that summer |percabeth au| ✔︎

CHAPTER THIRTY - Change Of Mind

Main Street was swimming with merfolk. Entire families glittered in satin gowns, escorted by eye-patched pirates carrying wooden swords, everyone shadowed by photographers and reporters from the town's only newspaper. P&D sharks were there too, drooling over the future income the gathering could bring them. Again, my thoughts drifted to home.

The nervous tug of James' hand reminded me that here in the Cove, today's revelry wasn't just a celebration. We were on a mission.

I stashed James behind a potted plant and wiggled my way to the on-site registration table, one of the only mermaids to sign up this late in the game.

Ten minutes later I had my own number.

Half a minute after that I was pinning it to the back of James' cape.

"Forty-two is a good number," he said. "Right?" His voice had lost some of its earlier confidence.

I gave him the thumbs-up. The best.

He grabbed my hand, and together we made our way through the crowd, both of us keeping our heads down and our steps quick. James, as expected, was the only boy in a mermaid gown. But if anyone recognized him, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

Weaving through the throng of mermaids in the parking lot of Cove Community Bank, we took longer than I'd hoped to find the girls. By the time Artemis and I finished hugging it out about last night's argument, we had but minutes to discuss a plan.

"Wait here," Artemis said. She slipped into the crowd, came back a moment later with another mermaid—her mother.

"Hon, what on earth is going on, sugar?" She looked at me and Katie, smiled grandly at our dresses. "You girls look stunning! But they're starting the lineup! I need to be back with my age group!"

Artemis laughed. "I found you with the twenty-somethings."

Mrs. Olympia wiggled her hips and winked. "I can pass."

"I can pass too," James said, tugging on her bangle-studded arm. "See?"

She beamed at the little mermaid beside us. "Well don't you look adorable, Miss...I'm not sure we've met, darling."

"Mom!" Artemis gave her mother a playful nudge. "It's James!"

Mrs. Olympia did a double take.

James giggled. "Fooled ya!"

"James, you look amazing, honey! Look at you!" She twirled him around, checked out the costume. "Well, we'd better get you over with the other kids. Come on."

"I can't," he said. "Boys aren't allowed. But don't worry, because someone has a plan."

Artemis filled her mother in on the details, all the so-called 'rules' that got us here.

Mrs. Olympia looked aghast. "That child has as much right to be here as any of us. We're not about to take this lying down, I promise you that."

"What should we do?" Katie asked, worry pinching her face. "It's starting."

"At this point, girls, there's only one question we need to ask." Mrs. Olympia flashed a clever, confident grin. "What would Tami Taylor do?" She nodded once, her jaw set in some new, determined mission.

"It's from a show," Katie said to me. "Friday Night Lights? Tami's the mom, and there's this whole Texas thing—"

"Texas forever," Artemis said.

"Texas forever," Mrs. Olympia echoed. "Follow me, mermaids."

We fell in behind her, buffering James, and onward we marched, our toppling, tiptoed, tight-dressed, gender-bending mermaid brigade.