Fins

Chapters 1-3

(Kaitlyn to side)

Chapter 1

My parents never let me swim. I never knew why, until now.

I pressed my face up to the car window, watching my Tennessean house grow smaller and smaller as we drove away. I wiped a tear from my eye. We drove by my best friend, Olivia's, house. She was waiting on the porch and waved like a mad person as our car passed. I could've sworn I saw a tear in her eye too, but it was probably a trick of the light. Liv NEVER cried. Not even when she broke her leg playing soccer. She just sat there calmly as people swarmed around her. Crap, I hated moving. Why did Dad have to get transferred? Now we had to move to stupid Florida! Yeah, everyone says it's amazing and stuff, but not when you have no friends! All Mom's friends say it'll be easy for me to make new friends. I don't believe them. Not lasting ones that'll support me through everything. Liv was there when I found out that I was adopted. Someone didn't want me, so they gave me up to dump on some other family. My adoptive parents had told me that they loved me, so the other ones didn't matter. But they did. They gave life to me. But Liv had understood. She had come over that Saturday with hot chocolate and Oreo cookies. She had comforted me, and convinced me to go down and look at the adoption papers. I had finally given in, with her promising me a cookie when I came back, and had headed downstairs. I had seen the papers sitting on the coffee table, snatched them, and had scurried up the stairs before my parents could see me and try to talk. I had set the papers on my bed and leafed through them with Liv. I had seen my birth certificate with my name, Kaitlyn Anne Fredrick. I changed my last name to Dervmont (my adopted parents' last name). But then I had turned the page and saw the big red X on the box for "Parents don't want contact." I had thrown myself on the bed and cried, with Liv rubbing my back.

"Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn," I heard a soft voice say, breaking me out of my reverie. My mom was turned around in the front seat, looking concerned at me. "We're going to Dunkin Donuts, sweetie. Do you want anything?" I ordered my usual, Boston Creme donut with a mint hot cocoa. She ran inside the store and I turned back to the window. My dad cleared his throat. "I know this is hard on you, sweet pea, but we had no choice," he said, looking uncomfortable.

"I know," came my simple reply.

"I didn't want to move either. Especially not to Miami."

"Why not to Miami?"

"I don't swim."

"You don't have to..."

"I know, but I don't want you to!"

Now I was confused. I had never thought about the fact that we never went swimming, because we didn't have a pool anywhere near us. None of my friends went swimming either.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because!" he yelled.

I was saved from having to reply and argue with my dad by Mom jumping in the car and handing us donuts and drinks. I glared angrily out the window. He doesn't want me swimming? Why? What did I do? I just want to live a normal life and do normal things! Doesn't he get that?! I must have dozed off because next time I opened my eyes, I saw the sign for Alabama. I ate my donut and hot chocolate, which was cold now, and hot comfortable. I fell asleep again. I dreamed that we were in Miami and it was night. I had walked out to the water, knowing that I wasn't supposed to. I pulled off my purple sundress to reveal a swimsuit underneath. I dove into the water and had swam a few feet away from the shore when I got a tingly sensation in my legs. I looked down at them in surprise. There, instead of legs, was a tail. I was a mermaid.

I awoke with a start. We were driving through Birmingham. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. It was just a dream. Nothing more. We stopped to eat lunch at Taziki's, a Greek restaurant. The rest of the ride to Miami was uneventful. I played some games with Timmy, my little brother. I listened to some music on my iPod, all the while trying to rid myself of the odd dream. We saw the signs for Miami. About thirty minutes later, Dad pulled up to the new house. It was a modest, light blue house with a gray tile roof. It had white trim around the windows. It was cute, I guess. If it had been in Tennessee, then I would have been all over the thing. But since it was in Florida, it was iffy.