"Must you always be exploring?"

"Mom, I'm not doing anything bad..." Which is a big, fat lie. Being with Liam, a human, is the lowest I could go.

"Ocenia, you are constantly out, and I have no means to know if you were to be injured, killed, or worse,"

"But-" I can say no more; Mother cuts me off.

"Enough. I am speaking. You are spending all your remaining time cooped up in your room, or at Coral's.

"When you come back from the open ocean, you are moody and temperamental, seldom doing what I tell you. This cannot, and WILL NOT continue," she declares with an iron will.

"Your mother is right, Ocenia," Oh, great. Now dad is starting in.

"You have to shoulder your responsibilities. Remember that you have to acquire a job when you reach your 18th shell day. Slacking off will only just make your life harder." he states.

"Dad, mer-school is done for the summer. I don't have to begin again for a month and a half!" I defend my honour with well thought out blows.

"You will be starting Level 11 academics when you go back, and the subjects will be tougher. Ocenia, you absolutely need to stop being a child."

"Fine," I yell, storming to my room, and I sit hunched up on my bed. At dinner, I say nothing, and eat my meal in silence. I return to my room once I am sated, and suddenly a light flicks on in my mind. I swim out of my cave, and go to my parents, who are in the living room discussing some issue at length.

"Mom, Dad. I have an idea." I say it as innocently as possible.

"Go ahead, dear." I am shocked how neutral her voice is, like we had never fought.

"I was thinking of apprenticing with the sea witch." I say, testing the waters cautiously.

Mother says nothing, neither does father, and the silence grows ever heavy with tension. The sea witch is an ancient merwoman, seemingly as old as the caves themselves. She brews weird concoctions in her cave on the far end of the cave's network. She is also responsible for turning merpeople into humans for the supply run. On the side she acts as our pod's seer. She is well respected, though popular opinion says she is extremely eccentric. An apprenticeship with her would be an amazing opportunity, if you're into that sort of stuff.

Dad says that at least there is one job I am interested in. Mom and him share a fleeting glance, with something like amazement, at my sudden change of attitude, and suspicion behind.

"Very well." says Dad. Those two words cut through the tautness of the air, like a seal through water.

"I suppose you wish to visit her immediately?" Of course they know me too well.

"Yes," I say, "I know where she lives."

"Be back in time for dinner, please."

I consent to this, yelling my response over my shoulder as I leave. They have no idea I will only go the sea witch this one time, for I plan to do more exploring instead of brewing potions in some smelly, dank cave. If they ever found out, my freedom would be obliterated, as well as their trust in me. Needless to say, I'd be on an extremely short leash.

It takes longer to find the sea witch's cave than I had planned for, which means less time spent with the idiosyncratic old woman. The cave looks ordinary from this side of the door, if not a bit grimy. I raise my hand to knock, but, in all her creepiness, opens the door before I so much as lay a finger on it.

"Come in, dear." This all she offers by way of a greeting, not even asking me why I am here.

I swim in, taking note of the steep tunnel up which must lead to the above water section of the foul cave. This first cave is rather empty, with only some scattered seashells and driftwood. She snaps the door shut, and glides away from me up the tunnel. I take that as a silent request to follow her, and I reach the above-water cave to see her puttering away at a boiling pot, slipping slimy ingredients into the bubbling, grey water. She looks up, gives me a glare, but still says nothing. This leaves me to look around at my surroundings. Pieces of seaweed, seashells and algae hang from the ceiling, and four large pots are brewing concoctions and emitting foul odours. Rock countertops stand in the middle, which have all manners of knives, jars and other debris on them. An ornamental driftwood chandelier hangs in one corner. The room itself has a low ceiling, so the witch can still reach the dried herbs above.

"Um..."

"Why are you here?" she says in a scratchy voice.

I straighten up, and say in my steadiest voice, "I would like an apprenticeship."

She looks at me skeptically, and I find myself telling her the truth.

"Because my parents want me to get a job and I really don't know what other one wouldn't bore me to death."

