I smiled as I took a deep breath of Beacon Hills’ air. It’d been a year since I had been back here. I was really hoping to reconnect with a few of my old friends. As the movers carried things into my old house, I dribbled a soccer ball on my dried out front yard. I knew I had missed a lot when I had been in town earlier and saw the newspaper.
“Shesh, I leave for a year and everything seems to fall to pieces.” I muttered to myself.
“You got that right!” I dropped my soccer ball and turned around to see my dad standing behind me with the biggest grin on his face.
I smiled back at him. “Hey Daddy!” I ran up and hugged him. It’d been so long since I had seen him.
Up until a few days ago, I was living in Australia with my mom. Her job requires her to travel a lot, which put a strain on my parents’ marriage. They agreed tp get a divorce, and Mom got custody of me and took me with her. In fact, it was in Australia where the event happened.
I had been camping on an island called Mako, to watch the meteor shower. There was little to no light pollution which insured I would have the best view. At some point I had stumbled into a cave that had a natural pool in the center of it. Other than the pool, there seemed to be no way out. So I took off my shoes and was about to swim out of the cave. That was when the moon came over the base of the cave. That was when I realized I was in the belly of a dormant volcano.
As the moon hovered over the center, the water started to bubble as if it were a hot tub. I stared in awe as the moon passed overhead. I even managed to see some falling stars around the edges of the moon. After a minutes or two,, the moon passed out of view and the bubbling stopped. I shook my head and made my escape from the cave. In that time, I had managed to miss the meteor shower. I was beyond upset. That is, until the next day.
I had gone to wash my hands in the stream, and about ten second later, I was on the floor with a tail instead of legs. It took some time for me to realize that I was now a mermaid. I started spending as much time as I could in the water. I started to study myself in order to understand how I could hide my new secret from everyone around me. It didn’t help that I lived on an island where it rained a lot.
In studying myself. I learned I could control and manipulate water to my will. I would control all three stages of water and even use it as a weapon. I also learned that fish could now understand me. I couldn’t understand them, but they made great listeners.
However, I knew swimming in the ocean couldn’t last forever. Mom’s job was moving her to China. Rather than spending twelve hours learning a new language, I asked if I could move in with Dad. Mom was sad, but she agreed.
I hugged my dad as tight as I could. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too Narissa. I got you a welcome home present.” Dad smiled as he motioned to the garage. He pressed the button.
In the garage was a powder blue mini cooper. I know Cooper was my last name, and it seemed odd, but I loved these cares. I screamed before jumping up and down whiles screaming ‘thank you’. Over and over again.
Dad laughed. “Now, get to school. It’s your first day back.”
I got in the car and thanked dad one last time before driving to school. When I got there, I had just barely parked when a silver porch parked next to me. I groaned inwardly. I would know that car anywhere.
