New Girl in a New Town
Chapter 7: Another Side to Jessica...
Right at that moment, Miss Fowl entered the classroom and announced, "Good morning, students! Today, I see-!"
"Hall pass, please! !" Jessica urged, rushing up to the front of the classroom, "Bathroom! !"
"Okay, okay! Here!" she gave in, giving her the pass, "If ya gotta go, then go! I'll introduce you-"
But before she finished her sentence, Jessica was already out of sight.
"-to the rest of the class later. What a straaaange girl!" Miss Fowl noted aloud.
"Yeah, I'LL say," Libby agreed, staring with the rest of the class at the open classroom door still swinging from when Jessica exited rapidly.
Meanwhile, the new girl quickly dashed into the nearby bathroom, into a stall, locked it, and seated herself on the toilet after shutting the lid. At that moment, her transformation was instantaneous: she immediately got a bright pink scaly bra that had a single, wrap-around strap and a brilliant purple tail about three and a half feet long, all instead of the outfit she was sporting only moments before. "That was almost TOO close! !" she gasped, breathing heavily, "They almost saw me pop a tail! I still don't get why He bestowed this ability upon me, but there's nothing I can do about it, I guess..."
All too soon, she heard the bathroom door open with someone calling, "Jessica? Are you alright? ?" She immediately recognized the voice: Cindy! She could NOT let her find out about her secret! She frantically grabbed some toilet paper and rubbed her arm where the droplets of water still were until she was dry again. Jessica felt herself almost instantly change back to her human form with the clothes she was wearing beforehand: a pink soccer ball t-shirt, light blue denim capris, and some sky blue tennis shoes with white socks. "Phew! That was close!" she breathed thankfully.
Cindy heard that and asked, "What was close? Is that you in there, Jessica?"
"Yes, it's me, Cindy," she admitted, hopping down from her perch, unlocking the door, and coming out of the stall, "Just a minor, um, feminine emergency, is all..."
"You could feel it coming, couldn't you?" Cindy verified, a look of relief on her face.
"Yeah, but I got here just in time," Jessica told her gratefully.
"I'm just glad you're okay," she informed her new friend, opening her arms wide for a hug, not realizing she was still sopping wet.
"Uh, no thank you! You're still wet!" Jessica politely refused, backing away from her a bit.
"Okay, what is WITH you, Jessica?!" Cindy demanded, hands on her hips, "Anytime you're near water, you just have to stay as dry as possible! What is going ON with you?! And why did we have to blindfold you last night before the moon rose?!"
"Um, I can't tell you," she stated nervously, blushing hard.
"And why not?!" Cindy insisted, stepping a bit closer to her.
Continuing to back away from Cindy the closer she got to her, Jessica persisted, "I just can't, okay?! The government, once they found out about me, would put me up for display like I was some freak show and perform countless so-called 'experiments' on me!"
Now Cindy was really confused. "Why would they do that to you? You're just an ordinary teenager!" she questioned.
"No, I'm not," Jessica corrected her, "Did you realize that I was adopted around age seven into my current family?"
"I had no idea, Jessica! And what in the hell does that have to do with the government doing weird things to you if they found out about your secret?!" she wanted to know, extremely baffled.
"You have no idea, girl...," the new girl remarked, "It's hard to explain without someone getting all weirded out and them wanting to blab about it to everyone they met, including people under high authority."
"Hey, if you told me, I wouldn't tell anyone! Although, I would have an extremely hard time keeping it from my best friend Libby... And boy, is that girl a blabbermouth!" Cindy explained in an attempt to win her over.
"IF I were to tell you, you'd have to SWEAR that no one, other than the two of you, finds out! Otherwise, I'd be more dead than a bleeding seal in a feeding frenzy of sharks!" Jessica said cautiously, making sure no one was going to come in the bathroom anytime soon.
"You have my word! The only person I'll tell is Libby; I swear it! !" she promised with a nod of her head and her hand on her heart.
"You swear?!"
"Of course! You have my solemn vow, girl!" Cindy told her.
"Okay, as long as you don't tell ANYONE else...," Jessica replied, then instructed, holding out one of her arms, "Squeeze some of the water from your hair onto my arm."
"Say what?!" she gasped in protest, but Jessica wouldn't back down that easy.
"Just do it!" the new girl insisted.
"Okay, here goes!" Cindy gave in, and squeezed some of the water from her ponytail onto her outstretched arm.
"Now, watch. In just ten seconds...," she additionally put in, counting down in her head. Right on the dot, just like she said it would, she transformed back into her fishtail form and landed right on the bathroom floor, sitting upright right afterwords.
"You're a- a- a...! !" Cindy stuttered, hardly able to take in what she was seeing, "But I thought mermaids didn't exist!"
"Oh, we exist, alright! We're just discrete," Jessica calmly informed her, "I don't remember much before I was adopted at age seven... I remember my mom telling me she found me near the shore, by myself laying on a sand dune wearing a makeshift dress from a discarded tablecloth and a couple safety pins, and unconscious. She picked me up, took me to her home in Portland, Oregon, and officially adopted me the next day. Hand me a few paper towels, will ya?"
"Oh, sure thing, Jessica!" Cindy agreed, pulling some from the dispenser and handing them to her. She took them, dried off her arm thoroughly, and almost immediately returned to her human form. She then added, "So that's why you were in that bathroom stall? 'Cause you popped a tail when I accidentally flung water on you?"
"Precisely," Jessica concluded, then put in, rising to her feet, "We'd better get back to class! Miss Fowl is probably wondering what's taking us so long! And don't forget your hall pass!"
"Right!" she told her, "It's in my back pocket."
"So's mine," Jessica informed her, "When I changed back from having a tail, it was still in my pocket where I'd originally put it. Let's go!"