A corner of her mouth twitches, which at the moment that is the best smile I can get from her.

"Fine," is the witch's answer, "I will teach you, though I expect you to be here everyday, from mid-morning onwards." She passes me another look; "Failure to do so will result in disbanding of this agreement."

Something makes me think that my plan will not go as smoothly as I had envisioned.

I return home, flopping wearily onto my bed. The witch had dismissed me roughly after giving me more than my fair share of stink eyes. I sigh, exasperated and annoyed, for my strategy of attack is surely ruined. The good thing is that Mom and Dad had left me a scratched-in note on a soft rock. They will be out for another two hours. I can go to either Coral's or Liam's, but I decide to visit Liam instead, for this might be the only time I get to see him in a while. I swim out of our house, and in no time I am at his beach. It is vacant. I sigh, exasperated, and push myself into the shallows, but I still make sure that my tail is covered with a decent amount of water as to camouflage it. I crane my neck, looking for any sign of life, and find none. I look up the hill, over to the left, where a stout, yet stylish home sits atop a rubble-covered plane. I hunt around in the water, and clutch a small, rounded stone, draw my arm back, and launch the rock into the air.

I have only ever thrown objects underwater, where it takes a lot more effort and drive from my muscles. As a result, I have grievously underestimated my arm strength. I watch helplessly as the rock sails through the air and smashes the glass window to smithereens. Even from here I can hear the crash, and the tinkling of broken glass. I hear a shout, then see Liam hurtle out of the house, looking angry enough to fight a killer whale. I realize that he might not be happy to see me, now that I've vandalized his house. I wave at him, and when he sees me, his expression goes from happy, to confused, and then finally to anger. His eyes are hard and guarded.

He walks over and sits down beside me, but his expression remains unchanged. I should apologize, which is something I haven't done in a while, because it means admitting defeat. If anyone deserves an apology, it's him, and I'd rather Liam be the recipient of my first confession in over three years.

"I'm sorry," I say, the words feeling heavy and unnatural in my mouth.

He doesn't say anything for the longest time, making me feel like I am not forgiven. Finally he says, "You're forgiven, if you help me make up an excuse for why the living room window is in a million pieces."

I smile, for I can lie myself out of any situation. He returns my smile.

We spend the next while thinking up excuses, that are realistic enough for Liam to tell to his parents. We agree that he should tell his parents that the wind blew a branch into the window, which is why it is now shattered. After we have decided on the cover story, we sit together, talking about nothing in particular. A shrill "Liam!" makes us both jump.

"Sorry, that's Bethany," he explains, "she's a family friend of mine."

I roll my eyes and Liam grimaces. I begin attempting to shuffle backwards into the water, until I am covered up to my shoulders. But I am distracted by a strange swirling in the water, a few tail lengths away. A masculine face with a thick head of black hair appears above the water, followed by muscular shoulders and a long, silver tail.

"Cetus?!"I whisper screech. "What in the great seas are you doing here!"

He wiggles his eyebrows at me but his expressions turns to outrage when he sees Liam.

"A HUMAN!" he yells, "OCENIA, HOW STUPID COULD YOU BE?"

"Cet, please. There's another one over there." I gesture to the top of the hill, where Bethany is no doubt roaming around somewhere.

"Another one! If they-"

"My name's Liam." Liam stretches out his hand, which I assume is some sort of human gesture of friendship.

Cetus glances disgustedly at the hand, and swats it away rudely. Liam turns to me, a smirk on his face. I scowl at him, silently warning him to keep his mouth shut, or else.

"If you two are finished your silent conversation, I'm leaving." Cetus says.

"Can you just-" I start, but he turns to leave before I can finish my sentence.

He flicks his tail, the sun catching on the scales. At the same time I see a flash go off behind me.

"That's a nice camera," Liam says.

"Yeah," says Bethany, who has an overly girly voice that makes me want to vomit, "I've got a lot of really cool pictures on here."

"Can I see the pictures?"

"No, they're kind of personal, but you'll see them soon enough." I don't dare turn around, but I assume that Bethany must have a big fat smile on her face.

