Chapter 1

A Chapter by Juliet

Introduction, more like.

“Are we there yet?” The winey voice of my sister carried up to the front of the excursion.

“No, Jessie,” I called back.

“Zoë,” My mom scolded. “Be kind to your sister.”

I was, was the answer I gave in my head. But I knew if I said it aloud I’d get either a lecture or a warning. Another one.

We were on our way to the beach in southern California with all my cousins and immediate family. Sadly, none of them are my age and are all at least three years younger than me. I am 15 years old, with brown hair and blue eyes. I’m adopted, and it is very obvious. Everyone else is bright blonde and has green eyes. Both parents have honey-colored hair with the green eyes. My grandparents used to have blonde, so all my aunts and uncles on this side have blonde hair. And their spouses have blonde too. I stick out like a sore thumb in family pictures.

I’ve always wanted to go to the ocean. Apparently Mom and Dad had adopted me from an orphanage trade-off from California. I’ve wanted to go since I found out. I’ve always had a strange longing to find my birth parents. Cliché, I know. My parents never wanted to go because it coasts a lot of money, and they sure didn’t want to go. Neither did any one else in my family. We were a bunch of no-swimmers.

“No, Jessie, we aren’t there yet. But we will be there soon,” Mom told the kid.

Jessie is about eleven, 5’2, with the attitude of the devil himself, in girl form. She was always getting me into trouble, at school with the teachers, at restaurants, even at church. In front of everyone else, she is the perfect little angel. She never does anything wrong in front of parents, grandparents, or even her friends. But she is evil, evil I tell you!

But she isn’t my only adopted sibling. There’s Joseph, Jessie’s twin brother, who looks exactly like Jessie, but his personality couldn’t be any more different. He is an angel to everyone. He always tattles on Jessie, the only reason Mom doesn’t trust her. He only tells the truth, but keeps secrets, does anything I ask him if it is in his standards, and is a true genius. He is in 10^th grade with me. He has all the same classes, and gets an A+ in all of them. He tutors seniors.

Then there’s Josh, who’s nine, then James, seven, and then the baby, Jessica. Everyone’s name starts with a J but mine. It’s sad, really. Mom and Dad wanted everyone to know I wasn’t their kid. What I don’t get is why they adopted me in the first place, if they were going to have their own kids later on.

“Mom, do we have any other snacks other than cheese sticks?” Josh yelled up from the back.

“Or any movies we can watch?” This was James.

“Josh, James, be patient. I just told your sister that we were almost there. We will check into our hotel in the next hour.” Mom said, dangerously calm.

⌘ ⌘ ⌘

Over two hours later all the kids under eighth grade were asleep. We were still driving, but we were driving by the ocean. The sun was setting over the flat surface, just like in all those paintings of the sun setting over the ocean. It was beautiful. Purples, pinks, oranges, blues, reds, and yellow totally made the scene a dream come true. Mom was snoring in the passenger seat; Dad’s eyes were fixed on the road ahead with the headlights on. It was Joseph and me who were looking out into the sea.

I was just staring off into the sun when a shape jumped out of the water, did a flip, and landed in the water. I squinted and strained against my seatbelt. I turned to Joseph.

“Did you just see that?” I whispered.

Slowly, he nodded his head, looking puzzled. “It certainly had the aspects of a Tursiops truncates, or as you like to call it, a bottle-nosed dolphin. But it did look a little slender.”

I nodded, not totally convinced. I didn’t think it looked like a dolphin, but he was the expert on everything, so I almost believed it. But my eyes have never played a trick on me like that. It looked to me that the back half had a pink tint to it. It seemed to have long front fins, if that’s what they were.

I sighed and faced out the front windshield. It couldn’t be what I thought it was. It was impossible. Just a figure of my imagination. But I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. What if it was real? What if I really did see what I thought I saw? It really wasn’t possible, was it?

The rest of that night, the thought stuck to my mind. A small piece of mythology that might not be myth.

I could have sworn I saw a mermaid.

next chapter