First, I would like to say thank you to Mo12341234, Awesome Rapidash, Artheart82, and mayaoneechan13 for review my last chapter!
Oh, and if you notice, I changed the names of the twins.
Disclaimer: Wish it was mine......
Chapter 3
Friends or Enemies?
"Here we are!" announced Hanna. The mermaids were in front of a large sand-white building with many windows and shells for decorations. Above the silver doors was a sign in script that said Victoria Dorm House.
"Oo, I can't wait to see the inside!" exclaimed Akira. She swam up and opened the door.
Inside was a long hallway, pictures of mermaids on the sides. Layla, Liana, and Akira recognized them as Lucia, Hanon, Rina, Coco, Caren, Noel, Sara, and Seira, the main eight mermaids-well seven. Each of them was a portrait with a bright blue ocean in the back ground. Their names were carved onto the bottom of the gold framed paintings. They swam to the end of the hallway and turned left. Akira could now see the doors to the rooms.
"They're numbered from 1-5," Hanna explained. "I'm in room number 4, which one are you in?" Akira checked the papers.
"Room 2," replied Akira. She noticed a door to the right of her that had the number two on the top. On two sheets of dark green seaweed paper were two names written with white shells. One of them was her name and the other was Natalie Barbados.
"I wonder if she's nice," Akira thought. She plugged the key into the door, turned it, and opened it. Her room was fairly large with two light blue drawers, two white clam beds, and two pink coral desks with shell phones on them. Akira opened a small door and found a closet for each of the mermaids. She dropped her shell cases on a bed and swam across the room to where a large glass window with a white frame was.
"This is an awesome view, check it out!" called Akira. Layla, Liana, Hanna, and Mrs. Marellas swam over. From the window you can see excited swimming mermaids rushing towards their dorm houses.
"The one to the left is the Alexandria dorm house, the ones across from us are the Jurtez {1} and Lysander dorm houses, and the one to the right of us is the Cecilia dorm room," Hanna told them. "In the center is the dorm square, where every day when the day is done we meet their to share what we did today."
"That sounds fun!" Akira smiled. She suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Hanna, who's your dormmate?"
"Her name is Victoria Barbados," Hanna replied. "She's probably Natalie's sister, but she hasn't come yet. And what a coincidence that her name is Victoria and she's in the Victoria dorm house!" Suddenly, the door opened and a mermaid with silver hair and a silver tail came in.
"Hi, you must be Natalie," greeted Akira.
"And you must be Akira," laughed Natalie. She swam over. "Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"You have?" wondered Akira.
"Yeah, everyone in my kingdom and others have been talking about how you saved everyone from the Panthalassa Clan!" replied Natalie.
"Oh that, it wasn't that much of a big deal," Akira insisted. Natalie looked behind me.
"These must be your friends, Layla the lavender mermaid princess and Liana the lime green mermaid princess, and your cousin Hanna the peach mermaid princess!" she guessed.
"Yup, nice to meet you!" Layla nodded.
"Is Victoria your sister?" asked Liana .
"Yeah, she's my dormmate," Hanna told her.
"She's not only my sister, she's my twin, come meet her!" replied Allicin. Layla, Hanna, Liana, Akira, and Allicin swam out of the room, leaving Mrs. Marellas to set up Akira's things. They opened the door to room 5. Inside was a mermaid with the same length hair as Allicin, except golden and she had a gold tail.
"Hi Nat!" greeted the mermaid. "I see your already made friends!"
"Victoria, this is Akira, Hanna, Layla, and Liana," started Natalie. "Akira, Hanna, Layla, and Liana, this is Victoria, the gold pearl mermaid and my twin."
"It's nice to meet heroes!" smiled Victoria.
"We're not really heroes," Liana noted uncomfortably.
"So Akira, you're the white pearl, Liana, you're the lime green pearl, Layla, you're the lavender pearl and Hanna?" Natalie asked, changing the subject.
"The peach pearl from the Mediterranean Sea," Hanna replied.
"Cool, we're from the Metallic Ocean," Victoria told them.
"Metallic Ocean?" asked Liana.
"It's hidden," replied Natalie.
"Just like the Rainbow Ocean is," stated Akira.
"Natalie rules the north and I rule the south," explained Victoria. "We split it, so there wouldn't be any confusion."
The mermaids nodded slowly.
"Oh, I better set up my things, there's going to be a welcome gathering at the dorm square," notified Natalie. The others nodded and went into their separate rooms. Akira found that hers was already finished.
"Thanks mom," Akira thanked her.
Akira and the others waited for Natalie and Victoria to set up, having conversations now and then.
"So, where exactly is the Metallic Ocean Victoria?" Hanna asked.
"It's through a hidden passage in the South Atlantic Ocean," Victoria replied, putting the bed sheets on the clam bed. "And you can just call me Vicky."
Liana noticed Natalie put a shell framed picture of a dolphin and her on her desk.
"Who's that?" asked Liana.
"She's Nelly, my pet dolphin," replied Natalie. "I've had her since I was two years old. Do you have any pets?"
"I used to," answered Liana. "It was a turtle named Sammy. We had to let him go since he was too big." Natalie arranged some more things on her desk.
"All done!" she finalized.
"Are you guys ready?" Victoria and Hanna peeked into their room.
"Yup, let's go!" Akira replied. The mermaids swam out of the dorm and down the marble steps. In the dorm square many mermaids were mingling, telling each other about what pearls they had and where they came from. Akira noticed three mermaids, one with a pink tail, one with a hazel tail, and one with a dark blue tail, surrounded by many more.
"Who are they?" asked Akira.
