Real Mermaids 2 - Don't Hold Their Breath (19 page)

The Toulouse Point beach parking lot was completely full, and cars were parking up along the canal's concrete pier by the time we finished unloading all the burgers and buns from Bridget's van.

Chelse headed back to her parents' cottage in Dundee and Bridget was busy with the barbecues, so I strolled down to the boardwalk, hoping to spot someone I knew. A huge bonfire sent glinty sparkles dancing into the evening air while a band played music from a nearby bandstand for the gathering crowds.

Apparently, news of Chamberlain Construction's beach party had spread through Facebook after all, and Port Toulousians were easily won over by the promise of food and free, live music.

“Jade!” I turned to see Cori walking toward me.

“Hey!” I wrapped her in a hug, relieved to see a friendly face. “You're here!”

“On my first
date
,” Cori said with a sheepish grin.

“Your mom is finally letting you date?” I asked.

“Well, I promised you'd be with me and there'd be a group of us, but yeah. Except, Trey's not even here yet, which makes this the
lamest
first date ever.” Cori looked around the crowd, trying to spot him. “He must still be at your place. Have you heard anything?”

“No,” I replied. “I got a text from my dad a while ago, but nothing since. I just hope everything works out okay.”

“It will.” Cori put an arm around my shoulders and walked along the boardwalk with me. “Besides, I'm counting on your underwater connections to launch my new mer-inspired fashion line. I think I'll call it ‘Knee-High Fashions.'”

“Ah, Cori.” I laughed out loud. “You're awesome. You know that?”

“So I've been told.” Cori squeezed my shoulder.

“Jade! Oh, Jade!” My whole body stiffened at the sound of the voice calling for me from behind. I turned and plastered a smile on my face.

“Lainey, hey!” I called out, then turned to Cori. “Darn. She's going to ask me for that Environmental Assessment and I still didn't get it from my dad,” I whispered.

“Why is she so bent on getting that thing from you, anyway?” Cori asked.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

Lainey Chamberlain strutted down the boardwalk toward us in her too-high sandals, toting Cedric in her oversized handbag.

My phone buzzed with a text. It was Dad. He was in the parking lot waiting for me.

“I know, I know.” I held up my hand to stop Lainey from asking for the obvious. “My dad has the papers for me in the parking lot. Hold on here and I'll go get them—”

“No,” Lainey interrupted. “Daddy has been bugging me to get that thing from you all day. I'll come with you.”

But what if Dad had Mom with him? Sure, Gran and Cori's mom had done her hair and she looked way different, but I really didn't feel like explaining a brand new woman in my dad's company to Lainey. Cori caught my drift when I flashed her a bug-eyed look and she cut in.

“Lainey,” Cori exclaimed, “I just love your sandals. Did you get those in New York?”

Lainey brightened and turned her foot from side to side to display her sandal in all its glory. “Actually, yes.”

“I keep meaning to ask you about your trip,” Cori continued. “Which designers did you and your mom go see?”

Cori took Lainey by the shoulders and steered her toward the bandstand.

“But,” Lainey said, looking over her shoulder. But by then Cori had complimented her on her bag too, giving me enough time to make my getaway to the parking lot.

I spotted Dad's car and weaved through the rows of cars to meet him. Mom was in the passenger seat, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. She rolled down her window.

“Hi, sweetie,” Mom said.

“I'm not sure it was such a good idea to come here.” Dad glanced around the parking lot, looking nervous.

Mom put a hand over his. “Don't worry, Dal. I'm home, we're all safe, and that's all that matters. Nobody can do anything to us now.” She turned to me and took my hand too.

A warm feeling spread through me, knowing that Mom was always going to be there for me now, no matter what. She was right. We'd worked too hard to make her human again; there was no way anyone or anything was going to ruin that.

“Wait. Who's home looking after Luke? Is everything okay?” I asked.

Mom snuck a peek at Dad then turned to me and smiled. “More than okay.”

I put a hand to my mouth. “It worked? The Merlin 3000 actually worked?”

“Better than we expected,” Dad chimed in. “And I didn't even have to call Mr. Zooter!”

“Where is he? Where's Luke?” I looked around to see if I could spot him.

“He came with his parents,” Mom said. “Which brings us back to our conversation from earlier. Your dad and I have been talking about you dating.”

“Oh! Is that a hot dog stand?” Dad said. “Jade, you stay here with your mom. I'm just going to go grab us a couple hot dogs for the road.”

“Bye, Dad.” The car door slammed.

“Coward.” Mom laughed and turned to me. “So, Luke, huh?”

“Yeah.” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, remembering our embarrassing almost-kiss on the rocks below the construction site. “Except, I'm pretty sure I already messed up my chances with him.”

“You never know until you ask,” Mom said with a smile.

“You mean, you're saying it's okay for me to date?” I asked.

“Yes. But with a group—just as long as you're with Cori too.”

I had a feeling the Baxters, Blakes, and Martins all had some sort of dating protocol conference call. Still, though.

“I dunno—” My phone buzzed. Another text from Lainey. “Oh! Did you guys bring that Environmental Assessment thing?”

“I gave it to Luke,” Dad said as he returned with the hot dogs.

“Okay, cool.” I glanced around to make sure no one was looking and gave Mom a peck on the cheek. “Thanks. And you too, Dad.”

“My pf-leasure,” Dad said between mouthfuls of hot dog. He put the car in drive and began to pull away. “Pf-ick you up at t-fen!”

The car pulled away in a cloud of dust. When it cleared, another car came into view. It was the same black sedan we'd seen on our street earlier with the mustached driver and the guy with the horn-rimmed glasses. My breath caught short and my palms began to sweat. What did those guys want? Did they know our mer secret? Were they trying to expose us?

