A/N: I'd like to take a moment to thank ALL of my wonderful readers for stopping by and giving me a chance. A special thanks to Kiomori, lokoforsonic9559 and Biisaiyowaq for the lovely reviews!

...And I'd like to grovel in mortification for not updating in so long...I'm sorry! As a result, this chapter has been sliced in two (I'm stuck on the second half). While I normally would finish it and give you everything at once, but it's been more than a month and I won't have you wait any longer.

Disclaimer: If this procrastinator owned DP, there wouldn't BE a show at this point, much less fanfiction for it.

Stories make a person interesting.

The bigger and more incredible the story—like one of facing 30 feet of deadly mer-eating monster and living to tell the tale—the more interesting the person. And when the telling is first-hand, rather than the story of a friend of a friend of a friend's second cousin, one could expect to be the center of attention for at least a few days.

Samantha personally knew the school's popular crowd. Brightly-colored, shiny-scaled, and always decked out in the latest fashions, they drew eyes wherever they went. Despite being the friend of one, Samantha wasn't included. With her plain black hair, minimalistic fashion sense and scaleless body, she faded into the background.

So it was that one day, after being ditched at the school's front gates and shoved aside by worshipers of the popular crowd, that she finally got fed up with being overlooked. Sure, she was still embarrassed about being so frightened during the experience, but at an age where everyone was supposed to be someone, being dismissed and forgotten was even worse.

So she told them what had happened at lunch, where the entire student body happened to be gathered. She wasn't quite sure what to expect, but she figured it would get someone's attention.

And it did. Minutes later, Samantha was still waiting for her friends—and the entire cafeteria—to stop laughing at her.

Any other girl might have broken down in the midst of them all. Any other girl might have fled the room to cry. But Samantha wasn't any other girl, and she was royally pissed. Both hands slammed the table in front of her, sending multicolored servings of shrimp and shellfish dancing off the surface. "Why are you laughing? This isn't funny!"

Valerie, a girl she just barely got along with after almost two years, was politely hiding her smile behind one hand in a show of good sportsmanship. Paulina, on the other hand, had a full guffaw going. The shells that made up her iridescent gold dress were clinking together as her stomach heaved. Her black-brown hair swirled through the water. Her scaled, glittery turquoise tail curled around her, and equally blue eyes glanced Samantha's way as she managed a break in her laughter. "You expect us to believe a story like that?"

"What—" She didn't get to ask her question, though, as the voice behind her was enough to drown out a crowd at its quietest.

"Are you stupid, Marina?" The way her last name was sneered made her pause before turning toward the speaker. The culprit was Dash, a blue-scaled, muscle-bound sports star that she had known—distantly—since their early years. Many a time had that tone been used on the geeks and the underclassmen, but she had managed to avoid it...until now. "Did you think you could scare us with some bogus snake story?"

"We're in high school, Samantha," Paulina continued in her trademark nasally whine. "That's a story that mamas tell to their little babies to make them eat their veggies. You'd have to be an idiot to believe in those."

Samantha's face tingled as she blushed. Her grandmother had told her of the Serpent's kind since she was young, and never had she called those stories untrue. And now Samantha had seen something that matched those stories to the letter. Was she the only one who believed such tales?

"It was probably an eel or something," Paulina continued, flaring her fins in Samantha's direction as if to fan her away. "Scared of a big fish...How pathetic." She turned away, smirking. "And people call me a ditz."

Samantha nervously rubbed her arm and looked over her shoulder at the crowd. She knew it hadn't been her imagination, and yet...

All around her, the others kept laughing. Valerie had finally stopped hiding it. The underclassmen joined in. Across the table, Dash had his eyes crossed and a couple of crab legs jammed under his upper lip in a lopsided impression of a fanged grin. Samantha shrank into herself more as his antics started the crowd up again.

Then, it all faded into the background as some mer shifted to the side, revealing someone she knew exceptionally well. And as his laughing eyes turned her way, her face shifted from surprise, to shock...to outrage.

Between the crushing pressure of the teasing and taunting happening around her and the hurt of being betrayed by her best friend, she barely noticed Paulina leaning close as if to tell her a secret.

"You know, we never would have known if you hadn't said anything."

She whirled around, face flushing red as she shot the smug girl a withering glare. The fashionista was right, in a way, and that made the bad situation even worse. Finally, with a solid flip of her fins, Samantha was out the door and gone.

Back at her table, the laughter died in a brunette boy's throat. He hadn't missed the look she sent his way. And while one part of him was a little scared of what she might say, he discreetly backed out of the crowd to follow after her.

A/N: It's not who you think.

I'm still learning this whole writing thing. Anyone willing to give any pointers, please do? I'll write longer chapters as I get better at this.

Some slight—VERY slight changes were made to the first chapter. Nothing that changes the story, but hopefully it will give a clearer picture to new readers.

Thank you for reading!