The
Magic Mermaid by Summer Day
As Storm Sunshine opened her
locker, hair dripping wet, she noticed Jack Hunter from the corner of her eye.
He’d arrived early and was going to the gym to practice shooting hoops. He was
talking to his girlfriend Sara Bright. They were hunched in a corner discussing
whatever. Everyone talked about them. Not only was Sara good looking and
brilliant, but, in a school of unusually mismatched couples, Jack was too.
Plus, he was the star of the basketball team and an awesome swimmer.
Storm was the new girl. She always seemed to
be the new girl. Storm wished she’d made more of an effort to make friends but
she was always the last person to class, hair soaking, a pool of water staining
the small of her back from her shoulder length hair. The tiny gills at the base
of her neck were only on display underwater. They left a mark during the day
but this was always covered with a thin but fashionable scarf, just in case
anyone noticed.
Queen Bee, Lavinia Snow, once taunted Storm.
Lavinia asked her underlings, “Don’t you just love the smell of chlorine?” as
if she didn’t.
Storm could have played her bluff and agreed
with her, since she didn’t find the smell of chlorine offensive; but Storm had
been swimming in salt water so she knew Lavinia was lying. The school pool, the
one she’d soon be forced to submerge herself in, was too heavily chlorinated,
it was true. If she wanted to fit in and be ready for class, she’d have to go
swimming there instead of the ocean pool nearer home. It was the only time she really
became herself - in water. Storm lived for those moments; and to see Jack
Hunter’s face again.
Storm checked her schedule. Her foster mom
had been pretty nice about making sure she had all the right things, even
packed her lunch with those tuna sushi rolls Storm craved; but Storm missed her
real family more every day. She missed their beautiful home made out of forgotten
treasure; its winding mote and secret tunnels, the natural wave pool with its
lace like fence, decorated with shells and illuminated at night in fluorescence.
The view of the ocean was as incomparable as her true family’s laughter. The night
stars and the sound of her sister’s conversation warmed her on chilly evenings.
It was true, the world she came from had
only one season – wet – but still, they felt the changes from above. Storm ached
from being kept apart from her siblings, but she’d made her choice and she was
determined to stand by it. The great change had all happened only days ago.
