My Weird Secret Life

Chapter 22: Painters

      Kai and me stayed where we were for awhile until we heard everyone greeting each other. Kai grabbed my hand and pulled me out of our little spot. I followed him back into the nice coral house, where I saw everyone already talking to each other."Did you sleep well?" from Island. "Do you guys have some mint gum?" from Oceana. "Yeah, I slept fine, you?" from Atlantic. "How does everyone feel about breakfast?" Everyone nodded in agreement and we all followed Kylie and Rylie into the next room over. The room that I saw was squeaky clean. It had a big table with about 10 chairs and there were cabinets and an overflowing sink filled with dirty dishes. I sat down at the table and Kai sat down next to me. Oceana sat down next to Kai smiling and started making conversation. Asking him how on earth he was so fast and good at making quick decisions. Kai nervously chuckled and started talking to Oceana answering her question while at the same time side glancing over at me. I waited until no one was looking and leaned over to stick my tongue out at Oceana. She glared and went back to smiling with Kai. You know she reminded me of Diana, a beautiful snake on the outside, but really she's poison on the inside. Which also may be myself considering I'm the one thinking about this . . . oh, well, I guess I'm a snake too.
      Oceana left when Kylie had asked for her help. Kai got up to tell Kylie something, she glanced over at me and I acted like I wasn't watching. She sighed and nodded. Kai came over to me smiling. He grabbed my hand and said,"We're going to go to the one person who knows anything about everything. We can ask some questions like about the witch and," he leaned in so close I felt uncomfortable. "I could take you to some place where no one else knows." He backed away still with a smile on his face. I smiled as big as him and said,"Sure, where are we going?" He smiled even bigger just when I had thought it was impossible for him to do,"That's for me to know and you to find out." I swam out of the door, still holding Kai's hand and then he turned around,"We need to get there and back before breakfast and Kylie said if I don't bring you back before," he looked up at the sky or just up top at the sun which hung over my left shoulder. Kai squinted then moved his mouth counting something. The clouds in the sky, Kai was counting the clouds in the sky to tell the time. No, wait, he was counting something else, the . . . stars left in the sky I could see a few of them still barely showing up for their last appearance for the time being. "When the first few clouds come into the sky we need to be home, that's when breakfast is going to be ready." I looked at him, hoping I didn't look completely clueless. "How did you do that? Is that how you tell the time?" Kai looked at me funny and smiled, then nodded.
    "Grab on, we'll go faster," he gestured to his back and I frowned. "You don't think I could go as fast as you?" Kai flushed and stumbled over his words. "I d-didn't mean it like that. I just meant it for manner purposes." I tried not to smile at his explanation. Without another word, I gripped his shoulders holding my body away not wanting to seem too touchy. "I would hold on tighter if I were you." I nodded and gripped his shoulders. He tilted his head to the side as if saying 'I mean if you say so . . .' Kai stretched forward floating on his stomach in the water and little bubbles came from his hands like he was revving up. He asked me,"You ready?"
    I nodded thinking maybe we're not going to go super fast like I had once on a rollercoaster in Disneyland it was called "The Red" something and you do all these loop-do-loops and start upside down which is like no other roller coaster I had ever been on.
    I was wrong, about Kai by the way. So wrong. I almost flew off of Kai when he started speeding through the ocean. The water bubbles, that I thought were my own unique, special power, shot out of his hands. My new licorice black hair flew in the burst of it. I lied down on Kai's back and roped my arms around his neck squeezing tight, but not too tight. Unless he got too fast, then squeezing too tight would be an exception. He was smiling and whooping the whole time too. I joined in when I could finally open my eyes.
    I was astonished by all the blurs mixed together which was kind of like this: imagine the best painter you can think of, then another one, and then another one and add all of their talent into a baby who colored all over a canvas freely and that's what this looked like. It was beautiful and so precious and . . . I don't know, there were no words to explain what it was, but I could see the corals swirled together and the kelp and the natural blue colors hardly showed in my vision!
    I looked up at the surface of the ocean which I had just noticed was only two cars length up. "How have humans never found this place?" I asked. "You don't know?" I shrugged, Kai paused for a moment obviously doubting my knowledge for pretty much everything. "Many many years ago when the humans double crossed us, the queen used all of her power to put a forcefield over the city. The forcefield permits eyes of every culture to see but human eyes. Humans can't see it, can't touch it, they do go through it. She put the same ability over all of us. We call it the Transparency Rule because there are a lot of complications along with it."
    The sun was stretched across the sky shimmering over the fish that were trying to maneuver out of the way. I could feel my heart wanting to jump out of my chest from the excitement all around me and I could hardly breathe. "This is so much fun!" Kai chuckled,"I'm glad you like it, maybe we can do it again some time!" That led me to think about my date with Agua, er, non-date, I guess. What if he told on me to his mom that I said no? I had seen him since he had asked me out but I don't know he seemed unsure about me. In a creepy way.
      It took me by surprise to see a shock of brown hair and a face hidden underneath. At once I felt an odd shiver run over my body. A shiver unlike one I had ever felt, well, that was a lie. I had felt this same shiver when I first met Agua. The moment was quick but I could make out a few things about the merperson. Like how their eyes were dark, not black, but dark. And though their eyes were fierce I could tell they were kind and gentle and their skin was a complexion of sun-kissed brown. Their mop of brown hair almost covered their eyes. I think it was a boy. A handsome one, might I add. I opened my mouth to speak but in a flash he was gone. I looked back but no one was there,"Did you see that?" I asked Kai. "See what?" he asked. I looked back once more but saw no one. Not the same merperson that had been there a second ago. He was just . . . gone. All that remained were little schools of fish swimming around waving kelp. "Nothing," I said, but I had a feeling I would see that same merboy again.