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“Kids these days,” said her mother with a laugh as she headed back down the hall.
Shelly snatched up her things, grabbed Dawson’s homework from the kitchen, and quickly tied his shoelaces before locking up and heading out.
* * *
Shelly walked down the hall with her hand pressed to the scarf wrapped tightly around her neck.
Her eyes darted around nervously. She hoped nobody would notice how strange it was that she was wearing a winter scarf inside. Worse, this wasn’t her only problem.
There was still the matter of the dead-fish juice in her locker. The day before, she’d picked them up and thrown them away to avoid making it smell any worse than it already did, but there was still the stinky residue to deal with. A few minutes later, she reached her locker—and stared up at it in horror. Something was spray-painted across the front in shoddy teal handwriting.
FISH LOVER
Who had done that to her locker? Was it Judy Weisberg and the Little River swimmers pulling yet another prank? Or some other kid from her school who had witnessed the fish incident the day before?
She held her breath as she cranked in her combination, expecting the fish stench to assault her. But when the door swung open, her locker didn’t smell fishy at all. The sudden disappearance of the smell was as strange as the appearance of the fish in the first place. How could the fish smell simply vanish? In fact, her books and smattering of pens were dry, without any stains or any indication that her locker had been filled with fish and slimy garbage. Once the shock wore off, she felt relieved. Why was she upset the fish smell was gone?
That was a good thing, wasn’t it?
No dead-fish smell.
One less problem. Maybe the day would get better after all. Maybe she wasn’t cursed.
A familiar voice echoed down the hall. “Don’t worry, we cleaned up your locker,” said Kendall, sashaying up to Shelly with Alana and Attina in her wake. “We all got to school early so we could surprise you.” Her eyes darted to the fresh spray paint. “But we couldn’t get that off.”
“Don’t worry,” Alana added. “We reported it to the principal.”
“Yup, she’ll have it removed and repainted by this weekend,” Attina said with a smile. “Your locker will be back to normal—and as good as new. Maybe even better than new.”
“You cleaned my locker?” Shelly said, feeling gratitude for her friends. They still supported her even though she’d lost her race and cost them the swim meet.
“Of course, silly,” Kendall said. “You needed our help.” Her eyes darted to the spray paint. “Judy and Little River are so lame,” she added.
“Yeah, hashtag lame,” Alana said.
“You think Judy wrote this?” Shelly asked, nodding at the blue lettering.
“Like, of course,” Kendall said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Who else would pull such a dumb prank? They probably did it to celebrate their win yesterday.”
“Uh . . . right, of course,” Shelly said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and resting a hand on her scarf. She couldn’t let them see her neck. She didn’t need more problems.
“But you know what this means, right?” Kendall asked.
“Uh, what does it mean?” Shelly asked.
Kendall made a face. “Even more reason for payback next race!”
The twins giggled. “Hashtag payback,” said Attina.
Kendall hooked her arm through Shelly’s and pulled her down the hall toward class. “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back,” Kendall said with a wink. “We’ll handle it for you. Oh, and odd choice with the scarf. But I don’t hate it. Right, girls?”
Attina and Alana nodded.
As they walked into class, Shelly felt a ripple of happiness. Her friends had her back after all. They did care about her. They cared when she’d almost drowned. And they’d cared when she’d been pranked. They’d even cleaned up the mess for her. The swim meet and the fishy locker were just flukes. Plus her wish ensured that stuff like that would never happen again.
Moments later, Mr. Aquino called the class to order. “Today we’ll be talking about fish anatomy,” he said, flipping off the lights and turning on the projector. An image of a goldfish appeared. “You probably learned a lot during our aquarium field trip,” he added.
Snickers rang out in the classroom. Nobody liked science class except for Shelly. She tried to focus on the lesson, but her hand kept drifting up to check on the scarf. Suddenly, she felt a wad of wet paper hit her cheek. She jerked her head around. Normie made a kissy face.
