Whitney had brought her own lunch and quickly made her way to their normal table. Sitting down alone for a few minutes was usual when she brought a lunch, as her friends—Tina, Trudy, Noah, and James—always ate school food. As she waited for them, Whitney grabbed her math homework and quickly jotted down the last two answers … now she wouldn’t have to worry about it later. The room around her began to fill up as she finished. Good thing she remembered to bring it to lunch. Otherwise, it probably wouldn’t have gotten done.
The lunchroom was filled with students and noise by the time Whitney looked up. Her table was still empty, which was a bit weird. As she thought back, she hadn’t seen either Tina or Trudy in the morning, which was strange since Tina had a locker right near hers. Whitney felt dread settle in her stomach. Sam had seemed really worried when he left, but wouldn’t explain why. Was there something happening to the sirens on the mainland while she was gone? That couldn’t be it. James and Noah had traveled from the island with her. Things were fine then, but now she sat alone.
Standing up, Whitney didn’t need to scan the room to discover that her friends were safe. They were already at a table sitting and eating. It just happened that it wasn’t the table Whitney was at. Instead, they sat at Sam’s old table right next to Amber, the mer who Sam turned down being mated with and who now had a big grudge against Whitney.
Whitney glanced at her friend’s faces and saw that they were miserable at their new table. Perfect-looking Amber without a single hair out of place finally noticed Whitney looking over at them as she turned Whitney’s way. She smiled and gave a little wave before pointing to the table where Whitney was sitting.
Looking down, she saw a paper on the table where her friends normally sat.
Take my friends, and I’ll take yours. Sam’s worth at least four greens. Thanks for the new servants.
Whitney wadded the note up in her hand and began to push up to go over and tell Amber what she thought, but Tina caught her eye and shook her head, which was enough to make Whitney pause. While she wanted to go over and give Amber a piece of her mind, she trusted her friend. Something in her eyes said to listen to her. Instead of going over to the table, Whitney let Amber think she had won and sat back down alone. It wasn’t like Whitney wasn’t used to being alone in a lunchroom. She had transferred schools once before coming to their school. She would be fine. Once she got to the bottom of things, she would get her friends back.
Sitting back down, Whitney checked over her math homework. It was the only distraction she had with her, and she needed a distraction to keep from blowing up at Amber. It was ridiculous. Whitney wasn’t keeping Sam from Amber. Sam wanted nothing to do with her, or the sirens in general. That wasn’t Whitney’s fault. And actually, Whitney didn’t blame him on the Amber front. Whitney’s mother had told her more than once when she was a child that if you didn’t have something nice to say, you don’t say anything at all. That definitely pertained to Amber. Whitney had nothing she could say about the girl.
“Um …” A shadow fell over Whitney’s paper as someone stood beside the table, blocking the light.
Whitney glanced up to find a girl standing there, staring down at her paper, but not her. She had never seen the girl before, and she was sure she would have remembered her. She had long black hair that was tipped pink around the edges, some tattoos, and too many piercings to count. Even with her school uniform on, the girl stood out. How could you not with a Celtic cross taking up most of your forearm? That wasn’t something you saw often in a school with teenagers. Whitney’s mother would have killed her if she got a small tattoo that could be concealed. This girl’s wasn’t hidden at all.
“Can I sit here?” the girl asked quietly, pointing to the empty table.
Not only had Whitney’s friends ditched her, but everyone else seemed to shy away from her, too. It looked like life at her new school was easier if you were human, and not siren … at least in her case.
“Yeah, seems my friends have ditched me for the popular table, so it’s all free,” Whitney told her.
It was possible Tina and Trudy could hear her over all the noise with their super siren hearing, but that didn’t stop Whitney. It was kind of true that they ditched her, whether they wanted to or not. Then it hit Whitney as she remembered something from just nights before. Tim had made her friends do whatever he wanted because he was a blue and they were greens. The siren world was divided into two classes, and the blues had free reign to boss around the greens. They had to follow his orders because all four were green siren. Amber was a blue. Whitney stared across the cafeteria at her friends. Tina looked miserable, and Trudy looked pissed as she stood to go get something from the lunch line. Tina’s twin brother, Noah, actually seemed just as angry as Trudy as he stood and he moved to follow. One word from Amber, and he was sitting back down. There was so much Whitney needed to learn in the mer world, but finding out how to command someone to ignore jerks like Amber was at the top of her list now.
The quiet girl sat down kitty-corner from Whitney, like she was leaving room for her friends to come back. It was kind, but not necessary.
“Really, they aren’t coming back to the table soon. Seems they are being used by the popular kids and can’t really get out of it.”
Whitney waved at her friends, including Trudy, who was returning from the lunch line with more food that was being snatched away by one of the guys at the table. At least now her friends knew she understood.
“Are you new here?” Whitney ventured to guess, motioning for the new girl to move down and sit across from her.
The new girl seemed surprised by her offer and looked around one more time like she was afraid it was a joke or Whitney’s friends were coming back to kick her out of the spot. Neither was the case. Whitney had been new on two different occasions and knew how fun it really wasn’t.
