From outside the matchmaker's building everyone could hear a blood-curdling scream. Jess's mother winced, slamming her forehead with her palm. Her grandmother chuckled and looked up at the mother. "I think it's going well, don't you?"

The matchmaker's body wiggled as the cricket scrambled around inside her clothes. "AH! AH!" the matchmaker was making a sound like a mix between screams and laughter. She fell on her butt, landing on...

The fire-place. Jess gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth as fire started spreading across the matchmaker's butt.

She burst out of the building. "PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" She hopped around, fanning her flaming butt. Jess closed her eyes, clutched the tea-pot, and threw it so that the tea would pour all over the matchmaker. The fire was out, yes, but now her matchmaker was soaking wet. She glared at Jess, her make up, along with the ink beard, trailing down her face.

"YOU USELESS CHILD! YOU'RE NOT WORTHY!" she screamed. Jess winced. "YOU WILL NEVER FIND A HUSBAND! YOU WILL NEVER BRING YOUR FAMILY HONOR!"

That was a harsh blow. Jess, eyes wide and sad, bowed her head and quickly ran away. Her mother reached out for her, but Jess ran right past and all the way home.

"SCUTTLE!"

A seagull sitting on his nest jumped when he heard his name. He fumbled with a pair of human binoculars before raising them to his face. He held them backwards, so everything he saw was farther away than where they actually were. He saw his mermaid friend, seemingly feet away.

"AMANDA! HOW YOU DOIN', KID?!" he yelled out to the "far away" mermaid before lowering the binoculars, revealing that Amanda was actually right in front of him. "Woah, what a swim," Scuttle said in awe.

Amanda chuckled, laying her bag of treasures on Scuttle's nest. "We found a sunken ship, Scuttle," Amanda explained.

"Yeah, there was a mean shark," Flounder stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"We found these," Amanda took out the fork and pipe. "We were hoping you knew what they were."

Scuttle believed that he understood everything about the human world.

He didn't.

"I haven't seen one of these in a while!" Scuttle picked up the fork and admired it. "Wow."

"What is it?" Amanda asked.

"This is a dinglehopper!" Scuttle announced as if it was the most important thing in the world.

"Woah, a dinglehopper..." Amanda and Flounder gasped in unison.

"Humans use these little babies to straighten their hair out," Scuttle explained matter-of-factly. "Like this." He raised the 'dinglehopper' to his head and started running it through his feathers. "Just a little twist here and a yank there..." Scuttle muttered before pulling the 'dinglehopper' out, his feathers popping out in all different directions. "Ta da! Now you have an aesthetically pleasing concoction of hair that humans go NUTS over," he said, handing the fork back to Amanda.

"And this one?" Amanda pushed the pipe closer to Scuttle.

"Oh, WOW! This is rare, this is very, very special!" Scuttle lifted the pipe and wiped the edge of it with his wing. "A banded, bulbous, SNARFBLAT!"

"Oooooh!" Flounder breathed.

"Now the snarfblat dates back to prehistoric times when humans just sat around all day and stared at each other. All day," Scuttle sat down and shoved his face into Amanda's, staring at her intensely. "That's very boring." Scuttle pulled away and lifted the snarfblat for them to admire. "They invented the snarfblat to play fine music. Allow me to demonstrate." Scuttle lifted it to his lips and blew hard. Seaweed and bubbles burst out from it. Scuttle pulled back and breathed again. "There must be something wro-"

During this, Amanda's face darkened. "Music? OHHHH THE CONCERT!"

"That was TODAY?!" Flounder gasped.

"Oh no my dad's going to KILL ME!" Amanda said, yanking the snarfblat out of Scuttle's hands and shoving it into her bag.

"Amanda!" Scuttle called out.

"I HAVE TO GO! THANK YOU, SCUTTLE!" Amanda waved to Scuttle before diving back into the water. The water pulled her hair back as she speed past the resistance of the water, flicking her tail and propelling herself as fast as she could back to the castle.

Hey guys. Sorry about the shortness, but they seemed like good points to stop. But HI I'M BACK! I'm sorry for my sudden leave but I promise to continue my stories.