My Weird Secret Life

Chapter 18: The Lost

      Agua paused outside of the cooler room, I stopped with him. "What is it?" Agua slowly opened his hand to reveal the folded picture. Mom. He held it out and my eyes widened,"I would like you to have it." Shaking my head, I objected,"I couldn't. That's yours!" Agua kept his hands outstretched. "I don't mind. I saw the way you admired it. I would hate for us to depart without me at least offering you this gift." To my surprise, Agua even bowed his head. Tears prickled my eyes,"Thank you." I gently took the picture internally promising myself I would never ruin it. My voice shook,"Thank you!" I bowed deeply. He would never know how much this meant. A piece of Mom with me, forever. He did a small smile and I didn't even feel silly grinning as wide as the ocean sea.

    After escorting Agua back to his mom, I started thinking about when I first bumped into Kai. Had it been a coincidence that I supposedly just bumped into him? Was it on purpose? And . . . I gasped, Kai was the one who stole the jewelry! He was the merboy or whatever who got me stuck in this dump! That's why when he found me and I had woken up he said he was "running from a guard" because he stole the stupid jewelry! But now my question was, how did he get it and why?
      I forgot where I was almost instantly after swimming out of the dining room. Where did the other girls say they were going again? I swam by the windows remembering my way back to the room with all the stalls. As I got closer I started hearing all the screaming and shouting from them. "Zayana!" Rylie swam over and took me over to a corner where Atlantic and Kylie were talking. When I swam over both of them turned their heads and smiled,"Where have you been?" From Atlantic. "You've been gone for twenty minutes!" From Kylie. I opened my mouth like a fish, ironic isn't it? "Okay, okay listen." I told them everything about the beautiful woman picture and the girl called Mystic and Leviathan and Ghost, except I kinda skimmed over the part where Agua had asked me out and I said no. Still not sure about that bit.
      Then I asked what mysteries hung over the head of the kingdom. Rylie explained,"Well there's the Lost Royal Family, the Lost Stolen Goods, the Lost Witch, and the Lost . . . what's the other one?" Kylie took over,"Well, there have been many lost things and people over the years that haven't been solved, but I think you mean the Lost Coral and it's not really a mystery. For the Witch one when the mercops caught the Witch everyone wondered why she denied that she cursed anyone. Some merpeople say she was obviously lying, all the clues led to her and the mercops said someone tipped them off with a picture of a pearl over someone." At my confused expression she explained,"Pearls are known to have very strong spiritual powers. Anyway, when the other merpeople asked who tipped off the cops, they would always reply,' He was an average dude, had on a big dark blue jacket, wore a summery tan hat and had a weird voice that sounded like he was going through puberty or something,' other merpeople said that she was probably telling the truth and someone else set her up. But she got away in all the noise and merpeople so no one really found out." I thought about it,"So, what do you think happened to the lost kelp?" Kylie looked up at me her face looking like she was deep in thought trying to figure out the mystery herself. "Coral," she rectified,"but I don't know. Some merpeople say that it was because the source that keeps the whole entire Atlantic City alive is how happy and healthy the whole entire city is. The deceasing coral started happening around the time the Royal family disappeared. I think that's why the merpeople weren't happy, when our queen disappeared. I even heard that someone was planning to start a rebellion against Queen Tide because they were so loyal to Queen Euphoria that they didn't want to trust another queen that came and took over the kingdom the way she did.  She didn't even hold a ceremony for the queen, her sister, just moved on and said everyone else needed to do the same." Kylie seemed like the kind of girl that payed attention to the tiniest of details that no one else would ever notice or think of. "Where do you get your information?" My inquiring mind needed to know. "I know a guy." That . . . wasn't an answer.
    Atlantic, Kylie, and Rylie seemed downhearted. A thought sprung into my mind. I suddenly had an idea. They always come to me at the best of times. I glanced around making sure no one was watching and leaned in. Whispering, I told them of my plan,"We, as a group, are going to escape."