Chapter 2

"The sea does not like to be restrained."- Rick Riordian, The Lightning Theif

The room I was staying in at Aunty Peggys small house in Island Bay was a deep blue all over, from the creaky little bed to the walls. The floor was a soft wood, almost the color of sand, covered in tiny specks of dust. The duvet reminded me of soft waves lapping like a tounge on the shore, and all four walls were decorated like they were submerged beneath the sea. Shells of all colors and shapes hung from string bound to the ceiling, swaying together gently. The bedside table was a dark oak, decorated with more shells and fake starfish. Inside the top drawer hid a small stuffed octopus. The bottom two drawers were empty. And no clothes lurked in the drawers. The only window hung over the bed, shaped into a porthole.

"What do you think?" asked Aunty Peggy. "I noticed how much you like the ocean, so I redecorated it a bit."

"Its lovely, feels like I'm really in the ocean."

"Well thats good. Now, I'll leave you to get ready for bed ok?"

"Ok..."

"Just call me if you need anything."

"Oh I don't think I will."

I was silent for a few minutes after she left. Then I opened the suitcase, and from a nest of clothes lifted the violin. My violin, since I was nine. I'd been begging for lessons for weeks until Mum made a comprimise that we'd earn half the money each. It took me a solid month of delivering meals to old folk, and doing newspaper rounds after the regular boy broke his leg skateboarding to earn it. And then, on the morning I turned nine years old I unwrapped the violin. Private lessons cost a fortune, but Mum tried hard not to mind. I scrabbled around to find the bow that came with it, and began playing a lonley, melancholy tune that flooded into the room, so powerful that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I played. When the music reached a crescendo, and slowly died down to the last note, I crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost in an instant.

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"Hey, I heard your violin music last night." Aunty Peggy said to me over a plate of bacon and eggs for breakfast. "Not bad girl."

'Not bad' is actually pretty high praise from some one like Aunty Peggy. I couldn't help but smile into my half eaten plate. "Thanks."

"Now come on, finish up your bacon and eggs. They're no good cold."

I nodded, shovelled a whole mouthful in, and then promptly choked, coughing and going an interesting shade of crimson.

Aunty Peggy rubbed my back. "I didn't mean that fast you banana!"

"I was just doing what you told me to do. Finish the bacon and eggs."

She shook her head, laughing. "You funny girl. Now go on and get dressed, off you pop."

Oh I popped alright, and emerged about a minute later dressed in a baby blue t-shirt and khaki shorts, my hair pulled back into a neatly brushed ponytail.

"Oh you look lovely!" she crowed, like she really meant it. The usual 'you look lovely!' almost always came from Taylor and Maisie, and they didn't mean it sometimes. The fact that Peggy really sounded like she meant it was like a breath of fresh air.

"Thanks." I managed to smile at her.

"Now I've got some work to do. So you can pretty much do what you want."

"Ok, sounds cool."

"But first, we need to establish a few ground rules."

"I'm listening."

"Look both ways when you cross the road, try not to talk to strangers, all that kind of stuff. But there's one more thing you need to know."

"And that is?"

"Never trust any one of those strange girls you meet on the beach."

"What.... strange girls?"

"Girls that come from the sea at night, pace the shore. You never know what they're capable of."

"Yeah yeah, thanks for that nice warning and all, but.... Gotta go, lots of the town to see."

"Alrighty then. But, don't forget to head my warning, got it?"

"Got it." But I didn't really. And I paid the price.

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I spent most of my day lurking in Shorland Park, smothered in sunblock, and swinging around on the monkey bars. Around midday I bought a small hokey pokey icecream from a local corner shop for a very light lunch. Just as I was finishing crunching up the cone, something flashing and shining from across the road caught my eye.

"Huh? Whats that?"

I chucked the remainder of my ice cream cone into a nearby bush, and ran through the park like mad. The small groups of passers by stared at me briefly, like I'd lost my mind. There seemed to be no cars in sight at the crossing, so I bolted across.

Then a car horn honked.

Wait, a car horn honked?!

I found a shiny black car almost directly in front of me. The driver, a big, burly man in the front yelled, "Watch where your going!"

"Sorry..." I managed to escape before he could give me a telling off.

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By the time I reached the small pier that kept getting relentlessly splashed with waves, the shining had stopped. I looked in horror.

"Darn, I was sure I'd seen something shining."

Nonetheless, I still dangled my legs on the edge of the pier, watching the waves rise up and down, the disappointment and shame reduced to hiding in my gut.

Then, from a spot not too far from where I sat, I saw the shining and shimmering, again, like someone had spilt a whole lot of glitter onto the ocean surface.

"Huh?"

The shimmers came closer and closer, until they were practically at my feet. I looked down, and saw a face.

A beautiful, beautiful, heart shaped face. Of a girl, around my age, with dewy skin as white as alabastar, soft, reddish blond hair that floated around her face in waves, and eyes as green as soft summer grass. Her magnificent blue tail sparkled in the light like the stars.

"H-hi," I mumbled.

She looked surprised, and swum away.

"Hey wait!"

But she was already gone.

"Dammit! She probably can't even lipread. Hey, wait, mermaid! Mermaid girl!"

I guess I was leaning too far forward then, cause why else would I have fallen in?

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The salty water stung my throat. I thrashed about, forcing my body to the surface. When my face hit the summer air all I could do was breathe in quick pants, before swimming to a part of the pier which I could grab onto, hauling myself up, and spluttering for more air when my body toutched the stone. After lying there for a few bewildering seconds, I walked home shivering in my wet clothes.

That should have been my first warning, but I brushed it off as a "She was scared, she didn't know me."

And yeah, that was our first encounter, but certinally not our last.