H2O: A Mermaid Tail

4

    I met the girls at the cafe the next morning, wearing jean shorts and a turquoise top with a long silver necklace. The necklace isn't different, I wear it everywhere. My dad bought it to give me on my 16th birthday, but when he died, my mom gave it me early.

  I fingered the pendant nervously as I sat down. I'm not a nervous person, but the fact that these girls are the same as me makes me feel a bit off. I'm used to lying about this, not swapping stories. Bella smiles at me and sits on the end by me. Lewis sits on the other side of me, Cleo next to him, and Rikki on the other end.

Bella began the story exchange by telling us about the island in Ireland that she'd gotten her powers at. I was kind of zoned out, but tuned back in when she aimed her hand at Lewis's cup of water. It immediately solidified, but not into ice. It changed into this weird jelly stuff. Lewis dumped it out onto the table and began to play with it. It changed back into water.

     "Do that again." He said, childlike wonder in his voice. I laughed and realized they were all waiting for me to share my story. I looked at Bella and she smiled, nodding to me. I took a deep breath in and began.

    "My mom and dad were on their honeymoon on an uninhabited island near Hawaii. My mom went exploring and found a moon pool. She hopped in and fell asleep. When she woke up, it was four in the morning and she was sleeping at the bottom, breathing, with a tail. She didn't know it, but she was pregnant with me. I grew up knowing I had a secret that I could never share. My mom and dad moved around a lot. Then he died we stopped and stayed in Florida, until my mom got her job here at the dolphin place." Their mouths all dropped open. 

    "You've had your tail all your life?" Bella asked incredulously. I nodded. Cleo looked impressed, while Rikki looked a bit jealous.

    "What about you two? When did you get yours? Lewis, do you have one?" Lewis choked on his water, and Cleo burst out laughing.

    "Lewis with a tail?" Cleo said between laughs.

    "I kind of want to see it." Rikki says, looking Lewis up and down. He looks at me, amused and a bit scared.

    "No, I don't have a tail. They got theirs a while back, but not THAT long. What's your power?" I look down and blush.

    "I don't know. My mom can speak with sea creatures, which helps her a lot, but my parents never gave me a chance to find mine." They nod sympathetically.

    "Do you guys know what happened with the water?" Rikki asks, looking at Bella and I. I shake my head and look up to see Will walking up the deck.

    "No, but we need to find out before him."

    "Will?" Bella says. I nod, still watching him. He looks over and we make eye contact. He gives me a small wave and I smile at him, looking away quickly.

    "Well, at least we have you two in the gang now to help us out." Cleo says happily.

    "We're in your gang?" Bella says curiously.

    "Well, we haven't really discussed it," Ricki starts, as Cleo kicks Rikki under the table, "but we'd be happy to have you!" Rikki gives us a pained smile and I grin, looking at Cleo and then Bella.

A few days later, at school.

    I look up at the school as I walk up to it with Bella, who I've grown a lot closer to in these past days. I see Cleo and Rikki and motion to Bella, who nods and walks over to them with me.

    "I think I'm going to like it here." Says Bella. Rikki winced and gave a half-grin.

    "Give it about a week." She says jokingly. We all laugh as Cleo 'ooo's, elbowing my side.

    "Hey Lee, Bella, looks like you aren't the only newbies." We look at where she's looking to see none other than Will walking with the same annoyingly perky tour guide I had. I giggle at the pained expression on his face from her constant garble. Cleo pipes up again.

    "Think he'll recognize us?" Rikki looks ahead with a stiff face.

    "I hope not, the less we see of him the better." She walks off and I look at Bella, who's rolling her eyes at Rikki's stubbornness. I catch her eye and giggle, making her laugh. We walk towards the building, laughing.

The end of the first day of school

    I put my books in my locker, sighing contently. The day had definitely been better than the many schools that I had been at. I close my locker and turn, almost running into a boy leaning against the locker next to me. I stumble backwards and he sticks out a muscled arm, steadying me.

    "Thanks....Will." And indeed it was. He smiled brightly at me.

    "You remembered! I have to say, it's nice to see a familiar face here." I smile softly at his comment.

    "I make some effort. What do you want except, of course, to make me trip over myself?" He smiles again, though a bit sheepishly this time.

    "Can you bring me back to that cave? I don't want to dive in it again, and you came in there perfectly dry, so there must be an above-ground entrance. Can you take me there?" He smiles at me hopefully. I feel really bad that I have to decline, but before I can, Rikki steps in and answers for me. 

    "No, she can't. It was dark, it was our first time in that stupid place, and our last. Now go bug some other pretty girl, I'm sure she'd appreciate it." Before I can protest, she grabs my arm and pulls me away. I look over my shoulder and mouth a 'sorry' to Will. He turns away, a bit sad, and walks off. Rikki lets go of my arm and turns to face me.

    "Lethia, when you're saying no to a guy, it really helps to start with 'no.'" I roll my eyes, but she doesn't see it because she's already walking away. I see Bella and run up to her.

    "Hey, can you tell the others to meet at Rikki's cafe? I need to stop at home, and it takes a while on land." She nods and pulls out her phone, texting the girls.

I walk down the road to where I locked my bike up to a tree, but Nate was there, leaning against the tree a bit too casually. I walked up and cleared my throat. He whipped off his shades in what I'm assuming was supposed to be a sexy way, but it just looked a bit desperate. I gave him a pity smile.

    "You're leaning on my bike. Please get off?" He doesn't move, but winks at me.

    "Only if you agree to my little proposition, America." I grimaced at his stupid nickname.

    "What's that, then?" I said, fully prepared to break his nose if he doesn't get off in the next minute.

    "After our next gig, you go on a date with me." He said. I rolled my eyes.

    "Counter offer, how about you get off my bike and I actually go to the next gig." He put a hand over his heart in mock shock, but didn't move.

    "Counter counter offer, after the next gig we just kiss in the corner for awhile?" I was getting really impatient, but I wasn't going to do that.

    "Counter counter counter offer, after the next gig I don't publically humiliate you by saying how much you creep me out. Deal?" He grins in a creepy-sexual way that totally grossed me out.

    "It's a deal, America. By the way, I dig the accent babe." I groan at his stupid flirting and yank my bike away, rolling it off the grass, then hopping on and pedaling away as fast as I could. 

I reached my house quickly, considering I was running on creepy guy juice. I ran inside and knocked on the door to my moms room. I didn't wait for an answer and just ran in. My mom was sitting out on her balcony, in the hot tub, her tail barely visible through the bubbles.

    "Mom? The other girls, I'm going to go hang out with them. Can I take the motorcycle?" She nodded and pointed to a glass tray, then says,

"I told the owner at the dolphin center that I have a daughter that's worked with dolphins quite a bit, and he wants you to come and help pick an assistant dolphin trainer. You'll be one too."

"That's sounds perfect mom! Thanks!" I run over and grab the keys from it, blow a kiss to my mom, and head out the door to meet up with the girls.