Chapter One

Just a day in the life of a Siren :)

        Cold, icy water poured down my entire body like a relentless waterfall. My back went rigid for reasons other than the piercing cold, although that really had a lot to do with it if I were being honest with myself.

         “Ahh!” I shrieked, backing away from the freezing water. I took several deep breaths, trying to downplay the sudden dark urge to return to the sea and completely let myself go. I was at least thankful it was fresh water, rather than salt. Not that it really lessened my anger.

         It took me exactly two seconds to deduce the culprit in this heinous act. It took me even faster to respond.

         Garret White was standing right behind me with an empty silver bucket in his hand. His overconfident, smug grin and playful green eyes told me everything that I needed to know.

         I spun around quickly and kicked him in the center of his chest. His annoying grin disappeared and was replaced with a surprised grimace. A painful hiss slipped out of his mouth before he tumbled into the walrus exhibit with a large splash. He should have known better than to dump water on me so close to the edge.

         “You know I hate getting water on me!” I yelled angrily when Garret surfaced. He whipped his head to the right, slinging his dirty blonde hair against his face. He started to breaststroke to the edge with an amused smile.

         “You weren't wearing your wetsuit. I couldn't pass this opportunity up.” He grunted as he pulled his body up from the water. He stood up straight, towering over me in his massive height. He shook his hair towards me, and tiny droplets of water sprayed against my face.

         “You...” I couldn't think of an adequate description for how I felt about him right now. He knows better than to get water on me. I've made it perfectly clear how I felt about unwanted water.

         “Don't work at an aquarium, genius.” Garret said. “You're going to get wet.”

         We were standing mere inches apart, and I backed away from him, resisting the urge to kick him in the torso again. Both of us were completely drenched, and water was dripping audibly on the concrete.

         “I'm going to go change.” I grumbled as I headed back inside the Employee's Only entrance. I grabbed the last towel off of the shelf. Maria must be behind on her laundry duties.

         I thoroughly dried my face and the back of my neck. There was nothing I could do about the rest of me until I changed out of my soaking wet clothes. I clenched the navy blue towel in my fist. My thumb pressed over the embroidered SeaPark letters.

        The door was shut to David's office, and for that, I am thankful. My boss didn't like it when we walked around soaking wet without a wetsuit. I can't imagine why. In my defense, I didn't think I was going to be outside for very long. I wanted to ask Garret if Molly, our pregnant beluga whale, was ready for another exam. Little did I know that the one minute conversation would turn into a huge ordeal with an a*s dumping water on me.

         I rounded a corner and headed into the locker-room. My eyes zeroed in on a curly haired brunette sitting on one of the rows of wooden benches. Her head lifted when I walked in.

         “Hi, Lylie! Oh...” Her eyes narrowed as she took in my drenched appearance. “What happened to you?”

         “I don't want to talk about it, Meredith.” I grumbled. I yanked on the rusty locker and pulled out my black wetsuit. “You can go ahead outside without me. Put two scoops of mackerel in a bucket for Lucy. Garret can show you where that is if you don't know. I'm going to dry my hair and change.”

         “Okay.” Meredith said with a smile. She left the room, giving me some privacy to change out of my damp clothes. I pulled my shirt over my head, thankful the color was black rather than white. I'm sure Garret would have loved seeing me in a wet, white t-shirt.

         I continued stripping and towel dried the rest of my body. I felt immensely better after I was nice and dry. I stepped into my wetsuit and zipped it all the way to the base of my neck. I walked over to the hand dryer and bent down to put my hair underneath, feeling the pleasant warmth of the machine. It didn't take too terribly long for my hair to finish drying, so I threw my hair into a ponytail and braced myself for the rest of the day at work.

        I should have made a double shot espresso rather than one this morning. I could tell it was going to be one of those days.

Author's Note

Comments and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :)

Reviews

[avant security guard]

very well written and formatted--good dialogue--I like the contemporary urban semi-fantasy stuff--this is very realistic--that's hard to write

[Strigoikillerr]

Thank you!! =)