"So, you girls have any plans for this summer?" Mytho casually asked before taking a sip of his yellowish smoothie. "You're going to be juniors next year, right? Any thoughts about colleges?"
"Ugh," Ahiru groaned. "That's all my parents have been hounding me about. Unlike you, I won't get a scholarship for anything. I'm just not good at anything."
"Don't say that," the blonde boy smiled. "Maybe you just haven't found that special something you're really good at. I mean, I didn't start surfing until I was a freshmen and now look at me. I had no idea I would be any good. You just gotta keep looking."
"That's great advice," Lilliae piped up, bouncing along next to the two. "But our sweet little Ahiru is just terrible at everything. I know. She's tried. Everything. And she failed at all of it."
"Just so you know, trying everything is impossible," Autor stated, pushing his glasses up with one hand, a green smoothie in the other. "There are plenty of other things out there she can try if nothing so far works for her. And you call yourself her friend."
"That's what I've been saying," Pique whispered through clenched teeth into the blue haired boy's ear. "And besides, things take time. You think Mytho gave up the first time he wiped out? Getting good at things takes practice, that's all."
"I know, but look at me. You'd think after fifteen years of being alive I'd at least know how to walk in a straight line and yet..." she pointed to a Band-aid on her left knee and sighed. "I can't even do that right."
"But being clumsy is just who you are," Mytho grinned. "And I for one would never want to change anything about you."
Ahiru's cheeks flamed red as she spoke shyly into her smoothie straw, "Really?"
"Really."
Could his golden eyes be any more perfect? He was just so amazing and nice even to someone like her who really didn't deserve his kindness and all she could do was gaze at him with admiration and longing from afar. For no matter how nice he was to her, he would never look at her the way he looked at other girls...like the group of four walking towards them that second.
The boy of her dreams had started another conversation with the boy beside him, but how could she listen to a thing they said when he turned around to walk backwards so he could flirt with the girls as they passed, knowing she would never be at the receiving end of it. And it seemed her downturned mood caught the attention of her magenta haired friend as that wonderfully familiar reassuring hand rested on her shoulder once again.
"Don't worry," she whispered. "Just give him time. He might fall for you yet."
"I doubt it, but...thanks, Pique," she smiled softly. "I appreciate it."
Thank goodness it was Pique who had noticed her saddened mood, for if it was Lilliae, she wouldn't have been nearly as subtle about it and the last thing she needed was Mytho to know how heart broken she was whenever he gave other girls that winning grin. Keeping her feelings a secret was all she could do. Even though he was nice to her, reputation was a lot to him and knowing his family, they certainly wouldn't be too pleased to have him dating such a scrawny little no one with no talent. Well, maybe that wasn't said or anything, but she could feel it whenever she would go to his house, the way they almost seemed to look down on his choice of friends. It made her feel small and unfortunately, Mytho never really said anything in their defense, nor in their favor either, which meant he was walking a tightrope. Afraid that if he said the wrong thing he could either lose the people he had called friends since he was a child or be grounded from everything by his parents. A tough choice, so he simply walked the middle ground.
But, like Pique had said, at least being friendzoned allowed her the ability to hangout with him, something that the girls he flirted with never really got the chance to do. Some comfort to a tragic love life, she figured.
And just as she was thinking about how lucky she was to spend time with him he looked down at his water-proof watch and gasped. "Dang it! I forgot. My parents wanted me home before three. I gotta go. I'll see you all later. Same time tomorrow, Autor?"
"Yup," the blue haired boy responded as Mytho began to jog off.
"Later guys."
"Bye, Mytho!" Ahiru called, almost as a last pleading cry for his attention, only to get a wave in return. Her eyes fell and she mumbled, "See you tomorrow."
"You know he's not going to ask you out, right?" Autor questioned.
"Now you're just being rude!" Pique snapped, hands on her hips. "We know he's not going to, but you don't have to be such a jerk about it."
He flinched as she smacked his arm and quickly explained, "He's not going to be dating anyone, I mean. Not this summer. You know how busy his parents are going to be making him? What, with the search for colleges and a job and the extra chores they're having him do? His only real get away is surfing."
