Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [9]
The school bell rang and we followed everyone to the lines that led inside.
A couple of boys dragged Aaron off to his line.
“See you at lunchtime,” I called. Since he was a couple of years older than Shona and me, he was in a different class. I pointed to the other side of the playground. “Meet you over there at Shining Rock.”
Aaron nodded and swam off. It felt weird watching him swim away. We’d hardly spent a moment apart since we’d been back in Brightport.
“Come on, you’ll see him in about two hours.” Shona pulled at my arm. “Think you can survive till then?”
“Of course I can!” I replied, forcing a laugh out. “I’m not — I mean it’s just —”
“Anyway, it’ll be nice for us to have some time on our own together,” she said. “It feels like we haven’t done that for ages.”
“Yeah,” I said. Aaron swam up to the edge of a tunnel and looked around. He gave a quick wave, and I waved back before he disappeared inside.
Shona sighed dramatically.
“I’m just concerned for him,” I said. “He’s never been to school before, that’s all.”
“Mm, yes. Whatever,” Shona said. Then she swam off. “I’m going to class.”
“Hey! Wait for me!” I spun my tail and swam over to catch up with her and join the line heading to our class. We chased each other in between the rocks, darting through hordes of white fish that were sprinkled all around us, so tiny they looked like falling snowflakes. We laughed and teased each other all the way, just like old times.
Except, as it turned out, it wasn’t going to be anything like old times. And quite soon, we weren’t going to have anything to laugh about, either.
Shona, Aaron, and I ate our lunch at Shining Rock and talked about our first morning. Aaron’s eyes shone with excitement. He’d had Shipwreck Studies first, and he was buzzing about all the new things he’d learned.
We’d had Beauty and Deportment — Shona’s favorite subject. We’d been decorating hairbrushes, and Shona and I had done matching crescent moons and stars on ours. Shona loves anything to do with acting like a siren. She wants to be one when she grows up. Her favorite thing in the world is singing, which is what being a siren is all about.
“Where does this rock lead to?” Aaron asked, looking up. It was tall, like an obelisk, and it was called Shining Rock because of the light that shone on it, making it the brightest part of the playground.
“It goes right up to the top,” Shona replied. “It’s the only part of the school that breaks the surface of the water.”
“Swishy!” Aaron said, and Shona and I both laughed. He ignored us. “Can we see?” He started swimming upward.
Shona glanced down at the seabed below us, where an old ship’s anchor had been turned into a sundial. This was the only part of the school where you could see the time.
“We’ve got about half an hour,” she said. “But it’s out of bounds up there. We should really be —”
I looked around. “No one’s watching,” I said, flicking my tail into action and following Aaron upward. His enthusiasm had caught hold of me, too. “Can’t we check it out? Just quickly.”
Shona shook her head and smiled. “You’re a bad influence!” she said. “Come on, then.”
I smiled back at her. Shona can’t resist an adventure any more than I can.
We swam up for about five minutes, feeling our way along the rock and shielding our eyes from the light that was getting brighter and brighter. An orange fish with a splotch of bright blue eye shadow above each eye stared blankly ahead as we swam past it. A long green-and-black fish swam with us, edging upward in short staccato bursts. Finally, we reached the surface. The rock burst through the top of the ocean, piercing it like a rocket breaking through clouds.
Above the surface, the rock was jagged and hilly. It felt as though we’d reached the surface of the moon. Aaron pulled himself out of the water and sat on the edge of the rock. As he did, his tail flapped and flickered, then disappeared. He rubbed his legs and stood up, reaching down to pull me onto the rock.
As I sat on the side, waiting for my legs to come back, Shona swam up