Tipping the Scales

7. Pink

Matilda was the best and most supportive friend ever. She had kept my secret, but I always knew she would. I could trust her with my life. In fact, I did trust her with my fish life. She had only found out the day before yesterday, but she acted like she had been in on the secret for ages – I liked it. Well, I had only found out I was a mermaid the day before I told her. I was so relieved to have someone on the inside, looking out for me. 

"Hazel, for the fourteenth time, get out of bed!" Mum screamed up the stairs to me.
I didn't even realise that I was awake – I hadn't heard her call out to me before that. I was lying on my stomach and mumbled groggily.
"Hazel!"
I still didn't move. I then heard someone coming up the stairs – I knew it was coming. I could feel her standing at the door, looking at me angrily and then marching over to my bed.
"Hazel, get up now!" she pushed me so that I rolled over onto my back. I moaned. Then Mum did her famous 'wet-hand treatment' – she put her wet hands up our shirt. It certainly did the trick. She'd been using it on us ever since I could remember. But then I fully realised – her hands were wet!
"Mum!" I exclaimed.
"I told you to get up."
I quickly pulled my covers up to my chin. I could feel the transformation and saw the end of my bed puff up.

Luckily Mum left the room then, but she left the door open! How was I going to get out of bed? With my luck, someone was going to walk past and see me. Zeke would probably come in and start annoying me...
"And we thought Zoe was the stubborn one!"
As if right on cue, he came sauntering in to my room.
"Zeke!" I exclaimed, "If you're in here, could you at least pass me that towel over there?"
I nodded towards the hot pink towel that was hanging over my desk chair.
"What for?" of course he wanted to know.
"I, uh, spilt my drink bottle."
"Can't you get it yourself?"
"Nuh."
He sighed and groaned and chucked the towel to me as he walked out of the room.
"Thank you!" I called after him.
I quickly dried myself and soon I was a human again, back in my pyjamas.

I went downstairs for breakfast. I got my cereal out of the cupboard and put some into a bowl. I didn't add milk, as I never do. Mackenzie was sitting at the dining table reading The Little Mermaid. She wrote it on her book list.
"Hazy, do you believe in mermaids?"
"I don't know. Do you?"
"Yes, I do! I saw you with a mermaid tail!"
I froze. I thought she had forgotten! So I lied, like I had to.
"No, I was practising an Ariel costume."
"Really!? I love Ariel! But what for?"
"At school we are doing fairy tales in drama."
"Oh. But The Little Mermaid isn't a fairy tale! It's a movie!"
She was right. It was a Disney movie, not a fairy tale!
"We are also doing movies."
"Cool! Can you show me-."
"We need to get ready for school!" I interrupted her.
She made a sound of disappointment and pouted.
"But I don't want to!"
"Come on, Mackenzie."
I sternly ordered her. She actually went upstairs then.

I ate my breakfast and then finished getting ready for school. I bumped into Zoe in the hallway and she gasped when she saw me.
"What?" I asked curiously.
"Your eyes... they're, they're... pink!" she replied in disbelief.
"Pft, as if, Zoe. How could they be... pink?"
I realised just before I said pink that this could have something to do with me being a mermaid. I quickly rushed over to the hall mirror and gazed into my eyes with disbelief.
"What? They're not pink!" I stuttered.
"Uh, yeah they are."
"No they're not. I don't know what you're seeing, but to me they look like their normal hazel colour."
She peered into my eyes with confusion. She shook her head and walked off. The truth was, they were pink, but only a very light tinge creeping in with the hazel. I concluded that it definitely had something to do with my newfound fishiness.

When I greeted Matilda at school, she gasped in shock when the saw me.
"What?" I wanted to know, "Is it my eyes?"
"Yes! They're... they're... they're hot pink!"
"Wait, hot pink? They were only a very light pink half an hour ago."
"Well they're hot pink now." I was shocked that the colour had gotten darker and brighter.
"Do you think this has anything to do with...?"
"Yes." She cut me off quickly, knowing what I meant.
"But what does it mean? It hasn't happened before."
"You've only been a mermaid for... four days."
She tried to remember how long it had been. Seriously, she was like a personal secretary. She probably knew more than I did about this mermaid jazz.
"Well, you seem to know everything. What's this about?"
"How am I supposed to know? You're the mermaid!"
A passer-by stared awkwardly at us as if we were crazy. We went silent and looked at him out the corner of our eyes. After he passed us, I continued to scold Matilda.
"Can you keep your voice down please? I don't want people knowing about this!"
"As if they'd believe it. I didn't at first."
"True. But I still don't want them to think we're crazy."
"Yeah, I'm not crazy! What you are is crazy!"
"Hey!" I didn't take it as an insult because it was true.

