With the Tide

Shark Bait

"Come on! She's working with the sharks." Wally told Conner and Megan as he tried to speed their meandering walk to a faster pace.

"I thought that you wanted to be inconspicuous. Us running through the aquarium would draw attention." Megan smiled slightly at Wally who had tried to push Conner, only for him to stop and look at Wally's fruitless effort. Wally sighed in defeat and sulked next to them in defeat as they laughed and continued their mosey.

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As Persie got off the bus, a bully named Marcus pushed her out of the way with his carrot-top bimbo smirking and adjusting her bikini top to try and show more cleavage. Marcus was a cross country runner, but because he didn't run as hard as some of the more dedicated runners, he had a fair amount of muscle from doing weight traing, and Persie knew nothing about the girl, probably just another passing fling for him. Persie rolled her eyes and shouldered her backpack holding her water suit. She followed the instructor, Mrs. Christensen, as she led them through the aquarium toward the faculty lockersooms so that everyone could change.

Once everyone had changed, including Carrots, who only wanted to wear her bikini, they all filled out to the small room behind the shark tanks that held all the equipment and food for the sharks. They had a safety brief and a demonstration of how to properly feed the fish. Persie wasn't really listening, the pissing contest going on between the sharks on the other side of the wall sharks was very distracting. She was only shook from her stupor when all her peers began to leave the room. She hastened to follow them and quickly caught onto what they were doing. She followed Mrs. Christensen as the woman began to give small details about the sharks. Persie was watching some birds when someone screamed. She jerked in surprise and quickly looked at what the girl was pointing at, freezing in horror: all eight sharks were gathered around the glass looking right at her. As soon as she looked up at them, the sharks flipped out and started screaming about how it truly was the Lord's daughter and how she had looked at them.

'Guys, cut it out! You're making the mortals suspicious. If you act like normal sharks, I promise to pet you while I feed you later.' Persie slightly panicked before she felt a surge of relief as the the sharks immediately swam off with a chorus of 'I left first, I get to be pet first,' and 'Yes milady' After that they all went up onto a platform where there was food for groups to give out to the fish. Percie was in a group by herself, which was lucky because then she didn't have to worry as much about someone seeing her pet the sharks.

As she was leaning over the shark tank to scratch a part of a manta sharks' back, she felt hands roughly slam into her own back and with a shout of surprise she toppled over into the water. The manta darted away in shock before swimming back with the other sharks to make sure she was ok and to keep the other people who were trying to reach her away. Persie gave many reassurances of 'I'm fine' as she swam up and pretended to gasp for air once her head broke the surface. Making sure she was wet, Percie made her way through the crowd to the others who were screaming and holding their hands out for her. Once she had been pulled from the water and had been checked to make sure she was ok, Mrs. Christensen walked up to her.

"What were you thinking? Sharks are predators; they could've eaten you!" She had her hands on her hips.

"Someone pushed me, I don't know who." Percie frowned. A blonde haired girl that Percie could've sworn she had never seen before in class, but still looked familiar, stepped forward.

"The only person I saw over there was Marcus." Marcus sneered at her.

"And I suppose you just sat there staring at us." The girl's neutral expression morphed into triumph as she looked at the teacher.

"Did you hear that? He just admitted to being over there." She turned to Percie, and with a start, Percie recognized those gray eyes. "Was anyone in your group?" At the shake of Persie's head, she turned to Mrs. Christensen who was looking between the three of them.

"I will go to the security room and look at the feed. If your accusations are true, Ms. Dome, then you, Marcus, will be expelled." She sighed and looked around at everyone. "Class dismissed." Persie and 'Ms. Dome' shred a look before following the class at a distance.

"'Ms. Dome'?" Persie smiled at her knowing smirk. "Thanks, Lady Athena." Athena nodded and walked away. 

"By the way, you should contact your family. They've been praying to us almost non-stop about you. Your uncle isn't in the best mood because of this." Athena tossed over her shoulder. Persie frowned in surprise and guilt. She looked at Athena's retreating figure before sighing and following the class.

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Wally stared in mingled horror, relief, and anger at Persie's retreating figure after she was pushed into the shark tank.

"Dude, calm down. You're starting to vibrate." Conner muttered at Wally. Wally took a deep breath and looked around to see if anyone was watching him, but they were all watching Persie as well. He frowned at some high school boys who were ogling her, and went to where Persie should leave the 'Staff Only' area and started to pace.

When the door open to reveal a flood of oddly quiet students, Wally stopped walking and stood waiting. However, when the boy who pushed Persie walked past, he couldn't help putting his foot out and tripping the bully, who fell with a crash. A girl with dull, lifeless orange hair rushed forward with a cry of worry as the rest of the class passed with barely a glance. Wally looked at the bag that she was swinging around so carelessly and saw a name tag on it: P. Jackson. His arm jerked forward and snagged the strap, jerking her back.

"In the future, keep your thieving hands to yourself before problems arise." Wally growled at her, his anger rising. He snapped her arm out of the other strap. The boy he tripped stood up and shoved his ugly face as close as he could to Wally's, which was only around his chin.

"Who do think you are? That's not yours, it's her's!" The boy tried grabbing the bag, but Wally carefully held it out of his reach and slipped it on his own back. He put his face close to the bully's with a sneer.

"I am Persie Jackson's boyfriend, and considering the fact the the name tag attached to this bag says Persie's name and not 'Desperate Hooker,' I'm going to assume this this is neither of yours, and I will return it to it's proper owner." Wally snarled into the paling face of the slime-ball in front of him, but Wally wasn't finished. Drawing even closer, Wally lowered his voice to a whisper. "I will also be informing the police of the attempted murder here today, and I have family members in high positions of the law enforcement, and I'm sure they would also love to hear of this." Wally drew away and was satisfied to see the twit shaking at the mention of the jail-worthy crime that he committed being reported to the cops. Wally noticed movement behind the dunce, who still stood there frozen, and looked up to see Persie standing there in shock and seeming hesitant to come forward. Wally grinned at her, and stepping around the boy, he walked toward her, pulling off the backpack.

"Did I... Interrupt something?" Persie looked between Wally and the quickly retreating back of the boy.

"Of course not. I was just informing him that he just attempted murder and that it wont go unpunished." He offered Persie her bag which she took with a smile of relief and swung it onto her own back. She then took Wally's hand, cousing him to blush, and walked him back to the other couple.

"Lets go get some ice-cream, preferably blue, before you really make Marcus really wet himself." The four of them laughed and walked off to a nearby ice-cream parlor for a not-so-secret double date that they all enjoyed immensely.