School was almost out and Garret was ready and waiting to get out of the classroom and back home. Soon the final bell began to ring and school was finally over. The students all got out of their seats all left the classroom ready to head home. Garret just got up from his seat and was heading out of the school to meet his mom, so she could pick him up. As he walked, he stretched out his arms getting the sleepiness out of them.

"Finally. I thought I'd never get out of that classroom," he said to himself. "The only downside being is that I've got homework to do. Guess I'd better get home and get it done, so I'll stop complaining."

He was walking down the hall about to head outside when he saw the boys from his class again. Only this time, they were talking to another boy and a girl both of which appeared to be a bit uncomfortable. Garret had no idea what that kid and his friends were up to, but he didn't dare want to get involved, so he kept on walking. Then as he walked by, a sudden puff of smoke wafted into his face causing him to cough. The boys then laughed and the boy and the girl began to laugh too. Garret then looked back a bit cross to see that the blonde boy was holding a cigar in his hand.

"What's the matter? Don't like a bit of smoke?" the blonde boy asked mockingly.

"M-Maybe he's just a wimp and he's gonna cry to his momma," the boy said.

"Yeah! A wimp and a bookworm!" the girl added.

Garret glared not liking being name-called and not having cigarette being blown at him. He was just about to say something when he noticed a couple of the students looking at him. This made him stop and think. Then after a few seconds of silence and not wanting to draw attention to himself, he turned around and walked away. The boys snickered and laughed, but he just kept on walking.

"It's not worth messing with those guys," he said to himself. "The last thing I was is to draw attention. Especially when it comes to people like that. It's not worth it."

Garret had now walked outside of the school where he saw his mother waiting for him in the car. He ran over to the car and got in.

"Hey, Mom," greeted Garret.

"Hello, son," Charlotte greeted back. "How was school today?"

Garret didn't want to say anything about what had just happened, so he gave his mom a slight smile.

"Same as usual," replied Garret. "Same old class, same old stuff."

"How are things going between you and your friends?" continued Charlotte.

"Oh. Everything's going great," replied Garret. "My friends and I are doing just fine."

"That's good," said Charlotte. "So tell me, what are your friends like? You never did mention anything about them when you talked to me the other day."

Knowing that she was talking about Ariel and the others, Garret felt himself flinch. He knew that he really couldn't say anything about them, so he decided to tell his mom about them when it came to their personality.

"Well, one of them is a girl. She's known to be quite adventurous, brave, and pretty stubborn," said Garret. "But she's also kind, good with animals, and she's got a pretty good singing voice."

"Oh my," said Charlotte. "Very interesting."

"The second is a boy. He's a bit of a fraidy cat and he always tries to get us out of situations," went on Garret. "But he's pretty good at impressions and he's as loyal as loyal can get even though he has a habit of getting himself in trouble."

Charlotte nodded. "Go on."

"Let's see... the last one is a bit on the uptight side, a kiss-up, and he's always nagging on us to stay out of trouble," continued Garret. "However, he's only like that because he cares about us and he doesn't want any of us to get hurt, so he's a good person too. Although, I wish he'd stop being so crabby all the time. Then again, that's why I call him Crabby."

"Sounds like you have quite the interesting group of friends," said Charlotte. "I hope I get to meet them sometime."

"Maybe you will Mom," Garret spoke trying not to be nervous. "Maybe you will."

Soon enough, Garret and Charlotte pulled up to the driveway arriving at home. When they got there, they went inside the house and Garret headed up to his room.

"Mom, I'm gonna go do my homework," he called.

"Alright. I'll let you know when it's time for dinner," said Charlotte. "Make sure you get it done."

"I will."

Then Garret went into his room shutting the door behind him. He stretched and then let out a deep breath.

"Alright then. Time for me to get this homework done."

He sat on his bed and pulled out his books and got started. First, he had to finish a couple of worksheets in math, then he had to read a chapter from a book that was assigned to him, and finally, he had to study a bit for an upcoming test. It was a bit much for a middle schooler, but not for Garret.

"Well, let's get this started," Garret said to himself. "This homework isn't gonna do itself."

He set to work by starting with his math homework. It was basically a couple of worksheets that needed completing. The problems on it were pretty average when it came to difficulty, but it was no problem for Garret. Within about twenty minutes or so, he finished up the worksheets.

