Mermade

Something Fishy

1

Cypress woke up the next morning. Glad that it is still summer, she stretched an arm out towards her night stand, and retrieved her phone, turning off her alarm and checking Instagram. 

Cypress sat up to see the morning sun leaking through the light curtains of her balcony's sliding door. The smell of bacon and pancakes left a satisfying scent. Quickly, she got up from bed before walking into the bathroom.

Cypress stared into the mirror as she turned the faucet on. Her brown hair was messy and her amber eyes looked too tired to be hers. She put her hands into the water and suddenly her legs became numb and buckled. Cypress collapsed and frantically gaped at the sunset-colored tail that replaced her legs.

Cypress blinked, once, twice, and finally stared astonished. She questioned her sanity as her tail flopped on the cold tiles of her bathroom. Her phone's ringing snapped her back to reality, and she struggled to get it off the sink's counter while her tail was weighing her down.

"Hello?" She answered. On the other line, her friend Gabby, was breathing heavily and quickly-- hyperventilating.

"IHAVEATAIL-" she rambled in the phone, "Ithinkitisbecausewewereatthebeachyesterday."

"Gabby," Cypress said in a calm, parent-like voice, as her tail faided back into her legs, "I can't understand you. Take a deep breath, and speak slowly."

"I," Gabby began slowly, "have a tail."

"Me too, I just found out when I turned on the faucet-" she got up off her bathroom floor and quickly shut off the running water.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE-" She dropped her voice, "mermaids!"

"Yeah but I don't think we're the only ones, Kiana and Beth were there too."

"True," Gabby agreed, "but why haven't they called yet?"

"They're late sleepers, they probably haven't woken up and discovered anything fishy yet." Cypress couldn't help but grin goofily at her pun.

"Cypress!" Gabby exclaimed unbelieving, Cypress could just feel Gabby crack a smile. Then, faintly she could hear Gabby's parents calling her downstairs for breakfast, "I've got to go, bye!"

"Bye," Cypress said and Gabby hung up.

Cypress sat at her parent's cafe thoughtfully, and finally she came to realization that Beth and Kiana weren't the most careful. What would happen if they got caught with scales and fins for legs?

"You okay?" Cypress's mom said, eyeing Cypress carefully, "I heard something fall in the bathroom." She set down a tropical drink on the table.

"Yeah, it was just my soap." Cypress lied quickly and her mom slowly nodded before buying it. Once her mother left, Cypress carefully took a sip of her drink with the straw and tried to avoid contact with the condensation on the cold glass. Cypress's phone began to ring again.

"Hello?" Cypress answered and without stop, a water fall of words crashed down on her. "-I HAVE A TAIL-- I THINK I AM CRAZY! DO YOU HAVE A TAIL?! I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A MERMAID!" Kiana squealed on the other end.

"Can you quiet down?" Cypress hissed, cupping her phone.

"Don't worry, my parents aren't home, no one can hear me." Kiana reassured.

"Yeah? Well maybe you should keep on screaming-- you can get Australia to join in on our conversation."

"I don't care! I'm a mermaid!" Kiana said giddily, but if she weren't so happy, Kiana would've rolled her eyes or responded with a rude comeback.

"I am too-- and Gabby-- so be careful, try to tone it down. Okay?" Cypress raised both eyebrows and stared at the wall with a serious expression, even though Kiana couldn't see her.

"Yeah, sure." Came a casual reply.

"Good," Cypress sighed and relaxed to take a sip of her drink, the small cocktail umbrella bobbing around.

"So what color is your tail?" Kiana inquired and Cypress furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember the colors detailedly, since one of her talents is art, she liked to get all colors right.

"It's multicolored, and it has shiny ombres of sunset colors." She vaguely descripted.

"Oh cool," Kiana steadily replied.

"You?" Cypress asked.

"Pink," Cypress wasn't surprised, that was Kiana's favorite color. Back in middle school, Kiana's room used to be all pink, including the walls.

"I've got to go-- parents are coming back." Kiana whispered in rush, and hung up before Cypress could say bye.

Cypress sighed, looking outside towards the beach, the ocean's cool waves looked promising. Good thing her parent's own the beach cafe, she'd always be able to go there to take a break. The people sunbathing look like they were having fun.

At the corner of Cypress's eyes, she saw light brown hair that was nearly dirty blonde. She stared at the familiar-looking strands, floating from behind a large rock. Suddenly the same strands, belonging to someone Cypress knew, sprinted into the ocean. She dived in and a few seconds later a gorgeous tail flopped up and sunk back into the ocean. It was Beth.

Without saying a word, Cypress jumped out of her seat and ran out of the cafe into the beach. Cypress struggled to go faster as the sand slowed her down. Quickly she hid behind a large rock and took off her shirt, so that she had only a tank top underneath. Then, carefully, she hid her phone in her shirt, and peered around to see if the coast is clear before reluctantly running into the cold soothing water.

Cypress caught a glimpse of Bethany's gorgeous tail as she swam from behind. Beth's purple fins were elegantly fanning in the water.

Afraid to gulp water, Cypress was unable to call Beth. However, she did wild hand gestures to grab her attention. With failing attempts, she followed Beth deeper under water, and suddenly became distracted by the breath taking reefs. Cypress has never seen sea life so colorful. Suddenly, Beth came to a stop and Cypress swam in front of her.

Beth's dark eyes widened in astonishment as her gaze trailed down to Cypress's tail, and Cypress nodded in understanding. Beth raised her eyebrows, looking up and pointing towards the surface. Cypress followed her gaze.

Cypress surfaced with a gasp, and wiped the water out of her face followed by Bethany doing the same.

"You're a mermaid!" Bethany smiled widely, "I like your tail!" Cypress didn't know how to respond, Bethany said it like she was talking about the weather.

"Thanks, uh, I like yours too." She replied sheepishly.

"This is so cool!" Bethany floated backwards, staring at the clouds.

"You're not shocked out of your mind?" Cypress studied Beth with concern.

"I was," Beth admitted, "it was hard to brush my teeth and wash my face in the morning." Then her eyes widened as if a idea struck her, "Oh! Because we're mermaids now, we're going to have to take baths, so we should get cool ocean-bath bombs!"

Cypress stared at her in disbelief, "Do you really want glitter to get stuck on your scales?" 

Beth thought about it and responded with, "we could get the non-glitter kind."

"We can talk about this later," Cypress said seriously, "I just came to get you back to shore." 

"Why?" 

Cypress looked at Beth incredulously, "What happens if someone sees you?!"  

Cypress finally convinced Beth to leave the ocean and dry off.  As Cypress grabbed her phone, she saw a text from Gabby-- Kiana is in trouble.