They call me Fishgirl

Fish Girl

Junior you have to eat all of your food!" Patricia's shrill voice drifted from the kitchen pulling me from thoughts for the third time this morning.

I had 20 minutes to until my bus came and my hair still wouldn't behave but I was all out of time. The bedroom I shared with my little brother gave me no privacy so I locked the door and began getting dressed. My shower last night allowed me to not have to bathe in the morning, thank the gods. I learned a long time ago that soap and water in the morning dried my skin and made my scales itchy. I chose a black oversized long sleeve shirt and a pair of dark jeans from the tiny hole in the wall I called a closet. It wasn't the cutest outfit but Patricia only bought me dark colors to "hide that pudgy stomach" in her words.

Even though my clothes covered the scales on my arms and legs it still didn't hide the fact that I was a mermaid. The emerald green skin that webbed my fingers and toes together were a huge sign, but not as obvious as my big green ears. Where humans have small rounded ears with an earlobe I have gigantic green fins three times that size. Sure they help me hear well but, did the gods have to make me look any worse than I already did. The mermaid part isn't even half of it, I'm also 5'11, the tallest girl in my school and the darkest. And of course I couldn't be tall and skinny like a model. I also have to be curvy in the hips and a chest that make me look like I was not the virgin I was.

"Jameesha what you doing in there girl? Hurry up!"

"I'm getting ready." I said back at Patricia. I don't understand why she gets so bent out of shape over my attendance, it's not like I care. In the kitchen she was sitting at a table reading the newspaper, he glasses sitting on the tip of the nose while she squinted at the small print. Her short black hair fell to her shoulders in a bob and her cinnamon colored skin was etched with lines of age and worry. The smell of fried bacon and biscuits drown me in their warm scent.

"Good Morning Jameesha ." My brother Junior says with a gapped tooth smile. He's at that age where he is starting to lose baby teeth.

"You could have had breakfast if you had woken up in time." Patricia snapped at me while I pretended to steal Junior's toy truck.

"I finished mines already!" He showed me his empty bowl.

"I know you did baby." Patricia smiled, "Now play on the floor. The table is no place for toys."

"Aww, alright." He says with a pout and lays on the floor nextin the living room. I guess Junior would be my half brother since we have different moms and the same dad. We are so close that he feels like a full brother, but most people think we aren't related at all. Where my skin is dark brown like the bark of a tree his is light like sapwood. Where his hair curls  lose and bouncy, mines curl tight and firm. And he is all human. While I'm obviously not.

"Are you really leaving the house looking like that?" Patricia frowned as her coal black eyes looked me over.

"Like what?" I asked annoyed grabbing a couple granola bars from the cabinet and throwing them in my backpack.

"Like... sloppy to be honest. You could have tried to look cute." She took a sip of coffee and muttered under her breath, "Or done something to that hair." Today I chose to wear my thick waist length 4c hair in an afro. I braided it last night and took it down this morning, and thought it would at least turn out wavy and my thick locks would fall around my shoulders and back. Instead it stuck out in every direction and my 'waves' were curly spirals. At that I could feel the anger rising in me ready to tell her what I thought about how she looked, but it was too late. Outside the window the bus I took was almost at my stop.

"Wait!" I yelled running outside. My cousin Imani was already climbing the step and the doors had closed, but it was still there. "Wait!" My legs ached by the time I had gotten on the bus and I was out of breath. Imani was sitting in a seat near the back and as I walked to join her.