A Titanic Friendship Read online

  For Alex

  1 Ship Eating

  WHAT IS A BACTERIUM that eats ships?” Mrs. Karp asked.

  Rocky Ridge shook his head. “Little bitty bacteria can’t do that. Their stomachs would explode!”

  Echo Reef had to agree with Rocky. Her third-grade class had just started studying them, but she was sure her teacher had said something about bacteria being really, really small. Since they’d started their lessons, Echo scrubbed carefully every night. She didn’t want to think about icky bacteria or their cousins, archaea, on her pretty pink tail.

  Echo’s merfriend Kiki Coral raised her hand slowly. “Doesn’t it depend on whether the ship is wood or steel?”

  “Why would that matter?” Pearl Swamp asked.

  Mrs. Karp grinned. “Actually, it makes a big difference. Some bacteria like to eat wood, and some eat steel. In fact, over the next week we will be studying different types of bacteria and creating paintings of large clusters of them in art class.”

  Painting sounded a lot better than doing a big report. Echo would have to learn about the different types. How many could there be?

  “The bacteria H. titanicae is named after the steel ship it has been eating for about a hundred years,” Mrs. Karp told them. “Does anyone recognize that name?”

  Echo’s hand shot in the air. “Are you telling me that something is eating the most famous ship ever? The Titanic?” Echo loved everything about humans, and that particular ship was legendary.

  “It’s true.” Mrs. Karp nodded. “In fact, in twenty years it may be completely gone.”

  “No wavy way!” Echo said in disbelief.

  “Let’s get rid of that tica-tockie bacteria!” Rocky urged.

  “It’s called H. titanicae,” Kiki said. “The H is for ‘Halomonas.’ ”

  “Isn’t there a way to stop the bacteria?” Echo’s good merfriend Shelly Siren asked.

  Mrs. Karp shrugged. “I’m not sure we should. It’s the way of nature.”

  Echo couldn’t believe it. She’d read about the fabulous human ship that had been like a floating palace. People had thought it couldn’t be sunk, but sadly it had—on its first voyage! How could the whole thing be disappearing?

  “But luckily we’ll get to see it before it’s gone,” Mrs. Karp announced. “We will go on an ocean trip to visit it next week.”

  Several kids gasped, but Echo couldn’t help squealing. Were they really going to visit the Titanic? It was a dream come true!

  2 New Merkid

  ECHO WAS STILL THINKING about the Titanic later after Tail Flippers practice. “Did you hear the exciting news?” Pearl said as she floated over to Echo. They were in the middle of MerPark’s biggest kelp field.

  “Yes!” Echo said. “I’m so excited about the ocean trip!”

  Pearl frowned and twisted her long pearl necklace. “Who cares about visiting a rusty old ship? I’m talking about the new merstudent!”

  “We’re getting a new merkid in our class? How do you know?”

  Wanda Slug swam up beside Pearl. “I overheard Mrs. Karp talking with Headmaster Hermit when we went to the cafeteria. Isn’t it shelltacular?”

  “Fins crossed for a cute merboy!” Pearl giggled.

  “Maybe he’ll want to join the Tail Flippers team,” Wanda agreed. “We need a new top person.” Wanda had just recently been added to the team herself.

  “I’m usually the top person on the pyramids,” Echo said. But Pearl and Wanda had already splashed away to chat with other Tail Flippers about the new merstudent.

  Echo overheard lots of comments like “I heard he’s from the Northern Oceans!” and “I hope she’ll sit by me.”

  Pearl said, “Maybe the new merkid will be able to do the Scale Dropper really well!”

  Echo had heard quite enough. The Scale Dropper was her favorite flip! It sounded like her whole team was ready to replace her. How she wished her merfriends Kiki and Shelly were on the team.

  Echo grabbed her book bag and headed home, but at the last minute she made a slight detour toward the Trident City Library, swerving around the Trident Academy manta ray bus outside. She wanted to do extra research on the Titanic. She sailed past the marble pillars that lined the entrance to the oldest library in the merworld. Echo barely glanced at the pink marble walls and the sparkling diamond pictures on the ceiling. She knew just where to go inside the big space, although usually one or two of her buddies were with her. She’d looked at the ship books many times. Human things were fin-tastic, and ships were the biggest human things ever!

