Hello, my b-e-a-beautiful readers and I LOVE the reviews that I have gotten from my last chapter and if I gave it away (you would've read Thomas's POV) you would've guessed what happened to Charlotte! And I've hinted it since the beginning! Sigh... Maybe I shouldn't have told you that guys in the beginning that she would be a mermaid but...

ENJOY!

The day Charlotte got out of the hospital, a nurse had come into her room and brought in a bouquet of lilies.

''These were addressed to you. But I don't know who sent them. There was no name or anything from whoever sent it, except a note,'' she said as she gave the flowers to Charlotte. Charlotte pulled a small note from inside the bouquet and read:

I hope your feeling better. Softball tryouts are tomorrow and you have choir practice at 12.

The was indeed no name on the note, but she couldn't help but shake the feeling that she knew who it was from and smiled.

Charlotte turned to the nurse and thanked her as she left and her mom entered that room. Annette capped her hands together in admiration.

''Oh, honey, I knew that dress would look great on you! But did you have to add the sneakers? You're leaving the hospital, not a casual dress event!'' she stated as she examined her daughter.

Charlotte was wearing a simple white dress with light red ruffles at the bottom, her red hair was put up in a bun but she let her bangs almost cover her eyes. The only thing that didn't look formal was the Nike sneakers that she was wearing.

Charlotte looked at herself. ''Um, maybe because that's the point,'' she said.

Annette ignored that and noticed the flowers in her daughter's hands. "Who sent you those?"

Charlotte looked at them and shrugged. ''No idea. They just came. So, you ready to go?"

Annette nodded. ''Yeah. I'm feeling very... anxious to not have to come here again.''

Probably just the flashbacks from Georgia, she thought.

With that, the two left the room and exited the hospital. By the time the left, they were halfway home.

Suddenly, Charlotte had to tell her mom something.

''So, mom, how would you feel about me joining the school choir?"

Tuesday

It was time for Charlotte to go back to school, much to her mom's protests. On her account, she could go to school but call Annette if something went wrong, which was unlikely.

Her morning went the same as usual. She got out of bed, took a shower, did her morning ritual, put on a cute outfit: khaki pants, turquoise sleeveless chiffon with matching ballet flats, a blue watch and a turquoise bead bracelet. She put her hair up in a side ponytail using a black and blue scrunchie and took Thomas for a walk, or more like a run since he recently formed a hatred for her neighbor's cat.

But by the time the two returned, Charlotte smelled a whiff of cinnamon toast and oatmeal. Like curiosity killed the cat, she went into the kitchen and was surprised to see her mom cooking breakfast.

''Mom, shouldn't you be at work?" she asked her as she sat down at the table.

''Actually, Mark gave me a day off. So, I figured that I'd make us some breakfast and I'd drop you off at school,'' Annette said as she placed Charlotte's plate in front of her and started to eat her own.

''Oh, you don't have to drop me off. Phil- I mean, my bus driver is used to Thomas riding the bus with me,'' Charlotte said cautiously. She didn't know what her mom thought of Phil, but she didn't want to push it.

After a few moments of silence, Annette stopped eating and looked at her daughter.

''Um, sweetie, I just wanted to...apologize for how I acted in the hospital. I guess that I got scared of you being in the hospital again... worrying if you'd started to harm yourself...'' Annette trailed off as she put her head down slightly.

Charlotte was confused but decided to lie.

''I'm sorry... I guess I was just pretty tired.'' Though she wasn't sure about what her mom was apologizing for, she had a feeling that she shouldn't ask because she didn't want to know. So, she decided to change the subject.

''So, I'm trying out for the softball team today, so I hope you don't mind me coming home late?''

Annette looked up at her in surprise. ''But aren't you already in the choir?" she asked. After Charlotte told her mom about her joining the choir, minus the bathroom incident, Annette was over the moon with questions, like when her first performance was &, etc. and a little hurt that she didn't tell her sooner.

''I know, but I wanted to get active and all...'' Charlotte said. As much as she wasn't insecure about her looks, she never told anyone about the verbal abuse that went down in Georgia about her weight, height, and size. Though she had no problem with her height, she wanted to be a little thinner. Not supermodel thin, but just thinner. Besides, she never told her mom about it since Annette had enough on her plate already.

''Brilliant! Oh, I can't wait to see your first game and meet your little friends," her mom enthusiastically, ''I'm gonna need to bring a camera, some sports drinks, and water for your teammates...''

''STOP! I'm JUST trying out, mom. I won't know for two weeks,'' Charlotte said, stopping her mom from stressing early. By the time they were done talking and finished eating, Charlotte let her mom drive her to school.

