Flower Girl Dreams Read online

  Contents

  MAP OF TRIDENT CITY

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  1 SPLASH-A-RIFFIC

  2 MR. FANGTOOTH’S SURPRISE

  3 HOW TO BE NICE

  4 MERVELOUS MERLINDA’S

  5 PROJECT FLOWER GIRL

  6 MAKING A LIST

  7 MISS FIX-IT

  8 PERFECTLY COSTLY

  9 WEDDING PLANNER WOES

  10 PEARL’S PLAN

  11 DR. BOTTOM’S GIFT

  12 GENIUS

  13 HELP!

  14 THE WEDDING

  CLASS REPORTS

  THE MERMAID TALES SONG

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  GLOSSARY

  ABOUT DEBBIE DADEY

  For Amy Cloud and her fiancé, Greg Hoffman, best wishes for much happiness

  Splash-a-riffic

  ISN’T THAT THE MOST FIN-TASTIC purse ever?” Pearl Swamp squealed. She pointed to the cover of a MerStyle magazine with her gold tail fin.

  Her best friend, Wanda Slug, moved closer to see the adorable scotch bonnet shell purse. “Ooh, I’m going to ask for one of those for my birthday!” Wanda exclaimed. “I wonder if it comes in pink?”

  “Hey, watch out!” Pearl snapped as another third-grade student bumped into her, causing her to drop the magazine.

  “Sorry, but I can’t be late to class again,” Rocky Ridge said. “Or Mrs. Karp will make me shark bait!”

  Pearl shook her head and watched Rocky zoom across the huge entrance hall of their school, Trident Academy. He zipped between some chatting sixth graders and a group of fourth graders tossing a puffer-fish ball. It was still a few minutes before school started, and it was unusual for Rocky to hurry to class.

  “That Rocky is so rude sometimes,” Wanda said, scooping up the magazine and handing it to Pearl. “But he’s kind of cute, too.”

  Pearl giggled. As she turned back to MerStyle, she overheard something that made her tail spin. She swirled around to listen to a group of mergirls from her class.

  “I can’t believe the wedding is in less than one week!” Kiki Coral squealed.

  “Who’s getting married?” Pearl whispered to Wanda.

  Wanda shrugged. “I don’t know, but weddings are wave-tastic! I was a flower girl in my cousin Detrella’s wedding, and it was a splash.”

  Pearl sighed. She had always wanted to be a flower girl, ever since she’d attended her own cousin’s wedding when she was a small fry. But so far, no one had asked her.

  “Let’s check with Kiki,” Wanda told Pearl. “Maybe the bride is someone we know!”

  Wanda swam up to Kiki and said, “We heard you talking about a wedding. Who in the great wide ocean is getting married?”

  Pearl couldn’t believe Kiki’s answer!

  Mr. Fangtooth’s Surprise

  MR. FANGTOOTH, THEIR school’s grumpy cafeteria worker, was the last merperson in the ocean that Pearl expected to be getting married. Even though he had once saved Pearl from a great white shark, he was still the biggest grouch in Trident City.

  After the conch bell sounded to start the school day, Pearl sat at her desk and thought, Who would want to live the rest of their merlife with a cranky old merman?

  Before class began, Kiki had told Pearl that she, Echo, and their friend Shelly were going to be flower girls in Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding. They would get to float down the aisle before the bride, carrying big bunches of flowers. They would probably wear beautiful gowns, too, and maybe even flower crowns. It wasn’t fair that they were going to be in a wedding and Pearl was not!

  “Today,” Mrs. Karp told her third-grade class, “we will begin studying coral reefs. Tomorrow we will go on a short ocean trip to investigate the reef here in Trident City.”

  “Totally wavy!” Echo said.

  Pearl smiled. School was okay, but it was a lot more fun to learn away from her desk. And she did like coral, especially the red coral that grew near the front door of her shell.

  “There are both soft and hard corals,” Mrs. Karp said. “Who can name a type of hard coral?”

  Kiki raised her hand and said, “Brain coral?” She blew her nose into a kelp tissue.

  “Very good,” Mrs. Karp said. “Are you feeling all right, Kiki?”

  Kiki nodded. “I’m allergic to paddle weed, which is blooming right now.”

  Pearl noticed Kiki’s red nose. If Kiki was allergic to flowers, she definitely shouldn’t be a flower girl.