  Echo swished to a stop in front of several empty shelves. Every single Titanic book was gone!

  3 Mean Merstudent

  A MERGIRL ABOUT ECHO’S age sat at a table covered with books. They were all about the Titanic! The stranger turned a kelp page in the biggest one.

  Echo frowned. It wasn’t right to take all the books on one subject. “Excuse me, do you mind if I borrow a couple of these?” She’d already read her school’s single volume three times over.

  The mergirl pushed back her brown braid with her bright orange fingernails. “Are you going on the Titanic ocean trip?”

  Echo grinned. “Yes, I’ve always wanted to go. I just want two books. You can have the rest.”

  The mergirl raised an eyebrow before shaking her head. “No.”

  Echo couldn’t believe it. How rude! She wanted to shout at the mergirl, but instead she swirled around. Echo flipped her tail just enough to make a wave, hoping it caused the meanie to lose her place.

  She was still mad about it the next morning when she was swimming to school with Shelly. “She had every book about the Titanic and wouldn’t share!”

  “Is she an older merstudent?” Shelly asked.

  They didn’t see the bigger students at Trident Academy often, but Echo surely would have recognized the mergirl. “No,” Echo said as they swam into their school’s main entrance hall. She stopped so suddenly Shelly smashed into her.

  “Ouch, why’d you stop?”

  “That’s her! It’s the mean mergirl I told you about.” Echo pointed to a large group of merkids surrounding the brown-haired mergirl. She even had a stack of books on her orange lap. Echo was pretty sure they were the Titanic books from the library, and it made her mad all over again.

  “What is she sitting on?” Shelly asked.

  Echo took her eyes away from the books and tried to figure out the strange chair. What kind of seat had big yellow wheels and fins? “It must be a human invention,” Echo said.

  Echo forgot all about the mean mergirl when the conch sounded for classes to begin and everyone scurried to their rooms. She was pulling her homework out of her bag when in rolled the new merstudent.

  Echo slapped her homework on her desk as Mrs. Karp said, “Class, please welcome our newest member. Anita Bloom joins us from the Southern Oceans. Shelly and Kiki, please scoot your desks over to make room.”

  Automatically everyone rose and said, “Hello, Anita.” Echo mumbled it.

  Anita’s face turned a bright red. Without a word she rolled her chair past Echo. “I hope you are enjoying those books,” Echo snapped.

  Anita jerked her head up before sneering, “Actually, they’re great.”

  Echo reached to pass her homework to the front of the room. But it was missing! That’s when she saw her carefully done math paper on the floor. It was covered with dirty tire marks! Anita had ruined her homework on purpose!

  4 Titanic Dream

  NAME A BACTERIUM THAT can cause your skin to itch,” Mrs. Karp asked her class later that morning.

  Anita’s hand shot up in the water. “Oscillatoria willei.”

  Rocky frowned. “O-lotty-whaty?”

  Mrs. Karp nodded at Anita
. “Very good. Can anyone tell me the nickname for Oscillatoria willei?”

  Anita bit her lip like she wanted to answer, but Kiki raised her hand. “Wasn’t it once known as blue-green algae?”

  “Exactly,” Mrs. Karp said. Anita gave Kiki a tails-up signal. What was that about? Surely the mean mergirl hadn’t made a pal of Kiki already. They’d barely met!

  Echo couldn’t believe her bad luck when Anita parked her chair at the polished granite lunch table she always shared with Shelly and Kiki. It was their special time together. “What’s going on?” Echo asked.

  Kiki grinned from her spot beside Anita. “My new roommate is joining us for lunch. Isn’t that great?”

  “Roommate?” Echo said, with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Did everyone like Anita better? After all, the Tail Flippers had been quick to want to replace her. Were her best merbuddies next?

  “I have that big room, and since Wanda isn’t my roommate anymore, I had plenty of space,” Kiki said.

  “It’s an awesome room,” Anita said. “I love the waterfall and your killer-whale bed.”

  Shelly floated over to the table with two trays full of crab casserole and barnacle buns. She placed one in front of Anita. “Thanks,” Anita said.

