Fish Out of Water

Chapter 13~ Vanilla

The leg muscles throbbed which was better than the cramping but still irritating. Sean only asked if I was okay twice by gym class but hung close, his eyes glued to my legs. I might die of humiliation if I grew my tail at school. The girl that popped her tail the other week, Sera, lingered in my mind. I'd probably cry too either from pain or embarrassment.

I sat at the library during my final school hour. Apparently for free hour here you could do anything but from what I noticed the people that had free hours were unsure of their future on land. Sera had been in my free period and sat in the library too. The few others that had stuck around had scales peeking out under their shorts. Water patches made an impression in the sides of their shirts. What even was this school? All basics and a few extra curriculars?

Chair legs scraped against the wood floor and Bay plopped down in the chair beside me a smile stretched across his face. "Better?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He poked at my thigh. "No tail?"

"Not yet." I glanced around and pulled the side of my shirt up. "But my gills are in. I was underwater for two days."

His eyes widened and his smile pulled his lips back to expose teeth. "For real, you could sleep over now!" he grabbed my arm. "Want to?"

"Sleep over like underwater?"

"Yeah, we can sleep at the caves if you want. Closer to the surface until you're more comfortable."

The part of me that found a new kind of comfort when I swam with Bay wanted to jump on it but the fully human part cringed. Underwater. All night. But it wasn't like I hadn't just spent that long under in the bathtub, not using my lungs the entire time.

"I have to ask my mom." I ducked my head to avoid his eyes, hopefully he wasn't near as good at reading me as my mom and Emory.

"Right." he shook his head as if it hadn't occurred to him. "Yeah. Tell me tomorrow?"

"For sure."

He watched me for a few seconds scribble out a few sentences for my final English essay of the year.

"Wanna get out of here?" he asked.

"Schools not over?" I pointed out obviously

"Its free period, you only stay if you're working on homework."

I held my paper up "I missed three days. I do have homework."

'Oh." his smile faltered. "Well, I'm a little sick of land." He shoved away from the table and stood. "I'll see you later."

"Okay," I said but he lingered for a second too long. I lifted my eyes to meet his. "I'll ask my mom about the sleep over."

"Cool." he waved as he slipped out the back door of the library closing it before the fifteen seconds that would set off the fire alarm.

I finished all my assignments by the time the bell rang freeing us for the day. The second I passed through the threshold of the door Sean stepped in front of me.

"Dude." I snapped my pulse jumped. "Have you just been waiting out here or something.

"I was gonna bother you before, but Bay had already got to you and then you didn't go with him so I figured you were busy."

I rubbed the back of my head. My hair felt shaggier than it should. Mom needed to cut it. "Just catching up. Only another month and a half of this prison just to possibly exchange it for another." I meant it to be a joke but Sean glanced down at my legs again, out right staring that time before I walked past him and he followed.