Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

 

                  The streets looked some-what like the above world, in an under-the-sea way. The houses seemed to be made out of coral, the sidewalks (sideswims?) were probably made of stone. There were mer-folk everywhere, really hot boys not wearing shirts with tails all the colors of the rainbow. Not all of them had two separate fins at the end, some had one that looked like a wales’ tail. Some had dolphins’; others had really strange ones that looked liked eels. The girls had the same variations, but more color. Almost all of the girls’ shells matched their tales. I looked down at my makeshift modest top and realized it almost didn’t cover. I made a mental note to find some fabric.

            I suddenly realized I had fallen behind Garrett. I made my tail do a hard, strong kick (push?) and I put on a huge burst of speed. I caught up with him in no time flat. I kept looking around, but kept Garrett in my sight. After two or three minutes of swimming we had come to a large house, I guessed it was Garrett’s. Mostly it was because he didn’t knock and just swum in. I followed him, rather reluctantly.

            “Mom, I’m home!” he called into a room; I’m assuming the kitchen.

            The house was modest, more or less. The walls were rather smooth, painted a creamy-blue. To the right of the entry way was a staircase going up to a second story. On the floor there was what seemed to be a light blue fungus, I think to be used as carpet.

            “Hey, Garrett, finally. I haven’t seen you for two days. I was beginning to”- she stopped as she came out of the kitchen into the hallway and saw me. She was about thirty-eight with brown hair that matched Garrett's, but she had green eyes instead of blue. She smiled and wiped her hands on an apron she was wearing around her hips. She had a green tail and shells. "Oh, hello, miss. Garrett, who's this?"

            Garrett started up the stairs. "Uh, a girl."

            I said, "I'm Zoë."

            "Hello, Zoë, I’m Garrett's mother. I haven't seen you around. Are you new?"

            Just as I was about to answer, Garrett interrupted me. "She's just visiting, mom. Business or something. Come on, Zoë. I need to show you something."

            By this time I was really confused if he wanted to show me something, or someone. I shrugged and followed Garrett up the stairs. There was a hall when I got upstairs. The walls were off-white, and there were lots of doors. Seven or eight, I think. Suddenly out of one of the last doors I heard a scream and a little mermaid, about three or four came booking it down the hall and into Garrett's arms. He fell back with a little girl on his chest.

            "Garrett! You're home!" her voice was high and squeaky.

            "Hey, Eliza! What's up?" Garrett said, smiling wide. He got back up but Eliza kept hugging his tail.

            Eliza was really cute, but didn't look at all like Garrett. She had blonde hair and brown eyes. Her tail was yellow but she wasn't wearing shells. Instead, she had a strip of fabric around her chest that was orange. I noted to myself to get one of those in pink. She finally got off Garrett and turned to me.

            "Who's that, Garrett?" she asked.

            "Just a girl, Eliza." Suddenly he had become a lot less cheerful. I wondered what he had against me. "Hey, where's Adriana?"

            Eliza shrugged. "I think she went to the mall on a date with Jason. Why?"

            Garrett groaned. "Come, Zoë. We're going to the mall."

 

∽ ∽ ∽

 

            Garrett gave me thirty-two sand dollars to spend, telling me that each was worth twenty Enoros, which the merchandise was priced with. He told me that one Enoros was worth about the same as five dollars on the surface. I thought he was being very generous for giving me so much. He just shook it off like it wasn't a big deal.

            After we left the house but before we got to public roads, Garrett grabbed my shoulder and faced me head-on.

            "Zoë, maybe you should take off that seaweed so you don't look…different. No one's going to care."

            "I'm not going to, Garrett. I don't want to take the seaweed off." I came back at him, just as strong.

            "You like your modesty, I respect that, but others might not. Take off the seaweed." He said it like a command.

            I pointed my finger to his face. "If you even glance at my stomach, I am putting the seaweed back and you'll just have to live in embarrassment."

            Garrett waved his hand impatiently. "Don't worry. I won't. I don't even want to." He looked at me with a face daring me to make a comeback.

            I didn't have one so I kept my eyes on his while I slowly and uncomfortably pulled each strip of seaweed off. His beautiful blue eyes didn't leave mine at all. Finally I finished and I sighed with remorse.

            "Great, now let's go to the mall. There we'll get you some stuff that you'll like." He started off and I regrettably followed him.

            All the way I kept my hands over my stomach and hunched over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I kept thinking people were looking at me. But whenever I looked, they looked away, if they were looking at all in the first place. Garrett kept his eyes in front, but I couldn't help but think he was thinking of me.

            Although it was only a ten or fifteen minute swim, it felt like an eternity. There were thousands and thousands of teenagers heading to a giant coral building. There were many doors leading into the building. Half of the doors were open, letting the currents freely go in. I didn't see many parents, only kids and teenagers. I realized that all the mer-folk were swimming, not in any vehicles. I turned to Garrett, about to ask him something, but turned back, because I forgot.

            When we got in, we were crowded by mer-folk of all ages, even adults. We swam through the huge crowd for about three minutes, long enough for me to wonder where we were going.

