Tess Mcardle
English 2: Ms. Eccleston
FairyTale
5/13/19
A Mermaid with Brothers
Once upon a time, in a land far far underwater, there lived a king. King Waterberry had ruled the land for years, and together he and his wife, Queen Waterberry, had 10 sons. The Waterberries, a family of mermaids, lived in a stone castle at the center of their city. No matter the time of day, there was always hustle and bustle happening outside. Street vendors selling fresh pieces of seaweed, or little mermaids swimming around playing games. The Watterberries were a happy family. They spent their days in their tiny town, and the King and Queen loved raising their sons. King and Queen Waterberry decided to have one last child.
“Ten just simply isn’t enough for us,” Queen Waterberry told the royal advisors. Plus the King and the Queen had ten boys already, what was one more. The day came for Queen Waterberry to have her eleventh child. Queen Waterberry was feeling prepared for their next baby, but everything flew out the window in with just three words.
“It’s a girl!” exclaimed the royal nurse. At first the queen laughed.
“Yes and I bet she has three eyeballs too,” the queen joked. But the laughter quickly escaped from her eyes when she saw herself, a girl. The news rang out through the kingdom.
“The new royal baby is a girl!” One village would whisper to another.
“Good luck with all those brothers,” they all though
So suddenly the Waterberries were a family with ten sons and one daughter. She was to be named Brooke. The Waterberries named all of their sons after a body of water, like her oldest brother, Bay, or the youngest, Cove.

Life moves fast underwater. And so it did for the Waterberries. Brooke was a lively child just like all of their other children, and she spent time with her brothers doing things that no other girl in the village did. While most girls spent their time playing with dolls or dress up, Brooke played tag and baseball. For the first few years of her life, Brooke loved having only brothers. She felt this way until her 5th birthday, that’s when things changed. When brooke turned 5 she was enrolled in the local kindergarten, just like all of the Waterberry children were before her.
“I’m just so happy to finally have a little girl in my class” said the teacher with a bright smile on her face when Queen Waterberry brought her on her first day. Brooke immediately fell in love with school. She loved coloring, and learning, but she was most excited for recess. She had heard stories of this magical time when everyone got to go play outside. Brooke was the first one out of the door, ready to start a game of tag. That’s when another girl in the class swam up to brooke and asked “wanna play with chalk?” Brooke was never one to say no to a new friend so she swam over with her to a patch of girls who were all drawing with sidewalk chalk. Brooke was introduced to a whole new world with these friends. Dolls, hair braiding, and unicorns. Brooke loved it all.
Brooke slowly grew to love playing with girls. The friends that she were around with began to rub off on her, and all of the sudden Brooke longed for one thing, a sister. It was all she talked about. As Brooke grew up she thought that boys were boring and girls were more fun, but the way things were was different.
“Mom why can’t you have another baby,” brooke would beg “I want a sister.” Queen Waterberry would smile and respond “You have ten brothers, isn’t that enough”
“Brothers won’t braid my hair or play dolls with me,” Brooke complained. The pattern continued for years, and life in the kingdom went on.

When Brooke’s oldest brother, Bay, came of age it was time for him to step into the role of king. And like any other royal kingdom, there would be a big coronation. Brooke was excited for this because it meant one thing to her. Cake. Brooke loved cake. Its airy base and sugary frosting made brooke’s heart melt every time. And brooke was lucky enough to be tasked with baking the cake for her brother’s royal coronation party. Needless to say, brooke was over the moon excited to have this honor. It was all she talked about for days in preparation. Frosting, flavors, decorations, and anything cake related you could think of.
This cake was a two day project, and brooke wanted to make the cake as fresh as possible, so she decided to decorate it on coronation day. On the day of Bay’s coronation she woke up early and went down to the kitchen, and there she sat at the table with a piping bag in her arm and a determined smile on her face. She spent the hours leading up to the coronation constructing the cake. Three tiers of vanilla with blue and green details. It was Brooke’s greatest pride and joy. With three hours until Bay’s coronation the house was lively and brooke held a bag of green frosting touching up pieces of frosting. “It’s beautiful,” exclaimed her mother
“Looks delicious” and “Great designs” people remarked as they saw the work of art. Brooke was proud. She sat there admiring her work of art, when her younet two brothers came in with Bay. They were in a game of tag.
“Watch the cake!” brooke yelled with a daring look of anger on her face.
“We aren’t that dumb” said one brother, echoed by agreement from the other. That’s when it happened. A football came flying in from the other room and smashed into the cake. In an instant brooke’s heart sank. The ball had completely ruined a chunk of the cake. And then after a second the cake toppled off of the table and in the blink of an eye, the cake was on the ground. Brooke was so sad, her hours of hard work was ruined.

Tears started to stream out of her eyes and Brooke swam out of the house after than she ever had before. Bay started to follow her out of the house. Brooke swam in and out of the streets, she wanted to be alone. After a few minutes brooke was far gone from anything she recognised. Her parents warned her about this area, it where the fisherman were. But brooke didn’t care. She was upset. Then Bay swam up to her. “I’m sorry that we broke you cake,” he apologized.
“Sure you are” Brooke frowned
“No we really are,” he bargained “It looked beautiful”
Brooke tried to swim but things started to seem foggy around her. Brooke was confused. “Bay what’s happening?” she asked. Bay launched into a state of panic as he looked up.
“We’re in a net!” He began to panic more. “Swim to the top.” Brooke began furiously swimming, but it was too late.
“Bay! What are we going to do,” she screamed looking for a way out of the net. “We can’t get caught, then the whole kingdom would be in danger”
“We need to break out” Bay said.
“How are we going to do that!” Brooke replied
As the two talked about what should happen they were being pulled farther and farther away from the kingdom. The kingdom where the rest of the Waterberry family was busy preparing for the royal corinantion which was supposed to happen in two hours.
“Whatever we do, we need to do it fast,” Brooke reasoned. “Your corrination is in two hours and we can’t launch the kingdom into panic if you are not there”
“Lets try swimming out the top,” Bay thought “Maybe we can break through there.” The two swam up to the top and began pulling and yanking at the strings that held the net together.
“It’s not working,” Brooke groaned “We’re never going to get back.”

“Let’s try the bottom of the net” Bay suggested. They tried again but the net was not giving way. The two of them were not strong enough. Brooke was defeated, and Bay was out of ideas.
“We can try to get out when the open the net,” Bay suggested, but they both knew it was a bad idea. They were getting farther and farther away from the kingdom.
“I can almost see the kingdom” Brooke said sheepishly looking at the grey colored blob in the distance
“That’s not the kingdom, thats a boat!” Bay exclaimed.
“That’s our boat!” Brooke exclaimed.
“Help!” they shouted in unison. The boat sped up and they could see 9 heads sticking out the top. It was their brothers.
“We have to rip the net,” yelled Bay to the rest of the brothers in the car. They all swam out and began to pull.
“Everyone on three” Shouted Brooke “1….2….3.” They all pulled with all their might and the net began to pull as small strings began to break.
“Keep pulling” yelled Bay. Then the net tore open and Brooke and Bay came stumbling out. They were free.
“Thank you!” Brooke yelled, hugging all of her brothers. “But we have more important things to get done. Bay needs to get back for his coronation.”
“Let’s go” Bay said and they all hopped in the boat. So they raced back to the castle, in hopes of not being too late and missing the coronation.

“I’ll ask questions later,” mumbled the Queen “But you better all get in there fast!” The 10 youngest waterberry children filed in and quietly snuck into their row to watch their oldest brother become king. As Brooke sat there, she thought how lucky she was. Having brothers wasn’t always fun, but she did love them. And so Bay became king and the whole Waterberry family lived happily ever after. The end.