p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I brush some red hair out of my eyes. emAgain,/em tuck it into my swimming cap and take a quick swish of my water bottle, turning the bottle upside-down then putting it on the edge of the pool. I put my swimming goggles back on and lower myself back into the pool. I stay under the water for about 10 seconds, then break the surface of the pool. I turn towards brother and smile. He holds up 3 fingers. I get in my starting position. 2. Take a deep breath. 1. The race is on. We are both swimming vigorously, and it`s a good things no one`s watching because we are as fast as ./em I barely win. Sometimes having an interchangeable- with- mermaid fins legs has advantages./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"When I catch my breath, and look towards him, he is smirking at me./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I won" claims my black-haired, sea-green-eyed brother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I shake my head 'no' vigorously and playfully splash some water on him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He smiles his mischevious smile and a waterfall of water cascades down on me from behind. I go under the water, and when I come up, My swimming cap has fallen off, and so have my goggles. All of my wet, red hair has made a mane around my face. I part it at my bangs and scowl at him. He laughs and starts to get out of the pool. I follow, switching my mermaid tail to legs and reach for my towel. Brother didn`t bring a towel. He never needs one. It's too bad father didn`t give me the gift to be dry, too./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The day Storybrooke came to be, the memory switch didn`t affect me. I still remembered who I was. The only thing that changed was I could switch my mermaid fin to legs. Oh, and Eric didn`t know who I was, and was supposedly "In love" with Ursula (Janet in this dimension). I also can`t talk, no matter what form I`m in. So many words have been stuck in my head, screaming at me. With me. I have been working as the lifeguard at the pool ever since./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I met my brother on accident one day. It`s actually a pretty funny story, now that I think about it. It was during the time that I didn`t want to see anybody or anything. The woods, surprisingly, were of a great comfort to me. I retired to them every day after swim practice. I was walking alone, as usual, cursing Janet and King Triton and basically everyone in my head, when a person appeared in front of a tree in front of me. But I didn`t hear them walking there or anything. They just emappeared./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He was facing away from me, holding a pen. He had black hair and an orange t-shirt, and jeans. Then another person appeared. She had blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, and an orange t-shirt. Then another person came out from the front of the tree. Wait. No, not a person. Not with people legs, anyways. From the waist down, he had shaggy goat legs. He was wearing an orange t-shirt and a rasta- style beanie./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"They came out talking, pointing towards the town, discussing where to go. Then a roar shook the forest. Their attention focused on the figure that was coming towards us. The boy pulled the cap off of his pen and the pen transformed into a sword. He tossed the cap behind him, and it hit me in the head. I know it wasn`t a big deal, but I got really angry. Who just comes out of trees and starts throwing things at innocent mermaids? So I picked up a rock (a small one), aimed as best I could, and threw it at him. I didn`t mean to hit his head, but that's what happened. He gasped, and collapsed. He actually looked kind of funny, sprawled on the ground. I almost smiled a bit, but then I saw his friends. The girl and the goat dude looked down at him, then looked at me. The goat boy looked scared, but the girl looked furious. Like, murder mad. her eyes were stormy grey, and they were storming./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What the crap? Who do you think you are, knocking people out, out of nowhere?" she yelled at me. I held up the pen cap, and pointed at the boy on the ground./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The goat guy said, "Uhh, Annabeth? I think Percy hit her with the cap."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""And so you threw a rock at his head? Oh great! Here comes a monster that we probably wont be able to beat because our best guy is unconscious! Ugh! Grover, just don`t let her get in my way. I`ll take care of this."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The goat dude whose name I assumed was Grover came trotting over to me, and I backed up a little bit./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Hey, hey. Its okay. We can protect you." he said, trying to calm me down. I made a face that probably looked like I said, "Protect me from what?" Then I saw what. Rumbling through the forest, towards us, was a monster that I had never even dreamt of before. It had the head of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail that was covered in spikes. "The manticore." Grover said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Annabeth took out a small dagger, and a baseball cap. As the manticore got closer and closer, she tensed, swaying on her feet. Just as it was about to strike with its scorpion tail, she put the hat on and vanished. The manticore recoiled and backed up, twisting from side to side, trying to locate where