Late at night, in the waters surrounding Mako Island, under a waxing crescent moon, the Mako pod mermaid council held an emergency meeting. Only the eldest and most powerful mermaids were in attendance that night. They all gathered because of one very very pressing matter.
"The number of mermen are growing out of hand." One of the elder mermaids, Alana, stated, "We need to take care of them before the full moon in a few days, if not then their numbers may grow yet again."
The other council members nodded in agreement. "It is the land people who have turned who are causing the problems. They are spreading magic like it is a disease. They need to be dealt with."
They all nodded in silent affirmation. They knew what they needed to do, but they needed to act fast.
Cam stared at the clock hanging above the whiteboard, wishing more than anything that it could be time to leave. They were given yet another experimental project in chemistry and he couldn't stand another minute of this agony. Luckily for him, a lot of his friends happened to be in class with him so they made the time there a bit more bearable.
While his teacher droned on and on about which liquids could mix and what reactions they would cause, his classmates listened diligently and tried out the experiments with the lab tools in front of them. But Cam let his mind drift off to the upcoming full moon. It was only a few days away and they had no idea what to expect this month or who was going to be transformed next. The thought chilled him as his mind wandered to all of the human friends and family that he was desperate to protect.
Zac and Evie sat together at a lab table across the room, while he and David shared a table towards the back of the room. Chris sat in the front, just recently being integrated back into Suncoast High after his months spent in the States.
Cam was debating the best and most believable escape plans for getting out of class. He had already used sick at least 3 times this year... a death in the family would be too risky… a family emergency could do the trick, it was vague but believable and serious enough that the teacher had to let him out but too personal to ask questions. Yes! That was perfect!
Cam was just about to raise his hand to voice his fake excuse but the lights in the classroom flickered overhead causing everyone to freeze. They switched back on so quickly Cam wondered if he had just blinked or imagined it. But judging by the confused looks on his peer's faces, they also saw the flickering.
After a moment of hesitation, the teacher continued to lecture on only to be interrupted again by the lights flicking off. Only this time, they stayed off. One girl in the back of the room shrieked in surprise. The other students began to murmur nervously.
"Students. Please calm down." The teacher boomed from the front of the classroom, trying to regain control of his students. "Obviously, we are having electrical issues. I am going to go and see what the issue is, please stay seated."
Well, at least this beats lecturing. Cam thought to himself.
The chemistry teacher crossed the room to open the door and check the status of the other classrooms nearby but he never got there. Before he could reach out and turn the door handle, the ground beneath everyone began to shake!
People shrieked and yelled in fear as they went diving under tables and desks. Earthquakes were not common in Australia or at least nothing of this power and magnitude so some had no idea what to do, or expect. Others just copied what they saw in movies or followed the teacher's instructions. "Stay down! Cover your head!" The teacher tried to holler above the noise.
The shaking seemed to last forever. Beakers and test tubes dislodged themselves from the racks on the desks and came tumbling to the floor and sending smashed glass and liquid everywhere. Tables and chairs were knocked over. Hanging lights jumped up and down precariously on their wiring, seemingly testing how durable they actually were.
And then, as suddenly as the shaking started, it stopped. The lights remained stubbornly turned off but slowly people began to stand up as they deemed it safe to do so.
"Is everyone alright?" The teacher asked the class. There were some nods and murmurs of affirmation. Some people had minor cuts or bruises but that seemed to be the worst of it. Friends gathered together to make sure everyone was okay.
Cam gathered in the back of the room with Zac, Evie, David, and Chris. They, for the most part, all seemed fine. Zac had a small cut on his left arm and Chris had dust from a fallen ceiling tile in his hair but there was nothing life-threatening. Everyone took out their phones and began to reach out to their families and make sure they were all safe.
Cam saw something moving along the floor out of the corner of his eye. The puddles of liquid from the fallen beakers and test tubes seemed to all be moving towards the back of the classroom, right towards them!
"Guys…" Cam said nervously. They all looked up from their phones to see why he got their attention and they all saw it. The puddles of water and who knows what else were all traveling in their direction in a way that only someone trained in magic could recognize.
The merpeople all huddled closer together, Zac and Cam subtly stuck out their hands to try and counteract the magic but to no avail. The slow-moving liquid seemed to grow impatient because then at lightning speed it struck at them, soaking their shoes completely.