"I'll see you later, ok?"

"Yeah," Bethany says, "nice to meet your...friend."

I hear her walk away, at which point I let out the breath I had been holding in.

"That was close," I say.

"Close? Honestly," Liam says, "you know she got a picture of that merman-guy-friend of yours,"

"Oh, um well... There's no way she would believe that..." I trail off.

"You know as well as I do that she sounded pretty confident in what she saw, and we're talking about Bethany here, and no one likes a scandal more than her."

I gulp, "But...you're going to help me fix this!" I say.

"No way," he says, " don't you DARE involve me,"

"But how am I supposed to fix this?!" I demand, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a MERMAID. I can't just walk up to her a throw that picture-thing on the ground!"

"Do you realize how much trouble I'd get in if I was caught hanging around with a..." He looks sheepish as he says this.

My anger flares up and I clench my hands. "Oh, I'm SORRY," I say, "am I not good enough for you? If so, why don't you just crawl back to 'Bethany' and I can stop wasting my time with you!" I snarl viciously.

"Ocenia," he says gently, "that's not what I meant. It's just that really no one else on this island besides me believes in mermaids. If they found out about you, they'd lock you up and do weird experiments on you. I couldn't live with myself if I was the reason you were caught. I...you...never mind,"

"Oh," Now I feel bad, which is something I would usually brush aside, but something makes me stop. "I didn't realize..."

"It's okay, just don't bite my head off next time you take a comment the wrong way," he says teasingly.

"Is that an insult?" I demand in a mock-serious voice, "In that case, take this you filthy sea snake!" I hobble around and slap my fin on the surface of the water, effectively soaking Liam from the chest-down.

"Hey! Not fair!" He yells, and grabs my tail and drags me all the way out of the water onto the beach. I shriek and pelt handfuls of gritty sand at him. He returns the favour by doing the same, and in no time we are covered. I spit dirt out of my mouth and admit defeat. I look at him, covered head to toe in sand, and I can't help but laugh. Soon we're both laughing so hard neither of us can breath, and we collapse on the beach with aching stomachs.

After a while, our laughter dwindles. I find myself caught in his eyes, which are stark in contrast to his filthy face. My heart is beating out a ragged drum beat, so loud and fast I fear that Liam can hear it. Our eyes meet and my breath comes in short gasps. Ever so slowly, he reaches out and gently wipes the sand off my cheeks. I am caught in a tidal wave of emotions, and a strange fire burns in my throat and stomach. His hand lingers on my cheek and I inwardly let out a sigh. It drops down to my shoulder, seemingly burning my skin with it's touch. His hand travels all the way down to my tail.

I am torn between wanting him to stay and wanting him to go away, but reality is kicking in. I can't breath anymore, and I fear I will start gasping for air soon. Liam gently removes his hand and my senses come flooding back all at once as well my breath.

"Ocenia," he ventures, his eyes serious and stern, "I have some bad news," He then proceeds to tell me about the talk of two fishermen on a shabby, red and white boat.

I frown and look at him. "That's not good," I say bluntly. I try to keep myself from blushing when I look at him, but to no avail. The memory is too recent in my mind.

"Let's hope for the best," he says.

"Yeah...and I'll go to the surface more so I can keep my ears peeled."

"What if you're caught? Or seen? Or captured? Why don't you let me do the snooping." he says.

"What am I supposed to do then? Sit around and do nothing? I started this mess, so I'll end it," I protest.

"Things are heating up. It's risky for you to go swimming around. But," he pauses for effect, "I cannot keep you from doing what you want, so just promise me you'll be careful?"

"I...promise." To know that he cares about my safety is something unwanted yet comforting.

Liam lifts me up like usual, seeing as I can't move myself. I don't want those arms to let go, but I know I have to go. I may not see him for awhile.

"Next time you come here and can't find me, please do not shatter the window if you're trying to get my attention," he whispers in my ear.

"I over-estimated my arm strength, but maybe I will just to make you angry," I say jokingly.

He smiles and slides me into the water.