“That’s really nice of—” Shelly started to say.

“But we have something else to do first,” Echo interrupted her friend.

Crystal shrugged. “Okay. I have to work at the store soon anyway. Good luck.” Crystal and Echo’s dad ran Reef’s Fish Store, which sold small exotic sea creatures of all kinds. Crystal quickly left, and Shelly worried that her feelings were hurt.

“Maybe we should have let her help,” Shelly said.

Echo shook her head. “No, Crystal just wants to boss me around. It’s a pain having an older sister.”

Shelly was an only child, so she thought it would be great to have a brother or sister.

“Besides,” Echo said, “I want to show you what I can do.” She did a huge backward flip and twisted to the left and right.

“Watch out!” Shelly yelled, and fell sideways, knocking a beautiful glass vase off a turtle shell table. The vase broke into a million pieces.

Echo’s tail did even more damage. She whacked three glowing jellyfish lamps, which rolled across the room. The jellyfish shrugged at Echo and swam out of the shell. Once they left, Echo’s living room got much darker. The only light came from a row of shining plankton that lined the bottom of the shell.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Shelly said. “I didn’t mean to break your vase. Echo, I can’t do anything right. I should just quit everything, including Trident Academy. I know I won’t be able to do all the projects, and I sure won’t be able to make the Shell Wars team.”

Echo swam through the darkened room to grab her friend by the arm. “Don’t be silly. I was the one who caused this disaster. It was all because I wanted to practice for Tail Flippers.”

“You did a great flip,” Shelly admitted. “You just needed more room.” Shelly was right. Echo’s shell was full of people-junk that she’d collected.

But Echo shook her head. “There’s another problem,” she said.

“What’s that?” Shelly asked. “I’m sure you’ll make the team.”

Echo slowly lifted her pink tail so her friend could see. A huge black pot was stuck on the bottom. “Help me get it off, Shelly. I can’t go to Trident Academy with this on my tail!”

Shelly tried hard not to laugh as she helped her friend. She pulled. She tugged. She smacked the pot with her own tail. Shelly poured kelp oil into the pot and tugged even harder. Nothing worked. The pot was stuck fast on Echo’s tail.

Echo started crying. “What am I going to do?”

Merbrats

THE NEXT MORNING, SHELLY sped through the water. She hurried past an older merwoman, who raised her fist in disgust. “Young merbrats think they can just knock over anyone in their way.”

“So sorry!” Shelly apologized to the woman, who had only been splashed a bit. “I can’t be late.”