Seaborn Seraqua POV, August 10th 2020, 8:00 AM
I awake on the basement couch that morning to a sound of kitchen pots clinking together.
Wilda was still sleeping over her covers with the magazine she was reading last night open and laying on the bed on top of her.
I sat up and watched the sun rise, breaking through the window.
The window in the basement is right against the ceiling, and I can really see the tall grass growing in every millisecond.
"Really to wake up, Seaborn?" Asked an enthusiastic Wilda.
"Well, it's that time of day, isn't it?" I ask pleasantly as Wilda already seems to comb out her hair and clean her glasses as she bursts out the door.
We get into the dark and small kitchen where Brecken is asleep on the couch, and Kailani is snoring loudly, perched on the branch of the tree plant that she keeps in the room.
"Okay, Seaborn, whom driving?"
"Um..."
"We're gonna have to take Kailani's car. That thing drives well."
"No, I think that Kailani drives well." I tell her, reminding her in a hint that still, neither of us can drive.
Wilda then gives me the look, which means she just had an idea.
"Kailani!" She shouted in a rather screachy voice.
"We're gonna have to get to the Royal Kingdom!"
Kailani runs out of the house a solid ten seconds later. "Slow down! Slow down! She panted. She then flung the door open and started the car quickly. "Can't you drive, Wilda?"
"Seaborn can't either!"
"Yes, but he's from under the sea, so he has an exuse."
Wilda glumly slouched in her seat, crossing her arms.
I, however, was stumped. How does she know that there's no cars under the sea? Whether it seems logical or not, I still wouldn't think anyone from a place like Angel City would automatically know this.
"Kailani, how do you know that there's no driving under the sea?"
"Well, Seaborn, sometimes you just know when you know, am I right?"
Wilda and I agree by nodding, but even though we are good at things, Kailani is on a whole other level at knowing things.
When she part the car, Wilda was already running to the castle like as if there's no Tomarrow. "Hey!" Snapped Kailani. Wilda came to a stop and turned around. "What?"
"You're two hours early, use your time wisely!" Wilda nervously nods slowly as Kailani drives away, leaving us in the semi dark August morning air.
Without talking, Wilda and I walked into the castle. "If we're stuck here for the rest of our lives, I swear." Wilda complains right before banging on the door.
Azurine opens in. She sourly scoffed when seeing us. "Oh, you guys are early. I bet you want to get a head start just to be on the Queen's good side, huh?"
Wilda laughs right at her. "Same idea. Different reasons.
We walked inside the elegant living room place with all its furniture was mirror.
"I don't even want to be here this early." Azurine complains.
"Then why are you?" Wilda asked half carelessly.
"The Queen sent me a message to get my body over here, and the Queen's pretty serious about it, so I did, and now she's making me clean the attic. I didn't actually start that yet because I saw the cake in the refrigerator, and"
"What? Cake? Is it a magical cake!?" Wilda interrupts.
"It's just breakfast food. It's not magical." Azurine reasons.
"Sorry, I just get over excited, but I did here about the Queen and her magic items, so I'm curious." Wilda says apologetically.
"It's not magic. It's just a weird place..... okay, I like the Queen so that's why I became her maid!" Azurine cried.
Wilda rolls her eyes as Azurine goes on to say, "She's like, so pretty! She's just so pretty and rich, like, I had to get out of the finger painting college that I was at! Then the Queen came to my college asking if anyone wants a special dinner with her, then I got sucked into this nonsense!" She rants.
Wilda smiles. "That's life. It throws curveballs at you." Then she looks left as a man, that must be Azurine's brother, Tamsin, approaches with a few stacked salad plates in his arms.
"Tamsin! How do you feel now that you're on dish duty?"
"Well, Az, I feel like I'm a Lonely Man all by myself." He responded, which made me laugh as I remembered that weird time when I went by Lonely Man.
Tamsin says to his sister, "You know what the Queen wants now?"
"What now?"
She smiles as says, "We need to go to the bus garage as clean all the sea weed out of that one bus."
Azurine squints at him, Wilda then looks at me in complete shock. I was COMPLETELY shocked, and Lachina would be if she were here.
"My apologies, did you say sea weed?"
