a Tail of Two Cities

a Tail of two Cities (it sucks to be a mermaid in love)

Alright, this is my first story. :-) It is told from three points of view: Cammie Sanders, the main character, Ben Knight, the hot boy in shining armor, and Seth August, the sarcastic villian that knows Cammie's secret. I hope you enjoy it :-))

CAMMIE (P.O.V.)

The wind whistled through the cracks in the windows of my rusty old pickup truck. Rain pelted the windshield and my wooden cross hanging from the mirror swung violently. I could hear the tarp covering my luggage in the back of the truck flapping. And suddenly a new noise appeared- the whine of my engine.  

"No, no no no no!" I pleaded, rubbing the wheel gently as if that would somehow help. The big car gave a mighty groan and slowly halted, the crappy brakes squealing the entire time. The cross stopped swinging but the rain still drilled my tin deathtrap of a car.  

I slapped the wheel this time, cursing the car, the rain, the wind, and this whole stupid trip I decided to take. The horn pierced the otherwise silent storm, snapping me back to reality. I looked at the dark sky. The full moon was struggling to peak through the murky clouds, but only a dull glow could be seen. The thought of the forlorn moon, begging to be seen in the dismal night sky filled me with such loneliness that I gave up trying to start my car and crawled to the backseat. I tucked a tattered old sweatshirt under my head as a pillow and scrunched my cold toes together. Squeezing my eyes tight, I struggled to fall into sleep. Finally, after what seemed like hours, I fell fitfully asleep listening to the rain drop like pennies falling on my roof.

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I awoke to the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel road. Immediately I slunk to the corner of the truck, fearing the worst. Too often as a kid I had snickered at characters in scary movies that were stupid enough to go places in the night by themselves, and here I was in the same situation I had mocked. A little voice in the back of my head told me I was jumping to conclusions, but the dim clock on my dashboard told me nobody besides a killer would be up at 4:20 in the morning. I crouched down and grabbed the ice scraper from under the passenger's seat. Clutching it, I felt safer though I knew a dinky piece of plastic would not offer much protection from anything.  

The crunching finally stopped and I worked up the nerve to look out the window. I raised my head and saw a face staring back, his features lit by the now bright moon. We both screamed and I tumbled into the backseat. The truck door opened with a squeal and I felt a firm hand grab hold of mine. He pulled me up and I got a good look of his face.  

The person lit by the moonlight was boyish but built. His sandy blond hair neatly brushed the eyelashes surrounding his ice blue eyes, and his faded blue tee stretched a little around his biceps. He was definitely the kind of boy every girl at my old school in Florida would go crazy for, and I admit he made my already fast-beating heart speed up a bit. There was absolutely no way this boy was a murderer. Silently, I chided myself for being such a baby and sat up.  

"Hey, you okay?" He asked with a deep voice.  

"Yeah, just.. ha.. startled, I guess," I said in a voice that was far too girlie to be my own. His eyes drifted to the ice scraper that was still in my hands. In grasping it so hard, my knuckles had turned white. Embarrassed, I dropped it.  

"Got a name?"  

"Cammie. Cammie Sanders."  

"Sweet. I'm Ben." He stuck out his hand and I awkwardly shook it. "You new around here?"  

"That obvious huh?"  

He grinned and looked at the luggage filling the back of my truck. "Sort of. I think it was the ice scraper as a weapon that gave you away." He grinned even wider.  

Not knowing how to react, I said, "Sorry, I'm not used to strangers at my window at four-thirty in the morning." I smiled, hoping my comment wouldn't sound rude.  

"We aren't strangers anymore," he remarked, "and trust me, it's not up to me to be out this early. Boss's orders." He pointed to the tow truck he had arrived in. My face flushed and I couldn't make myself look into his eyes.  

"Ah, so you aren't a murderer then."  

"Not at all. Need a jump?" He gestured towards the tow truck again. "No charge."  

I smiled wide and stepped out of the car, taking special care to not let the water droplets still on the doors to touch me.  

"So, what brings you to Wisconsin?" Ben asked after some small talk, looking up from the cables he was using to jump my truck. His blue eyes were so pure, so innocent, that the truth was on the tip of my tongue, dying to be told. I swallowed it down and launched into my fake, rehearsed story.  

"My parents are obsessed with 'keeping up with the Joneses,'" I began, hoping he was familiar with that term. "Everything they have has to be bigger and better than everyone else's in our neighborhood. They worked like crazy to have the best car, the nicest house, and the biggest pool. I didn't see them much growing up, but I knew they were struggling. So when we lost our house and had to move into a trailer park, they still didn't learn. We had the biggest trailer, and my mom went as far as planting daises around the entire thing." Ben nodded at me, urging me to go further. "I'm here for the summer to work at my aunt's café to make some money for college. Maybe you've heard of it, it's called Melrose Pier?"  

"Ah, everyone knows Melrose Pier. You'll love working there." He closed the hood of my car and announced that he was done.  

"Thank you so much, you saved me!" I gushed, shaking his hand.  

"No problem, Cammie-Sanders-from-Florida," he said, all in one breath. His eyes lingered on mine a second too long before he walked back to his truck and drove off. I watched the mud his tires spat up until he was just a speck in the distance and sighed, sagging against my car. It felt horrible to not tell this beautiful boy the truth. In all honesty, I had kept my story as real as possible. My parents were crazed with being better than their neighbors, we were stuck in a trailer park, but that's not why I moved here with my aunt.  

A droplet of water from a nearby tree fell on my arm, reminding me of the lie, the reason I was on a road in the middle of Wisconsin. I rushed to get a towel, because the truth is, when I get touched by water, I grow gills and a tail. I'm a mermaid.  

And somebody knew.

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Alright, thats the first chapter! let me know how you guys feel about it, thank you, and more soon! Im working on chapter 2, which is told in Ben's point of view. plleeeease vote, comment, and tell your friends! constructive critism is loved :-)

update- Ben's chapter will be up soon. The style of writing for each character will be a bit different. Cammie is more snappy and pays attention to dialouge, Ben notices every detail and is much more emotional. and i havent even gotten around to seths style yet, but hahah well get there. hope you guys like chapter one in Bens point of view!!!