stars

sixteen

Phoebe

I was seriously confused. The girl I had been liking for a couple months, the girl I had known for the same amount of time, wasn't even human! I wouldn't dare tell anyone about her, but I had so many questions. Brooke allowed me to ask, so I asked away, words flowed out of my mouth. I asked so many questions without taking any breaths, I started to get dizzy. I wouldn't stop asking questions, so Brooke had to stop me. "Okay," She laughed. "Slow down, I don't know what you're saying!"

I laughed sheepishly. "Sorry," She laughed again, quieter.

"Repeat your questions. Slower this time."

"Okay, do you turn into a mermaid when you touch water or do you have like a certain piece of jewelry or...?" I asked.

"Well," Brooke said, taking a second to think. "No, I can only turn into a mermaid if I'm at least 90% submerged in water. Drops or a cup of water at a time won't allow me to transform. And to answer one of the questions I kind of heard you ask earlier, no I wasn't born a human. My mother, who is a mermaid, met a human and then poof! I was one of the only hybrid mermaids in my world." I nodded, still in denial that she wasn't just a human. She was half human, I think.

"So... Do you know your father?" I asked. I knew my father, but he lived too far away from me for me to consider him an actual part of my life. She shook her head.

"No, I wasn't allowed to. My mother and the rest of the kingdom deemed humans evil after something that a human did while I was a child." Brooke said. "I don't know anything about him, besides that he was a human. But, it's fine. I don't really want to know anything about him."

"Wait, so if the kingdom considered humans evil," I said. "Does that mean you thought I was evil? Do you think I'm evil?" She shook her head immediately.

"No, no! Of course not! I never thought humans were evil, but I was a bit frightened when I saw you. I was raised on tales that humans were these horrible creatures that would kill us on sight. I never fully believed them, because of my dad and the fact I'm half human." She said, fast.

"Is there magic down there?" I asked. "Or a king with a trident and a long beard?"

Brooke looked confused. "Yes, there's magic. There isn't a king, but there was a queen."

"Was?"

"I'd rather not talk about it..." She looked behind her, at the ocean water.

"Okay, last question for the day," I said. "Got any siblings?" She shook her head.

*

When we arrived at school, Noah immediately ran up to her, smiling. "Hi, Brooke." He said in an overly happy voice. "How are you?" Brooke looked at him.

"I'm good." She looked down. I raised an eyebrow. Why wasn't she blushing and being all smiley? She looked over at me and put on a smile. Noah grabbed her arm.

"I want to talk to you about something, come with me." He said and dragged her away.

"Bye!" I yelled out. I frowned. She probably couldn't even hear me. I walked into school, going to my locker. I saw Lily at her locker, and I desperately hoped she didn't notice that I was there. Brooke wasn't near me and Lily didn't pick on me as bad when Brooke was around me. It was probably because she was friends with Noah. Maybe they're dating? I thought. Hopefully not. Lily was talking to her friends, laughing about something. She looked over in my direction and I hoped she wasn't looking at me. She made a gesture to her friends, saying something, then closing her locker. I closed my locker quickly and tried to walk away.

Someone grabbed my backpack. I stopped abruptly, hoping it was Oliver or Alex, but I knew it wouldn't be. "Hey, loser," Some girl said. "Going somewhere?" I looked behind me. It was one of Lily's sidekicks. I winced, hoping today's beat up wouldn't be too bad. They started to call me names, and push me around. I didn't care. It wasn't too bad yet. I wonder what they'll do to me later...

"Hey, Phoebe!" I heard an unknown voice call out. Lily's friend let go of my backpack, looking behind her. I turned around. It was the girl that was in my gym class. The one who asked if I was okay. I think her name was Angel? "How are you? Can we go to my locker, I have to show you something." I didn't know if this was a part of Lily's plan, but I'd rather have a chance to escape then be surrounded. I nodded, walking towards her. Once we were far enough from Lily, we stopped. "I didn't actually have anything to show you, I just didn't want to see you be hurt by them." She smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks," I said quietly. "You didn't have to do that, you know. I could've just put up with it."

She shrugged. "You shouldn't have to deal with it, it should stop."

"Your name's Angel, right?" I asked. She nodded.

"That's me," Angel said.

I smiled at her. " Thanks again. See you in P.E.?" She nodded, walking away.

*

The classes seemed to speed by until I got to gym class. I saw Angel there, doing the warmups before everyone else. Had she always done that? I shrugged, going to change in the locker room. I opened my locker and found a note. It was a pink sticky note with black pen on it. On it, it said, You can't get away from us that easily again. See you after school. I crumbled it up, throwing it back in my locker. I'll have Brooke with me, and they can't beat me up if I'm with her. She's like my security guard.

I quickly changed, running out to do the things we do every day in here. Warmup, run a lap around the gym, then do whatever we want. I sat down on the bleachers, on my phone. Someone sat next to me, and I knew it was Angel. I looked up at her, and she smiled at me. I felt my face heat up slightly. "Whatcha doing?" She asked.

"Nothing. Just scrolling through Tumblr."

"Anything cool on there?"

"Just a bunch of gay stuff." I laughed. "And an odd post about froyo."

"Do you like froyo?" I nodded, scrolling through the dashboard. "Would you want to go get some after school?" My face went hot and I looked up at her, even though she probably didn't mean it as a date.

"Sure." 

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(Uh I gotta get it out before 12. Happy Halloween! <3)