Scribble

Just Keep Swimming: 1

Blurb in the external link! ^^

Alia swam as fast as she could away from the Shark Reefs. She was going to be in so much trouble.

She glanced back, making sure none of the hammerheads were following her. They were sweet and good at tag, but super clingy. The last time she left the reef, two of them trailed her all the way back to the palace.

This time, though, none of them were following her. Good. She was already late to begin with and having to convince the sharks to go back to their home would take ages.

Alia could imagine Dame Lendara, with her wide face and graying hair, slowly getting madder and madder the later Alia became. But the Shark Reefs were so pretty in the morning, and she'd promised Silvia to come play.

Alia slowed down her frantic swimming at the gate of the city, to drink it all in the way she always did. The palace's shimmering mother-of-pearl walls rose high above the town embedded in the sand, houses made of seaweed and driftwood.

A large sunken ship lay in a house less clearing, and little merkids were darting in and out, their laughter loud even from the other edge of town.

Alia shook herself; she needed to be inside the palace, not admiring it from below! Flashing a smile at the guards, she swam up, catching a current up to the palace door.

She swam at breakfin speed into the tutoring room, sliding into a desk, out of breath.

Her sister Anlie rolled her eyes. "Alia, you're totally late!" she scolded in a whisper.

"You think I don't know?" the yellow mermaid demanded, only fake mad. "But I hope your reprimand means you covered for me?"

Anlie sighed. "Against all my better judgment, yes. I told Dame Lendara you were helping Mother in the Gold Room."

Alia frowned. "Now I have to actually help her at some point. Couldn't you have told her I was in the dressing room?"

"Well, seeing as you're barely dressed, no," Anlie snapped, gazing at her younger twin. "Honestly, what under Aarde were you doing that you couldn't put on a bracelet?"

"I have my necklace," Alia pointed out. 

"And it's almost a perfect match for mine, except for the colors," Anlie pointed out. "But you see, I also have my head piece and armband."

There came a clap from the front of the room. Dame Lendara, the tutor of the girls and the other royal merchildren within the kingdoms, was watching them. Her face was not amused. "Girls, are we done chatting?" she asked dryly. 

Anlie blushed. "I'm sorry, Dame Lendara! Will you please continue your lesson?"

"I will, after your sister apologizes also."

Alia sighed, bubbles rushing from her mouth and sat up straighter. "I apologize, Dame Lendara," she told the woman, though her eye-roll afterwards annulled the statement.

Dame Lendara pinched her mouth, but continued her lesson on the Kelp Wars in her loud voice. Alia tried to pay attention, but fell asleep.

She awoke hours later, to her mother's disapproving voice. ". . . Alia, couldn't you have stayed awake a little longer? She's about ready to quit on you! Be more like-"

"Who, Anlie? The perfect daughter?" Alia asked bitterly. "She's not perfect!"

"I was going to say, more like Queen Hylla," the woman said softly, looking up at the portrait she was staring at. "I thought you admired her. She was so much like you, you know. A bit rebellious. But she managed to curb her emotions, unlike a certain princess." Queen Merleah's voice was light, but sad. "I'm sure Halaya is sad. She was so young."

Alia hung her head; Halaya's sister was missing and she had been sleeping in class? What sort of friend was she?

"Alia, I know you get tired in class, and bored, because you naturally need to swim, to adventure. But please try and sleep after class, all right?"

"Yes, mother," Alia said quietly. "I'll try."

Queen Merleah smiled at her wayward daughter. "It's almost lunch time. Get dressed. Wear that pretty bracelet and tail shells I gave you," she urged.

The mergirl sighed, yellow tail swishing back and forth. "Mother, I don't like wearing all those adornments. They get in the way."

"Yes, but you have to look the part, especially tonight. Your brother is bringing a few of his society friends over, and one of the merboys is your age."

Alia rolled her eyes. Being a princess was a constant cycle of parties, dinners, and dressing up for parties and dinners. "Fine. But only this once. Will you send Orila to help me with my hair?"

Her mother gave a soft smile. "Of course, darling. Tell her to put it in that braided style you look so pretty in," she added, but Alia was already out the door.

An hour later, Alia was sitting in the dining room, scowling at the belt around her waist. No matter how much she had protested, Orila hadn't let her leave without it. "How am I supposed to get this off?!" she murmured to herself.

"You're not. You look pretty, 'Lia!" Anlie came gliding into the room, her own green tail adornment-free but for a vine of water lilies wrapping around it. Her brown hair was in the same style as Alia's, but with a flower tucked in.

"I don't want to look pretty, I want to be comfortabe!" Alia scowled and tugged on the belt again. "All these shells and beads make me feel frimpy."

"Alia, you're wearing one beaded bracelet, a simple shell top, a belt and one beaded tail-lace. it's nothing compared to water lilies and our circular braid, which by the way you look great in. I just look boring."

Alia rolled her eyes. "Anlie, your hair isn't boring! It's unique. You're the ony mermaid I know with hair naturally not the same color as her tail. Except Shelani, but hers is just highlighted that pretty green. The rest is still red and matches her tail. But you're naturally different."

"Maybe, but your hair matches your tail. It's normal and pretty. Yellow looks good on you."

The yellow-tailed girl smiled. "It'd have too. Orila says my beads match my tail, the yellow ones, and my eyes, the gold ones. Do you think?"

"Definitely," her sister agreed. "But, it's almost time for us to go in. Do I look nice?"

"We both look nice. Come on." Alia dragged her sister into the formal dinner room and pasted on a smile.