Two weeks later, after the sons of mermaids became merboys.
Elijah Dove opens his eyes on the morning of his first day as a high school freshman and he was nervous and scared. How he dreaded this day, ever since the moon pool incident at Mako Island that turned Ritchie, Charlie, and himself into merboys, just like their mermaid moms. Elijah was the most scared of what he called "what if" situations, what if he got accidently splashed with water or any type of liquid either in the hallway between classes or in the cafeteria at lunch and getting wet and getting our Mer-tails in front of the whole class. Their mermaid moms have spent the last two weeks preparing their sons for the first day of high school as merboys. Elijah can now dry himself in four seconds, the fastest of Ritchie and Charlie.
At least I don't have to go through this alone, Ritchie, Charlie, and I must stick together and look out for one another just our moms had done.
Then he hears a knock on his bedroom door and his mom enters his room. "Hey, Elijah, didn't you hear me calling you down", asked Emma?
"Sorry, mom," answered Elijah. I guess that I'm just scared about the "what ifs" that could happen. I don't think that I can do this", mom. Not to mention that I miss my girlfriend, Carly, back in Point Pleasant, Wisconsin who I have known since 4k kindergarten.
"I take it that you haven't told them about your Mer condition", asked Emma.
"How does a guy tell his girlfriend that he grows a fish tail whenever he gets wet", asks Elijiah?
"All I can say is to take it one day at a time. Just remember that your aunts, Rikki, Cleo, and I have done our best to prepare you, Ritchie, and Charlie for any mishaps with water. If we can do it, so can our sons. For you are the sons of mermaids.
"You're right mom. You always make me feel better", Elijah replied. "I just want to make you proud of me".
"Now, you better get dressed for school and I'll drive you, little merman", teased, Emma.
Elijah had to laugh at his mother's new nickname for him, little merman. Mom told him that wasn't a merboy and not a merman yet for he was a little merman.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After Elijah gets dropped at school, he meets up with his best friends, Ritchie and Charlie.
"Hey, Eli, over here, yells Ritchie. What's your first class", Charlie asks.
"Math class with Mr. Jennings.
The merboys all head to their individual homerooms.
The rest of the morning was non-eventual for the three merboys, until lunchtime in the cafeteria when Elijah was walking over to dispose of his lunch tray, when he ran into a girl carrying her own tray. Elijah and this girl collided, and each ended up drenched with an unfinished milkshake. "Shit, shit, shit, and double shit! Elijah knows that he has only ten seconds before his Mer-tail forms. He sees the boy's locker room and sprints toward it. He makes it just in time and luckily the locker room is empty when he finds himself sprawled on the floor staring at his orange, white, and gold sprinkled tail. He then uses his hand to dry his tail and four seconds later, Elijah is back to leg form. "That was close", Elijah said to himself. I've got to be more careful. I still need to find out why his tail is the same color as my mom and aunts.
After school, Elijah went to skating practice while Ritchie and Charlie decided to head toward Rikki's café for a bite to eat, deciding to cut through a park where a bunch of teens were having a water fight with super soakers. It was Charlie that got soaked. "Oh, shit, Charlie muttered to himself". Knowing that he had ten seconds before his tail appeared, he cloaked himself before it appeared, just like clockwork. In invisibility, Charlie was able to dry himself to regain his legs
"You ok, Charlie", asked Ritchie. I don't think anybody noticed, for you cloaked yourself just at the right time. I guess no more short cuts", Ritchie added.
"Why didn't you get soaked because you were able bend your body to avoid the water, like something out of the "Matrix".
"Yea, Charlie agreed. "No more short cuts"!
The two boys continued to Rikki's café.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Abby Summers kept thinking about that new boy, Elijah Dove, the boy that she collided with in the cafeteria. "Gosh, he was really cute", Abby thought. For some reason he looked really freaked out we got soaked with my smoothie. Abby knows that he wasn't from Australia from his accent, maybe from America. Abby notices that after school was over, Elijah met with Ritchie and Charlie, when Elijah went his separate way with a gym bag over his shoulder, so she follows him to see where he's going.
