Ava made it a nightly ritual to swim back with the older girls to the moon pool. She enjoyed listening to them talk and liked that the older girls let her hang out with them there. They taught her things about the pool, Lyla taught her about the other creatures in the ocean, Serena taught her mermaid songs, and Nixie, well she mostly showed Ava how to get into trouble. When they all fell asleep she would swim back and crawl into bed with Rita.
Sleeping with Rita made her feel safe, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She always made sure to be up before Rita so that she wouldn't bother her. Ava also loved looking at all of Rita's mermaid things, her mother had never had such things. She often sat in the room and imagined the new mermaid things her mother might have now with her new pod. It had been a little over a mouth since the last time she saw her.
One of the older girls was usually tasked with having to keep an eye on Ava during the day. But on this particular day Ava asked Rita if she would be allowed to go to work with her instead. She loved hanging out with the older girls but knew that they were growing tired of her. They usually just left her at home by herself anyway.
"Please Rita, can I go?"
"Why do you want to come with me? It's not that much fun."
"It sounds like fun to me" Ava answered with a devilish smile.
"Oh alright you can come, but you have to be behaved!" Ava nodded her head in understanding.
Rita was the principle of a land school. Ava had been to land school before when she was little. A few years ago her and her mother had tried to live on land for a while. Her mother decided that they were never going to have family and friends in the sea so they moved to the land. But her mother missed the ocean too much and after a year the disappeared back into the ocean.
Rita sat down at her desk and began working on her computer. Ava knew what it was and had seen them before but wasn't quite sure how they worked. Rita noticed her watching her and motioned for her to come over. Ava sat down on Rita's lap to see what she was doing. Rita worked on the computer and fielded calls, Ava sat on her lap quietly leaning against Rita's chest. She was enjoying the attention and closeness she got from Rita. Unbeknownst to her, Rita enjoyed having her there too.
Zac suddenly walked into the office, interrupting the quite. "Principle Santos may I speak to you for a moment." He looked at Ava, "Privately" he added.
Ava got up and went outside the office. She walked along the hall checking out the lockers and watching the older kids. She saw Cam and she waved at him excited. Cam saw her and smiled, he walked over to her. "Hey kiddo," he said, "what are you doing here?"
"I came to work with Aunt Rita." Cam knew that Rita wasn't really her Aunt but Ava liked to pretend they were all family anyway. Cam knew this about her.
"You know they're not really your family, right?" Cam said. "I really like you Ava, me and you are buddies. I'd really hate to see you get hurt when they leave you."
"Leave me, why would they leave me?"
"Well you know the girls want to go back to their pod and Rita didn't even want them to stay and now she's stuck with you too. When they leave she'll probably want you to leave too."
"She didn't want us here?" Ava asked, she was a little confused and trying to fight back tears.
"No, she didn't want the older girls here and they basically take care of themselves. She sees you as a burden. I'm not trying to be mean, the girls told me that, I'm just trying to be your friend and warn you." Ava nodded at nine years old she wasn't wise enough to know that Cam was just being a jerk.
The door to Rita's office opened and Zac walked out. He patted Ava's back and gave her a friendly smile as he walked away with Cam. Ava stood out in the hallway. She finally felt like she had a family, she had thought that maybe Rita had wanted her, maybe the girls would all be like her sisters and that in some way they had formed their own pod. But it was just the way it had always been, she felt unloved and unwanted.