Figures. “But she’s definitely glamoured?”

Kurt nods once. “Our kind is naturally alluring to humans, since

humans have weak minds. Her beauty, his pure heart-they’re like

magnets.”

“Is that supposed to be like magic?”

“It’s not magic, per se. It’s a trace of it. Our father had true

magic. Some have more. In the old days, we were more part of the sea

than human. Our powers are rooted in the elements. My father could

summon fires that melted sand into glass. He was one of the main

architects who rebuilt Glass Castle after a battle with some nasty

fey.”

“So what do you do for fire now?”

“Barter with witches. Trade with dragons, the Chinese, not the

Hungarian ones, of course-” He presses against the Styrofoam tray so

hard that it cracks on either side and we have to get another one.

“Sometimes pirates, but they’re shifty.”

Pirates! The eight-year-old boy in me is jumping for joy. Okay,

the thirteen-year-old. “You and Thalia don’t have any powers ?”

“Thalia can speak to her sea horse, Atticus. Our father could do

that too. Thalia and I can completely shift into fish form. We get it

from our mother. It’s temporary but useful when you need to get into

tight spaces. I believe because of that, we are most valuable to the

king-”

“Like in the bathtub?” I stick out my tray, and Lunch Lady Lourdes

ladles a mess of chili onto my plate. “Which I’ll never forgive you

for, by the way.”

Kurt smiles at me and then at the extra curly fries Lourdes gives

him, along with her fake-eyelashed wink. I grab two apple juices from

the cooler and a water bottle. He grabs an orange juice and two water

bottles. Lourdes winks at him and gives him an extra ticket for

dessert.

“You know,” I tell him as we make our way to where Ryan and Thalia

have found the rest of the swim team, “you’re going to be bad for my

image.”

We walk into Jerry leaning too hard against Thalia. “I bet Italy

was off the hook. Angelo went one time, and he came back with hickeys

everywhere.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re confusing hickeys with bruises,” Ryan

corrects.

They laugh and it makes me feel easy again. Bertie leans closer to

Thalia and goes, “You like it here best, though, right? I mean, it’s

Brooklyn, baby.”

Thalia licks the sloppy joe off her wide smile. It has the same

effect on all the boys, a deep sigh I don’t think they’re even aware

of. “It’s my favorite place,” she tells him.

“Really?” Kurt says. His mouth is full of fries and chili sauce,

and his violet eyes glint mischievously in the cafeteria light. “I

always enjoyed the Galapagos Isles.”

“What’s in the Galapagos?”

Her voice sends a jolt right down my center. Layla pulls up a

chair beside me. The suddenness of her voice makes me jump, and I

squeeze the packet of ketchup outward. A big red blob lands on a girl

at the next table.

“Ugh!” she squeals. And before I can apologize, she runs off in

the direction of the bathroom.

Bertie pulls over her tray of fries. He shrugs. “What? It’s not

like she’ll have time to eat them now.”

I start mixing mayo into my mound of ketchup, until the swirls of

red and white become a pale orange. I dip a fry and push the tray in

the middle of the table so everyone can have some.

“So these are your cousins,” Layla says. There’s a tightness in

her voice. It may be because she doesn’t believe me, or because she

hasn’t been invited.

“Kurt, Thalia.” I clear my throat. “This is Layla.”

“Nice to meet you,” Thalia says. “Would you like some of Tristan’s

special sauce?”

Layla shakes her head, ignoring the jeers from the guys. “No,

thank you.”

“Is there something else you would like?” Kurt goes.

She studies his face. I wonder if she remembers him from the

beach. “No, I’m fine.”

Bertie burps long and hard. “Ahh. Much better.”

“How come you’re flying solo, Layla?” Jerry takes a break from

stuffing his face with curly fries and my special sauce. “Where’s your

other half?”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been without a lot of my friends lately.” She

isn’t wearing any makeup, but her eyes look naturally bright and

sparkly. She looks past me to where Kurt is sitting, eating curly

fries and drinking water like he might just die of thirst. It’s her

way of avoiding my face. “So how long have you guys been here?”

Kurt instantly sits up straight and smooths out the front of his

shirt. He tucks a loose strand of hair behind his ear. “A few days.

We’re visiting.”

“Right. Canada. Ireland. Italy. I remember.”

“Oh, you’re so quiet in classes that I wasn’t sure you were

listening.”

She looks up at the great clock against the wall. “Does this mean

you’re tagging along to art next period?”

Kurt looks to me and I nod at him. “Yep, art is next with Mrs.

Elise. It’s basically a free period.”

Part of my ignore-Layla-for-her-own-well-being plan isn’t going to

work as long as we’re in school together. We have the same friends,

the same classes. I’m not going to outright diss her in public, but I

can’t let her in like I’ve always done. I can’t say, “So guess what?

I’m a merman. And I’m not just a regular merman. I’m a merman who can

shift into human form, and my grandfather, whom I’ve never met, is the

King of the Seas.” And even though I can feel the words on the tip of

my tongue now that she’s sitting here, something in me falters. I know

I shouldn’t. But she’s my best friend.

“So what did you do yesterday?” I ask her. But between Thalia

talking about which beach has the most naked people, Kurt explaining

why surfing is underrated, Bertie showing off his supreme burping

skills, and the general cacophony of phones ringing and iPods

blasting, she doesn’t seem to hear me.

This time I’m not in the middle of the sea waiting for the glint

of silver that’s going to attack me in the dark.

This time I’m not the one who’s drowning.

I stand on a shore of white rock I don’t have a name for. It isn’t

shiny like marble, but it still glistens, like sand that’s been

compacted together with tons of tiny crystal bits. There’s a giant

lake in the center, the edges blurry as dreams go. Just me on the

white ground watching the water.

This time the same white arms aren’t reaching for the surface as

on the day of the storm. This time it’s Layla. Her head breaks the

surface, gasping for air before something pulls her back down. I feel

everything at once-the sun on my back, fear in my veins, the pit of my

stomach falling, because the ground feels like quicksand and I can’t

move. She opens her mouth to scream, but she gets sucked beneath the

surface.

I take a moment and breathe in deeply, closing my eyes against the

dark gray sky. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe for the school

to look different, because now I’m different. Like all of a sudden

everyone else is going to change just to match me, a big, freaking

under-the-sea world right in front of me. And I wonder how many other

people are changing just like me, well minus the fins part, but

keeping it to themselves.

My body aches from lack of sleep. There was no way I could fall

asleep again after that dream about Layla. Drowning. And I didn’t do

anything to stop it.

Maybe it’s because there are only a handful of days till the end

of school. Maybe it’s the weather. Whatever it is, the groups of

students waiting for the first bell to ring are pretty thin. A group