He then got started reading his book. It was a book the whole class had been assigned to and one Garret loved very much. It was called: Ready Player One. Long story short, it was about a boy surviving in the year of 2044 in a virtual utopia known as the OASIS. When they started reading it, Garret couldn't help but fall in love with the book and enjoyed reading every aspect and element of the story. Soon enough, he finished reading a chapter of the book.

Now all he had to do was study for the test which was covering history. The history of the Greek history of all things. It wasn't his strongest subject, but he knew he had to study in order for him to improve on the subject. He dug into his bag, pulled out his history book, and then started studying. As he skimmed over the important things that his teacher was covering, he made sure to remember them by writing them down in his notebook. Then as he skimmed even further, his eyes happened to fall upon a particular part of a page that caught his interest. It was a passage about Triton the god of the sea.

"Triton is one of the mythical Greek gods, and he is the son of Amphitrite and Poseidon. Triton's parents were the god and goddess of the sea, and Triton himself acted as his father's herald. That is why he is often called the messenger of the sea. When depicted artistically, Triton is usually painted as a classic 'merman'. He has the upper body of a man, but the tail of a large fish. Far underneath the sea was the golden palace where Triton and his parents lived and ruled. The original myth portrayed the Aegean as the home of the sea gods, but the location has moved from place to place as history evolved."

This made him think about the Triton that he knew back in the world at Atlantica.

"Just goes to show how much the Triton I know is eerily similar to the Triton that humans know," Garret thought. "It does make me wonder the history here is different or the same back there."

Garret then started to think about King Triton and his daughters and the two mirrors that were in his treasury and in his attic and the paragraph he read. It made him curious and think about his family. He knew that King Triton was a single father, but it wasn't always like that right? If that was true, then who was the mother?

Then Garret suddenly remembered the dream he had. The one he had about the singing red-haired mermaid. He only had that dream twice now, but he could well remember it as if he had it yesterday. He could see it in his head; the red hair, the beautiful voice, and how she kept swimming away. It made him start to think.

"I wonder... could that mermaid possibly be..." he began to think to himself.

But then, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a faint voice.

"Garret! Dinner's ready!"

Garret then looked at the clock which read five thirty p.m..

"Wow. Time flies when you're busy," he said to himself. "Coming, Mom!"

He then got out of his bed and headed downstairs to go eat dinner.

Meanwhile, in the world of Atlantica in the girl's room, the daughters of Triton were all primped and preened making sure they looked nice. Attina, Alana, Aquata, and Adella were at their respective mirrors while Andrina and Arista had just finished.

"There. Now I'm ready," smiled Arista. "Totally fabulous."

"We're sure to blow some of the boys away at the Neptune Ball," said Andrina. "And most especially, Garret. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked me to dance with him."

"Hey! No fair! That was my idea!" complained Adella. "I wanted to dance with Garret at the ball!"

"Now, girls. There's really no need to fight," said Arista. "Why do you two even want Garret in particular? There are lots of other merboys out there."

"As if you didn't already know," said Adella. "Garret's not like the other merboys. He's... unique."

"Yeah. I mean that tail of his is so cool!" Said Andrina. "Not to mention he's super cute! Besides, you were planning to dance with him too you know."

Arista blushed a bit. "No I wasn't!" she protested.

"Take it easy, girls. There's honestly no reason to fight especially over something so trivial," soothed Attina. "Besides, if there's anyone that Garret's going with, it's a pretty safe bet that it's most likely with Ariel."

"I'll have to agree with you on that one," said Alana. "You know how close those two are. They're always together, but then again Ariel's not exactly the kind of girl that's interested in balls and such. Speaking of which, where is she?"

"She's probably playing with Flounder," said Aquata. "But... now that you mention it, I haven't seen Garret either. I wonder where he is."

"Who knows, but when I find him, I'm gonna ask him if he wants to go!" said Adella.

"No way! Not if I ask him first!" said Andrina.

And the two swam away eagerly searching for Garret. Attina could only sigh and shake her head.

"Isn't there any one in this family that's not boy crazy?" she wondered aloud.

Arista paid no attention as she brushed her hair. She was still thinking about her encounter with Garret earlier this morning. The thought of it made her feel a little bit embarrassed. She especially wanted to get to talk to Garret or at least ask him to the ball later that afternoon, but she honestly didn't know how to.

"If only I didn't mess up this morning," she thought to herself. "At least then I wouldn't have ended up acting like such a geek. Bet Garret thinks I'm a weirdo now."

Aquata could see that her sister was a bit glum. "Hey, Arista. Is something wrong? You look sad."

