Mariana Trench

Seven: Coral Academy

Demelza looked at us in the mirror in her bedroom. "We look—"Ridiculous." "Beautiful." She corrected. "Come on, it's our first day of school." "To learn all about humans, to basically do what they call a crash course, for two months, almost three. Learn all about them, then blend into their midst, only to have to turn right back around, and do it all again at a much slower pace." "Should be fun." Demelza chirped. "Should be a nightmare." I turned and eyed her. "You haven't told her have you?" Demelza fiddled with the waistband of her coral red skirt. "Um yeah, she said she'd think about it." "You didn't, liar." "At least you understand the signs when a human is committing falsehoods."
She smiled at the Coral Academy emblem on her right shoulder, mirrored on mine. Uniforms, repulsive, ugly, we have uniforms. The colors ranged from sea green, to sapphire, to turquoise, to all kinds of coral shades, dark blue, white, so on. Maybe, in some distant reality, it could be beautiful, I could look beautiful, but with my dark blue hair, and my unnaturally blue eyes, it made me look more like a caged being. A literal fish out of water. When Demelza tried to restrain my hair in a human style, I snarled so powerfully it shattered a window. "Don't you dare." She merely shrugged. "Fine." My next snarl nearly shattered the wall of glass windows on the first level when I realized, we were not walking, to the learning institution known as school. The school named Coral Academy. A stupid name for a stupid institution.
    When I said those exact words to Demelza, as we stood, waiting in the early morning for the bus, she said, "Good, most people if not everyone, hates school." When the bus arrived, I nearly gagged at the stench. "By the deep blue how do humans stand the smells." Demelza rubbed my back before saying, "Come on Thalea, time to get on." I dragged my feet as she pulled me up the steps, my face scowling at the stench of the huge vehicle, the humans like rows of oysters, all smelling repugnantly in their perfumes and, oh trenches it was disgusting. "Excuse us, hello, hi, excuse us."
    It struck me how easily it came to her, how smoothly she slid into the human skin. How easily she conversed, even her tone, it was as if she lived like this her whole life. Though I had learned, though I was so well trained you'd have thought I lived this life too, I still hated it, still abhorred, still wanted nothing more than to go home, go under the waves. But even if I could, there was no home left. I was sentenced above, if I went back, I'd be a rogue, a lone mermaid. "Are you ok Thalea?" "What?" Demelza gently rubbed my arm, her eyes filled with understanding. "Everyone gets carsick every now and—"HEY, I thought I recognized you." I jumped and bared my teeth in a vicious snarl. Before the sound could even begin, Demelza pinched my thigh. "Hey Jesse, I didn't realize we'd be riding the same bus."
    Lies, we had done massive research on every human who'd be on the same bus as us, searching for any relations that could point us to the clandestine organization that is supposedly hunting mermaids. We'd known Jesse would be appearing, and had informed Minerva of her police force background. Demelza chatted with her, talking about nonsensical tales that allowed her to smoothly fit into their world. My stomach swooped viciously and I swayed with the motion of the gigantic vehicle. A soft hand rubbed my back and Demelza's voice said, "Major carsickness, she'll be fine when we get off." Then Jesse's voice, "Not very talkative is she?" Demelza laughed. "Oh no, she's not at all." Rage jabbed it's stingers into me."
When we arrived I was in the middle of cursing Demelza and Minerva for the, what was it, the millionth time. Jesse rose and stepped toward the exit, Demelza asked, "Are you ok?" I gave the barest hint of a growl. She nodded. She helped me stagger to the bus's exit, and I stepped down the first step, and felt my balance shift, and I felt the world tip as I fell. Demelza's hand squeezed around my wrist, but I felt my feet land softly, and I knew I had landed with no issues. Trenches but these human instincts would never replace mermaid ones. "Wow! That was an awesome jump and landing Thalea." Said Jesse's voice. I rose and followed them both to the gigantic structure known as Coral Academy.
"Yo, Sissy Quick." Jesse scowled and humiliation, and, and, something else, flitted across her face. "Trying to make friends again?" I turned as Demelza did. Another girl was walking toward us, her gray eyes alight with savage pleasure at Jesse's expression. "Hi, my name is Roxanne." She looked toward Jesse. "Well run along now Sissy, you're no longer needed or wanted here." Jesse looked as if she wanted to say something, but turned and walked into the building. "As I was saying, I'm Roxanne. I can tell it's your first day here at Coral Academy, let me tell you, we have a hierarchy here among the students. A food chain if you will, or pecking order. You don't want to go making friends in the wrong link in the chain, or the wrong peck of the order." She held out her hand to me, completely ignoring Demelza. "I'm the queen of the pecking order, at the top of the food chain, birds of a feather flock together. I and William. So, if you want your first day to really make a hit with the best crowds, I can help you there."
