My Weird Secret Life

Chapter 14: Threatened

Kylie caught up to us and I looked at the twins and asked," So what happened between them exactly?" Kylie stared and I shifted uncomfortable. " You don't have SeaBook or at least an Aqua mobile?" She pulled a phone out of nowhere and held it in my face. I gasped at the phone case. It looked like swaying water with waving kelp, moving with the ocean currents. I shook my head and insisted on them answering my question," So what happened exactly?" Rylie sighed and said," Fine, so Kai and Oceana were sitting on a rock and Kai gave her a pearl bracelet then they kissed-" But Rylie was cut short when Ms. Misty told all of us to go into a doorway to a big room with a 15 foot long golden table with 30 golden chairs and 3 beautiful, big, gold chandeliers that sparkled colors around the room. To top it off floor-to-ceiling windows to see the entirety of the ocean.
When I swam in, I saw a stunning girl. Her peach hair had jewels in it and the most beautiful rosy tail. She was on her phone chewing . . . whatever they call gum. I whispered in Rylie's ear," Who is she?" Rylie turned her head so slowly by the time she was actually looking at me mermaids should've been extinct. Her jaw was on the floor and she looked at me like I was crazy," Are you crazy!?" She whisper-shouted. It was a rhetorical question but I answered anyway. " I've been called it so many times, it must be true." Kylie looked at me clearly perplexed and I suddenly felt stupid. Kylie responded in a rude kind of way," Where were you all this time, under a barnacle?" She scoffed and I glared. Rylie answered in place of Kylie," Fine, I'll tell you even though she's one of the most important merpeople in the whole entire ocean." Then the woman who made me end up in this whole maid thing, the queen, headed over to the girl and kissed her on the head then hugged her really tight. They started talking and laughed about something. Then the girl showed the queen a picture on her phone and they laughed again. After long enough, I realized who she was. " She's the princess," said Rylie and me simultaneously. Rylie smiled," Now you're getting it." The twins, me, Isle, Oceana, and all the other girls lined up side-by-side and the queen and princess went quiet, their faces straight and focused.
They inspected all of us one by one and I was at the least to say, the most uncomfortable I had ever been in my life. When the two got to me though the princess looked . . . upset. She snapped her fingers and immediately two handmaids, both holding a single pillow made of fine fabric with pretty jewel barrettes sitting on them clipped it in her hair and fled, clearly petrified. Rylie did such a tiny gasp that at first I thought it was just the sound mermaids made when they leave really quickly. But then I saw out the side of my eye Rylie do a soft cough. The queen and princess backed away in clear disgust, probably thinking how no merperson would ever do such thing in a royal's presence, none the less theirs. Out of the side of her mouth she said," Oh my shells, the princess put on the jewels because she felt threatened!" Rylie whisper-shouted. I looked at her confused," What?" Kylie rolled her eyes and I felt stupid again. She explained for me anyway," She thought that you were prettier than her, that's why she put on the jewels. It's part of a royal's job to be the most beautiful or handsome. Back in the day, royals could execute anyone they couldn't outdo." I stopped breathing for a second. A princess of one of the seven seas thought I looked pretty and felt threatened? This day just kept on getting better." Wait, did you say thought?"
The princess and queen swam over to the table and sat down. The queen on the far side of the table and the princess on the left side of the queen. I wondered who sat on the right side of the table. The queen looked at us like we were those butlers for the bad guys that stay loyal till the end." Well did you get the desserts, squid, and entrees?" Said the queen," I'm hungry!" She complained," Go and get the feeding plates! Now! Go! Out of my sight, for goodness sakes."
I had such a strong urge to roll my eyes but the queen was looking. Waiting. The other girls bowed. I had noticed too late and for a few seconds I was the only still standing. The queen glared and her threat rattled in my ears. With my lips tight, I bowed with the other girls. When the queen dismissed us, all the other girls beelined for a door I hadn't noticed before. Behind where the princess and queen had been having a jolly good time. We swam inside a room so cold my teeth chattered and goosebumps crawled over my arms. Trays with plates on a golden counter with silver things to conceal what food was underneath.
All the girls grabbed a tray leaving one behind. I disregarded it, another girl would probably come back and get it. But I'm not sure anyone else noticed. We walked out of the freezing room and rested the food in the middle of the golden table. Two mermaids swam up and revealed the food with a flourish. The queen appeared happy for a second until she scanned all of the food and noticed. "Where is the squid?" Recalling the last tray I answered," Sorry, I'll go get it. Left it in the other room." I heard her mutter under her breath but loud enough so that everyone could hear," You stupid fool, can't find any good maids these days." I gulped my comeback down.
      As I swam past two maids I heard them whispering about someone," Can you believe the prince is sill gallivanting around the palace doing whatnot when all us maids have to look for him every five minutes. The queen should just put boundaries on the boy." The other maid nodded," I agree."
One thing I noticed is that as a mermaid, you're just always right above the ground, and you could swim up if you wanted but it was almost exactly like on land. I could slip and fall because of the gravity but it's like it wasn't all there, so I could float. I don't know if I'm making sense. Ok, so kind of like a bouncy house, you're always on the ground and you could bounce up but you have to bounce back up to stay in the air. Kind of like inside of the ocean, you had to use some type of energy to stay up above the ground every few seconds. So if something happened I could fall. Like the gravity wasn't all there. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, that's what happened.
I grabbed the last tray but too late noticed the frozen ice under me and slipped with a yelp. Inches from hitting the floor, a strong shiver vibrated through my body and a hand swooped down, gripping onto my lower back. A silky, low voice said,"Gotch'ya."