  There had to be a way for Pearl to be in Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding too. After all, she was an expert on sea flowers. And she read every issue of MerStyle magazine from start to finish, especially the wedding articles. Plus, Pearl knew how to float with style.

  Pearl smiled and made up her mind. She was going to figure out a way to be a flower girl in that wedding, if it was the last thing she did!

  How to Be Nice

  BY LUNCHTIME, PEARL HAD come up with a plan. If she was really nice to Mr. Fangtooth, he would surely ask her to be a flower girl in his wedding.

  But Pearl had never been friendly to Mr. Fangtooth before. She had thanked him when he saved her from a shark in Trident Academy’s dorm, but otherwise she tried to stay far away from him. After all, who wants to be around a grouch?

  Pearl remembered that earlier in the school year Kiki, Shelly, and Echo had tried to make Mr. Fangtooth laugh with funny faces, but it had never worked. So Pearl wasn’t exactly sure how to put her plan into action. After all, it was hard to be pleasant to someone who never smiled.

  That was it! She would smile at him. As Mr. Fangtooth dished her favorite meal of black-lip oyster and sablefish stew into her shell bowl, Pearl flashed him a huge grin.

  Mr. Fangtooth looked startled. He frowned even more deeply. “Is something wrong with the food?” he asked.

  “No,” Pearl said. She showed all her teeth in the biggest smile she could muster.

  “Then stop looking at me that way,” Mr. Fangtooth grumbled. “You’re giving me a headache.”

  Pearl’s smile disappeared. “Well, of all the mean things to say!” she snapped, then slammed her mouth shut. She was trying to make him like her, and fussing wouldn’t help.

  Pearl sat down at her table and watched Mr. Fangtooth. He frowned at every merstudent in the food line . . . except for Echo. He actually smiled at Echo! What had Echo done to make him stop scowling? Pearl had to find out!

  As soon as Echo sat down at her corner table with Shelly and Kiki, Pearl rushed over to her. “What in the ocean did you say to Mr. Fangtooth to make him smile?”

  Echo, Shelly, and Kiki stared at Pearl blankly.

  “I want to make Mr. Fangtooth happy,” Pearl explained. “He’s such a grouch.” She didn’t mention that she was doing it so that she could be a flower girl in his wedding.

  “That’s nice of you,” Shelly said. “We used to do the same thing, but it never really worked.”

  “I just act like I’m glad to see him,” Echo suggested. “You could try that.”

  But Pearl’s mind stopped on the word “act.” Acting! Of course! Pearl had played the part of the sea witch in their third-grade play, The Little Human. She had been the star of the show . . . sort of. Acting made Pearl happy, but so did singing. Maybe acting and singing for Mr. Fangtooth would make him grin.

  Pearl glided over to the lunch line, where Mr. Fangtooth was serving other merstudents. She danced in front of the other merkids, acting like a mer-rock star. The whole time she sang a song called “Barracuda” in a squeaky voice.

  Pearl knew Mr. Fangtooth would smile. And it might have worked, except she decided to try for a showstopping finish. She performed a flip called a Scale Dropper. As she spun around, Pearl’s tail fin brushed against the edge of a ju
ice stand. A bowl of green seaweed juice sailed through the water and landed with a splat right on Mr. Fangtooth’s bald head.

  “Oh no!” Pearl cried.

  Mervelous MerLinda’s

  PEARL TWISTED HER PEARL necklace around her hand as she floated through the door of her shell home. Usually just touching the necklace made her feel better, but today it only reminded her that she wouldn’t get to wear it in Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, Angelfish!” her mother said as soon as Pearl swam through the entrance. “What took you so long to get home?”

  Pearl shrugged. She didn’t want to tell her mother that she’d had to stay after school to scrub seaweed juice off the cafeteria floor.

  Luckily, her mother didn’t give her the chance. “No matter,” Mrs. Swamp said. “I’m glad you’re here. I just read in the Trident City Tide that MerLinda’s is having a huge sale. Let’s go!”

  Pearl barely had time to drop her school bag before her mother whisked her out the door. Clothes shopping at her favorite store in Trident City was usually great fun, but Pearl was still thinking about Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding. As they swam closer to MerLinda’s, Pearl began to cheer up. Maybe an afternoon of shopping would make her forget about being a flower girl.

