Cherry Meets the Little Mermaid

chapter 5

This ship had Eric with the Butler family on it. Cherry was sitting in a corner, not really being social like her mother.

"Oh, come on, Cherry, join in the fun." Bud said.

"This would just be better if I had a friend with me..." Cherry said softly and mysteriously. She may had been a goth, but she liked doing things with her friends a lot more than with just her parents as she got older.

Unknown to her, Ariel, Urchin, Atticus, and Darla were arriving at the ship. Max was wondering around the ship, he could sense something and he sniffed all around. Ariel hid her face at first, but then looked again to be face-to-face with the sheepdog. Max smield at Ariel and licked her cheek.

"Aw! A doggy." Darla smiled.

"Max, where are you?" Eric's voice called.

Max heard his master and rushed over to him. Ariel rubbed her face as she looked among the humans and her eyes landed on Eric and it looked it love at first sight.

'Looks like someone has fallen in love.' Darla thought to herself with a smile.

"I think I'm in love..." Ariel whispered.

Urchin made a look of disgust. "Guh... Cooties..."

"Oh, come on, Urchin, grow up." Darla said.

"I am grown up!" Urchin retorted before blowing a raspberry.

"Hey, there, guys!" Scuttle flew up next to them. "Quite a show, eh?"

"Scuttle, quiet, or else they'll hear you." Atticus whispered.

"Oh... I gotcha... I gotcha..." Scuttle quietly nodded. "We're being intrepidatious..." he then yelled out. "WE'RE OUT TO DISCOVER!"

Ariel slammed his beak shut and smiled dreamily to Eric. "I've never seen any other human this up close before... Oh, he's very handsome, isn't he?"

Scuttle was looking at Max when she said that. "I dunno, he looks kinda hairy and slobbery to me."

"She's not talking about the dog, genius, she's talking about the human that's playing the, um, snarfblat." Atticus told him.

"My bad..." Scuttle muttered.

The party was going wonderfully, even if Cherry was a little lonely and gloomy.

But then the music was stopped by the old man that got sea sick. "Silence, SILENCE!"

There was now silence as the merchildren, seagull, crab, and fish watched.

"It is now my honor and privilege to present our esteemed Prince Eric with a very special, very expensive, very large birthday present." the old man announced.

"Grimsby, ya old beanpole," Eric chuckled. "You shouldn't have."

"I know..." the old man chuckled, revealing a rather gaudy statue of the young man. "Happy Birthday, Eric!"

This caused for Max to growl at the statue, not liking it one bit.

"Gee... Grim... It's... It's..." Eric stuttered. "It's erm... Really something..."

"Yes, I commissioned it myself," Grimsby smiled. "Of course, I had hoped it would be a wedding present, but--"

"Come on, Grim, don't start." Eric shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Cherry asked.

"Oh, it's just that I think he's still a little sore because I didn't fall for the Princess of Glauerhaven." Eric guessed.