Read Online Making Waves by Judi Fennell - Free Book Online Page B

edge. I figured she’d
want to get a look at a real shell. And I was right.”
    “You’re just going to leave it there?”
    “Will you chill? It’s just a shell.”
    “That they don’t have in this part of the
world. We’re going to get caught.”
    “By her? Seriously? Come on, Rod, she’s just
a guppy.”
    A guppy who was swimming their way. Reel
pushed Rod back behind the rocks some more.
    “I’m cancelling the bet.”
    Reel just knew Rod would flounder out.
“You can’t. You made it, you deal with the consequences.”
    “It’s the consequences I’m worried about.
Dad’s going to hook us.”
    “Dad’s not going to find out because
nothing’s going to happen. Now shut up. I don’t want her to hear
us.”
    Rod muttered something, then scared the crab
out of him when he yanked him up by his hair.
    “Rod, what in Hades—?”
    Then all Hades broke loose. Rod kicked
his tail toward the open ocean, dragging Reel with him, and the
Human started screaming. A lot . Like shark-feeding-frenzy
screaming.
    She screamed even louder when Reel’s hand
brushed her skin.
    It felt nothing like his. It was warm and
soft, and like every other girl’s he’d copped a feel from. Not that
he’d gotten the good part , but a leg was still skin.
    Fifty yards from shore, Rod finally slowed
his tail fins down. “Whew, that was close.”
    “Just close enough.” Reel rubbed his scalp.
Not the optimum way to travel, but Rod’s tail had way more strength
than his measly legs.
    “Just close—? You didn’t. Please, Reel, tell
me you didn’t.”
    Reel grinned. “Oh yes I did. You owe me, bro.
I touched her. And it was great. But you want to tell me why you
did that? She saw us.”
    “Because Drake’s nearby. Hackett had been
trying to wave us down with his pincers, but then he swam over and
latched onto my ear right before she showed up. I couldn’t let
Drake see us.”
    “Yeah, but you let her.”
    “She’ll forget about it. After all, she has
no idea what she saw. To Humans, we don’t exist.”
    Rod had a point; there were a lot of times
Reel felt like he didn’t either.
    ***
    Erica couldn’t stop screaming. Even when Tris
caught her under the arms and yanked her to the surface, she
couldn’t stop. What she’d seen—
    “What is it? What’s happened?”
    That was Dad’s voice. Del’s too. Anthony was
still running through the water as if there was a shark after
him.
    Or a merman.
    She’d seen a merman. Two.
    “Erica!” Andrew grabbed her from Tris. “What
happened? Are you okay?”
    “I don’t see any bite marks,” said Del.
    “Check her feet,” said Tris. “Her legs. She
must have gotten stung.”
    Her brothers passed her around as if she were
a fish at the market, poking, prodding, running their hands over
her legs and arms, and still, Erica just couldn’t stop screaming.
She knew she should, but she couldn’t.
    Not even when a crowd of people started
running toward them. Not even when Dad yanked her into his arms and
ran with her to the beach. Her cries were muffled against his
shoulder and her tears were choking her, but she couldn’t stop
screaming.
    “Sweetheart, sweetheart, please calm down.”
Dad laid her on the blanket and the tears in his eyes finally got
her to take a breath.
    A big, gulping, shaking, breath. “Something
touched me.”
    “What was it?” asked Andrew.
    “Shark?”
    “Jellyfish?
    “Manta ray?”
    Tris smacked Del’s head. “There aren’t any
manta rays around here, moron. What are you going to say next,
mermaid?”
    “Well it had to be something. She didn’t just
start screaming for no reason.”
    “I… I don’t know.” She hadn’t really seen a merman. Mermen didn’t exist. Right?
    Then what had she seen?
    She blinked. She couldn’t tell them. They’d
think she was crazy, like Mr. Byron’s mom. Erica had been on the
front lawn when the nurses had put Mrs. Byron in the ambulance in
that white jacket with the long arms. The old lady had never