Arista jumped and pretended not to be sad. "Um... nothing! I'm fine!" she said. "Just peachy keen!"

In another part of the palace, Ariel was swimming around looking for Garret. She had searched high and low for him even looking in his room, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"I wonder where Garret could be?" she wondered to herself. "Maybe he's at the throne room?"

She then swam towards the throne room just making her way there when Flounder swam up.

"Hey there, Ariel," greeted the fish. "Whatcha doing?"

"I was just looking for Garret," said Ariel. "I haven't seen him since yesterday. By the way, have you seen him, Flounder?"

"Nope. I haven't," said Flounder. "I thought he'd be with you. I was hoping that we'd be able to play tag together."

"Well... I'm sure that he'll turn up eventually," said Ariel. "In the meantime, what do you say we play some tag while we look for him?"

"Sounds great!" smiled Flounder as he lightly tapped Ariel with his fin. "Tag! You're it!"

He then swam away and with a giggle, Ariel followed in hot pursuit as their game of tag began.

Eventually, Garret had finished his dinner and went back to studying. He went on for about an hour or so before he grew bored and shut his book. He laid back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling just letting his mind wander and drift.

"Man... what to do... what to do..." he mumbled to himself. "I'm sure that I've got no other homework to do and I'm sure that I'll ace that test tomorrow."

He then decided to get ready for bed and by brushing his teeth and taking a shower. He walked down the hall and into the bathroom. He then lathered up some toothpaste on his toothpaste and then started brushing his teeth. As he brushed, he started to think about Ariel and the others and couldn't help but think and wonder if they did the same things he did every day.

"I wonder if Ariel and the others ever brush their teeth and stuff like that. Then again, they're in the water constantly, so they really have no reason for them to brush their teeth I guess."

He then spit into the sink as rinsed his mouth.

"I guess that's something I'll have to ask Ariel when I go back," he said to himself. "Hopefully, she can shed some light on that subject even though it's kinda silly. I wonder if she even does homework over there?"

"What are you talking about?" asked a voice. "And who's Ariel?"

Garret immediately jumped and snapped his head to the doorway. There standing there was Lucy. As soon as he saw her, Garret felt his body freeze in place like he had turned into a complete statue.

Lucy raised a brow as she stared at her brother. "Well? Who were you talking about, Garret?" she asked.

"Um... well... " said Garret. "I was... talking about a friend from school. Wait... how long were you standing there?"

"Around the part where you were talking about asking someone named Ariel something," said Lucy. "So who is she?"

"Nobody important," said Garret quickly. "Just a friend from school."

"A friend from school?" Lucy said a smile making its way to her lips. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Garret then sighed. "No. She is not. Where did you even get such an idea?"

"Come on, Bro. I'm only teasing you," Lucy said. "But I will say this much, you seem to be acting a bit stranger than usual. In fact, you've been acting weird for a couple of days now. You OK?"

"I'm fine. Besides, I'm your brother. I'm supposed to act weird," said Garret. "Now if you don't mind, I gotta take a shower. You should be getting ready for bed."

Lucy shrugged and went on her way. "Whatever you say, Weirdo."

As soon as Lucy was out of sight, Garret let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh boy. That was a close one. I thought for sure she heard me talking about Atlantica," he thought. "I gotta make sure to be careful when I talk about Atlantica. Otherwise, she'll get nosy and that'll just pile on trouble. In the meantime, I better take a shower and once everyone goes to sleep, I'll head back to Atlantica. Ariel and the others were probably wondering where I went."

He then shut the bathroom door as he turned on the water starting his shower.

Urchin was making his way to Atlantica carrying his sack in hand. He was feeling a bit excited as he swam along the current.

"I sure hope I can find enough food for the boss," he thought. "Then again, I should be more worried about where I'm going to find some."

He was still feeling a bit worried about stealing food for The Lobster Mobster and Da Shrimp, but he didn't want to lose his new friends. Soon enough, he could see the Atlantica in sight, the palace gleaming bright in the ocean sun. Urchin stopped and couldn't help but gaze towards the palace admiring it with wonder. Then he shook his head snapping out of his daze.

"No time to be looking at the sights, Urchin," he said to himself. "Gotta stay focused."

He then kept on swimming heading towards the city of Atlantica while also at the same time making sure that he kept on eye out for any food. If there was any, he would make sure that his friends would get some of that food at any cost. No matter what he had to steal.

FYI, the passage that was italic and bold was from greek gods and goddesses. net

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