Annabeth disappeared to. Then with a horrific screech, it tightened up, then exploded into golden dust. The scream faded into the forest, echoing until it echoed no more. In the middle of the dust, Annabeth appeared, taking the cap off of her head. She was breathing hard and holding her arm, where there were scratch marks, raking down her arm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Grover trotted over to her, fished some gold cubes out of his backpack, and gave them to her. "Here, have some Ambrosia. Manticore are poisonous. Even their claws." She nodded and popped the cubes in her mouth. She closed her eyes and sighed, chewing slowly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy muttered something and turned over, pulling his legs up and putting his arms under his head. Grover shook him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Percy. Wake up, man." Grover said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy just moaned, and rolled over. "Annabeth? Grover?" He said, squinting his eyes and trying to sit up. "What- what happened?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Annabeth looked relieved that he was okay, and helped him sit up, brushing his hair out of his eyes. emOh./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She gave me a glare and said, "Ginger here threw a rock at you, after you hit her with Riptides cap." I opened my mouth in frustration and made a small hole with my fingers. Percy and Annabeth gave me a confused look, but Grover explained that I was voicing that it was a little-sized rock that I hit Percy with./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I shrugged my shoulders and picked up my things, preparing to head back to Storybrook. When I had all of my things, I stood up, brushed myself off, and gave one hard nod before abruptly turning around and starting to walk away. I liked storming off like that. My hair flowed when I spun, and I enjoyed its bounciness./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Grover said, "Hey! Wait! Where are you going?". I felt kind of bad for not giving a response, but I really wanted to be alone. I kept walking and pretended to not acknowledge that he had called after me. I faintly heard the sound of someone trying to stand up, and being stopped. I barely heard Annabeth say, "Let her go, Percy. Mortals aren't worth the time. We have a schedule, remember?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emWhat did she call me? Mortal? Not worth the time? /emOkay, I admit it. I change my mind easily. My temper runs away from me. Instead of walking away and forgetting the whole thing, I stupidly turned around and ran back to where they were sitting. Leaning over Annabeth, I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and shook her. Hard./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Hey!" Grover, Percy, and Annabeth yelled in unison. I was stronger than I looked. When Annabeth tried to pry my hand away from her shirt, I threw her onto the ground. Dusting off my hands, I turned around and stormed away. I didn't walk long before I felt someone grabbing me from behind, knocking the both of us to the ground. It became a swirling mass of read, yellow, and orange, as Annabeth and I swung punches, kicks, and anything we could hit at each other. Grover and Percy came to break us up, but they had a difficult time. Grover tried to grab my hands and restrain me, as Percy picked up Annabeth from behind and lifted her away from me. He was stronger than he looked, too. Annabeth and I finally conceded and turned away from each other to lick our wounds./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy started to say something when a big sphere of rainbow light came and hovered in front of us. In the center, the rainbow cleared away to reveal an older man with a gray beard and a leather strap across his bare chest. It didn't show anything past his waist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Chiron!" said Annabeth and Grover at the same time. All three of them looked incredibly happy and didn't think it was weird at all how the image of him was just floating in an oval in thin air. I happened to be off of the side, looking at an angle at the old man, so he didnt see me. I snuck around to the back of the image and saw nothing. I thought i was going crazy./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Then there was a voice that i assumed belonged to the old man. "Hello, children. Yes, its good to see you, too. I need to talk to Percy." The three stood there and Percy stepped forward. "Alone, please." Annabeth and Grover looked downcast./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I will talk to you, too later." This brightened their faces and Annabeth smiled. She took Grover by the arm and started to walk away. Apparently she forgot all about me because she didn't give a second look back as she trekked through the forest. Percy watched her walk away with a strange look on his face. I had seen that look before. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It was the same look I had given Eric and he has given me, once upon a time. I hadn't forgotten that look, even though he had. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The sound of Chiron clearing his throat brought me away from my thoughts. And apparently Percy was thinking about the same thing i was because he had to blink and shake his head a couple of times to focus on reality. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Percy, I needed to talk to you right away and I'm sorry that I had to send the two away. This information is only for your ears."