Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels by Helene Boudreau Page A

week before. Sure, I got why Lainey was always so angry, considering everything she had to deal with at home, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Lainey hadn’t let Cori know that Mrs. Chamberlain wanted to do the mentorship with her. How could I be friends with someone like that?
    Thankfully, Lainey didn’t notice me as she sat with her back turned at another computer a few rows over, flanked by her entourage.
    â€œThere’s just something not right about that girl,” Lainey muttered. Her nails click-clacked on the keyboard as she chattered with her friends. “She shows up here like she owns the place, and everybody falls all over her like she’s some kind of celebrity.”
    Well, she definitely wasn’t talking about me, though I had a feeling Lainey’s little rant had something to do with Serena.
    â€œAnd why does she even get to run for class president? She’s not even registered for this school. I went to Principal Reamer to lodge a formal complaint but she said that since her registration was still pending, she was allowed,” Lainey continued. “How is that fair?”
    Yup. Definitely Serena.
    â€œDon’t worry,” Lainey’s friend said. “I asked around and everybody says they’re voting for you.”
    â€œWell, that’s not the point,” Lainey said. “She’s not even from here. She’s from some weird tropical place I’ve never even heard of.”
    Never heard of it because I wasn’t exactly sure if Tonganesia was a real place. What if Lainey found that out? What if she used it against us? What if we were forced to send Serena back to Talisman Lake, and Finalin got ticked off and kept sabotaging boats or worse? He’d pulled Mom underwater while she swam in the lake last summer. What was keeping him from doing it again?
    â€œOh!” I heard Lainey exclaim as she focused on something from her screen. “That’s interesting…”
    Oh-oh. That didn’t sound good.

“In it to win it. Dive, dive, dive! In it to win it. High, high, five!”
    Things were still a little awkward with Cori after our mentorship talk, but she’d come out for our first underwater hockey game and made up a catchy cheer. She had all the fans in the stands joining in and high-fiving each other as Serena and I stepped onto the pool deck with the rest of our team.
    When I say “all the fans,” I mean Cori, Luke, Trey, Gran, Tanti Natasha/Mom, and about a half-dozen other people. When I say “stands,” I really just mean two of the long wooden team benches they used in the school gym during basketball and volleyball games, which Trey and Luke helped carry onto the pool deck. Underwater hockey didn’t exactly draw big crowds, especially since the team had only won two games the season before.
    The team from IMDH walked onto the pool deck with their fancy unitardy swimsuits and matching swim caps. They looked like they were on the fast track to the Olympics with those get-ups. Meanwhile, I scanned our mismatched outfits and old equipment and wondered if there had been some kind of scheduling mistake. The IMDH girls definitely looked like they were in a whole different league.
    â€œIs this the same team you played last year?” I asked Marcelle under my breath as we slipped into the pool to warm up.
    â€œYup,” Marcelle answered, her usual cheery smile dissolving into a frown. “That’s Georgia Frum with the equipment bag.”
    â€œThe one with the massive feet,” Devon said as she dunked underwater to test her mask.
    Georgia’s Speedo flip-flops clip-clopped across the pool deck, and the sound reverberated through the pool.
    â€œShe does have huge feet,” I marveled.
    â€œAnd hands,” Marcelle’s own hand went automatically up to her throat. Her brown eyes squinted as she looked across the pool at Georgia’s large hands gripping the equipment