Wishing Upon Dandelions

Chapter 12

~Chapter 12~

"Ok, our tracks are all covered and we don't sense any signs of the mermaids. We are safe everyone. Resume your business." Squidy announced and all the chatting recommenced. I waited as patiently as I could for squidy to walk closer but my tail has other ideas.  It was tapping the floor rather annoyingly with loud smacks. And because that was how I actually felt, I didn't try to stop it.

When he was less than a feet away, I stood upright and used my tail fins to mimic the walk of a human. But his mouth opened to a deep laugh and I stopped.

"Would you please enlighten me on what is so humorous?" I asked, standing with my tail on the floor rather painfully.

Even as I stood upright with more height due to my tail, squidy was still towering over me. And that ladies and gentlemen is why being short sucks; it gives you a sense of weakness.

"Well for starters, anyone can see that you can not swim properly nor can you stand. Even a newborn baby can swim better than you." He said in between laughs.

I waited for him to calm down. When that didn't seem to happen anytime soon, I said,"Are we done yet?" He held up a hand and held his other on his stomach.

"You just made my day Fishy," he said.

"Yeah, no problem Squidy," I replied sarcastically.

"I am not a squid."

"Well I am not a fish."

"You are. You have a fish tail," he pointed out.

"Yea, no duh. But there is a huge difference between a fish and mermaid."

"And I have eight tentacles, how does that make me a squid?"

"Yes, you have eight tentacles. But you have two arms. So do the math: eight plus two gives you the sum of ten." I said it like I was teaching a first grader how to add.

"Whatever," he retorted. Wow, that's the best comeback he's got?

"Ok, since I am obviously doing this whole swimming thing incorrectly, why don't someone teach me?" I asked seriously.

"Ok, any volunteers to help Fishy out?" Squidy announced. There was no raised hands.

"Come on, I'm not that hideous am I?" I joked, but still there was a pang in my chest. They stared at me with wide eyes, still no one made the move. Great, I didn't even spend time with them and they are already intimidated.

"I voluntee-" Tyden started to say but stopped mid sentence, "Hey, Storm, why don't you teach her? Everyone else needs to train for the battle and you are easily the best. Hell, you don't even need to train yet you still come to practice. Since you have all the free time now, why don't you teach her?"