Just Fins Forever!

Chapter 1 - Just Ordinary

My eyes flickered from the board to the window on my right. It was spring here in California, but it was still hot.
My fingers tapped at the wooden desk in front of me, wondering when the bell was gonna ring and send us students flying to the door.
2:10
The clock moves to slow sometimes.
My attention was put back into to the teacher teaching what humans need to be successful in life.
I don't really care what the teacher was saying. It was useless to me. Why you may ask?
Well, because I'm a mermaid!
No really, I am a mermaid.
Just a mermaid in disguise.
Just a mermaid spy.
That's more like it.
Two years ago, when I was fifteen, I was picked to go up to the surface and interact with the human kind. At first, it frightened me, what would I do?
What would I eat? Because I'm pretty sure they don't have sea cucumbers up here.
Would they even like me?
What if they find out what I really am?
Am I gonna die?
So many thoughts ran through my head back then.
"The humans would kill you!"
"They'll eat you!"
"They'll try to do experiments on you!"
That's what my sibling would say every day when I was younger and now that I was chosen, my dear enhanced.
It's funny to think I was afraid of humans, they're just like us, but without tails and fins.
More and more thoughts were filing in my head one by one and the teacher seemed to notice.
"Naomi Johnson?"
My heart rate picked up instantly and I turned to Ms. Knight, my math teacher.
My breathing much more faster than it was suppose to be.
"Y-yes?"
Ms. Knight shakes her head in disappointment.
"Can you restate everything I just taught?"

I gulped and looked down.
Despite her being my favorite teacher, she scares me to hell and back.
"N-no, Ms. Knight. I can't," I replied small and quietly.
She again shakes her head.
I feel like such a failure to her.
Just reminds me of when I couldn't do something my dad wanted me to do, like stand up for myself.
He gave me a look that I never could look at again.
I tried to make him proud so many times, but in the end, he never was.
All I wanted was to make him proud of me before he passed.
Even if he wasn't proud, we still loved each other and that's what mattered.
My head jerks to the back of the class and see Jeremy, a horrible person, laughing at me.
"You can't be kidding me! You can't restate anything since you came here! Might as well drop out of school loser!" His laugh echoed throughout the whole entire class.
My cheeks burned bright and my eyes stung hard. I needed to be strong, two more years of this hell and I can go back, like I promised. I'm about to fire back, but Ms. Knight beat me to it.
"Can you restate anything I said? Since you seem so confident?"
Jeremy stops laughing and his cheeks now turn bright in color.
"Don't start saying bad things about someone that might also apply to you too
Mr. Greer."
The whole class starts to laugh at his cocky attitude deflating and he sinks back in his chair, glaring at me.
I catch his gaze and stick out my tongue.
"Ms. Johnson?"
I whip my head back to face Ms. Knight.
"Yes?"
"I need to see you after class, so we can talk about this."
I nod understanding, this wasn't the first time this year.
I keep coming up with lies because are they really gonna believe," Hey! So I'm a mermaid and I'm doing a job that has me spying on human kind! I'm going back to the ocean in two years so see ya!"
Yeah right, they'll give me a detention slip because I'm being dishonest and all that crap. Besides, I can't blow my cover, or else I'll die.

3:05

When the bell rings, every student flys out of their seats and head towards the door and down the halls.
I sigh as I pick up all my stuff and head for Ms. Knight's desk. She was wiping down the white board while talking.
"You know why I'm talking to you right?"
I bit my lip.
"Yes, I know."
She turns around and looks at me up and down.
"Is there something distracting you? I know this isn't the first time you had to talk to a teacher."
I scratch the back of my neck.
Think of something dammit!

"Um, yeah actually," I sigh.
"Oh? What is it Hun?"

I hesitate a bit.

Should I tell her?

Screw it, I trust her.

"Yeah, my dad passed three days ago," I say while my voice cracks.
That was not suppose to happen.
Her face turned into one of compassion and she engulfed me into a hug, a nice and warm hug that I haven't gotten in two years.
Her hugs reminded me of the hugs my dad would give me as I cried in his chest.
Nice and warm.
Even if I couldn't make him proud, he still loved me with all his heart.
That's the true love he gave me and the true love that I miss so much.
The thought of my father bring out the tears in my eyes and the next thing I know, I'm sobbing into my teacher's shoulder.
I can feel her hand caressing my orange hair over and over.
Another thing my dad did to help me through the tough times.
My sobs got even louder and louder.
"I miss him so much," I whimper into her shoulder.
My arms wrapped around her tighter and tighter, like if I let go, she'd disappear forever.
"Shhh, it's fine."
She grabs my shoulder gently and pry us away from each other.
Her hand comes up to my face and wipes away my tears.
"Looks likes from your reaction, you both were really close. Am I right?"
I nod while trying to collect myself.
"I'm sorry about all this. I didn't mean to be a mess," I apologized
"There's nothing to apologize for. I know how you feel, I lost my mother and father last year due to a car accident," her tone turned into a somber one.
Looks like she needed another hug, to you know, hug away the sorrow.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged Ms. Knight and she seemed to be startled by this.
"I'm sorry," I say.
"It's fine hun, I got over it," she states.
I could easily tell she hasn't, she's still devastated about her parent's deaths.
We stayed like this for awhile.

I was enjoying the warmth I haven't had in two years.
Then we decided to spread apart.
"That felt nice," I say.
"It did, didn't it?" She asks," you should probably leave now."
I look up at the clock.
3:10
"Yeah, you're right."
I walked hastily to the door.
"Naomi!"
I turn to see Ms. Knight smile at me, her eyes watering.
"Don't forget that I'm always here to talk to okay?"
I return the smile on my freckled face and wave.
"I'll remember. Thank you!"
I didn't hear her response as I run down the hall and out the doors and back to my lonely apartment.