To Fly

This was actually inspired by a picture I drew. :P

I've always known I wasn't a normal mermaid. The others were always better at swimming than me. Better at singing. Art. Communicating with fish. Their tails were solid colors. They had webbing between fingers, and fish would never ignore them.

I sucked at everything. Fish almost always misunderstood me. I had no webbing at all. My tail was purple-ish, but it'd look all rainbow-y in the sun. Underwater, it sparkled. And besides, my wings were a dead giveaway. I was not a normal mermaid by any means.

I used to hide them by wearing what humans called backpacks. But they grew too big, so now I don't really care anymore. Who cares? Uniqueness is good, right? ...Who am I kidding?

I will never fit into 'mermaid society'. I will never sing good enough to be in the choir group. I showed everyone at tryouts. The few times I used magic, people had weird parts sticking out for weeks.

Once, my instructor had me try out for academics. Failed. Enough said.

Being a princess doesn't help at all. I can't ever just disappear. The mean girls whisper behind my back about Queen Martinez, my mother. They say she went and had an affair with a human-or worse, an angel- and that was why my dad left her.

Like those girls at that clump of shells are doing right now.

"Ooooh, look," they sneer just loud enough for me to hear. "There's the angel."

I almost flinch. An angel is the worst thing to call a mermaid-ever. To them, clouds and water were never meant to mix. But I love the clouds. They are so beautiful.

I see Maya, my popular twin, surrounded by her fans. She gets a lot of attention around here. She's the second closest to inherit the throne because she hatched a few seconds earlier. Unlike me, she's the normal one. She's good at choir, gets one hundred percents in academics, and her magic is beautiful. She's just the snobbish, conceited, arrogant one everyone else loves.

The crown princess is Ella. She's slightly nicer, but aloof. All that princess training sets her apart. In a way, she's lonely too. But at least nobody tries to push her into random, strong currents or call her names.

I put my seaweed scroll down in magic class with a sigh. My hair is so long, it always gets in my face so I tie it back with a string of pearls. I've always wanted to cut it, but we can't. Nobody can. If they do, they lose their tails and webbing. I sometimes consider cutting it. I don't ever do it, though. It's not that I don't have the guts. It's just the ocean is all I've ever known. What would I do in the air.

The day passes by in a blur yet again. It's even more boring for me because I suck at everything.

By the time I get back to the palace from taking a detour at the dolphins' coral reef to avoid the bullies, Maya's done with her magic practice and floats off to whatever party she was invited to.

She flips her hair into my face as she goes past. "See you later, sucker," she sneers. My mom, right next to us, doesn't seem to notice. Like always.

"Max, start shaping up," she says, looking through some papers. My heart sinks as I realize she's holding my reports. "How could you get such horrible scores? I mean, look at Maya's. Perfect in everything. Even Ella's better and she doesn't go everyday. What am I going to do..?" she sighs and bubbles float out of her mouth.

I try to ignore the burning in my heart. I can't cry, but sometimes I wish I could. I once saw a human sitting at the waters edge crying. I sigh, too, and head to my room. I start working on my homework, but I keep getting distracted by thoughts of flying, or at least getting out of the water.

That is the only thing I am good at. I can jump twice as high out of the water as everyone. I can stay in the air the longest without drying up. And I'm the only one who can fly.

I smile and swim quietly to my chest. It holds my clothes, and I pick up my human one. It's only a t-shirt, because I can't put pants on my tail. Then I sneak out the window and swim quickly towards the surface. That seems to be another thing I'm good at. I can swim twice as fast as everyone else.

We only live a few miles underwater, so I get to the surface in seconds. The water slowly changes from the dark blue I live in to light turquoise. I pop my head out and look around cautiously before I slip on the t-shirt and propel myself outward. I gather my tail into my arms as soon as I'm in the air.

To other mermaids or humans, I'd look like I was hang gliding. Very far out at sea, but still. Unless a boat passed by right under me, no one would be able to notice.

I start to forget all my worries as the wind brushes past my cheek, caressing my hair and drying it. I can feel it run through my feathers, weave through my scales. I let out a laugh and watch the seawater fly off of me in shining droplets.

I close my eyes and just fly really fast, using my built in GPS to see if I'm near land. Whenever I get within a few miles of California or Mexico, I turn the other way. Eventually, my skin is too dry and I have to get back into the water. I glance back at the sky one more time before I do a perfect dive into the water.

I look around me, confused. This doesn't seem to be anywhere hear the palace. The seaweed that waves in the slight current actually look creepy. There are random pieces of obsidian sticking up everywhere.

"Hello, little one." The wheezy voice comes from nowhere.

I spin around, but there's only empty, dark water everywhere.

"Don't be afraid." The undeniably female voice chuckles, but there's a rough edge to it. "I'm sorry to freak you out. I'm down here."

I look down and there, at my feet, is an...eel. I'm sure my confusion shows in the way I blink a few times.

The eel sighs. "Everyone has the exact same reaction!" She swims in circles a few times. I wait for her to calm down. "Oh, well. Hello! I'm Ursula. A few years ago, I got transformed into an eel because I tried to cut my hair. I mean, it worked, but then I fell in love, tried to come back, traded my voice too-did you know, I had the best voice for centuries!- and it didn't work. I'm so pissed!"

I gape. "You're Ursula?" I finally gasp. "You disappeared fifteen years ago!"

"Yup," the eel sighs sadly. "But, since you're here, you'll break the spell for me, right?" I never thought an eel could look hopeful, but this one can. Despite my tough attitude, I actually have a really soft heart.

"Ok," I say, "just tell me what to do."

"Yipeeeeeeeeee!" Ursula swims all around, creating a mini whirlpool. "But, you do realize you can't come back after, right?" She suddenly stops right in front of me.

The solution to all my troubles, suddenly laid out in plain sight right in front of me. I can help someone while getting out of here forever. I grin. "Let's do this."

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