The Aquarian

Chapter 3

The next day we had Classes. Health was my first subject. I wondered if the teacher would talk about the new disease, or even mention it. To me, it seemed like the most important health related issue there is right now in the Bay. But I couldn't bare the the thought of them talking about me helping Nahla, though.

My teacher, Mrs. Andraka, had beautiful long blonde hair, her serious grey eyes looking over the class. She has always been favoured by the men in the bay because of her beauty, but aparantly she never took notice on any of them.
I have always admired her for being independent and not rellying on any Aquarians that (most likely) just throw themselves at you because of your beauty, (not that I think I will have similar problems, as I, in my opinion, am not even close to beautiful) because most  mermaids wouldn't be able to carry on with out a man, unfortunately.

Mrs. Andraka glanced at her notebook, then looked back up conspicuously.

"Today, we will cover topics not in the unit concerning recent matters in our society." great, here we go, I thought to myself.
"These topics are ones that have unfortunately unravelled here, in the outskirts of Baya de Riviera, concerning two young Aquarians and an adult. I will leave them anonymous. *I felt eyes on the back of my neck and I thought; why bother? This incident arrived on Innala, the west coast, close to the patch of planted seaweed.
One of the Aquarians was in an extremely...fatal, state. She was found with several gruesome symtoms, the most fatal being chocking caused by her Gulls coming in to her throat, blocking water from entering her body. (* Mrs. Andraka went on to explain Nahla's rescue.) Once in the Center, she was quickly escorted to the Medicinals. They where able to put her to rest by chemicals, stich up some wounds with plant vines and cleared her air passageways. They found out that it was a very fatal disease, and was contagious. Luckily it wasn't passed on yet. Experiments found that the disease was caused by way to much sun light which is now coming down forcefully while Nahla was above water. This radiation had so much momentum caused by the humans. Who can tell me why that is?" I raised my hand and explained the obvious answer; Global Warming, which was caused by air pollution, a result of non-green loving humans. "Yes, all true. Global Warming has a nasty effect on our gills, causing them to protrude inwards. Because of this disease, no Aquarian will be allowed to go above water in day light, and should wait in till quite a while after dark to go above water. As you all know, its important for Aquarians to have at least 10 minutes of Oxygen intake a day, so there will be an alarm signifying its safe to go up, each night. There may still may be some small risks at night-time, but it is all we can do. Now, class dissmised." There was an up-roar of questions, but she silenced the class with a gentle wave of her hand. "All questions should be forwarded to the Medicinals."
                                    *

Everyone was a little overwhelmed by the news they received in health class, including myself, and did not work as hard as they could have on their Math reports. (Hopefully I still got close to 100%, though).
I was kind of anxious about the new disease because I did not want me my mom to get it, as it is contagious after all, but I was still able to get through the day without to much worrying.
At the end of the day, we had even more important news to receive in the gym, which is basically just a huge sand pit.
All of the metallic equipment was organized and put to the side, making room for our Principal, who was standing at the front of the room.
His name is Mr. Aqualine, and was currently trying to get everyone to settle down, his long black hair waving all over the place. "Settle down, everyone, I have a pretty important assembly planned." He said sheepishly.

"My fellow administrations would like to congratulate you on your hard work in your Seahorse riding courses, and  swimming courses. Your hard work will be put to test in your Seahorse Retrieval Lessons, beginning in two sun-drops; day drop 232. You will be put to test on lots of available Seahorses for a lifetime swimming partner who will help you if your future career requires that you must have a Seahorse to help with swimming. If you decide when you are finished school that you would like to have a profession that does not require a Seagorse help, your chosen Siren will go to another Aquarian. However, you will still train with this Seahorse in till you are done school. Me and the leader of this program, Mr. Todulumus, both agree it is important for your that you are both the same age. Now, I expect you all to respect all coaches, Seahorses and everyone part of the program. (Mr. Aqualine: Mr.Todumus will explain more when I am finished) (me: he is speaking towards Mr. Todumus, now) Our school has been doing lots of units concerning the way we should all respect Seahorses and other animals as if they are family or friends. There has also been teaching done concerning the reason why seahorses are needed to be 'ridden' on by Aquarian (it is a lot faster and improves ease when swimming) so they should know lots on this matter. I now introduce the Grade 9's and Mr. Todumus."
A roar of applause filled the gym as the very fit and young Trainor Ethican went to the front of the room. He was tall and rather thin, but athletic with red hair and freckles around his bright blue eyes.
He spoke mostly about how to live with Seahorses and keep in mind that what they do is an employment. He finally talked about the ways we learned to swim with Seahorses and how we can work together with our Seahorses to pull these swimming skills off, which can actually increase your minimum wage in the future if you are fast in your job.
No one really seemed to care about increases in payment, though, since lots of the students haven't even figured out what they want as a profession, but I sure did and was thankful for this guy's tips.
He then moved on to the last subject: (and I was certain that the large majority of the students wanted this information the most, since lots of girls talked about it in the hallway's) how they will decide who gets to be with which Seahorse. He cleared his throat rapidly, as if the tension was weighing down on him somehow. "The organization will not be asking any Aquarians to choose their partner, we will be making the choice.-(a loud uproar of confusion and anger)"Yes, in past years the decision was made by our students, but unfortunately some of the choices have been perhaps, not chosen correctly, and caused problems between Aquarians, which had also affected the community. Now, to prevent this, we have no choice but to carefully make these decisions ourselves.
I personally think that our organization has dealt with these situations and is very educated and prepared to make the right decisions that will benefit everyone.
We also have a long range of Seahorses from across the Bay that are all unique and should be reciprocated pretty well on a personal level very well with you all.
Well, I thank you all very much for your time and I will see you all in 2 sun-drops where we will test your basic swimming with compatible Seahorses, lasting about 1\4 of the day-drop. Thank you." He left and shook hands with the principal, took his things and left the building, leaving everyone in an oh-my-Poseidon-I-want-to-get-a-good-Seahorse-who-can-actually-swim- kind of craze with lots of excited chatter.