The air was silent and for once neither one of them knew what to say to the other, then the door opened suddenly.

"Oh, this isn"t my room." The last person either of them wanted to see had stormed into their dorm room.

"So much for this being a big school," Darya complained while looking over at Marty who looked nervous for some reason.

"Darya? Is that you?" He asked as if he didn"t actually know who was sitting on the bed across from the door. "Of course it"s me, why are you in our room? Why are you at this college?" She began to shout as she angrily stood up from her bed. Marty was taken aback by her sudden anger but knowing what this guy did he wondered even more why he wasn"t just as mad.

"I got lost in the hall and I can go to whatever college I want. You don"t own the college." He turned to leave but Darya jumped towards the door and grabbed his shoulder. "You can"t tell people...About my extra activities..." She grimaced at her explanation and tried to ignore Marty"s snickering from behind her.

"Why would I tell anyone that you like to dress up as a mermaid and swim in the ocean? Who the h.e.l.l is interested in that?" He asked her with a sour tone. She was surprised that he still thought the tail was fake. Was this kid that dumb? She asked herself before letting his shoulder go and watching him storm away from their dorm room.

"Well, that takes care of that I guess." Marty came up from behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "This is going to be easier than I thought, I guess we should dress and get to our meeting for the program." She turned her face to his and saw something she hadn"t thought about for a while with everything going on. She thought of the future.

"Yeah, we better get down to the sh.o.r.e. Not really sure why the instructor wants the first meeting out where the wind will throw his voice around and the waves of the ocean will distract me and I won"t hear anything he"s saying." Darya walked back into the room and grabbed her suit. Right before hitting the bathroom she stopped and pecked Marty on the nose before leaving to get changed.

It took them about twenty minutes to find the right side of the school the sh.o.r.e was on then another ten just to get down to the group that was forming. There wasn"t a lot of other students in the program which is why it was so hard to get into, to begin with. "d.a.m.n, we"re late," Darya whispered to Marty as they approached the group. Luckily, no one looked at them when they walked up behind them.

The teacher eyed them but continued on with what he was explaining before they showed up. Darya and Marty sucked up all the information they could and tried not to get behind while being told a million things at one time. The wind was picking up faster and faster and when they looked at the waves they began to come in quicker as the wind blew the spray towards them.

"Okay cla.s.s, we"ll pick this up on day two. Our meetings will be every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Pay attention and maybe I"ll let the lot of you on the boat by the end of the month." The instructor smiled at the bunch of them and as a few of them laughed Darya"s attention was drawn somewhere else.

Her eyes were drawn to a body that was slowly coming out of the water and before she could see who it was, they collapsed. She knew this wasn"t a normal person, she wasn"t sure how she knew, call it an internal alarm clock blaring in her head. The rest of the cla.s.s didn"t seem to notice and while they walked back to the school she stood still until they were a bit away from her. She didn"t want them thinking she was a mad woman running to possibly nothing in the waves that were coming to the sh.o.r.e stronger and stronger.

"Dar, what is it?" Marty stopped following the cla.s.s and turned back to her when he noticed she wasn"t right behind him. "There"s someone in the waves over there, and I think it may be someone like me." She whispered to him before looking to make sure no one was watching her. She turned and broke into a sprint when she saw the coast was clear. Marty didn"t waste any time and followed after her just as quickly.

Darya"s feet kicked up sand as she ran faster and faster towards the mysterious person that was getting caught up in the waves as they tried to pull themselves onto the rest of the sand. It took no time at all for her to get to the hurting person grabbing onto the wet sand while their face dragged along with their tired arms.

"We"re here, don"t worry!" She shouted as they both landed next to the woman they could now see in the water and foam. Darya gently turned her over before realizing she was completely naked. They didn"t care, they only wanted to get her to a safe point. Darya pulled the lady onto her lap as she dug her legs into the sand to help her.

"Dar, I think you were right about her being part of your world." Marty looked down at her bare legs and saw the remnants of scales that dotted along her pale skin. The spots were bigger than Darya had seen before, making her think that this mermaid has never been above the waves before and with no signs of breathing on her own she wasn"t sure her gills were put away properly. She turned the woman over on her lap and realized just how deep this accident was going to go.

"Marty, we need to get her to our dorm room now." He looked back at her from staring at the remaining scales on her legs to Darya"s terrified face. "Why? What"s going on?" He asked.

"This is Gemma, my father"s adoptive daughter." Her voice was strained and full of fear. Marty couldn"t hide the shock on his face but he moved down to her knees and lifted her up along with Darya. They needed a plan and they needed one quick.