The three girls went quiet at the explanation.
"Plus," he continued, "it's probably why he's been flirting so much recently. Guess he's trying to get as much girl time in before all his time is taken up with...other things."
"If he wants girl time we could just lock him a room with Ahiru until one of them snaps and just has to pounce on the other," Lilliae squealed with a dreamy look on her face. "That would be so exciting and someone might end up leaving crying. I hope it's Ahiru."
All three looked at her with questioning looks and Pique then decided to bop her on the head with a firm hit with her fist.
"Nobody is going to be crying," she confidently stated. "And certainly not from what you're hoping for."
"She worries me," Autor murmured getting concerned nods from the other two girls. "Anyway, since I don't want to be a suspect in whatever crime that one might come up with, I'm going to head home. I've got a few things I want to do myself, so...later."
"Bye, nerd," Pique snickered, getting a scowl from the bespectacled boy before he finally turned and walked away.
"He is a nerd, isn't he?" Lilliae chuckled, rubbing at her head. "Bet you're really into the nerdy types, huh, Pique?"
The magenta haired girl looked insulted and gaped at her blonde friend. "Excuse me? Are you suggesting I'm into Autor?"
"Why else do you tease him like that?" Ahiru muttered, hoping her friend didn't hear her.
"I tease him because he thinks he's just so perfect, Mr. Know-it-all, and someone needs to bring him down a peg."
"But...you do think he's cute, right?" Lilliae pushed.
"I do not!" Pique nearly screamed. "He's just a big useless dork with glasses and a weird habit for making sure his hair is perfect. I bet he's OCD, too."
"Did you hear that?" Ahiru whispered just loud enough to the blonde. "She thinks he has perfect hair."
"EEEEEE!!! Have you thought of him without his glasses too? You probably think he'd be super cute without those glasses," Lilliae fawned. "Those big blue eyes without those little bits of glass blocking your view. I bet you have dreams of that every night."
Now Pique was bright red, from anger or embarrassment, none of them knew, but it only made Lilliae's giggle fit get worse and even Ahiru found it entertaining, mostly due to finally not being on the receiving end of the blonde's taunting. And if Pique did have a crush on Autor, she wouldn't be too horribly against it. Her friends had every right to pursue their crushes even when she couldn't, right? And a little teasing couldn't hurt, especially when that's all they did to her concerning Mytho.
"You know what!?" Pique growled. "Let's go see Ms. Edel."
Well, that was sudden.
"Why?" Ahiru asked, silently hoping her blonde friend didn't accidentally kill herself laughing.
"With the boys gone, there's not really anything else left to do," the magenta haired girl explained. "And if it'll get you two off the subject of a crush I DO NOT have, then I'll be happy."
Ahiru didn't mind. Ms. Edel was always fun to go see. Her neat little trinkets were always so interesting and all those handcrafted pieces of jewelry. Her shop was so enchanting. It was like walking into another world. It may have just been the front living room of her home, but all the shells, smoothed down glass and oddly shaped gems she had hanging from anything and everything, Ahiru could stand and stare for hours and still find new things to be intrigued by. Without anymore hesitation, she started walking toward the little house on the hill, surrounded by sand dunes, reeds, windchimes and kites of fish, waving to her friends to follow.
It wasn't a very long trek to the little house and the girls began to gossip about what new things the woman might have for sale.
"Maybe she'll have a new shark tooth necklaces," Lilliae started. "With the shark still attached!"
"Doubt that," Pique grumbled. "But, maybe she'll have another dolphin statue. Remember that one she had a couple months ago? I wanted to get it so bad. Too bad it was too expensive."
"I kinda hope she has something to go with my necklace. Or maybe a three way best friend necklace, that would be so cool."
Absently, Ahiru had begun rubbing at the red pearl that hung from her neck, thinking about what she could add to it to spice things up. Since she had had the necklace for as long as she could remember, changing things up was very tempting, yet at the same time, she had a strange attraction to the jewel and she found herself unable to take it off. But what she thought was the coolest part, was that Pique and Lilliae also had pearls, a violet and pale green one respectively, almost like all their parents had gotten together when they were born and made sure they would become best friends. Or maybe it was just fate.