            "Hey, Garrett, where're we going?" I asked him.

            "Not far, now. We're going to Ephrium, a store that sells jewelry, clothes, all the stuff a girl or boy could want. By the way, they sell fabric, fabric of all colors and needles, thread, all the sewing stuff that you could use if you were desperate.”

            I mentally thanked Garrett for his concern. We swam for a few more minutes, and I was starting to get the hand of this teenage-mermaid thing. Girls and guys were equal, it didn't matter if you were just friends. Girls mostly stuck together, boys the same. There were stores that looked like the stores up on the surface. Clairse's in here was equivalent to Claire’s in my mall.

Pacific Shark was the same as American Eagle. Up West was the same as Down East, etc.

            Ephrium turned out to a nice store, almost like Head Over Heels, except nicer. There was a side for boys and a side for girls. On the girl side there was colors ranging from light blue to hot pink. The clothes were ranging anything from fin-length dresses to ‘itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow-polka-dot-bikinis’. I eventually found out that Garrett was lying about all the girls wearing shells, thankfully. I decided to check out the shirts and dresses while Garrett looked for Adriana, who I figured was his sister. I told him so and abandoned him. I decided to look at the pink stuff, because my tail was pink. There were a lot of pretty dresses and shirts that were swimming-modest. Meaning they had sleeveless stuff. There was this pink one that I thought was really cute. It cost three Enros, which I figured was fine, mostly because it was only fifteen bucks. I decided to get it.

            I was checking out a hot and light pink necklace when someone bumped into me and the necklace went flying. I turned around, trying to see who it was, when I saw a face even cuter than Garrett's. Obviously it was a boy, but he had a dark green tail instead of a blue one. He was beautiful. He had longish blonde hair that curled up at his ears. His eyes were a heavenly shade of sea green. I smiled as he smiled a perfectly white toothy grin.

            “Sorry, it was my fault. Hey, I’ve never seen you around before. Are you new?”

            I was speechless. Thankfully, Garrett saved me from a really awkward moment.

            “Jason, is Adriana with you?”

            The hot boy called Jason nodded at the less hot boy known as Garrett. “Yeah, we’re here together. Why? Do you need her?”

            Garrett nodded. “I need her to meet miss clumsy here.”

            When he said that uplifting statement, my eyes involuntarily filled with tears. Was that really what he thought of me? I quickly turned away from Garrett and tried to listen to what Jason was saying.

            “…to call her that, Garrett. What’s her name?”

            “Tell me to where Adriana is.”

            Jason hesitated for a second before replying. “She saw one of her girlfriends and rushed off to meet her. I don’t know where she went after that…wait, there she is.” He pointed behind Garrett at a girl that looked just like Garrett in girl form. She had a yellow tail with white fins. She even had an extra fin on each side of her tail. They were the shape of her bottom fin, like an ‘Aquamarine’ fin.

            She came over and punched Garrett on the arm. “Hey, little bro. What’s up? This your new girlfriend?”

            Garrett and I started freaking out. “Ew! No! He ain’t my boyfriend!”

            Adriana laughed. “I’m kidding. What’s up?”

            Garrett rubbed his arm where the act of violence had connected. “Adriana, I need to talk to you.”

            Adriana eyed me suspiciously. “Is it about the really beautiful girl?”

            “First of all, it is about the girl, but I don’t know where the ‘beautiful’ came from.” He smirked on the last statement, making sure I heard. I tried not to show any emotion about even hearing him and instead occupied myself with picking up the pink necklace I’d dropped earlier. “Second, it’s private so…” he looked at her expectantly.

            Adriana blinked then started to speak really fast. “Oh, yeah, of course. We can head to the back room of my store next door. Come Garrett. You two,” she pointed to Jason and me. “Stay.”

            With that she and Garrett were off. Jason blinked before turning to me. “Haha, meet Adriana. So, what is your name?”

            “Oh, uh, Zoë. My name is Zoë.” I smiled sheepishly.

            Jason put out his hand. “Hey, Zoë, nice to meet cha. Are you new?”

            I giggled and shook it. “The pleasure’s all mine, Jason.”

            We both laughed a little and then Jason said, “So, where’d you meet Garrett? You two related?”

            “No, thank goodness. He doesn’t seem to like me very much.” I started fingering with a yellow shirt so I didn’t have to look at him in the face.

            Jason laughed and took my hand. “Really? He’s treating you like sand?”

            “I don’t know what the ‘sand’ thing you’re talking about is, but he does treat me like dirt.”

            Jason paused a moment then shook his hand. “Never mind. But either way he doesn’t treat you very well, does he?”

            My eyes started to fill again with tears (There is a difference between mermaid tears and human tears by the way. Mermaid tears are fresh water and totally stand out as much as salt water in air). “Yeah, but I don’t know why you’re so happy about it,”

            “Yes, he’s found someone!”

            I turned to look at him. “What?”

            He looked me full in the eyes. “Garrett likes you!”