Hello, and welcome to my first story! It's not my most popular, but I try to work on it when I have the time. Keep in mind that updates might not come frequently, but I will do what I can.

EDIT: I am currently going back through and editing previous chapters, improving them and fixing errors. Hopefully I will be able to take it off HOLD in the near future. :)

Enjoy!

Alice set a fluffy white towel on top of the closed toilet lid, glancing back down at the tub. Judging it to be sufficiently full of the steamy water, she turned off the faucet, added some bath salts, and slowly lowered herself into it.

A soft sigh escaped as the water reached her collar bone, eventually lowering her arms into the water as well. Contented, she let her magic flow through her, shimmering down her legs. Transfiguring could take only a second if need be, but Alice didn't like to rush when it could be helped. She let the tingling simmer for several seconds as her legs melted together, scales reappearing over her skin from the waist down.

Tail resting on the opposite side of the tub, Alice leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

Why am I even here? she thought wearily, though she knew the answer.

While she had four older brothers, she was the king's only daughter. As such, who she chose to be her life-mate was very important. Alice had little interest in such things, but she had found it quite annoying when King Britannia had run off every last eligible merman. Only then had he announced that Alice would be spending sophomore, junior, and senior years on land.

Alice could be rather grumpy natured, but she had exploded at this piece of news. Only by mentioning that she'd be staying with her aunt, her deceased mother's sister, did the king get her to simmer down long enough to explain. The king promised not to chase off any human she brought back, which had prompted a narrow-eyed warning glower. When asked to explain, he'd said, "Because they don't know you. Anyone you bring down will be someone you choose, not some power-chasing merman."

Informing him rather tartly that he could have mentioned that sooner, Alice had swum off to her room to pack.

That was over a year ago. Sophomore year had passed, and they were into junior year. Alice had made a human friend, Yuki Honda. The Japanese girl was quite, incredibly tech savvy, and the only other human besides Aunt Rachel that knew her secret. There were more she considered to be friends, the Vargas twins and Madeline, but none of them knew.

Unfortunately, she hadn't had a single date.

It had been encouraged that she test the waters, seeing as she didn't have forever, literally. (There was an eighteenth birthday deadline for this.) But Alice wasn't sociable, and while she excelled in some areas, she crashed and burned in others.

English was her highest grade, and she's found a love for books. She read whenever she could, and always kept one handy. Books, along with tea, were some of the land-only delights she'd fallen in love with. The sea was sill her home, but she had to admit that the topside had its advantages.

History fascinated her, and though she was a bit rusty, she did quite well in it. She had a solid post at the school news paper, and thanks to her students were actually buying it again.

Math and science were a whole different story. She was barely maintaining a D in both, even with Yuki's tutoring. She had never managed to ditch her clumsiness on land, so gym was a hated period as well. Home economics had held interest for her, and she rather enjoyed it, but for one small snag. The teacher had had to literally ban students from eating whatever she made, and just gave the girl a 'pass'. She also insisted that Alice not operate the microwave on her own. After the fifth case of food poisoning and the third microwave explosion, she'd put her foot down.

Alice enjoyed a good deal of being on land, in addition to the fact it was one of her only connections to the mother she didn't remember, but sometimes she couldn't wait to go back to the sea. To Atlantica. To home.

First, though, she had to find a man, as Elizabeta kindly put it. Her mermaid best friend always swam out every Thursday night to meet her in the harbor, and every time she would get some coaxing. It wasn't that she wasn't looking, really, it was just she was…picky. Too picky, according to some, but Elizabeta was one of the few who said she should find the right one. Even she was starting to urge her along now, though.

There had been a few that caught her eye, but they barely lasted the week if they lasted a day. There was always something, a turn off. Even when there was one, Alice found herself equally unable to act. There was one, actually. She'd noticed him in her first month at human high school. While she'd tried to ignore him, searching out other potentials, Alice always found her attention inevitably drawn back to him.

Alice sighed wearily, sinking deeper into the water. Honestly, she was trying to forget everything land-based. Oh, curse it all, she never had a problem speaking before. Why did that idiot leave her tongue tied?

To many, he was indeed an idiot. He acted like one more than Alice might like, but she always gave the few who caught her eye a more thorough examination. This translated to observation that was almost borderline stalking.

Name: Alfred F. Jones. Slightly older brother to his twin, Madeline Williams. Status: star quarterback.

Alice frowned. Clichés were well defined, except in the case of Alfred. He drifted, and everyone seemed to accept him. You couldn't not like him. That was how she'd met him, more or less. Yuki was a gaming buddy, and he'd plopped down next to her at lunch one day to ask if they were still on for a late-night gamming session.

