The social room was on the second floor of the dorm. It was wider than it was deep, with plain white walls decorated with old movie posters in cheap black-rimmed frames. All of the movie posters had ocean themes, which I thought fitting for a school of Neptunians. There were two small, square windows on the back wall with the kind of curtains that could block out all natural light, though they were currently drawn open. When we entered the room, we were on the right hand side. There was a pool table, currently empty, and a rack of cues on the back wall straight ahead. On the other half of the room was an old, worn blue couch that didn't have any legs. The couch was pushed against the back wall with a bunch of beanbag chairs stacked to the left. Hanging on the wall across from the couch was a very large, flat-screen television, which was hooked up to a Blu-ray player and an Xbox on a low-lying entertainment stand.
"It's not much," Caesar said. His hand was warm in mine. He rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. I tried not to melt; the way Caesar touched me made me feel so...good.
"It's a warm dry place you can hang out in without my grandma around—that sounds like a good deal to me." I let go of Caesar's hand and plopped down on the couch, which was much less comfortable than it looked. "Are there any pillows?"
Amynta reached around the far end of the couch, picked up a pillow, throwing it at me. "Yeah, the stuffing's a bit worn out on that thing. I prefer the beanbags."
I snatched the pillow from the air before it hit me on the head, tucking it behind my back. Caesar sat down beside me, pulling me close to his side. "You can just lean on me."
I poked him in the bicep; it was rock hard. "Yeah, I don't think you're as comfortable as a cushion—too many muscles."
"A pirate’s got to keep in shape. I swim at least ten miles every morning."
“Ten miles? Are you serious? I don’t think I’ve ever swum that far in my life. Well, except for maybe last week, when I went swimming with Colleen, Kyle, and Zeke. But I cheat when I swim, so it isn’t that much of a workout.”
"Don't say that too loudly," Juan said in his thick Spanish accent, entering the room carrying five cans of cold ice tea. "It’s never a good idea to admit to cheating."
“I’ll give your advice some consideration.” Juan handed me a can. I took it gratefully just as Colleen and Shia walked by, giggling. I got a sudden sick feeling in my stomach, like my insides were too thick and nothing could move around.
"Don't let her bother you," Caesar whispered in my ear. “She’ll change her mind eventually.”
"Yeah," I dropped my hands into my lap, looking at my chipped, pale-peach polish. It was the colour I'd bought on our first shopping trip to Tofino. "But we're supposed to be friends. She was the first person I met out here, the person that showed me that all of this is real."
“If she cares about your friendship she'll change her mind.” Amynta plopped down onto a beanbag. “Enough of this un-fun talk. Let's do something exciting.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Like what?”
“Have you seen the underwater dorm rooms yet?” Amynta wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“I've never even heard of the underwater dorm rooms. I thought everyone stayed here.”
Caesar chuckled. “Do you really think that merfolk with tails, and sea nymphs that are made of water, would really want to spend their nights in dry beds?”
I shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Well, let's go,” Markus said, walking arm in arm to the door with Amynta.
Caesar pushed me up from the couch. “Are you coming?” He asked Juan, who waved us off with the hand that was holding the remote control.
“All right then, guess it's just us four.” Caesar led the way downstairs and out the kitchen door. We walked out to the rocky shoreline directly behind the building. “Now all we need is a good little sea-witch that can help us all breathe underwater.”
“I can do that?” I asked, looking over the rocky drop off. Navy coloured waves crashed against the rocks below.
“Sure, it’s just like you’re doing it for yourself, only you think about us too.”
Amynta stepped up, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Just remember to keep us all in mind, hey?” Then with a gentle push we were both falling off the small cliff. I'd barely had time to ask the ocean for air for myself, before plummeting into the icy depths, which promptly reminded me to warm the water.
We sank to the bottom and I looked around. Amynta, Caesar and Markus were all smiling broadly at me. Markus gave me a thumbs-up and I smiled in relief, apparently I'd worked my magic right and they were all breathing with ease. Everything was a murky green-grey colour. The rocky sea floor abounded with seaweed, starfish, sunstars, muscles, and anemone. Amynta waved at me to follow her, swimming along a rocky shelf into the deeper water. About halfway along the shelf was a door in the seafloor. It was well camouflaged, hidden by seaweed and sea-life including my favourite violet starfish. I swam up to the door, waiting as Caesar and Markus pulled it open.
Caesar nodded at me to enter after Amynta. I smiled at the way his dark hair floated about his head. He looked even more vibrant and full of life under the water than he did above. I swam down into the cave—or what I assumed would be a cave—and was astounded. There was a hallway with doors on both the left and right sides. Each door looked like the one that we'd just swam through, but instead of lying on the floor, these doors were set into the walls. Almost the entire hallway was covered with a colourful mix of living sea life and seaweed.