I ducked behind a minivan before the sedan guys could see me, dashed back toward the bandstand, and texted Dad to warn him to watch out for their car. A huge crowd had gathered, making it hard to get around, but I saw Cori and Lainey standing at the other end of the stage.

Once I sent the text to Dad, I took a deep breath and scrolled through my contacts until I found Luke's number.
Fluke1019
. He answered on the second ring.

“Hey, Luke?” I asked.

“Jade.”

“I'm
so
glad you're okay, and that the Merlin 3000 actually worked.”

“Your dad's a pretty smart guy,” Luke said. “He's thinking of changing goldfish into ferrets next. Could be a whole new business in it for him and my grandpa.”

We both laughed at the same time and then the phone line went awkwardly quiet.

“Oh hey, do you have those Environmental Assessment papers for me?” I asked. “Lainey is breathing down my neck for them.”

“Yeah, I've got it here—” Luke's voice was cut off by the musicians on the bandstand striking up, like some kind of celebration was about to start.

Chamberlain Construction banners graced the top of the stage and the band music died down as Mr. Chamberlain walked up to the microphone. A series of chairs were lined up to his right and a collection of local dignitaries, including the mayor and a group of women and men in business suits, were sitting in them.

“Welcome, everyone,” Mr. Chamberlain said. “Welcome!”

Mr. Chamberlain's pinheads clapped and grinned like idiots, trying to encourage the audience to join in. There was a small round of applause.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” Mr. Chamberlain continued. “Thanks to the unrelenting support of Mayor Miller and his council, and the citizens of Port Toulouse, Chamberlain Construction has been bringing green buildings to this community for twenty-five wonderful years.”

More pinhead applause.

“Lately, my engineers have been hard at work,” Mr. Chamberlain continued, “designing innovative ways to protect precious green spaces while giving you the shopping experience you deserve. Today, I am thrilled to announce the
re
imagined design for the Port Toulouse Mall renovation.”

One of Mr. Chamberlain's pinheads pulled a cloth off a large poster propped up on an easel. It was the same construction design spanning the back of the mall over the tidal pool, only now they'd added a walking path and what looked like container gardens.

“Are you still there?” I asked Luke over the blare of the band striking up another song.

“Yeah,” Luke said. I could hear the shuffling of papers on the other end of the line. “Hey, that's weird.”

“What?” I asked. “Where are you, anyway?”

“I'm by the lifeguard tower,” Luke said. More rustling paper sounded through the phone. “I'm sending you a picture.”

A text pinged on my phone and I opened the attachment. It was a picture of the design plan for the mall construction from the Environmental Assessment, but it looked nothing like the poster up on stage.

“This isn't the same design,” I said into the phone. The wing on the Environmental Assessment followed the highway. It was nowhere close to the tidal pool.

I hunted through the crowd to see if I could spot the lifeguard tower, but the sun was setting and it was getting hard to see. Finally, I saw Luke and tried to catch his eye, but he was busy taking a picture of something else on the paper.

Just then, I got a text back from Dad.

@geeksrule: nobody following us. are you sure it was the same car? xo dad

That's when I saw horn-rimmed glasses and mustache guy. And they were standing right behind Luke!

“Luke, watch out! Behind you!” I called into the phone.

Luke put the phone to his ear and looked around.

“What?”

But before I could warn him further, the mustache guy snatched the Environmental Assessment out of Luke's hand and made a beeline for the stage.

“What? Who was that guy?” I could see Luke twist his head around, trying to figure out what had just happened.

“They've been hanging around our street all day,” I replied. “Now I know why.”

Lainey Chamberlain perked up at the other end of the stage, catching on to what had just happened. She got her father's attention at the podium and pointed toward the mustache guy holding the paper as he waited in the wings. Then she hugged Cedric and smiled.

The Environmental Assessment. Those mysterious black sedan dudes weren't after us, trying to uncover our mer secret. They were working for crooked Mr. Chamberlain, trying to cover up a construction scandal. And given that Lainey had been hounding me for that Environmental Assessment all day, I had a feeling Cedric was a bit of a payment for all her hard work.

“That Environmental Assessment is a fake,” I said into the phone to Luke. “That's why those guys have been tailing us.”

While the band played on, Mr. Chamberlain walked to the wing of the stage and took the papers from the guy with the mustache. He glanced at the Environmental Assessment and smiled smugly, then folded it and tucked it inside the breast pocket of his blazer before walking back out to the podium. He signaled a thumbs-up to the mayor, then whispered something to the same pinheaded minion who tried to snatch the Environmental Assessment from me the day before. The pinhead held up his hands for the band to stop playing so Mr. Chamberlain could continue speaking at the microphone.

“So, to conclude, thank you so much for coming everyone! Enjoy the food and drink and entertainment. It is my pleasure to have you all as my guests,” Mr. Chamberlain said. “The future looks bright for Port Toulouse Mall, and we will stop at nothing to bring you the Green Shopping Experience you deserve!”

The crowd must have bought into what he was saying, or maybe they were under the influence of too much barbecue sauce, because a few cheered and clapped as Mr. Chamberlain and his pinhead posse linked hands and raised them in the air like a football team that had just won their final game.

“How do they think they're going to get away with building a mall with a fake Environmental Assessment?”

“Look at the other text I sent you,” Luke replied.

I checked my phone, and sure enough, there was another text with an attachment. This time it was a picture of a handwritten note at the bottom of one of the pages.

Dear Martin,

You won't be able to pass an environmental assessment with the new plan we talked about, but go ahead with construction anyway and use this assessment in its place. I'll make sure it gets pushed through the Land Development Department no questions asked. That should cover up everything.