In Shell Wars, two teams try to shoot a small shell into the other team’s treasure chest and whoever scores more goals wins. Each chest is guarded by a goalie, which just happens to be an octopus! The players use long whale bones to slam the shells with all their might! If anyone touches a shell with their hands or body, they’re out of the game, so it’s important to pay attention.

“Watch out!” Kiki yelled.

Whack! The shell hit Shelly right in the stomach. She hit the ocean floor hard.

“Oh my gosh!” Echo screamed. “Is she hurt?”

“Serves her right,” Pearl snapped. “Shell Wars is a gross game. Who wants to play with a dirty old shell?”

“I might not like Shell Wars, but Shelly does, and she’s my friend,” Echo said, swimming away from Pearl.

“Are you all right?” Echo asked Shelly as she sat up.

Shelly held her stomach, but she smiled. “I am if we’re friends again.”

“Are we friends again?” Echo asked.

Shelly nodded, and the two mergirls hugged. Pearl stuck her nose up in the water and swam home alone.

“You want to come over to my house after practice?” Shelly asked Echo.

Echo nodded and giggled. “I’m so glad we’re not mad at each other anymore.” The friends hugged again before Shelly went back to practice and Echo sat down to watch.

Neither mergirl noticed that Kiki had come over to check on Shelly as well. They didn’t see Kiki standing beside them. Neither one noticed when she swam away either. “It’s like they ignored me on purpose. I didn’t mean to hit Shelly,” Kiki whispered. She floated off with tears in her eyes.

A Neat Trick

ECHO WATCHED THE REST OF Shell Wars practice. She had to admit that Shelly was good—probably even better than Rocky, and he boasted that he was the best player in the whole ocean.

“You’re awesome,” Echo told her friend as the merkids finished scrimmaging and Shelly swam over to the sidelines.

“Thanks. I really hope I can make the team! Now let’s go to my shell to work on our projects,” Shelly suggested, giving Echo’s arm a little tug. As the girls swam by a cluster of sea lilies, they didn’t realize that Echo’s sparkly cloth was caught. In one quick merminute, it fell off and the teasing began.

“Echo has a pot tail!” yelled Rocky. Several other merboys and mergirls followed Rocky’s pointing finger to the black pot still stuck on Echo’s tail.

“Pot Tail! Pot Tail!” Rocky called after her.

Shelly wanted to bang the pot on Rocky’s head, but she needed to get Echo away from his teasing, so she swam quickly toward home, pulling Echo with her.

“I’m so embarrassed,” Echo said when they were safely inside Shelly’s apartment.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shelly said. “If Pearl had seen it, she’d be wearing a pot on her tail tomorrow too.”

Echo wiped away a tear. “Do you really think so?”