  Shelly grinned. “I can get it every day for you if you’d like.” Echo couldn’t believe it. Not only was the girl mean, she’d stolen Kiki for a merfriend and was having Shelly get lunch for her!

  Anita shook her head. “No, I will be more used to things tomorrow. But it was nice of you to get it for me today.”

  “Nice!” Echo shrieked and pointed at Anita. “You were not nice when you took all the Titanic books at the public library and wouldn’t even let me look at one.” Shelly and Echo gasped at Echo’s loud shout.

  “What is all the screaming about?” Pearl frowned as she floated near their table.

  Anita’s cheeks turned red. “It’s my fault. I wasn’t very kind yesterday. I was jealous of Echo.”

  Echo put her hands on her pink hips. “Why would you be jealous of me?” After all, everyone seemed to like Anita better than her.

  Anita shrugged. “You get to go on the ocean trip, and I can’t.”

  “Why not?” Shelly asked.

  “My wheeled chair is a great human invention, and I’m lucky it was found. But even though it can float, I still can’t go around tight corners and in the tiny hallways of a crumbling ship,” Anita explained.

  Echo wiggled her perfectly working fins. She had hurt her tail once and remembered how it had been really hard to get around. Echo had been jealous of Anita before she’d even met her and couldn’t help feeling bad about it.

  “That’s not fair,” Kiki said. “I’m surprised Mrs. Karp would plan an ocean trip that you can’t go on.”

  Anita shook her head. “It’s not her fault. This trip was scheduled before I came.”

  “If you can’t go,” Shelly told her, “then none of us should go.”

  “Fine with me,” Pearl said. “I don’t want to go on a broken old ship anyway. They give me the creeps.”

  Echo couldn’t believe it! Her dream of visiting the Titanic was disappearing. She had to do something fast!

  5 Boycott

  WHAT’S A BOYCOTT?” ROCKY asked when they were back in the classroom.

  “It’s where we refuse to do or buy something because we don’t believe in it,” Kiki explained.

  Echo groaned. She usually liked how smart Kiki was, but not today.

  “Why would we boycott the Titanic trip?” Adam asked. “I want to go. An ocean trip is much better than math practice!”

  Shelly scrunched her nose at Adam. “We shouldn’t go on the trip because it’s not fair. If one of us can’t go, then none of us should.”

  Rocky frowned at Anita. “This is all her fault!”

  Anita gasped. “I never said you shouldn’t go.”

  “It’s nobody’s fault,” Kiki snapped. “When Mrs. Karp gets back into the classroom, we are going to tell her we don’t want this ocean trip.”

  More groans sounded from around the classroom, but Pearl shrugged. “It’s just a stinky old ship.”

  Echo plopped her head onto her desk. The crab casserole swirled in her stomach, and she felt sick. When Mrs. Karp swished into the room, Echo rushed up to her. “I need to visit the nurse’s office.”

  Rocky teased, “Don’t throw up on me!”

  Mrs. Karp took one look at her and nodded. Echo dashed down the hall before Kiki could tell their teacher about the boycott. Nurse Dilly Dally DoDo gave Echo some Cornish kelp crackers to settle her tummy and made her lie down.

  In a few minutes her stomach felt better, but her brain was still upset. Echo really, really wanted to see the Titanic. She’d even dreamed of seeing the famous ship with the grand staircase and fancy wood paneling. What a shame that it had hit an iceberg and sunk so quickly. It wasn’t fair that Anita couldn’t go. It wasn’t fair that Rocky was blaming Anita either. It was just a terrible mess!

  “How about a joke to make you feel better?” Nurse DoDo asked, touching Echo’s forehead with the tip of her bright-orange tail. “What did the shark say after eating the clown fish?”

  Nurse DoDo loved to tell jokes to cheer up her patients, but Echo wasn’t in the mood. She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “This tastes a little funny.” Nurse DoDo laughed at her own joke, and before Echo could stop her, she asked another. “How did the hammerhead do on his spelling test?”

  Echo groaned. Spelling was her absolute worst subject.

  Nurse DoDo laughed again. “He nailed it!”