“I’m Whitney Mallory,” Whitney continued to talk like the girl had answered yes. It seemed like there was a slight head shake, or at least Whitney thought that’s what she saw since it seemed the new girl was the quiet, shy type. “I was new last year; I know how it feels.”
“I’m Jade,” the new girl added, finally sounding a bit surer of herself as she stopped looking around the room like someone was going to sneak up and pull her out of her seat.
“What grade are you in?” Whitney asked, trying to keep the conversation going and hopefully loosen the shy girl up a little.
“Senior.” She looked back at her food quickly, causing her pink tips to brush over her shoulder and into her face, like she could hide behind it.
Whitney had no idea how someone that stuck out so much thought they could hide. The girl’s complete sense of style was unique, and Whitney knew there had to be a stronger personality hidden down inside somewhere.
“I wonder if we have any classes together. Did they print you off a schedule?”
Whitney was now determined to get the shy girl to open up.
Jade rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a perfectly folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, she handed it over to Whitney.
Whitney scanned it quickly. “Not a single class,” she exclaimed. The school was pretty big, but with seven classes during the day, Whitney thought she’d have at least one with the new girl. “But my friend, Trudy, has gym class for third hour like you. She has red, curly hair.”
Taking back the class schedule when Whitney handed it to her, Jade appeared to think for a moment. This time she didn’t automatically look back down.
“I think I remember seeing her. She was all alone and not speaking to anyone. It seemed like she was having a bad day,” Jade commented. For being so shy, she seemed to notice everything around her.
Whitney nodded over to the popular table. “I’d count any day where you have to interact with Amber a bad day.”
Jade followed her gaze and nodded as she noticed Trudy.
“Are you in a fight with your friends?” she asked, and then immediately covered her mouth. ??
?I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to pry. We’ve only just met, and I’m asking personal questions. I’m really sorry.” Jade’s head went down as she stared at her food to avoid meeting Whitney’s eyes. She was finally acting normal and went straight back to being shy.
Whitney looked at the strange, shy girl and just shook her head. “You’re not prying … just an innocent question. And no, we didn’t get in a fight. In fact, I was with them last night. As far as I knew, they’d be sitting here today when I came to lunch, but obviously they aren’t. It’s more of a family thing,” Whitney stated. That would make the most sense and be the truest description, she thought. “Their families all have a history together that I’m not part of as the new girl. I don’t really fit in here in general, but they didn’t care in the least. Tina, Trudy, Noah, and James are all really cool like that. But you know when family gets involved, sometimes it’s not that easy.”
Jade nodded her head knowingly as she finally looked up from her food. “Yeah, family can be a bit of a problem, but you can’t do anything about it. You don’t get to choose what family you are born into.”
Whitney laughed and tried to smile. The only choice she would make would be to have her family back. It had been over a year and was still hard to think about the fact that her parents were really gone. She’d give anything to go back to having family problems. But in a way, the sirens kind of were her problem now with her bond to Sam, but she still felt like an outsider.
“So can I ask you something?” Jade stopped picking at her food. It was obvious why the girl was rail thin. She had to be at least five foot ten inches tall, but couldn’t weigh more than a hundred and forty pounds. As she sat there not really eating while Whitney stuffed her face, Whitney wasn’t sure how she weighed that much.
“Sure,” Whitney finally replied after she swallowed her handful of chips.
“What’s up with the fish theme?” Jade pointed to the walls around the cafeteria that, of course, had huge six-foot tall fish on them.
Whitney burst out laughing. That had been her exact first thought of the school when she had moved here, and not a single person she had talked to about it could understand why she found it so strange. Jade was the first one who finally saw that it was weird. Whitney had just met her, but she had a feeling they were on the same page.
“Exactly what I want to know, and no one will tell me.” Okay, maybe she understood better now, but did the merfolk like fish that much?
She had really only been inside Sam’s place, and it wasn’t all fishy-looking. Then again, she couldn’t think of a single decoration. The walls had no pictures or paintings, and the few pieces of furniture all seemed to be the same brown color as the floors and walls. He wasn’t a good example to go by. Now she wished she had a tour of a few more siren homes. Maybe it would have given her a better idea why the school was all fishy.
“Really,” Whitney added. “I asked over a dozen people about it, and everyone thought I was crazy. Best part is that they don’t just decorate with fish, they serve it once a week here, too.”
Jade’s eyes bugged a little. “Seriously?”
Grinning, Whitney nodded. It was kind of nice to have another outsider around. The friends she had made the past year and a half had been great, welcoming her right into their group, but they didn’t understand. This was the only place beside the island they had lived. They didn’t find anything of it different or odd.
“They all had me convinced I was the weird one. Fish every week to eat and fish on the walls. It was like someone took the whole live-next-to-the-ocean theme a bit too far.”
