The Mermaid's Mirror Read Online Free Page A

water tickle her feet. She grabbed a sandy stick, dragging it through the wet sand, making circles and hearts and stars. Then she wrote in big letters,
I AM FINE.
    Lena tossed the stick onto the sand and made her way back to Shipwreck Rocks. She should probably head home. No point in worrying her parents even more by being MIA when they woke up. Lena climbed to the top of the rocks, glancing back the way she had come, and almost stumbled. A solitary figure had appeared on the beach.
    Where did he come from? Was he there when I was there? Was he watching me?
    She looked harder and recognized the long, loose coat, the shambling walk. It was just Denny.
    Denny was a weird loner who was always wandering up and down the beach. He never bothered anyone, just muttered to himself. Sometimes he shouted at the sea. It was best to give him some space. He didn't seem to be homeless or hungry, but no one knew where he lived, or how he survived.
    Lena decided to make her way home
quickly.
She didn't think he would bother her, but the idea that he had been lurking nearby without her knowledge was unsettling. Just before she descended the steep rocks, she glanced back again. Denny was standing on the spot where Lena had written
I AM FINE,
staring down at the words in the sand.
    ***
    The mermaid felt the lure of humans.
    She swam closer to shore, knowing that the sun had nearly risen and she must not be seen. It wasn't fair to the humans. Most of them went mad with the knowledge of mer-folk. They lingered by the sea, wasting away in the desire of seeing them again.
    The mermaid surfaced. This stretch of beach seemed familiar, although it was far from her village. Ah, there was a human!
    She watched him for a moment as he trudged through the wet sand, shoulders bent, long coat flapping around his knees. He had the look of one who had Seen.
    Not wishing to cause him further unrest, the mermaid slipped beneath the surface and swam away.

CHAPTER 5
    After breakfast, Lena dragged her backpack over to the kitchen table and started pulling books and folders from it. She frowned down at the pile of homework. Something was missing. Spanish, Algebra II, History, English...
Where was the—?
Lena opened her backpack and peered inside at the empty space. She looked at her books again. Everything seemed to be on the table already. She'd left her Biology book at school, but that was because she didn't have any Bio homework.
Hmm.
She shrugged and tossed her backpack to the floor.
    Lena's cell phone chimed with a text from Pem:
Want to go to the mall?
    Lena hit Reply and texted: Yeah call u later.
    She plodded through a half hour's worth of homework before Cole came into the family room—which adjoined the kitchen—and turned on the TV, locating a football game. The sound of cheering crowds and sports announcers filled the room.
    I need a break, anyway,
thought Lena, and she gathered up her books and papers to put in her backpack.
Where's the—?
She shuffled through her papers a few times, then shook her head. Where was
what?!
It was driving her crazy, the feeling that something was missing.
    "Is it okay if I go to the mall with Pem?" she asked her mom.
    "Did you finish your homework?"
    "Mostly. I have some reading to do."
    "Okay. Is Kai going to be there?"
    Lena tried not to roll her eyes. "Mom, Kai isn't with me twenty-four/seven."
    "I'm just asking."
    "He's not going to be there. Can you take us, or should I ask Dad?"
    "Ask your father. He's upstairs in his office."
    Her dad was tapping away on his laptop at the big oak desk. Lena went to stand behind him. She admired the Chinese dragon tattoo on his left forearm, with its intricate green scales, and the yin-yang symbol on his right shoulder. Although she couldn't see them, she knew her name and Cole's name were inked above his heart.
    "Hi, hon," he said.
    "Hi. Could you take Pem and me to the mall?"
    "Sure. I have to go out pretty soon to run some errands, anyway."
    "Thanks." Lena went to