The Last Mermaid.

{I} The New Substitute Teacher.

Vanessa dodged around other students as she made her way to her first class. It was hard, the hallways were full of students so she would bump into some people here and there. Her height didn’t help, only five two compared to everyone else who was taller than her.

She made it to her next class though safe and unharmed, taking a seat in the front of the class. She was confused when she saw a woman at the blackboard since her History teacher was a middle-aged male. No, this woman had a killer body. From what Vanessa could see, she wasn’t stick thin; she had a beautiful hourglass body. Light blonde long wavy hair going down her back, making Vanessa wish her dirty blonde hair with highlights could look the same. She was tan, and not that fake orange looking tan. Her skin was a light honey color. She wore a black pencil skirt that went to her knees and a red button-up shirt with one-inch heels.

On the board she wrote her name: Adalyn Freya.

The classroom began to fill with students asking questions about who this woman could be. Vanessa wondered that herself as the woman began to write stuff on the board—not even close to the topics they were learning with Mr. Troike.

It was mythology, stuff about mermaids.

That caught Vanessa’s attention. She remembered a legend she heard from people at the boardwalk about mermaids of Coasta Sirenas. About these beautiful creatures; from their torso and above was the body of a woman. Beautiful and gorgeous, so irresistible with their lower halves of fish tails. But their tails were supposed to be beautiful as well. They were said to have existed around the eighteenth to early twentieth century, but for some reason, they just seem to disappear. No more stories about how fishermen were pulled into the sea and killed.

The bell rang and the woman finished writing on the board before she turned around with a smile on her face. The room quickly got quiet and few gasps came. The woman was beautiful, Vanessa couldn’t look away. Not from attraction, but in amazement.

The woman smiled and said, “I’m Adalyn Freya, but as school board rules, you must call me Ms. Freya.”, her voice almost sounded as if she were singing. “Your dear Mr. Troike seems to have caught a bug and well be out for three weeks, but I promise you, he’ll recover and return.”, she said, walking back and forth up the first row of desks. After a few times, she stopped in front of Vanessa’s desk and smiled down at her “Who are you?”.

Vanessa cheeks reddened in a blush when she felt eyes on her and she cleared her throat, “Vanessa Porter.”.

“What a pretty name.” she said before turning to continue on about who she was and make a few more introductions. “As you can see on the board, there will be a change of lesson. I’m sure some of you heard the legend of Coasta Sirenas.”, she said, chuckling. “I don’t know about you, but I love the story.”, she said as she sat on Mr. Troike’s desk, crossing her long legs. “Sorry, I hate being on my legs all the time. But anyway, like I was saying, it’s a beautiful tale.”.

“Oh yeah, who doesn’t love dangerous women?”, a popular boy said, chuckling with some of his friends. “I would sure like to meet one day and spend some time on their rock. I’ll even brush their hair if they want.”.

Ms. Freya chuckled a little, but she didn’t really seem amused, “In the tale of the mermaids they didn’t spend their time on rocks, but were soldiers of the sea, protecting the creatures.”

“Oh right.”, he said. “And they killed the fishermen who tried to catch the little fishies.”, he laughed.

“Right.”, she said. “As I said, they were soldiers of the sea.”.

For the rest of the class, Ms. Freya talked about the stories and legends of the mermaids. Vanessa didn’t quite know why, but she didn’t really care. In any case it was better than learning about the civil war again.