  “Nurse DoDo.” Echo smiled at the tall, thin mermaid. “Remember when I hurt my tail and used crutches?”

  Nurse DoDo nodded. “What I remember most is the miracle cream Pearl gave you that turned out to be a disaster cream.”

  “That was awful,” Echo agreed. “But the crutches I used helped me until my tail healed. What do merpeople do if their tails won’t work at all?”

  “Ah, you are thinking of the new merstudent,” Nurse DoDo said.

  “Because of her my class is boycotting the Titanic ocean trip,” Echo blurted. “It’s not right that Anita can’t go. But it won’t be fair if we can’t either. Surely merfolk have figured out a way to help mermaids who can’t swim.”

  Nurse DoDo scratched the purple stripe that ran down the middle of her bushy orange hair. “There have been some advancements using pufferfish floats. The results haven’t been too encouraging though, especially if there are larger fish in the area. And apparently the pufferfish don’t take direction very well.”

  Echo sighed. It wouldn’t do for the pufferfish to be eaten by a tiger shark in the middle of their ocean trip or to swim away with Anita.

  “I will send letters to my medical groups asking for suggestions,” Nurse DoDo told her.

  “Thanks.” Echo said. Even if the letters were sent by Manta Ray Express, answers might not come in time to save their Titanic trip. Echo would just have to find her own solution. If humans could come up with a wheeled chair, she could figure out something even better. She had to!

  6 Solutions

  COME WITH ME,” PEARL snapped as the last conch bell sounded to end the day.

  Echo shook her head. “I’m going home.” She had to figure out how to save the Titanic trip.

  Pearl grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the mergirls’ dorm rooms. “If I have to go to this, then so do you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Echo asked.

  “Wanda and some of the others are determined to figure out a way for Anita to go on the trip,” Pearl said. “They are canceling the boycott.”

  Echo smiled. If everyone worked together, surely they could come up with a solution. Echo’s stomach suddenly felt much better.

  “What’s the big deal about an old boat?” Pearl complained. “I wish we could go on an ocean trip to a fashion show or at least an opera.”

  Things weren’t going well in Anita and K
iki’s dorm room. Shelly was shaking her head at Wanda. Kiki frowned at Wanda before saying, “That won’t work!” Morgan was hoisting Anita up by a long scarf.

  “What are you doing?” Echo asked Morgan.

  “M-my aunt used a sling like this to carry around her b-baby,” Morgan explained.

  Pearl nodded. “My mom does the same thing with my new brother, Ray.”

  Anita glared at Morgan. “Thanks, but I am not a baby.”

  “Who cares?” Pearl said. “As long as it works.” But it didn’t.

  “Oops!” Morgan cried out as Anita flipped out of the slinglike scarf and landed on her head.

  “Ouch!” Anita squealed.

  “Oh no!” Echo helped Anita back into her chair. “Are you all right?”

  Anita rubbed her head. “Yes, but let’s forget that idea.”

  “We need something safe,” Kiki told the other mergirls. They tossed ideas back and forth, but Echo was distracted by the new additions to the dorm room. Normally Kiki’s rather creepy killer-whale skeleton bed sat in the middle of the room, but it had been pushed to the side to make way for another strange bed.

  “Is this yours?” Echo asked Anita.

  Anita grinned. “I really like the Titanic.”

  Echo laughed. “I guess so.” Anita’s bed was a miniature ship with RMS Titanic written on the side. A life preserver and a captain’s wheel were on either side of a fake porthole at the bow. The wall beside her bed was filled with kelp posters, one of them showing where all the rooms were on the Titanic. There was even a mosaic of the grand staircase!

  No wonder Anita had been jealous that Echo would see the ship. If anyone in their class should visit the Titanic, it should definitely be the new mergirl. But looking at her merfriends arguing about solutions, Echo knew it wouldn’t be easy!

  Echo sighed as she floated through MerPark on her way home an hour later, carrying some of Anita’s Titanic books. Echo’s stomach felt better, but her head hurt. Lots of ways to help Anita go on the trip had been discussed—everything from a shell pulled by a dwarf sperm whale to a strange green-turtle backpack. None of the ideas sounded very hopeful.