Merfolk on Mars

Chapter 2

We swam down the stairway in our coral home, glowing corals shedding plenty of light. I wasn't even sure why we had stairs in the dome-shaped house when we didn't use them. Even if scuba divers were ever allowed on our moon, they wouldn't touch the steps either.

Perhaps our parents were still stuck in the past, back in the days when most merfolk hid among humans and walked on two legs. The oceans had been too polluted to live in, and most lakes had been drained to provide water for human use.

Blending in also meant that we had to go to Highschool, which had been a strange freedom. No strict parents and the teachers were way easier to deal with if you were at least semi-polite. The homework sucked, though.

I occasionally missed the lack of water resistance from my highschool days – dancing was much easier with two legs on solid ground. The thing I missed the most was being part of the cheerleader group. Nowhere near as flowing as a tail in water, but different.

We entered the kitchen and went to the table. I waited for Aunt Millie to notice my brass-colored necklace chain and matching bracelet. Neither matched my bikini.

She put a tray of food in the middle of the table: sea-plums, salted fish strips, cooked shrimp, and ocean biscuits so dense that even the surrounding ocean water barely softened them.

Everything always tasted like salt in the ocean. It was a good thing merfolk didn't have to worry about salt-poisoning. I took a bite of the dense biscuit, wishing I could turn it into a hamburger. Deep fryers weren't exactly a possibility under the sea. Maybe I could set up a floating restaurant on the surface once I was old enough.

Aunt Millie glanced at my jewelry. "Hmmm... I think I have a matching hairpin. Let me go check. I haven't worn it in years, so you might as well have it."

She left the room, leaving me to stare after her. That was not the reaction I had expected. I took another bite of my biscuit, trying to decide if just having my jewelry match was enough to appease the average fashion critic.

A face popped up on the other side of an open window. "Lucy! They stole it!"

I sighed and regarded the brown-haired teenage merman. "Did the lobsters steal your sister's pearl necklace again, Arai?"

That girl really needed to learn to close her closet door or put her jewelry away. The last time she forgot, it took us almost two weeks to figure out which freaking lobster burrow it had been hidden in.

"No! Some weird bubbling machines just took the Unobtanium stone!"

"Uh-huh. You know that isn't really something to joke about."

"I'm serious!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. I knew how to call potential bluffs like no other mermaid. "If you're lying, I'll be singing Happy Birthday to you for the next five years."

A shudder ran through him. "That is an evil thought. But I'm not lying!"

He didn't back out – so he wasn't lying. Mermaids were supposed to have beautiful, entrancing voices, but all my singing did was make everyone within hearing range cringe. It sounded like a squealing cockatiel with a gargling undertone. Even the small fish went into hiding like a bomb siren had gone off.

Aunt Millie swam back into the room, holding something in her hand. "Here is the hairpin. It even matches your necklace."

She swam over to me and pinned back a lock of my flowing hair.

"Aunt Millie, Arai says that some weird machines just took the Unobtanium stone!"

"Not possible, dear. The display stand it sits on emits a magnetic field that will fry any electrical circuits in a machine." She looked at Arai. "Besides, young man, that isn't exactly a joking matter."