There was a loud rumble – a despicable, threatening rumble. Matilda and I looked up at the same time to see dark clouds shrouding the sky and then they started to drip. I'd learnt to recognise one tiny drop of water, and I recognised it this time.
"It's raining!" I alarmingly told Matilda.
"Quick!" she ushered me into the locker room and into the toilets where I used the paper towels to dry the spot where the rain had landed on me. I breathed a huge sigh of relief once I was dry.
'That was close," Matilda commented.
"This is going to be a disaster! How am I supposed to get to class without getting wet? I don't want to get in trouble by missing class."
"You have an umbrella, right?"
"Oh come on, what's that going to do? You have just as much chance of getting wet with an umbrella as you do without one."
"True. Maybe it will be safest to get to the classroom now before the rain really starts to pour."
"Good idea."
Just then we heard a toilet flush – and boy, were we out of there quickly!

"Oh my God, someone could've heard everything we just said in there!" Matilda whispered to me once we were at my locker.
"They're not going to know it was us, unless it was one of our friends," I reasoned.
"I know, but if they ever hear us talk they'll recognise our voices and start spreading the word that we're crazy."
I just stared at her strangely as if she'd just come up and tried to kiss me.
"You really think deeply, don't you?"
"Well someone has to think practically in a situation like this."

We looked at the entrance to the toilets, but no one came out. It was a little strange. I got my books and waited outside my pastoral care room, and Matilda loyally waited with me.
"Thanks Tilly. You've been a great friend through all this. I don't know how I'd cope without you."
"Aw, that's okay! I love being in on your little secret – being the only one!"
We chatted a bit more until one of the girls from Matilda's PC, which was next door, came over carrying an umbrella and stood above us. I was sitting closest to her.
"Hey, Cassidy," I greeted kindly without looking at her – I had to shield my eyes.
"Hey Hazel, Matilda," she replied.
Now we weren't the best of friends, but we were just casual friends. I was friends with most people in our grade. She wasn't someone I'd hang out with outside of school or anything, but we were basic friends.
"This rain is terrible," the blonde commented. Someone shy commenting on the weather... how unusual. But just then, the most unusual smell wafted to me. It wasn't unpleasant, but it certainly wasn't anything like I'd smelled before.
"Yeah, I don't like rain," I replied.
"Me neither. I hate anything wet."
I tilted my head and looked at Matilda with raised eyebrows.
"Uh, yeah, we do too," Matilda told her.

Just then, the bell rang and Matilda got up to go to her pastoral care class – which was four metres way. She and Cassidy set off, in conversation about something. I sat there worriedly looking at the heavying rain. Seriously, what was I going to do once I had to leave this building? Pop a tail in front of everyone? No way! That wasn't going to happen! Or... I could start a fire to distract everyone and then make a run for it! No, too dramatic. I'd have to have Matilda protect me. If I wasn't a mermaid she'd probably ditch me to go off to her class like she used to. But now since my life has changed, so has hers. Of course mine was on a much bigger scale (literally) but now she felt she had a responsibility of looking out for me and keeping me dry. I couldn't let her devote herself to me like that, could I? Still, it's her choice. And I'm extremely grateful, don't get me wrong, but she is some friend if she's going all out to watch out for me – I secretly loved it. I was so grateful for her. She was more than a friend. And, no, I don't mean it in that way! I mean that she's like a protector as well.

After homeroom was over, I headed out the door and Matilda was waiting dutifully outside against the wall. I was getting all emotional for some reason and started tearing up. I went over to her and hugged her. She hesitantly patted my back – I think she was in shock. She probably thought I took her for granted.
"Oh, okay..." her statement sounded more like a question.
"Thank you so much," I blubbered onto her shoulder, "You are awesome. You've protected me and my secret. You're the best friend anyone could ask for!"
"Aw, thanks!"
I pulled away and looked her in the eye. She had a perplexed look on her face.
"What?" I asked.
"What are you going to do about your eyes?"
"Oh, I'll just pull the 'I got contacts' story."
"Do you think people will believe you? I mean, pink contacts, do they even exist?"
"Well they'll have to believe it. How else would I explain it? A sudden eye colour change?"
We both burst out laughing – that was what had happened.