Chapter 3
Christiana, or Chris as they now called her, sat in the living room all day, watching TV and reading. Then, she noticed that the book Sarah had brought in that morning was on the table in front of her. She picked it up and opened it. Magic Creatures Here and Beyond… Why would they have that? She opened it to the page marked and saw a section on Sirens. I'm not a Siren. Why would they be looking at this? She saw the picture on the side. That looks just like the necklace I'm wearing. I wonder…No, it couldn't be…Could it? She pulled slightly on the strap of the necklace, struggling to get it off. It was stuck. She found the clasp and began to pull that open, but it was locked…wait, "locked"? How can you lock a jewelry clasp? There was something going on…
Christiana closed the book and placed it back on the table exactly as it was. It was then that she noticed the sun setting. She headed to the room they had given her as fast as she could and closed and locked the door behind her. The room she was using had a door inside it directly linked to the bathroom. She went through that door and locked the door to the hallway in that room. She still had a few minutes before the sun completely set. She filled the bathtub with water and got in, not bothering to take off her clothes first. As soon as she was in and the water had touched her skin, she grew a tail. She stayed in the water and relaxed her flippers (there are so many things wrong with that sentence). After a few hours, she fell asleep and stayed in the bathroom all night. Even if she wasn't a Siren, she was definitely a Mermaid of some sort…
* * *
The next morning, the team, once again, gathered in the kitchen.
"Still don't think Christiana is a Mermaid?" asked Sarah, "She locked the doors to her bedroom and the bathroom next to it last night and stayed that way 'til sunrise."
"For the last time, it's completely impossible," said Nadine.
"Nadine, there is one thing that you should already know about our families," said Daniella, "Nothing is impossible once a mutant falls in love with a Witch. Improbable, maybe, impractical, yes, but, never impossible. When you get your own magic, you'll understand it." Then she remembered that only the birds and coyotes would get magic on their next birthday. The rabbits were left out. "When Jack, Robert, Kelly, Ryan, Sarah, and Michael get their own magic, then you'll understand."
"Uh huh," said Jack, "And since I'm getting magic and Benny isn't—"
"For the last time, Jack, no way!" Lucy said.
Christiana stepped in. Sophie stepped out.
She has at least 2 days left, Sarah thought, She's going to have to take one of the guys if she's going to survive. I've got to prove it to them today before it's too late. "Hey, Chris."
"Hi, there," Chris said, grabbing Jack's plate of toast and sitting down at the couch again.
"Hey!" Jack yelled, "That's mine!"
"Too bad," Chris said in return, already eating it.
"You know," said Sarah, "her job is to make you like her. She's not doing so well."
"Would you quit that?" Jack hissed, making sure Chris couldn't hear him, "She is not a fish!"
"Half-fish," Sarah hissed back, fighting the urge to growl at the water fowl.
"Whatever," Jack said.
Sarah sat down and folded her arms over her chest.
Kelly comforted her sister, not knowing who to believe. She was the one in the group who had experienced the most of the fantasy world in Acmetropolis, almost dying by the hand…or tooth…of an evil Vampire. That was definitely worse than any Siren. Then again, girls weren't affected by the Siren's song the way guys were.
Sophie came back in. "Tech, can I talk to you?" Before he could answer, she pulled him down the hall and into their room.
"You're hurting my arm every time you do that!" Tech said.
Sophie shushed him and closed the door behind them.
"What exactly did you want to say?" asked Tech.
"How would you feel about a new addition to the family?"
"Oh no! They're noisy and they wake us up at 2 in the morning and I can't deal with that kind of pressure when I spend all that extra time in the lab now that the kids are the heroes and—"
"Tech! You were excited about this the first time."
"What are you talking a—You're not talking about getting a dog, are you?"
"Not unless Duck's insults stretched that far and were true."
"Wait, so…you…and…when did you find out?"
"Just a couple seconds ago actually, but it's probably been going on unnoticed for a couple weeks or even a month, maybe. Why, it may have even been going on during the kids 14th birthdays a couple months ago."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I just wanted to let you know."
"So they don't know?" Sophie shook her head. "Then let's go tell them."
"Um, let's wait until Christiana leaves. Plus, it would be nice to keep this our little secret for a while after all that time it took me to tell you the first time without keeping it a secret."
"Good point." Tech and Sophie both nodded.
"Oh, Tech, before you open the door…"
"What?"
She quickly wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. He returned it and hugged her when they let go.
"That felt good. It's nice to be able to do that since the kids aren't around."
"I know. We haven't done that in…12 years."
Sophie smiled before they went back to the living room. Chris was in the same place she had been when they left. "Do you think she's going to get her memory back after that bucket incident yesterday?"
"How do we know she lost it for real in the first place?"
"Good point, Tech. But, if she was serious, would she?"
"Most likely. It's the result of a traumatic event, so it's only logical that another one would bring back her memory."
The 2 coyotes just went back to the table where the rest of the team was still standing or sitting.
"So what was it?" Lexi asked curiously.
"Nothing," both coyotes said at the same time.
Kelly knew they were lying. Nadine attempted to read their minds, but they were both concentrating on other stuff. They decided to leave that for later. It probably wasn't important. If they had known that Michael was no longer to be the youngest, they would have continued their attempts all day long to get it out of them.