“Completely what I was thinking. I mean I could picture an old lady obsessed with the ocean having seashells as her decoration and handing out fish-shaped chocolates for Halloween being less oddball than this school. Do you realize that the paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms have what look like shark faces on them?” Jade seemed to lose her shy shell as they talked more and found common ground as outsiders.
“Exactly. And if you squint at the air holes on the lockers, they are shaped like a star, which I figured was a starfish idea,” Whitney added. “I could so picture an old lady house themed out in the ocean, deciding to decorate the school the same way. Fish chocolates. That’s a good one.”
“Oh my goodness, I feel so much better now.” Jade pushed her food away, done eating after only a few bites. “I was beginning to think I was just imagining things.”
Whitney chuckled as she remembered the exact same feeling. Quiet Jade was turning out to be just the person Whitney needed to meet to make her day go better. Losing her friends stunk, and she was going to have to do something about it, but gaining a new friend was a great compromise. Even better was finding someone who understood that the school was beyond obsessive about the ocean. It made her day.
Whitney slung her bag over her shoulder as she walked away from school. Lunch had been nice with Jade. She was completely different than Whitney’s first impression of her. While she was still quiet, the rest of the time Whitney saw her between classes, she had a glint in her eyes and a wiggle of her eyebrow to tell Whitney what else was completely odd about the school. It was like they knew a secret that everyone else just didn’t see, and it made them both break out in giggles more than once. The school really over did the fish and ocean theme.
Now that school was over, and Whitney was walking away, she felt a little more sad that her friends were gone. Normally on Mondays Whitney would walk with Tina to Tina’s part-time job, and then head over to the ocean to sit and be alone until she either had to go home or to her own job. Now, she trudged along the well-worn path alone. Tina was nowhere at school, or at least anywhere Whitney could see. She didn’t come back to her locker during the day. Whitney had a feeling their orders included avoiding her. She needed to learn how to break the command given to the greens and get her friends back. They were the only things that made school and moving not stink as much as it had. What got to her even more was that they were people. Amber had no right to order them around. She was making them do something they didn’t want to do and treating them like her servants. Whitney wished becoming a night human included instantly knowing how to be one so she could rescue her friends.
She kept walking past her normal beach and over to the one behind the diner where Sam had taken her on their first date. Even though it was only recently they told each other the truth of their feelings, she had spent enough time with him over the past year. He had been her swim instructor, but she also had classes with him and saw him all the time in the hallways. She didn’t even realize how much she had seen him until she couldn’t see him. Even though it was more than likely intentional on Amber’s part, school felt empty without him or her friends. She had expected to have the comfort of her friends, but even that was gone.
Whitney walked slowly to the second beach and made her way through the parking lot and small woods to the shore. As expected, the coast near the diner was as empty as it had been each time she had been there with Sam. She was half tempted to walk out to the rocks and climb around the bend to just disappear into the water to find Sam, but something kept her back. Her gut told her it wasn’t safe to just be running off on her own. Instead, she dropped her bag on the sand and waded ankle deep into the water.
The music of the water was soothing after such a rough, unexpected day. While she liked the music before she changed into a siren, now there was a completely different draw to it. As the waves crashed on her legs, she could hear the melody play louder. It was as if it was calling her home. She could almost feel Sam, like he was in front of her reaching for her hand. With the roll of each wave, the urge to leave shore and never return grew larger inside of her.
Whitney watched the waves farther out and wished she could make Sam appear. Life back home was more complicated than she thought it would be. She thought she was joining the sirens, but instead, she found herself fighting them. She missed him greatly, even though it had been less than twenty-four hours.
Even more, she needed help with the land sirens. She had no clue about any of it or how to get her friends back. Breaking a siren’s song wasn’t something Sam had covered in his ‘how to be part fish’ lessons they had done in secret the week before.
‘Why can’t you just defy your father?’ Whitney thought to herself.
‘Whitney?’ Sam asked, sounding as shocked as she was to hear his voice.
Whitney scanned the horizon for some sort of sign he was close as she stepped deeper into the water to make her way over to the rocks to go out farther.
‘Where are you?’ She eagerly looked for him.
‘At the island. I’m running drills with the new recruits,’ Sam replied. ‘Where are you?’
‘At the beach by the diner,’ Whitney replied.
‘How is this possible? We’re too far apart.’ Whitney felt a stab of pain as Sam mentally gave a grunt. ‘Sorry. I need to pay attention, or they’ll hit me again.’
‘Hit you? What the heck are you doing?’
‘Nothing much. Just working my way back up the ladder after my father demoted me. Starting at the bottom with physical training sessions. It’s a real fun time.’ This time she didn’t feel the pain of being hit, but rather Sam hitting something instead. It didn’t seem like it was “nothing much” like he expected her to believe.
‘Sam, we need to talk more, but obviously, this is a bad time. I can come back tomorrow if you’ll be free.’ Going to him wasn’t an option—he was too far away—but it was great that she could talk to him. Whitney watched the water knock against her calves as she tried to picture Sam and be inside his head enough to see what he was doing. ‘I need to know more about being a siren and how you use your songs to control greens.’