  Once they arrived, Pearl and her mother browsed racks of beautiful silk dresses and displays of shell jewelry. Then Pearl noticed Shelly, Echo, and Kiki standing in front of a mirror. Each of them wore a matching pale-pink dress.

  “Oh, how sweet you mergirls look!” Mrs. Swamp cooed when she saw them. “Is someone you know getting married?”

  “We are going to be flower girls in Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding. He works at our school,” Kiki explained to Mrs. Swamp. “His fiancée, Lillian, is trying on her wedding gown now!”

  Kiki pointed to a merlady coming out of a fitting room, wearing a long white gown. Pearl recognized her as the librarian from the Trident City Public Library.

  “Oh, I must meet the lovely bride!” Mrs. Swamp gushed as she raced over to Lillian.

  Pearl’s mother introduced herself. “I just wanted to say hello and congratulations! My name is Helena Swamp, of the Swamp family. You may have heard of us!”

  Lillian smiled and nodded. “Of course. I’ve seen you and your daughter at the library.”

  Lillian reached to shake Mrs. Swamp’s hand, but ended up tripping over the hem of her long gown instead. Pearl grabbed Lillian’s arm to keep her from falling.

  “Gracious me!” Lillian said. “Thank you!”

  Pearl noticed that part of Lillian’s dress was twisted around her tail fin. “Actually,” Pearl said, “let me help you.” In a few tail swishes she had arranged Lillian’s gown so that it fanned out like a beautiful shell.

  “Oh, I do appreciate that, dear!” Lillian said. “I guess I’m not used to floating in such a long dress.” She turned to the mirror. “And there are so many decisions to make while planning a wedding. It’s overwhelming! I can’t even decide if I should wear a long veil or a short one.”

  “Definitely a short veil,” Pearl blurted. “It would look fin-tastic with your hair. And you should wear dangly earrings.” She snatched a lovely pair of long shell earrings from a nearby counter and handed them to Lillian.

  Mrs. Swamp and Lillian both looked at Pearl in surprise.

  “Thank you,” Lillian said as she put on the jewelry. “These look mervelous!”

  Mrs. Swamp nodded approvingly. “My Pearl has always had a flair for fashion. So when is the big day?”

  “It’s this coming Saturday—less than a week away,” Lillian replied, shaking her head. “I still haven’t selected my flowers. And our caterer is insisting on serving cuttlefish soup, but my fiancé, Mendel, is allergic! We haven’t even seen the room for the ceremony yet. Everything is just a mess!”

  As Mrs. Swamp and Lillian discussed the wedding, Pearl swam over to Shelly, Kiki, and Echo. Pearl tried to be nice to them, even though she wanted to be the one wearing a pink dress.

  “You make pretty flower girls,” she told them.

  Shelly smiled. “Thanks. Being in a wedding is so exciting!”

  Echo’s dark eyes sparkled. “This is the first wedding I’ve ever been in.”

  Pearl’s mother hustled over to them. “Pearl, we really should get to shopping. But you did a lovely job arranging Lillian’s dress,” Mrs. Swamp commented. “And your suggestions for the veil and earrings were perfect. Maybe you should be a wedding planner when you grow up!”

  Pearl didn’t want to discuss weddings anymore. Seeing the mergirls in their flower girl dresses made her sad. She hated the fact that she was going to miss out on all the wedding fun.

  Project Flower Girl

  THAT NIGHT, WHILE PEARL ate her dinner of milkfish and striped catfish soup, she tried to come up with another way to be in Mr. Fangtooth’s wedding.

  Then, as she ran her Venus comb through her hair twenty times before going to bed, she remembered what her mother had said: Pearl would make a great wedding planner when she grew up.

  What if she didn’t wait until she grew up? Pearl could help plan Lillian’s wedding to Mr. Fangtooth right now! After all, Lillian seemed clueless when it came to being a bride. She hadn’t even selected her flowers yet. The wedding was Saturday and it was already Tuesday! If Pearl helped with the wedding, then Lillian and Mr. Fangtooth had to see that Pearl would be the perfect flower girl.

  Pearl climbed into bed and fell asleep with flower girl dreams in her head.

  She woke up the next morning very early. She could hardly wait to start her new plan: Project Flower Girl.

