Not Quite a Mermaid (2 page)

‘Thank you,' Electra said in delight – sugar starfish were her favourite sweets. She put the sweets into her
bag and gave Gran a hug. ‘I should be giving you a present, though. Sasha says it's your birthday.'

‘Don't worry about that, dear,' Gran said kindly. ‘When you get to my age you don't mind about birthdays.'

Electra was shocked. ‘I'll
always
mind about birthdays! Aren't you having a cake and a party?'

‘Oh, no, no,' Gran said, shaking her head. ‘That sort of thing is for young people. My party days are over.' She looked sad for a moment. ‘I did have some good times when I was just a young mermaid – and some lovely
presents. Do you know what the best present I ever had was?' she said to Electra and the others.

‘A new bikini?' Sasha suggested.

‘A horn made out of a conch shell?' asked Sam.

‘A trip somewhere really exciting?' said Electra.

‘No.' Gran smiled. ‘It was a sea mouse.'

‘A sea mouse!' Electra echoed. Sea mice were small furry fish with tails and little round ears that lived in the deeper waters of the reef.

‘Yes.' Gran's eyes hazed over as

she remembered. ‘My grandmother bought him for me. I called him Sandy because he had a sandy-coloured coat. He was so sweet. He used to swim up and sit on my shoulder and nuzzle my face with his little nose. He was my pet – and my best friend. I cried so much when he got old and died.' She looked
wistful. ‘He really was the best present I ever had.'

Just then, Ronan came in from the kitchen. ‘Hello, Electra,' he said cheerfully. ‘Hi, Splash!'

‘Hi, Ronan!' Electra and Splash chorused.

Ronan swam over to Gran. ‘Are you ready to go out?'

Gran nodded and with a flick of her tail she swam up from the chair.

‘See you later,' Ronan said to Electra and the others. ‘Gran and I are going to see some of her friends. We'll be back by tea time. Have fun until then but
don't make a mess.' He watched as Gran swam to the cave entrance and then lowered his voice. ‘Remember the cards,' he whispered to Sam and Sasha.

They nodded. ‘We will!' Sam said with a grin.

‘See you later!' Gran called and she and Ronan swam out through the shell curtain.

‘The cards?' Electra said to Sam and Sasha.

‘We're going to make some birthday cards for Gran,' explained Sam.

‘Can I do one too?' Electra asked eagerly.

‘Of course. And Splash can help,' Sasha said, giving Splash a stroke.

Sam and Sasha fetched some pens and they all started to draw out some
cards. Electra drew a picture of a sea mouse on hers and wrote ‘Happy Birthday!' in big purple letters.

She coloured it in, but after five minutes she had finished and began to feel bored. Sam and Sasha were colouring in very slowly. Splash had given up trying to draw with his mouth and was amusing himself by seeing how many pens he could balance on his nose. He looked rather bored too.

What else can we do?
Electra thought.
We can't do this all afternoon
. She looked around the tidy cave. What could they do that would be fun?

Sam was carefully colouring in a birthday cake on his card. ‘It must feel weird to be old and not have a proper birthday with presents and a party and things,' he said.

‘Yes,' Sasha agreed. ‘I'll never get too old for parties.'

An idea popped into Electra's head. ‘That's it!' she gasped. ‘That's what we can do!'

The others looked at her.

‘What do you mean?' Sam said, puzzled.

‘This afternoon!' Electra said. ‘I've been trying to think of something fun
that we can do and now I know!' A wide grin spread across her face. ‘We can organize a surprise birthday party for your gran!'

Electra looked round at the others. ‘Well, what do you think?'

‘Oh, yes!' Sasha exclaimed, clasping her hands together in delight. ‘We can make a birthday banner.'

‘And streamers!' cried Sam.

‘And a cake!' said Electra eagerly.

‘We don't know how to make a cake,' Sasha said doubtfully.

‘Dad never lets us because he says we'd make too much mess,' Sam put in.

‘I bet I can make a cake!' Electra

said, waving a hand airily. ‘I've seen my mum do it
loads
of times.'

‘We'll give Gran the best birthday surprise ever!' Splash said in excitement.

Electra grinned. ‘Why don't Splash and I do the cake?' she said, looking at the twins. ‘While you two do the banners and streamers.'

Sam and Sasha nodded and swam over to one of the cupboards to get some paints and paper out to make a banner and streamers.

Meanwhile, Electra and Splash headed to the kitchen.

‘We need mermaid flour, eggs,
sugar and butter,' Electra said, trying to remember what her mum used. She opened all the cupboards and found the one with cake ingredients in. As she began to pull things out, she saw a large packet of chocolate chips. ‘Oh, and we need these,' she said. ‘These will be very good in a cake!'

‘What do we do next?' Splash asked eagerly when Electra had found all the ingredients, a mixing bowl and an enormous cake tin.

Electra hesitated. She wasn't actually too sure. She sometimes stirred the cake mixture when her mum was

making cakes – and she liked licking the bowl afterwards – but she'd never really taken much notice of what her mum had been doing. But then how difficult could it be to make a cake?

‘It's easy! You just put everything in a bowl and stir it round,' she said.
‘Then you put it all into the oven with some mermaid fire to cook it.' She began to open the packets of ingredients. The chocolate chips smelt delicious.

Splash nosed the bag. ‘Maybe we should taste these – just to check they haven't gone off,' he suggested.

Electra grinned. ‘OK.'

They each ate a chocolate chip. ‘They taste all right to me,' Splash said.

‘Maybe we should just try a few more to be on the safe side,' Electra said.

They ate some more – and then some more.

Five minutes later the bag was empty.

Splash whistled happily. ‘I like cooking!' he said.

‘Me too!' Electra gave a chocolatey grin. Picking up the bag of flour, she emptied it all into the bowl. Then she threw in the butter and sugar and
cracked the eggs open and emptied them in too. She wasn't sure how many eggs to use so she used them all. Then she began to stir. It was hard work. The ingredients just didn't seem to want to stay in the bowl. A blob landed on the table, then another went on the floor and then another landed with a splat on Splash's tail.

He laughed. ‘Let me have a go!'