Abby follows the new boy to the new ice arena. Abby waits a short time and enters the arena; she finds the boy lacing up his black figure skates. Abby watches as Elijah takes to the ice as he warms up. She can't take her eyes off him as he glides effortlessly across the ice. He's still wearing his Caitlin Clark jersey as he skates.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As Elijah performs his routine, he realizes his skating has become so much more refined since his transformation to a merboy. Performing triple axles seem so easy now. He's so into his skating, Miss Alicia had to remind him to take a ten-minute break off the ice. "Sorry. Miss Alicia, I forgot", apologized Elijah. I certainly don't want to turn merboy in front of everyone", thought Elijah
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Abby happens to hear the exchange between Elijah and his coach about off the ice for ten minutes, which piqued her curiosity. Abby continued to watch Elijah skate for the next hour until the class was excused. Then watched as Elijah unlaced his skates to head for home.
Abby follows and calls out, "Hey Elijah! Wait up!
Elijah is seeing the girl that he had collided with during lunch before he got his tail. For the first time, he sees how beautiful she is. The tallish but slender girl with jet black cascading past her shoulders and she had the softest and darkest brown eyes and her flawless olive skin
"Name is Abby Summers, Abby introduced herself. I didn't know that you were a figure skater. You do it quite well, I'm impressed. Where are you from?
"I'm from a small town in Wisconsin called Point Pleasant.
"If you're free sometime, can meet for a smoothie, I know of a place called Rikki's Café.
"I know the place, it's run by my Aunt Rikki, she's not really my aunt but she was a good friend of my mom ever since high school and there's Aunt Cleo, Cleo Macartney.
"Do you know Cleo Macartney, Abby squealed in delight. I can't believe you know her because she's the local celebrity around the Gold Coast because almost everyone has read her books. I've loved her earlier Mergirl and merboy stories—the adventures of twin brother and sister.
Elijah and Abby continue to walk and talk until they reach the condo where Elijah lives with his mom.
Well, this is where I live and yes, I will meet for that smoothie", answered Elijah. See you tomorrow at school.
Elijah lets himself into the house and immediately smells his favorite food that his mom is making, shrimp scampi
"Is that what I think it is", asked Elijah".
"Yes, honey, in honor of your first day of high school in a new country", answered mom. Did everything go ok.
"It went well for most of the day, except during lunch when I collided with a girl and got drenched with her smoothie, but I managed to get to the boys' locker while was empty and nobody saw me with my tail. I did learn that I should check out the escape routes when it happens. There's something good that came out of it. I met this girl, and her name is Abby Summers.
"I suspected this for when I saw you, seemed to be glowing. My baby's in love", teased mom.
The next day was completely non-eventual without any accidental splashings. Elijah sat with Abby during lunch, eating and talking.
"Yea, Ya know that my friend Maddie is having a pool party this coming Friday evening, celebrating her fourteenth birthday and her bat mitzvah, a year late, do you want to come with", asked Abby.
Without thinking about it, Elijah says "yea, sounds like fun", not even considering that it was a pool party that involved water.
After school and not having skating practice, Elijah, decides to go to Rikki's Café for that smoothie where they run into Ritchie and Charlie, and they have two girls with them
"Hey, Ritchie, hey, Charlie, greeted Elijah, this is Abby Summers.
"This is Emily Jacobs, Charlie introduced the honey blond girl
"This is Theresa Andrews; Ritchie introduced the brunette.
"Where are you from, Elijah, asked Theresa. You sound like you're not from around here".
"I was born in Point Pleasant, Wisconsin", Elijah explained.
The waitress came and took their smoothie orders and left to get their drinks ready.
"You should see Elijah figure skate", gushed, Abby.
"How long have you been skating, Elijah", asked Theresa.
"As far as I can remember. I think I was about four and six months when I started. My first coach always told me that I took to the ice like a fish to water", Elijah explained.
