“I’m afraid the kids will make fun of me,” Echo said.

Shelly thought her friend might be right. Even though the pot was finally off Echo’s tail, Rocky and Pearl did like to tease, and a pot on a tail was kind of funny. But then Shelly remembered something her grandfather had told her: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

“But words do hurt my feelings sometimes,” Echo said.

“They only hurt if you let them,” Shelly said. “Just pretend you don’t care. If you don’t get upset, everyone will stop teasing.”

“Will that really work?” Echo asked.

Shelly nodded. “Of course it will.” She sure hoped she was right.

Best Merfriend Ever

HEY, POT-TAIL, WHER E’S YOUR pot?” Rocky asked the next morning at school.

“Right here,” Echo said, holding up the pot that now held Shelly’s and Echo’s projects.

Rocky grinned and said, “I liked it better on your tail.”

Shelly was surprised and happy that Rocky didn’t say another word. Echo had been worried for no reason.

Mrs. Karp splashed her tail sharply, and all the merstudents quickly found their desks. Shelly and Echo proudly turned in their reports, but they couldn’t believe their eyes when Kiki turned in at least a dozen seaweed pages and a small chest full of shrimp and krill.

“Wow,” Echo whispered. “She must be really smart.”

Kiki overheard this as she sat down in her seat. She shrugged. “I’m so sorry I hit you in the stomach at practice yesterday. I felt so bad, I came back to school and worked late on my report.”

“It’s okay,” Shelly said. “I wasn’t hurt.” Now she felt sorry. She hadn’t said goodbye to Kiki when she’d left the park yesterday. Shelly hoped she hadn’t hurt Kiki’s feelings.

Mrs. Karp frowned when Rocky turned in two small seaweed pages with a harlequin shrimp and Pearl handed in four shrimp that clearly had prices marked on their tails.

Pearl swam back to her seat and muttered, “My dad had to work late. He said the project was silly anyway.”

Shelly had to admit she’d actually enjoyed working on the project. She’d never known there were so many different kinds of shrimp in the waters around her home.

At lunchtime, Echo and Shelly sat at a table together. Wanda and some other mergirls who boarded at Trident filled up Pearl’s table. Many of them wore sparkly cloths tied around their tails.

“See what you started?” Shelly smiled. “Now everyone’s wearing something glittery around their tails.”

“How funny is that?” Echo said with a giggle. “Maybe something even funnier would make Mr. Fangtooth smile. But what can we do?”

Shelly took a bite of her glasswort sandwich before looking around the lunchroom. She saw Kiki floating over to a small table in the corner. She was going to eat lunch all by herself. “Would you mind if we made someone else smile today?” Shelly asked Echo.