Mermaids, Trigonometry, and Everything In Between

The 3rd Thing

"Eva! Are you even listening to me?" I whisper-yelled at my best friend through the phone. As the girl who always sat next to me at finishing school and chatted the day away with me, I couldn't imagine telling anyone else about my parent's ridiculous decision.

"'Course I am, Elly. You're going to Brecker Heights. I hear they have, like, seven waffle makers in their cafeteria." She replied, casually brushing off the severity in my voice.

"Wait, what? Seven freaking--No, that's not the point! I'm talking about the Brecker Heights. You know, the one with man-eating monsters--"

"--with great taste in music--" she interrupted.

"--and whole packs of werewolves--"

"--the rugged type of werewolves--"

"No, I mean 'big-claws-sharp-teeth' type of werewolves. And real live vampires. Do you not see a problem here?"

"Look, I think you're stressing. Obviously, if any of these guys wanted to eat you or impale you alive, or whatever, they wouldn't be letting you near them. Gawd, I wish I could spend the day with a real live vampire."

"W-well," I stuttered, "the worst part about Brecker is that it's not Atlantica. I really wanted to be there with you and the rest of our class when we went to high school."

"I dunno about spending freshman year with all of us, but do you know what I heard from Amara's cousin? Turns out Meridia's dad is getting relocated and guess which school system she's moving into?" she said the last part in a sing-song voice so I could instantly tell.

"Brecker Heights? No way. Saying sayonara to Meridia was, like, the one good thing I could come up with about leaving." I thought back to our years together: her ever-glamorous style, my paleness in comparison. All those condescending looks and snide remarks whenever she passed me in class riled me up to no end on my own. Yet for some reason, in her presence, I always managed to get hung up on everything she said. What a sea-witch.

"You know what you've gotta do? Enjoy the rest of your summer. You've got, like, three weeks left. That's practically forever if you live in the now--" she stopped for a moment, and through the receiver I heard the muffled sound of a door opening, and a short conversation, "Parents are calling me down for dinner, so I gotta go. You have fun at Brecker, kay?"

"--wait!" I called, but it was too late. She already hung up. So much for venting. For one thing, she was right though. Three weeks would be a long time.

***

I was utterly wrong. Three weeks had tragically escaped in record time since my parents sealed my fate here. Now, it was surreal that I was standing at the gates of the school with a tight grip on the handle of my suitcase. Brecker Heights High School: on the outside, it was like any other otherworldly, non-human establishment, but I knew once I crossed the threshold, aka the double doors that led to the entrance hall, everything would be about to change.

I shut my eyes, wishing hard that I might be able to go back in time. It didn't work, obviously. Even if I wanted to turn back the clock, the Modern Day Genie Association had long since banned wishes that altered the space time continuum. Instead, I turned my head to face my parents.

"Ready, little minnow?" Mom urged me forward.

I nodded hesitantly, "Ready as I'll ever be." And down the rabbit hole, we went.