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“you’ll regret it—”

“can’t trust her—”

“she only takes!”

“I’m sorry, but I need this,” Shelly said softly, ripped the pen and pressed it to the parchment “I don’t have a choice”

She scrawled her nanature line

The whole contract flashed with light It rolled up into a scroll, then vanished in another flash and reappeared outside the crystal ball A black tentacle reached up, encircled the parchnature line below Shelly’s:

Ursula

“Oh, you’ll be the fastest swi “You’ll swim like a fish!”

Eh the lair, followed by a deep rumble of thunder The ocean currents whipped up The walls of the crystal ball dissolved, and once again the ocean clai her from the underwater lair As she felt the ocean sweep her away, a deep cackle made Shelly shiver with fear

“Just remember our deal After you win your race, you have to co, so now you have to giveI want in return”

Shelly had a sinking feeling about what she had just done

But she pushed it away

I had to sign it, she reminded herself I didn’t have a choice

She couldn’t afford to lose her next race Otherwise, she risked losing her friends and going back to that horrible new-kid-in-school purgatory, where she had to eat lunch alone and walk to class alone and do everything alone Having no friends was the worst, the absolute worst

Or was it?