"Serena?" my little sister Raven spoke breaking the relaxing silence.
My feet were resting in the glass like black water of the lake. The darkness outside was essential to seeing the bright galaxies in the sky.
"Yeah, baby girl?" I answered quietly looking over at her.
"Do you ever think I'll get a tail like you and mom?" The nervousness in her voice made me smile.
I patted the spot on the dock next to me in invitation and she took it, dangling her feet over the edge but not touching the water like mine.
"You are going to, Raven. Between mom and dad's genes it's a sure thing. I bet you're going to get one like daddy." I winked at her making her smile. "Plus, you don't shift until your ten. And you're eight now, so you have awhile to wait."
She groaned. "But I don't want to wait! I want one now!" she whined.
I chuckled. "Patients is a virtue. Now go and sleep." I pushed her to her feet. "I'll be in in a little bit."
She nodded, still pouting and ran into the house.
In a hurry, I stripped out of all my clothes and dived in. As soon as my whole body was submerged I began to feel the familiar tingle of changing. My legs melded together to make a multicolored tail with purple, all kinds of blue, silver, and pinks. A few fins were grown out of the sides and a few scars were scratched up and down the glinting scales.
My eyesight sharpened and the moon's light on the surface illuminated our underwater world. I breathed in with my new gills that adorned the sides of my neck. After I had adjusted I flicked my tail making me torpedo forward to hunt in the dark waters of my family's private lake.
We purposely sunk a lot of boats so there were a lot of amazing places for the fish to hide, and us to hunt. My dad stocked our favorite fish like catfish, walleye, bass, bluegill, sunfish, perch, and a whole lot of others. My favorites were walleye and perch, two deep water and nocturnal fish so I'd have to dive to get them.
I swam through all the wreckages on my way to the deep side of the lake.
I discreetly swam around on the hunt for a good fish. It wasn't until about fifteen minutes later that I found a school of perch. I waited until they swam closer to attack. Then torpedoed into the school catching a wriggling, fat perch in my mouth. As I swam back towards the dock I was taking apart and eating the fish.
When I got back to the dock my mom was sitting where I was sitting before.
People always said I was a splitting image of my mother, Alexandria Simone. I take that as an amazing complement. She's a couple inches taller than I am but has the same body type as me, muscular and curvy with some nice assets. Our hair is both a dark brown but she has blonde highlights in hers and our eyes are a vibrant hazel color with gold streaks and specks. She has a beautiful smile and a snarky personality. But she's not as sarcastic and quick-tempered as me.
"Hey, Serena," she said with a wide smile.
I smiled and swam up beside her. "Hey, mom. How was work?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. There's this new guy at work. So I invited him and his family to dinner tomorrow. Do you think after school that you can get Raven and your father ready?" She gave me a pleading look. "I'll make it worth your while…"
A slow smirk spread across my lips. "Let Ari come over and give me twenty bucks, then you got a deal."
She narrowed her eyes but mirrored my smirk. "Fifteen?"
I shook my head and flicked my fins. "Not a chance."
"Fine…" She huffed.
I giggled and hopped up onto the dock to dry myself off. "How's dad? He hasn't come down to hunt yet and he usually comes an hour ago."
She sighed. "He's been stressed lately. I've tried to get him to tell me but he said not to worry about it." Mom knotted her hands through her long hair. "I don't know what to do, Rena. Has he been talking to you?"
I shrugged. "To a certain extent. He's been tense lately."
My mom lowered her head into her hands. "I don't know how I can help…" She quickly changed the subject. "Is your brother coming home soon?"
My legs dried and the scales flipped over to skin and the fins shrunk and slid off. Every time we changed from our legs to our tail we grew new fins.
I dressed back into my clothes. "I don't know. Tonight or tomorrow. I haven't talked to him in a day or two. But I guess he was spending an extra day in Venice so probably tomorrow."
She was about to speak but we heard footsteps on the creaking boards of the dock. My dad was slowly walking towards us, his eyes cast down to the ground, like he didn't even notice us.
"Greg?" my mom called to him softly. He jumped and looked up at her with wide eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, Alex, Serena, I didn't see you," he replied quietly then turned his gaze to the black water successfully evading my mother's concerning question.
The atmosphere was tense so I smiled and cracked a joke. "Well, if course you didn't, we're so ninja quiet. Practically assassins," I nudged mom. "Right, ma?"
She giggled quietly then drawled out dramatically, "Practically."
Dad didn't even smile, no reaction. So I awkwardly stood.
"I'm going to go put Raven to bed. Have a good hunt!" I smiled at them both but when I got behind Dad I mouthed, 'Hope you can help,' to mom. She nodded curtly then I turned to the walkway and made my way to the dimly lit house.
"Time to go to bed, kiddo!" I called into the house. A loud groan could be heard from the living room making me chuckle. When I walked in Raven was sprawled out on the beige rug.
"Do I have to?" she whined pouting up at me.
I raised an eyebrow at her childishness. "C'mon, Raven, you already hunted, your homework's done, and you've already watched three hours of SpongeBob. Time to sleep."
She sighed and stood. I followed her to her room.
Raven's room wasn't like the typical seven year Old's room. Of course she didn't have the typical family either. The walls were an algae green. On each wall she had a small fish tank, each with a favorite snack, minnows, small bluegill, etc. Her bed was under a veil of dark blue, see-through fabric.
Raven bounded onto her bed and cuddled with her worn Nemo stuffed animal.
"Sissy?" she murmured as I sat beside her on the lime green covers. "Why is daddy acting weird?"
I cocked my head and smoothed back the hair from her forehead. "Why do you ask?"
"Earlier today I went into his room for our morning hug and I saw him packing a suitcase. Is he leaving, Rena?"
I was speechless. Was he leaving? Was that why he was acting so weird?
"I-I don't know, baby girl. But I'll find out and tell you in the morning okay?" She nodded and hugged Nemo tighter to her chest. I kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, baby girl. Love you."
"Love you…" she mumbled closing her eyes.
Quickly I got downstairs and towards the lake. There was a fight between mom and dad going on.
"I… You said-I thought…" Stuttered mom tears running down her face.
"Dad!" I exclaimed. He looked up at my angry face.
"Sweetie, what are you doing down here?" he all but growled at me.
"I just put Raven to bed. She said she saw you this morning packing a bag. Are you leaving mom? Leaving us?" I asked tears rimming my eyes when he didn't answer I was quick to ask why.
"I-I found someone else, Serena," he said quietly.
"You told me I was your soul mate!" my mom sobbed. I pulled her into my side even though she was taller than me. "We had three children together! For twenty two years you said you loved me but you were really just trolling for another hot piece of mermaid ass?"
"She isn't a mermaid, Alex." He was started to get cold, unemotional. "And it was seventeen years."
Our faces crashed. He'd been cheating on her for five years and we've never known.
Then he just turned and left. Without a word, without a trace. And I didn't hear from him.
That was a year ago when I was fifteen. We still lived in the same house on the lake in ole Mystic Falls Virginia but dad, or sperm-donor, has never returned. We changed our last name to my mom's maiden name Simone. We didn't want anything to do with that man ever again.