Girls Day Out: A Syrena Legacy Story Read Online Free

neck of Caroline’s doll and pretend it’s Rayna’s. Then I march to the other pool and wait at the edge. The yellow slide has a steep drop at the end and I know the exact moment Rayna hits it because her scream intensifies times infinity. This time when she surfaces, I’m ready to tackle her before she escapes again.
    “Caroline wasn’t up there either,” she says cheerfully. Climbing the ladder, she nods to the myriad of deck chairs behind us. “Can you get me that towel?”
    And turn my back on her so she can disappear again? Nuh-uh. I swallow a growl. “That towel doesn’t belong to us.”
    “It’s the ship’s. They give out free towels. Anyone can have one.”
    “Paying passengers can have one.”
    “Which is us.” She glances around us meaningfully.
    “You’re a fish. You don’t need a towel.”
    “I like how they feel. Kind of like Rachel’s pink robe.”
    This conversation could go on forever if I let it. “We should keep looking for Caroline. Maybe we can turn it in to Lost and Found.” But then I think better of it. The doll was dropped into the ocean. Her parents probably wouldn’t even think to look in Lost and Found.
    “The young ones like ice cream,” Rayna says, wrapping the enormous towel around herself twice. “We should go to the ice cream room and get some. Anyways, it’s free.”
    A loud horn blows then, startling almost everyone on deck. A baby starts to cry. “We don’t have time to look anymore,” I tell Rayna. “They’re leaving the port now.”
    She shakes her head. “We have plenty of time. That’s just the first warning for the people who are onshore to start making their way back to the ship.”
    “Does Toraf know you do this?”
    “Do what?” She pushes past me and to the elevator room, pressing a button before I even reach her.
    “Does Galen know?”
    She pinches her lips together. “It’s really hard to have a good time around you.”
    “We’re supposed to be looking for Caroline.”
    “We’ll find her eventually.”
    “Eventually? We have to get off this ship before it leaves port.”
    She turns to me when the elevator door closes. “Actually, we should wait until we’re in deeper water before we jump. Now, ice cream.” The door opens again and more people join us as our conversation is cut short.
    We make our way across The Enchantment in search of ice cream and Caroline. To her credit, Rayna does stop every little girl on the way. None of them turn out to be Caroline. Some of the parents seem creeped out by Rayna’s gruff forwardness. In my mind, I’m coming up with all sorts of things I could tell Galen to explain what we’re doing here. You know, when I call him from prison.
    When we order our cones and take a seat by the railing, Rayna stretches out. “You should really go on the slides. They’re fun. That is why we came today, remember? To have fun? We just got sidetracked by that doll.”
    When she puts it like that, I have to agree. No, we never intended—or at least, I never intended—to board the ship, but it happened. We put ourselves on this mission to find Caroline. We don’t have to do it; it’s the nice thing to do. And in the meantime, I’ve forgotten to enjoy myself.
    I take a bite of my mint chocolate chip. “I’ll go on the slides. What else do you want to do?”
    “Hey!” The high-pitched scream comes from our left and we both turn our heads to see a young red-headed girl in a polka dot bikini a few feet away, giving us the evil eye. Her gaze shifts from Rayna to the doll in her hands. “You stole my Lily!”
    Ah. Caroline.
    Rayna stands, shooting her chair behind her. “We didn’t steal this, you rude little human. We were trying to return it to you.”
    A woman who I assume is Caroline’s mother materializes behind her, placing protective hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “It doesn’t look like you were searching for her too far and wide.” She nods her head toward our empty ice creams cups sitting on