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

Chapter 37

Aquamarine smirked, pleased by her work ."Well, now I know it works... to an extent, at least. She was an easy target. Let's see if I can get someone more witty and clever than that weak-minded girl..."

Atlantic hesitated before getting out, "are... are you sure? I don't want you to feel like you're forced to tell us anything..."

"I mean, he does kind of owe us an explanation for everything..." Blackout mumbled out, but Atlantic sharply stepped on his foot.

"Shut up," Atlantic whispered harshly, before turning back to Anchor. "So... are you sure you want to tell us?"

"Yeah..." Anchor admitted, obviously highly embarrassed and awkward. "I really just want to get it off of my chest..."

Atlantic looked at Blackout. "Are you wanting to stay for this? You might have to get sympathetic."

Blackout sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess... he deserves a shoulder or two to lean on." Atlantic slowly led Blackout into the room, and they took some seats next to Anchor.

"So..." Anchor began. "Where do I start... let's see..." he thought for a second, before saying, "so, uhm, did Blackout tell you about our argument last night..?"

Atlantic hesitated, before nodding. "He told me the gist of it... all he really said was you ended up admitting that you liked Aquamarine..?"

Anchor's shoulders heightened, and he softly muttered, "basically that's it..."

Atlantic and Blackout glanced at each other in confusion, at Atlantic continued in a gentle tone, "you were having a panic attack because... you like Aquamarine?"

"Because Blackout found out," Anchor corrected, "I don't know, I just... I can't. I can't like her."

"... why not?" Blackout budged in quietly, still confused on what seemed to be occurring. "Is there a reason you can't like Aquamarine, or is it just because you can't like anyone as snarky-" Atlantic quickly shoved Blackout in the ribs, who muttered a small 'ow' under his breath and cleared his throat, "er, uhm, I mean... as..."

Anchor let out a tiny laugh. "It's okay. I mean, you're basically right... I can't let anyone know that I don't like anyone who's like me. Popular, outgoing, 'perfect'..." he held up sarcastic quotation marks at the last bit.

Atlantic cocked an eyebrow at Anchor's strange quotation marks. 'What were those for-..."

"Because," Anchor mumbled. "Everyone thinks I have a perfect life. They think I'm a pretty little prince who has everything handed to him on a silver platter. They don't care if I'm suffering, all they care about is that I have power and I can get them anything they want as long as they pull at the right strings." The two other boys sat there, their eyes wide. They had never

thought about Anchor this way. Anchor continued, ever so spitefully, "they think that because I'm from the rich side of the sea, I have all the power and happiness in the world. They don't care about me. I'm boring and unoriginal. The only thing people befriend me for is my family's money. Of course, it's the dumb bullies who do stuff like that. I believed from elementary that was the way friendships worked. You buy people's affection. I quickly learned no one else suffers from those problems. They all know what a true relationship is like. The closest I have to a real relationship is with my dads, but even that relationship all depends on if I'm being a good son and making good grades."

Blackout looked at the ground. He knew everyone had their own problems, but he had no clue that Anchor's were that severe. No wonder he didn't want anyone knowing he liked Aquamarine. Aquamarine was the complete opposite of who people expected him to like. Atlantic gave Anchor a side hug, but Anchor almost immediately shook it off in a huff. Blackout sighed. "I'm sorry," he finally got out.

Anchor and Atlantic instantly froze, looking at Blackout with wide eyes. He had never apologized in front of Anchor's presence, and Atlantic expected him to say sorry to Anchor the least of anyone in the whole school. "What..?" Anchor choked out.

"I made you say it. I caused you to be here," Blackout murmured. "I got you all riled up, and you ended up shouting what seems to have been one of your biggest secrets. No wonder you were such a jerk, I should've known you weren't living the dream life."

Anchor let out what sounded like a forced chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm used to it by now."

"You shouldn't," Atlantic mumbled. He then turned to Anchor, wanting to give him at least a smidgen of hope as he said, "hey, we were actually wanting to ask you..." Atlantic trailed off, glancing at Blackout as if for permission to say their plan.

Blackout nodded reluctantly. "Go ahead and tell him! I think we can trust him at this point."

Atlantic nodded, turning back to Anchor. "So, uhm, if you were unaware, Aquamarine's been affected by a Corrupt Potion..."

"Of course..." Anchor whispered under his breath, burying his face in his palms. "That's why she hasn't been here..."

"Y-yeah," Atlantic stuttered out. "Anyway, Blackout researched the cure for it. We have almost everyone we need for it, despite three people. Or four... Er- well, two now... three? I don't know... the point is we needed water and fire creatures. I was going to be the water creature, and Blackout was going to be the fire creature. But we kind of got into a little duel with Aquamarine and she ended up locking us in our regular form."

Anchor eyes widened, and he perked his head up. "What? But isn't that a siren thing-?"

"Yeah, she kind of killed a siren," Blackout added bitterly. "We think that the Corrupt Potion made her able to steal powers, I think Wanda had a certain name for it."

"Goodness..." Anchor awed in both concern and surprise. "I... okay, she's really changed..."

"Yeah," Atlantic agreed, continuing with the explanation, "so since neither me or Blackout will work for it, we need others. Blackout's replacing himself with his older brother, but we were kind of hoping... you could replace me? I'm assuming you have water powers?"

"Duh," Anchor mumbled, "but I guess I should... I have a lot to repay you guys..."

"No kidding," Blackout muttered. Atlantic glared at him, and Blackout put his hands up in defense stating, "hey, I'm just saying..."

Atlantic let out a disappointed sigh, turning his attention back to Anchor. "But will you do it?"

"Yeah," Anchor nodded. "I'll do it. Well... what exactly am I going to have to do?"

"We'll explain it to everyone once we get everybody we need," Blackout informed quietly, "that way we don't have to re-explain everything five hundred times.

"Alright," Anchor seemed to understand everything now. "I'll, ugh... I think I'm done cooling down now. I'm going to head back to class. Is it still homeroom?"

"Yeah," Atlantic approved. "You'll need to get a pass from Ms. Nebu first."

Anchor hummed, "oh, okay. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem," Atlantic smiled lightly. Blackout frowned, a little bit of jealousy rising up

inside of him.

Blackout grabbed onto Atlantic's hand. "I think we should head back, as well."