At softball try-outs...

The day went well for Charlotte. No news of her absence or her stay in the hospital spread through the school. But when she opened her locker, she found a note inside. It read:

I hope you're feeling up to try-outs. Coach Mildred is one of the best coaches this school has and one of the toughest. Good luck!

Once again, no name. But she smiled to herself. Someone was going out of their way to make sure she was prepared for what was ahead. And she was thankful for that.

She spent her lunch period with Thomas and the rest of the day went by like a breeze. Then, she was in the auditorium with the other 49 students that were selected by Miss Analies for choir practice. And not to her surprise, Alaine was there. She had always wanted to talk to her about what had happened in the bathroom a week ago, but she didn't want to push her and become her enemy or anything negative.

So, Miss Analies had the girls do a solo, and the strangest thing happened. When Miss Analies pointed towards her for a solo, almost the exact moment she sang, the boys started to gather around her, staring at her in awe. But when Miss Analies blew the whistle, the boys went back to their seats, dazed and confused.

Now she was outside on a baseball field and, to her surprise and again, not so much, there were all girls and Alaine was among them.

They were all sitting on the bleachers, talking among themselves. Charlotte changed into a dark blue and black performance running T-shirt, Nike woman's running shoes, neon stud yoga pants( for flexibility and easy to wear), and used her scrunchie to form a long, smooth ponytail that slung around her shoulder.

Then, a large, older-looking woman, probably in her late 30s or 40s, stood in front of them in a red tracksuit. All the girls stared at her.

''Alright, I am Coach Honey Mildred, but ONLY address me as Coach Mildred," she said, "I'm the coach of this year's new softball team, and I will say this once and only once: I demand respect and if I don't get that, or be taken seriously, then you can all get your makeup and stuff and go home because I do NOT tolerate ignorance, disrespect, laziness, and excuses."

"I will be watching you during this one day trial. And for those who don't know why you are, and are only, trying out for one day, it's because I want to test your limits, see as far as you could go if this sport had your life on the line, and push you until your bones break, your hair's drenched from sweat, and your begging for water, and I won't give it to you until I see that you've earned it. Now, does anyone want to back out?"

Charlotte and the others watched as 9 girls left the bleachers.

Couch Mildred nodded. "Good. Now that we've got rid of our sore losers and butt scratchers, I'll have Alaine Williams and Dominique Kane lead you to the fields and start the drills. Girls?"

As everyone got off the benches and walked towards the field, Charlotte caught Alaine watching her for a moment before turning her head away. Once there, Alaine took 10 of the girls, including Charlotte, and a Latino girl, Dominique, she assumed, got the rest.

"First things first, my name is Alain Williams and I'm the co-captain for this year's team, and this is my teammate/co-captain, Dominique Kane. We'll be the ones to see if you can handle this 'group' and can lead us to nationals. Now, I'm not saying that it's a possibility. I'm saying that it's a responsibility. We've never lost a game unless its raining or someone died. Understand?" Alaine asked.

Everyone nodded.

''Good. Now, Dominique will explain the drills." Alaine gestured to Dominique.

"Alright," Dominique said, "first, we're gonna have all of you do 20 laps around the field and then, we're gonna give you 20 jumping jacks and 15 sit-ups. Of course, we're gonna have to give you a 5-minute break. I mean, this tryout might call for some parents down here to pick up their injured kids, but it won't kill anybody, and then we're gonna see what positions your good at on the field...What are you guys waiting for? TWENTY LAPS, NOW!"

The girls quickly started to run around the field. For some, it went at ease for them, but for the rest, they were starting to regret not leaving. Charlotte's stomach felt like it was about to burst if she didn't get any water. But she was far behind, and if she wanted to get on the team, she wasn't going down without a fight, even if she needed to stay hydrated!

After 20 laps, Alaine finally blew the whistle. All the girls quickly went to the bleachers, grasping for their water bottles. By the time Charlotte made it to her gym bag, she practically tore it apart as she found her water bottle and started to chug it down.

She was told to drink water regularly, but she's never felt the need to drink it so bad before. Guess she should have listened when her 6th-grade science teacher told her class that everyone's body was made up of 50-65% of water.

Then, Alaine blew the whistle again, signaling the end of the first 5-minute break.

''Alright, you've had your break. Now, get your butts on the field and give me 20 jumping jacks!" Dominique yelled.

Everybody quickly got on the field and started doing jumping jacks.

After that and doing the sit-ups, much to the aching pain in Charlotte's sides, they finally got around to using the equipment.

''Alright, first, we're gonna start with the pitcher. We are going to see how well you throw. If your fast, we'll have you doing it again. If you're slow, well, I think you know where you'll be sitting. I'll go first and show you how it's done," Alaine said as she stepped on the field.

