Swimming Against the Current

~Chapter 1: A Flash of the Past~

~Swimming Against the Current~

~Chapter 1: A Flash of the Past~

~Russell's POV~

"Mommy, why doesn't she have a tail?" I asked my mother. My newborn baby sister, Cassandra, wiggled in my mother's arms. Her legs kicked out at the water, as if she couldn't breathe.

"Well, honey.... She's a human, and since humans cannot breathe underwater, we will have to give her up," my mother replied. My father wrapped an arm around her while she sobbed into his chest.

"Would you like me to take her to the human kids' house, the one by the boat dock?" I asked them. They both gave me confused looks, and then sighed.

"We will let you take her to the house, but let us say our goodbyes," my father told me.

A few minutes later, after my parents said goodbye to Cassandra, they handed her to me.

"Be careful with her, and before you leave the house leave them this note," my mother handed me the note which said:

Please take care of my baby,

Who I can no longer take care of.

Her name is Cassandra.

Keep her close to the sea at all times.

Thank You.

I nodded and swam to the surface. Once I was dry, I ran to the human's house and set Cassandra on their doorstep. I carefully put the note on her chest, where I noticed her locket strung around her neck. I slid the note under the locket to make sure they kept in on her. I rang the doorbell and jumped into one of the boats by the dock. I ducked behind one of the chairs and waited.

The door to the house opened and one of the boys walked out. Once he saw Cassandra, he gasped and his brother pushed him out of the way to see what he was looking at. They both ran inside to get their mother. She had curly black hair, the same color as my sister's. She saw Cassandra and picked up the still wet note.

"Terry! Get out here!" the woman yelled. She then picked up Cassandra and walked inside.

~About 16 ½ Years Later~

~Cassandra's POV~

"Cassandra Jo Rempe, get your butt out here! You're going to be late for school!" my mother shouted. I groaned, 'Thanks for reminding me, Mom,' I thought. I rolled out of bed and walked into my closet.

"What am I going to wear?" I asked myself. I spotted my lime green cami and my cream shawl hanging next to it. Perfect. I pulled on a pair of bell-bottom jeans and ran downstairs. A toaster pastry popped out of the toaster when my feet hit the ground. My mom threw it on a plate and set it down on the table.

"Thanks Mom," I said as I grabbed the pastry and walked out the door. By the time I reached my car, my pastry was gone. I had an ocean blue and green colored 2011 corvette. The seats were lime green and I had an electric blue dashboard. This I had done specially by my dad and my two annoying brothers. I climbed in and headed off to school.

I pulled into the parking lot and drove up next to my best friend's car. Brianna had a sky blue convertible; she bought it to match her eyes. Before I got out of my car, I took my locket out of under my cami. My locket was left with me when my real mom gave me up. It didn't have a picture inside of it, instead there were six words, 'My heart lies with the sea...' I clutched the locket with my fist and then got out of the car.

Brianna was sitting on the hood of her car tanning herself. When she saw me she hopped off and ran up to me.

"Finally! I thought you never going to come!" she exclaimed.

"Well I'm here now. Let's go!" I replied. We linked arms and then walked into school. Like usual, when we walked in everyone's heads turned in our direction. You see, last week Brianna and I hired a retired movie director to make us look noticed when we walked into school. So, basically he turned on a fan and gave us sunglasses to wear. He also showed us how to make it look like we were walking in slow motion. It's not like we wanted boyfriends or anything, it's just fun to see everyone's expressions.

Once we got to our lockers, we took our sunglasses off and high-fived. I opened my locker and was about to grab my English book, when I suddenly felt as if I were being watched. I turned around to find some guy glaring at me. 'So, you want a staring contest, huh?' I thought. I could hold someone's gaze for as long as I wanted. I stared at him until he turned and walked down the hallway.

"That was weird," I mumbled to myself.

"What was weird?" Brianna asked me. She looked down the in the direction he walked.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that guy was staring at me, and he held my gaze up until I almost had to blink," I answered.

"And you don't know who he is?" she questioned.

"No..." I trailed off as my mind wandered. He kind of looked like me, just older, maybe eight years.

"Cassie? Oh no! You aren't thinking about-"

"No way! I'm sticking to our pact!" I interrupted her. Back in 7th grade Brianna and I had both gotten boyfriends. Things didn't turn out the way we wanted them to, so we made a pact that we wouldn't date until we were 17. We both agreed that something special was going to happen at that age. We just didn't know what.

"Okay, good," Brianna said, relieved. But I couldn't help but wonder who the guy was. I knew almost everyone that went to Oceanview High, but I'd never met him before. He reminded me of the ocean, and I felt pulled towards him.