The Struggle For Love

Chapter 3

*Stacie's POV*
        I have been super paranoid since what happened. It’s only been a day, but still. Every where I look, I see that strange shadow of a person. I have had nightmares about it all last night. When someone calls my name, I freak out. Why would someone scare me like that? I am afraid for my life now. It’s beyond creepy. It kills me knowing what could have happened. Mostly because I know my mom wouldn’t be able to take care of Brittany, Blythe, and Avery by herself.
~
        I have avoided Marissa ever since I have gotten to school. I go straight to my locker taking a different route than her. I walk out of my way making sure I don’t see her. As I sit in my seat waiting for History to begin, I see Marissa swim in. Uh, oh.
        “Hi, Stacie,” she says annoyed.
        “Um, hi,” I answer awkwardly.
        “Where did you go? I didn’t see you pass by me.” I can tell she is upset with me.
        “Um, I took a different route today,” I say twiddling with my fingers.
        “Why didn’t you stop to talk to me?”
        “I don’t know. I didn’t feel like it today,” I say hoping she doesn’t hear the fear in my voice.
        “What’s wrong?” she asks curious. Ugh, she knows something’s up with me. She can always tell when there’s something wrong with me. She’s practically psychic.
        “Yesterday, I was swimming to pick up Brittany when I saw a shadow following me. It was really creepy. I kept getting nightmares of it replaying over and over in my head all night. The ending would always be the same. The person would grab me and kill me,” I whisper, so people around us can’t hear me.
        “Wow! That’s weird! What did you do?” she asks worried.
        “I ran! What was I supposed to do? I was around no other mermaids, and I couldn’t get taken! What would my mom do without my help? No one else would step up! Brittany certainly wouldn’t!” I scream. She places a hand on my shoulder.
        “Class, please sit down. It’s time to begin,” Mr. Johnson yells loud enough for all of us to hear. I glance around noticing everyone is in their seats, except Marissa.
        “Well, I’m glad you didn’t. I would be nothing without you. You’re the rock that holds me down,” Marissa whispers. How sweet. I smile, and she smiles back. I can always count on Marissa to cheer me up. Marissa sits down in her seat. I’m glad she sits right next to me.
        “Class, get with your partners and begin working on your projects,” Mr. Johnson orders.
        I glance over at Marissa, who surprisingly is smiling. In a way, I am too. I guess she can’t wait to see what today brings with the boys either. Marissa gets up and swims over to Nick. I look over at Alex, who is already on his way over to me. He sits down in Marissa’s seat.
        “Hi,” I say excited. I try to calm myself down. I don’t even know why I am excited. Alex was a jerk the first day. Besides, I don’t like him. Yeah, he’s cute, but that’s not everything in a person. Looks aren’t the qualities that make up a person, their personality is.
        “Hi,” Alex says sounding nervous. Why is he nervous? Was it something I said? I only said hi to him.
        “Ready to work on our project?”
        “I guess…”
        Something’s off about him. Even though I have only known him for a day, I can tell he is acting strange. Alex’s hands keep twitching as they lie on his tail. Something is making him nervous. I’m nervous too, but nowhere near as much as him. What does he have to be nervous about? He wasn’t almost attacked yesterday.
~
*Alex's POV*
        Maybe Stacie doesn’t know it was me following her? Maybe she missed me somehow? She isn’t acting like she knows it’s me. I guess I should see where this leads. If she acts weird at all towards me, I’ll know she knows. Act normal, Alex. She’s probably wondering why you’re being distant, if she in fact doesn’t know.
        “So, I think we should get to know each other since we will be working together for a month,” Stacie says awkwardly. I nod my head.
        “Okay. Um, you can ask me a question first,” I say pondering over what to ask her.
        “What’s your favorite color?” she asks. Why would she ask that? Our favorite colors are the colors of our tails. Maybe she thought I had changed mine?
        “I like the color green. Not a dark one, but a brighter green.”
        “Cool, I like purple. Any shade of purple is fine with me. As long as it’s purple, I’m fine.” I nod. I knew her favorite color was purple already, but I didn’t know she liked any kind of purple. She giggles. I swear I can hear singing as she does so. “Your turn,” Stacie says snapping me out of my dream-like state.
        “Where is your favorite place to be? Like where do you like to go?”
        “I don’t think I really have a favorite place. Wait, I know! I like this one place where I can sit on a mountain top and see the moon shining down on me. It’s really beautiful. The moon gets big, and I can see blue in it. I feel at home whenever I go there. I feel like I belong there,” Stacie says passionately. She must really like this place, wherever it is.
        “Wow, I’ve never heard of or seen a place like that,” I say wondering. How come I have never followed her to a place like this? If it is her favorite place, wouldn’t she visit it whenever she could? I would.
        “Yeah, I haven’t been there in a while. When I get emotional, I like to go there to think and let everything go,” Stacie admits looking away from me. I can’t believe she would tell me something personal like that. “You didn’t tell me yours,” she states curiously looking back at me.