As Elijiah said this, Ritchie and Charlie looked at each other and said telepathically, "really, dude! For we are the literal sons of mermaids.
All Elijiah could say was "ah, shit! It turns out the girls never noticed this, and they talked on.
"By the way, this morning my mom told me that my border collie, Dixon, had been cleared to come to Australia. I've missed that dog.
They talked some more and when they finished their smoothies, they agreed to go back home for they all had homework to do.
Before leaving, Abby plants a kiss to Elijah's lips saying; "Remember that we're on for Maddie's birthday/bat mitzvah pool party", Abby remembered.
Charlie and Ritchie shot each other glances at Elijiah, "Seriously, Eli, attending a pool party is one of the last places for a merman to be and I realize that Abby is gorgeous enough, I get it but still!
Elijah arrives home and goes to his desk to begin his homework, but he checks his email, There's one from his big sister, April. He opens it to see it's a video of April's smiling face
"Hey, what's up Merboy! Mom just told me that you and your friends, Charlie and Ritchie visited Mako Island on the night of a full moon. She also told me your tail is just like hers and like our aunts", April teased in that annoying way that big sisters can pull off. Elijah presses enter to call back, and April picks up immediately, "Hi shitface! Or maybe, should you merboy shitface. Elijah realized how he really missed his big sister and her nickname for him. As Elijah took a sip of water from his water bottle, he started laughing and laughing and spewing out the water from his mouth and getting his face and arms wet. His tail is back and in front of his sister.
"Holy shit, Elijah, you really are a merman but with a tail like mom's, April replied in the Snarky way of Her's.
"Right back at cha, shithead, Elijah remarked in his own way. Now it's April to start laughing.
"Now to get serious, Elijah, April stated, you do realize that you must be careful around water or liquids.
"Yes, sister dear," Elijah replied. Mom has already filled me in about being a merboy or what she calls a little merman. I better get going because I have homework to do. Bye.
"Bye little merman, April said.
The session ends.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Lewis POV
Dr. Lewis Macartney PhD. In marine biology and a associated degree in archaeology or rather marine archaeology. Ever since his wife Cleo and her friends fell into the moon pool when were sixteen, Lewis couldn't get enough of what had been folklore. Lewis began to wonder since the earth is covered by three quarters of the ocean and one quarter land mass. What was the earth like when all the land masses were together before plate tectonics.
Lewis had discovered that the girls had something in common. That they had a small strand in their DNA that he called the Mer gene. This gene was reactivated by the moon pool during a full moon. Their 21-year-old daughters did have it as their fourteen-year-old brothers did. But their daughters didn't have a connection to the ocean, but the boys did. Even Emma's son didn't have this connection to the ocean but was because he grew up in Wisconsin with no sense of the ocean, only freshwater lakes. This changed then he and Emma moved to the Gold Coast after Ash's death.
Lewis even tested his own DNA to find that he also had the Mer gene. On the next full moon, he got into the moon pool to test out his theory and the next day, his Mer
gene was reactivated by the moon pool; Cleo had been so ecstatic at his news that he had his own tail. So was Ash, Zane, and Will. Lewis also learned that humans without this Mer gene, the moon pool didn't work on them.
Recently, a hidden cave had been discovered in the Grand Canyon that looked like a dried-up moon pool with an opening at the top. It had been dried up for centuries. What he found at the bottom of the dried moon under the rock were two mummies of a mermaid and a merman that he named George and Gracie. Lewis had run DNA tests on the Mer mummies to find that they were 100% Merfolk. The ancient merfolk had gills.
By pinpointing the various sightings of merfolk over the centuries, they correspond with the shifting of the land masses as the main land mass of what was the supercontinent, Pangea. Lewis could only surmise that as the supercontinent broke apart by plate tectonics causing the merfolk to keep migrating to where there was still ocean, or some merfolk just gave up becoming land people but still having their Mer gene in their human DNA.
Lewis was just grateful that everything that he learned about merfolk, Dr. Denman was no longer around to cause trouble, for she had died years ago.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx