The theme song started, it was a mellow soulful sound. The lyrics were sung by a small choir.

Nate came into view, he was wearing a pair of inline skates and skating backwards. He looked up at the reader and waved as he rolled past, vanishing from view on the other side of the room.

He came back into view skating forwards and did a couple of fancy spins before skating out.

Nate came skating backwards again and was about to do a backflip when he slid to a stop and crossed his arms.

“You’re crazy,” Nate looked up at the ceiling. “I’m not risking my life for a theme song. You don’t even let me have a helmet.”

As he said the words, a helmet appeared on his head. It was flashy and pure black. Csick was written across the side.

Nate took the helmet off, looked at it, then shrugged and put it back on.

He did a perfect cartwheel for his final trick and skated off as the theme song came to a close.

A book fell from the sky and opened to a blank page. A quill came floating down and wrote.

Rule 16 - Some areas of the ship may be closed for your safety.

A bird flew down and picked up the book. It flew off with the book in its claws.

The scene changed.

It was the morning of the latest competition, and Nate was having trouble waking up again.

The window being projected on the wall turned into a real window. It opened, and a giant wave splashed through, soaking Nate and both bunks of his bed.

“You dirty strawberry sorbet,” Nate swore at the writer. He grabbed a set of dry clothes and a towel and then headed up to the showers.

After his shower, he dropped off his wet clothes in the laundry room and made himself a cup of coffee. The garbage can had been knocked over again. There was nobody else around yet, so he cleaned it up quietly, noticing once again the raccoon prints in the mess.

He sat down at the table with his coffee. Why did you want me to wake up so badly? Nate thought at the writer.

In response, both Matt and Dave burst from their rooms simultaneously. They pointed at each other and screamed. Dave ran up to Matt and started yelling. “Give me back my body!”

“Me?” Matt yelled back. “This is your fault.”

They both went quiet and looked at each other before turning and yelling as one.

“Alvin!” They stretched the name out, and Nate suddenly thought of chipmunks. He shook the thought off.

Alvin came out of his room yawning. “What’s wrong?” He looked from Matt to Dave. He walked over to them and took a good look at each of them.

He pulled out a Tarot card and got The Moon. “You switched bodies,” Alvin finally said.

“How did you?” Nate couldn’t believe his ears.

“I told you, he’s good.” Luke had come out of his room and overheard what was going on.

“Of course, he knows what’s going on, this is another one of his pranks!” Dave turned to look at Alvin. Dave’s body couldn’t handle Matt’s temper. The rage had built up to a boil, his face was burning red, and a few seconds later his hair caught on fire.

“Cool down,” Stacy said. She had been drawn from her room by the smoke, and quickly found a fire extinguisher to spray Dave down with.

Dave wiped the foam from his eyes and flicked it onto the floor. He looked back at Alvin.

“Don’t look at me,” Alvin held up both hands. “I don’t have magic powers or a wand. This is way beyond anything I could do. Though I do applaud the culprit, it is an excellent prank.”

Alvin walked towards the kitchen laughing quietly.

“Did anyone dream of mermaids last night?” Nate asked as the rest of their roommates slowly came out of their rooms.

They were quickly brought up to speed on the situation.

“You think that mermaid is responsible?” Stacy asked.

“You know, she is the only one with a wand around here,” Matt had a stack of pancakes beside him that reached the ceiling. He had started at the bottom and was shovelling them into his mouth with more speed than a locomotive.

“How do you handle your stomach?” Matt looked over at Dave. “It’s never going to get full, is it?”

Dave laughed. “It’s about time somebody else knows how it feels.”

“What are you going to do? The contest starts soon!” Nate started pacing back and forth.

“I’ll go see if that mermaid is hanging around again, Alice yelled back as she took off running out the door.

“If you fail this contest in my body I’m going to kick your ass,” Dave’s body said to Dave.

This isn’t going to get confusing at all Nate thought at the writer.

“Me fail?” Matt shouted back from Dave’s body.

“Let’s go catch up with Alice,” Nate dragged Dave out of his chair. “You stay here and finish eating,” He gestured to the giant stack of pancakes that were still beside Matt.

“Yeah, whatever,” Matt stabbed another pancake and shoved it in his mouth.

“I’ll come too, Luke jumped out of his seat so quickly that he stumbled backwards into Nate. The two of them fell to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

They quickly sorted out which body parts belonged to whom, and took Dave outside with them.

“Are you Matt?” Luke asked as soon as he was sure they wouldn’t be overheard.

“Yes, Madame Midnight,” Dave said with a wink.

“That’s proof enough for me,” Nate said and looked over at Luke.

Luke smiled and nodded in agreement.

