Book 1 of the Love series- Love Has a Price (Student/Teacher Relationship)

Chapter 8- Caitlin

This does need editing but here is the rough copy. It might be a while for me to edit it, my internet connection is being dodgy

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I was swimming with my new tail and to be honest, I felt great about it. The whole change was hard and I know it will be a struggle out of the water, but when I’m in, every concern disappears, my mermaid self has no worries, if only everything would be like that.  

            Well I thought it didn’t until he came along. Why did he have to be so stupid, why did he have to follow me? I was afraid I would hurt him if he saw me and that is exactly what I did. But my Mermaid and my human self knows that he can’t see me and that I was suppose to do everything in my power to stop him from seeing. But he saw me, whether he knows it’s me or not, that’s a different matter.

            But he saw me the first time and he became curious from it, which I knew would result in me having to come out of the water, later then sooner though. The only reason I ran away was because it would be too hard to cope with two forms, so I figured out that it would best if I stayed in the water. But after the first night, I knew it wouldn’t last due to the guilt which was eating me alive. I couldn’t leave my parents like that or Alice. But I would be gone for a while, to be able to figure out a plan.

            As I was heading back to the beach later that day after he had seen me, I saw Mr Thompson again, he didn’t see me this time, but he headed strait to the old wreck. I watched him from a distance, to make sure he wouldn’t see me. But when he didn’t come out, I began to panic. So I had to investigate and I saved him, what else could I do? It was pretty obvious now that he had seen me, how could he have not. I left him on the beach, if he’s smart, then he will stay away but he probably won’t.

* * *

It has been just under a month in which I’ve been missing for and I decided to go back. Soon enough, I realised that it’s not possible to be a mermaid forever; I have to reach the land sometime. So I transformed back and headed strait to school, I think I’d rather go back to school then to home. I walked to his office, ready for what ever he would say. I knocked on the door before pushing the door open slightly. He kept his eyes down on his notepad as he sketched something. His fully attention was on the notepad, until he would hear who was at the door.

“Yes?” he inquired.

“Do you have a minute?” I asked quietly.

            His head shot up to look at me and his face broke into a smile.

“Where have you been, what is going on?” he questioned, standing up.

“Just about,” I answered, simply.  

            He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my head in his chest, glad to be close to someone human and someone who was dry. He rested his head on the top of my head and kissed my hair. I can tell now that he was stressing out about me, I meant a lot to him apparently. Then when he pulled away, I saw the twinkle in his eye. He’s falling for me; it’s my mermaid side drawing him in. And I don’t know how I should feel about this.   

“Tell me everything,” he ordered, interrupting my thoughts.

            So we sat down and I told a story, making it up as I went along. In the end it turned out I was away on quite an adventure. He looked at me the whole way through as I talked with that same twinkle in his eye.

“Hey, also whilst I was away, I practised that exercise and I kept it on for over a minute before my mind made me wipe it off,” I said.

            My mermaid side isn’t that bothered about things being clean as long as I looked good, mermaids are very vain I soon realised.  

“That’s brilliant, but why did you go?” he questioned.

“I guess I just wanted a break,” I admitted, “I told myself I wasn’t going to come back but I knew in the end I would have to. I just couldn’t leave like that.”

            He smiled and then it dropped. I opened my mouth to question the sudden change in facial expressions but he opened his mouth to ask me the question instead.

“The first day you were gone, I saw you in the water, did you see anything strange?” He questioned.

My mind made assumptions and I started to panic, his eyes narrowed at my reaction, he was becoming suspicious.  

“No, what do you mean?” I questioned in reply.

“I know this might sound weird but… a mermaid.”

My eyes grew wide, did he see me in the water this morning. I couldn’t say much, my mind was empty. He absorbed me reaction once again but I masqueraded it with the shock of him saying he saw a mermaid.  

“I don’t know, what did you do to your arm?” I questioned.    

I tried to change the subject and he looked down to his arm where a long gash had scabbed over.  

“I hit it on the coral over a month ago,” he replied.

“Maybe you hit your head to, you might have imagined her,” I said.

            He slid me something on the table and I looked at it. It was the thing he was sketching when I entered the room. My mind emptied when I saw it, it was a mermaid tail, my tail.

“I saw something with a tail like this,” he started.

“It’s nice but probably not real,” I lied.

            He shrugged and gave me the drawing the back, soon enough he decided he should call the police and tell him about my whereabouts. They would meet me at home and my parents were coming over immediately. I sighed slightly, guessing this would come along.

“Do you actually realise that you probably missed heaps of work and on your last year,” he offered.

“Yeah but I’m a strait A student, it shouldn’t be hard to catch up,” I debated.

            He shrugged a sign that I had won the argument. He cocked his head slightly to the side as he looked at me and that twinkle in his eye returned. Was he in love with me?

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