They only had one choice: run. The five merpeople ran out of the classroom at high speeds, no longer caring about the puddles they stepped in or the broken glass that crunched underneath their shoes. The teacher called after them to see where they were going, but his cries were left unanswered.
Their shoes pounded the pavement of the school corridors, desperately trying to find a private hiding spot. They briefly caught glimpses of classrooms in the same distress as the one that they just ran from.
Just in time, they found the cafeteria, which was abandoned since it was no longer the lunch hour and hopefully no one would be returning to for a while due to recent events. The door clicked shut just in time for the five to fall to the floor. Scales and tails slapped the tiles and they merpeople wasted no time in drying themselves off with their powers.
A few seconds went by before the sound of bare footsteps approached the doors in the hallway outside. They all froze, prepared to cloak themselves if needed and to help Chris since he hadn't quite mastered that power just yet.
The door clicked open and swung inward and three women marched in. They were all completely naked, two of them had long flowing hair and the third had hair pinned up in a very intricate way. The women looked faintly familiar to Cam like he had seen them once in passing before. He studied their faces, deeming that the safest place to look.
The merpeople froze. "Veridia." Zac spat.
They all looked up, Cam, Evie, and Zac immediately recognizing the leader of the pod's mermaid council. She eyed them all on the floor with a look of arrogance. "I hope you've received our message loud and clear."
"What message?" Zac fumed, "That you're out to expose all of us? And when I say all of us I mean you, too. Do you have any idea how stupid you've been?"
One of the women flanking Veridia, spoke up, "You do not speak to her like that."
Zac rolled his eyes, "Well, it's true. You have been so blinded by your hatred and need for oppression that you haven't even thought about the needs of your own pod."
"Enough." Veridia snapped."Evie and Zac, you were once both members of our pod. But it is clear that you have chosen the side of the land dwellers." She eyed the other mermen played out on the floor.
"What are you talking about? Land dwellers? These people look just as much mermaid as the rest of us," Evie said, defending her friends.
"You are missing the point entirely, my dear girl. There is a very large difference between us and you. We were born of the ocean and the moon. We belong in the water. You cannot infringe upon our world because you think it is fun or something you want. This is war, and by the looks of your ranks, you have the chance of a guppy in a whirlpool of getting past us. My advice: Stay away from Mako this full moon." Veridia warned, turning away from the group on the floor and then began to exit the cafeteria.
"No! You have it all wrong! It's not us doing these transformations on purpose, it's the water dragon!" Zac exclaimed. He was not going to let his friends get blamed for something that they did not want.
Veridia whipped around, "I have heard enough about the dragon. When will you people learn that it is just a myth?! Stop lying to us, and just accept what you're doing."
Before any of the merpeople laying out on the floor had a chance to retort, the three naked mermaids left the room, marching proudly down the hall until their bare footsteps faded into the distance. The other merpeople on the floor were still for a few seconds but then seemed to remember where they were and jumped into action.
Within a few minutes, all five of them were on their feet once again. They all knew where they had to go next so they made a beeline for Principal Santos' office. They didn't make it but practically slammed into her as they quickly rounded a corner.
"Rita!" Evie exclaimed.
The look of stress-filled Rita's face, she was obviously exhausted and overwhelmed. None of the five could blame her, as it was Rita already had a lot on her plate but throwing a natural disaster into the mix was enormously stressful. "Are you all alright?"
"Yes. We're all fine, but Rita we really have to-" Evie started.
"I'm sorry to cut you off, Evie, but I really have a lot of pressing things to attend to at the moment," Rita brushed them off and tried to walk forward.
"But it's about the earthquake," Evie tried again.
"Yes, I'm sure a lot of things are about the earthquake right now," Rita brushed by and continued down the hallway.
In a last-ditch attempt, Cam called out after her, "It was the pod! The pod caused the earthquake to send us all a message."
Rita stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around to face them, the look of stress on her face was replaced by one of rage. "What did you say?" She asked slowly, though she heard them perfectly the first time.
So, the group of teenage merpeople relayed the abbreviated version of the story to their principal who looked more and more horrified with every passing sentence. When they finished, an unspoken question hung in the air: What do they do next?
Rita was the one with the answer, "I'm going back to the pod."
"But Rita, you haven't been there since you were banished," Zac supplied.
"I know. But I must speak with them. No one messes with my school or my students."
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