A Tail of Adventure

Chapter 5 - Close Call

"Holy cow Mari! Great job at setting up! Now go get changed!"

I nodded and rushed off to the bathrooms. After I put on my red bikini, Tikki flew in front of me. "Mari! Promise to be careful Ok?" I nodded as I put my clothes into my bag and walked back over to where I set up. Alya had finished setting up the volleyball game. 'In the water?'

"Hey Gurl!" Alya ran up to me. She looked at my exposed chest. "Wow Mari, you never told me you work-out!" 'Crap!'

"Well, getting up and running to school in 2 minutes really builds muscle."

Alya laughed. 'Thank goodness she bought it!' "So true! You ready to play some volleyball? I have a water net anchored to the ground so we can play in the water!"

"Alya, I can't. I had some food while you guys were changing."

"Whatever! That's a myth. We will be by the shore anyway!"

'That's a myth!?' "Um, well, I would rather not swim right away."

"Ok then, but watch out! You might get hit with a stray volleyball!"

I sigh in relief after Alya runs off to play volleyball with Nino and Adrien. I sit down on the blanket, lay back, open my book, and begin to read. I continue to snack, hoping it can still be an excuse.

15 minutes later

"Mari look out!"

Adrien's POV

We were playing volleyball, Nino and Alya were on a team against me. The score was 9-9. 'One more point and I win!'

"Ready to lose?" Alya called out.

"Yeah I'm sure your ready to lose Alya!"

She grinned as she served the ball. I hit it back over and Nino got it. He hit it far up and it was coming down on my side. I hit it over to Alya with ease. She dived to get the ball, but when she hit it, it went sideways at Marinette. 'Oh No, at Mari!'

"Mari look out!"

She just barely had time to sit up as the wet volleyball hit her leg. I saw her fearful expression for a split second, but then she stood up and sprinted as fast as she could to the water. She dived in and disappeared before I saw anything. I sighed a breath of relief in my head. 'Good...she made it.' Then I looked over at Alya and Nino. Alya laughed.

"Oh ok! She has to get wet first to get in the water!"

Nino got out to grab the ball. Alya looked over where Mari jumped in. 'Oh, they don't know she swam away already!' Alya soon got worried.

"Is she ok?! Where is she?! She should be out of the water by now!"

By this time, Nino had come over in the water searching for Mari. I pretended to search that spot, but when they weren't looking, I glanced across the whole beach. One of these glances, I caught a red tail slowly moving into 2 giant rocks on the shore. I looked over at Alya and Nino.

"You guys stay searching here, I will get out of the water and check down the current."

They both nodded as they continued to search. I got out of the water and ran over to the rocks. I walked around them and saw Mari with her tail. She was steaming her tail as she looked up at me. Her eyes grew with fear as she put a finger to her lips and motioned for me to hide as well. I waited until she finished drying herself and because a human again. She began to speak in a hushed tone.

"Adrien! It's not what it looks like! Ladybug's healing magic did this to me! During the Syren attack! She gave me mermaid powers when she healed and injury I got that day! I'm such a freak..I'm so sorr-"

"Mari, calm down. You're not a freak."

"I'm a giant fish..."

"Marinette, mermaid or not, you are still a wonderful, kind-hearted person."

She looked up at me, and hugged me. I returned the hug as she calmed down.

"Adrien? Can you please try to keep this a secret from everyone?"

"I can try, but Nino and especially Alya most likely will find out something is going on."

She giggled. "True That!" Then her eyes got wide. "They're searching for me aren't they?"

"Well...It hasn't been too lon-"

Before I could continue, she stood up and pulled me up with her. We started walking, 'More like running', over to Alya and Nino. Mari called out to them.

"Guys! I'm fine, Ok?"

Alya and Nino both looked up, and Alya ran to Mari, tears evident in her eyes.

"Gurl! Don't scare me like that again!"

She went to give Mari a hug, but she backed up quickly. Alya got a confused look on her face, towards Mari' behavior. Mari quickly spoke up.

"I got caught in an under current! I swam under water to try and scare someone, then I got carried away by the current. I can't stand water right now, even being wet scares me!"

Mari lied flawlessly, scaring me to a degree. 'One can only lie that well if they do it often, I should know...' Alya nodded her head, believing the lie.

"That's okay, just let me give you a giant hug after I dry off!"

Pretty decent sized, I managed to fix this one. It used to be 3000 words, but then I was able to tweak it a bit into 2 separate chapters. Took a bit of review, but it wasn't too hard. I gtg now, oh and don't forget to vote on my profile on your opinion. I forgot you don't know what I'm talking about, go check out conversations on my profile and read my 3 announcements. Love to hear all ya'lls opinions!

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