps of the suckers as they released her were audible even above our screams. I stood up. It had been no more than thirty seconds, but that was longer than anybody had ever managed to last in the sea. On the far side of the Jellyfish, the crowd were silent, watching the water. As we stared, a long tentacle rose, carrying both a naked Old Albert and the ball. Stretching over the heads of the crowd, it twisted, before smashing him down on to the wobbling surface. He lay there while the ripples of jelly flesh spread out across the mesoglea beneath our feet. But it was James I was looking at. Beyond Old Albert, on the edge of the Jellyfish, James stood with his arms raised in triumph.

‘It worked,’ he called across to us. ‘Your shouting actually worked! Albert was out there for longer than normal. He could have got through.’

Still lying on the surface, Old Albert gave a little splutter, spitting up some seawater.

‘And also,’ added James, ‘we won the rugby!’

Chapter 5

5

‘What would you do if you could get off the Jellyfish?’ said Kate.

‘It’s not a jellyfish!’ shouted Dr Jones.

‘Yes, yes,’ I said, but not very loudly because I didn’t want to stop her being happy. Following the mermaid lecture Dr Jones was in particularly good form, as loads of people had been asking her advice about fish and sea creatures. She’d been able to spend a lovely few days starting sentences with phrases like, ‘Actually, invertebrates . . .’ and ‘You see, gelatinous zooplankton . . . . .’ All over the Jellyfish people were eagerly talking about the disadvantages of a hydrostatic skeleton, and were speculating on the possibility of finding weak spots in the mesoglea. But it was nothing that we hadn’t already thought about before. A lot.

‘Would you even want to get off it?’ asked Kate.

‘I think so,’ I said.

‘I think I would too,’ said Kate.

‘What would you do if you got off?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It would be weird. I think I’d want to check that everybody else had got off OK too.’

‘Oh. Yeah,’ I said.

‘Then I think I might want to find some food that isn’t fish or seaweed. And maybe some new clothes?’

‘Mmmm. Yeah. Can you remember what things that aren’t fish taste like, though?’