And Then I Turned Into a Mermaid. Laura Kirkpatrick
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First published in Great Britain 2019
by Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Text copyright © 2019 Laura Steven
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First e-book edition 2019
ISBN 978 1 4052 9503 1
Ebook ISBN 978 1 4052 9517 8
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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To Millie – my favourite mermaid in the world
Contents
CHAPTER ONE: Barcastic Barracuda
CHAPTER THREE: Cake for Dinner
CHAPTER FOUR: The Transformation
CHAPTER FIVE: So Many Questions
CHAPTER SIX: The First Hurdle(s)
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Embarrassing Friend
CHAPTER NINE: What’s Your Trout?
CHAPTER TWELVE: Back to Reality
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Jack-in-the-Box
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Carrot to Eagle
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Pease Pudding
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Baboon Buttholes
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The Biggest Spectacle at the Zoo
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Do Penguins Bark?
CHAPTER TWENTY: Look, a Penguin
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Strangest Merpower
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Good Ship Haddock
Molly Seabrook loved the sea and hated the sea in equal measure.
She loved it for all the obvious reasons: the gushing and fizzing of waves on the shore, the dolphins leaping during summer, the kaleidoscope of red and orange and pink during sunset.
She hated it because the sea was home to fish. And fish could be caught and battered and served to paying customers in the Seabrook family’s fish ’n’ chip shop where Molly and her sisters were forced to help out. And sometimes, to attract those paying customers, she had to dress up as a giant haddock. With fins and everything.
She also hated the sea because her bonkers mum was partial to skinny-dipping, which the kids at school absolutely loved to make fun of. Every single lunchtime, without fail, Miranda Seabrook dived into the sea. Naked. And every single lunchtime, without fail, Molly was so ashamed that she wanted to roll around in flour and toss herself in the deep-fat fryer just to avoid the pointing and staring.
So again, obvious reasons.
Today, even though it was the end of October half-term, the haddock suit was still hotter than the sun. Trapped in a tomb of polyester scales, Molly was essentially one enormous