Forsaken

She had white-blonde hair with blunt cut bangs cascading down to her golden eyes. A wide silver cuff bracelet encrusted with sapphires clung to her wrist. A Siren.

“Hey Stasia, I’m Lyric,” she greeted me and gestured to the girl sitting next to her, “and this is Lexi.”

“Stasia? Isn’t that short for Anastasia?” Lexi glared at me. She had strawberry blonde curly hair and big green eyes. A light dusting of freckles was sprinkled across her cheeks and nose. She reminded me of the Strawberry Shortcake doll I used to have, but without all the ruffles and overpowering strawberry smell.

“Uh, yea.” I couldn’t figure out where her hostility was coming from. Lyric gave her a stern look and she sat back with a huff.

“I’m Maya,” the third girl smiled at me. I was instantly taken aback by her exotic looks. She had a Jamaican accent, rich brown skin and a mass of tiny braids making up her dark brown hair. Tiny turquoise beads were braided in at different places throughout. She had clear blue eyes that were looking at me with warmth.

“I’m a Tyde, like you.” She leaned forward like she was going to tell me a secret, pointed at the other two, and whispered loudly, “They’re sea witches, A.K.A. Sirens.”

“Abracadabra bitches.” Lexi wiggled her finger at us and Maya laughed. Lyric just sighed.

“If I was a witch, I’d turn you both into boogers and flick you across the room.” That only made Maya laugh harder and Lexi almost choked on her Diet Coke.

“Ladies.” We all jumped at Mrs. Leone’s voice. “Your Nerieds will be Kymo and Thetis. I hope you will take this assignment seriously, and I better not find any stickiness on your paper.” She raised an eyebrow at us, but a corner of her mouth threatened to pull up into a smile. Maya put her hand over her mouth trying to muffle her laughter. We nodded our heads and she walked to the next group.

“Thetis? That’ll take forever to write!” Lexi grumbled, and a pout formed on her face.

“It won’t be that bad, at least it won’t be hard to research” Maya had finally composed herself.

“Who’s Thetis?” I asked. Strawberry Shortcake gave me a weird look as if that was the dumbest question of all time. What was her deal?

“She used to be the leader of the Nerieds, so we should be able to find all kinds of information about her,” Lyric assured me. I wondered if I’d ever be able to keep the fifty Nerieds straight. Why couldn’t there just be ten?

Lightness filled my chest when I walked in to 6th period and saw Finn sitting at our table.

Unfortunately, the voice of reason in the back of my mind played Carmen’s warning over and over again. But the second I made eye contact, all thoughts of a curse vanished. Plus, this was the first day I was going to actually do the ‘experience’ part of Oceanic Experience.

“Think you can do this?” Finn asked, once we were given the go ahead to start.

“If you can do it, I can do it,” I countered.

“Then step aside mademoiselle, and let me work my magic.” He tried to step in front of the pool, but I made it there first.

“You don’t think I’m going to let you have all the fun do you?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“By all means, show me how it’s done,” he stepped back and grinned, “Just remember, you want to keep the water inside the pool.” I just rolled my eyes at him. The chances of me being able to do anything at all were slim to none, so causing a splash wasn’t really on my list of things to avoid.

Creating a whirlpool was just a warm-up to the rest of the class, but considering I had just gotten to Lorelei and this was an advanced class, I was at a slight disadvantage. I had no idea if I was supposed to chant, sing, think happy thoughts, or what. What if I couldn’t do this? I stole a glance over at one of the other students doing it and tried to mimic her. I placed my left hand right above the water, so that only my fingertips were touching. Tiny ripples immediately began spreading out from my fingertips. Maybe I could do this after all. Still touching the water, I pulled my fingertips inward so they were all touching, but also still in the water. Then I began making small circles. At first nothing happened, but then the water began to churn ever so slightly.

Adrenaline shot through me. I was actually doing it! My excitement was a little premature, however. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own and I was having trouble controlling it. The whirlpool continued getting wider and faster with no end in sight. Finn was trying to tell me to calm down and focus, but I barely heard him. The only thing I could hear was the sound of waves crashing and a light melody. It was the same thing I had heard in the bathtub last week. Before I could figure out why I was hearing things, the smell of sea salt and coconut tickled my nose. Completely freaked out, I grabbed the side of the pool to make it stop. Instead, the water spread out towards the four sides of the glass, causing them to crack under the pressure. I squeezed my eyes shut and all at once the water exploded over the sides, soaking everything in a two foot radius. Including me and Finn.

There was a full moment of silence while everyone stared at us with their mouths gaping open. I glanced down at my drenched outfit and frowned. Finn, who was equally soaked, was now beaming at me with pride.

“So, what were you saying about keeping the water inside the pool?” I asked him sheepishly.

Everyone moved at once; mopping up the floor, the desk, making sure the glass wasn’t broken, and trying to dry us off. Fifteen minutes later our clothes were still damp, but the catastrophe had been cleaned up and we were back at it. Well, Finn was back at it. I was watching. Unfortunately for my wounded pride, he was extremely good at it.

Casually stepping in front of the pool, he barely had his hand above the water when it started swirling in a perfect whirlpool, then he made it swirl in the other direction just as easily.

“Show off,” I crossed my arms and tried not to smile. That only resulted in more tricks. He put both hands above the water, keeping two whirlpools. Then a third one appeared, and then a fourth. They converged in the middle to become one.

“Just wait until I get good at this, my whirlpools will run laps around your whirlpools,” I threatened him.

“I have no doubt about that,” he said with a crooked grin.

~?~

“I am officially the worst Tyde of all time,” I shook my head as we left the building, “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“I had the same problem when I first started,” Finn reassured me.

“So you knew that would happen?”

He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and faced me. “When your essence is that powerful, you have to learn how to harness your abilities and control them.”

“My essence?” Wasn’t that a brand of shampoo?

“The part of your soul that’s tied to the sea. Think of it as a glass of water – most of the people here have glasses that are about 25% of the way full. The more essence you have, the greater your abilities. We’re born with our essence, but the gods and goddesses have the power to give us more. You could say their glasses are about 200% full. If they choose you, they give you a part of their own essence.” He smiled at his own metaphor.

My mind went back to the conversation with my roommates. “What about direct descendents?” I squinted in the sunlight and remembered my sunglasses that were still in my bedroom.

“They’re born with their glass around 90% full. The gods and goddesses don’t have to give you more essence, unless they’ve chosen you for something that requires 100% essence, which also makes you immortal.” That caught my attention.

“Immortal? That can really happen?” No way.

“Well even if you’re immortal there are still things that can end your life. It’s just harder to die.” I caught the ghost of a smile on his lips.

“How can you tell how much essence I have?” I asked him, wondering if it shows somehow.

“I just know.” His features hardened and he looked away. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” I felt the hair on my arms lift as trepidation pushed its way into my mind.

“So tell me.” I pleaded with him, wanting to comfort him and bring his smile back. One side of me was scared of what he might admit, but the other side longed to know who he was and what secrets he carried. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to know about him. It didn’t matter to me what skeletons he had in the closet. Curse or no curse.