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"My face got bright red, but i did not go away or do anything to stop listening. My curiosity had always gotten the better of me./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What is it, Chiron? What do you look so nervous about?" Percy asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Well..."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"When I catch my breath, and look towards him, he is smirking at me./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I won" claims my black-haired, sea-green-eyed brother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I shake my head 'no' vigorously and playfully splash some water on him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He smiles his mischevious smile and a waterfall of water cascades down on me from behind. I go under the water, and when I come up, My swimming cap has fallen off, and so have my goggles. All of my wet, red hair has made a mane around my face. I part it at my bangs and scowl at him. He laughs and starts to get out of the pool. I follow, switching my mermaid tail to legs and reach for my towel. Brother didn`t bring a towel. He never needs one. It's too bad father didn`t give me the gift to be dry, too./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The day Storybrooke came to be, the memory switch didn`t affect me. I still remembered who I was. The only thing that changed was I could switch my mermaid fin to legs. Oh, and Eric didn`t know who I was, and was supposedly "In love" with Ursula (Janet in this dimension). I also can`t talk, no matter what form I`m in. So many words have been stuck in my head, screaming at me. With me. I have been working as the lifeguard at the pool ever since./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I met my brother on accident one day. It`s actually a pretty funny story, now that I think about it. It was during the time that I didn`t want to see anybody or anything. The woods, surprisingly, were of a great comfort to me. I retired to them every day after swim practice. I was walking alone, as usual, cursing Janet and King Triton and basically everyone in my head, when a person appeared in front of a tree in front of me. But I didn`t hear them walking there or anything. They just emappeared./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He was facing away from me, holding a pen. He had black hair and an orange t-shirt, and jeans. Then another person appeared. She had blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, and an orange t-shirt. Then another person came out from the front of the tree. Wait. No, not a person. Not with people legs, anyways. From the waist down, he had shaggy goat legs. He was wearing an orange t-shirt and a rasta- style beanie./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"They came out talking, pointing towards the town, discussing where to go. Then a roar shook the forest. Their attention focused on the figure that was coming towards us. The boy pulled the cap off of his pen and the pen transformed into a sword. He tossed the cap behind him, and it hit me in the head. I know it wasn`t a big deal, but I got really angry. Who just comes out of trees and starts throwing things at innocent mermaids? So I picked up a rock (a small one), aimed as best I could, and threw it at him. I didn`t mean to hit his head, but that's what happened. He gasped, and collapsed. He actually looked kind of funny, sprawled on the ground. I almost smiled a bit, but then I saw his friends. The girl and the goat dude looked down at him, then looked at me. The goat boy looked scared, but the girl looked furious. Like, murder mad. her eyes were stormy grey, and they were storming./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What the crap? Who do you think you are, knocking people out, out of nowhere?" she yelled at me. I held up the pen cap, and pointed at the boy on the ground./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The goat guy said, "Uhh, Annabeth? I think Percy hit her with the cap."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""And so you threw a rock at his head? Oh great! Here comes a monster that we probably wont be able to beat because our best guy is unconscious! Ugh! Grover, just don`t let her get in my way. I`ll take care of this."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The goat dude whose name I assumed was Grover came trotting over to me, and I backed up a little bit./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Hey, hey. Its okay. We can protect you." he said, trying to calm me down. I made a face that probably looked like I said, "Protect me from what?" Then I saw what. Rumbling through the forest, towards us, was a monster that I had never even dreamt of before. It had the head of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail that was covered in spikes. "The manticore." Grover said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Annabeth took out a small dagger, and a baseball cap. As the manticore got closer and closer, she tensed, swaying on her feet. Just as it was about to strike with its scorpion tail, she put the hat on and vanished. The manticore recoiled and backed up, twisting from side to side, trying to locate where Annabeth disappeared to. Then with a horrific screech, it tightened up, then exploded into golden dust. The scream faded into the forest, echoing until it echoed no more. In the middle of the dust, Annabeth appeared, taking the cap off of her head. She was breathing hard and holding her arm, where there were scratch marks, raking down her arm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Grover trotted over to her, fished some gold cubes out of his backpack, and gave them to her. "Here, have some Ambrosia. Manticore are poisonous. Even their claws." She nodded and popped the cubes in her mouth. She closed her eyes and sighed, chewing slowly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy muttered something and turned over, pulling his legs up and putting his arms under his head. Grover shook him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Percy. Wake up, man." Grover said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy just moaned, and rolled over. "Annabeth? Grover?" He said, squinting his eyes and trying to sit up. "What- what happened?