The Arrival of Class M-5

Aquasoa... (Lily)

The day of the re-do ceremony was chaotic, but that was to be expected. When I was told that my class would be there to say hi, I had to suppress my urge to scream with excitement. It had been so long since I had seen any of them, that I almost felt like it was hopeless to believe I would ever see them again.

I was changed back to human form simply by stepping on land and greeted by the sight of eleven kids and Ms. Silvenda. Class M-5 had come to see me before my crowning. Ms. Silvenda waved, "Congrats on your crowning ceremony!"

I was tripping all over the place due to not having legs, but a tail for so long. It took me a ridiculously long minute to regain my balance with the help of Kayhari.

"LILY!!!" Kayhari yelled at the top of her lungs, running over to hug me. "We came! It was all in the plan!"

"This was your plan?" I questioned, shocked that they didn't die on the way to Aquasoa. "Did you all make it here fine? Is everyone okay?"

Everyone glared at Samm in unison, except for Hope who was too nice, and Kai, who was too dense to be bothered. It was probably a bad question. Suki spoke up, "Someone decided to stop the trip multiple times to use the restroom get snacks and got lost to explore creepy places. I'm not naming any names, of course."

"In my defense, trading my gems for a sea medallion was SO worth it!" the boy fished through his bag and displayed the worthless piece of metal.

"You know medallions are not worth anything, right?" I questioned and watched his face turn red with anger.

"What!?" he shrieked and the entire class fell into laughter. "But the talking whale said it was worth millions!"

"Now that we have met our Samm slander for the day, how do you feel about becoming the next princess?" Laura smiled.

"Yeah, it's so cool that our very own classmate was the long lost heir!" Rinna and the girls started hyping up my ceremony.

"I'm honestly scared," I sighed. "This has been the longest month of my life and I wish you all could come with me to the ceremony."

"If you want, I could quickly write you some bullet points for your script," offered Suki. There was a rare genuine smile on her face that I couldn't describe well enough to do it justice.

I grinned back. "Thanks, but Queen Serena has made me write mutiple essays and made plenty on notes to prepare me properly this time.

"This time?" Camm questioned. Everyone was rallied around me now.

"Yeah, there was the first crowning ceremony on the night of the performance, but I fell asleep in the middle of it.

Lance laughed lightheartedly. "That sounds exactly like something you would do. You stare off into space in class all the time!"

I blushed with embarrassment. "It's not my fault that history makes me bored."

"And I'm sure it's not your fault that you barely pass the quizzes we take," the black-haired boy retorted.

"Then I'm sure you will be amused to know that I am killing my princess duties," I smirked.

"Lily, so what's the plan for this evening?" Kayhari's curiosity exploded from all the questions she had been bottling up. "Um, lots of food, dancing, meeting underwater officials and rulers; princess stuff."

"You make it sound boring," Samm groaned. "SOME ON US would do anything to be at that party!"

"Well, I didn't want to make SOME OF US sad, Samm," I shot back.

"Oh, Princess Lily, sitting so high on her seahorse, looking down at the peasants," Samm stuck his tongue out.

"If you wanna wear a crown and use seashells to cut food for the rest of your life, I would be happy to trade places," I passive-aggressively argued.

"Hey guys? Maybe we should talk about something else," Laura, who was always the class peacemaker, tried to clear the tension between us.

"You know what we should do to celebrate?" Kayhari cheered.

"Demote her from princess, so I can take her place?" Samm suggested jokingly.

"No, you would make a terrible princess," Kayhari bluntly pointed out. "We should come every once in a while, to eat with Lily on the beach!"

"Like an ice cream social every few months?" Samm gasped. His love for sweets would always triumph even becoming a princess apparently.

"What will your speech be about?" questioned Kai.

"First, I'm going to apologize for the last ceremony and then go into detail on all the things I will do as princess of Aquasoa," I explained. The queen wanted my speech to sound like I was running for a presidential election, even though she didn't know what that was or that it existed.

"You're going to sound so official!" he gushed. I smiled back. A compliment from Kai was forth a million bucks to me.

"I wish you could all come see it, but there is no way to turn you all into mermaids," I looked down, wistful. I couldn't imagine my friends not being at something so important.

Then Hope, Ms. Silvenda's daughter, spoke up. I didn't know her very well, but you could see she was the kindest person in the world just by looking into her dark brown eyes and hearing her syrup-smooth voice. The small butterfly wings on her back reflected the rainbow color in the sun, making her seem other-worldly. "I'm going to be coming with you! Surprise!"

"What? How?" I asked, confused as heck.

She smiled, "I have fairy magic, which is the most powerful kind of magic. It involves light magic, talking to animals, plant magic and being able to turn into other creatures."

"She basically is me and Laura combined and then some," Rinna faked a groan and Laura giggled in agreement.

"It's gonna be so much fun seeing you give your speech!" Hope exclaimed, making all the anxiety from the situation melt away.

Then a guard came up to the surface, informing me that it was time to get ready for the ceremony. I looked at the group and waved nervously, "Don't forget about the ice-cream social. I'll be waiting!"

Everyone shouted farewells as me and Hope entered the cove.