Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken - The Simple and Sweet Rewrite

Chapter 1: A Mermaid's Somber Tale and Hopeful Plan

Ruby: This day's been amazing! I mean, seven seas in seven hours? Oh, and don't even get me started on how wrong they got the crystal jellyfish in the Marine Biologist Quarterly. Sorry, hehe. Am I geeking out too much?

Chelsea: No...

Ruby and Chelsea: Hehehehe.../Ehehehehehe...

*Ruby gazes at the fish swimming above her.*

Ruby: Ohh...Wow...

Chelsea: I still can't believe your mom hid all of this from you!

Ruby: "Hiding is surviving." That's the Gillman family motto.

Chelsea: Mottoes are stupid. That's my motto. I hate hiding.

Ruby: But you're crushing it at school. Everyone loves you. You really do have everything.

Chelsea: Tch! No, I don't. Ever since the Battle of the Trident, all the mermaids have been in hiding. But it's even worse for me. I haven't told you, but my mom? She was the Queen of the Mermaids.

Ruby: She was?

Chelsea: Yes, and after being defeated by your mother, her followers turned on her. They wanted to evacuate the kingdom, but she said they were being paranoid. They decided she wasn't fit as a ruler after everything was said and done, and told her they would leave without her. They also warned her that if she did decide to leave, she would not be welcome to follow them or live with them if she found them. In fact, they said if she did they would imprison her.

Ruby: Man... that's a lot to take in...

Chelsea: Yeah... let's just say she decided to stay. She should have taken them seriously because soon after they left, the Krakens did search the kingdom looking for mermaids who had stayed behind. She thankfully managed to sneak away. Soon afterward, yours truly was born, hmm. Ever since then, it was just me and Mom, living off the sea... I never really knew my dad, he fell dreadfully sick and died sometime before the war.

Ruby: ...I'm so sorry about that.

Chelsea: It's alright. He seemed like a cool guy, Mom said he was very brave. Even when he was at his lowest in sickness, he always looked on the bright side of things. He used to say, "No matter how bad the storm looks, there's always a rainbow to look forward to." I guess there wasn't a rainbow behind his storm. But it doesn't even end there. Mom... she... she also died a few years ago.

Ruby: ...Chelsea, I... I can't imagine even going through something like that.

Chelsea: Don't try to. It was horrible. The worst part wasn't even that I had to fend for myself, it was being alone, in every sense of the word. I had no friends or family, and I couldn't think of finding refuge anywhere else in the sea because I had to hide from the Krakens. It took a pretty big toll on me, psychologically. There were even times when I felt like I was the only person alive. I couldn't take it anymore, so I took my chances and swam to the land. That's when I found Oceanside High. I thought there, I would feel at home. But even then, I still felt lonely, no one truly knew the real me. Until I found YOU~! My super sea girl bestie! Now everything is right in the world.

Ruby: If it wasn't for this whole stupid mermaid versus Kraken war, you and I could be this free all the time!

Chelsea: Oh, sure. Totally. But I mean, let's just be honest, Ruby. Two teenage girls can't possibly fix history.

Ruby: Wait! What's the first rule of being a mathlete?

Chelsea: Hmm, is it "never talk about being a mathlete?"

Ruby: No! We have to evaluate the problem! Chelsea, come on! There's gotta be a way to end this war, somehow! If we do, you and the other mermaids won't have to hide from the Krakens anymore, and I won't have to become a prophesied princess warrior of an interspecies vendetta!

Chelsea: Well... there may be one way. Picture this! Chelsea Van Der Zee and Ruby Gillman save the seas by finding and retrieving the Trident of Oceanus!

Ruby: That giant fork my grandma's so obsessed with?

Chelsea: Yes! The Trident! Stay with me. Once we have the Trident, we can show everyone just what mermaids and Krakens can accomplish when we work together! We can show that there doesn't have to be a war! It can be a symbol of peace!

Ruby: Then my grandmother wouldn't have to train me for battle! I can live in the ocean and on land as the real me! No more fighting!

Chelsea: And the mermaids wouldn't have to live in fear anymore! No more hiding!

Ruby: No fighting!

Chelsea: No hiding!

Ruby and Chelsea: No fighting! No hiding! No fighting! No hiding!