H2O: A Mermaid Tail

17

    I walk by the community pool on the way to Rikki's. It's only 7, and I watch as Sophie yells at Will.

"If you want to be a loser, go ahead and take breaks. Winners push themselves to their last shred of energy. You want to win? You push yourself. No distractions." I roll my eyes as Will pushes off to do it all again. He lets her push him around too much. I know he needs to train, he called and told me he's got a sponsor coming today. Sophie leaves, so I walk in to watch Will. He glides through the water like a real mermaid, but he pushes through the water instead of using it to his advantage. He stops at the wall and rests.

"No breaks! To win, you must push yourself! As your substitute trainer, you must now listen to me!" I say in a playfully gruff voice. Will chuckles lightly, hanging effortlessly onto the edge of the pool.

"Substitute trainer?" He asks jokingly.

"Well, yeah. You'd think that I know a bit about swimming, having a tail and all." He grins and gets out of the water, coming right up to me.

"Why don't you get in and show me what you know?" He says. I give him a skeptical look, raising my eyebrows.

"Will, this is a public place. I'm not getting in here." He pouts, and I look at him sternly. "Back in the water! Give me a lap, show me what I'm working with here!" He rolls his eyes and gets back in, doing a lap. He comes back and hits the wall with his hand.

"What was my time?" He asks breathlessly.

"I dunno. Timing makes it so... competitive." He scoffs.

"It's a diving competition, Lee." I nod as he rolls his eyes playfully.

"Yeah, but training here isn't. You're not competing against others, you're competing against the water."

"If I don't it'll beat me." Now it's my turn to scoff.

"It's not trying to! Work with it, not against it. Let it be like butter, and you're the knife." He gets out and gets in front of me again.

"Then show me how. Nobody ever comes here, it'll be fine. Please." He brushes his hand softly against my cheek, his face only an inch from mine. Oh crap. His wet hand. He smirks at me as I roll my eyes and run to the pool, diving in. I flick my tail a few times and turn around, seeing Will. I surface and he comes up too, right in front of me. His blue eyes shine with childlike excitement.

"You wanted to see how the experts did it? Watch and learn." I dive under and swim to the other side, exaggerating my movements for him to see. I surfaced and turned to see him swimming to me frantically.

"My sister is here." He says. Fear filled my heart, and he pushed me underwater. I swam to the bottom, pressing my body against the wall. I watched as Sophie sweet talked his sponsor, then Will stormed off, them following soon after.

    I surfaced and looked around. Nobody. My tail was two meters away from his sister. I shivered once and got out, drying myself quickly.

    I got up and ran out, heading to the beach. When I got there I slowed down, watching the waves and the birds.

"Lethia!" I hear Will call. I stop and wait for him to catch up. "I'm so sorry about earlier, I should have been more careful."

"It's fine. Did you blow it with the sponsor?"

"Yeah, Sophie's going to kill me when I get home." I nod slowly.

"Uh huh. So you better get home and face her wrath." He nods. "OR, we could find a deserted beach and go for a swim."