Chapter five: "You're not my little mermaid!"

RECAP:

I am losing my shit trying to wrap my mind around what has just happened. I must look like a freaking fish, dripping with water, gaping and blinking a thousand times to clear my eyes.

I'm completely and utterly screwed...

Arielle

Am I hallucinating, or did that Eric guy just poured the entire contents of a water bottle over my head? And he just left! Like nothing had happened! I swear, the nerve of this guy! I know, I wasn't really looking where I was going but it was an accident.

Everyone is looking at me with pity in their eyes, but not surprise. I guess these kind of incidents happen all the time here, with those bunch of gang-members around.

"Are you alright?" Sandy asks me with worry in her eyes. She hands me a tissue.

"Yeah. I just need some dry clothes to wear, I guess!" I don't know what I should feel. Should I get angry at him? Should I feel embarrassed? Should I go and apologize to him? I mean, I did hear rumors that he was having a bad day. Accidentally or not I did ruin his shirt. Maybe that justifies his reaction?

"I keep an extra top in my locker," Carol offers, dragging me away from my thoughts.

"Who does that guy think he is?! One day I'm going to kick his ass so hard!" Cameron says.

"In your dreams, bro. Last time I checked he was the one doing the ass kicking," Zach jokes. Cameron glares at him.

"Just shut the fuck up Zach," he snaps.

"Both of you can shut your damn mouths!" Sandy yells as she halts us in front of Carol's locker. Both of them instantly stop talking but Cameron is still glaring at his brother. Carol opens her locker and hands me a plain red crop top. I thank her and walk towards the girls room to change. Most of the girls already went to their classes so luckily it's empty. I quickly change into the top and brush some of the water out of my hair with my hands. When I see myself in the mirror I gasp. I'm a freaking mess! Thank God I didn't have time to put any make-up on this morning. I can only imagine what that would've looked like right now. I try to dry my hair under the hands-dryer but the second bell rings. I have to run, I can't miss any classes on the first day. When I catch up with my new group of friends I hear Cameron, desperately trying to convince the others of something.

"He needs to learn his lesson, think about it guys!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Carol responds.

"Yeah, really bad idea Cam," Zach agrees. I don't know what they are talking about so I remain silent. If they want to share they'll obviously fill me in.

"Cameron I don't know, you'll have to ask Arielle," Sandy says. Hearing my name drop I join the conversation. "Am I missing something?" I ask clueless.

"Yes. You're angry right?" Cameron asks me, I nod, "Well, because of what Eric did I have a plan. We are going to file a complaint against him, that he assaulted you on your first day. We have the entire cafeteria to back us up! And I know that he's already having some issues with the principal so it should be easy to convince him to suspend Eric," he grins, passion burning in his eyes. Without thinking I reply.

"No," I say. Seeing the shock in his eyes.

"But why? It is about damn time someone took some action against that asshole," he says.

"Firstly Cameron, it's not my revenge, it's yours. Secondly, it was my fault, I ruined his shirt. So I think what he did was reasonable. He was already having a bad day and I didn't exactly made it any better. So you can kiss goodbye to your great plan. We're not going to do it," I sternly say.

"You guys are not thinking straight!" Cam yells.

"Cam shut the fuck up now, will you? If you want to take revenge on him, be my guest but don't drag us down with you. Got it? Now let's go, we're already late for class," Sandy yells.

He gives her an angry scowl, "Okay fine. But ya'll are going to regret your decision," he says.

I have English with Zach so we part our ways with the group and shake our heads at the retrieving figure of Cameron. When we walk into class everyone is already seated so we take place in the back. A young lady, I suspect in her early thirties, enters the room. She introduces herself as Miss Ryder and tells us about the syllabus for this year. I look at Zach and see he's not paying any attention at all, he's totally zoned out.

"Penny for your thoughts, Zach?" I whisper to him. It seems like he didn't hear me, he gives no reply. I kick his chair and his head snaps towards me.

"What?" he asks, tilting his head in my direction.

"I asked what you were thinking about but you didn't hear me," I respond. He murmurs a small "nothing" and turns his eyes back to the front of the class.

"Don't give me that. I can understand if you don't want to tell me. You don't need to lie and say there's nothing," I whisper sternly, maybe a little too loudly. Some students and Miss Ryder turn their heads in our direction.

"Is there a problem going on in the back?" Miss Ryder asks.

"No ma'am" I quickly respond.

"Okay, just pay attention then," she says. I just nod my head. Zach turns to me again.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? It's just Cameron," he sighs. He is worried about his brother. I can understand him. Back in Florida whenever James would come home full of bruises from his races I really felt his pain. I always worried sick about him.

