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

Chapter 25

Aquamarine entered Ms. McKlaw's class nervously. She had only had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, as she was in a rush to get there before anybody else. She sat down in her seat, mumbling to herself about how she should've just told Anchor what she was. Atlantic and Blackout soon walked in, along with other students who glanced at Aquamarine skeptically.

Atlantic took his seat next to Aquamarine – Blackout next to him – and they both turned to Aquamarine. "Are you ready for today?" Blackout questioned.

"What do you mean?" Aquamarine cocked an eyebrow in confusion. 'Y'know," Atlantic added, "you're probably going to get bullied a lot..."

"So the same exact as yesterday?" Aquamarine hummed.

"Oh, that depends," a cruel voice sounded from behind her, and Aquamarine turned to see Anchor standing over her with a wicked smirk planted on his face. "Are you finally going to admit to it?"

"Admit to what?" Atlantic blinked in confusion. "Did something else happen between you two that I'm unaware of-?"

"Oh, nothing," Anchor shrugged sarcastically, spitting out, "maybe just her finally admitting that she's a siren?"

Aquamarine was done with all of this. She stood straight up, pushing her chair back as it gritted against the carpet flooring softly, and whirled around to face Anchor. "I'm not a siren!" This caught the attention of the rest of the class, but Aquamarine didn't care. She was sick of everyone bullying her and treating her like a monster.

"Oh no," Anchor gasped in a fake baby voice. "Is the little siren getting angry? Maybe she'll lull me to leave her alone?"

Aquamarine scoffed. "I would if I could."

"Oh? Are you that weak of a siren you can't even do that one simple thing?" Anchor sneered, challenging Aquamarine.

"And are you that dumb to see I'm not a siren?" Aquamarine shot back.

"Oh, yeah? Almost all water creatures turn when water touches their skin..." Anchor glanced around the room, smirking. He grabbed Ally's water bottle, who let out a squeak of surprise. Anchor twisted open the top of the bottle cap, before splashing some water onto Aquamarine.

Aquamarine flinched on instinct, but quickly realized there was no need as the water collected into her necklace in a little spiral.

"You have an Evanesco?" Anchor mumbled, his eyes wide. The whole class stared at him, realizing his plan had failed, Anchor blushed furiously from embarrassment. "This is only

proving my point!" Anchor quickly stuttered out. "Why would she need an Evanesco if she wasn't hiding who she was!?"

"That is suspicious..." Wanda spoke up, glancing up from her spellbook.

"Why would she need one of those..?" Maddie wondered to herself quietly, but it was easily heard through the tension that filled the room.

"I know!" Anchor's smirk returned, and he gripped onto the seashell that was the main ingredient in Aquamarine's necklace – which Aquamarine had realized was called an Evanesco – and yanked hard on it. Almost immediately the chain broke, breaking the necklace. That seemed to happen in slow motion to Aquamarine, who's eyes widened. She quickly snatched the remains of her now damaged Evanesco, and gulped nervously. The powers in it were as broken as the necklace was. Anchor then reached back for Ally's water bottle, and splashed the rest of its contents onto Aquamarine.

Aquamarine gasped. She tried to cross her arms in an 'x' in front of her in an attempt to block the water, but it did no good as she felt herself transforming into her true form. Her legs morphed into her bleu and scaly tale, and her streaks came out of her eyes. She clung to the desk for support, as everyone stared at her, bewildered.

"Y-you're..." Anchor stuttered out, his eyes bigger than saucers. "You're a mermaid!?"

Aquamarine gulped once more, as everyone in the class started talking all at once, and Aquamarine felt overwhelmed at all of her classmates' voices stacked upon one another.

Atlantic must've noticed this, because he took a deep breath before bellowing out, "can everyone shut up for one second!?" Almost immediately everyone shut their mouths, but stared on at Aquamarine in surprise. Atlantic sighed, turning to Aquamarine. "Do... do you want to tell them?"

"I think they deserve some explanation," Aquamarine shrugged reluctantly, sighing before speaking up, "y-yes... I am a mermaid."

Everyone in the class stared on in awe, except Anchor. "Are you kidding me? A freaking mermaid? That's not even cool! Just because you're the last mermaid left or whatever isn't impressive."

Not really thinking, and just wanting to get under Anchor's skin, Aquamarine added on, "oh, yeah? What about being the princess?"

Everyone in the class gasped once more. Anchor scowled, and snapped back, "and we're supposed to believe that? You may not be a siren, but you're a filthy liar!"

"Nope, telling the truth," Maddie hummed, her horn on her head and glowing a soft green for a second. "I just initiated my lie detector."

Anchor's blood was boiling at this point, and it didn't help when Wanda added, "I do remember reading a book about the Water Wars... it said the body of the princess was never discovered in the rummage."

Anchor scoffed. "You're nothing special, Aquamarine Mlyn. I know you're not the perfect princess you play out to be... and I'll prove it at some point."

Blackout muttered loud enough for the class to hear, "I'd like to see that."

The class laughed at that, and Anchor looked around the room, heavily embarrassed and aggravated. He stormed out of the room, just as Ms. McKlaw walked in. "Anchor, what are you-?"

"I refuse to be in a class with fools like them!" Anchor's voice shouted back through the halls.

Ms. McKlaw blinked in confusion as he stomped down the halls. "What happened-..." Ms. McKlaw turned towards the class, gasping as she saw Aquamarine struggling for balance, in her true form. "Goodness, Aquamarine! What happened to you? Did you accidentally spill some water on yourself?"

Aquamarine was about to speak, before Electra shouted out, "it was Anchor! He also broke her Evansesco!"

Ms. McKlaw sighed in disappointment, rubbing her temples in a stressed manner. "Of course.... I'll talk to the school counselor about what to do with him. Barely a week into school and he's already gotten into two fights, and then this..."

Aquamarine blinked. "He's gotten into fights?"

Blackout spoke up, "one of them was out of school hours, and then one of them was when you were in the Counselor's Office."

"Oh..." Aquamarine nodded the slightest bit. "Yeah, okay." She glanced at the clock, her eyes widening as she saw the time. "Three minutes until the bell rings!? I'm not going to be able to dry off that fast!"

"Don't worry!" Maddie piped up. "I've got a spell that can immediately make you completely dry."

"Please and thank you," Aquamarine said, as Maddie transformed into her true form and began.