Chapter Two : Where's the party at?
"Argh! Again Mr Smith took surprise test and again I'm going to score zero! I just hate him!! Why can't he just inform us in advance!," Tora sighed.
Gordon rolled his eyes "Such a drama queen! Why can't you prepare everything in advance?".
"Oh please! I'm not a wizard or anything okay! I can't study 24x7," Tora yelled.
"Hey you two just take a chill pill okay. Stop behaving like Indian daily soap character," Reese chuckled and clapped his hands, "Let me talk to the birthday girl now, so Miss where's the party at?," he smirked.
I rolled my eyes "Don't you guys remember?? I've have told you ample of times that in our family nobody celebrates their birthdays in a grand way. So I'm sorry guys no party," I sighed.
"Hey we were just kidding okay. We're sorry," Three of them said in unison.
"It's alright guys. Well like every year I'm going to my grandparent's place, so I'll not be able to watch your football match. Gordon can you drop Tora after college?."
"Of course," Gordon said and gave him a big smile.
"But Miss Xia you'll have to pay our bills, this is your treat," Reese said raising his one eyebrow.
"Gladly," I said with a big smile.
Well Gordon and Reese are one of the best and handsome football players of our college. They are among very popular guys of our college. We all know each other for like forever. We were together since kindergarten. I'm glad they are still my friends.
*
Finally we are done with our classes. We all walked to the parking area. "Take care of yourself," Gordon said and engulfed me in a big bear hug.
"I'll," I said hugging him in return.
"Hey when you'll be back? I'll miss you," Tora said with a sad face.
"Eee I'll miss you too. I'll be back in two days. So relax." We hugged each other.
Reese patted on my back I turned to face him, he was smirking.
"While coming back bring me a hot girlfriend," He said and winked.
"Such a jerk you are," I sighed.
I sat in my car and put on the seat belt, "Okay guys see you soon," I waved them a goodbye and they also waved.
I turned the ignition and drove off. While driving I started wondering, For how many years I'll have to lie to them. For how much time I'll be able to hide my secret. They are my best buddies how can I keep them in darkness? What if they'll get to know about it? Will they ever be able to accept me for who I am??
But I can't risk lives of so many people too. I have to take care of my responsibilities. It's my duty. But keeping my friends in dark is still not looking like a good thing to me
I brushed all my negative thoughts away. I know they'll always be by my side.
*
"Yeah mum! I'm home," I said walking upstairs, "When we're are going?".
"In 20 minutes, go get ready," Mum replied from kitchen.
I walked to my bathroom quickly took shower and got myself dressed in a crop top and boyfriend jeans, doing my hair in a neat ponytail I slipped into my sneakers.
"Are you done Xia?," Dad shouted from living area.
"Yeah coming dad,"I came downstairs.
"I think we should go now," Mum said looking at me.
"Umm," I took a deep breath and prepared my self mentally for the trip.
"Are you excited, darling?," Mum suddenly asked me cutting the silence that had been building up since we left, one hour ago.
The ride was from Auckland to Torpedo Bay. Sun was hiding behind the clouds, birds were flying back to their home and everything was looking very peaceful.
I plugged my earphones and flashback started running through my mind....
"Mumma!! Mumma!! Look at this? What happened to me? I lost my legs..I can't walk properly!! Mumma please do something."
"Baby just calm down! I'll tell you everything but please relax honey!."
That was my first encounter with my reality.
"Baby first tell me how this happened? Mumma I was trying to swim in your bath tub and suddenly my legs disappeared and this tail emerged, I don't know mumma what happened to me," I was crying like anything, I was so scared, I thought I'll never be able to walk on my legs.
"Baby I'll tell you one secret but please promise me you'll never share this secret with anyone, not even your best friends. Promise??."
"Yes mumma, I promise."
"Baby this form is your reality, you're a mermaid my dear.
"What????."
"Yes darling, we are mermaids and we don't belong to this human world but because of some circumstances we're living here with humans."
" Please Mumma tell me the complete truth please."
"Okay, Long ago we used to live in the Tasman sea, your grandparents were King and Queen of Marine world. Nobody was aware of our existence. But one day god knows how vampires came to know about us, their army attacked us. They took thousands of lives , destroyed everything. Your grandparents tried to fight really hard but when they realized they couldn't fight any longer, they send your dad and me to the human world for our safety. They along with rest of the people went to some hideouts and saved their lives."
" We are mermaids my child. Now your dad is the King of the Marine world, your grandpa passed this crown to him."
"Mumma that means you're a Queen"?.
"Yes darling."
"Mumma, now what will I do about my legs?"
"Relax honey!! I'll come back. I'll teach you about the transformation."
From that day I kept that secret safe in my heart. In starting I was very scared with the thought of me being a mermaid but now I'm very comfortable with it. I learned to love myself. I hope someday my friends will also accept me for who I am. I wanted to tell them the truth but I can't take risk with so many lives, being a princess even I have many responsibilities.
"We are here," Dad announced.
"We'll be parking our car here, Morgan must be coming to take us from here."
We walked to the port and saw a well built 6ft tall, dark man with brown eyes and blonde hair coming towards us.
"Good evening king and queen. I hope your ride was comfortable." He bowed to mum and dad and they smiled.
"How are you princess?," He asked giving me a wide smile.
"I'm good, how are you?," I replied.
"Me too." He said smiling.
"Our yacht is here my majesty I think we should move now," he said looking at dad, dad nodded approvingly.
We settled in the yacht, I was looking around admiring the beauty of nature. I was very excited and nervous at the same time. I'm going there after a year, many things would have been changed. I spent many summer vacations there with Grandpa and Grandma. I used to play hide and seek with Nancy, Eve, Amelia, Zack and Arnold. Arnold....I miss him a lot. He is such a sweetheart. He is very caring and loving. In childhood he used to bear all the tantrums and would do anything to make me laugh. We were best friends but now I started liking him more. I love him. I'll tell him about my feelings after meeting him, I'm sure he loves me too. Thought of us being together gave me immense happiness. I could feel the whole zoo inside my stomach forget about butterflies.
Arnold...Baby I'm coming to get you.
"We are here my majesty," Morgan said. We came down from yacht.
This was the place from where we go to our Kingdom. It was an island surrounded by dense forest with no human habitation, far away from crowdy city.
As we moved towards the shore, we transformed ourselves into our real forms- Mermaid form. My human feet disappeared and hipbones merged and formed a tail. At the end of the tail from peduncle fins like structure called fluke sprouted, fluke helps us in locomotion.
We coasted inside the sea. Swimming always gives me an extraordinary feeling. Swimming is meditation for me, it soothes my body and mind. After swimming for half an hour we are in front of a cave which is completely packed with sea anemones and sea urchins.
"Harry! Where are you?," Dad said looking here and there.
"My majesty I'm here." suddenly a cecaelia came into appearance.
A cecaelia is an aquatic organism with body up to abdomen of human and lower portion of octopus with 8 legs. He was holding a trident in his hand.
"I'm sorry my majesty I went to have my meal. I'm really sorry."
"It's okay Harry but from next time whenever you go on break make sure someone takes our place. You know about the situation very well," dad said in a serious tone.
"Okay my majesty," he nodded.
He clapped and all the sea urchins and sea anemones got bend and a big door can be seen. Another cecaelia came and opened the door.
"Welcome to the kingdom King , queen and princess."