In the Deep *Book Two* Water Trilogy

One

Finn's POV

The first day of high school was like nothing I had ever experienced before. People jammed the hallways, bells ringed too loudly in your ears, and everything was hectic. If Audrey had told me what being human was like, I would have wished her into a merperson. Being human was hard.  

"Hi, welcome to Ocean Side High," a girl with shoulder length, dark curly hair said as she stood near the edge of my locker as I struggled with the combination. "Here let me help you."

I stepped out of the way, allowing the girl to attempt to open it. Her actions were very precise and quick as I read off the numbers.

"Thirty, Thirty Two, One," she confirmed with me before she gave the lock a single pull and it came off.

"How did you-"

"I have skills," she laughed while sticking out her hand and introducing herself. "I'm Sarah Anderson." 

"Finn Laidley," I shook Sarah's hand. She was much shorter than I, standing only a few inches taller than five feet. "Thanks for opening my-"

"Locker of Hell," she muttered as she looked into it. All the lockers were blue inside and out except for mine. Red streaks of, what I hope was, paint looking almost like blood was running down the sides and spilling to the bottom. Sarah reached forward and touched it, the tips of her fingers came back dry. "Well it's safe to stick your stuff in. The only problem is everything you put in there is going to stink like paint. You should probably tell the office about this while your at it." 

"Good idea," I sighed before giving my locker a good shove shut. "I better head to my second period."

"Yeah, me too," she smiled before walking off, her black corkscrew curls bounced as she went. I struggled to find my way to study hall in the library, which other students seem to call free time, making it seconds before the bell. I sat down at a light wood table next to Audrey.

"Hey," I whispered to her, smiling. She kept her head down.

"How's your first day?" She asked quietly.

"Insane," I laughed. "Yours?"

"Insane pretty much sums it up," Audrey agreed with me. My eyes narrowed as I watched her. A yellow pencil tapped repetitively against the surface of the table while her right leg shook constantly. "Have you seen anyone you didn't expect to?"

Her questions caught me off guard. "What? No. Why?"

"Just wondering," she said sounding slightly annoyed. She flipped open a small book titled Greek Mythology. Confusion washed over me. I felt something was wrong, but with her seeming to be in a bad mood, I was slightly afraid to ask. I shook my head and decided to wait for her to tell me rather than interrogate her. I looked around the room and human watched. Some were whispering to each other, others were working on some small assignment they had already been giving on the first day, and others were reading books.

 I sat there next to my girlfriend doing nothing.

Finally the bell rang. Audrey continued to ignore me as we walked out of the library and the thought crossed my mind that maybe I had done something.

"Is everything okay?" I wrapped my hand gently around her wrist and pulled her towards me. She sighed before leaning forward and resting her head in the center of my chest.

"I'm just tired," she mumbled. "Something happened in English and it just put me in a mood. I don't really feel like talking about it."

"Alright," I said as I looked down at her blonde hair. She had it straight and it had grown, from the first time I had met her, from her shoulders to nearly the middle of her back.

"I'll see you at lunch," she said before giving me a quick kiss and walked to her next class. The kiss left me feeling dazed as I went to find my next room. Audrey had that effect on me. The next class I had was something about Web Design and I ended up having to run up a flight of stairs to the second story.

I came in and sat down at a desk. In front of me was a weird thing I had heard Audrey at some point called a computer. I looked down to see the alphabet out of order on some rectangle thing that I was able to pick up and move. Humans had the strangest technology. I had only seen Audrey use the device a few times and I had never leaned, now I assumed I would regret not asking her before.

"Hey, Finn!" I heard Sarah say as she pulled out her a chair next to me. "I guess we have web design together, which is probably a good thing considering I don't see anyone else I have ever talked to in here."  

"Me either," I said and she laughed at me.

"Yeah, but you're new so you have an excuse."

I shrugged my shoulders and agreed. The teacher, who's name was Mr. Helms, sat at his desk and watched as everyone continued to file in. Eventually he looked up and told everyone to be quiet.

"I am Mr. Helms, this is Web Design, and if I do not call your name during role," he said. "It probably means you need to take yourself elsewhere or show me your schedule." He called role. "Sarah Anderson?"

"Here," she said as she raised her hand. In my first period I had watched other students have there names called out from a list and they told the teacher they were present. After almost screwing up and forgetting to say here, I finally understood the process. When he got to my last name he looked up to see where I was.

"Finn Laidley?"

"Here," I answered loud enough for him to hear me. A few girls turned at the sound of my voice and stared at me. My eyebrows raised as I looked them in the eyes. They blushed and turned back to the front of the room, giggling. Did I have something on my face? I wiped at it just in case.

"Looks like you have a few freshmen crushing on you," Sarah whispered to me. I held back a laugh and shook my head.

"Was that what that was?" I asked. I tried to sound like I was joking but it was an actual question.

"A boy like you not knowing? Please, I bet you have girls doing that all the time," Sarah rolled her eyes and chuckled softly. She looked away, not seeing the confusion cross my face. Boys like me? What was that supposed to mean? I wasn't a boy; I was a prince of Atlantica.

"In this class," Mr. Helms continued as if no one was having side conversations. "You'll learn how to build websites, work different programs on the computer, and eventually you will create your own website."

"Like Facebook?" A young guy asked on the other side of the classroom.

"Yes, like Facebook."

I paused to think as everyone in the room started talking. I faced towards Sarah.

"Sarah, what's Facebook?" I asked stupidly. The expression on her face was priceless.

"You have to be joking," she said. When I shook my head her jaw dropped. "Have you been living under a rock?"

"More like the bottom of the ocean," I grumbled.

That night I sat at Audrey's dinning room table with her family as we celebrated Audrey's eighteenth birthday. We sang a song I didn't know that repeated happy birthday more times than I cared to sing; but, I did it for Audrey anyway and it got one hundred times better when I got to eat a thing called chocolate cake. 

"You like it?" Audrey asked next to me with a small smile. As the party had gone on her emotions had been changing drastically from happy to sad, and at some points she seemed to space out as if she didn't have anything better to do. 

"It's delicious," I admitted as I stuffed another forkful into my mouth. "It's so fluffy." 

Audrey laughed. "That's because my mom makes the best cake, Finn." 

"Well, since it's the only piece I have ever had, I'm not going to argue with that statement." 

"I'm just kidding," she nudged me softly with her shoulder.  "My mom? Cooking? Please. she bought this from the store." 

Now that Audrey had pointed it out it was really strange for Audrey's mom to actual bake something that took more than a few minutes and have it taste good. 

I laughed. "That was a good one."