One Marnie Blue had never seen such a huge scary merman His black beard covered his enormous chest The blue light of the Sports Cave rippled over his arm tattoos TRAINED TO AQUA OLYMPIC LEVEL OF COURSE he was saying very loudly to Ms Mullet the crab deputy head of Lady Sealia Foam’s Mermaid School as Marnie and her friends swam into the Sports Cave for their PE lesson Who is THAT Marnie asked Well he’s not Miss Haddock said Pearl Cockle He certainly wasn’t Miss their usual PE Haddock teacher Chapter
Miss Haddock was old and nearsighted and didn’t approve of tattoos She had been the fishball champion of Mermaid Lagoon in her youth but that wasn’t saying much Fishball was the most boring sport Marnie had ever played It had lots of rules and hardly any swimming around This merman looked like he would eat Miss Haddock for lunch Ms Mullet looked even smaller than usual next to the giant visitor Good morning class she said I’m sorry to say that Miss Haddock had an accident last night and won’t be with us today Dora Agua gasped Is Miss Haddock all right Ms Mullet Miss Haddock mistook a reef shark for her pet catfish Ms Mullet said She is expected to make a full recovery but she will be in hospital for a while Most of the mermaids were fond of Miss Haddock because she never made them swim around too fast and sometimes brought her catfish Cecil to lessons Others were less concerned I hope Miss Haddock retires after this said Gilly Seaflower Her lessons are really boring That’s a terrible thing to say Gilly snapped Orla Finnegan How would YOU like to be eaten by a shark 2
If she was EATEN she’d be dead Gilly pointed out as she tied back her long blonde curls with a seaweed hairband I bet she was only nibbled She’s a silly old trout and I won’t miss her Marnie frowned Gilly could be really mean sometimes teach us This guy looks like he might something said actually though Lupita Barracuda thoughtfully Lupita was a member of the local speed-swimming club and was always team captain in Miss Haddock’s lessons She also had the most flexible tail Marnie had ever seen and could do ten backflips in a row Marnie could understand her interest in the new teacher Marnie on the other hand was worried She wasn’t very sporty Ms Mullet clacked her deep-red pincers to get everyone’s attention This is Mr Marlin she said He comes from Lord Foam’s Atoll Academy with excellent references I am happy to leave you in his capable fins She swam away in her usual sideways fashion 3