"Oh, that's Sakura Vinvaldi, Franchesca Collins, and Jasmine Mirra, they're the most popular mermaids out of the 50 who are attending," Hanna replied. "They're a bunch of snots anyways."
"You seem to know a lot about the academy," Liana noticed.
"My mom attended here when she was my age," explained Hanna. "Sakura's parents and my parents were best friends and they always invited them over. Sakura and I used to be best friends until she got all popular and bossed me around."
"She doesn't deserve to be here," growled Layla.
"What oceans are they from?" asked Victoria. "Or seas?"
"Sakura's from the Red Sea, Franchesca is from the Black Sea, and Jasmine's from the Caspian Sea," Hanna replied.
"Girls, the welcoming ceremony's about to start, take your seats," Mrs. Marellas told them. They sat together in a line of soft bedded seashells. A mermaid, in her early 40's, swam up to the podium.
"Welcome, I am Madame Amaya, the headmistress of the Mermaid Academy," the mermaid greeted. "I am so excited to see that all of the 50 mermaids Aquamarine chose had decided to attend. The Mermaid Academy is a once in a life time experience for young mermaids to learn about the history of the ancestors. As I explained in the letters I gave to each one of you, this academy lasts for three weeks, where you will be learning history, etiquette class, and much more. You may or may not know, that your teachers are the original seven mermaids. Lucia, Hanon, Rina, Caren, Coco, Noel, Seira, please come up as well as Nikora and Hippo." There was a loud applaud when the seven mermaids with Nikora and Hippo swam up. Lucia took the microphone.
"I'm so excited to teach all of you as well as the other teachers," Lucia started. "I'm sure this will be a time that none of us will forget!" Hanon took the microphone.
"I'm sure all of you are aching to find out when your classes are," Hanon guessed. The mermaids nodded. "You will be getting your class schedules during home room when classes begin, which is tomorrow." She handed the mircophone to Rina.
"Also, in your letter, there was a notice that at the end of the third week we will have a farewell dance where the mermen from the Mermen Academy will come and we will have a extraordinary night," notified Rina. There were whispers with that comment. Caren swam up.
"But that is a privilege," Caren said strictly. "It can be taken away from you if you don't succeed in your classes." The whispers stopped. "But don't worry, there has only been one occasion where a mermaid was not allowed to attend the farewell dance." The mermaids relaxed.
"Parents who are here, you may visit your child once a week on either a Saturday or Sunday over the time period," Noel explained.
"Your home room teacher, Madame Tsukiko will tell you more information about your stay here tomorrow during home room," Coco told them.
"For now, you are free to visit anywhere in the campus, but remember, don't go into the staff only rooms!" warned Seira. They finished and the mermaids poured out of the dorm square.
"So where do you want to go first?" Natalie asked them.
"You girls explore, I'm going to talk to your teachers," Mrs. Marellas told them. She swam towards the group of teachers.
"I don't know, how about classes?" asked Hanna. Akira nodded. "They're over there, at that building there." Hanna, Natalie, Victoria, Akira, Layla, and Liana swam over to the building with a large clock on it. The hallways, unlike Akira's school on land, were open. Akira got so excited that she rushed foward, slamming into another mermaid.
"Ow!" the mermaid complained.
"I'm so sorry!" Akira apologized. She looked up to see Sakura with Franchesca and Jasmine behind her.
"You should be," she spat. Sakura took a look at Akira. "Oh, you're Akira, the person who saved everyone!"
"Akira, you okay?" Liana asked. She swam up to her.
"And these must be your friends!" Sakura said in a singing voice. She noticed Hanna. "Well well well, look who it is, Hanna."
"Leave us alone Sakura," she warned.
"You're telling me what to say!?" gasped Sakura. "Looks like you haven't changed at all!" Hanna's hands clamped into tight fists.
"There there, we don't have to fight!" teased Franchesca.
"We only what to be your 'friends'," Jasmine told them, putting quotes in mid air while she said friends.
"Come on, let's go," hissed Victoria. She took the mermaids away. Natalie turned back and stuck out her tongue.
"Ugh, she's so, so, MEAN!!!" exclaimed Layla in the hallway.
"Well it was kinda my fault that I bumped into her," Akira said quietly. Layla stopped her.
"Look, you apologized, she didn't accept, that makes her full time mean dirty prissy snob!" Layla growled. "You got that?" Akira nodded. "Good."
"Hey, do you want to check out the dining hall?" Natalie asked, changing subjects. Akira perked up. "Sure!" The six mermaids swam towards the building across the campus that had a large sign that said the dining hall. They entered it to find a marvelous room, with diamond chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. There were five long glossy wooden tables with elegant red cushioned chairs around them. In front of each chair was a set of forks, knives, plates, and cups. Layla swam up to them.
"How do you know which spoon to use for soup?" she asked. "They all look the same!"
"I guess we'll just have to guess and pick the right one," Victoria shrugged.
"Or learn it in etiquette class!" laughed Natalie. Akira looked at the clock in the room.
"Wow, it's already 6:30!" she exclaimed.
"And all visitors have to leave before 7:00," notified Hanna.
"We better get going then," Layla decided. "Let's find your mom." They exited the room to find Mrs. Marellas waiting for them.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked Layla and Liana. They turned to Akira.
"We're going to miss you!" Both of them hugged her. Akira accepted the hug.
"I'll miss you too, but it's only three weeks!" she laughed.
"Call us on the shell phone!" Liana told her. Akira nodded and promised. Hanna, Akira, Victoria, and Natalie waved when they started to swim away. Natalie turned towards everyone.
"Let's go back to the dorm house, I think they're going to call us to dinner soon," she told her. They nodded and headed back to the Victoria dorm house.
{1} Pronounce the J as an H
Classes start in the next chapter! Review Please!