Mermaid

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Erika Lawrence floated in her high school’s swimming pool, well if you could call it floating when her curled up body was only a few inches away from touching the pool’s floor. Her dark brown hair floated about like seaweed from the ocean, as she had her arms wrapped around her drawn up knees to her chest, today was her second day of school when summer break started, however Erika didn’t summer to start just yet, she loved summer yes, but she always felt as if she was missing something important. Though Erika could never figure out what it was.

She opened her lavender eyes and looked up to see a shadowy image above the water’s surface with the sound of someone calling her.

Must be Alison… she thought before stretching her body in the water to make sure nothing had gone numb or any of her limbs had fallen asleep before swimming up to the surface.

“Erika! Erika!” Alison Jones called into the pools watery depths. “Erika can you hear me?” she frowned when she saw nothing, moving slightly closer to the water she called out again. “Erika? Please tell me you’re not dead down there… I hope you remember I suck at swimming.”

As the girl stayed leaning over the edge of the pool looking for some signs of life as her short wavy red hair that had been tucked in behind her ears fell loose and hung around her face. She stayed like that as her frown deepened. “Maybe I should call someone…” she said to herself as she was about to turn and leave when silently a hand came out of the water and grasped Alison’s wrist.

Alison let out a small scream of shock before Erika came out of the pool with a slight laugh. “Did I scare you?” Erika asked as she rested her chin on the top of her arms.

“That is not funny!” Alison said quickly, in her panic she moved three feet away, her hands clutching her chest, her face flushed red with embarrassment as she glared at her friend who was still in the water watching her. “Anyway do you have any idea what time it is?” Erika’s silence gave Alison her answer. “It’s almost five thirty; your grandparents are going to start to worry about you. So get out already and dry off.”

Erika pouted slightly before lifting herself out of the pool. “Are you still miffed that I scared you? I just touched your arm…”

Alison didn’t answer her as she handed her friend a towel. “Hurry and dry off okay? I don’t want to stay here longer then I have too. This school gets creepy at night.”

“Like you would know.” Erika said as she towel dried her hair and then her body. “By the way, how did you do on that last test?”

Erika came here to swim and wait for Alison to finish her last test so that the two girls’ would walk each other home, since both girls’ lived on the same street it made sense.

“It was a pain in the neck.” She muttered underneath her breath.

“…that bad huh?”

Alison’s cheeks went red again as she turned away. “C-come on, just go get changed and then we can leave alright? And quit asking about that stupid test…”

Standing Erika headed to the change rooms. “I’ve already forgotten what we were talking about anyway. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be done.” entering the girl’s change room Erika took off her swim suite and rung it out in one of the shower stalls before wrapping it in her towel and placing it in her gym bag. She dressed quickly in blue jeans and a dark nave blue T-shirt and sandals. She then tied her hair back into a ponytail but then caught herself in the mirror, something seemed off about her reflection, and her eyes seemed red. And not the normal kind of red ether that a person got from opening they’re eyes in a chlorine filled pool.