I'll Save You

Sea Monster

It has been a little over a month since school started, Luca was in one of his top favorite classes, science. In this class, Luca got to do and learn all kinds of interesting things, like physics, chemistry, biology, and even a bit about his own body, referencing fish anatomy. Like how Luca's human form is warm blooded, whereas his other was cold blooded, or how his circulatory system most likely switches from a double to a single circulatory system when his lungs transform into gills in his sea monster body.

Today, they did a controlled chemistry experiment, in which Luca followed the instructions and got merit from his teacher for doing some extra classwork. Luca loved getting extra merit, it felt like a must-have achievement for him, plus if it adds up to a certain amount, he may get a better report overall.

Maybe it was the urge he felt for proving himself to his peers that made him a hard worker, he wasn't sure, perhaps he was over analyzing his own motives? Well as long as everyone was pleased, he was too. 'Simple' he thought.

Luca waited at the tail of the line as his classmates queued up for the lab sink. One by one, they sloppily rinsed their beakers and equipment, placing them on the drying racks and packing up, in a hurry to leave since the bell had rung. When it was finally Luca's turn, he was met with the mess left behind: stained beakers, wet countertop and test tubes stacked untidily on the racks. He cringed at the unpleasant sight.

He began to thoroughly clean his equipment until they were spotless. As he was getting rid of a stain on his beaker, Luca looked out the window in front of him, gazing at the passing clouds as the wind picked up speed. Something krept from beside him as he cloud gazed, out of the corner of his eye he could see somebody's arm, but before he could react, a hand turned the sink tap all the way, water splattering out of his beaker in all directions. In a panicked attempt to shield himself, Luca defended his face with his forearm, swiftly dropping the object in his webbed digits to turn the water off.

Fortunately, the beaker did not shatter. Unfortunately, his self-image was likely about to be. The top half of Luca's face had transformed, his pupils elongated and locks of hair had turned into his seaweed-like ones. Luca threw himself over the counter, snatching a paper towel and wiping across his face. But the paper towels were useless, they were soaked with water from his classmate's messy doings. With his quick thinking, he swiftly used the dry parts of his uniform to rub his face, he rubbed so fast that his cheeks felt raw.

Once he had rid of his scales, he turned to his right, huffing in slight distress to face whoever it was that did this to him. He was gonna have a word with this kid, whether they wanted to or not, this wasn't cool at all! But before he could say a word, he was met with a horrified expression from the other, it was none other than the boy with the flat top cut. Holy carp, he definitely saw something he wasn't meant to.

The two were stuck in a silent standstill, just staring at each other. Luca was instinctively gripping the hem of his untucked shirt, as if expecting danger or an insult. But instead, the other boy backed away and exited the class with a look that staggered between being dumbfounded yet spiteful.

'Oh no..'

—————

Rain poured from the sky as Luca and Giulia waited for Mrs Marcovaldo to come pick them up. They stood under the pick up area in front of the school, Giulia walked boredly around one of the square brick poles holding up the shelter above their heads, making popping noises with her mouth.

Luca observed as the other kids left with their parents, he wondered how his own were doing, he wondered how Alberto was doing, hopefully not jumping off cliffs.

"There's the car! Wait here, I'll go get the umbrella,"

He watched as Giulia ran out into the rain, liquid splishing and splashing with every step she took, escaping from the bottom of her shoes. Luca fiddled with his thumb as he patiently stood by.