Chapter 1: Friends for Life (twelve years ago)

"James Pleiades Hawkins, you get down here right this instant young man!"

"Mom please don't make me, I don't want to play with an icky girl."

Sarah pinched her index finger and thumb to the bridge of her nose, "Jim she and her family are old friends of ours and it would be nice if you got to know her." Jim hesitated, "Please Jim, if you do this I'll make you an extra special dessert."

His ears perked at that, "With the plums?" She smirked and nodded. Jim instantly hopped off his dresser and landed on his cushioned bed, "Okay mom I'll be brave and do it!"

She scooped him up in her arms and held him close, "That's my big, brave boy, now go and get dressed I have to make dinner."

He kissed her cheek, "Okay mom."

An hour later Sarah was rushing trying to set the table, stir more food, and make plates. Once everything was set-up she heard a quick rapping on the front door. She set her apron on its hook and fixed her bun so it was less of a mess. Sarah pulled open the door to reveal man with shoulder length copper hair in black slacks and a dark blue button-down shirt; next to him was a woman with a darker shade of copper hair that went a little past the thigh, in a dark purple sweater and a knee-length green cotton skirt. Sarah opened the door wider to let them in with a welcoming grin.

She looked after the entering couple a little surprised their little ball of energy hadn't latched on to her yet, "Where's Ariel?"

Athena stepped in and took off her flats, "She'll be here in a moment she forgot her bag in the coach."

"Okay well I'll just go up and get Jim and then we can eat."

Athena sat smoothly in one of the wooden chairs Triton pulled out for her, "Wonderful."

Sarah walked up the stairs to Jim's room only to find him struggling with his shirt half off, a sock in his hand the other on his foot.

She chuckled and bent to help him, "I guess even big boys need help sometimes too, huh?"

"I almost had it," he pouted and slipped his arm through the hole his mother held, "Can I play with my toys after dinner?"

Sarah slipped his sock on, "Yes and make sure you try to include Ariel."

He sighed and stood up, "Okay mom."

They walked back down to see a bouncing girl, with shockingly scarlet red, waist-length hair in a ponytail, a light purple t-shirt, and green shorts; she was showing her father the contents of her bag when he gently pushed her to an empty chair. Sarah told Jim to sit as well while she brought the food to the table.

Jim and Ariel sat in the wide living room playing with their toys and other things. Ariel glanced over at Jim and noticed he had toys that mostly pertained to the ocean or the sky. Ariel was slowly moving closer to the boy without her even knowing until he looked back at her; her head was a little behind his shoulder and from where she was she could see the model solar-surfer he was putting back together.

He grunted and tried to move away, "What are you doing?"

Ariel raised an eyebrow, "Looking at your toy, it's really pretty."

Jim crossed his arms, "It is not pretty, and don't you have your own stuff to look at?"

The moment he mentioned her bag her eyes lit up, "Would you like to see them; they're pretty amazing."

"No way do I want to look at a bunch of dolls!"

She stuck her tongue out at the word, "What?! I don't play with dolls, they're weird and they stare at you." She shivered and considered her bag with a finger to her chin, "That's more of my younger sister Arista's thing, she's two hours older than me," his eyes widened in confusion at that.

Jim was a little surprised; he thought all girls loved dolls, "Well I guess I could see what you've got." He shrugged and turned to face her.

She rushed over to her salmon colored sack and sat in front of Jim. The first object she pulled out was a sand dollar the size of her whole hand, the next was an adult shark's tooth, then she pulled out a conch shell the size of her face, and finally she pulled out a small but very expensive looking music box that was melded with ocean blue and gold trimming.

She held up the sand dollar for Jim to see, "This came from when daddy first took me to the beach, we were in what he called a tide pool and daddy let me play in it; I stubbed my toe on this thing and decided to keep it." She handed him the object and picked up the shark tooth, "Daddy and mommy work for marine biosists, or something like that, and they help with sick animals; one day mom was trying to find out what was wrong with Big Billy, he's one of the old sharks, but it turned out to be just a tooth mommy had to pull and she gave this to me." She sat the tooth back down, "This is one of my special ones," she cradled the shell in her arms and scraped out some dirt that was stuck in it, "My sisters were looking for sea shells to put up on their walls when they saw this, and when they find something they like they always fight over it; daddy broke it up and asked if I would take care of it until they decided who would have it. Eventually they just forgot about the thing and said I could just keep it."

"This thing is ginormous! How do you carry it around all the time?" he reached out to hold it and she smiled as he weighed it in his hands.

"I guess I carry it so much it's just not that hard anymore." She picked up the music box, "My mom gave me this for my birthday; when you open it, it plays a lullaby and people with tails show up in the orb."

Jim's eyes were full of wonder at that, "Wow that sounds cool."

"Do you want to see?" She smiled like a bandit that just made off with the crown jewels.

He nodded. Ariel scooted closer to him and pushed a small lock so it gently rose open. A soft melody played while the orb showed what looked like an underwater castle.

Ariel poked at the image making it shimmer a little, "Mommy says that this place is called Atlantica, and one day all the tail-people will be a very important part in my life. She says I'm more important than I know, but I know she says that because she loves me."

Jim just stared in awe at the pretty colors; soon, just as Ariel said, people with tails like fish began to swim in random places. Some would twirl about while others would swim to wherever they were going; surprisingly a couple would stop and wave as if it were purposely for Ariel and Jim to see. Ariel shut the cover when the song ended.

"So, did you like it?"

"It was cool, but how come there were all those people down under there, do you think they're trapped?" he rubbed his hands together with a worried look on his face.

Ariel giggled, "No silly, daddy says they're all some place wonderful."

"Oh well that's good." He fiddled with the shark tooth, "Hey you want to play boats? I'll let you use the solar-surfer."

"Sure."

Athena and Sarah walked down stairs to get the two children but to their surprise they were both asleep. Ariel was curled around Jim's favorite solar-surfer with her head on his stomach and Jim was sprawled out straight with a boat in one hand with the other across Ariel's back.

Athena looked like she might cry at the beautiful scene before them, "Do you mind if we lodge for the night, I don't want to move them yet?"

Sarah smiled warmly, "No not at all, come on let's get you a room."

Sarah pulled blankets from the hall closet and covered them before they silently made their way back into the hallway and up to the guest rooms.

~Hey guys, I'm baaaaack! I'll be doing a lot of reviewing and updating for the story before any new uploads are posted, but I'm ready to get this ball rolling. I do not own any Dreamworks/Disney characters. Stay tuned, ja ne!~