Read Online Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath by Helene Boudreau - Free Book Online Page A

and Lainey picked up her bags before disappearing inside.
    â€œThat girl is pure evil.” Cori stared at the car as it pulled away.
    â€œYeah, sorry you had to lose your internship at her mom’s boutique because of me.”
    Cori squinted. “How do you know about that?” Then, she looked at me wide-eyed. “Are mermaids telepathic? Can you tell what I’m thinking right now?”
    â€œNo.” I laughed. “I was underneath the Descousse Marina pier with my mom, growing legs, when you and Lainey had your big fight. Heard the whole thing.”
    Cori shook her head. “This cannot be real.”
    â€œIt’s all pavement and buildings around here,” Luke said when they returned. “Are you sure this is right?”
    I glanced at the McDonald’s across the parking lot, closer to the road.
    â€œIt has to be. I could see the golden arches from the water.” I looked around for some open space where a tidal pool might be.
    Cori stood on the sidewalk as the bus pulled away, still muttering about how she couldn’t believe what was happening. Finally she looked around, trying to get her bearings.
    â€œSo what are we doing at the mall exactly?” Cori asked.
    â€œLooking for a magical tidal pool,” Luke whispered in her ear, trying to hold back a smile.
    I laughed. It was kind of fun to mess with her head.
    â€œI’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Cori put her fingers in her ears and hummed.
    â€œMaybe it’s closer to the mall,” Trey suggested.
    We walked up to the chain-link fence by the construction site and tried to look between the signs advertising the mall expansion. Could the tidal pool be in there? Was Mom just inside that fence? “I can’t see past these signs.”
    Just then, a car backfired in the parking lot, making Cori jump in surprise.
    â€œI seriously don’t know how much more of this I can take.” She put a hand to her chest.
    Seconds later, a great blue heron rose from within the construction site a few hundred feet away.
    â€œHerons usually mean there’s water!” Luke said.
    â€œLet’s get past these signs to get a better look,” I suggested, hoping Luke was right.
    The fence stretched from the mall by Hyde’s and continued for several hundred yards toward the ocean. We followed it through a marshy area and down to a secondary gravel road that ran along the shore.
    â€œIt looks like the fence goes along this road then turns back up to the mall in a big rectangle,” Trey said.
    I looked back up the hill toward the mall and could still make out the McDonald’s golden arches off in the distance, just like earlier, underwater. “Does anyone see a culvert around here?”
    â€œThere’s a bit of a hump in the road up ahead,” Luke said.
    Luke and I followed the raised ground across to where the ocean met the large rocks at the shoulder of the road. We climbed the rocks and peered into the deep water.
    â€œDo you see anything?” Trey called from the road where he waited with Cori.
    â€œYes!” I yelled. “But it’s under a couple feet of water.”
    It was the same gray metal tunnel I’d seen with Reese. We’d found it! Now, how were we supposed to get through it?
    â€œHow big were those mer-dude’s spears?” Luke asked as we turned back to join Cori and Trey on the dirt road.
    â€œBig!” I said, shivering at the thought. “So, unless we want to get skewered, we’re going to have to find another way in.”
    â€œMer-dudes with spears?!” Cori cried, scanning the open ocean. “Next you’ll be telling me to watch out for sea witches.”
    â€œI haven’t seen any sea witches yet, but there’s a pretty scary mermaid named Medora in Talisman Lake.” I searched for the hump in the road again and followed it as it ran straight through to the construction site. I peered through