After they put on their equipment, she got on one of her knees at the pitching rubber and Dominique crouched down at the diamond, ready to catch it.

"Now, this is an easy way. You must have your body still and your shoulders stiff so that when you throw the ball, you have resistance. Keep the leg you have up and keep it slightly bent so that it's not locked."

Alaine threw the ball in an underhand motion and threw it to Dominique, who caught it in her glove with ease and threw it back to her.

''Now, you have to throw it, throw it as hard as you can, but let the ball roll off your fingertips,'' Alaine said.

The two threw and passed the ball a couple of times until they called for volunteers.

''Alright, Charlotte, why don't you try first?"

Charlotte was caught by surprise. She didn't expect to be called on first but didn't have a choice. She got on the rubber and got in the same position as Alaine. She positioned herself exactly like Alaine instructed her and threw her first throw.

It wasn't as fast as she anticipated.

"You have to let the ball slip through your fingers. Keep your body still and your shoulders stiff or else your throw will come out sloppy," Alaine instructed.

Charlotte took a deep breath and gave it another go. She winded her arm a few times before she let the ball fly swiftly through her fingers and threw it to Dominique.

But instead of the ball hitting her glove... it hit her stomach.

Dominique cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. Everyone rushed to her and tried to see if she was okay.

Charlotte was by her side and quickly apologized. "I am so, so sorry Dominique. It was an accident! I swear! I didn't mean to!"

Dominique looked like she was intense pain. She was clutching her stomach and had tears falling from her eyes.

"Give her some space! Give her some space!" Coach Mildred exclaimed as she cut through the group of girls that surrounded Dominique.

After examining her, she told one of the girls to take the co-captain to the nurse's office.

After the girls left, the couch looked at all the girls. But specifically looked at Charlotte.

"Well, Miss Kane will be out for the rest of tryouts. But since we have some 'stronger' girls going for the team,'' she looked at Charlotte menacingly, "I will have the honors of helping out with tryouts. This will be starting by everyone spending 2 hours practicing their pitching. Well, what are you standing around for? Move it!"

All the girls groaned and sent glares at Charlotte, who was looking miserable.

Once again, she's caused problems for the group.

After tryouts (Charlotte's POV)

After tryouts were over, I was the only girl heading into the girls' locker room. The others didn't bother to take a shower and, personally, probably didn't want to be around me. I couldn't blame them. Like everyone else, every part of her body was sore to the bone.

I'm now realizing that the only reason the captains even started right away with the equipment was so that Couch Mildred didn't have to come and do tryouts herself. But I just had to injure one of them and now my arms are sore, my legs are stiff, my back is aching, and my feet...well let's just say I'm making an effort to walk on them.

Couch Mildred was serious. After practicing our pitching, we all spent 3 hours doing speed and agility exercises. And since most of them were hard to do, we spent ANOTHER 3 hours perfecting them, plus 3 suicides for the girl who started to complain a lot.

I took my phone out to look at the time.

10:30 pm.

Crap, I'm late. I didn't intend to be stuck in school overnight, but if I didn't take a shower and change, the school security guard ( yes, my school has one) would find me and call my mom, who would already be mad at me for staying out so late.

Once I got into the empty locker room, I immediately took off my tryout clothes, turned the water on in the shower and stepped in. And you would NOT believe how good hot water felt on me. Every muscle was getting soothe, my feet were hurting less and the rest of me felt great. No, I felt amazing.

Ahh, I thought, this is nice. As the hot water poured on my bare skin, I realized something I never took notice of:

There was no voice.

I should have known it was all in my head. I was just hallucinating.

Unknown POV

The clock went by. But unnoticed to Charlotte... she shouldn't have touched the water.

Tick...Tock...

23 hours have passed since she was conscious...

Tick...Tock...

Her gift is about to be received...

Tick...Tock...

... 10:58... 10:59... 11:00 pm...

It has begun...

Charlotte's POV

I felt strange, but I brushed it off.

As I continued to wash, I dropped the bar of soap that I was using. So as I bent down to pick it up, I wasn't ready for what happened to me next.

Water started to swirl around me fast, not like a shower should. It was like it was building up and rising over my feet...

... then my legs...

... then my waist...

...then my stomach...

...then my neck...

... then my head...

...

"Ouch!"

As I fell to the cold, solid floor, I looked at myself. I was so sure I must've bumped my head at first. But I found myself wearing a shining silver-blue top... and looked down at my legs to see something that I thought I would never see again...

I had a tail.

READ & REVIEW!

P.S. Did I get the softball part right?