They finally reached the little white gate to Ms. Edel's home and just as they were about to open the small structure, a grey tabby with a red bow tie jumped up on top of the wooden posts, instantly getting all the attention he wanted.
"Hello, Mr. Cat," Ahiru giggled as he pushed his head into her scratching.
"And what brings you up here?" Pique asked in a mock scolding tone. "Aren't you a little far from home?"
"Oh, please," Lilliae scoffed. "Everyone knows nobody owns Mr. Cat. For all you know he came here for some loves from Ms. Edel. Or maybe he's trying to distract us so she can get rid of the body."
The two girls stopped and scowled at the third girl. She had quite the imagination and with a quick shake of her head, Pique pushed open the gate with the cat still on it, and headed up the stone path to the ocean blue door.
Ahiru gave the cat one last pat on the head and quickly followed, Lilliae not far behind. A little bell jingled as the three entered, seemingly stepping into a new world of color and beautiful sounds. The window was open slightly, giving the windchimes inside enough push to tinkle out a soft melody and to spin the gems and glass, sending orbs of semi-translucent light across the walls. Quickly, the girls went about and started their quest to find something they liked, completely unaware of the soft footsteps that came from the other room.
"Wow," Ahiru sighed as she lifted a delicately designed necklace with a large sand dollar and several tiny shells mixed into a pattern with little pink beads. "Pique, isn't this one so pretty?"
"Check this out," the girl responded, holding up a crown made of all sorts of shells. "If I wore this, you'll all have to call me your highness.I'd be your queen."
"Queen of what?" Lilliae giggled, holding two gems, one blue and one purple, in front of her eyes. "The worst fashion sense?"
The three giggled when a soft cough was heard behind them, startling them. "Hello, girls. Anything catch your fancy?"
Pique quickly put down the crown and put a hand over her heart. "Man, Ms. Edel. You scared the bejeezus out of me."
"Sorry about that," the woman smiled then turned her attention to Ahiru. "What have you got there?" Ahiru handed her the necklace to examine. "Ah, yes. I quite liked making this one. Found that sanddollar myself. They're quite difficult to find whole, you know."
She handed the necklace back and Ahiru agreed, smiling at the round shell. "You must have had to be really careful putting this hole in it. It might have shattered."
"It might have."
Just then, Lilliae squealed and raced to the back window. "Do you have anything new in the tide pool?! Can I go see?"
"Certainly."
The woman then followed the three girls outside to where she kept a shallow lava rock full of ocean water. Inside were all sorts of sea creatures ranging from sea urchins to sea anemones to clown fish and hermit crabs. Edel watched in amusement as the three girls pointed out different sea creatures, they're knowledge of the ocean and it's creatures above most who visited her shop, as the sound of grumbling came from her kitchen. She looked through one of her windows and spotted her sudden guest, still trying to gain his bearings in the new surrounds and simply chuckled to herself.
He was struggling to tie his hair back and in doing so, ended up banging his knee into one of the lower kitchen cabinets, catching the attention of the three girls outside and pulling them away from the tide pool.
"Codfoundit," he grumbled under his breath only to quickly raise his voice to call out, "Edel? Where are you?"
"I'm out here," she calmly replied, watching with great interest as the three girls waited and followed with their eyes the strange figure with curiosity.
"You could have told me you went outside," he sighed, still trying to understand how a hair tie was supposed to work. "But do you have anything else I could use? This thing isn't...working."
He froze. The moment he noticed three sets of eyes on him, everything just seemed to stop for him. He stopped fiddling with the hair tie, he stopped walking and even his brain stopped working. He had no thoughts except 'oh, no. Humans'. He wasn't ready to meet humans yet. He didn't know what to say to them or how to act or what could give him away and he quickly pulled his hands from his hair as if that would help, causing what was supposed to be a high ponytail to fall loosely at the nape of his neck.
For what seemed like forever, he stared at the three girls as they stared back at him, curiosity written all over their faces, when finally Edel spoke up.