  When she got to school, she remembered that it was the day Mrs. Karp’s class was taking an ocean trip to the coral reef. The third graders buzzed with excitement.

  “All right, students,” Mrs. Karp told them as they lined up at the classroom door. “Please study the reef carefully without touching it. Make a list of all the different types of coral you see. Next week you will each give an oral report sharing information about coral.”

  At the word “report,” Pearl heard a big groan from Rocky. Pearl felt the same way, but she didn’t complain. In fact, she was sure that seeing all the beautiful coral would give her even more ideas for Lillian’s wedding. Maybe they could use pieces of coral for the table centerpieces at the wedding dinner!

  The entire class swam to the reef together. When they arrived, Pearl saw a patch of orange, pink, and green coral and a school of butterfly fish hovering nearby. A bright green polka-dotted parrot fish floated past some branches of bushy black coral. Pearl was wondering whether yellow, flowerlike dendrophyllid coral or daisy coral would look prettier on the tables at Lillian’s wedding when she overheard Echo speaking to Wanda.

  “That’s where Mr. Fangtooth and Lillian are getting married,” Echo told Wanda. Echo pointed to the elegant Trident Plaza Hotel, which was built into the coral reef nearby.

  “Ooh,” Wanda said. “Is it going to be a fancy wedding?”

  Echo shrugged. “Yesterday Lillian said she was thinking about having passion flower feather stars and flower urchins brought in to decorate for the reception. And she is pretty sure that our bouquets will be golden dune moss tied up with Neptune’s necklace.”

  Pearl swam over to Echo and Wanda. “But that’s not right at all!” Pearl blurted. “Everyone knows that sea lavender is all the rage for weddings at this time of year! Golden dune moss is so last season. I read all about it in the newest MerStyle magazine!”

  Echo looked at Pearl in surprise. “But that’s what Lillian wants, and she’s the bride.”

  Pearl folded her arms over her chest. “Lillian doesn’t know what she’s doing. She said so at MerLinda’s yesterday.” She paused before asking, “Why did Lillian and Mr. Fangtooth ask you, Shelly, and Kiki to be in their wedding, anyway? What makes you so special?”

  “Pearl!” Wanda said. “That’s none of your business. Mr. Fangtooth and Lillian can ask whoever they want.”

&nbs
p; “It’s all right,” Echo said before turning to Pearl. “Lillian and Mr. Fangtooth asked us to be in their wedding because Shelly and I found a love letter that Lillian had dropped. Mr. Fangtooth had written it to Lillian very long ago. When we gave it to Mr. Fangtooth, he realized that Lillian still cared for him.”

  But Pearl wasn’t satisfied and asked, “What about Kiki?”

  Echo shrugged. “Kiki was with us when we met Lillian.”

  Pearl sighed. That did explain why Lillian and Mr. Fangtooth had asked Echo, Shelly, and Kiki to be in the wedding, but it still didn’t help Pearl.

  Pearl tapped her chin. There was no way she could write a love letter. But she could definitely help Lillian. In fact, she knew that unless she helped Lillian, the entire wedding would be a disaster.

  And Lillian would be so grateful, Pearl was sure to be a flower girl!

  Making a List

  AFTER SCHOOL, PEARL RACED into her bedroom and spread her MerStyle magazines on the floor around her gold tail. She opened each one to the wedding section and began to make a list of the best ideas. Lillian hadn’t been lying. There were so many decisions to make! Centerpieces for the dinner tables, flowers, bouquets, favors . . .

  “For shark’s sake!” Pearl muttered. “I never knew planning a wedding was so much work. I wonder if Lillian has even thought about the music.”

  Pearl decided that if she was going to be a wedding planner, she’d need a business card. So she made her own out of small pieces of kelp, writing Pearl Swamp, Trident City’s Top Wedding Planner on each in black octopus ink.

  Just then Anna came into the room with a stack of clean clothes for Pearl. Anna was the Swamp family’s maid, but she was more like a second mom to Pearl. Pearl looked at Anna’s wrinkled face and realized she was probably the same age as Lillian.

  “Anna?” Pearl asked. “If you were getting married all over again, would you rather carry a bouquet of sea lavender or golden dune moss?” Surely Lillian would like sea lavender better. After all, it was Queen Edwina’s favorite flower, and she was royalty!