Mermaids, Trigonometry, and Everything In Between

The 24th Thing

As it turned out, in the following couple of weeks, I had nothing but normal days. Gen had returned late that night and crept into bed and the following morning, we both admitted to being selfish and let the matter go.

We got dressed in the morning, went to our classes, and ate dinner with each other amicably. Practice, which we had originally thought would bring us more time together, ended up doing the opposite. I was far too busy with how hard they pushed us at practice to wander over to the fairies' half of the field and chat with Gen, and she looked fairly busy as well, filling water bottles and directing her fellow fairy teammates.

And so the days passed, and fairly quickly as well. Every passing day seemed to result in more homework, and between that and practice, I hardly had time to think about anything else.

But I was nothing if not grateful. Busy as my schedule was, I had at least smoothed things out with Gen. Not to mention with Seb as well.

No longer was Trigonometry bridled with tension or awkward eye contact, and my intent need to vacate any area that Seb or Ginger occupied had slowly vanished. In fact, class had lulled into a manageable period of time. Neither of my once-threatening seat-mates made much of a fuss when I walked into class and I followed in suit. It looked like things were finally dying down.

Archery, at least, kept me on my toes. I hadn't gone to see the orcs recently, but every day I was late to class (and at this point, my tardiness had become a certainty of life) Aran sent me running laps around the field. Eventually I had good enough sense to bring a pair of tennis shoes in my bag to wear just for that hour.

And then one day, something changed.

Specifically, that "something" was the weather. The weather Nymphs had mumbled today's forecast over the intercom that morning, but as per usual, I hadn't been paying attention. But as I walked out of Trig, snippets of their spiel had started returning. "Storm clouds"..."high-speed winds"...it was all coming back. The winds whipped at me from all directions the minute I stepped outside and I could feel my already puffy hair flying everywhere.

Thankfully, there was no rain yet, but I didn't bring an umbrella that day and I didn't want to think what would happen if I got caught in a rainstorm on campus. I'd be flopping around like a beached whale for who knows how long...

I grabbed my bag tightly and ran in towards the archery field, hoping the winds wouldn't carry me away as I went.

***

"Aran!" I shouted, trying to let my voice be heard through the squalls as I chased up the hill to where the centaur usually practiced. When I finally spotted her, Aran's usually sleek ponytail (and horse tail) flew wildly. She drew her bow back and let an arrow fly through the air. Even with the clash of stormy winds, the arrow came remarkably close to the target.

But not close enough.

"Shoot." Aran clicked her tongue, barely registering me as I came up to her side, "I can't practice like this."

I tried to keep my balance as Aran thought through a solution to her problem. I was hoping she wouldn't remember that I was late again and make me run laps in this weather.

I bit my lip and crossed my fingers behind my back when she finally turned to me.

"You." she said, in a directive sort of way.

"Yes?" I replied, in a have-mercy sort of way.

"Follow me." She stamped at the ground and turned to leave while I followed at her heels. This, I figured, would either end very well or very badly.

I felt the first drop of rain a few seconds later. If we didn't find shelter soon, it'd be the latter.

"Aran?!" I asked over the wind, "Where are we headed?"

She didn't look back, but raised a finger in front of her "There."

I peeked around her. Nestled between an outcropping of maple trees was a squarish, small stone building.

"Isn't that the equipment room? What are we doing there?"

"You're welcome to stay out in the rain, mermaid." was her response.

I rolled my eyes where she couldn't see and kept up.

The equipment room was exactly as it sounded; it was where the bows, arrows, and other necessary archery pieces were kept when not used, but I hadn't been there since day one. Aran didn't like other people messing with her own equipment, so after practice she'd take it back herself.

Now, she cropped the door open so I could go in. The room itself was pretty musty, and a lot of the bows had been put away in disarray.

As Aran shut the door behind us, the windows rattled against the oncoming storm. There was a pitter-patter against the stone walls as the rain picked up.

"It's kind of a mess in here," I mused, mostly to myself.

"We're gonna clean it." Aran stated matter-of-factly.

I sighed, but didn't say anything. At the very least we were out of the rain.

"Grab a bow. We'll have to string them first, wax them, de-string them, and put them away in the right place. I'll show you how to do it."

I picked up a sort of small, stout bow from the ground and handed it to her. She picked

up the end of the string hanging off it, stepped through the bow, and before I could even register how she'd done it, had strung it on.

Then, from a pail near her, took out a tube of what looked like chapstick and rubbed it thoroughly along the string. When she'd finished, she stepped through the bow again, unstrung it and placed it on the rack.

"Your turn." she said, reaching for another boy and handing it to me.

"You know," I said, staring at the bow in my hand, "I think we have different definitions of teaching."

Aran moved behind me and moved the bow to an upright position, "You're going to want to step through it here and lean against the wooden part of the bow to bend it enough and loop the string on the notch here..."

She went through each step in detail, and made sure I could string and unstring it perfectly before she let me work on one by myself.

I had started waxing my third bow when Aran broke my focus.

"So, mermaid, how's freshman year treating you?"

I looked up, a little shocked that she--a stoic upperclassmen--would care about my personal life.

"It's fine." I shrugged.

Aran snorted, "And I'm secretly an orc."

I pouted, "Alright, it has its ups and downs."

"You come from a mermaid suburb, right?"

"A what?" I asked.

"You know, a mermaid suburb. Little pockets around coastal cities where mermaids live in groups."

I blinked. I had no idea that other people had a name for that. "Uh, yeah. It's really different compared to here."

"I imagine so." Aran's tail flicked as she strung another bow, "You've had an I'm-new-here look on your face since the first day."

I grimaced, "Really? I was supposed to go to a mermaid high school, but I ended up here instead. I guess I feel a bit dumb."

She was quiet for a moment, setting her finished bow on the rack, "I think we all feel like that at the beginning, but things are always changing. You have to take it in stride."

Take it in stride? And here, I thought I was.

"Yeah, you're right." I placed the bow I was working on on the rack next to the others. Aran had a point. And things had been quiet recently.

Take it in stride, I told myself. One step at a time. By the end of the year, I'd be in a better place. And if I wasn't, at least I had Gen with me.

The thought made me smile and I grabbed another bow and worked until the rain subsided.