Free My New Best Friend by Julie Bowe Page A

take off for the attic, sniffing my markers the whole way.
    Stacey sets the jar of water next to the mermaid and I hand her a marker. We tear off some toilet paper and get busy writing.
Dear Mermaid,
    We built this shrine just for you.
    It took almost 1 hour or 2.
    Do you like it? We do!
    -Stacey
    Dear Mermaid,
    We are gour biggest fans. Let us know if you need a new Light bulb or anything.
    Ida
    We crumple up our notes and drop them into the jar. Right away the water turns a very magical purple.
    Stacey gasps. "The mermaid did that!"
    I nod.
    A minute later, our writing fades away and all that's left is the paper, floating like clouds in a magical purple sky.

Chapter 13
    When I wake up the next morning, I look over the edge of my bed. Stacey is still asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. I lay back and think about all the fun we had last night. Building the shrine. Guarding the mermaid from wicked screwdrivers. Making her offerings of root beer and candy bars.
    I push off my covers and tiptoe to my desk. I pick up a pencil and open my sketchbook. I flip past the drawings I did at the park and write
The Secret Mermaid Club
across the top of a new page. Then I draw two girls. I give one straight hair and one curly hair, but I give them both the same smile. Then I get out my colored pencils and start filling them in.
    "What are you doing?"
    I turn to see Stacey sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
    "I'm making a sign for the shrine," I say, coloring Stacey's eyes brown and mine blue. I hold it up to show her.
    "Nice," Stacey says. "But aren't you forgetting someone?"
    "Who?" I ask, studying the picture.
    "The mermaid!" Stacey says, stretching.
    "Oh, yeah," I say, turning back to my desk. Then I draw the mermaid, a little smaller and off to one side.
    "I'm starving," Stacey says, crawling out from her sleeping bag.
    "Me, too. Let's get some breakfast and then go back to the attic and start having more fun!"
    Stacey crawls over the blankets that fell off my bed and heads out the door. I close my sketchbook and wade after her. I stop when I step on something squishy.
    I look down and see George under my foot. I pick him up and unsquish his stomach. "Be careful, George," I say. "Or you'll get hurt."
    I fluff up the blankets and set George on top, like he's king of the mountain.
    My foot snags a corner of the mountain on the way out and George tumbles back to where he started.

    Dad makes pancakes for breakfast with whipped-cream hair, strawberry eyes, and chocolate chip mouths.
    "I'm going to bake cookies this morning," Mom says as we carry our plates to the sink. "Want to help?"
    "No, thanks," I say. "We've got some important stuff to do ... um ... upstairs."
    Me and Stacey take off for my bedroom, throw on some clothes, and head to the attic.
    "Let's pretend the shrine is hidden in a deep, dark cave," Stacey says, finding a flashlight on the workbench. "And we're searching for it."
    "Okay," I say. "We can draw a secret map on one of the boxes, and use it to find her!"
    I grab the pens and pencils we dumped out of the jar last night and we start drawing.
    Before long, we're crawling so deep into the cave we hardly even hear the doorbell when it rings. And a few minutes later, when my mom calls our names from downstairs, it's like she's a million miles away.
    "Let's pretend we didn't hear her," Stacey says.
    "The cookies are probably done," I say back. "If we don't go downstairs, she'll bring them up here. And then she'll see what we're doing and it won't be a secret anymore."
    Stacey flicks off the flashlight. "You're right," she says. "Let's go and hurry back!"
    We race each other downstairs. As soon as we hit the bottom step, our feet freeze.
    My mom is standing just inside our front door. So is Kelli.
    "Kelli?" Stacey says. "What are you doing here?"
    "I was just going to ask
you
the same question," Kelli says. She folds her arms across her chest. "Guess who called me this morning?"
    I hear Stacey swallow. "Who?" she asks.
    "Your