That mermaid princess was burned into Skye’s mind forever. Her long blonde hair that floated in the ocean current, the shimmer of her green tail, the intense look of painful longing on her upturned face – all of it had somehow spoken to her very soul.
She had hung on Miss Thornbank’s every word, just like a spell had been cast over her. When the little mermaid turned sixteen, she was finally allowed to visit the world above water…
It was the classic edition of the story. The teacher read each line calmly and clearly, punctuated by the leisurely turning of the pages, as they sliced through Skye’s heart. When it was over, she looked up with satisfaction at the sight of her pupils’ tear-stained faces.
“Does anyone have any thoughts on this story?”
Her hand shot up.
“Yes, Skye?” Miss Thornbank asked eagerly.
“I hate the prince! He’s stupid! If I could meet the little mermaid, I’d marry her immediately!”
Every face in the room turned towards her. The teacher balked. “You can’t. You’re a girl.”
“I would!” At that age, she hadn’t understood what Miss Thornbank meant.
She was aware of her classmates snickering. The teacher squirmed, drawing back from her before she settled on huffing.
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You think that the mermaid is pretty, and that’s all.”
Skye watched the waves rolling into the cove in front of her. Who knew why such a distant memory came back to her today, but she had cause to re-examine it. Anyone would say that the mermaid princess was beautiful. Everyone agreed that the prince should have married her instead. But was that all that she had meant on that day?
The sea was her only companion and it wouldn’t answer her. She could faintly hear the far-away laughter of other school kids hanging out on the streets. Their boundless joy only underlined her own cold loneliness.
She picked up a twig to rake through the dry sand at her side. Her friends were probably down at the café, forgetting all about her.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up automatically. There, in the shallows, was a painfully beautiful girl of her own age. She had long blue hair strewn with strands of pearl and a coral tiara, and a wicked look in her blue eyes that almost stopped Skye’s heart. A long fish tail slapped the waves behind her as she lounged on her side.
The spark of instinctual fear was hard to explain. If her legs would have carried her, Skye would have surely run screaming all the way home.
She had to settle for staring and waiting for it to go away.
“Say something. I know you can hear me.”
She swallowed. “M… Me…? Mer…?”
“Mermaid! Yes!” She flinched back at the girl’s shriek. Grinning, she rolled onto her back and stared back at Skye. “Is this exciting for you? It’s exciting for me!”
“Are you…?”
“Real? Totally. Do you want to touch me to make sure?” She sprung into a sitting position faster than a grasshopper, stretching out her arm like an exhibit. Skye shuffled across to her on all fours. The water soaked through her school trousers disgustingly, but she had to know.
Real. Better than real. Her skin was so soft that she had to give it an extra squeeze to make sure that it wasn’t made of silk.
“A real mermaid princess…” She felt guilty for some reason.
“Exactly.” The mermaid tossed her hair smugly. “Actually, I’m Princess Coraline Neptune, the only mermaid princess.”
“I’m… Honoured.” She thought those were the right words. She bowed her head numbly, submerging it in the salty water.
“Of course you are. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
She dragged it back out. She must look a miserable sight now, she realised, with her uniform soaking up the sea and her hair stuck to her face. Coraline managed to make being beached look elegant. Her heart felt even heavier.
“It’s nothing…”
“Don’t say that.” Her tail slapped the water with surprising power. “Why would I let you see me if I wasn’t interested in you? I’ve been watching you here for weeks now. I want us to be friends.”
It’s true that she came to the beach nearly every day, but she’d never noticed that she was being watched. She wondered if Coraline had heard her singing yesterday. The thought was devastating.
“Why?”
“So we can help each other. I’ll bet there’s no one on land who can help me as well as you can.”
She gripped her wrist with an honest passion. That wicked light danced in her eyes with a sincerity that touched Skye.
“What can I do?”
“Help me talk to human boys. Teach me about human culture. Be my first human friend!”
Skye’s swelling joy dropped like a stone into her stomach.
“Did you come all this way for that? Boys are boring.”
“To you, maybe! But they’re my whole reason for coming out here. You see…” Coraline drew herself up proudly again. “I think I’m human-sexual.”
“You’re what?”
“Human-sexual. A merperson who’s only attracted to humans. They’re – we’re – very rare, but some of the most famous mermaids in history have been human-sexual.”
Ridiculous. Skye had never heard such a stupid idea in her life. She watched, waiting for Coraline to say “syke” or burst into laughter, but she continued swanning about. Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t laugh at her. Her problem was much less bizarre.
“My friends said they don’t want to be friends anymore because they think I’m a lesbian.”
“What’s a lesbian?”
“A girl who’s attracted to girls instead of boys.”
Coraline seemed fascinated by the concept. “And are you?”
