Her grandfather gave her a big hug and said, “I know, but your life will not change right away. It will be some time before you have to learn about your duties. So let’s put the princess business aside for now. Before Echo left, she told me your class is studying the amazing mollusk.”

“We’re supposed to make a sculpture of our favorite,” Shelly told him.

“That sounds like fun,” Grandfather said. “While we have dinner, how would you like to learn to speak to them?”

Shelly grinned. She loved learning languages. She’d lost count of exactly how many she knew, but so far her favorite had been the humpback whale dialect. “I’d love it!”

Over the next couple of hours, Shelly the princess became Shelly the squid-talker. She almost forgot all about being a princess . . . until she went to bed.

ALL NIGHT LONG SHE TOSSED AND turned. In one dream, her sea fan was full of sharp rubies that jabbed her in the stomach.

In another dream, there was a war and she had to fight Queen Hoshi of the Eastern Oceans. Shelly woke up shouting, “Let’s be friends!”

She was relieved to see that she was in her own room and the plankton still glowed peacefully on her ceiling. Everything was the same, but deep down Shelly knew that everything was different. A tear slid down her cheek because she knew the truth. Nothing would ever be the same again.

A Crown

PEARL WAVED HER ARM BACK and forth, almost jumping out of her seat. “Miss Haniver . . . Miss Haniver,” she said. “Did you hear that Shelly is a princess?” It was the next day in art class and Miss Haniver was giving them a lesson on sculpting.

Rocky yelled out, “I heard Shelly eats dinner with King Cid every Tuesday and has servants do her homework.”

Shelly stared at Rocky. Where had he heard that?

Several merkids looked at Shelly and whispered. Miss Haniver frowned and said, “There are no princesses in here, only artists.”

Art was not Shelly’s favorite subject, but today she was grateful that Miss Haniver had made Rocky be quiet about royalty. Shelly scrunched her nose at the large piece of stone at the front of the art room and thought about sculpting. “How in the undersea world is anyone supposed to make a mollusk from that rock?” she whispered to Echo.

Echo shrugged her shoulders. Shelly glanced at Kiki. She looked even more worried than Shelly. Rocky didn’t seem troubled at all. He raised his hand. “Miss Haniver, when are we going to get knives so we can start carving?”

Kiki gasped, but Miss Haniver shook her head. “I will not be giving third-grade merstudents carving knives,” she said.

“But Mrs. Karp said we were going to make sculptures,” Rocky complained.