Punks, Goths, popular's, geeks, dorks, nerds, it didn't matter. Despite his slightly, well, less-than-intelligent actions, he was quite smart. He simply preferred comic books to Shakespeare, Math to English, and Science to history. In math and science, he was a genius, the top in his classes. Alice had watched him, she knew.

He was a gamer, comic nerd, athletic star, math whiz, science genius, fast food lover, happy-go-lucky, annoyingly cheerful, and an idiot, all capped with a massive hero complex.

And much to Alice's dismay, she found herself inexplicably drawn towards him.

He's the bloody quarterback, she told herself, agitated. It was the same argument she'd been losing for some time now. He's Mr. Popular, everyone likes him. It's too bloody cliché, I can't like Alfred of all people. What would father say if brought home the obvious? Besides, he doesn't even date.

That much she was reasonably sure about. To her knowledge, Alfred never had any sort of relationship. He didn't even seem to think about it.

Alice put her face in the cooling water, and sighed in a flurry of bubbles. Tomorrow was the first day of junior year. She'd been in Atlantica most of the summer, but King Britannia had had her come back two weeks early so she could get used to land again, as well as boost that false normality. She'd actually seen him when she'd gone into town with Aunt Rachel for school supplies. He and Ivan, his best friend, were at the ice cream shop. She might have been tempted to at least wave, if it hadn't been for Ivan. The Russian native was over six feet tall, built like a unbreakable pillar, and was the football teams best linebacker. He was also very creepy. Alfred seemed to be one of the few that seemed willing to deal with that.

"Poppet, time for dinner!"

BREAK*BREAK*BREAK

Alice got out of Yuki's car the next day at school, shoving the door shut. She shouldered her backpack, heaving a sigh and resigning herself to another semi-productive year. No sooner had she done this, though, then a voice froze her in her tracks.

"Alice! Allllice!"

She swung around just in time to meet Elizabeta's overzealous hug. When her best Mer friend stepped back, a wide smile on her face, Alice just gaped. The princess wasn't overly tall by most standards, barely reaching five foot five, and Elizabeta had several inches on her. Her long brown hair held a land flower instead of the usual water flower, bell-bottom jeans accented long legs, and a flared sleeved green blouse did the same for her torso.

"What are you doing here?" hissed Alice, grabbing her arm and dragging her off the parking lot, away from the general crowd. Yuki ghosted after them, a bit worried.

"Why do you have a bloody backpack?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise. See, your father thought it might help to have more of your kind up here with you, and a lot of us wanted to give it a try too."

"Wait, you're not the only one here?"

"Nope," she said cheerfully.

"Where are you staying?" Alice demanded.

"Remember Bella and Lars?"

Alice nodded. The siblings had left the sea a few years back, opening a sort of boarding house that always had room for Merfolk.

"We're all staying there."

"Who's 'we'?"

Elizabeta thought about it, and then began ticking them off her fingers. "Let's see. The Bad Touch Trio insisted on coming, and then of course Ludwig had to come to keep an eye on Gilbert. Honestly, you'd think he was the older brother, not the other way around. Heracles and Mai thought they'd give it a try, mostly because I talked them into it. Thought you might like some sane people here with you. Berwald, Matthias, and Austin were putting in requests anyway."

Alice groaned. "Eleven? There are eleven Merfolk here?"

"No, that's just nine."

"Plus us. Even I know that makes eleven."

"If there is more, it does increase the risk of exposure," said Yuki quietly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot my manners. Yuki, this is my best Mer friend, Elizabeta. Elizabeta, this is my best human friend, Yuki."

Elizabeta smiled at the Japanese girl. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

Yuki gave a polite nod. "As have I. But we are running low on time."

Alice glanced at her watch and muttered a curse. "We have about five minutes before the warning bell rings. Come on, let's find our rooms."

Grabbing Elizabeta's arm, she led the way to the school. Elizabeta's walking was still worse than Alice's, which was all the proof she needed to know they couldn't have been on land for more than three days.

Honestly, what were the officials thinking? The school would be flooded with Merfolk, and all would no doubt be looking for mates. Admittedly the Mer had never been the largest group of people on the planet to begin with but still...

Alice gave a mental groan. That had to be it, then. These days it was more common to find mates on the surface, and no doubt the officials liked the idea of a new wave of fresh blood. The fact they started out as human didn't affect the Mer genes, and most did choose to go below with their Mer mate. No doubt the fact that the crown princess was on the surface searching for a mate had been a perfect excuse to start a trend. No doubt they would discourage it again once this generation gave the Merfolk its population increase, but that didn't change the fact Alice would have to keep an eye on her fellow Mer students in addition to trying to keep up with her own human façade and find a mate for herself.

And people wondered why she didn't love being a princess.

Please Review!