"I understand," I say to Zach. He gives me a small smile and turns his attention towards the teacher. I too try to concentrate on the lesson.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I didn't get a single glance of Eric or his friends. I wanted to apologize. And he too owes me an apology I believe, but judging his previous behavior I don't think he ever said sorry to anyone. I don't care. I'm going to apologize to him next time I see him. And after that I'm going to keep my distance.

Anyway now all I want is a cup of coffee. I'm standing by my car, waiting for Sandy. I see her, Zach and Cameron coming towards me, I smile at them. Sandy says her goodbyes and walks up to me. Zach waves me goodbye and Cameron bites an insincere "I'm sorry," I don't need his apology anyway. I just nod at him and jump into my car.

"He's always like that so don't spend too much time thinking about it. He holds some personal grudge to Eric and he's always looking for a reason to take revenge," Sandy says to me.

"Why are we still talking about this Sandy? He apologized right?" I say, ending the topic.

"Okay then, well let's go. I want to see your parents," She says, returning to her happy self again. I start my car and drive home. Meanwhile Sandy is trying to make me deaf with her loud singing, it sounds really good though.

When we enter in my home I hear noises coming from the living room. Without waiting for me, Sandy runs into the living room and the next thing I hear is my mother's loud scream. I walk up to them and see that Sandy's crushing my mom with one of her bone-breaking hugs. But no, I'm not going to help her. She has to know how painful her hugs are.

"I missed you so much Jenna!" Sandy screams.

"Is that you Cassandra? You nearly gave me a heart-attack," my mom says struggling to break free from her hug. Sandy looks up to her with a pout. "Oh, come here honey, I missed you too," mom says hugging her back.

"I was so excited to see you and eat you famous chicken curry again,"

"Ah, I see. Well, on the menu for tonight is chicken curry then," my mom laughs.

"I think your both forgetting someone here," I say, gaining their attention.

"What are you waiting for? An invitation?" Sandy teases.

"It's time for a group hug my girls," My mom chirps, I laugh and I join the hug.

"Okay girls, go get freshen up. I'll prepare something for you to eat," mom says, breaking our group hug.

"Can you make me a coffee please?" I ask.

"And I could go for a cola. You go up Bun, I'll stay here and help Jenna," Sandy says. I give them both a thumbs up and go towards my room. I take Carol's top and change into something comfy. I'm brushing my stringy, dried-up hair when I hear the doorbell ring. I'm wondering who it could be when Sandy bursts into my room.

"There is a very beaten-up, extremely hot guy in your living room, waiting for you!" she says.

Hot boy? Who could that be?

"Who is he? Judging by Jenna's reaction I can tell that he's very close to your family," she asks.

"You didn't asks my mom who he is?"

"Well, when I opened the door and saw that hot piece of cake standing there the first thing he said was; "You're not my little mermaid?" And I just stood there gawking at him, unable to speak. He chuckled at my reaction and let me tell you, he has the cutest chuckle. Anyway when your mom saw him she started screaming and I---" I cut her of mid-sentence because there's only one person that calls me that.

"I know who that hot piece of cake is!" I shout.

Did I just call my cousin a hot piece of cake?

Without waiting for Sandy's reaction I storm downstairs towards the living room. James is standing there, talking to my mother. When he hears me coming he turns towards me.

"Slow down there, you're my little mermaid, not my little vampire," he chuckles at his own joke. Ignoring his comments I jump at him and hug him tightly. He spins me around like he always does before he releases me. Then I realize all the swelling, bruises and the white band-aid that is on his nose.

"What the heck happened to your face? Did your mother finally realize you needed to learn a lesson and kicked your ass? Is that why you're here?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.

"No, she didn't! Do I need a reason to come here? And don't say that you're not happy to see me. I'm the best cousin in the world," he huffs proudly. He is the best but I'm not going to let his ego grow any bigger than it already is by agreeing.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever floats your boat," I tease. I hear Sandy clear her throat. She is expectantly looking at me, waiting to be introduced.

"Anyway James, this is Sandy. Sandy, this is James," I say gesturing at them.

"So you are Sandy, I mean Cassandra. Pleasure to meet you m'lady," He tries to smirk but his bruises are in the way. He takes her hand and gently kisses the back of it. I just roll my eyes at his pretentious act of charm. Sandy's face is as red as a tomato.

"Pleasure is all mine," she winks at him trying to regain her senses, "So, what happened to your face? If you don't mind me asking?"

"It's nothing, just a small incident," he shrugs it away.

"What? A small incident?" My mom asks coming into the living room holding a tray of sandwiches.

