“Of course,” Mrs. Karp said. “To be a well-rounded merperson, you must know everything about merhistory, government, and society. And, class, if you have never seen a hippocampus before, do not scream when you first see Madame. It is not polite.”

“A hippocampus!” Rocky shrieked. “I heard they have six heads and twelve eyes!”

Mrs. Karp glared at Rocky. “That will be quite enough. You must stop spreading these silly rumors. They can only cause trouble.”

“What’s a hippocampus?” Shelly whispered to Kiki as they glided to line up. Kiki was probably one of the smartest merstudents in class and usually knew the answers.

Kiki whispered back, “A hippocampus is part dolphin and part horse. But I’ve never seen one. I wonder which part is which.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Shelly said. “Whatever she looks like, I sure hope she’s nice.”

Hippocampus

OH MY NEPTUNE! WHAT IS wrong with Trident City?” Pearl Swamp complained as the third graders floated down the hall to merology class. “We have bloodsuckers around the corner and hippopoopuses for teachers.”

“That’s ‘hippocampus,’ ” Kiki corrected Pearl.

Pearl rolled her green eyes. “I don’t care how you say it, it’s still awful. Six heads are horrible!”

Shelly started to tell Pearl that Madame Hippocampus probably didn’t have six heads, but they were already by the merology room. In a mersecond Pearl would see for herself.

In spite of Mrs. Karp’s warning, several students gasped when they first saw Madame Hippocampus. Even Shelly jumped when she saw the teacher’s large horse face, hooves, and plump lower end of a dolphin. Shelly figured Madame must be used to that reaction from merkids, because she chuckled. “Welcome to my lair!” she announced with a big smile.

Rocky snickered quietly. “Now, that’s a dolphin with a big belly.”

“Ah, Master Rocky Ridge,” Madame Hippocampus said. “The first to speak is the one I seek! You have volunteered to be my assistant. Please come to the front of the classroom.”

Rocky’s cheeks turned red as he slowly drifted toward Madame. “You will point to the correct place on this chart as we discuss the merpeople hierarchy,” she told Rocky.

“What is a hierarchy?” Shelly asked. Then she immediately put her hand over her mouth. Maybe Madame didn’t like people asking questions.

“Shelly Siren, I am glad you, of all mermaids, asked that question,” Madame said.

Several merstudents whispered, “How does she know our names already?”

Pearl muttered, “She’s creepy. Is she magical?”

Luckily, Madame ignored the muttering. She told the class to find their seats. Then she addressed Shelly’s question. “ ‘Hierarchy’ is just another word for the levels of rulers of our undersea world. As you can see from my chart, emperor or empress is the highest royalty, but rarely do we have such a leader.