This low life, low level thinking human was no different from merepeople. Her thinking that she could rule this institution, could actually have some kind of command over these creatures. She thought she was a queen whereas I truly was a queen. Well, a princess. "I need no help finding any friends, especially not from a person like you. Small, petty, cruel, and beneath my notice." Beside me, Demelza practically sang with pride at my words, especially after I turned and lead the way to the building. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roxanne's rage, hurt, and, and, something else, something that made me look just a little longer. There and gone, but most definitely there. We'd already marked Roxanne as a potential when we did research on all the humans who frequented Coral, but actually being around her, I definitely felt it.
"Wow, just wow." "Don't get use to it." I growled darkly. Demelza snickered. "Are you going to now become more—"No, Demelza." She sighed. "Well, we have to get to homeroom, so, lead the way, Thalea." I stormed into the classroom, and moved toward a, desk, where someone was already sitting, intending on—"Thalea, this way." Said Demelza, taking my wrist and dragging me toward another row of desks. "What?" "You can't just move people out of seats, that's rude, there are always others." "This being human mud is for the bottom feeders." "It'll be worth it Sister." "Ah yes, I remember we had two new minds today, you must be—"I'm Penelope." Said Demelza. There was a moment of quiet, I remained quiet. "And I guess you're Thalea." I nodded. "Well, girl of few words, I hope you're ready, because school is in session."
As if to emphasize her words, the academy bell rang, signifying the start of class. Our first teacher, Ms. Sarah, taught advanced biology. Apparently new, she too came from somewhere else. She had blonde hair and vivid blue eyes, and had a chipper voice that graded through my ears. The next teacher that stuck out was Mr. Dodger, apparently, jokes were a constant due to his last name. He seemed what humans called laid back, and a fun, English teacher, but there was still that something that stuck out for me. When mealtime rolled around, I took one look at the food, and decided, "No, just, no." I left the line and moved toward a lonely table. Or at least, it would've been if she hadn't appeared. "Is this seat taken?"
Without waiting for a response, Jesse sat and asked, "Too good to eat our food?" The way she said, "Our food," put my back up immediately. It was almost as if she knew. I kept quiet, but eyed Jesse discretely. "One of these days, I'll get you to talk, I'll get through that shell-like exterior." Again, I kept quiet. Jesse looked around, almost as if ensuring no one would come over, then she leaned in and said, "Hey, I do wanna say thank you, I heard about what you said to Roxanne. And to know that you spoke up in my defense, especially when I haven't been able to get a word out of you, it was, well, it was nice."
It almost was enough to make me spit out the words, "I didn't do it for you, I did it to make sure she knew I take nothing from anyone." It almost was, but not enough. "It spread like wildfire. I mean someone standing up to Roxanne, oh girl please if her posse were there to witness it, it would have been even more perfect. Still, there were other witnesses. Even teachers don't stand up to her, well, except Sarah. But Sarah doesn't let any student cow her. Even though she's the newest teacher, she has a kind of iciness to her when you piss her off." Even though it was clear I didn't want company, I let the girl stay, because her prattling was giving me useful information. Perhaps Sarah was a part of the organization, Roxanne definitely had a connection somewhere.
"I think Sarah came from D.C. there were plenty of jokes going around that she was that Sarah." Jesse snorted. The great Indigo wars against the Keepers ended, and the so called Dark Queen. She did join in the jokes and speculations, but it was obvious she wasn't that Sarah." I gave no indication that I was paying Jesse any attention, and she just kept prattling on and on. I'd seen Demelza take one look at us, and spear toward another table, leaving me to deal with Jesse. When the bell finally rang signalling the end of lunch, I rose immediately and moved away. Jesse just waved, cutting herself off mid speech. "See you later Thalea." As I neared the doors, I felt a presence hone in on me and I turned. Roxanne was watching me, her face set in that expression I'd seen earlier, this time, her, posse, was around her.
