The next morning, Storm
grabbed her swim tote and an orange and walked to school early. The former
mermaid was getting stronger. She could run and better yet, she could merge.
Ten minutes took ten seconds.
The water had been changed from mostly
chlorine to a mix of salt. This reminded Storm of home, she liked it. She swam
badly at first as she held onto the edge and tried to float. She wasn’t used to
kicking her legs, but after about ten laps, was swimming like a champion. She
was almost ready to tell Jack when he dived into the pool again, at the deep
end.
“Hey,” he said, as he bobbed up.
“Hi,” Storm replied shyly. Why hadn’t she
been given some manual explaining how to talk to human or human-ish boys?
“Don’t I know you? I mean, from outside
school?”
It was now or never.
“I… I saw you, at the beach.”
A wave of recognition spread over the
boy’s face. “Now I remember. You saved me,” he smiled.
Storm
looked at her hands and feet, not webbed, not tailed but not really human. How
could she ever tell him?
“Thank you.”
“That’s okay,” Storm said. “I’d do it
again if I had to.”
“That’s… that’s amazing. You’re amazing.”
Storm smiled. She felt shy all of a
sudden. She knew to let the boy make the first move. All the other mermaids
always did that. Humans couldn’t be so different. If you made the first move,
the girl always spent the rest of the relationship catching up, didn’t she?
Boys were hunter gatherers or just hunters, weren’t they?
Jack swam forward.
Storm moved back.
“It’s okay, everyone here is weird.
What’s your secret? I can change shape,” as if to explain, Jack changed into a cougar
as he swam, then back into a teenage boy again.
Storm shivered.
“That was… amazing. And scary.”
“Sorry, I don’t normally do that in front
of people. It’s not allowed in school.”
“I heard you were a merger.”
“I do merge quickly, Sara does too. She’s
my, well, she’s sort of my girlfriend but she likes to keep cool about that
stuff. We both have this important tournament to prepare for; us against
Lavinia and the winners against the Vamps at Venice Beach High. The teachers
don’t know about it but all the students do. Sara is a conjurer, she also
merges and changes the elements, sun to storms, that sort of thing – a lot of
kids around here envy the weather changing part for some reason. It’s pretty
powerful.”
Storm knew her weirdness went far deeper –
to tell someone her human form was just a vision, that she was really a
creature of the sea? That was sure to create obstacles. It was okay for a guy
to be different, faster, stronger but being a mermaid? That was girly and weak,
sure to create barriers.
But Jack wasn’t interested in obstacles. He
was interested in joining forces.
He splashed her.
Storm smiled and splashed him back.
“I… I swim fast,” Storm said. Then she
hesitated, “or, I used to. It may take me a while to... get my groove back.”
“That all?”
“That all?”
“Kind of. I used to be a mermaid… Now, I’m
not sure what my gifts are.”
Incredibly, Storm realized Jack might not
love her now that she was so normal. Besides, Sara already had his love bottled
away for a rainy day. Storm realized she was reading his mind – could read
another’s mind. The girl who hid in the shadows, Lavinia, had just run out of
the room.
“Lavinia was here. She hates you or she likes
you, I’m not sure.”
“Lavinia? She hates everyone. Wow. That’s
some gift. I couldn’t sense her, didn’t even notice her.”
Storm realized she had powers anew. When
Lavinia was near her or at least in the room, she could read her thoughts.
“Want me to show you something? Check this
out,” Jack said. He disappeared under the water and the water turned into a
rainbow of color and light, then mist, as he swam up to the surface, close to
her. He’d transformed the elements.
“Sara taught me,” he said. “I bet she could
teach you.”
Storm
wanted to be near him, his perfect chest and dimpled smile. Just as she was
about to swim closer, the other girl arrived.
