Cool for the summer

chapter 6:zim

There's a girl on the rocks.i think she's upset.she rode down the cliff on some weird contraption, then practically threw it on the floor as well as her hat, and ran over to the rocks before slumping down and hugging her knees,hiding her face. I've been watching her for a while,and I think I should comfort her.not that I really know how, but it's fine.i swim over and quietly pull myself up so I'm sitting on the rock a arms length or so away. Now I'm closer, I can see that she's crying.
"Are you OK?"I ask softly,but she startles anyway.
She looks at my face and I look at hers.her eyes are red, and her face slightly pink from crying and there are tear tracks down her face.
"Does it look like I'm ok,"she chokes out.
I cringe inwardly, that was probably a stupid question but what else was I supposed to say?she sniffs drawing my attention back to her."no, that's why I asked.what happened?" She frowns slightly and I mentally kick( not that I can kick myself.that with the tail and all) myself.that sounded so nosey. Surprisingly she answers.
"I tried to make friends with this girl.... big mistake." She laughs,"last time I try and talk too the people round here." She looks down at the water,then jumps.

"You...you have a tail!" Ah, I was waiting for her to notice.
"That I do,"I say trying to sound calm.this was probably a horrible mistake, and kira's going to kill me when she finds out.

"How?"she stutters. I shrug,
"I was born with one,"
"Oh..." she stares at my tail and I squirm."sorry" she's apologising?
"What for?I can't imagine you've seen many people with fish tails before,"
" I know, I haven't, but starting is rude." She still looked a bit alarmed,but I think she could tell I wasn't going to harm her.
"Speaking of rudeness,I haven't introduced myself. I'm zim, and I use they/them pronouns,"I add.
"Aimee, and I use she/her,"she replied quickly, and I smiled.

"Nice to meet you aimee."
"Nice to meet you too,zim," she replies.
"how did you come to be here?"
"Oh I was born near here, a few beaches down, and I live here now," I leave out the whole ' I live here cuz my family abandoned me for being a salt-water when it was perfectly logical I would be, being born by the sea,but my mother wanted to live inland so left me as all my siblings (accept kira) -who were water allied- were fresh water,somehow. I look up and see aimee is watching me.her eyes flick away when I meet them.

"How did you come to be here?"
"Oh, my parents sent me and my brother here for the summer, while they sort out the divorce." She sounds bitter and upset, so I make a mental note to ask kira what a divorce is next time I see her.
"Ah,"I say, hoping that she can't guess I have no clue what a divorce is or why her parents are having one.we sit in silence for a few minutes and it doesn't feel awkward.i feel like I should say something, but I don't really know what.
"Wait..."she starts and I look over "if you live here, how do you sleep?do you, like, float?"
I laugh,the question is kinda random.
"I sleep on the beach or there's a sandbar a few minutes of the coast that I normally sleep on."
"Ohhh, that makes more sense, you know than just floating around," she smiles, seemingly realising how weird that would be.she smiles slightly and rubs at her eyes with her jumper.it a nice one, cream brown, and thickly knit.(kira says she has a blanket like that she showed me once when she slept on the beach beside me.)

We fall into silence, not really knowing what to say to each other.