The Adventures of Jennifer Brooks

I dedicate this story to Mom, Dad, Ms. Eve, Ella, Elaina, Nicole, and  Sarah whose love of mermaids will never

wither unlike the weeds in Mimo's hair.





WHEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOF!!!! I fell off the speeding innertube into the lake. I tried to flag my parent's boat down,

but they couldn't see me. So I was left here, floating in the water, alone, until a head popped up beside me.

Green hair, tangled with a bit of seaweed, murky brown eyes and a mischievious smile. "Mimo!" It yelled,

and another head popped up. She looked exactly like her twin, except the girly twinkle distinguished her from her

brother. "Look what I found." he said, with a "Ha-ha-I-found-it-first-and you-can't-have-it!!!" tone in his voice.

"Well," said the girl so-called Mimo, "Let's ask it what it's doing here, Niko." The boy nodded and took a breath,

and said, "What... are... you.... doing.... here.... ????" I put on a confused face and barely heard Mimo whisper,

"Maybe it doesn't speak English?" Outraged, I said "I DO speak English, thank you very much! I fell off an innertube

and lost my way. Can you help me or not??!!!!" "Sure."





In the next second, I landed in an underwater castle. Mimo was talking to a bulky man with a long white beard

and a trident. "Daddy, can we use the seahickle to get this human home?" I looked up and saw a MERMAN!!

They were all merpeople!!! They were royal!! Wow!! "Sorry my dear clam puff," The mer-king boomed.

"I sold it to that merman-vampire, Vedric Von Stu. You know he lives in Creepy Cove. You'll have to pass

the Fire Trench to get to him." A long, loud whine came from Mimo. "Hello!" I thought. "Still here, aren't I??"

Niko nudged me. "We are talking about how to get you home," He whispered. "But you still have to lead us there."

"Hey! Von Stu might even be in the direction of your house!" Mimo added. Underwater for two minutes!

Good thing I'm like Granddad, we can both stay underwater for four. I pointed at water's surface and Niko shrugged.

"Sorry."



Once I was breathing again, I pointed in front of me, and told them, "There, there's where my home is."

"OOooh! That's where Von Stu lives too!Not exactly, but right in front, see?" Mimo said excitedly. "I forgot!

We can pass the trench by surface!!" Niko said, slapping his forehead. So we swam past with only a tiny burn.

Now we had to get past the tourist boat, and it's no easy task. Mimo said I'd swim on the surface while they

swam underwater. The only problem is Mimo and Niko can't be seen, and a giant squid lives underwater in the

depths of the sea floor. So if the tourists saw the merchildren, they would cause such a commotion that it

would wake the giant squid, and we'd be sushi for a change. This was the worst two minutes of my life.





It started with a tourist going fishing. He had a hot dog on his hook. Niko exclaimed, "OOOH! I love these!!" and

grabbed at it. He held on to the hook as he tore off the hot dog. The tourist was stong, because Niko hadn't

noticed it, but he was being pulled upward. When his hand reached the surface, a woman screamed at the top

of her lungs. I'm not surprised, it's not everyday you find a hand on a hook. But, that scream WAS loud, and

it woke the squid. It grabbed hold of the brother and sister. It's navy blue skin, silvery, angry eyes, and its

wretched size made me feel sick. I tried everything from dancing to insulting to get its attention. Finally,

I dived underwater, grabbed a large rock, ( since when you're underwater, a seven-year-old wieghs less than

my nine-hundred and thirty-six page mathbook.) and hurtled it at the squid's giant, colossal eye. He stopped

thrashing about long enough to let go of the twins. We swam away quickly, away from the squid to get to

the water's surface. As I panted and gasped for air, Niko thanked me.



Confused, the tourist boat sputtered away, and Mimo observed our surroundings. "Hmmmm. Looks like the

way to Von Stu's is past the Scary swamp. that way we will be there soon, but the Swamp's infestation

of Dingaloos has gotten too ferocious. We'll have to risk it." And we swam on. Soon the water got really

cold, and deep, and dark. Once or twice I felt something brush my leg, but I tried not to think about it.

Soon, I saw mysterious things. Twinkling lights with such a high pitched laughter, it made hairs on the

back of my head stand up. Red eyes glared in the shade of clusters of trees all around, but the things

that gave me nightmares were the Dingaloos.



Looking at the strange sights, I asked Mimo why humans had never seen or gone in here before. "Humans

decided that this area was unsafe the first time they laid eyes on it. It's really restricted, but merpeople

used to find this as one of the best hangouts. No humans meant safety. And it's really big here so

usually a lot of merpeople came. But then there's these insects called Dingaloos, and they live near lakes or

swamps. And when humans polluted thier habitat, they took over Scary Swamp. Dingaloos are vicious,

they enter your mind and taunt you with your worst memories and thoughts. They have a poisonous

stinger, too, and it renders wherever you were stung useless." Niko piped in. "I once was stung, it was on

my hand, and for a whole day, I couldn't use it." So I swam on, thinking about Dingaloos, and a sudden

"buzzz" was heard. Niko screamed, "GET UNDER THE WATER!" And seeing the twin's terrified faces, I

dove in.



Looking above me to the surface, I saw black, green, and orange blurs. They hovered above the surface,

and what I saw was horrifying. They spashed in,and with a quick glance I saw millions of beady, fierce

eyes on a large head, smartly covered in a bubble for air, two antennaes, and a black striped, pudgy,

giant body. Some bugs were green, some were orange. But the most disturbing was that quivering,

strong stinger, poised to strike. Mimo and Niko were merpeople, so they swam quite fast. But I was

a human, and not good enough to be on the swim team (yet),and compared to them I was slow.

Niko hung back just a second to grab my hand and start swimming again, and that second nearly

cost him his life.



Niko went a little slower than he did without holding my hand. So the dingaloos caught up. One

of the dingaloos striked, and didn't sting, but scraped his forehead. As the scratch appeared, he

started screaming "NO NO NO! Anything but that! No! Stop!" And started sobbing. Mimo

noticed the scratch and screams from her brother, and grabbed a flat rock from the bottom

of the swamp. She squished the Dingaloos, and every hit she made she screamed "DON'T- YOU-

HURT- MY- BROTHER!!" Soon, the Dingaloos were all gone, and Mimo was comforting her brother.

We swam to the surface, and Niko stopped crying. Now he was twirling around singing something

like 'Little conk shell Cuckoo hopping through the re-ef picking up the pearls and bopping them on

the head!' (sing to the tune 'Little bunny Foofoo') Mimo explained "The scratch from the Dingaloo

was on his forehead, right? Well, if that's so, then his mind is only a little useless, because it was

a scratch." "You mean he's gone a little kooky?" I questioned. Mimo nodded. Niko exclaimed

unexpectedly, "Hey! there's Creepy Cove!"



Entering Creepy Cove meant this adventure was over. We immediatley saw Vedric Von Stu's

house, the only mansion here, and Niko said he saw the 'peapickle' in the front yard. It was

an elegant cairraige, but no wheels. and there was a glass top to it, hooked up to sea horses.

Mimo took some seaweed out of her hair and said "Here, eat this, four minutes of holding

your breath is long enough. Chewing it, my neck tingled, then burned. I felt the side of my

poor neck and- I had gills! happily breathing in air, we knocked on the front door of Von

Stu's. A pale man stepped out, red eyes, a goatee, thick eyebrows with dark, sleek, black hair.

Tall, suit shirt, and a black, scaly fin, yep, he was a vampire merman.



"What do you want, my delicious-er, darling children?" He asked, with that type of voice that

makes you want to hide. Niko bravely said "We wants your peapickle to take this hooman

to her home, which is far, far away." he was still poisoned by the scratch, but Von Stu understood.

"Something of mine, to you, for free? Nonononono, I paid for the seahickle, so you shall pay me."

I had an idea. I heard from the twins' father that he was a vampire. "Ah. Pay you? Ok. What about with

the finest blood a vampire can have?" Von Stu's eyes lit up. "Finest, you say? Sure, sure! I shall trade!!"

Grinning, I took hold of the merchildrens' hands and said we needed to find a tourist boat. Now.

Mimo said there was one right above us, on the surface. So I took Mimo up to the boat. The plan

was that I would distract the tourist and Mimo would look for a red bottle that said Heinz Tomato

Ketchup.



I popped my head out of the water to sing "I'm a mermaid! Oh, I'm a mermaid!" Distracting the tourist so

Mimo found the bottle. As I sang, I watched Mimo dig in the picnic basket and pull up what we were looking

for. To end the distraction, I said "Ha ha! I'm no mermaid!" And lifted up my two bare feet only to dissappoint

the tourist. The we dove back to Creepy Cove with the 'finest blood in the world'. We reached Von Stu's, where

he waited while Niko danced around singing 'my little sea horse'. I held up the 'blood' and handed it to Von Stu.

He said "Why does this say 'Heinz Tomato Ketchup'??? I asked for BLOOD!!" Knowing that merpeople had no

idea what ketchup was, I was going to trick him. "Oh, my mistake! That's Latin for 'Finest Blood in the World.'

See? Heinz means 'finest' tomato means 'blood' and ketchup means 'in the world' see?" Von Stu's face sparked with

excitement. "Yes, yes, I knew, just messing with you!" (It was the other way around actually!) "Yes, I think I'll drink

it now." I was beside myself with disgust as he drank the whole bottle. "Mmmm! That IS the finest!" Mimo

giggled, and I noticed Niko's poison was wearing off. Niko said "What?? I.... feel funny, wait.... WE MADE IT!?!

You can go home?!? Is that Vedric Von Stu??? Oh, what happened?? Von Stu handed us the keys to the seahickle,

and we all agreed that now Niko's poison was gone, he was the best driver. So I hopped in the back seat,

which was probably cushioned with sponge. Niko put in the keys, and bubbles started popping out of the back of

the sea car. I heard whirring, and the glass top was sealing to the doors and I felt like I was in a giant, glass,

comfy, submarine. Niko pushed a button, and we were off.



"Goodbye, guys. By the way, my name is Jennifer, Jennifer Brooks." I said. "Goodbye, Jennifer." Mimo and Niko

said together. Niko said "Oh! Take this Necklace, anytime you want to see us or need us, just say our names and

touch this shell." He took out a pearl necklace with a single Lion's Paw shell right in the middle. I hugged them both,

and said a final goodbye.



As I write this in my diary, that was a year ago, and to this day, I have sat on the dock

and called to my finned friends from the sea.



P.S. On Mimo and Niko's inspiration, I made it into the swim team.