Chapter 2: Friday

Finally it’s Friday! I’m up once again watching the dolphins and I’ve finish all the homework. It’s nice being able to sit here with the cool ocean breeze hitting my face early in the morning, knowing that by this time tomorrow I’ll be swimming in that ocean. Until then though I’ll have another WOUNDERFUL day, full of Ashi. What could be more fun than that? Hmm… I know how about not having to see her ever again? That would be nice. In fact I don’t think I will see her today, that’s right I’m not going to school, let’s see what Ashi has to say about that.
I walk slowly into the kitchen, my mom cooking breakfast, I limp as I walk, keep my head down, and my eyes halfway closed. Then I say in a sickly voice, “Mom, I’m not feeling so well today I think I’ll go rest.”
She of course just says, “Sure sweetie I’ll call the school to let them know.” She speaks so mindlessly; I mean she knows mermaids can’t get sick, yet she doesn’t seem to notice.
“I’m going to go for a swim, maybe it’ll make me feel better,” I tell her.
“Okay, sweetie, have fun,” she responds. Well that was easy to get out of the house; Mom never pays attention to anything, except her cooking. I’ve been told that she hasn’t always been that way, but I don’t know when it started, she never talks about life before me or even who my dad could be. It just doesn’t make sense to me how I could be a ma-meido hishou, and not just a regular one, but a princess and yet my mom isn’t even a mermaid and my dad would have had to be a human since the mermaid and ma-meido hishou race is all female. So how could it be that I’m even a ma-meido hishou? I always wish she would tell me something about when I was little. I’ve always asked her if she was sure that I was her child and she always replied, “yes.”
Never mind all of that. Why am I even thinking about something like that, I should be thinking about having fun. I mean I’m going to be free of Ashi today and I’m heading into the ocean.
Once reaching the end of the dock, I stop at the edge and look around. Good no one is around. I slowly begin to transform. The bone where my shoulder blade is expands and starts to form wings. I love my wings, they are soft, the main color white, with green blended in. Each feather is completely watertight; so that when I emerge from the water they will be perfectly dry. Once my wings finish forming, I slip into the cool ocean. The feathers in the water become flat, so that they will not get in my way of swimming. My tail begins to form. My legs join together, beautiful shiny green scales cover my legs and where my feet were forms the rest of my fin. My shirt completely disappears now as my mermaid top forms, it is a made of green shells and has openings in the back for my wings. I take my long brown hair out of its ponytail, so that it can flow in the water. My hazel eyes become an emerald green, to match my tail. I fold my wing flat against my back and dive towards the ocean floor. In the distance I start to see a castle and not just any castle, my castle. It’s beautiful, large shells that make up the walls, decorated with green pearls.  Leading up to the castle there are small stores where you can buy items and food. As I get closer everyone stops and stares at me. Then look confused, but the still bow knowing that I’m going to someday become their Queen. I always feel so awkward when they do that, I wish they would try me just like any other ma-meido hishou when they see me in the waterways.  Ok, will there aren’t many ma-meido hishou, they are mostly just mermaids, and only royalty can be ma-meido hishous. So I guess I mean that I want them to treat me like a mermaid, not a ma-meido hishou. I continue to the castle, even though I wanted to stop at the shops and look around, but I know that I must go to the castle first, just to make sure no one freaks out and who I mean by that is my mermaid caretaker. She takes care of me when I’m in the ocean and she is also my teacher, not only that but she always needs to know where I am, or will let’s just say she’ll cause a hurricane, which isn’t good for land or sea.
As soon as I swim into the castle the servants line up and bow saying, “Good Morning Lina-sama.” At the long end of servants, I see Kea. She is smiling, happy to see me, yet I know something isn’t right.
“Lina-sama,” Kea says, “Why are you here so early? Could it be that you already heard?”
“Heard? About what? What’s going on? I only came here early because I had some extra time and I wanted to spend it here, but clearly there is something you need to tell me.”
Kea is silent for a moment, I know that this mean it must be serious. Great seriousness, just what I wanted. How had is it to just have a little fun around here? Kea then turns around and motions me to follow her. She takes me into my bedroom and has me sit down on my shell bed she sits next to me. I wait for her to speak.
“Well, Lina-sama… I… umm… have some news for you. It’s very important and you must promise not to freak out. Okay?”
“Okay, I won’t”
“Well you see, the mermaid kingdom has gone on for year waiting for a new Queen and well for you. We are in need of a ruler and aren’t sure how much longer we can last without one. So since I get to tell you this now, I guess it’s better this way so that everything can get started faster, umm… well… the day of your crowning will be Sunday.”
“Kea, what makes you think I’d freak out about that? That’s great news. I mean I finally get to become Queen and be able to use my powers and help the ocean.”
“Well Princess, that’s not all.”
“It not?” I have a bad feeling about this.
“There is something else you must do.”
“What is that?”
“Two weeks after you become Queen you must find the new princess who will take your place when she grows up. You’ll have to decide which mermaid will become the new ma-meido hishou. Or there is another option, which I think more of us are in favor of. As you know mermaid have been hidden from humans since the beginning of time, but now we’d like to join the humans. Get along with them, combined our worlds. The only way for us to do this would be for you to marry a human by your next birthday.”
After that there was complete silence. Was I freaking out? Well… duh! Of course I was. I have just been told that I have to fall in love and get married in two weeks to a human and guess what? I’m only sixteen! That’s illegal in the human world, to get married at age sixteen and what guy is going to want to get married that young and where in the world can I find one. There is no way Ashi will let me get near a guy. What am I going to do!?”
“Are you okay, Princess?” Kea asks.
“Yes, Kea. Thank you I’m fine. Please let me have some time alone to think things over. After all I need to start thinking of the party on Sunday.”
“Yes, Princess,” and with that Kea leaves the room.