Mermaid in a Bottle

Chapter 6 ~ Job Gone Wrong

(MerLissa's P.O.V.)

I swam as fast as my tail would let me. Cassandra would kill me if I was late. Well technically, I was already five hours late, but I had a rough morning. Maybe she would understand? I mean bosses had rough mornings too sometimes, right? Or maybe they didn't have a life outside of work so they didn't have rough mornings. They practically had no social life. Poor Cassandra.

I shook the thoughts of my boss' social life out of my head as soon as I spotted Otto swimming slowly to what I suspected was another extra assignment he had to do to make up for the accident this morning.

"Otto! I've been looking all over for you!"

Otto provided me with a blank stare. "Oh really? Because I had thought you'd just left me stranded when I  got in  trouble for testing a potion outside of the labs."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on. At least you weren't the one who almost got sent to the hospital!"

"Hospital is better than cleaning the boss' office."

"So you were cleaning the boss' office?! Nemo and I stopped by there, but you weren't there."

Otto shifted his stance and let out his breath slowly before saying, "Probably because I had to clean the seahorse stalls before that."

I quickly thought back to this morning when I had wished to push Otto's head in seahorse dung.

"Did you get any poop on your face?" I asked suddenly.

Otto looked surprised. "Well, no. Why?"

Darn. "Nothing," I said with a shake of my hand. "Well I have to get to work. Ms. Prissy Pants is expecting me."

Another odd look. "Doesn't she know you almost got sent to the hospital this morning?"

I shrugged. "I guess not."

"So before you go, what happened anyways? Was it serious?"

I almost wished that seahorse had pooped in his face now. This was just another daft comment from  Otto. One moment, he's making it sound like he knows that almost going to the hospital is serious and then the next moment, he's asking if it's serious.

I calmly answered him with a slap to the face.

"Ow! Could you not be so violent for one day?!"

"Violence is the answer." I cracked a smile.

He rolled his eyes and continued as if the previous event hadn't happened. The only evidence left was a red welt starting to form on his cheek. I had to stop myself from feeling sorry for him. He had deserved it.

"So what happened? We were in the playground and I was just talking and then you mumbled a few incoherent things before passing out. As soon as you passed out, the connection to the past broke off and we were in the present again. Some mermaid saw and snitched. You don't know how long it took Nemo and I to convince them not to bring you to the hospital!"

I gave a sheepish smile, trying to play off that I was totally okay. I decided not to tell Otto about seeing my evil Eel-Mer father trying to kidnap me when I was a baby. He thought he had the hard life. I didn't want to have to take that away from him. He liked to think that he actually did eventful things in his fruitful life.

"Well I have a job I have to get to so I'll talk to you later. Maybe by the time I get home, everything will be straightened out and you'll be able to meet my brother."

Otto shot me a questioning look. "Brother? You dont have a brother MerLissa."

I shot him a strange look. "Where have you been? Didn't you know my mom's pregnant!"