New Friendships

A Maximum Ride and a SWISHY short story

Cheryl-

It had been a very long day for my friends and I and the only thing we wanted to do was to find somewhere to sleep. However time and time again Neptune has shown us just how dangerous it is for us to sleep unguarded underwater. Neptune is the king of the ocean, otherwise known as Poseidon. Most kings protect their people, no not Neptune. He is trying to kill us.

"There's a shore up ahead without any people on it." Julia swam back and reported. "We should be safe there."

So we followed her to the shore. As I surfaced and poked my head out of the water, my black hair plastered to my back, I felt a twinge in my stomach. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it.

A video played in my mind. The four of us were sitting on the rocks on the shore drying our hair and warming our legs which had just formed. Tyler was no where in sight. Now out of the corner of my eye, I saw two kids step out from behind a bush eyes narrowed to slits.

I opened my eyes and blinked. Not much time had passed but the girls were already about to haul themselves out of the water.

"Wait!" I whispered urgently. "It's not safe, some kids are here."

"No one is here, calm down Cheryl." Cynthia said impatiently. I grabbed her wrist.

"Someone is here." I hissed "We should go somewhere else." She glared at me and I narrowed my eyes at her. Cynthia and I hadn't been getting along too well since our argument yesterday because one of my predictions had been slightly wrong.

"It's only kids. What harm can they do?" Cynthia jerked her wrist away from me and before I could say anything else, she was out of the water.

"You idiot!" I muttered. Cynthia's red, orange and yellow tail was fully visible to the area where the teens would appear.

10 seconds passed and now Cynthia's tail was turning into legs and jeans pants. I didn't see any movement from the bushes. Cynthia smirked at me.

"We might as well go too. We need to get out of the water." Althea said. Julia followed her as they scrambled onto the shore. I felt a tap on my shoulder and tuned around, it was Tyler, I had forgotten he was there.

"See you later." He said blinking warmly at me before disappearing underwater. When I turned back to the shore, all the girls were sitting daintily on the rocks warming their legs. I sighed.

As I scrambled onto the shore I hissed into Althea's ear.

"Our secret is out now. I hope you know that." She stopped combing her dirty blonde hair and looked up at me horror in her blue eyes.

I took a seat on the sand and waited for the kids to appear. 5. 4. 3. 2…

1. I saw a movement from their hiding spot. Their eyes were narrowed but I could easily tell they were freaking out. There was a girl and a boy and they looked about our age more or less.

The girl had blonde/brown hair, brown eyes, and open cuts along her arms and face. The boy was almost invisible in the dark because he was wearing all black and his black hair was so long it covered his eyes.

I heard Cynthia curse behind me as I stood up to greet the visitors. "Hey. You're about a millisecond late." The girl's eyes flashed, but then softened. She glanced at her friend before speaking

"Glad to see we're not the only living freaks in the world." I blinked. I didn't see that coming and that's saying something, from a girl that can see the future.

"What do you mean? You callin' us freaks? And how are you freaks?" I asked slowly.

She pointed at our legs. "We saw what happened. Your tails, I mean."

I crossed my arms. "Yeah I know." I grumbled and glanced at Althea and Cynthia.

"How?" she asked. I sighed, I might as well tell them. Althea nodded.

"I can… see the future and other stuff." Both of their eyes widened a fraction. "We can all do something." She looked at her friend. I couldn't tell what his dark eyes showed but she could.

"Ok, she told you something but you still haven't answered her question. What do you mean you're 'freaks' too?" Althea asked backing me up.

The girl sighed, stepped away from the boy, looked around, shrugged her shoulders and—holy starfish. I felt my eyes widen to the size of manta rays. Wings were extending from her back. They were white with speckles of brown. 14 feet of feathery fun. They were gorgeous.

Then the boy showed his wings. They were pitch black like a raven or a crow's wings attached to a human. Our wings were colorful pastels that matched our tails.

"We have one more secret." Julia said while she extended her green and black pastel wings. Her wings caught the moonlight and glittered.

"What are you?" the boy asked incredulously.