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Did this have something to do with school? The diner? Mom, Dad, and Eddie knew about the mermaid stuff, but surely that wasn’t what this meeting was all about.
    â€œAre you guys…” But I didn’t want to finish the sentence unless I knew for sure. One of the big rules about being a mer was that you kept the secret to yourself. Our Mer Code of Silence was the only way mers had been able to survive without being discovered.
    Bridget stood up first. “I guess this is as good a time as any. We’re going to need as much help as we can get, given the circumstances.”
    â€œCircumstances?” I looked from Bridget to Mom and Dad, trying to get a hint of what was going on. “Okay, somebody needs to clue me in on what’s really happening here.”
    Eddie cleared his throat.
    â€œWell, maybe this will help.” He turned to the group. “Will all the mers in the room please raise their hands?”
    Mom was the first to do so, then Coach Laurena and finally Bridget.
    â€œCoach Laurena?” I asked with a gasp. My underwater hockey coach was a mermaid? “Bridget?” I said even louder.
    All the time I’d been working at the diner’s ice cream parlor that summer I’d been trying to hide my secret from Bridget. And now I found out she was a mermaid, too? But the more I thought about it, the more it all made sense.
    â€œYou’re a mer, too?” I looked over at Bridget and blinked a few times. “That’s how you knew how important the tidal pool behind the mall was.”
    â€œYep. It had taken me a while to find it again after I transformed, but once I did, it became pretty important to me, too,” Bridget said with a smile. “Been a Webbed One for about fifteen years now.” “Webbed One” was the term for a human who started off as a mer.
    â€œAnd Coach Laurena?” I turned to her.
    â€œThree years this summer.” Coach Laurena placed a hand on Daniel’s shoulder and turned to me with a mischievous smile.
    Back in June, I’d thought I was the only land-dwelling mer on the planet. Now I was staring, mouth open, at Mom plus Bridget and Laurena. Not to mention my mer-guy, Luke, eating his extremely salty fries back in the diner. Four other mers.
    My mind was officially blown.
    â€œWow.” My knees wobbled. “I need to sit down.”
    I reached out to steady myself to keep from passing out and knocked over a pile of new stainless-steel pots, scattering them all over the floor.

The sound of crashing pots brought Cori, Trey, Luke, and Serena to the office, wondering what the heck was going on.
    Eddie tried to explain what was happening while Bridget made sure there were no new customers in the diner so she could lock the front door.
    â€œWait just a sec. Let me get this straight.” Cori held up a hand and closed her eyes as if trying to solve a quadratic equation in her head. We had all squeezed into the diner office and were standing, sitting, or perched on any available surface. “Who exactly are the humans and who are the mers here?”
    I pretended I was a talk-show host and grabbed a spatula to serve as my microphone.
    â€œWell, on Team Tail we have: Jade, Serena, Luke, my mom, Coach Laurena—” I pointed to each of them as I spoke.
    Just then, Bridget returned to the office. “And don’t forget about me.”
    â€œBridget?” Cori put a hand to her mouth in disbelief. Bridget laughed and put an arm around Cori’s shoulder.
    â€œAnd on the leg team—” I began.
    â€œYou’ve got Dalrymple Baxter, the husband and doting dad,” Dad piped up.
    â€œChef Daniel, the dashing fiancé,” chimed in Daniel, flashing a smile.
    â€œAnd I’m the old guy who drinks too much coffee.” Shaky Eddie lifted his trembling mug.
    â€œSo,” Bridget stood at her desk as if addressing a classroom, “we’ve all gathered here today because