Pearl flipped her blond hair, stuck her pointy nose up in the water, and said, “I know how to do plenty of things.”

“Name one,” Shelly said.

“How to be on time for school, for starters,” she said. Pearl spun around and flicked her gold tail, knocking seaweed juice all over Shelly’s new Trident sash!

Splash!

Pearl giggled and swam off toward school.

“Oh no!” Shelly squealed, dabbing green juice off the gold-and-blue sash. “She did that on purpose!”

Echo glared after Pearl before helping her friend wipe the sash. “It’s fine now. You can hardly see it,” Echo said. That wasn’t exactly true—there was definitely a green blob on Shelly’s sash.

“We’d better get going,” Echo said, adjusting the glittering plankton bow in her dark curly hair. “We don’t want to be late on our first day.”

Shelly groaned. She wasn’t quite so excited now. “If Trident Academy is filled with merpeople like Pearl, then I don’t think I’m going to like it.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Echo said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

Burps

WOW,” SHELLY SAID, staring up at the ceiling of the huge clamshell. “This is amazing.” Only a few shells in the ocean had ever grown as large as Trident Academy. The front hall alone could fit a humpback whale, and the ceiling was filled with colorful old carvings that showed the history of the merpeople.

“It’s awesome, but we’d better get to class,” Echo said, grabbing Shelly’s elbow. “Third graders are down this way.” Echo’s older sister went to Trident Academy, so Echo already knew a lot about the school.

Shelly didn’t think she’d ever seen so many merpeople in one place. Hundreds of students swam quickly through the massive shell, looking for their classrooms. Each wore a different-colored sash for their grade, from third to tenth.

“Here’s our room,” Echo said. She shoved aside a seaweed curtain and disappeared inside.

Shelly gulped and followed her friend. She hoped Pearl wouldn’t be in their classroom, but as she entered the class …

“Oh no. Did a stinkfish just swim in?” Pearl snapped as she sat at a rock desk.

“No,” said a merboy with a big head. “But a burpfish did.” He let out a big, long burp right in Pearl’s face.

“That is so disgusting, Rocky,” Pearl said. “Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”

“I’ll tell you what’s really disgusting,” Rocky said. “That jewelry you’re wearing.”

Pearl shook her head. “My pearls are sooooo beautiful.” She ran her fingers over the long necklace.

“Actually,” a tiny, dark-haired mergirl said, “pearls are sort of disgusting. They’re made when an oyster or mussel secretes nacre around an irritant.”

Pearl sniffed at the tiny mergirl. “So what?”

“Secretes?” another merboy asked. “What’s that?”

“Kind of like spitting,” the mergirl explained.