“I still don’t understand,” said Cordelia.
Lana turned towards Cordelia.
“All this in and out of the water and I still haven’t seen any tails.”
“We have to earn our tails,” explained Lana. “Some of us have them already but we must prepare for and accept the day to day challenges of the sea before we can use them freely.”
“Wait until you see Mazu’s tail,” gushed Nerissa. “It’s the envy of mermaids everywhere.”
“What’s it like?” asked Cordelia.
“It’s beautiful,” said Nerissa. “Every shade of pink imaginable, from coral pink, to dusky pink and every shade in between.”
“It all comes with age and experience,” said Irvin, standing beside them, “sixteen’s the magic number. You’re up next Lana.”
Lana made her way to the diving rock, the skirt of her swimsuit billowing in the breeze. Cordelia watched anxiously, unable to shake Nixie from her mind. Knowing it was her turn next, she trod cautiously across the wet rocks, avoiding the patches of algae. Lana’s dive was effortless, well executed with hardly any splash. Masika and Nerissa clapped, their smiles wide and beaming. Cordelia shuffled to the rock edge and she stared blankly at her unsmiling reflection in the water. She loved the water but she had never really practised diving, not properly. Joining the class several years after everyone else meant that she had missed all the training for the basic dives, Cordelia hadn’t even learnt how to do a front dive properly, never mind a fancy reverse dive. Her heart beat fast as the class cheered her on. Rafe didn’t take his eyes off her, not for a second. Not wanting to disappoint anyone, Cordelia summoned the courage to take her turn but never having practised flipping herself backwards, Cordelia found herself in mid-air, facing up to the sky, limbs flying in all directions and then the inevitable happened; Cordelia landed flat on her back and salt water was propelled onto her classmates as she plunged beneath the surface. For a few seconds, Cordelia wanted to stay below the surface and swim away, never to return, but she was not the type to give up so easily. For now, she would just have to grin and bear the teasing. With water still trickling from her nose, Cordelia pulled herself out of the water.
“I told you she wasn’t a mermaid,” gloated Rafe.
The students laughed, all except for her friends. Lana glared at Rafe but Cordelia averted her eyes as she walked past, head held high and choosing instead to look up at the twins who were making their way towards the diving rock. They did all their activities together, including synchronised diving. Cordelia knew people were still whispering about her; their hushed laughter rippled around the amphitheatre. Her dislike for Rafe was growing stronger by the minute but Cordelia wasn’t going to let him know that, her gaze was firmly fixed on Masika and Nerissa who, without saying a word to each other, performed a perfectly synchronised reverse dive which briefly took the attention away from Cordelia’s unfortunate back flop.
“Don’t let it get to you,” said Lana.
“I won’t.”
“I’ve got some books you can borrow if you like, to help you catch up with the things you’ve missed.”
“Thanks.”
When the class was dismissed, Cordelia picked up her towel and was up and over the rocks towards the tunnel before anyone else was out of their seats. She wasn’t going to hang around and risk Rafe irritating her further.
“Wait for us!” called Lana.
Cordelia hesitated by the tunnel entrance, willing her friends to hurry up.
“What’s the rush?” asked Nerissa as they got closer.
“No point in sitting around in wet clothes is there?” said Cordelia.
“True, but you’ll get wet in the next lesson anyway,” replied Nerissa.
“What’s the next lesson?” asked Cordelia.
“Water control with Morwen and Marilla,” revealed Lana.
“Not here though, we meet at The Bridges of Ross. There’s more room for us all there and it’s more secluded,” said Masika.
Cordelia raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Less likely to draw attention,” added Masika.
“You’ll see,” said Nerissa.
“This way,” said Lana as the rest of the class approached.
With their towels around their shoulders, the class piled into two horse drawn wagons, the girls in one and the boys in the other.
“We take the country lanes,” said Lana.
“Wouldn’t it be quicker to swim?” asked Cordelia.
“Not really, this way we can cut straight across the land and miss off a large part of the coast,” explained Lana.
“Besides, if we swam we’d have to swim close to the islands which is forbidden,” said Nerissa.
“We’d have to swim further out and that would take too long without our tails,” added Masika.
Cordelia nodded, pretending to understand their theory, quietly thinking she’d better get on and read the books that Lana had offered to lend her. She sat silently, squashed between her classmates like sardines, which was just as well as the lanes were full of potholes and the bumpy ride would surely have catapulted her into the air had she not been so firmly wedged in. Rafe and Max were showing off as usual. She watched them for a few moments from the corner of her eye, looking away quickly when Rafe glanced in her direction. The other boys laughed at their jests, which encouraged them to carry on. Cordelia studied the girls one by one, testing herself to see how many names she could remember. Until she’d joined the School of the West, she’d never seen such a diverse group of people all in one place. There was Kendria and Genna from England, Sequana from France, another set of twins from Germany named Lorelei and Genevieve, Vivien from Italy, a Spanish senorita named Luna, Astrid from Norway, Tallulah, a Native American, Lana who was Irish and Nerissa and Masika who were part Irish, part Egyptian. Their mother was from Egypt and had met their Irish father
