Once upon a time, there was a half-mermaid named Linna. She desperately wanted to go see her parents in the ocean. But she was an orphan and lived on land with her adopted parents. She was born in a bubble with half-air, half-water, and when she breathed in, she became a half-mermaid and half-human. When a half-mermaid is born, there’s a law. If the sign in the bubble says “Yes,” then the half-mermaid needs to be given away. Half-mermaids sometimes are born with a little too much mermaid in them, and then they can’t transform really easily. So they need to go to the human world to get more balanced.

She had about a hundred half-mermaid siblings in the ocean with her parents. They were equally half and half. Her adopted parents and siblings wanted her to go see her family in the ocean. But she was 100 miles away from the ocean, and her parents didn’t have a car.

Every time Linna saw a river, stream, or a pond, she’d just jump in, and once she touched water, she would turn into a mermaid. She swam gracefully with her green tail. Her skin also turned slightly green. Then once she was dry, she was human again. One day, she jumped into a river and swam across the river instead of going on the bridge with her adoptive parents.

Then she told them, “It looks like a portal. Come on in.”

Her adoptive parents always wore swimsuits under their clothes, so they can swim with Linna anytime. They went in the river and swam towards the portal. They went in it and ended up in the middle of the ocean. Then they swam back through the portal, and her parents said, “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

Then Linna swam to her real parents’ door underwater and she asked, “Do you know anyone who has ever had to give away a child?”

Her parents said, “We have.”

Linna said, “Mom… Dad?”

Her parents responded, “Linna?”

As soon as she got into the house, everything dried.

“Woah,” said Linna, and she turned back into a human.

Her dad asked, “Do you want some blueberry pancakes?”

It tasted so amazing and tasted like a thousand blueberries with maple syrup and pancakes. But they smelled like strawberries. That was the most confusing part.

Then she said to her parents, “How can it taste like blueberries but smell like strawberries?”

They told her it smelled very wonderful because they got it from Blueberry Hill. Blueberry Hill was just a rock, but underwater, it looked like a hill. To get there, all you had to do was take a different portal.

Then all of a sudden, her hundred mermaid siblings rushed in. Her parents said their names, and she thought, This is going to take a while, but she automatically remembered them. Then they all went to Blueberry Hill together. They had to tap the big rock, and when it opened, they picked the blueberries. After, she went to every mermaid’s door and introduced herself. She met a girl that was just like her, Raquel. They told each other their stories. They both had to be given away. Raquel went home to her mermaid parents faster than Linna because she lived closer to the ocean. When she was two years old, she got the courage to go into the ocean. She went in and found her parents. Linna and Raquel became friends and made invitations for a welcome home party for Linna.

***

The party was in her mermaid parents’ house. The house was full of yellow ribbons and balloons, and a big welcome sign. There were also stone cookies and a seaweed cake on a table. There was a sign that said, “If you are full mermaid, go to the little shed”, pointing to a little shed for full mermaids that was full of water. Linna entered the party, jumping off the rail, her beautiful rainbow dress flying up and down around her. Her parents controlled the water with their mermaid powers and allowed water into the house, just enough for Linna to land on. After, the water left through a tiny crack in the floor. Linna and everyone played a game called water swinging that only half-mermaids could play because they needed to have legs. They had to say “human” a hundred times in their head because then the human body would stick.

Meanwhile in the shed, the full mermaids were dancing, moving their hands side to side, and singing “Oh mermaid party, oh mermaid party.” Some mermaids moved their tails up and down to the music while sitting on the couch. But then Linna decided that she needed to spend time with the full mermaids too, so she went into the shed and joined them. The full mermaids made a bubble of water that they could be in so they could go into the house too. At the house, all the mermaids got to enjoy all the seaweed cake and the rock cookies.

Later, three mermen, who called themselves the Bully Boys, cut the big, yellow ribbon holding up the chandelier, and the chandelier came crashing down to the floor, causing a tiny fire. They tried to wreck her party because they didn’t like the pictures on the ceiling of Linna and all of her siblings. The ambulance, the police, and the fire department of mermaids came in. The firefighters took out the fire by spraying the special, secret cream. The police got the bully boys in trouble. The ambulance tried to rescue everybody. The glass could really hurt them, but luckily they rescued everybody.  

***

Linna woke up in her room on a beautiful day in the ocean. She went downstairs to eat breakfast, and her parents told her that she had to go to school today. She didn’t say anything but when the seaweed bus came, she said goodbye to her parents and left with her hundred siblings. They sat in the back of the bus on the hundred row seat. The bus went through the portal to half-mermaid school underwater.

On the first day of school, they learned about the ocean. She learned a lot of things about mermaids that she didn’t know about before. She learned that mermaids were the smartest people in the world. She thought, No wonder I passed all my tests back in the human world.

Linna sat with some of her siblings at lunch. They talked about how they were all nerds, but they were okay with it. One of the boy bullies from the party came up to her and said,  “Hello, poop butt stink.”

Linna responded with, “Hello, bully boy.”

Linna walked away and signed up for the Good Girls Club because she wanted to be a good girl, and her siblings were in the club too. When she went home, she told her parents about the club, and she gave the permission slip to her parents, and they signed it because all her siblings were already in the club.

The next day, Linna went to the Good Girls Club, and they made a plan to destroy the Bully Boys. The girls knew where the Bully Boys base was, so she went and spied on the Bully Boys. The base was a shed house with a dark blue bee on the top of the shed. It was not hidden so the new members could find them, but the Good Girls base was hidden, so the Bully Boys couldn’t find them. The Good Girls base was hidden at Forever Green park that full of kids, about four thousand. Forever Green park was full of shady trees. The trees had a beautiful canopy of flowers over them. Mermaids and humans could fit through there easily. A beautiful stony path with shiny stones on the side. The stony path was surrounded by two little rivers. The good girls used magic so the bully boys couldn’t see the path, but regular humans could see it. The path led to more bases that looked like the Good Girls Club. The Good Girls Club was made of sticks. It looked small on the outside, but with a little mermaid magic, the inside was huge.

Linna reported back to the Good Girls that the Bully Boys were planning to attack the Good Girls base with balls to destroy it. But the base was super stable, and after throwing six balls, they couldn’t destroy it and gave up.

Linna felt super duper happy that she beat the Bully Boys and the Bully Boys were out of her life. They played music in the Good Girls Base and started dancing.

***

Two Months Later

“It’s summer, summer party! It’s summer, summer party, summer party!” chanted all the students from school while dancing.

They waved their arms and swished their tails. To celebrate the start of summer, Linna went to the Fun Park with her siblings. At Fun Park, there was a huge rollercoaster and so many different rides. There was a tent with a fortune teller ride that Linna went to. She lay down on a seaweed mat that went in circles really slowly. After that, the fortune teller told Linna her fortune. The fortune teller was a young mermaid with black hair and blonde tips.

The fortune teller told Linna that her adventure would end when she got off the last ride. Then Linna went on the Underwater Slithering Snake. That ride was very long and fast. She heard her parents call out, “Linna, it’s time to go home.”

Linna felt okay. She said, “My name is Linna. I am fifteen, and this adventure must end now.”

THE END