The First Swim ; A Mermaids Story

Part 3

Knock. Knock. Knock. I wake to the sound of knocking on our bedroom door. I let Nitesha keep sleeping.

"Come in Mom," I say.

"Ummm, I'm Lewis your personal guide not your mom." I hear a deep voice say. A thought shoots through my mind. The ship oh yeah that's right!

"Come in," I say. In walks a tall skinny man with blonde floppy hair.

"I have the ships schedule for today."

"SCHEDULE?" I shriek, accidentally waking Nitesha. As soon as she sees him she shoots out of bed saying hi in a strange voice, and runs through her hair quickly with her fingers.

"Uhh, yes. You do not always need to follow it, but these are the activities for today. As you can see, lunch, breakfast and dinner are all day. Just because people eat at different times." Lewis explains.

I lean up on my tiptoes and whispered something in his ear.

"I can check." He replies. "My twin brother Zane runs the ship, so he'll probably let you! Also, you need to meet my bro."

"He's cute!" Says Nitesha after Lewis leaves. I look at her with a confused look on my face. I realized that I liked Lewis too!

"What?! He is!" She protests. I laugh.

"You know what? Let's go down to breakfast." I say

"But I only slept 14 hours! I need more sleep!" Tesh complains. That is my nickname for her.

"The average person only needs like 8 hours of sleep. And I'm hungry!" I snap. We walk down to the dining hall.

"Breakfast was so good wasn't it?" Nitesha asks as we walk down to our room. I nod. We had barely shut the door, when we heard a knock.

"Come in!" I say loudly. In walks Lewis and a tall muscular man with dark hair.

"Mya, Nitesha, this is Zane. Zane, Mya and Nitesha." Says Lewis in a professional voice.

"Hey! What's up? I'm Zane. Oh and that little secret you told me yesterday is a yes. I have the supplies in my office. Feel free to stop by whenever and pick them up." Zane has a semi-deep voice. "Oh, who's who? You two look exactly alike!" We start to introduce ourselves.

"And Lewis said you were twins too. Although I can't see the resemblance." Nitesha says with a frown.

"He said we were twins? I mean, yeah, we are, but usually when we introduce ourselves we say it together." Zane says. "You know what? Let me go back to my office and get the materials for you." Lewis leaves with him. Is it just me, or did he seem really nervous? It looked like he was hiding something.

"We should call mom, and tell her how we are doing. She's probably anxious," I tell my sister.

"First, I would like to know what you told Lewis." Nitesha confronts. "What was the secret?" I tell her that I planned on painting a mural of the ocean on all 4 walls of the room.

Knock knock knock. In walks Zane. He puts the painting stuff on the floor and leaves. Brushes, paint, tools all of the essentials. We get started right away. One wall done. I can't believe how easy it is! I mean, it's semi-hard, but easier than I expected. Two walls done. Halfway! Three done. Four. Yay! We both smile. Another great accomplishment. I love painting.

"MOM!" We say simultaneously. "Let's call her up on the deck," I suggest. We go up. We dile her phone number. Bring, bring, on the second ring she picks up.

"Hi girls!" Mom's voice says through the earpiece.

"Hey mom, we just wanted to see how you were and let you know we are OK." Nitesha says. It starts to lightly sprinkle, but my phone is waterproof so, whatevs.

"Mom, the ship is great. Obviously not as good as it would be with you, but I understand why you couldn't be here." I say. It takes all of my strength not to cry. Instead, I clutch the shatter-free case of my phone. "There is two really helpful people on here that are doing awesome at getting us accustomed to ship life. I can't believe it's only day 1, not including the half day yesterday." I say. The rain picks up, so we head back to our rooms.

"I miss you so much girls." Mom says sadly. "The house seems much

more gloomy without you. The other day I was making your beds, and found a small door. I opened it and saw the Ocean! Why didn't you girls tell me?"

"Uh sorry we had no idea that you didn't know about that."

"So when you had to go to your room you-"

"Yep."

"When you 'got sick' you-"

"Yea sorry mom." Nitesha said sympathetically.

"We have to go," I said cutting of what she was starting to say. "We love you, goodbye. See you in a few weeks.

"Love you, bye." She replied.

"I can't believe she found our secret passageway to the ocean!" I yelped. Nitesha nodded in agreement.