He guys! Thanks for the awsome reviews ;) I like your enthousiasm ;D
I know the previous chapter seemed a bit rushed and all, but let me explain (hear me out, okay?) ;) They were attacked during lunch, let's say 1pm. Then they stayed in the Saferoom for like 2h, that brings us to 3pm. The Special was at 5pm (like every Report) and she had to get ready at 4pm-4.30pm, so that leaves us with only about 1h for a last minute date... it couldn't be much longer^^
But I hear your wish to have longer dates and more details, and I'll definitely do that in the future... You're the boss ;)
talking about long 'dates' and details, I think you won't be disappointed with this chapter... *rubs hands together*
*drumroll* okay let's get down to it :D
Chapter 12
The Special Report was awful. Father spoke three minutes about the attack, and then it was all for me. Felix peppered me with question about my dates so far, about the boys, and if I had already kissed at least one of them.
"Of course not," I replied. "It hasn't even been a week."
But of course, Max burst out laughing, and Felix asked him his thoughts on the subject. He stopped laughing right away, but he was cornered, and Felix and everyone else waited for his answer.
"Um," he began, not so sure anymore. "I… think that…" he cleared his voice, "you have to give her time. It has been only a few days." He smiled stupidly.
"Are you eager for a kiss?" Felix asked him.
Max turned beet red, and I was the one to burst out laughing this time. "Um, I-"
"Of course he is," Wes elbowed him. "Aren't we all?" And most of the boys joined in chuckling. I wanted to face-palm so hard and hide ten miles under ground. This was getting out of hand. At least father's goal had been achieved: no one remembered about the Rebel attack.
Finally, the half hour was up — Specials only lasted thirty minutes — and we could all go eat dinner. The evenings where I would drink tea with mother while father and Alex shared a moment together with brandy and a cigar — for father, not Alex — were over. Now I had the evening off if I wanted to have a date or something. Boy, was I happy for my free evenings. I excused myself and went back to my room to finish my book. Today was a full day — an attack, a last-minute date and a Special —, so I thought I deserved my night off.
I quickly put something more comfortable, aka my pajamas, and started reading.
I finished my book around midnight, but I was not sleepy at all. I knew there was no risk of a Rebel attack — there were never two on the same day, so far — so I decided to sneak outside, and take a stroll in the shadows of the gardens. Only, there were like twenty guards between my room and the garden doors, so I took it upon myself to use the Tunnels.
I grabbed a light jacket and a pair of flats and pressed the switch behind the plant. The big Mahogany wardrobe slid open and I silently walked through the narrow corridors and stairs all the way to the first floor. There, I cracked open the door and checked for a clear passage to the Women's Room. No one was in sight — the guard had just turned around the corner — so I made a tip-toeing run for the white doors, which I opened the most silently possible that I could. Once inside, I just needed to open a window and jump outside.
It felt so good to do something forbidden, and a sly grin spread on my face. I stayed in the shadows of the trees, because the moon was full and making it seem like dawn or dusk. I walked silently, sticking to the grass and avoiding the gravel paths.
I headed to the furthest side of the gardens, where the swimming pool was. I was just going to dip my feet in the cool, refreshing water for a little while before going back to bed.
Splash.
Um, what? Something fell in the pool. I walked faster to go see what it was. The pool was the size of half an Olympic Pool, but with a green slide, and two diving boards. It was deep where the diving boards were, and shallow on the other side.
I stood on the edge of the pool, but nothing moved. I walked around it to look under the slide or near the diving boards, when something shiny caught my eye. I stopped and looked for the shiny thing again. Ripples on the surface of the water spread from the corner of the pool. There was something in the water. But I couldn't see was it was. I stood there, motionless for a couple minutes before finishing my stroll around the pool, still looking for that shiny thing again.
When I didn't hear or see anything else, I sat on the edge and dipped my feet in the water, resting on my hands and looking at the stars, my head hung backwards.
"Hi," a male voice said.
I jumped and gasped, a hand over my mouth to cover any sound. "Finn," I hissed, "What are you doing here?"
"Just cooling off a little." He grinned. And that's when I saw something shiny again. The moon reflected on something behind him.
"What's that shiny thing behind you?" I pointed at something I couldn't see behind him.
"Oh, this?" He shifted and turned his back to me, revealing a gigantic fishtail.