"It's nothing aunt, I'm fine, really," he assures her.

"But---" before she can argue he takes the tray of sandwiches and settles himself on the sofa.

"Anyway, I'm hungry. Thanks for the sandwiches aunt!" he says as he starts to eat greedily.

"Did you have my cola Jenna? Sandy asks.

"Yeah, and my coffee mom?" I ask

"Your cola is in the kitchen and I'm sorry Arielle. I've forgotten to make the coffee. I guess you'll have to drink cola as well," mom says.

"Wow, it's only been one day and I already feel like an outcast," I pout.

"It's not like that honey. And you can make your own coffee if you want to, don't be so childish," she laughs as she walks back to the kitchen.

"You know, Arielle can be a big jealous hypocrite sometimes," James whispers to Sandy

"Hey! I heard that!" I spat, "And I'm not a jealous hypocrite, okay!?"

"Yes you are. Remember last summer when everyone was deciding where we should go on vacation? I said Hawaii and you said Mexico. Everyone agreed with me and not you. You were all angry and crying about it, saying; "You don't love me! You only listen to him" that was so childish," he is shaking with laughter.

"I wasn't crying! They only agreed to go to Hawaii because we had already been to Mexico before. Don't listen to him Sandy, anything that comes out of his mouth is a lie," I say to her knowing my best-friend will back me up.

"Sorry Bunny, but I have to agree with James here. Do you remember when we were in fourth grade there was this shy girl named Katie? As soon as she started to hang out with me you became super jealous. You even ruined her shirt with you water colors! You were sobbing hard, saying she shouldn't try to steal me from you! And you were yelling at me because you thought I'm letting her break our friendship!," She's laughing but I don't think any of this is funny. I wasn't wrong, Katie was breaking us up and I did what I had to do to save our friendship. Luckily my mom walks into the room.

"What going on children? What's wrong Arielle? Why are you so red? And what's so funny?" she says as she puts the glasses of cola on the table.

"Mom they are both harassing me! Tell me I'm not childish or a jealous freak," I beg her.

"Who says you're not childish? I remember one day when---" She didn't get to finish her sentence because James and Sandy started to laugh hysterically. Everyone's against me.

"I'm done with you guys. I hate you all for this," I say as I storm upstairs towards my room. Why are they all suddenly ganging up on me? Okay, sometimes I don't like it when people ignore me, or take decisions without me, so I snap. What's so wrong about that? I can't help how I feel. Why does that make me childish or jealous?

"You know, you're behaving very childish right now," the voice in my head says.

Not you either! Isn't there anyone that agrees with me?!

I enter my room and jump on my bed dramatically.

I'm lying on my bed with my head pressed into my pillow, when I hear footsteps coming towards my room. They must be here to apologize. Well, I'm not going to give in so quickly this time. They need to learn a lesson. I hear a knock and my door goes open to reveal the monster.

"Have you seen my little mermaid in here?" James asks coming closer towards the bed. I press my head deeper into my pillow.

"I guess not James. So have you seen my friend Bunny?" I still don't give an answer.

"Cassie, I think the person we are looking for is not here. It's a shame really, I brought all this home-made apple pie that I know she loves,"

Did he just say apple pie?!

"Don't worry, I can eat on her behalf. Let's just go," I hear them theatrically walking away.

"No way in hell I'm letting anyone eat on my behalf!" I laugh as I throw my pillows at them. And a pillow fight has begun. Of course we try to avoid James's face, he doesn't need any more punches there. My cousin might look like a badass, cocky, asshole. But with me he is a softy, and really the best cousin in the world. When we're all out of breath we stop, shaking with laughter.

"We're sorry Arielle," They say in unison.

"It's alright, I'm sorry too," I reply.

"Let's just forget everything and go enjoy some apple pie!" Sandy says and we rush downstairs.

After finishing our cola's, sandwiches and apple pie we help my mom with dinner, not that we're really hungry anymore. When dad comes home he is really glad to see both James and Sandy. Together we enjoy the dinner and the time spend with our loved ones. And I'm glad to see Sandy and James are getting along so well.

When I'm lying in bed I hear a car pull up in our driveway. I look at the clock and see that it's eleven o'clock. Who's coming by at this hour? I walk up to the window and see James getting inside a black Mustang. I know I should probably ask him where he's going or attempt to stop him but he's a big guy, he can take care of himself. In Florida this kind of thing happened every day, but that was his home town. I didn't know he knew anyone here.

Shaking my head I walk back to my warm bed and tuck myself inside. Tomorrow I'll ask him what all of this is about. Why he's actually here and who's car that is. But now I want to sleep.