“I don’t know…” The water was starting to steal the heat from her now. She shivered, curling up a bit to avoid having to move back to shore. “Everyone seems to think so. I tried taking some online tests to find out, but the questions were too hard.”
As she hoped, the mermaid didn’t recoil at all. She played with the frilled fins of her tail for a few moments, humming beautifully. “That’s perfect, then. You help me figure out if I’m human-sexual and I’ll help you figure out if you’re a lesbian.” She clasped their hands together tightly. “It’s a promise, right?”
That’s why, that Saturday, Skye found herself climbing over rocks to reach the most deserted part of the beach. She didn’t believe she would learn anything from her, really. But Coraline’s smile had been so unfairly dazzling that she’d found herself agreeing anyway, giddy to spend an extra day with her. She was always soft with her female friends.
The princess was waiting by the rock shelf she’d described to Skye. Just like a storybook illustration, the sunlight caught the pearls that she wore and set her tail shimmering. Skye’s heart beat fast with excitement.
When the mermaid finally saw her, she lifted her hand in a charming wave. “I’m so happy you came!”
Dropping her bag on the rock, she knelt so they could be on the same level. Meeting her eyes was like staring into the depths of the sea. “Are you sure that no one will come here?”
“No one ever does. Besides, it’s no biggie – they’ll only see you.” Coraline leant her arms on the rock. “I’m invisible unless I choose to let someone see me.”
So no way to know if I’m crazy or not, she thought. She pushed it to the back of her mind to focus on the princess. An impish smile had crept onto her face. “So, did you bring the stuff?”
To answer her, she unzipped the bag she’d brought and fished out the pictures she’d printed out. It was a bit old-fashioned, but giving a mermaid her iPhone would just be asking for it to sink to the bottom of the ocean. She tidied up the pile and turned them so that Coraline could see the first sheet.
“I asked my internet friends what celebrities were hot.”
The princess leant eagerly forward to appraise them. As expected, water from her hair splashed onto the paper. She had copied over a small selection of the countless pictures her friends had bombarded her with, beginning with several of the puff-haired, skinny-jean wearing members of One Summer, the current biggest boyband. She watched carefully while Coraline sized them up for several minutes.
“They have, umm… A refreshing quality, I guess?” She retreated to the water. “What else do you have?”
She tried showing her some of the shirtless, muscly men, but Coraline plucked them out of her hand and threw them off into the sea. “Oh, wait – that one’s gorgeous!”
Skye turned it over to see who she was pointing at. “No, that’s Ruby Rose. I don’t think she’s a man. But the guy beside her is –”
It was tossed away again. Skye watched the disintegrating sheets with a wince. That can’t be good for the environment.
They went through the pictures for another ten minutes but nobody seemed to be good enough. Coraline was getting angry. The sea churned around her threateningly. There was only one sheet left when suddenly the water settled. “That’s it! What a hottie!”
And it was. “That’s Legolas. He’s from Lord of the Rings.”
“Legolas… Yes, that’s the one for me!” She rose out of the water, clasping her hands dramatically. “Legolas, my love! Oh, take me to him, Skye – I’m ready.”
She wet her lips, not sure what to say. A heavy fear was building in her stomach that this wouldn’t end well. “No, he’s not actually real.”
“What? But that can’t be a painting.”
“No, but he’s a character in a movie. He’s an actor in a costume.” She thought she saw the sea swelling out of the corner of her eye, so she quickly dug her phone out of the bag. “Look – here’s his actor, though!”
Coraline’s face fell.
“Emm… Anyway, he’s too old for us! You need to find a boy our age.”
The mermaid cleared her throat and threw her hair over her shoulder. “Yes, how silly of me. My true love is out there, waiting for me – and a thousand times more handsome than Legolas.”
Skye tactfully avoided mentioning that she had never seen a single boy half so pretty in real life.
Coraline rearranged the pearls in her hair for several minutes, lounging back on the rock as if she had always been so self-sure. At last, she said, “Forget about me for now. How are we to know if you’re a lesbian or not?”
Skye had had no friends to ask for advice on this matter, so she’d turned to the internet at large. There were a lot of lesbians who put up how they’d figured it out on various websites, but there wasn’t much of a pattern.
“Someone said I’d know instantly if I kissed a girl.”
Coraline held up her hand. “No way. I’m saving my first kiss for my true love.”
She ignored her disappointment. “Well, then I can only know if I think about dating girls and holding hands and stuff and I like it… But I don’t know.”
“Hm…” The mermaid considered her for a long time. “Let’s do even better, then. From today forward, you can think of me as your girlfriend!”
Skye knew her face was burning red. It was so embarrassing, though. She didn’t know how Coraline could bring herself to say it so loudly – and with such a look of pride on her face! The mermaid didn’t wait for her to recollect herself.
“We’ll have our first “date” tomorrow, so be here first thing super sharp, or I’ll be angry.”
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