I gasped and jerked my feet out of the water.
"No, no, no. Don't be scared."
"That's easy for you to say," I whispered in shocked terror. "I'm going to close my eyes and wake up in my bed again. This is just a bad dream." I closed my eyes shut really tight, counted to three in my mind and opened them again.
"Still here," He said smugly.
"How is this possible?" I whispered in wonder.
"Um… Okay. Make yourself comfortable, I'm going to tell you a story." He grinned and swam around me feet. I couldn't believe my eyes.
"All right." I sighed and shifted in a more comfortable position.
"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful blue-haired mermaid who was hidden in the cliffs with her companions, singing the mermaid song and luring the next boat full of sailors and fisherman to their deaths." He said that rather dramatically, spreading goosebumps all over my arms. "But when this blue-haired young mermaid saw the black-haired-blue-eyes sailor, she fell in love with him and decided to save him from her companions instead. She swam with him on her back as far away as possible and brought him to shore. He fell in love with her, too, but it was impossible her them to marry. They saw each other regularly and she decided to take it upon herself to seek Poseidon, the God of the Ocean, to plead her case and marry this man.
"Poseidon heard her plea and accepted to give her a pair of legs. But there was a price to pay for betraying the Merpeople: She had legs, yes, but it felt like walking on knives. She ignored that and went to look for her soulmate. She found him and they got married. Nine months later, I was born. The end." He grinned and stared at me.
I was speechless. "But… I thought mermaids were legends. You know, creatures living in books for kids."
"Oh, I can assure you they are real. Here's the proof," he said, putting his fin on my lap.
"Ew! Get that thing off me." I pushed it back in the water
"Sorry," he said, chuckling.
"No, you're not."
"You're right." He chuckled and swirled in the water. "I'm not the least sorry."
"But how is it that I saw you walking on two legs, and I danced with you the other night?"
"Ah, well, that's another story."
"I've got all the time in the world. Please explain." I crossed my arms, waiting for his story.
"Sure. You see these?" He lifted his fists from out of the water. "The leather cuffs hide my secret, actually." He paused and took them off. He then extended his wrists to me.
"See? I have fish scales on them."
My eyes widened, and I extended my hand to touch them, but jerked it away. "Can I touch?" I asked, unsure it this was a polite question or not.
"Sure." He came closer and I brushed his skin and fish scales with the tip of my fingers.
"Oh, my goodness. They're really part of you. This is so weird." The scales came out of his skin like hair would. They were smooth and kind of bluish — from what I could tell in the moonlight.
"But I don't have them all the time. See, that's the thing. Even though I'm half human and half Merman, I'm much more human. When these scales start growing — and I can't miss them, they itch so bad — I know I'm going to have a transformation during the night, and it can last between three and ten hours. It's never twice the same."
"How often?" I was kind of hypnotized by this new thing.
He shrugged. "More random than that, you can't. Sometimes it's four or fives times a week, sometimes only twice and sometimes zero. I can never tell."
"This is so weird," I said, awestruck. Suddenly I realized something, and I chuckled. "Wow, I just realized your name was Finn and you have fins." I laughed nervously.
"Yeah, I know. My mom was never very subtle with the names she gave us."
"There are others?" I asked, eyes wide.
"Yeah. I have two sisters and a brother."
"And they have the same… 'condition'… as you?"
"No, we're all different. Dory has scales growing in random places on her body, so she wears very covering clothes. Then there's Ariel, and she-
"Please don't tell me she has red hair."
He chuckled. "No, but she has a fishtail. She is the opposite of me: she gets legs for a few hours randomly. She lives with my mom's side of the family and comes back to the shore to see us when she gets her legs. And then there's Sebastian — and no, he's not a crab —, he's a normal human. The only thing weird about him is that instead of smelling sweat when he sweats, he smells fish."
"Oh no! That's awful!" I said, putting a hand over my mouth.
"Yeah. He's going to follow in my dad's steps and be a fisherman, so the smell is covered."
I chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry, this is not funny." But I kept laughing.
Then we were silent for a little while, and he swam silently in the swimming pool.
"How many times have you transformed already, during the Selection?" I asked him.
"This is the first time, actually. And you can't imagine how happy I was when I saw that you had a swimming pool, and that it was far enough from the Palace."
"Yeah I can imagine. Who knows about this?"
