1

The sunset, in my opinion, is the saddest part of the day. Of course, that was the only time of the day I was allowed to go above the surface. I thought it was the saddest part of the day because afterwards I had to go back underwater. I loved my mentor, but she could be a real pain sometimes. "Come on, we have to get back to our lesson." Ariel said(Ariel was my mentor), her voice not two feet away from me. I groaned and put my head under, complaining all the way. "You know, just once once you could let me stay one more minute looking. It's so pretty, and it's wasted on humans who don't even deserve it. They might be interesting, but they're so wasteful ," Ariel shook her head, smiling. "You don't understand that humans might be weak-willed, but they are like us in one way; both our species have the need to survive. You will understand one day, but right now we need to get back to our lesson." She smiled even bigger and clapped her hands silently underwater. She drew some water from a current down below and started moving her hands quickly, making the water take the shape of a perfect sphere. She said, "Today we'll be reviewing over water control. If you do this right, we can get to the next lesson." I nodded, and lifted my hand up. I was control of the water. I went through the normal exercises, and finally finished by putting my hands up and putting them down in a flourish, causing the water to pull away in all directions. Ariel laughed and said, "Wonderful,wonderful! All our work paid off. Well, we better put it up for the night. Be here the same time tomorrow." With that she swam off, leaving me in her bubbles. I sighed and started to swim towards my home off the coast of La Push beach. I lived in Forks, Washington, and my home was the only place I could really spy on humans. They were so interesting, and I couldn't get enough of them. Some of these humans were so fast, though, and I could barely follow them with my eyes. I found my usual seeing rock, and pulled my upper body on it. There was still a few stragglers on the beach, so I still kept my head low. My attention was drawn to a girl standing on the cliffs, and I wondered why she was doing that. There seemed to be a storm on the way. I worried she would be struck by lightning or something. I pushed my brown hair out of my eyes and continued to stare at her. The girl had dirty blond hair that was tied into a sloppy ponytail. Her clothes were dark colors and were flapping in the wind. She looked excited, as if standing on a cliff were the most riveting thing in the whole world. She smiled, closed her eyes, and leaned forward. Then she fell, screaming, her hands clawing forward, trying to find a handhold to save herself on. I started to scream the same time she did.

2

Of course, as you might have guessed, I'm a mermaid. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Bella Swan, I have brown hair, brown eyes, etc. The only thing that separates me from other people is that I have a tail and gills on my arms (but they only work when my whole body is underwater). My tail is a combination of blue and green, and it shimmers in the sun. I have bones in my tail, but they are kind of bendy so that I can swim easily. I can manipulate water, which is the element all mermaids are required to master. I can also speak any language by coming in contact with the person speaking it, but since I've never been able to come in contact with any humans, the only language I know is Mer, which is the language of all sea-creatures (including mermaids). Every mermaid is equipped with a mentor at birth that teaches them the art of water and all manners of mermaidism. Well, that covers what I'm permitted to tell you, so I'm going to continue with my story.

The girl landed into the water feet first, still screaming. I closed my mouth promptly as her head went under, cutting her off. I looked at the water where she was in shock. Then, going into action, I used the seeing rock as leverage and pushed myself under. I looked around and started panicking, when I thought 'the current'. As long as I could remember there had been a complicated chain of interlocking currents twenty feet under the surface of the La Push beach. That's what I usually used to get home everyday. The one this girl had been sucked into was one of the stronger ones, and it had already dragged her about fifty feet off to my left. I formed my hand into a fist punched it forward, creating a huge gap in the currents. Swimming forward as fast as I could, I grabbed the girl with my free hand, as the other one was still keeping the gap open. I dragged her up and finally broke the surface. I swam over to my rock and rolled her onto it, panting. She wasn't moving, which meant she wasn't breathing. I pulled myself on top of the rock and used my powers to take the water out of her lungs. The water entered out of her mouth and went into the water. I waited for two agonizingly long seconds, and then she gasped, letting out a lot of air. I let out a breath of air that I didn't realize I was holding. She opened her eyes slowly, still gasping for air. I probably should have gone disappeared then, but I couldn't. I just had to make sure this complete stranger was okay. I put my hand comfortingly on her arm. Her eye3s found mine, and she whispered, "Why did you save me?" Tears were coming down her wet face, and she was shaking. "I didn't want to be saved. I wanted to die. I wanted to die." She kept on repeating that until she was screaming it to my face. My eyes widened in fear of this girl. What had I done wrong? I tried to save her. She didn't want to be saved,that's what it was. Suicide. A collective shudder went through my body at the thought of it. No mermaid ever committed suicide. The girl finally stopped screaming and passed out. I wondered what to do next. There wasn't anyone on shore, but I was still paranoid. The storm was raging now, so I grabbed her around the waist and started to pull her to shore. No smart person would be out here in this weather, would they? I nodded resolutely and used the water to help me to shore. Suddenly I heard a voice scream, "Lily!" I looked up and saw a figure towering over me. He was dark and mysterious-looking, and he was fast exceeding seven feet. He looked at me in wonder, surprise in every detail of his face. "Save her," I gasped, fighting the current that threatened to overwhelm me. I had no idea how much energy this had taken out of me. I managed to push her onto shore, and then my head flopped on the sand. I closed my eyes and everything went dark.