I felt my feet spread, felt my body tense, and I saw her stare, as if confused, as if no one had ever stood against her, ready to defend themselves. "So it seemed Jesse might have had a point." I thought. Her, posse, watched, as if they were confused as well, and wondered what Roxanne would do. I turned my back firmly, letting my dark blue hair whip out and walked away. Next, I had what was called Gym, and there, was another someone I mentally marked. I made it outside, I could still smell the sea, faint as it was, but it was still there. Today we were to race along the school's track, a gigantic oval of some rubber-like material. I followed a group of other girls toward the coach, when again, I sensed a presence hone in on me, and I lackadaisically dodged a shove from behind.
I turned to see a tall boy stumble slightly, catching his balance. "You Bitch." He snarled at me. "How dare you embarrass my girl like that, how dare you talk to her like that, like you even know. We run this school, and you're just a newbie. You ain't anything, you ain't shit, you—" I turned and walked away, leaving him spewing his venom to air. I heard one of the guys say, "Yo Bill, how da fuck that happen? Yo she just walked away, didn't even give you da time of day." "Something she's gonna fucking regret." So, that was William, obviously nicknamed Bill. When we were all gathered, the coach said, "So, I know we have someone new here, perhaps she's not a runner, perhaps she'll outrun all of you—"Sure as shit she won't." Snapped Bill quietly. "We'll do some stretches, and a little workout before the running alright? Let's get started."
Stretching out my human body felt almost akin to making the trident arrows. It was relaxing, but work, felt good, but burned. I reminded myself to hold back, to not let my inhuman abilities show. Careful to not move so fast, careful to struggle, to show that the workout was effecting me. "Hey, um, Thalea, I like your hair, I like how it really makes your eyes shine." Said a girl. I didn't reply. "Looks like we have a girl of few words." Said the coach as he walked by. When we were released on to the track, I saw Bill watching me closely. He gave a nod to someone as I was told to run. One of the boys, who was also running, moved toward me, in that same way I felt when Bill tried to shove me. I sped up at the last moment, and the boy shoved empty air, and fell on his face.
    "Wow, detention on your first day, that's gotta be some record George." Said the coach after the class was over. George scowled and walked off toward the locker rooms. The coach turned to me, and said, "Thalea huh? Or, do you prefer Annabeth? Or, elsewood? Some students prefer their last names." I said nothing. "Well then, Thalea it is. I love your hair, did you dye it?" I said nothing. He shrugged. "I know I'm a man and a lot of girls think men can't or shouldn't know about hair, but I do, and it brings out your eyes a lot, or, your eyes bring out your hair." I kept quiet. The coach looked over my shoulder. He grew serious, "Be careful, I've noticed you've already staked out Bill and Roxy as your enemies, or they've staked you as their's. They've terrorized this school since they first arrived. Not many are willing to do something about it. And those who do, don't come back to the school." I said nothing.
    With that warning, the coach dismissed me and I went over to get changed and back to the school building. "Humans, weeding mucking humans. All these cryptic warnings. As if I didn't already know all there was to know about William and Roxanne and their posse. As if I didn't already know all there was to know about how they ran the school. They were just beneath me." I felt a snarl building in my chest, just itching to lash out. "Catfish corpse it was honestly like these people expected me to save them. Expected me to become some guardian against William and Roxanne." The snarl turned into a snort as the next thought came. "As if they expected me to become some vigilante. As if what I'd done in that cavern, what I said to Demelza, as if they all knew and were waiting for me." "Humans," I muttered. "Only humans."
    "So, how was your day?" Demelza asked cheerfully as she spotted me walking toward the gigantic deathtrap vehicle known as the school bus. I bared my teeth in response, and heard another cheerful voice say, "Wow, was it that bad?" Jesse stepped to my other side, and together, they walked with me to the bus. I felt that same sense, that same sense that told me I was being stalked, and felt Demelza tense beside me. As we neared the deathtrap vehicle, I looked over my shoulder, and saw them. Both William and Roxanne stood with their posses in toe, glaring at us, "No," I thought. "Glaring at me." Jesse kept clicking away, talking at top speed, almost as if she didn't notice Roxanne and William stalking me. "What a poor example of a human being, especially one who's the offspring of humans in law enforcement." After we sat and Jesse sat in the seat across the walkway from us however, she stopped mid sentence and said in a whisper, "Did you guys notice those assholes giving us the evil eye?"