Mermaid in a Bottle

Chapter 7 ~ You just got Marked!

This chapter is dedicated to IreenChau because she drew me a amazingly beautiful sketch of a mermaid just for this story! The sketch is just gorgeous.

(Nathan's P.O.V.)

Here I was, laying in my bed, having a fabulous dream when the damn rooster crowed. How god damn early in the morning was it?! No living being should even be up, let alone communicating! If I was that rooster, I would still be inside the pen, cuddled up with all the chickens, dreaming away.

I rolled over and got into a more comfortable. The rooster wouldn't be crowing for another few minutes. Might as well take advantage.

"Cocka-doodle-doo," the rooster crowed once again.

I groaned grumpily. I could have sworn I still had some time before he would make that shrill, ear piercing screech again. Giving up on sleep, I tried to sit up in my bed. Before I could even get close to managing that, I banged my head on the bed post.

"Ow!" I reached towards my head as I fell back into the comfortable pillows and cushions. Why couldn't I just sleep? Why did this untimely rise have to be my daily routine for the whole summer? It wasn't even my choice to come visit my aunt and uncle in the small town of Riteford, Florida.

Whatever, I thought and pulled the blanket covers over my chest again. I looked at the calender and then the clock as I did every morning since I had gotten here. It was 5 in the morning on August 3, which fell on a Wednesday this year. Never had I paid this close attention to a calendar in my life. I just wanted to know how many days until I could get back into the city.

"Nathan!! Make sure to do your chores before you go off," my Aunt Ame called.

Now I knew I had to get up. If the rooster didn't wake me up, my aunt Ame did. I guess she didn't realize that teenage boys like me liked to wake up at around noon during the summer. I guess I couldn't blame her. She'd never had kids before.

In some ways, I guess being at this ranch was fun, but I hated having to do all the chores. In the city, at my house, it wasn't like this. I could relax and go to bed whenever I wanted. I liked to wake up late and get breakfast made from my mom. It was a familiarity I hadn't realized I'd become so accustomed to until I left.

Mom wasn't that great of a cooker, but truthfully it wasn't about the cooking. I just missed her in general. It would've been a lot cooler if she could have come, but she was stuck at that stupid job that she had to do so we didn't get kicked out of the apartment. I honestly didn't think Aunt Ame would have minded if we came to live with her, but I knew my mom would never have allowed that. Her pride would have stopped her. She had never liked the countryside anyways.

Both girls had lived in the city for their childhood, but when Aunt Ame was old enough, she moved away to this small town in Florida, found her love, and took care of this ranch with him. She didn't like the bustling noise of the city. It was always so funny how the sisters had completely different preferences in lifestyle, but deep down, they both were the same.

I had made some friends like Jonathan Mayer, a boy who lived just down the street. There was also Jack and Aubrey. They were best friends but anyone could tell that those two were perfect for each other if they looked hard enough. I barely knew Aubrey, but Jack and I were close since we'd met in New York before.

One thing that sucked though, was that they were all farm kids. They were used to waking up at ungodly hours just to get the eggs from the chickens or feed the pigs. They were all probably out there already, almost finished up with the morning chores.

I walked into the kitchen and got out an egg carrier. My first task for this morning was getting the eggs from the chickens outside. It seemed simple enough from an outsider's perspective, but those chickens were little devils. Getting their eggs had cost me a lot of scratches. My aunt said it was just because they didn't know me, but eventually they'd come to know who I was. She talked as if I was going to stay here much longer...no offense.