"No one, besides my family. I always managed to hide it."
"How did you do that?"
"My parents decided we should live a secluded life. We live in an old lighthouse with the closest neighbor being two or three miles away. We were all homeschooled."
I cringed at the thought of having no one around besides family. It must have been really lonely. "And you weren't scared of someone discovering that during the Selection?"
He shrugged. "I figured you should know. But I didn't really know to tell you. 'Hi, guess what? I'm a merman and I randomly transform with a fishtail.' You wouldn't have believed me."
I burst out laughing. "No, I wouldn't."
"But now you do?"
"Do I have a choice?"
He looked at his tail. "Not really." We both chuckled. "Okay enough talking. Come in the water."
"Oh, no, no, no, no." I shook my head and shied away when he came close.
He frowned. "You're scared of me?"
"Um, don't merpeople drown humans for a living?"
He rolled his eyes. "Didn't I just tell you a story about a mermaid who did the opposite?"
I squinted my eyes in suspicion. "What? Are you telling me you're in love with me?"
He wiggled his eyebrows. "Maybe."
"Ugh." I rolled my eyes, then I averted my gaze and stared at my hands in my lap. "I can't swim."
"What?" he swam closer to me, leaning his wet body on my legs, and resting his arms on my legs, his face not far from mine. "I thought Princess knew how to do everything. And well," he whispered in mock outrage.
"Well, if you must know, Mister mermaid-
"Merman."
"Merman, sorry. There are a lot of things I can't do, and swimming is one of them." I held my head high. Not that I was proud of it, but I didn't want to feel humiliated in front of him.
"Why not?" he asked softly.
"I'm terrified of the water. That's all."
He smiled and took my hands in his. "Then let me teach you how to not be scared of the water."
"Finn, I don't have a tail like you."
"You don't need a tail to swim. I can teach you the 'human' way of swimming," he offered.
I sighed. "No thanks. But maybe some other time."
"Okay." He let go of my hands and went for a swim around the pool.
"Finn?"
"Yeah?"
"Does it hurt, when you transform?"
He chuckled humorlessly. "Like hell. That's why I need deep water to transform. I can scream and yell and toss, no one will hear me."
I felt bad for him, and I wished I could so something for him to ease the pain. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
He shook his head. "No. And I don't think I want you to see it." Thanks to the full moon, I could see he was blushing.
"Why not?" I asked softly.
"Well, first of all because it's horrible to watch. I had to watch Ariel transform several times, and when you can't do anything to help ease the pain, it's painful even for the person watching. And secondly, because I'm naked."
"Okay."
"But… I wouldn't mind you seeing me naked. It's just the painful side I don't want you to go through."
"Oh, well thanks. You seem to say that I am the type of girl who regularly sees men naked, but cannot endure watching someone I like get hurt?" I crossed my arms, pouting playfully.
He smiled. "Oh, because you like me?" He wiggled his eyebrows and pulled himself up on the edge of the swimming pool, sitting next to me.
"Maybe," I said wiggling my eyebrows, imitating him.
He chuckled. "Good. I'm happy I didn't scare you away with my fins." He wiggled his tail in the air and splashed all over us.
"Shhh! You're going to get us caught," I hissed, half laughing.
"Oh, sorry." He scratched his wrists. "Ow. It's itching. You better go. I'm going to transform back in a few minutes, and I really don't want you to see this." He kissed my cheek.
"Maybe some other time, though." He smiled and slid silently back down in the water.
"Okay. Good luck," I whispered with a small smile on my lips. As much as I wanted to stay to help him in anyway I could, I decided to respect his wish and ran back to the Palace, sticking to the shadows and climbing in the same window I had jumped out of. I checked the clock in the Women's Room. Oh dear. I had planned to stay a few minutes only, and it had been more like an hour and a half. I went back to my room and rolled back in bed, but as it turned out, I couldn't fall asleep. Finn's fins and violet eyes kept coming back to mind.
HAhahaha! how about that, huh? ;D
Okay, so we met the Princess, the Guard, the Partner-in-crime (did you get who it was?) and the Mythical creature... hehehe...(sorry it's not a Unicorn^^)
Oh, and I think this group of Selected boys is the most EPIC group of Selected... ever!... you'll understand why along the story. but you guys are geniuses when creating characters ;D
