"Sophia, where are you going today?"

"Sophia, are you going to that construction site to do skateboarding tricks today?"

"Hey Sophia, betcha can't do this logic puzzle I got!"

"Sophia, can I come with you?"

"Hush!" I told the kids around me. Five year olds and teenagers, short and tall, chubby and skinny, kids from the whole neighborhood - no, the whole town - had gathered around me. It wasn't unusual, and was the reason why I didn't like to go to school anymore.

"Sophia?" A tiny girl with with big blue eyes and soft blonde hair gazed up at me in adoration. "Can I go with you today?"

I laughed and ruffled the little girl's hair.

"Not today, 'Lizabeth."

Groans sounded throughout the crowd. 

"Why not?"

I leaned in to the children closest to me, as if I was about to tell them my greatest secret.

"I'm not doing anything today."

***

I walked down the sidewalk, chewing an apple with a black backpack slung over my shoulder. My chocolate brown hair lifted with a cool autumn breeze and and my green eyes gazed around, taking in my surroundings. It was already late, and fog was beginning to clump up in the distance. 

I finally reached my destination at five o'clock, two hours after I had left the crowd of children who attacked me at the park earlier. 

The sign on the quaint victorian house read, "Miss Victoria's Home For Young Women." Fitting, isn't it? I guess Miss Victoria likes things from her time period.

I hopped up the porch steps and through the open door of the orphanage. As an attempt to escape the dinner that was taking place, I tried to sneak upstairs, but was caught by the voice of Miss Victoria. 

"Oh, Sophia. Sophia Akers!" She called after I attempted to ignore her. "I wanted to talk to you." She motioned for me to join her in the small hall between the stairs and other bedrooms.

"I've enrolled you in school again." She told me after I had joined her.

I groaned. "Why? You know I hate school!" 

Miss Victoria sighed. She was fairly young, but you could see faint lines of stress beginning to form on her face. Taking care of twenty-five girls couldn't be easy. I began to feel slightly guilty.

"You'll never be able to do anything if you don't at least try, Sophia." She reached into the closet under the stairs and pulled out a uniform with a blue plaid skirt, a white polo shirt and a dark blue sweater. "At least try?" She pleaded.

I sighed, caving in.

"All right."

***

That night, I snuck out the window of the room I shared with Elizabeth, the tiny girl who wanted to come with me on my adventure earlier today. The room was in a tower-like spot on the second floor, but luckily a sturdy oak tree grew next to the house, and it's branches grew right up to the window of the room. I opened the window, being careful not to wake Elizabeth, and climbed down the tree. After landing on the ground, I grabbed one of the five bicycles that were tucked away in a bush in front of the house. They were especially hidden because of the slight fog that had gathered earlier. I mounted the bike and pushed off, heading towards the beach that was five minutes away.

I slid to a stop in front of a sign that was positioned in front of the woods. I leaned the bike against the sign and hopped down the dirt trail, and eventually ended up at a beautiful rocky beach. I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a picture of the scene - the full moon glowing down onto the ocean that was softly tossing small waves onto the sand and rocks, and a shining green tail just past the rocky arch...

What?

I scrambled over a boulder and ran to the arch. Holding the side of the rock, I suddenly stopped in awe.

There was a mer, laying wounded between two rocks.

I blinked and quickly turned my back to the arch's wall. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. A mer! I must be dreaming. There was no possible way there was a mer stranded on the beach. Mer aren't real!

I looked again.

It was still there.

I pulled out my phone with a shaking hand and took a picture. Yes. It was there. I wasn't seeing things. Or was I? I pinched myself. 

"Ow." I muttered. Rubbing my arm, I peered over the arch again and froze.

The mer was looking straight at me. My heart thudded, and I tried to run, but my body wasn't letting me. My conscience had taken over and was trying to let me help the mer.

I walked over to the mer, who looked to be a girl who was about twenty. So not really a girl anymore.

I knelt beside her and heard myself ask, "What happened?"

"Well," She began with a voice that sounded much too young for a twenty year old. "I was too close to shore and got caught in a stray net. When I tried to get out of it, I hit my head on a rock and basically blacked out. When I woke up, I was here, the net was hooked to a rock, and I couldn't get out of it."

"Wow." My gaze went to her tail, which was emerald green at the top and lightened to a mint green at the bottom, but it was tangled up in an old looking net. She had a top on that was the same green as the top of her tail and looked like a bikini top - the perfect picture of what humans expect mer to look like. "Hello?" The mer got my attention again. "I know you humans aren't used to mer, but can you please help me before you start gawking? Please?"

"Oh. Right." I examined the net tangled around the mer's tail.

"It looks like if I just unhook it here...and cut it here..." I mumbled to myself.

I stood and carefully took the net off of it's place on the rock, yanking it off of the small crevasse that it had gotten stuck in. I raced up the beach to an area with more of a cliff and found a sharp rock. Running back to the mer, I carefully but quickly cut strands of the rope to create a hole large enough for the mer to get through, and after she was out of the net, I slipped off my sweater and pressed it to a bleeding wound on her head. After a few minutes, I gently lifted the sweater off.

"Should I get something to use as a head wrap or something? It would hold better, and -"

"It's fine." The mer inturrupted. "I think I'm all right now, thanks to you." She stretched her tail out, fanning her fins. 

"I can swim again. And I won't be found by any other human. Thank you. You saved my life. And someday, I promise, I will save yours in return." With those last words, the mer scooted herself to the water and dove in. She vanished beneath the waves.

* Hello! This is for the #OnceUponNow writing competition. Very different from what I've been writing so far. XD

The Prophecy should be out soon. Sorry for the delay! School and stuff happened. Just wanted to let you know.

(Fingers crossed this story works!) *