Read The Tail of Emily Windsnap for Free Online

sweet pea, there’s nothing wrong with you, and you know it. Now, scoot.” She patted my leg and stood up. “You’ll be fine,” she added, more gently.
    “Hmm,” I replied, and sloped up the ramp and along the pier to wait by the promenade for the jitney that drops me off near school.
    I slunk into homeroom just as Mrs. Partington was closing the attendance book. She looked at her watch and said, “I’ll turn a blind eye, just this once.”
    She always says that. Everyone laughs when she does because she actually does have a blind eye. It’s bright blue, just like her other one, but it doesn’t move. It just stares at you, even when she’s looking away. It’s a bit freaky. You don’t know where to look when she’s talking to you, so we all try not to get in trouble. She always has the best-behaved class in the school.
    I didn’t laugh with the others this time, though. I just said, “Sorry,” and went to sit down, pushing my hateful swimming bag under the table.
    The entire morning was a disaster. I couldn’t concentrate at all. In addition to being my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Partington was also my pre-algebra teacher. We were doing some simple equations, and I kept getting x wrong. I was really mad, because I’m good at math, and usually I can solve the bonus questions easily. Mrs. Partington kept giving me sideways looks out of her good eye.
    When the bell rang for break, I actually did start to feel sick. Next was swimming. Everyone ran out of the room, but I took ages putting my pens and book away in my backpack.
    Mrs. Partington was wiping the board. “Come on, Emily,” she said without turning around. “It might be nice to do something on time today.”
    “Yes, Mrs. Partington,” I said, and crawled out of the classroom, reluctantly dragging my swimming bag behind me.
    I walked to the gym like a zombie. We were supposed to catch the bus right outside to the Brightport Community Center, where the pool was. It crossed my mind just to keep walking and not stop at all. I’d gotten as far as the double doors when Philip North called me back. “Oy — teacher’s pet!” he yelled. Everyone turned to see who he was talking to.
    “Teacher’s pet? What are you talking about?”
    “Come on, we all saw you showing off last week in the pool. Bob couldn’t stop going on about how amazing you were and how we should all try and be like you. ”
    “Yeah. We all heard what he said.” Mandy Rushton came up behind Philip. “And we saw you.”
    I glared at her, speechless. She saw me? Saw what ? My tail? She couldn’t have! It hadn’t even formed — had it?
    “I can’t help it,” I said eventually.
    “Yeah, right. Showoff, ” Mandy sneered.
    “Shut up.”
    Mr. Bird, the P.E. teacher, showed up then. “All right, break it up. Come on, you guys.”
    I found a seat on my own. Julia sat across the aisle from me. “Philip is such a pig,” she said, putting her bag on her knee. I smiled at her. “He’s only jealous because he doesn’t know how to swim.”
    “Thanks, Ju —”
    “Move over, Jules.” Mandy plonked herself down next to Julia and flashed me a smarmy smile. “Unless you want to sit with fish girl. ”
    Julia went red, and I turned to look out of the window as the bus bumped and bounced down the road. Mandy’s words swirled around and around in my head as if they were in a cement mixer. Fish girl? What did she know?

    The bus stopped in the community center parking lot. “You coming?” Julia hung back while Mandy pushed and shoved to the front with the rest.
    “In a sec. I’ll catch up with you.” I pretended to be tying my shoelaces. Maybe I could hide under the seat until everyone came back, then say I’d fainted or fallen over or something.
    I could hear chattering outside the window, then it went quiet. A moment later, there was a huge groan, and people were shouting.
    “But sir, that’s not fair, ” I heard Philip whine. I snuck a quick peek out of the window. Bob was