Swim Away (Mermaid)

Chapter Three

It was the second day of school. Usually, that was when teachers gave you homework. Joy to my world.

Once I wrote the assignment for math down, I continued my doodle from my other class. I drew some hearts, stars, fishes, and birds. I even drew the ocean at the bottom. I doodled a random guy's head on the very edge of the page, away from the whole scenery.

From the side of my eye, I saw Selena flip her black hair over and leaned in to see what I was drawing. I quickly turned my notebook over and wrote down the math problem from the board. Then I saw her roll her eyes and sit back in her chair.

The bell rang, and I gathered my things. Selena walked by me. I saw her hand reaching for my notebook. Before I could do anything, the notebook fell to the floor. I pressed my lips together, hoping it'd land on a blank page. When I saw her about to kick it, I stomped my foot on it and brought it back to me.

"I'm not stupid! I saw you eyeing my notebook earlier. There's nothing here but math problems. So lazy that you want to steal my notes?" I stuffed it in my bag. Luckily, the page was blank.

"No, and I don't know what you're talking about. I don't care, my hand accidentally hit it, and I was going to pick it up for you."

"Whatever." I said, leaving my seat and rushing out the door. Ugh, doesn't she have anything better to do?

Thank goodness, she wasn't in my other classes. I think I would've died from her presence. Just because she was popular, didn't mean she had to pick on me. I wasn't stealing her friends or her popular status. I wish she would stop.

She needed to go fall in a well.

I stopped and closed my eyes for a second. Then I heard someone talk close to me, I opened my eyes.

"Ugh, she's already talking to the new guy." I looked at the unnaturally red headed girl in front of me. I recognized her. She was the girl who asked me where the office was.

"Who?" I asked.

"Selena," she replied, nodding her head in the direction she was. She was talking to the new guy. From what I saw, and I was pretty far away, he had brown hair. He was wearing a white shirt and jeans. Selena was standing close to him.

"I don't care. She can do whatever she wants."

"I saw what she did in math class. She is such a b word." This girl was adorable, even though she was my age. She seemed so innocent. She rolled her brown eyes. "Anyway, sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Ariel." Well, her hair matched her name.

"This is like your second day and you already know her?"

"Well, actually, she's friends with my cousin, so I've seen her before. She hates me, but I'm used to it."

"She's called me so many names." I paused, realizing she didn't know my name. "Oh I forgot, I'm-"

"Lara," she smiled.

"Yeah, how'd you-"

"I overheard Selena talking about you earlier. She talked about how you walked into the boys locker room by accident this morning." Wow, that was already going around school. That sucked. I was really tired this morning, and my eyes weren't adjusting to anything. I wasn't able to sleep all night, and I didn't even know why. I had walked into the boys locker room and saw a couple guys changing. I ran out as fast as I could. I didn't even see their reaction. Then I saw Selena walking by, and she laughed at me. I ran away to the girls bathroom for a while, so I pretty much skipped P.E.

"Of course she'd talk about it."

"Just ignore her. That's what I do."

"And how's that working out for you?"

"She calls me tomato head, but like I said, I don't care. Whenever I was at my cousin's house, Selena was there, and I would pull pranks on her. It was fun until I got in trouble." She rolled her eyes.

I laughed, "next time we can team up."

"Oh my gosh! Does that mean we're friends?" She said, happily.

"Yeah, sure," I smiled.

"Yay!" She jumped up and down.

***

I closed my locker and my eyes were frozen in the distance. The bell rang taking me out of my frozen state.

Finally, school finished for the day. I turned to leave, then Ariel appeared in front of me. I jumped. I still wasn't used to her being around.

"Sorry! Anyway! I saw that new guy with Selena again. Well, I was close enough to hear them. She was talking a lot, and he was pretending to listen. I could so tell by the way he was looking around. Like doesn't she see that he doesn't care?"

"How do you sneak around and not get caught?"

"People ignore me. The good side of being unpopular and invisible, right?"

I pressed my lips together, not replying. Well, she could get information easily.

"Also, the guy is hot! I can see why she won't leave him alone."

My phone rang, "one second." I picked up. "Dad, yeah, I'm coming." I heard him say okay, and then I hung up. I turned to Ariel, "well, I got to go."

"Aw, bye. See you tomorrow." She smiled, then skipped away.

I walked to the car and sat on the passenger's seat. I threw my backpack in the back seat.

"How was school?" Dad asked.

"Same as yesterday and last year," I sighed. "I made a new friend."

"Oh! that's good!" He really was happy since she was my first friend. "What's their name? How'd you guys become friends?"

"Dad!" I said annoyed with the questions. "She's a girl. Her name is Ariel, and she randomly started talking to me."

"That's good, Lara."

Dad parked and we got out. I ran inside and went straight to my room. I changed into my swimsuit. I grabbed my towel, mp3 player, and my speaker. Of course, I had my phone with me. I placed my towel on the sand. I put the speaker by me and my mp3 player on shuffle. Also, I brought a book with me. I started reading and time flew by.

I woke up with a book on my face. I sat up, and the book fell on my lap. Damn it, I lost my page. I closed the book. My mp3 player was still playing. I shut it off.

I needed to stop sleeping at the beach, but I couldn't help it. It was way too relaxing, and sleep would take over. I walked in the water, feeling the cold water crash against my feet.

I got close enough that the water reached my ankle. Then the water pulled back. I took another step forward. All of a sudden, the water hit pretty high, almost to my knee. I narrowed my eyes at the green blob in the distance. I went closer, and it was one of those bottles that carried a message. I picked it up and was about to open it.

"Ow!" I shouted, when something hit my arm. That caused the bottle to fly, and I turned to what hit me. It was the edge of a surfboard.

I took a couple steps to the right, away from the board. The board turned, and I saw the guy's face.

Oh, no. I looked up at his eyes, and they were the most gorgeous shade of blue.

"Sorry, did I hit you?" He paused. "Wait, you're the girl that, uh, fell on me the other day." I stood there, shocked.

"Uh, um, no?" I pressed my lips together, looking away.

He shrugged, then smirked, "okay, whatever you say." He ran into the water with his board.

Sigh, what was I thinking? A guy like that would never talk to me. Well, never talk to me again.

I shook my head and turned around. Guys like that were always jerks. I rolled my eyes.

I turned back to the ocean, then remembered the bottle. and that it was probably gone forever. I sighed, watching the ocean.