Mermaid

Chapter 7

"Erika's not feeling well?" Alison repeated in slight confusion before looking at Sherrie who frowned. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine with a full day's rest." Erika's grandmother said on the other line of the phone. "The heat must have gotten to her, if you recall Erika had always felt sick when it would become too hot."

"Oh... right, I forgot about that..." Alison said softly. "Would it be alright if Sherrie and I came over to see her?"

Louise thought about it for a moment. "Sorry, but I think it would be best just to let her rest for a few days, okay? I'll call again when you can, but do not worry I'm sure that two or three days' rest and she'll be back to her normal swim loving self."

"Okay, thank you for telling me, but could you tell her to get better soon?"

"I will good bye."

"Bye..." Alison hung up the phone and sighed before turning to look at Sherrie. "We won't be able to see her for two or three days, Erika's grandmother said that the heat got to her and she has to rest of a while."

"Sick? But Erika rarely ever gets sick." Sherrie said with an expression of confusion before she thought about it for a moment. "Wait..." she then looked to Alison. "Remember when we were little and whenever it was extremely hot over the summer Erika would always have to drink extra water just to stay hydrated?"

"And our bitch of a homeroom teacher didn't let her to the point of her fainting?" Alison added in an irritated tone. "Yeah I remember that, who could forget it? It caused a mandatory meeting with the principal, that teacher and Erika with her parents. Her mother looked like she wanted to kill the woman."

"Could you blame her for it?"

When Erika was seven years old she had this strange condition where she needed to drink water a lot more often than the average child when a heat wave hit. At first the teacher was compliant, allowing Erika to quickly leave class, with a buddy that was normally Alison, to go to the fountain and drink what she needed. But slowly that began to change, as the weather became hotter, the more Erika would ask.

Soon the teacher denied letting Erika get a drink, though Alison and Sherrie did find a way around this be saying that they needed a drink or the bathroom and would take Erika to drink water, even when little both girl's knew if she didn't drink liquids for a long period of time during humid and hot days Erika would faint, they knew of this because it happened once last year and Erika's mother rushed her home, keeping her daughter there for at least for three days straight before letting her back to school.

When she fainted in class during brake, she was sent to the nurse's office, being carried by one of the more concerned male teachers who also had a child prone to heat.

"Then she shouldn't even bother coming to school." The homeroom teacher hissed back at him when he demanded to know why the woman wouldn't let Erika go and get a drink. The male teacher even got her a water bottle so she could have that in class and fill it up during brake and recess, but again the homeroom teacher confiscated it causing Erika to faint once more.

This time her mother came to the school, Yara always held an uncanny beauty, even when she was stricken with worry as she made fast strides to her baby girl.

"Erika!" her mother cried as she rushed into the room and hugged her child tightly before pulling away slightly to get a good look at Erika's face as she placed a delicate hand on her daughter's cheek. "Oh Sweetie, look at you, you're so pale... I'm so sorry."