The girls watched as the enormous ray flapped its huge wings and silently moved away from the station, carrying five merpeople on its broad back. “I think that merwoman has bumped into me before,” Shelly said. “She’s almost as grouchy as Mr. Fangtooth.”

“I guess they were made for each other,” Echo said.

“We can worry about them later. Right now I have to find out the truth from Grandpa,” Shelly said, swimming toward home.

Echo nodded and followed her friend into the People Museum. That’s where Shelly’s grandfather Siren worked. In fact, he ran the museum and was the ocean’s chief expert on mankind. Shelly and her grandfather lived in a small apartment above the museum. Echo loved exploring all the people things, but Shelly thought humans and anything to do with them were silly. She’d heard they couldn’t even breathe underwater.

The mergirls found Shelly’s grandfather in the circular-shapes section creating a display of the weird human items. One had padding and some sort of spokes or wires attached. Another looked like a flattened jellyfish with letters that spelled “volleyball” on it. Shelly wondered briefly what they could be used for. Then she blurted out, “Grandpa, am I a princess?”

Grandfather Siren jumped. “Shelly! Echo! I didn’t hear you come in.” He put down a round metal object that had three long sticks poking out of one side, and rubbed his chin. He looked at his granddaughter and spoke softly.

“I wondered when this would finally come up. I had hoped you could have a few more years of an everyday, normal life.”

Shelly couldn’t believe her ears. “You mean it’s true, Grandpa? I’m a . . . ”

“Princess,” Echo finished for her.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you keep it a secret?” Shelly demanded. “Don’t you think that I should know if I’m some sort of royalty? Are you royalty too? What about my parents?”

Grandfather looked down at his silver tail. “Perhaps I should have told you. I was waiting until the time was right.”

Shelly had rarely been this upset. “When was that going to be? Right before they made me empress?”

“Now, Shelly, you are third in line to the Western crown. There’s not a lot of chance of you becoming an empress.”

“Third in line!” Shelly knew that meant if something happened to two other merpeople, she would be the queen. “I can’t believe these rumors are true! I don’t want to be royalty. I don’t want to be a princess, and I certainly don’t want to be your granddaughter!”

Shelly splashed to her room with tears in her eyes. She left Grandfather Siren and Echo floating with their mouths wide open.

Princess Shelly