Swimming With The Current (Wattys2015)

Chapter 7

      When I fell off the rock, I didn't just fall into some water washing over sand. Oh no, I actually fell into the ocean. Not the shallow ocean, but a good-ten-feet-deep ocean.

My legs kick into swimming mode, and I'm about to swim back up for air (and to give my eyes a break from the saltwater), when I hear a splash. I cautiously squint open my burning eyes to see a mermaid, the same one I saw when I fainted in the bathroom at the school dance. Right now, she has a tail, and a light blue one.

She holds out her hand. I'll explain later, she says. For now, come with me.

Hesitating, I reach out and my palm rests on hers. She smiles, and then starts swimming, towing me along with her. I do my best to conserve the oxygen I have in my lungs, and we reach a crevice in a rock. She pulls me through it, and we emerge out of the water. My lungs gasp for air, inhaling and exhaling deep and quick.

The cave is dark, and I hear her rummaging around until something lights up, a candle, giving some light. She sits herself up on a rock, and pats the one next to her. I pull myself up on it, and she starts to speak.

"My name is Colette." She says, in a French accent. "I am your great-grandmother."

I stare at her for a moment.

"Doesn't that old famly secret get passed down?" She huffs.

"All I know is 'refuse the gift' and that it'll corrupt me or something." I shrug.

"Wow, that's really vague." Colette laughs. "Wow. Okay, so as you can see the gift is being a mermaid."

"A . . . a mermaid?" Even though I can see Colette's tail right in front of me, it's still pretty surprising.

"All of your family members never really showed the aptitude for meramidism and of course, they refused this, out of fear they'd take it too far, which is good, because soem of them would've gone power-happy and become sirens."

"Sirens?" I ask.

"Yeah, sirens. Some people spell it S-Y-R-E-N, but I spell it with an I." Colette says. "Anyways, the powers of being a mermaid is basically immortality, water bending, and swimming well."

"Immortality?" I ask.

"Why do you think I look so young?" She asks. "You grow until your twenty five, the age when your brain stops growing also. Anyways, while your family may not be very aquatic, you and your brother Andrew sure are. I was going to make him a merman, but he didn't want to live forever without his girlfriend. I offered to also turn Shayna, but he said he wanted to introduce her to the secret slowly."

"Okay." I nod.

"So, anyways, want to be a mermaid?" Colette shrugs casually, as if it wasn't a huge life-changing decision.

I take a deep breath. "Do I need to decide now?"

"That's a new question. I'd prefer now, because I'm not really going to be able to find you again. I've been in the water so much, I've lost my land form. The last time I tried to turn back, my legs just wouldn't work and it was strange to not be submerged in water."

I think for awhile, then take a deep breath. "Well, uh, okay. Sure, make me a mermaid."

"Great!" She purrs. "So, I'm going to need you to sneak off at midnight to the water. I'll find you, don't worry. Just tell your friends a lie, like you don't feel very good and have to go."

"Should be easy with Erika and Mitchell kissing." I mumble.

"Who? Are they your friends?" Colette inquires.

"Yeah. I kinda like Mitchell, but then I found out he was dating that snob, Erika." I wrinkle my nose.

"Well, don't worry, if she's such a snob, they'll eventually break up."

"I don't know. They snuck off to go skinnydipping together."

"Well, never say never, like that song I heard when I was close to shore once."

"Yeah." I nod. "Even though everyone hates Justin Bieber, he's right. Just because unicorns aren't real doesn't mean we can't genetically modify a horse embryo to grow a horn."

"Yeah . . . what you said." She says, lost in what I said. I guess in her time genetics wasn't very known or she had limited education. "Well, it looks like it's about ten. I'll take you back to your bonfire, and then later I'll find you."

"How do you know the time?" I ask.

"I have this." She takes a gold pocket watch off of a ledge. "It is all I have left of my family."

Colette dives into the water, and I get back in. "So, did you stay with your family while you were a mermaid?"

"No, my family died of disease. I lived on land as a mermaid for a while, gave birth to your grandfather, he was taken care of his father when I went off. The townspeople were getting suspicious of me not having any gray hair or wrinkles."

"Ah." I nod.

"We should be getting back, Olivia." She looks down sadly, and then we duck underwater to swim back to the bonfire.

When I get to shore, I crawl out of the water, and just lie down in the sand, trying to get some air. Then I get up and walk down the beach to my friends sitting at the bonfire.

"Are they still skinnydipping?" I ask Kelly and Dustin.

"Yeah, I guess." Kelly shrugs. "They have a really strange relationship."

"I guess so." I plop down on the sand, sitting in front of the fire to dry my clothes.

"Where were you? Why are you wet? We were worried." Dustin asks.

"Oh, uh," I purse my lips together. "I didn't feel very good, and I had to throw up for a while, and I got some on my clothes, so I went in the water to wash it off."

"Okay." Kelly shrugs. They believed me! Yes!

Down the shore, I see two figures (must be Mitchell and Erika), swimming and splashing eachother and just plain having a good time. I can hear their laughs echo through the water, and I try to hide the look of heartbreak on my face. Try not to cry, Olivia. You're better than that. Accept and move on.

"Are you okay, Olivia?" Kelly asks, seeing the disappointed look on my face cast out in the direction of Mitchell and Erika.

"Yeah." I say, in a steady voice. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Later that night, I excuse myself saying I feel sick, which is quite believable since apparently I had left earlier to throw up, I dive into the blue waters and swim in, waiting for Colette to find me.