Tamsin nods. "Have you read that magazine series the Real Sealife?"
I shook my head.
"One of the tour busses fell into the water three months ago, and they finally got it out using fancy submarines." Tamsin casually says as he jumps on the furniture.
"That's crazy." Wilda replies. "The Sea creatures must've freaked out."
"Oh, they all got away when the submarine came. None of the Walkers in the submarine saw any Sea Creatures, but then again, it's been one hundred years since any were seen anyway."
What he didn't know was how false that was.
Wilda noticed that and tried to hide her smile.
"To the bus garage then?" She said swiftly.
"To the bus garage!" Azurine and Tamsin shouted in unison.
Sweeping the bus clean was a job that I'll never enjoy.
I felt sad and nostalgic with every swish of my broomstick. The bus was covered in sea grass, seaweed, and small rocks, and just some sand.
I was so sad that I hoped Lachina would soon come and feel sad with me. I was so sad that I didn't even laugh with everyone else when Azurine randomly said, "Hopefully, nobody under the Sea licked the windows."
At first, I didn't even know what she was talking about, but it soon occurred to me that the bus driver on the 10:00 bus mentioned that if you lick the bus windows, you get the special ability to shape shift just like the bus itself.
"Aren't there gross side effects, though?" Tamsin asked.
"Yeah, you can shapeshift into whatever you want for a long time, then you suddenly stop and get insanely sick." Azurine confirms.
So This must be why it's a bad thing. I imagined licking the glass on the windows and being able to change into anybody that I want.
"It's insane what people lick under the sea." Someone whispers in my ear when I left the bus to go sit on the castle steps all alone.
I quickly turn around in shock, but soon see the wavy purple hair and wide nose and recognize Lachina.
She sits down next to me. "Are you okay?" She soon asks, eyes furrowed with concern.
Oh no, she's judging me.
"Yes."
"Are you lying?"
"Yes. Lachina, I really wish I can go back to the sea."
"You do?"
"It's better down there. Bigger down there. It's safer, warmer, more fun. Up here, there's work and... work... and other things." I may be loosing my point, but Lachina seemed to understand.
"Well, it'll be over soon."
"But how ever will we know when?"
"I don't know."
"You know what Lachina? I don't want to rule the sea. You split the medicine with Wilda. You take that half to the sea and become the-"
"No, no, no, Seaborn you take it! I don't want to be the ruler."
"So neither of us then?"
"Seaborn, I'm not just going to try to steal from the Queen. I'm here for her help, not to secretly take anything. I'm not evil, and honestly, I don't think that I have the audacity to go behind someone's back." Lachina concluded with a nod.
"If you're not gonna take it, and I'm not gonna take it, could....Rio?" I question.
"Children." Snapped a clear and brisk voice from behind.
Queen Faryal stood right infront of the door, her wings folded and hair blowing gently in the breeze. "You two are slacking off weren't you?"
"Oh, I wasn't-" Lachina started to say.
"Hmm hmm. That sunken bus is going to need a re paint before they go back to the bus station. Lachina, remember where I told you the paint was."
"In the basement?"
"In the cupboard, Lachina." Queen Faryal smiled to show that she's not mad at us for slacking off. (We weren't slacking off) We were just talking as people do.
"Yes, my Queen." Lachina mutters.
Queen Faryal turns back around. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you."
"I said, Yes. My. Queen." Both of them smile.
I watch carefully as Queen Faryal walks back to her castle. She flinched as if in some sort of pain, and her wings twitch in their place, folded.
She stops and looks at us. "What are you kids still doing? Get to work."
So Lachina and I run back to the buses.
Wilda, Azurine, and Tamsin were already re painting in with a gleaming shade of yellow. Azurine and Tamsin look at us with complete shock, as Wilda looked at me confused, but also very ticked.
"So, what were you guys talking about?" Azurine demands as she forces a paint brush in my hands.
"Nothing." I awkwardly tell her.
"Someone's feeling evil." Azurine scoffs as she gets back to her work.
Even though Lachina and I sort of agreed that we're not evil, we probably looked like we were doing some secret gossip.
Authors note: Wait till you hear what happens between Seaborn and Wilda in the next chapter!