Before they got too far they ran into Alice. She was on her way back and was out of breath. She leaned her back against the wall and sank down until she was sitting on the floor.

“Mermaid…” She managed to say between heavy breaths.

“It’s ok,” Nate sat next to her, and both Luke and Dave knelt in front of her.

“Take your time,” Nate patted her knee and looked into her eyes. She looked back, and for the first time saw something special behind them. She suddenly felt like she couldn’t stand the thought of being apart. She looked at Nate’s face and it was shining with a light glow.

“Uh, guys.” Alice managed to calm her breathing. “I think that mermaid hit me with a love spell.”

“Really? Who is it?” Nate turned to look at her. When she saw the caring look on his face, and the concern in his eyes her heart melted.

“No, she screamed, scrambling backwards on hands and feet. Then she saw the distance between them, shouted “No,” again and ran to give Nate a massive hug.

“Nate?” Luke let out a hearty laugh. “It must be magic if he’s the one you’re after.”

Dave joined in the laughter and Nate shot them both an evil glare, which just made them laugh harder.

They finally calmed down, and Alice was now hanging from Nate’s back, piggyback style.

“The mermaid was swimming beside the ship,” Alice nuzzled her face into Nate’s shoulder. “She was yelling but we couldn’t hear her. She had a wand or something and kept pointing it at us. Now I know what she was doing.”

Just then red lights started flashing along the hallway and a voice blared out from a nearby speaker.

“All passengers and crew are hereby ordered below deck. We will notify you when it is safe to return. A reminder that the contests are still happening today. If you are unable to make the first one, you must attend the second.”

The announcement repeated itself a second time, then fell silent and the lights stops flashing.

Nate and the group were blinking their eyes trying to adjust to the normal lighting.

“I’ll run back and let them know what Alice said,” Luke looked over at them. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere without you.”

Nate shook his head in defeat. They split up and Nate’s group decided to head to the cafeteria to see who else had been hit. It must have been bad if the ship ordered people off the deck.

When they arrived they saw Nate’s situation mirrored in a dozen different ways. Nate looked around, and all the couples were plausible. It was like the love spell only matched you up with somebody you were compatible with in the first place.

Nate thought about Alice, he had never thought about her like that before. It made him a little uncomfortable. But the weight of her on his back was also comforting. He tried to shake the thought from his head.

“Wow, this is worse than I imagined,” Luke had already made his way back to them.

“Matt, well Dave I guess?” Luke stumbled over finding the right words. “Anyway, he is going to take the first contest spot, and wants you there.”

“I agree,” Dave said. “There is no guarantee it will be fixed by the second time, and I won’t be up to par that late at night.”

“What am I going to do with her?” Nate pointed behind him.

“Lemonds worked with her hiccups. Maybe the sourness will help counteract the spell somehow.”

Nobody could come up with a reason not to try it, so Luke ran to the kitchen area to get some.

He came back with his hands full of lemons and sugar packets. He pulled a knife from his pocket and started cutting them up. He sprinkled sugar on top and then shoved it into Alice’s mouth.

Her eyes went wide, then with a content sigh, she slid down off Nate and into a nearby chair. Her eyes closed, and her mouth a wide grin around the lemon wedge.

“Go, go, go,” Luke pushed Nate away. “Now’s your chance. I’ll take care of her.”

“Thanks,” Nate grabbed Dave and ran from the room.

They went back to the Silver Platypus room to grab their badges and then headed off to the competition.

They found the rest of their group waiting for them by the entrance to the competition. Dave and Matt, or Matt and Dave, had both calmed down by now. It was clear that this was the work of that mermaid. They were clearly nervous and felt the pressure of having to pass the competition for two people.

They checked in with their badges at the door and walked into the same massive room as the last time.

This time the desks were different. There were two seats, side by side with a large wooden divider between them so you couldn’t see who was on the other side.

Matt and Dave made sure to get seats next to each other. Nate slid into the first empty seat he saw without looking at who was on the other side.

Before long the doors locked and Kent’s voice came over the speakers.

“Writers are often faced with the task of working with another writer. Today you will be tested on that ability. On the other side of each partition is another contestant.”

Nate looked around and saw the teachers rearranging contestants so none of the seats were single.

“The two of you must write a two-part story,” Kent’s voice continued. “You will be judged on how well it flows, and the accuracy between the two.”

“The story must be a romance and a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. The door will open in one hour, and you will a maximum of three hours. At the end of this announcement, the partitions will drop for ten minutes, and you may plan with your partner. After the ten minutes talking will be prohibited, and strictly enforced.”

“I wish you all luck,” Kent’s voice faded.

The sound of all the dividers falling at the same time was a deep almost booming Thunk.

Nate looked over and gulped. This was the last person he wanted as a partner.