Test The Waters

Chapter Two: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Strip Mall

Coralia had done research. (The internet may not have been as magical as she initially thought, but it certainly was interesting.) After many strange maps and poorly worded restaurant reviews, she had determined four of the best places to visit near campus.

1. A sushi restaurant. Coralia didn't actually know what a sushi was, but every review she had read mentioned huge tanks of beautiful fish, which sounded lovely.

2. A bookstore. She could read up on human studies, which would help her understand why humans do the things they do. Her three chosen human studies websites thus far (they were YouTube, BuzzFeed, and Twitter, the first of which she had to stop studying, as humanity began to scare her) were not helpful in the least.

3. A coffee shop. Her sister, Miranda (the one who lived life as a human), drank coffee quite often, although Coralia had never tried it. But she knew of its mystical rejuvenating abilities, which she figured would come in handy at university.

4. A strip mall with many colorful, intimidating buildings. Coralia figured there must be a socks store somewhere. Socks were intriguing, and they became even more so after she saw a fellow student rocking a pair of iguana-printed socks that reached her mid-thigh. As far as Coralia could tell, there weren't as many perks to having feet as she imagined, but socks may have been a game-changer.

It was because of this list, actually, that Coralia found herself strolling past fraternity buildings on her way to the strip mall in search of a socks store. She needed a pair of thigh-high iguana-printed socks almost as much as she needed to sleep in a full bathtub so she wouldn't dry out during the day. (That arrangement made getting ready for class a pain, because she had to either somehow drag her tail to class or wait for the effect of the water to wear off and risk being late.)

She didn't notice a gaggle of boys come out of one fraternity house, water balloons in hand. She didn't notice a short, hairy white kid with a premature beer belly reel his arm back and release the purple water balloon. She didn't notice any of it. Until the balloon smacked her on the hip.

Coralia whipped her head around. The boys started guffawing, loud and mindless. Coralia thought they sounded a bit like blue whales, though much less elegant. Then the balloons came fast, hurricanes of red, blue, and yellow, each hitting their mark. Coralia couldn't run, because her legs were now rapidly fusing together. Before long, she lay on the sidewalk, her scales, every shade of blue and green, gleaming in the unforgiving sun.

"You think you're so funny," she screamed at the boys. A few of them stopped laughing, their eyes growing wide. "You idiots. You...you useless, boorish blobfish!"

"Hey, fish lady! We are not blobs or whatever," one boy hollered back. 

"The ocean must be salty today," another droned.

Coralia couldn't help but roll her eyes. Out of all the jerks in all the fraternities in all the colleges in all the world, she had to have been attacked by the ones with the lamest sense of humor.

The boys retreated into their house, high-fiving each other and laughing to the sky. Coralia lay on the sidewalk, with nothing better to do than watch as the sun crossed the sky. She tried to crawl and somehow haul her tail to the strip mall, but the sidewalk scratched it up pretty badly, and she couldn't wear socks if she didn't have feet to put them on.

"Hello?"

Coralia looked up. A girl with a black bob, a yellow blouse with a Peter Pan collar, and red cat's-eye glasses was staring down at her. In her hand was a plastic bag, and in that bag was a goldfish.

"Hi, Kira," Coralia muttered.

"So, I did research on mermaids," Kira said quickly, smiling like she was about to open a present. She apparently did not notice Coralia's predicament. Or maybe she did. Maybe this was completely normal around here. "And I found out that you guys don't eat humans."

"Great. Just great."

"But I'm not sure if those are reliable sources," Kira continued, her smile fading away. "I also saw a video that was supposed to be real footage, but it made you guys look like frogs."

"Can you just leave?"

"Why---oh." Kira's eyes widened. "You can't change back?"

Coralia rolled her eyes. "If I could, do you really think I'd be lying on the sidewalk?"

"Well...that kind of happens a lot here," Kira explained. "What's your next class?"

"What time is it?"

"1:13 PM."

Coralia mentally did the math. "Afro-Caribbean Literature."

"Great!" Kira smiled. She still had braces, Coralia noted. The bands were candy-apple red. "I'll carry you there."

"You'll...carry me? I don't think--"

"You want to get to class, right?"

Coralia couldn't argue with that. She nodded once and Kira put the bag that contained her goldfish in the pocket of her skirt. She awkwardly picked Coralia up, carrying her like she might a sack of potatoes. For someone so small, she was a lot stronger than she looked. As she walked, a few people gave her strange looks.

Once they had reached the doorway to Coralia's Afro-Caribbean Lit class, Coralia's tail had begun to wear off, but she still walked rather unsteadily as she made her way to the chair. Professor Aristide, a middle-aged Haitian woman with Senegalese twists pulled into a bun and a smart beige blazer, desperately tried to casually not look at Coralia.

As Professor Aristide began to talk, Coralia glanced toward the door, but Kira was gone.