"Ah, Fakir, you're just in time. Girls, I'd like you to meet my nephew, Fakir. He's visiting this summer from Montana," she paused and pushed Fakir forward slightly. "Go on, say hello."
Fakir could hardly breath. She expected him to talk to these human girls right after meeting them? She had to be insane. These girls could be secret minions to the King and could kill him any second. Sure, they looked like three fifteen year old girls, but... Wait. Three fifteen year old girls? They couldn't...could they?
He looked closer, mostly at their necks and sure enough, all three had pearls just like his, one violet, one pale green and one...ruby. He looked up at the girl with the ruby pearl and felt his stomach churn. She wasn't exactly what he had expected of a Princess - short, skinny and with a childlike face - but she was the Princess nonetheless. Her big blue eyes were nearly captivating as she stared at him and her long orange hair, pulled back into a braid, nearly reached her ankles. There were freckles splattered across all of her exposed skin - shoulders, arms, legs - and her skin was pale with just a slight hint of pink, like the inside of a seashell.
What were the odds that he would find her this quickly? He had barely been on land a few hours and he had already found the girl he was meant to protect and now a whole new problem arose; how on earth was he supposed to talk to her? She was the Princess, he should treat her with respect right? Maybe bow, but she wasn't supposed to know she was the Princess. It was an odd dilemma because if he spoke to her like a normal person, he would feel like he was being disrespectful, but if he was too formal, she might think he was weird or start asking questions. Gah! So little instruction, so much to do!
Finally he settled on a mumbled, "Hello," and forced himself to look away.
"You're going to have to forgive him," Edel chuckled. "He's a bit shy."
Pique almost couldn't hide her excitement. He was too darn cute! He was super good looking, in her opinion, and yet he could barely say hello. Shy and hot? He was like a dream come true and it took all of her self control to not tackle him and claim him for herself.
"Well, hi, Fakir," she grinned. "I'm Pique. It's really great to meet you."
"Uh...thanks." How was he supposed to respond to that? He had no idea since he never had any interactions outside of his grandfather. He hoped it was the correct one.
"I had no idea you had a nephew," Lilliae tilted her head. "Come on, be honest. You kidnapped him, didn't you?"
Fakir raised an eyebrow in confusion and concern when Edel just chuckled. "No, he's my nephew. I assure you."
"But why have you never mentioned him before?" Pique asked.
"I had no idea he would be coming to visit. If I had," Edel explained. "I would have told you girls."
As the others conversed more about why she had never brought him up, Ahiru could only stare. Her first thought was 'he doesn't look like he's from Montana', but it quickly changed to 'why does he keep looking at me?' Although he seemed distracted by Edel and the other girls for the moment, he kept stealing glances at the red head. He had no readable expression on his face so she wasn't exactly uncomfortable and the fact that he seemed shy like Edel had said made her very curious as to why he continued to look in her direction. She couldn't possibly be interesting to him. She was a scrawny little nothing who, up until now, hadn't said a thing to him. Maybe she was the one who was shy now. Perhaps even intimidated by him, what with his tall stature, neutral expression, broad shoulders and piercing green eyes. How do you talk to someone so far out of your league?
She was startled from her thoughts when Pique grabbed her shoulders from behind and whispered, "He is so freaking hot. Say something, Ahiru. I can't be the only one to talk to him."
"Wha…!?" Ahiru called out as she was pushed towards the much taller boy and it was all she could do to keep her knees from shaking. Why was he staring down at her like that? "Uh...h-hi. I'm Ahiru. Wel-welcome to Gold Crown. I-I hope you enjoy your time here."
He blinked several times. Was she nervous to talk to him? Why on Earth…
"Thanks," he murmured, having the hardest time breaking eye contact.
She was actually nervous, wasn't she? The way she bit her lip and tried to look anywhere but at him were huge giveaways, but why? Shouldn't a Princess, whether she knew it or not, be confident no matter what? What could she possibly be nervous about? It should be him stumbling over his words, and yet...she had a deep red tint across her cheeks. Her face could change color? How was she doing that?
