The Tale of Zaharos

Chapter 9: Wrong Equations

"MARIANA!" shouted Sidonia.

"What?" said Mariana in the cat's language instead of the human. "Why is it so hot in here?" she asked in the sparrow's language. Realising her mistake she repeated the question in the human language.

"Wouldn't a penguin feel hot inside a treehouse?" laughed Sidonia.

"What?" asked Mariana again (using the human language this time).

"You have transformed, Mariana! You are a cuddly fluffy black-and-white penguin!" said Sidonia slightly exasperated. She stroked the little penguin and started laughing again. Mariana turned into a white-orange cat and left.

Soon they were ready for school... Oh... I forgot to say, I've skipped a few days. It's Wednesday and Sidonia is getting tired of living in a tree house. In the beginning it was fun, the two of them against the world, two best friends living together in the treehouse they built but some things can't change. Sidonia is a mermaid, her home is the water and staying in a treehouse is just unnatural for her.

"Seriously now, you've got to stop transforming during the night! Imagine if you turn into a whale while you are asleep!" said Sidonia assuming a more serious tone.

"At least I'm not a fully grown whale. I'm below eighteen in my human years so I expect I will be smaller than an adult whale."

"You will still be heavy enough to destroy both the treehouse and the tree."

"Well, if things come this way we will have a genuine reason to live inside the haunted house."

Sidonia laughed but she turned sad almost at once.

"Come on, why are you sad?"

"I'm not sad," said Sidonia making an effort to smile.

"Yeah right. And if I feel totally miserable one day, I'll make sure not to tell you."

Sidonia didn't answer at once. "I miss the sea," she said at last. "Why can't we live inside the house? It isn't really haunted by vampires is it?"

"'Course it's not. I started those stories, but it feels wrong to live inside someone else's house without their permission."

"While building a treehouse in their garden is totally okay," Sidonia said sardonically.

"The tree is not exactly in his garden, just very near the house," answered Mariana like she fully believed that this was true.

"Hey, look, it's Erika! Good morning Erika!" said Sidonia changing the subject.

"'Morning Erika!" shouted Mariana.

The three girls walked all together to school where they had 'Double torture of the brain' as Dean often calls it or 'two periods of maths' as people normally refer to it.

"Very good everyone. I know you will nail the test tomorrow!" said Mrs Calliope enthusiastically and left them in the mercy of Mrs. Anastasia. (Mrs. Anastasia is an English teacher)

"Today you will be writing your own poems. Just three verses all right?" asked Mrs. Anastasia.

Eliana nodded but the rest of the class started grumbling, their expressions same with those you would expect to see if you have ordered them to collect worms. By the end of the lesson everyone had written something close to a poem (but most of them were so bad that they could hardly be called poems).

"Dean what is that?" asked the teacher looking repelled.

"A poem, Mrs. Anastasia," answered Dean grinning.

The teacher looked like she couldn't decide if it was best to start shouting at Dean or just faint, but the real question was what did Dean write to have such effect on the poor English teacher?
This is Dean's creation: