Chapter One

Sam Manson was excited. She and the rest of her class her going on a school trip to a marine reserve! In the Mediterranean! She was a bit of an outcast at school with her gothic ways and ultra-recyclo-vegetarian diet. However, even she was excited about this, if for different reasons than the rest of the class. She loved the environmental side of the trip, whereas everyone else was looking forward to the free time, and spending time on the beach and swimming in the sea.

The class was currently inside a coach that was taking them the last leg of their journey before they stopped at their accommodation. Sam was glad for that. Several of the 'nerds', the most prominent being Mikey, had been sick nearly the whole way here, and the entire coach stank. She also really wanted to get there so she had some time to explore on her own before the official touring began tomorrow.

The coach drove through the dusty streets of the small town they were staying just outside of, Luna Sirenius. It was an odd name, and Sam reminded herself to ask someone later why the town (more like an overgrown village, really) was named that. They passed by driftwood signs and small wooden beach huts as they left Luna Sirenius behind, travelling alongside the beach that twisted like a strand of golden thread, along the seam between the emerald cotton of the land and the sapphire silk of the sea.

The coach pulled up outside the Sea Star Hotel. A tall, thin building which had an air of defying gravity by staying up. The students tumbled off the coach, rushed to their rooms and then headed – for the majority – straight to the beach.

Danny Fenton, ordinary mer-teen, waited impatiently for his friend to get ready.

"C'mon Tucker! I heard that they got some new humans staying in Luna Sirenius! If it's true, they'll go straight to the beach, and I wanna see what other humans act like. We've already seen everyone on the island, these new guys will be great fun to watch."

At 14 years old, Danny Fenton was the younger of the two Fenton children. He had an older sister, Jasmine 'Jazz' Fenton, who was currently studying at Leviathorgan College, on the other side of the island. He was a scrawny teen at first look, although his small frame held compact, wiry muscle if you looked close enough. He was a 'Phantom Mer', meaning his colouring was monochrome, with only emerald green eyes lighting up his black and white appearance. His mother and sister both had blue markings, although the shades were different, and his father's markings were orange, so he was obviously unusual. He was the first with his colouring to be born in his town, however there were tales of others like him, from distant waters. Because of his colouring, he was a prime target of bullying at Shortfin High, and only had one real friend.

This one real friend was Tucker, a teen with bright yellow and green markings, brown skin, hair and eyes, a beret that seemed permanently fixed to his head, and thick-framed glasses. He used to be an insufferable flirt, until he realised that he wasn't really attracted to any of the mermaids at school by anything other than their looks. He was extremely good with technology, and was never seen without his shell phone. Ever. He was another prime bullying target, and so the two drew close over the years, becoming best friends before long, and they were practically brothers by this point.

The pair lived with their respective parents in the small undersea town of Solar Sirenius. It was a mirror image of its human counterpart, so names because of the times the sirens sang in each town, since they only sang above the waves under the moonlight, whereas during the time when the sun shone outside, they serenaded the small undersea town of the merfolk that had made this area their home.

The humans and merfolk of the island had made peace may centuries ago, although a large majority of the human residents no longer believed that the merpeople ever existed. The merpeople were happy to let them believe that, and continued to live their lives under the ocean's surface, although youngsters and adolescents often spied on those above due to curiosity.

Danny waited impatiently, his jet black tail with white fins swishing in time with his exited heartbeat. He had managed to see the coach carrying the new humans travel past the beach from the foam, and was exited to go back and observe them. Finally, Tucker pushed open his front door, a backpack full of snacks for the pair of them while they were watching on his back, identical to the one on Danny's was wearing, and, together, the pair swam towards the beach, and the human world above the waves…