All he could do was stare in confused awe, completely unaware of the magenta haired girl shaking her blonde friend in silent excitement. And the silence was getting too much. He decided to say something, anything, just to make things a little less awkward.
"So...you've lived here your whole life?" Ugh, what a stupid question. Of course she lived their her whole life. Idiot.
She looked up and shook her head yes, somewhat startled by his voice. "Yeah, it's nice here. I...I think you'll like it."
Edel's eyes lit up and she stepped forward. "Why don't you girls give him a tour of town tomorrow? Once he's settled in a bit. I'm sure seeing where other kids his age hangout will help him get adjusted, I think."
"That's a great idea!" Pique cried. "What time tomorrow should we come by?"
"Fakir? Any preferences?" the older woman asked.
He just shrugged, his gaze still seemingly glued to Ahiru. "Doesn't matter to me."
Ahiru swallowed. He was still staring at her. Could his eyes be anymore intense?
"How about 10? You could show him that little snack shack you kids always stop by," Edel smiled. "But I would like him back before 5, if that's okay."
"Sure thing, Ms. Edel," Pique grinned excitedly.
"That is if we don't 'accidentally' lose him," Lilliae snickered.
Edel raised an eyebrow and Pique quickly hushed her blonde friend. "Don't you worry. We'll have him back by five. Promise." She then grabbed Ahiru's arm and dragged her back through the house and out the door, waving and calling goodbye. Once outside, Pique stopped the redhead in her tracks and squealed. "Oh. My. GOD!! Did you see the way he was staring at you? I think he really likes you. You should totally ask him out."
"WHAT!!!?? No way!" Ahiru cried. "Are you kidding? There's no way I could do that."
"But he's cute."
"And way out of her league," Lilliae chuckled. "Poor little Ahiru. Doomed to never find love. That's why I'm here. To cheer you up and I'll never leave you. Ever. Until aaaaaalllll you're sadness is mine...er, gone."
"Pique raised an eyebrow and turned back to Ahiru. "Come on. You'll never know if he's out of your league unless you try."
"He probably already has a girlfriend, back in Montana," Ahiru grumbled. "And why would he go for me? Even Mytho won't look in my direction. And I've known him for like ever. I know nothing about this guy. Even if he is kinda cute."
"So you admit it? You think he's cute," Pique practically squealed again.
"I never denied it," Ahiru pouted and pushed past the two.
"Don't give up before you've even tried," her taller friend called after.
"But when you fail, I'll be right here to comfort you!" the blonde giggled.
Ahiru looked back with a forced smile. "Come on. If we are going to show him around, we better get everything ready."
"That's the spirit," Pique chuckled and followed the redhead, the blonde bouncing beside her.
Back at the house…
"Edel, that was her," Fakir started. "That was the Princess."
"Oh? Are you certain?" she asked, shutting the glass door behind them.
"Yes, everything my grandfather said was true. She was with two friends, all three were about fifteen years old and they each had pearls just like mine. And hers was ruby. It was her."
"Well, perhaps it's a good thing I've been keeping an eye on them," she smiled knowingly. "What, with them being mermaids and all."
"You knew?"
"Well, I knew they were mermaids. Those pearls gave it away the moment I first met them, but the fact that one of them is the lost Princess? It never crossed my mind."
"And you're having them show me around tomorrow," he muttered.
"A great way for you to nonchalantly get close to them. Perhaps become friends with them, that way keeping an eye on them will be easier," she grinned. "You did say Drosselmeyer wanted me to help you. So...I'm helping you."
He thought about what she said for a minute then looked down with a sigh. "I can't be friends with the Princess."
"And why not?"
"I'm a nobody. Once she returns to the sea, she'll have no need for me anymore. Being her friend would only make that even...worse. I can't be her friend."
"Well, I suppose what happens after all is said and done is up to her to decide," Edel warmly placed her hand on his shoulder. "She could decide she does want to be your friend even when she becomes Queen. You can't preemptively make that decision for her."
He sighed again. "I guess."
And here's another chapter. Like I said. I'll try to get one up about every two days.
Any ideas about what will happen? And where on earth is Rue? ;) Stick around and find out. teehee
