I sighed as I walked through the halls of my school, Ark Queen High.

It was a huge school. I marveled at the fact that I got to all of my classes on time. There were secret passageways everywhere. Smart people, like me, use those to get to their classes. They just have to know where to look.

I felt a cold breeze. My legs stopped moving. A cold breeze meant trouble. In an instant, I was running.

"Ava!" an unfamiliar voice yelled.

My heartbeat quickened. Did they know the truth?

Did they know that I was a mermaid?

Something hard hit me in the back of my head. I fell to the ground. As I faded into unconsciousness, water trickled onto my legs. I let out a groan before closing my eyes, falling into the dark.

~~~

My heart pounded as I sat up. My eyes open, my breath frantic, my mouth a gaping hole, I looked around my room. I fell back onto my pillow, trying to calm down.

It was just a dream.

No one knew my secret.

Two hours later, I walked to my A-hour class, Honors English. My best class, in my opinion.

As I opened the door to the classroom, someone pushed me out of the way. Mya Sayzar.

"Out of my way, fish girl!" she shrieked. Her long, blood-red curls that were adored by everyone (well, except me) bounced as she walked into the room before me. Mya sat down and gave me an icy, green-eyed stare.

I adjusted my blue-green tie-dye Jansport backpack on my shoulders and sat down right next to Mya. We both rolled our eyes. The only thing that we had in common was that we hated each other. Of course, we just so happened to have the exact same schedule. Every single one of our teachers have us seated next to each other because of it. We've both asked for seat changes way too many times to count.

You may be wondering why Mya calls me "fish girl." It's because of my mermaid obsession that I'm going through. She (hopefully) doesn't know my secret.

The bell rang after about 5 minutes. Students poured into the class. Cordelia Misten, my best friend, sat right in front of me. I grinned.

We talked untill another bell rang, signifying that class had officially started. Mrs. Rowena Fara stood up from her chair and began the lesson.

We had to write a story based off of a prompt.

My breath hitched as Mrs. Fara read it aloud to the class.

"What did you dream about last night?"

I gulped, hoping that she wouldn't call on me to give an example.

"Mya? Would you like to give the class an example of what to write about?"

I looked at my high school nemesis, raising an eyebrow as Mya stiffened.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Mrs. Fara asked.

"Uh, it was pretty personal. Could you call on someone else, please?" Mya said.

"Of course. Cordelia, what did you dream about last night?"

"Oh, it was amazing!" Cordelia exclaimed.

~~~

The class dragged on. Our homework was to make the prompt into a story using imagery and sensory details. The bell rang again. I was just about to leave the room when Mya grabbed my wrist.

"Ava, could I talk to you for a sec?" Mya said. I turned and watched her let go of my wrist. I sat back down at my seat.

"What's up, Mya?" I asked.

"Well, you see, I was wondering... Could I have your phone number? I want to tell you something, but it's... complicated, you know?"

I sat in awe. She wanted to tell me something through text? "Yeah, Mya. I'll give it to you."

I scribbled down my phone number on a sheet of paper. She did the same. "So, do you want to text during lunch or something?" I inquired as we swapped papers.

She nodded. "That would be fantastic." Mya stood, grabbing her neon blue Jansport backpack. Smiling, she walked out.