H2O: Just Add A Merman

New Friends

I must've fell asleep while I was on the plane, because the next thing I knew, my eyes shot open to the sound of the loudspeaker, "The plane has arrived at the gate. Please exit in an orderly fashion. Thank you for flying with us and have a nice day." I cracked my neck because it felt stiff from sleep and got up to collect my luggage. My mom told me to meet her and the others at the exit of the terminal, so that's where I headed. As I emerged from the exit, I was greeted by a playful punch to the arm. The punch came from my 16 year old brother, Kyle. I turned to face him and got into a sparring stance as we prepared to duke it out. Unfortunately, my dad stopped us before we could continue. "C'mon guys," he chuckled. "We've gotta get going." Kyle and I nodded and followed Dad to our taxi that would take us to our new home. You know, as far as brothers go, Kyle and I have a good relationship. We don't fight and even though we have different personalities, we still get along. One of our favorite things to do together is mess with my twin sister, Kaylie. Those are fun times, let me tell you. Kyle, Dad, and I finally arrived at the taxi. We dropped our luggage in the trunk and got in. The taxi driver then started to take us to our new home.

When I walked through the front doors of the house, I was amazed. It looked big on the outside and on the inside. After it took me a slow 3 hours to unpack, I thought that since I now live here, I might as well familiarize myself with the town. I strutted out the door and walked to the main side of town. I stumbled across what seemed to be a restaurant called The JuiceNet Cafe. I was getting kind of thirsty, so I decided to take a look inside. As I walked inside, it looked like this was a beach themed cafe. Employees were wearing bright and colorful uniforms. Overall, it seemed like a pretty nice setup. I strode over to an empty booth and sat there, waiting to be served. Shortly after I sat down, an employee came up to me and asked, "What would you like sir?" she asked politely.

I glanced at the menu for only a second and knew what I wanted. "May I please have a Cranberry Booster?"

"Sure, coming right up!" she said with a smile.

As she went to prepare my smoothie, I heard new people come in. There were three girls that looked about my age. One had dark brown hair that she had up in a bun, and had light brown eyes. She also had a little bit of tanned skin. Another had wavy blonde hair and electric blue eyes. I could tell just by looking at her that she wasn't a girl to be messed with. The last girl had straight blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. She looked like she was the organized one of the group. The girl with the dark brown hair came up to my booth and sat down. She obviously didn't know I was there because she hadn't noticed me at all. The last thing I heard come out of her mouth was, "....careful of the full moon next week."

The girl with the wavy blonde hair spoke. "Uhh, Cleo," she said as her head jerked in my direction.

The girl named Cleo finally saw me, and her face flushed red. "Oh I'm so sorry!" she said.

I chuckled a bit. "Don't worry, it's all good." I then showed her a reassuring smile.

She smiled back. "Okay. Hey I've never seen you around here before. Are you new?" she asked with curiosity.

"Yeah," I replied. I just moved here from the states.

"Oh cool!" she said. "My names Cleo."

I looked to the girl with the wavy blonde hair. "I'm Rikki," she smiled

"And I'm Emma," the last girl said.

"It's nice to meet you all," I replied with a smile.

 "Do you mind if we sit with you?" Emma asked.

"Not at all," I replied.

After they got situated, we all started chatting. It was a nice conversation actually. By the middle of it, we were all laughing. The waitress finally came back with my smoothie. As she leaned in to put down the smoothie, someone had bumped into her, causing all of its contents to splatter on Cleo and I. CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE! I mentally screamed in my head. Cleo and I locked eyes, and then I stood up and ran to the bathroom. To my surprise, Cleo was doing the same thing. As I ran into one of the two bathrooms, I felt myself starting to change, and I flopped down on the floor. I sighed then stuck out my hand. Steam started to rise from my tail, and within seconds, my legs came back. I strolled out of the bathroom like nothing happened.

As I sat back down in the booth, Rikki looked at me with a quizzical look. "How did you dry so fast?" she asked suspiciously.

"I guess my clothes are just water absorbent," I said with a smile.

She seemed to buy it and just then, Cleo walked out of the bathroom. "Sorry I took so long guys," Cleo said.

"No biggie," Emma said.

"I looked at my watch and saw that it started to get late. "Sorry guys, I've gotta run."

"Okay, but let us give you our numbers first," Emma said.

After I punched their numbers into my phone, Cleo spoke. "Hey Will, come by my house tomorrow. There's someone else we want you to meet. Here's my address," Cleo handed me a slip of paper.

"Okay, thanks," I said. See you guys tomorrow." When I walked out, they all waved goodbye. On the walk home, I was thinking about what happened at the JuiceNet. Why did Cleo run to the bathroom like I did? Could she be... I thought but quickly shrugged it off. There's no way she could be a mermaid. I kept thinking about the whole scene all the way home. Maybe I'm not the only one. I thought.