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

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    â€œIn it to win it!” Cori kept chanting. Honestly, I appreciated her enthusiasm but I wasn’t so sure we were going to win anything that day. Our practice the week before had started off well enough with Serena outswimming everyone, but she lacked focus.
    Coach Laurena had put us on the same team for the three-on-three scrimmage, but Serena kept swimming back and forth underwater and basically ignored the puck, so the other team kept scoring on us.
    â€œSerena,” I said, swimming up to her. “Remember, this is a sport, which means we need to try to win.”
    I’d been wondering all day whether Lainey Chamberlain had uncovered something at the library that would put Serena’s school registration at risk. It would help if I could figure out a way to make Serena indispensable to the school just to be on the safe side. Taking one of our teams up in the regional standings would be a good start. She just needed to focus.
    â€œI need you to imagine that the puck is the key to a lock, okay?” I continued as I treaded water. “You need to help the rest of the team get the key to the net to unlock it. Then we score a goal.”
    â€œLike lock at canal? To free Freshie friends of Talisman Lake?” Serena asked thoughtfully.
    Oooh, I may have hit on something without even realizing it.
    â€œYeah—if that helps, then yes.”
    â€œAll right, team. Hustle!” Our captain, Devon, called us to the side of the pool where Coach Laurena was kneeling so she could give us our last-minute pep talk.
    â€œOkay, so remember”—Coach Laurena took a puff from her inhaler before continuing—“keep feeding the puck to Devon, Charlotte, and Serena on offense. Serena, you have the best speed so I’m counting on you to help Jade, Ella, and Marcelle on defense when you can, too. Jade, you hang back and guard our goal like your life depended on it.”
    The referee’s whistle blew and everyone swam to the middle of the pool to take their places for the face-off.
    Like my life depended on it? Yeah, I was kind of getting used to that concept.
    â€¢ • •
    â€œIn it to win it. Dive, dive, dive! In it to win it. High, high, five!” Cori kept chanting, bless her optimistic little heart.
    The rules of underwater hockey were actually pretty simple for anyone who knew anything about sports. Six players per team, one puck, two nets—and stay underwater long enough to pass the puck or score in the opponent’s net. Sounds simple enough? Not really. Even though I technically should have been a better swimmer than most of the people on my team, given I was a mermaid and everything, that was so far from the truth it was almost a joke.
    I spent most of my time coming to the surface to clear my snorkel and catch my breath, while Devon, Ella, Marcelle, Charlotte, and Serena passed the puck back and forth, trying to get it to the other team’s net to score a goal. Since underwater hockey wasn’t exactly a popular sport, we didn’t have any spare players to trade off and had to play the whole game no matter how tired we were.
    Oddly, Serena couldn’t hold her breath any longer than I could and had to come up for air just as often, but she made up for it with how fast she could swim.
    â€œGo, Serena!” I yelled, whenever we surfaced at the same time.
    â€œStealing the key!” she yelled once, waving the puck in the air.
    â€œNo, no!” I called back. “The puck needs to stay on the bottom of the pool!”
    So, yeah. We still hadn’t worked out all the rules of the game. In fact, we hadn’t managed to score an actual goal by halftime and were down by two, but at least we were giving the IMDHers a run for their money, judging by how they were panting for breath while we took our halftime break at the side of the pool.
    â€œGood hustling down there,” Coach Laurena said as we climbed out of the water. “They