Scales & Tales - The Tales of Mystic High - Book 1

Chapter 20

"What? How do you know?" Blackout asked, suspicious.

"Right before I zoned out, I heard it. It was a voice... It was singing... That's how a siren uses their powers, isn't it?" Aquamarine wondered partially to herself, rethinking her assumption.

"Usually. I think the really powerful ones can do it in other ways, too," Blackout thought, thinking back to a book he'd read about the history of the Water Wars.

"Then it's confirmed..." Aquamarine muttered. Atlantic let her go, and she turned to them with a determined look on her face. "A siren is trying to get me to the bottom of the lake. We need to figure out who, and what they want from me."

"Ooh, I've always wanted to be a part of a mystery!" Atlantic smiled. "I'll join!"

"I'm in," Blackout said. When he said he was surprised by the faces of the two cousins, he quickly clarified with a blush from embarrassment, "er, y'know. They might go after me or Atlantic next. They might try to take control of the whole school."

"Aww, you care about Aquamarine!" Atlantic gushed, "I knew you two would be great friends! Oh, I can't wait until we can have a besties day, just the three of us!"

Blackout seemed a little hurt by what Atlantic said, and Aquamarine immediately knew why, and she smirked. "So, how should we do this?"

"Well, the anniversary of the Water Wars is coming up, right? We could use that as an excuse to research a lot about sirens," Blackout offered. "I'm sure the library has a lot on it. And if not, we could always ask my brother. He's a bit of a history nerd, so either he'd have some websites to look at, some books, or he could just tell us what he's learned in previous years. Y'know, since they teach you more and more as the years go on."

"Great idea!" Atlantic awed. "This'll be so fun!"

"But don't you have Surfing Team tryouts tomorrow? You might be distracted by those," Blackout reminded.

Atlantic seemed to have suddenly remembered that, and he pouted. "Aw... Well, when I'm not practicing, I'll help you with the research!"

"Are you sure you want to? It'll probably be confusing and violent..." Blackout began, when Aquamarine quickly interrupted Blackout.

"Are you kidding me! When Atlantic has his mind set on something like this, he's the best at research! Trust me. In eighth grade we had to do a book report, he made a whole freaking documentary!" Aquamarine smiled widely. "I-we'd love your help, Atlantic!"

"Oh, okay..." Blackout hummed, "noted..."

"Yippee!" Atlantic smiled broadly, matching Aquamarine's. "Well, when should we get started?"

"No better time than the present!" Aquamarine chimed in. "C'mon, siren studies on one, two, three!"

"Siren studies!"

The trio was currently in the library. Luckily they'd found a spot that had no windows and wasn't facing the lake, as to hopefully block the strange signals that kept interfering with Aquamarine. Blackout came with a stack of books in his hands. "Here's some I think will be helpful."

"Thank goodness," Aquamarine sighed, throwing a book down to the floor with the title, The History of Mermaids. "This book is so stupid! It's just telling me stuff I already know. And it has a picture of all the kings..." Aquamarine flipped to the page, and showed it to them. "This guy can't be my father... he's so ugly!"

"That's not nice to insult your bloodline," Atlantic scolded playfully.

Aquamarine rolled her eyes with a smile. "He's dead. What's he going to do? Come down from the heavens above and ground me?"