H20: Youngest Mermaid

Being Allergic to Water Sucks

Madeleine Hawkins was like any other girl her age; curious, driven, and yet despised school. However, everyone in the world has uniqueness to there personality and physical characteristics. Madeleine liked to wear clothes in a specific kind of style called Pastel Punk and Pastel Goth; she loved combining soft colors with unconventional and odd images. As for her physical attributes she had dark, black hair and chocolate brown eyes that contrasted flatteringly with her almost pale skin.

But Madeleine has a pretty unique condition that causes her extreme discomfort every single day. Madelaine has Aquagenic Urticaria; in other words, she's allergic to water.

Every time Madeleine takes a shower or wants to go swimming in her backyard pool, she breaks out into painful hives that feels like her skin is on fire. If she drinks a bottle of water her throat starts to close up. But the worst of it is whenever she cries. Even her own sweat and tears cause her to break out and she tends to cry a lot, due to living in a house all by herself with only the maid coming to check on her.

She was walking along the docks when she heard shouting further down and decided to investigate, only to find to older boys push a girl in a broken boat out to sea as a prank. Madeleine ran up to them, and immediately recognized one of them a Zayn Bennet. Maddie shoved him into his friend and said, "How could you do that? It's a bit cruel don't you think?"

He turned to the girl and said, "Oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it?"

His buddy came up next to him and asked, "Hey aren't you that girl who's allergic to water? Sucks not being able to swim huh?"

Maddie glared at them looking down at the blue ripples and back up to the small red boat. She steeled her nerves and took a deep breath before taking off her shoes and diving into the water. Her skin immediately began to burn as she swam over to the boat. The girl inside helped pull me in and started freaking out, "Hey, are you alright? What's wrong?"

Maddie curled up into a ball and answered, "Yeah, I'll be fine in a bit. Sorry it's not much of a rescue, I'm Madeleine, Madeleine Hawkins." I stretched out a hand in an attempt to seem friendly.

She took it and shook lightly, which Maddie was thankful for, "I'm Cleo Satori, wait I've heard of you. People say you're allergic to water, is that true?"

Maddie nodded pulling her hand back to my chest, "Yep, being allergic to water really sucks, but it's my reality."

Suddenly the boat rocked a bit and Cleo screamed, Maddie found the strength to sit up and see her only close acquaintance, she doesn't like to be called friend, "Rikki!"

She looked at Maddie, "Hey, kid, you alright?"

"Not really, swam out here to try and help Cleo, but that didn't work very well."

She held up a small metal object, "Don't worry, we'll be out of here soon."

Cleo gasped, "You took Zayn's spark plug! Why?"

Maddie smiled at Rikki's answer, "Zayn Bennet's a pig, anything I can do to get under his skin can't be a bad thing, can it?"

Once she had put the spark plug back in and started the boat Rikki looked at the other two companions and smirked, "Hold on."

Pretty soon they were flying across the water and even made a point to splash Zayn before leaving. Maddie thought it would be fine as long as she kept her hands inside the boat and honestly enjoyed the boat ride. The fast speed Rikki was driving dried off her clothes faster and she was soon back to feeling like herself again.

After a little bit they drove under a bridge and Cleo called to a blonde walking under it, "Hey, Emma! Want a ride?"

"Are you licensed?" she called back

To which Rikki responded, "Are you my mother?" 

Maddie chuckled, "Come on, it'll be fun!"

Once she climbed in, Maddie stuck out her hand, "Hi, my name's Madeleine, Madeleine Hawkins."

The blonde smiled back, taking the young girl's hand and giving it a firm shake, "I'm Emma, Emma Gilbert."

The two talked for a little bit until Rikki asked, "Want to go out to sea?"

"Isn't it dangerous in a boat this size?" Emma questioned back

"Chill out."

Maddie spoke up a little nervous, "Are you sure we'll be ok? Because I'm nervous being in a boat as it is."

Rikki smiled, "Don't worry kid, I'll make sure to have you back on dry land before sunset."

Maddie smirked back as Rikki revved the motor, "Ok, I trust you, let's do it!"

The feeling was awesome for all the girls, until the boat ran out of fuel. After a couple of failed attempts at trying to turn it back on Emma asked Rikki snarkily, "Are we chilled out yet?"

"So? We're floating, it's not like we're sinking," Rikki replied.

"Not yet."

Maddie tensed, "Please don't say that, besides all Rikki wanted was to let us have a good time. Let's try and come up with a solution."

Rikki turned to the little punk, "She's right, you guys feel like paddling to the island?"

"Mako Island? Forget it." 

Emma answered and Cleo continued, "No one goes there, it's surrounded by sharks, and reefs, and mangroves."

"Well it's all we've got and I have a feeling you guys want to be on solid ground rather than in a rocky ocean," Rikki said, handing Emma one paddle while she used the other.

Once the girls were safely on the beach Cleo asked, "How are we ever going to get back home?"

"Good question, Cleo, ask your new friends?"

Maddie jerked her head up, glaring at the blonde, feeling kind of betrayed considering she thought they had a good time talking earlier. Rikki scoffed, answering, "Don't put this on me."

"Aw, it was someone else's fault. Someone else took this thing miles off shore," Emma rubbed it in Rikki's face, retrieving her phone from her bag, "You three are lucky I've got this."

"Emma's always really prepared," Cleo said, hoping to lighten the mood.

But Rikki destroyed her hopes, "Oh, I'm so happy for her."

"I'm not getting any signal," Emma informed, "We have to get to higher ground." 

Cleo looked appalled and Madeleine asked, "Do we have to go hiking?"

Emma turned to look at the girl, "Yeah, why?"

"It's not just salt water that I'm allergic to. I'll break out into hives not matter what temperature or amount of water, even my own sweat and I kind of left my shoes at the dock when I went to save Cleo."

Emma took the girl's hand, "I'm sorry, but in order to call for help we need to go and I'll walk ahead of you to make sure you don't step on anything that harmful, but out might feel a bit of pain."

Maddie nodded in understanding and began to let Emma lead her into the jungle. "Do you even have any idea where you're going?" Rikki asked the current leader with the phone.

"Just up, I'm sill not getting any signal." Emma answered

"Maybe we won't get a signal. What then? What if we can't call anyone? What if nobody finds us?" Cleo complained

Maddie turned to the brunette, "Please try and think positive Cleo, you want to get home don't you?"

"Well," Rikki started, " in response to Cleo's question, we'll have to draw straws and decide which one of us the others will eat first."

Maddie simply rolled her eyes, but smiled at Rikki's humor while the other two just got angry. After walking for what seemed like forever the girls were finally at some rocks and were hopping over a river, when Maddie fell back and dragged Cleo down with her into a cave.