Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

ticket mix-up,” he said after a few minutes.
    I bit my lip as he took my hand, and brushed his lips over my fingers. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
    My breath increased anticipating what he was going to ask. “What?”
    “ I—” his eyes darted away for a moment as if he were gathering his courage. “Would you be my girlfriend?”
    Callahan’s girlfriend? Me?
    I smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
    He leaned forward, about to kiss me again, when Georgia ran up to the table with Jeremy behind her, oblivious to the situation. My shoulders went slack. Would the moment ever be right?
    “ Come on,” she said breathlessly, grabbing both my hands. “I love this song!”
    Knowing the moment with Callahan was over, I let her pull me to the dance floor, shooting him a sad look. He shrugged and motioned for me to go on ahead anyway. Once on the dance floor, I let loose a little and closed my eyes to avoid watching the couples booty grind next to us, but the DJ stopped the song early.
    “ What?” Georgia exclaimed, as the lights in the room grew brighter.
    The tawdry couples moaned at the interruption and finally broke apart. I exhaled and rolled my eyes.
    “ Attention everyone,” Principle Tanner said into the microphone after she tapped the top, making the lame thumping noise. “It’s time to announce our royal court.”
    Georgia grabbed my hand and squealed. “This is it. This is your big moment!”
    The tortellini rolled over in my stomach and I gulped down the bile. No matter what the results, I didn’t feel prepared. I clutched her hand for dear life, hoping I’d be happy with whatever happened.

23
FIN

    After dinner, I contemplated going out for a swim to ease my frustration. After Tatch and Mom started giggling in the back room over some vampire book mom had smuggled into Natatoria, I bolted.
    “ I’m going over to Badger’s,” I called out before disappearing into the inky black waters.
    The crystal ball bounced cerulean shards of light, signaling the land above was experiencing a full moon. The buildings looked like upside down candles, red lava glowing from the gel-covered domes from below. Speckled circles of light came from the windows of the homes, littering the coral canyon around the palace, mer families settling in for the night. The peacefulness of the scene should have been breathtaking, but Natatoria was the last place I wanted to be.
    Within a few short minutes, I arrived at the cave leading to the Tahoe gate instead of Badger’s. Saying goodbye to Dad on this spot just a week ago, it felt like ages had passed. My heart pounded as I scanned the surroundings before ducking inside. My eyes adjusted to the dark of the room.
    I hesitated before pressing the button to open the gate into Tahoe. Underage mer needed permission to leave Natatoria and had to be supervised by an adult male. Grounding or community chores would be the consequences of the offense. Of course, that was already my lot in life. But I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to take the chance. I needed to breathe fresh air and bask in the light of the moon if only for a few minutes.
    The icy water sent a chill up my spine as I swam through Tessie’s mouth into the frigid current. I laughed that my heart hammered even though I knew the waters would be empty. The fact that Uncle Alaster or Colin left the gate entrance unguarded didn’t surprise me. And I’m sure Dad didn’t tell his brother about the movement meter he’d installed that would register higher readings if someone had opened the mouth of the cave. In the old days, Dad and I used to put soft rocks under the doorway so if someone did sneak into Tahoe unnoticed, we’d know and watch for them.
    Gate guarding should have been more about keeping humans from finding the entrance and not keeping mers out—most of them deathly afraid of getting caught to even try. But everyone knew we took our job seriously and didn’t test the boundaries.
    Alaster or Colin could have been somewhere else in the lake, monitoring water vibrations with their tails. But my guess was they were living it up in the basement, eating and drinking everything they could find, and enjoying the oversized TV—the lazy bums. Any mer could come and go right under their noses, and they’d never know—something I planned to capitalize on until Dad returned.
    I swam the 1,600 feet with ease and carefully surfaced to make sure no one saw me before taking in a deep breath of crisp air.