The Mermaid's Daughter

Chapter Seven: That's what makes us mermaid... or human in your case.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I lie on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. I've been here for about 6 months and I can't believe I never noticed that the paint on my ceiling actually moves with the current. I watch the stunning sea blues, and swamp greens swirl around the ceiling in a gentle motion. Today's a Saturday so I don't have school. All my life I've never realised how good it is to have weekends. Being home-schooled meant that I could do work as fast or slow as I liked and since I was always at home, everything was homework so it didn't seem like much of a big deal. Now going to a normal school I realise just how stressful school and homework can be, and it's so nice to just be able to relax on weekends.

Today is actually my 16th birthday but I'm not doing anything special for it. No one here knows when my birthday is besides Coral but I told her that it's not a very big deal and she's gone over to another friend's house anyway. Usually for my birthday I don't want anything but this year the one thing that I do want is to go back home and spend this birthday with my dad.

I get out one of my spare exercise books and a pencil. I decide to start doing some work seeing as I have nothing better to do. Just as I finish writing down one of my English questions I hear someone knock on my door,

"Who is it?" I call.

"Uhh, it's King Johnathan. May I come in please?" I'm startled by the reply and hastily open the door for him. Most of the time Massie is the only one who comes to my room. But it's not like she ever knocks though. He swims into my room, holding something behind his back. It's probably something bad, really bad. I quickly start racking my brain as to what I could have done that was bad recently. I can't think of anything.

"I think we need to have a talk," he says. Oh no, "Ever since you first came to my Kingdom I've been extremely cruel to you," he looks up at me and looks away again as he paces back and forth across the room.

"Yeah?" I question.

"Well, I don't think that was very thoughtful of me." You think!? "I should have thought that you were in a strange place, you were missing your family, I was a complete stranger and also I was the head of the Kingdom. These are all very good reasons why I should have been kind to you and welcomed you but no, I decided to be rude and careless. So... I was wondering if we could have a new beginning. Will you forgive me?"

I look at him in the eyes, I can see that he truly means it. That look of guilt in his eyes actually reminds me of that picture of my mum when I was just born, sitting on my bedside table. It reminds me of all those years I spent without a mother, all those years that my dad would do anything at all, just to make sure that I didn't miss out on things just because of that. On Mother's Day he would always take me out somewhere special like a theme park or a fancy restaurant and made sure that I had so much fun that I wouldn't even remember what day it was. I don't want anyone else to feel guilty because of me,

"Yes, of course I forgive you!" I try to give him my best smile without tearing up.

"Oh, by the way, a little fishy may or may not have told me that it was your birthday today," he forms a smile as he reveals the thing he was holding behind his back - a teddy bear. It's wearing the exact same outfit that I wore the day I fell into the shark tank - a white singlet top and denim shorts. He hands the bear to me.

"Thankyou so much! It's adorable! You didn't have to get anything for me though," I hug the bear tightly.

"Don't worry, it was the least that I could do," he smiles even wider.

"Everyone always said that you were cruel and didn't care but I always knew that you were good on the inside," I smile back at him.

"What kinds of things did they say about me?" his smile fades. I realise that I've hit a sensitive spot,