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Why on earth had she dreamed about that?

But thenwith yellow light And when she had touched it, she was teleported into a dark underwater cavernwhere Ursula offered to grant her a wish I want to be the fastest swimmer That had been her wish She could remember it clearly The details were fresh and sharp in her mind But it wasn’t real, she reminded herself

With that reassurance, Shelly climbed out of bed, padded to her closet, and examined her appearance in the h her curly brown hair, stillout of the ordinary, at least

Shelly changed into her pink tracksuit and turned back toward her bed—and that hen she saw it Her skin pricked A soft gasp escaped her lips “No That’s impossible,” she blurted

She rushed to her bedside table and blinked, thinking she s But no matter how ht beside her mermaid lamp

The nautilus

The one from the beach

The one frohtmare

How had it ended up back in her room?

She studied it Water had pooled around it She struggled to understand how it got there Dawson probably was snooping around her rooain, like he always did That was it! He probably left it there by mistake How else could she explain it?

Feeling a surge of irritation—at both the night little brother—she reached for the shell But then she hesitated She didn’t want to touch it She re it in the dream had transported her to an undersea lair She didn’t want to take any chances, even though she kneas just a nightmare Quickly, Shelly used a sock to protect her hand while she tossed the shell to the bottoht as it vanished a dirty clothes

With that, she flew from her room and to the kitchen She quickly poured herself a bowl of cereal A fewout “Mom, I can’t find my shell!”

Shelly tried to ignore hiy cornflakes But it was a lost cause

A second later, her little brother charged into the kitchen with an indignant expression on his face He wore a striped T-shirt, khaki shorts, and a red sheet tied over his shoulders like a cape He had the same olive complexion and brown eyes as his sister, but his dark hair had an uneven, choppy bowl cut froive himself a new hairstyle,with the scissors He put his hands on his hips and squared off to face her “I bet Shelly stole it!” he added

Shelly glared at hiive it to you just to take it?”