The Real Mermaid

The end of the school year never held Gregory's attention. By springtime, he was antsy and ready to go outside. He needed to burn all of his nervous energy out. Wolfgang was usually the go to person for that, but he wasn't avaliable. Cameron was afraid of blood, so if Greg were to hurt himself, his friend would be a basket case. And when he'd asked Autumn, she laughed at him and said "Never in a million years. No."

So his only other option was Kayla, whom he should have asked in the first place. He just didn't want any rumors to start about them. Greg knew that he wasn't really important enough for people to talk about, but he had some hope that he was interesting to someone.

So he found Kayla, told her to get her jacket, then they walked out to the lake together.

"Autumn says that there are mermaids here," Greg said as they stepped onto the small wooden dock, "but I'm skeptical. What do you think?"

Kayla needed a respite from studying, so she gladly accepted Greg's invitation. She hadn't had much time to go outside and enjoy the weather, due to homework and other activities. Her closest experience to enjoying nature so far was working in the herbology Greenhouse and studying outside. She just assumed Greg wanted to take a walk by the lake. 

She let out a little laugh. "Yeah, there are rainbow colored shiny friendly mermaids in here," she replied sarcastically. She studied Greg's face closer. "You're serious." She stared at their rippling reflection in the lake. She was convinced it was an outlandish tale, unless Greg's older cousin knew something. "People would've seen it by now," Kayla said firmly. Now that the idea was in her mind, though, she was curious. She drew her wand.

"I didn't say they were friendly! Or...shiny," he said laughing at her choice of words.

Gregory saw her glance down. He followed her gaze and looked down at the surface of the water. He smiled. They looked nice together.

He looked up at her in time to see her draw her wand. He caught her hand in his before she could point it at anything. "Kayla, what do you think you're doing?" he asked, letting go of her fist. "You can't hurt him or her. They're living creatures, too. If you want to see it, we have to be nice. And Autumn could be full of it. She has been wrong before."

Gregory smiled at the reminder of Autumn being wrong. "Yesterday, she thought we didn't have to wear our uniforms. I saw her walking down the stairs in her yellow dress and asked her what the heck she was doing," he told her.

"It was implied," she laughed, holding her gaze of the lake. She felt more and more at ease and happy with Greg. The weather didn't hurt, either. 

She blushed when he grabbed her hand, sending a warm tingling feeling down her arm. "I wasn't going to hex anything, although if something were to burst out and grab you, this would come in handy," she grinned. "How are we going to find him or her without magic?" She supposed they could dive in, but Kayla wasn't big on swimming. Taking off her shoes, she dipped her toe in the water gingerly.

"Okay. I hope that the mermaid will be friendly and shiny. Can we agree to that?" Greg asked, smiling at her.

"I think that a mermaid would grab you first. You have a wand. And now you have your foot in the water," Greg teased.

He sat down on the wooden planks, took his shoes off, then rolled up his pants' legs. He put his foot in the water and felt something. "Kayla, it's kinda shallow right here," he said, stepping in. The water went up to his mid calf. "There are pebbles underneath."

Gregory offered a his hand out to her. "Come on in! The water feels fantastic."