Alright gang. Sorry about the delay in the update. Being jetlagged really sucks.
Any, the usual disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the story of the Twilight Saga
I hope you enjoy this update, there will be one soon after this one.
La Push
Alice:
I think I wanted to slap Bella as hard as I possibly could.
"I don't swim at the beach, not such a good idea." Bella said.
"What part of mermaid don't you understand?" Rosalie hissed, I think she would have yelled if we weren't talking about mermaids. There weren't any people around visibly, but who's to say no one was around.
"Bella, you have to change at some point."
"You said a month!"
"I lied!" Rosalie yelled that time.
"Bella, look, it was me that decided to do this now. We really need you to get control of yourself. I don't think you realize the reason you have been so crazy since you arrived is because you have been itching to change." I said.
"We'll be with you." Rose said in a quiet voice. Bella didn't say anything, but just looked as if she were still trying to make up her mind. I wasn't quite sure what had her nervous, but I knew I wanted to support her.
Plus I was out of the house and away from any phone lines. My father had been trying to call me lately, I still had nothing to say to him. I had a feeling he was about to announce his nuptials to the high society money grabbing tramp that he had been with. I wasn't going to the wedding, I didn't care how many bribes my dad tried.
"Bella, I was scared the first time too, but it's better to practice now, especially when you have people to help." Bella didn't say anything after that, she just started stripping down to her tee shirt.
Bella:
I couldn't believe that I was actually getting into open water. I'd been to the beach before, it was a rarity, but I wasn't faced with this situation before either. Alice and Rosalie wordlessly started stripping down to their tee shirts. It felt so strange being on a public beach, in a tee shirt, knowing I was naked underneath. Yeah, that's right. I was full commando under my shirt.
"Ok. Let's just get this over with."
"You're ready?" Alice looked so hopeful
"NO. But you two have left me little choice." I slowly walked into the water, when both Alice and Rose grabbed my hands and hauled me full speed into the water. Did I mention the waves and swells that were coming in? The next thing I know, a wave comes crashing down on all three of us, and I'm separated from Rose and Alice. I panic, trying to get my bearings, and I'm trying to figure out which way is up. I try to kick my legs, but they wouldn't move. I panicked even more trying to kick and thinking about how I would have to surface for air soon, when I realized that there was no burning sensation from not having any air. I was suddenly very still and I was very deep underwater. Everything was peaceful, quiet and it was a little eerie. I looked up and I could see the slow motion of the water, and I looked down and saw blue black depths. And a tail… My tail.
Rosalie:
"She doesn't look too good Alice." I said, I knew the color on my face was gone.
"If she doesn't come around, we'll have to call Charlie." Alice said in a scared voice. This whole outing didn't go as planned. Leave it to Bella to faint underwater after seeing her tail.
"I guess you're right. I don't know how Charlie is going to feel about this."
"I don't think he'll be upset, I mean this is the first time she's changed. All this has been a huge shock for her." Alice said
"True." Suddenly Bella coughed and stirred a little, we quickly wrapped a blanket around her.
"Bella! Are you okay?! How are you feeling?" Alice asked, the typical mother hen.
"I have a tail." Was all Bella said.
"This isn't good." I said, she was showing signs of shock. I quickly got her a soda and forced her to guzzle some of it down. Her dark hair was plastered to the sides of her face and she was shivering slightly.
"Come, let's get you up and back to the truck." I said, and I was happy that Bella opted to purchase an SUV for her vehicle, with everything going on, we were going to need it. Alice and I helped Bella walk to her truck and hustled her inside. Alice turned on the truck and blasted the heat. I wrapped another blanket around Bella and encouraged her to speak.
"I have a tail and I was breathing underwater." Bella said, this time she sounded more like herself.
"Yes, and what else?" I asked.
"I don't remember, everything sort of went black."
"Well you've survived your first transformation. We'll have to come back next weekend. We need to find a place where no one will see us, in order for you to practice more freely." Alice said cheerfully.
"Leave it to you to faint your first time out." I said a little harshly, but I was just so happy that Bella was seriously shocked. I don't know how we would've got past that for future sessions.
"We really have to be careful, the reservation isn't far from this beach. We don't know how much the Quielutes know, and I don't want to find out either." Alice had a point, we needed to be careful. Alice pulled off towards home and Bella was very quiet still.
"Are you willing to try again Bells?" I asked.
"I don't have a choice, I need to learn to control my powers."
"Did you hate it so much?" Alice asked sadly. There was a long pause.
"No, I'm just having a hard time dealing at the moment. My tail didn't look at all like I expected. I thought I would look like a big gold fish."
"Yeah, "Splash" this is not." I chuckled. Her sense of humor was coming back, that was a good sign.
"So what did you think, before you blacked out?" Alice asked.
"I'm not quite sure, I know it was all very quiet, and a little eerie. I want to know, how in the world do we breathe underwater?" I glanced at Alice through the rear view mirror and she glanced back.
"Here, let me show you." I pulled my hair back to expose my ear, I folded the pinna down to expose what appeared to be a very thin cut, in the shape of a curve following the line of my outer ear.
"Do you see that cut?" I asked.
"Yeah, what happened?"
"Nothing happened, that's one of my gills. When it gets wet, it expands." I explained. "That's why we can breath underwater."
I don't know exactly what Bella thought, but the look on her face was indescribable.
"We have school tomorrow, try and keep a low profile in Biology, this school is small and doesn't have very many science labs to begin with. No more pipe bursting." I said to distract her.
"Do we all have the same tails?" Bella asked.
"No. Each mermaid has a different tail. There were even a few mermaids in the family that had split tales. Some are scalier then others, some have a more dolphin like tail, it just depends upon genetics, pretty much like every other living thing." Alice answered.
"What do your tails look like?"
"You'll find out when we go back to practice." I answered. Bella looked like she wanted to sulk, but was then silent. The ride home was quiet and we still had a lot of ground to cover.
