The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler [16]
But Shona! And mermaid school! I had to do it. I’d swim underwater all the way to Rainbow Rocks. No one would see my tail.
Before I could change my mind, I ran into the freezing cold water. One last look around, then I took a breath and dove — and was on my way.
I made my way to Rainbow Rocks and hung around at the edge of the water, keeping hidden from the shore. A minute later, Shona arrived.
“You’re here!” She grinned, and we dipped under. She took me in a new direction, out across Shiprock Bay. When we came to the farthest tip of the bay, Shona turned to me. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“Are you joking? I can’t wait!”
She flipped herself over and started swimming downward. I copied her moves, scaling the rocks as we swam deeper and deeper.
Shoals of fish darted out from gaps in rocks that I hadn’t even noticed. Sea urchins clung to the sides in thick black crowds. The water grew colder.
And then Shona disappeared.
I flicked my tail and sped down. There was a gap in the rock. A huge hole, in fact. Big enough for a whale to get through! Shona’s face appeared from inside.
“Come on,” she said with a grin.
“Into the rock?”
She swam back out and grabbed my hand. We went through together. It was a dark tunnel, bending and twisting. Eventually, we turned a corner and a glimmer of light appeared, growing bigger and bigger until eventually we came out of the tunnel. I stared around me, my jaws wide open.
We were in a massive hole in the rock. It must have been the size of a football field. Bigger! Tunnels and caves led off in all directions, around the edges, above us, below. A giant underwater rabbit warren!
Everywhere I looked, people were swimming this way and that. And they all had tails! Merpeople! Hundreds of them! There were mermaids with gold chains around slinky long tails, swimming along with little merchildren. One had a merbaby on her back, the tiniest little pink tail sticking out from under its sling. A group of mermaids clustered outside one passageway, talking and laughing together, bags made from fishing nets on their arms. Three old mermen sat outside a different tunnel, their tails faded and wrinkled, their faces full of lines, and their eyes sparkling as they talked and laughed.
“Welcome to Shiprock — merfolk style!” Shona said.
“Shona, better get a move on. Don’t want to be late.” A mermaid with her hair in a tall bun appeared beside us. “Five minutes to the bell.” Then she flicked her dark green tail and zoomed off ahead.
“That’s Mrs. Tailspin,” Shona said. “She’s my history teacher. We’ve got her first thing.”
We followed her along a tubelike channel in the rock. At the other end, where it opened up again, mergirls and boys were swimming together in groups, swishing tails in a hundred different shades of blue and green and purple and silver as they milled around, waiting for school to start. A group of girls were playing a kind of skipping game with a long piece of ship’s rope.
Then a noise like a foghorn surrounded us. Everyone suddenly swam into lines. Boys on one side, girls on the other. Shona pulled me into a line at the far end. “You okay?”
I nodded, still unable to speak as we swam single file down yet another tunnel with the rest of our line.
Everyone began to take their seats on the smooth round rocks that were dotted around the circular room. It reminded me of the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree dome at the Museum of Science movie theater, where they show films of daredevil flights and crazy downhill skiing. Only this wasn’t a film — it was real!
Shona grabbed an extra rock and pulled it next to hers. A few of the other girls smiled at me.
“Are you new?” one asked. She was little and plump with a thick, dark green tail. It shimmered and sparkled as she spoke.
“She’s my cousin,” Shona answered for me quickly. The girl smiled and went to sit on her rock.
The walls were covered with collages made from shells and seaweed. Light filtered in through tiny cracks in the ceiling. Then Mrs. Tailspin came in and we all jumped off our rocks to say good morning.
Shona put