The two girls rushed out as fast as they could so they could still catch most of the lesson for that period. Once they were in the classroom, they slowed their pace as they went back to their seats.
Noticing that something strange was up, Jimmy leaned over to Cindy and whispered, "Cindy, what in the name of Albert Einstein is going on? ?"
"Personal issues," she whispered back, "Rather not discuss..."
He raised an eyebrow out of suspicion, but quietly replied, "Well, okay, Cindy..."
"Well, I see our new student is back from her bathroom break!" Miss Fowl observed, motioning for her to approach the front of the classroom, "Would come up and introduuuuce yourself, please BRAWK? ?"
"Certainly!" Jessica agree, and walked up to the front of the classroom, faced them, and introduced herself, saying, "I'm Jessica Griffen. Nice to meet you all!" When she finished, she returned to her seat and waited patiently for Miss Fowl to resume the lesson.
Sometime later, around noon, the bell rang to signify that it was time for lunch. "Finally! I'm starved! !" Sheen exclaimed as he and the rest of the students got up and headed to the cafeteria.
Once there, they each got in line to get their meals. Thanks to Jimmy's Cafeteria-Food-Enhancer, they each got whatever they wanted. They each took their trays and all sat at different tables, with Jimmy, Cindy, Jessica, and the rest of them at the same one.
Sheen was the first to speak up, saying after he sat down to eat, "You've been acting really weird lately, Jessica... What's up?"
"Yeah, like with this morning?" Carl added, taking a bite of his pizza slice, "Why'd you run away after Cindy accidentally got a little water on you?!"
"What is WRONG with ya, girl?!" Libby snapped, fairly irritated with Jessica acting so mysterious around them.
"I have a theory, but it's highly irrational-!" Jimmy began to reply, but was interrupted by Jessica.
"Don't... say... a word! !" she sneered, well aware of how brilliant he was at figuring things out with that genius mind of his.
"Excuse me?!" he remarked, shocked at her sudden interruption, "That was highly uncalled for!"
"I agree," Libby interjected, "Could ya try to be a LITTLE more polite, girl? ?"
"Sorry...," Jessica apologized, a little embarrassed, "Guess I got a little carried away, there..."
"A little?!" Sheen gasped, annoyed. He gave it a little thought, then started to snap, "Jeez, you were almost as bad as Eustace-! OW! ! ! My stomach!" He doubled over in pain while embracing his stomach because Libby had firmly elbowed him there in response to his rude statement.
"Don't be rude! !" she scolded him, giving him a cold stare with her chocolate eyes.
Jessica couldn't help but snicker when she saw that. There was something about Sheen that always made her laugh hysterically. Guess all his rude humor, pranks, and silliness is growing on me! It's hilarious! ! she said to herself thoughtfully.
Cindy, though, just scowled at him and remarked after a bite of her spaghetti, "Keep that up and you're gonna get yourself a one-way-ticket to the principal's office, Sheen...!"
"Sorry...! !" he hastily admitted, blushing fairly deeply.
You better be...! she thought to herself, then a sudden thought hit her, with her saying to herself, Wait a minute... Didn't Jessica say I could also tell Libby about her secret? It looks like we have twenty minutes left for lunch, so that's gonna work out perfectly for us! She finished the last of her lunch, went to put away her tray, then returned to the group and said firmly, "Jessica, Libs, could I see the two of you for a little while? ?"
The two girls had already finished their lunch and put away their trays before Cindy'd said that, so Libby nodded her approval and Jessica added, "Sure! Let's go, Libby!" They got up from their seats and followed her out of the cafeteria, wondering what it was Cindy wanted...
The boys watched them leave in confusion, wondering why they left when there was still twenty minutes left for lunch period. "Dude, girls are so weird...," Sheen commented, pointing in the direction they'd gone.
"I'll never attempt to understand the female mind again, not after what happened when Cindy and I switched places five years ago! !" Jimmy told them with a light shudder, "Now THAT was a nightmare!"
"Dude, don't even go there...!" Carl gently retorted, covering his mouth in an attempt not to barf, but just burped instead.
Meanwhile, Cindy had brought Jessica and Libby into the girls' bathroom, for one reason and one reason only... To show Libby what she'd witnessed that morning.
"Okay, ya brought us here for a reason, girl, so spill it," Libby told her best friend, a stern expression on her face.
"Alright, alright...," Cindy gave in, then turned to face Jessica and asked, "You ready? ?"
"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," she agreed.
"Okay. Libs, we have something to show you that's absolutely mind-blowing, but you can't tell ANYONE. Especially not Carl or Sheen! ! First, you need to guard the door to make sure no one's coming in here, okay?" Cindy explained firmly.
"I'm on it," Libby said with a nod, and walked up to the door, blocked it, then faced them again. "Now what is it that's so spectacular, girl?!"
"Jessica, if you will?" she requested, gesturing at one of the sinks.
"You got it," Jessica commented, walking over to the sink, turning on the water, and wetting her hands. She then returned quickly to her spot and sat on the floor.
"So, she wet her hands. Big deal-!" Libby started to remark sarcastically, then was taken aback as she witnessed Jessica's bizarre transformation, "WHOA! ! ! ! You're a mermaid?! But I thought-!"
"Nope! We're real, alright, but very discrete," she interjected, a smirk on her face and her arms folded.
Just then, the bell that signaled the end of lunch period rang, sending a chill down all three girls' spines. "Yikes! If we don't get to class soon, we're gonna be counted tardy!" Libby gasped.
As Cindy handed a few paper towels to Jessica, she looked over at Libby and reprimanded her sternly, "Now, remember, not ONE word of this to anyone, got it?!"