Submerged

1

Mina Spring's POV

''Trust me, Cruz, I'll be fine. I'm just going for a little swim...'' I smile sadly, as lies spill out of my mouth. Cruz clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and scoffs. ''Trust you? I do, but I don't want you getting hurt especially after you got caught in the fisherman's net a week ago! If you find another possible way to get hurt again, I'm going to get in trouble.'' He shakes his head, full of shame and disappointment.

I squint, and my eyes wander towards the shoreline. My ride or die was waving at me, with a grin plastered on his face. ''How about we discuss this later? I really need to go for a swim now. Please?'' I plead, hoping that he doesn't turn around. Cruz sighs and nods sadly, and before I can swim away, I catch him saying ''Please be safe, Mina'' quietly under his breath.

I take in a deep breath, and I rush forward to the shoreline. Leo stumbles as he manages to stand on his feet, and runs over to me. I hug him with my human arms that went flying everywhere. ''Leo!'' I beam, and quickly let go of him. A slight blush covers his face and I look away, embarrassed. I take my time and regain my human form.

Leo taps on the screen of his shattered phone, and he quickly puts it away, shyly. ''Hey, Leo?'' I ask, slipping on my fallen dirty sneaker.

''Hm?''

''Don't you have low school today?''

''It's called high school, actually. And of course not! How could I be at school and besides you at the same time?''

''No, that's not what I meant.''

''Right, and yes. I do have school today, but seeing you is a much better offer.''

''Woah.'' I gasp in surprise.

''What? What did you see?''

''Did Leo Torres just compliment me?'' I gawk and snicker.

Leo blushes a dark shade of red,''What? Seriously?''

''I'm kidding fire boy.''

Leo looks anywhere but me, and worriedly checks his phone. A quiet yell echoes against the brick walls. Leo curses under his breath, and grabs my arm. I yelp in surprise, and stand up, dusting my skirt. He drags me towards the cave by the neighborhood full of beach houses all with diverse pop of colors. Once we enter the mouth of the cave, I yank my arm away from his grip and grab onto the wall's ridges.

I gasp for air, as my lungs give out. ''W-What was t-that for?'' I cough frantically. Leo frowns and buries his face into his hands. My eyes wander outside to the shoreline as I take a deep breath. There was a female figure with vibrant red hair. I couldn't make out her face, and decided that it didn't matter. My question was: what or who was she looking for? And why out of all places, here?

''Leo?'' I squeak, continuing to cough. Leo looks up at me and shakes his head. ''I'm not ready yet, okay? I'm not going to tell you yet.'' He sighs, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. Unbelievable. ''Seriously? You literally almost choked the air out of me. And now you're leaving me with questions and confusion on why in the world you did that?'' I spit while I cough a little more.

Leo gawks at me and I stand up, my throat and lungs itching for air. ''Come back and talk to me when you are ready, and when you are not acting selfish anymore.'' I growl and leave the cave in a disappointed and upset mood. The girl was still calling out a word that I couldn't hear, due to my thoughts pouring out of my mind like a waterfall. As I made my way to the water, she runs towards me and I sigh in annoyance. Can't a girl have her own privacy?

''H-Hello?'' She speaks up, with her hands behind her. I stop in my tracks and turn around with a smile plastered on my face. ''Hi there! Sorry if I'm bothering you, but have you seen a boy with dirty blonde hair and redish brown eyes?'' She beams once I eye her down. A boy, with blonde hair and red/brown eyes? Sounds like someone I know.

''Maybe I have, why are you looking for this particular boy?'' I ask, concerned. My eyes wander towards the cave, and I look back at her. She's obviously looking for Leo. ''Well, he skipped lunch today and he never does, since it's his favorite subject at school. For some reason I saw him head this way but I didn't know where.'' She shakes her head and sighs.

''Hm. You should probably look somewhere else, I think I saw him leave in the direction of your school.'' I shrug and point North. She claps in excitement and hugs me, then she runs towards her school. ''Did she just hug me?'' I sigh, and silently jump into the ocean's calming waves. My legs transform into it's natural teal tail and I pull my hair into a ponytail.

I quickly swim back to the castle, afraid that mama and papa as well as Medley would catch me leaving the unguarded grounds of the ocean. Before I reached the other side of the stone gate, Archer snickers to Storm. ''Hey, Storm. Did you just see princess Mina pass by? She's probably out at this time hanging out with her boyfriend or something.'' Archer snorts and leans back in is chair.

I stop and scoff in anger. I quickly swim behind Archer as he continues to talk about me to Storm. Storm's eyes widen and he gawks at me, confused. ''Uh, Storm? What is it? Are you okay?'' Archer asks and squints at his friend. Storm shakes his head and coughs into his arm as a distraction just as Archer was about to turn around.

Archer snorts and leans back farther in his seat, towards my way. I quickly lean towards the left and mouth to Storm ''don't blow my cover''. He nods and continues to smile at Archer cheekily. Archer cracks his fingers and stares into the distance with a bored expression,''Trust me, if I could leave this job, I totally would. My mom forced me to work here before she went thru her passing.'' He rolls his eyes and runs a hand through his sleek black hair.

I immediately swim besides Storm and curl my tail around my body as I sit down. Archer's eyes widen and by the look of his face, I can tell that he totally regrets what he just said. ''I see that you don't want your job anymore, hm?'' I trace my finger down the scales on the top of my tail. Archer nervously scratches the back of his neck and laughs. ''Uh..'' He trails off, blushing furiously.

I ended up leaving the front of the castle with satisfaction at the end.

// ~ //

Can you, BELIEVE IT? tsk, I can't. I actually posted something after 2000 years. And I'm really proud of myself for writing more then I would usually write because I made a deal with my beloved best friend to get a chapter done by today. I'm just really surprised that I managed to get this done instead of falling asleep or spending my time binge watching Netflix shows. Cheers, another chapter will come out by Monday, so stay tuned for that!

Another thing I want to add into my lil ending ceremony is that I apologize for being AFK for about 2 months straight, and not alarming anyone for their sake. I'm on break now so I have more time to catch up on my writing. It's tough being a really young and not trained author y'know? :,)

I hope you enjoy my new story, it's a little similar to Semi but I lessened down the drama and cliff hangers for each chapter because I started to get bothered by it. I'm going to start writing Chapter 2 now, and I hope you like the new chapter titles. It's just the number of the chapter now, because I was too tired of making names for each one. I always ended up expecting the chapter to end up like something, and then I make the title and forget about it. Then the chapter ends up talking about something diverse compared to what I expected, and the title has no part taken in the topic.

sloppy corgi kisses, Angelina.

// ~ //