“Rush, rush, rush,” the old merwoman complained. “Why is everyone in such a big hurry, anyway?”

It was almost time for their second day of school. Shelly had to find out if Echo’s parents had been able to remove the pot from her tail. Echo had been so upset yesterday, they hadn’t even worked on their krill project, and Shelly was worried they were going to be behind the rest of the class.

She was meeting Echo outside her shell so they could swim to school together. Hopefully the pot was gone and nothing else would go wrong! But when Shelly arrived, Echo’s red eyes told her everything.

“They couldn’t get it off! This is the worst thing that could have happened to me.”

Shelly hugged her friend. She didn’t think a pot on her tail was the worst that could happen, but it was pretty bad. “Maybe you could put something over it?” she suggested.

Echo thought for a moment, then smiled. “That’s a great idea. Maybe this will work.” She reached into a pile near her front door and pulled out a piece of glittery material.

“What’s that?” Shelly asked.

“I found it last week. My dad said he thought it was called ‘cloth.’ People wear it,” Echo explained as she wrapped the sparkly material around her tail and the black pot.

Shelly rolled her eyes. More people stuff! She thought shells and woven seaweed made perfectly fine clothing, but she had to admit, the sparkly cloth looked pretty. “You look fabulous!” she told Echo.

“Really?”

“Pearl will probably be jealous,” Shelly said. “Now let’s hurry or we’ll be late.” It was hard for Echo to swim fast with her tail all wrapped up, so Shelly pulled her along. They made it to school just as the conch horn sounded.

In class, Mrs. Karp held up a small, almost-see-through creature. “Who can tell me what this is?”

Rocky’s hand shot up immediately, and Mrs. Karp nodded toward him. “Lunch!” he exclaimed.

Mrs. Karp frowned and nodded at Pearl. “That is an Antarctic krill,” Pearl said smugly. “It is the main food of the blue whale.”

Mrs. Karp pointed at Kiki. “Can you add anything to Pearl’s explanation?”

Kiki stood on her tail and spouted off information. “Krill are shrimp like crustaceans that form a large part of the zoo plankton and our food chain.”

“What did she say?” Rocky asked. “What’s a zooplankton?”

Shelly wondered the same thing, but Mrs. Karp continued with the lesson.

“Very good,” Mrs. Karp told Kiki. “Now, who can pick out other crustaceans from this aquarium?” Mrs. Karp tapped a glass box that was filled with different sea creatures. Shelly knew about most large sea life, but she wasn’t sure what a crustacean was, so she looked down at her tail. When no one raised their hand, Mrs. Karp called on Echo.

Oh no, thought Shelly. She was afraid the other merkids would tease Echo if they saw the pot. She held her breath as Echo floated to the front of the room. “Look at her tail,” several students whispered as Echo swam by.