Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [8]
“Well, Jake wants her to go to Shiprock School of course, but I think she should go back to Brightport High.” Mom was pouring cups of tea for herself and Aaron’s mom as the two of them discussed the ins and outs of our new life.
Aaron and I were playing chess at the table. He’d taught it to me recently. He’d spent years learning but never had anyone to play against. He was winning. He always did — except occasionally, when he pretended not to notice a really good move so he could let me win.
He and his mom were staying in one of the cottages on the beachfront. They were converted fishermen’s huts, so they were all quite tiny and smelled like haddock, but they cost a fortune to rent in high season. Mr. Beeston had had a word with one of his old fisherman contacts and managed to get it cheap for a few weeks, just till the season began.
“I don’t know what to do about Aaron,” his mom replied. “I mean, mer-school would make sense in a way, but then it might be nice for him to get a chance to mix with normal boys his age, too.”
She glanced over at us. “I mean, human boys,” she added quickly.
Aaron put down the bishop he’d been holding. I was quite glad, actually, as I think he’d been about to take my queen with it. “Has anyone thought to ask us what we want?” he said, echoing the question that had been in my mind the whole time they’d been talking.
“It’s us who’ll have to go there,” I added, “so shouldn’t we have some say?”
“Of course you’ll have some say,” Mom replied a bit sharply. “But we’re the ones who will have to make the final decision.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because we’re your parents,” Mom snapped. Maybe I was embarrassing her by arguing with her in front of Aaron and his mom, but I didn’t care. It was my life they were talking about, mine and Aaron’s, and it wasn’t fair that they got to make all the decisions.
“Are you the ones who got bullied at school last year?” I asked, irritation heating my cheeks. “Are you the ones who only recently discovered a whole new self and for the first time in your lives had the chance to go to school with others like you? Are you the ones who will have to live our lives?”
All three of them were staring at me now, mouths open, eyes round and wide. I felt like I’d reached the important part of the speech, but I didn’t know what came next. Luckily, Aaron stepped in.
“Look, you’re right,” he said to the others. “This is an important decision. So why don’t we take it gradually?” He looked at all three of us. “How about a compromise? What if we go to Shiprock School for what’s left of the school year, while we all find our fins in Brightport, and then discuss it again over summer vacation?”
Mom and Aaron’s mom looked at each other. “I suppose there are only a few weeks left,” Mom said.
“And it would give us time to think about what to do in the long run,” Aaron’s mom added.
Mom looked at me. “We’ll have to see what your dad says first.”
I laughed. There was no way Dad would say I should go to Brightport High. That was settled, then. I was going to mermaid school again! And, even better, in a few days Shona would be there too. As I felt my whole body relax, I realized how much I’d been worrying about the idea of going back to Brightport High. I wasn’t ready to exchange the life we’d had at Allpoints Island for one where I got taunted and bullied — not yet.
Aaron moved his knight. “Checkmate,” he said. “You lose. Sorry.”
But he was wrong. I hadn’t lost anything. I was back in Brightport and was about to go to mer-school with my two best friends. “No, I don’t,” I said, grinning at him. “I win!”
Arriving at Shiprock School, we felt like celebrities. It seemed as if half the school crowded around us. Most of them went straight to Shona — hugging her and squealing with delight when she said she was back to stay. When she explained who Aaron was and reminded them about me from when I visited before, they fell on us too, firing questions and welcoming us to the school. A million light-years from the kind of reception I’d been dreading at Brightport High! This was