Amynta swam ahead of me, opening one of the doors, waving at me to follow her. I peaked into the room, surprised to find that it was large and round. Was this Grandma's creation? Could I make something like this? The room had a single seaweed-woven hammock hanging from the roof, though not much else. I couldn't help but wonder what the rooms that were occupied would look like. How would a mermaid choose to decorate a room?
I turned around, stepping out of the room, almost crashing into Telmath. I bowed my head in apology. The vodiani nodded back before disappearing down the hall and into one of the closed rooms. Caesar grabbed my hand and tugged, pointing up to the surface. I followed him out of the watery dorm, and was just about to follow Markus and Amynta out of the water when Caesar wrapped me in his arms, giving me a soft, slow kiss. I was kissing him back when a rush of cold current pushed up against me. I pulled away.
Shia was swimming in circles around us giggling. Her long, blue-green tail glittered in the water even though there was no sunlight filtering down through the depths. Her hair moved around her body like silk. She laughed, clearly enjoying herself. Caesar waved at her and she flicked him once with her tail and then was off, following a brown seal out into the ocean.
The sight of Colleen upset me. Out the corner of my eye I saw Caesar waving at me urgently. His face was red, his cheeks puffed out. Caesar kicked up to the surface and I followed him.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”
Caesar sputtered. “I’m alright, I’ve done enough diving to know when not to breathe underwater. It just surprised me, that’s all.”
What was I thinking? My first outing with my boyfriend and I’d almost killed him. “I’m sorry. I’m such a crappy sea-witch. I shouldn’t even be allowed to practice magic.” I searched Caesar’s face for any sign of serious damage. Thankfully, there wasn’t any.
“It’s alright. I’m okay.” Caesar treaded water, moving closer to me. I used my powers to help him stay afloat. “And you’re not that bad—you’re just new.” He pulled me closer to him and I felt infinitesimally better.
“Right, new and awful. No wonder Grandma won’t let me go home.” As I said the words, an electric current ran through me. I hadn’t thought about going home for a few days now—even with everything that had happened with the hunter. Somewhere between the start of school and now, I’d begun enjoying myself. I’d been so distracted by all of the new experiences, I’d almost forgotten to miss home. Now that I was thinking about it, I could tell
that the pain was still there: I still ached when I thought about Dad, I got teary when I thought about not seeing Mom, and I felt a hollow where all my old friends used to be—but it wasn’t as big as it had been before.
“You want to go home?” Caesar studied me with deep eyes.
I reached up, brushing my fingers on his cheekbone. “No. No. Not yet. One day. And I’d definitely go visit this weekend if I was allowed. But I’m having a good time here.” A relieved look reached Caesar’s eyes. “So, should I push us to shore?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I’ll swim. I could use the exercise.”
“I thought you swam this morning?”
“Yep, but a little more couldn’t hurt.”
It was possible he didn’t trust me after what happened, and I couldn’t really blame him. I pushed away from Caesar, using the currents to push myself to shore much faster than Caesar could swim.
“What were you and Caesar doing?” Amynta said as I exited the water.
I stepped onto the rocky beach beside the cliff we’d jumped off. “We ran into Shia. She flicked Caesar with her tail. Flicked him,” I whispered in quiet agitation so Markus wouldn't hear.
Amynta bit her lip, appearing to hold in giggles.
“It's not funny.”
“It is a bit,” she replied as Caesar arrived, exiting the water, dripping wet. I hungrily eyed the way his black shirt clung to his skin.
“Why are you dry when the rest of us are soaking wet?” Caesar shook out his hair.
I looked at Amynta, Markus, and then down at myself. I'd managed to keep myself dry but had forgotten everyone else. “I’m so sorry. I was too focused on helping you breathe—and I even failed at that.”
Markus frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Caesar said. “Let’s go back to the dorm; I need a change of clothes.”
When we arrived, I headed into the classroom to grab my backpack while everyone else went to change. I expected to find my backpack on my desk, where I’d left it, but instead I found it lying open across the desk, the contents scattered on the chair and floor below. “Damn,” I said to myself, knowing that I must have knocked it over during my rush to get out of the classroom.
I quickly tossed everything back inside the bag, zipped it up, tossing it over my shoulder. As I left the classroom, the hairs on the back of my neck began to tingle, and I turned around, taking a fresh look at the empty room. For the first time, I noticed a bit of water on the floor. The tiny puddles were almost like footsteps, leading from the doorway to the back corner of the room. I stared into the corner, thinking again about the hunter.
“He can’t cross the boundary,” I whispered to myself, hoping that saying the words out loud would convince me of their truth. Dad dying, my moving, and a complete change of lifestyle had put me under a lot of stress lately—I was probably seeing things. But then again, there were still a lot of things I didn’t know. For all I knew, sea-witches could become invisible and the strange noises I’d been hearing was Grandma spying on me. I grimaced; that explanation sounded all too plausible.