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Annabeth looked relieved that he was okay, and helped him sit up, brushing his hair out of his eyes. emOh./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She gave me a glare and said, "Ginger here threw a rock at you, after you hit her with Riptides cap." I opened my mouth in frustration and made a small hole with my fingers. Percy and Annabeth gave me a confused look, but Grover explained that I was voicing that it was a little-sized rock that I hit Percy with./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"I shrugged my shoulders and picked up my things, preparing to head back to Storybrook. When I had all of my things, I stood up, brushed myself off, and gave one hard nod before abruptly turning around and starting to walk away. I liked storming off like that. My hair flowed when I spun, and I enjoyed its bounciness./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Grover said, "Hey! Wait! Where are you going?". I felt kind of bad for not giving a response, but I really wanted to be alone. I kept walking and pretended to not acknowledge that he had called after me. I faintly heard the sound of someone trying to stand up, and being stopped. I barely heard Annabeth say, "Let her go, Percy. Mortals aren't worth the time. We have a schedule, remember?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emWhat did she call me? Mortal? Not worth the time? /emOkay, I admit it. I change my mind easily. My temper runs away from me. Instead of walking away and forgetting the whole thing, I stupidly turned around and ran back to where they were sitting. Leaning over Annabeth, I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and shook her. Hard./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Hey!" Grover, Percy, and Annabeth yelled in unison. I was stronger than I looked. When Annabeth tried to pry my hand away from her shirt, I threw her onto the ground. Dusting off my hands, I turned around and stormed away. I didn't walk long before I felt someone grabbing me from behind, knocking the both of us to the ground. It became a swirling mass of read, yellow, and orange, as Annabeth and I swung punches, kicks, and anything we could hit at each other. Grover and Percy came to break us up, but they had a difficult time. Grover tried to grab my hands and restrain me, as Percy picked up Annabeth from behind and lifted her away from me. He was stronger than he looked, too. Annabeth and I finally conceded and turned away from each other to lick our wounds./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Percy started to say something when a big sphere of rainbow light came and hovered in front of us. In the center, the rainbow cleared away to reveal an older man with a gray beard and a leather strap across his bare chest. It didn't show anything past his waist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Chiron!" said Annabeth and Grover at the same time. All three of them looked incredibly happy and didn't think it was weird at all how the image of him was just floating in an oval in thin air. I happened to be off of the side, looking at an angle at the old man, so he didnt see me. I snuck around to the back of the image and saw nothing. I thought i was going crazy./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Then there was a voice that i assumed belonged to the old man. "Hello, children. Yes, its good to see you, too. I need to talk to Percy." The three stood there and Percy stepped forward. "Alone, please." Annabeth and Grover looked downcast./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I will talk to you, too later." This brightened their faces and Annabeth smiled. She took Grover by the arm and started to walk away. Apparently she forgot all about me because she didn't give a second look back as she trekked through the forest. Percy watched her walk away with a strange look on his face. I had seen that look before. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It was the same look I had given Eric and he has given me, once upon a time. I hadn't forgotten that look, even though he had. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The sound of Chiron clearing his throat brought me away from my thoughts. And apparently Percy was thinking about the same thing i was because he had to blink and shake his head a couple of times to focus on reality. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Percy, I needed to talk to you right away and I'm sorry that I had to send the two away. This information is only for your ears."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"My face got bright red, but i did not go away or do anything to stop listening. My curiosity had always gotten the better of me./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What is it, Chiron? What do you look so nervous about?" Percy asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Well..."/p