        “Well, I like to go to this cave I found. I can be in there for hours. At night, the moon shines right above an opening at the top. It’s amazing. In a way, I feel like I belong there, too. It’s my home away from home.” I guess we both like the moon. I wonder how Stacie found that mountain top. Did she just stumble upon it one day? But there are no mountains around here, so it’d be hard to not spot a mountain. I gaze over at Stacie, who is smiling.
        “I would love to see it sometime.”
        “Really?” I ask astonished. She nods.
        “Sure, I love seeing new things.” I smile. She really wants me to take her. Who knows? It could even be a date.
        “Your turn,” I say chuckling.
        “What’s your favorite thing to do?”
        “I don’t really know. I usually stay in my room and keep to myself.”
        “There has to be something…” Stacie urges.
        “I kind of like to draw,” I admit. The only other person who knows is Nick, of course. My parents wouldn’t approve. They would think it’s silly and a waste of my time. In their minds, I have to focus on things towards my career.
        “Wow, really? I sort of like to sing…” she says almost in a whisper. I can tell she is shy about it. I wonder if she’s any good.
        “That’s cool,” I say smiling, hoping to reassure her.
        “I like to stay in my room, too. Usually, I can’t though,” Stacie says frowning.
        “Why not?” I ask curiously. She looks up at me searching for any emotion. I smile trying to show she can trust me. Her eyes… I could die in her lovely eyes.
        “I help my mom take care of my siblings. I feel bad that she has to do it alone.” So, she does have a mother. Why haven’t I ever seen her, though?
        “What about your dad?”
        “He left us… a long time go.” Stacie frowns. I instantly regret bringing him up.
        “I’m sorry,” I say apologizing. I didn’t know that about her.
        “It’s okay. I wouldn’t want him to stay if he didn’t care about us. It would be pointless.” She half smiles.
        “How many siblings do you have?” I ask trying to change the subject.
        “I have two sisters and a brother. Brittany is twelve, and my other sister, Blythe, is seven. Avery is three. After school, I pick Brittany and Blythe up from their schools. Avery is still too young. He can’t wait until next year, though. He’s really excited for preschool.” I can see Stacie light up. She really loves her brother. I mean she loves the other ones too, but they don’t really act like they love her back.
        “If you don’t mind me asking, what does your mom do? It must be hard taking care of you guys alone,” I ask hoping to not upset her again.
        “She works as a janitor at night while everyone is asleep. She works at a big company. When I awake, she’s passed out in her bed. I usually feed my siblings and take my sisters to school. I don’t want to disturb her while she’s resting.”
        “Oh, okay.”
        “My turn,” Stacie says chuckling a little. “Do you have any siblings?” she asks. I can see curiousness shining in her chocolate brown eyes. “Alex?” she asks waiting for an answer.
        “Um, no. I’m an only child. I guess my parents only wanted one,” I say looking away from her eyes. If I look any longer into her eyes, I might not be able to stop myself from fading into them.
        “So, both of your parents are in your life, then?” she asks. This just became extremely awkward. I feel bad she only has one parent when I have two, if you even want to call them parents.
        “Uh, yeah. I guess you could say that.”
        “What do you mean?”
        “Um, they’re not really home ever. They are always working or are too busy for me,” I admit truthfully.
        “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
        “It’s okay. Like you said, I wouldn’t want them to pretend to be interested in me if they really weren’t. It wouldn’t be fair to me.” Stacie nods.
        “So, what do you do then? Just hang out in your room all day drawing?”
        “Um, no. I don’t do that all day,” I say stressing the word all.
        “Then what do you do all day?”
        “I sometimes hang out with Nick or do whatever I feel like at the time. Mostly, I will draw pictures, but not always.”
        “You must be really good, then. Can I see them sometime? I mean unless you don’t want me to?”
        “No, I would love to show you sometime. It would be cool to have someone tell me if they’re any good.” Stacie smiles happily and nods her head once.
        “Okay! Good,” she says excitedly.
        “Ring! Ring! Ring!” the school bell screams startling both Stacie and me. She frowns and starts to pack up her things. I hate seeing her upset. A beautiful creature like her doesn’t deserve to be upset ever, but why is she upset? It’s not like it’s because of me, even though I wish a million times over it could be. I begin packing up my stuff, too. Once Stacie is finished, she smiles towards me showing her pearly, white teeth.
        “Bye,” she says waving. I wave back smiling. Marissa catches up to her smiling contently, too. I take it Nick and she must have had a good time. Stacie swims out the door with Marissa by her side.
        “Hey, bro. I think I’m making progress,” Nick says startling me. He chuckles seeing me jump.
        “What did you say?” I ask not really paying attention.
        “I think I’m making progress with Marissa. She doesn’t check my work anymore. We actually were able to talk to each other without one getting annoyed. Surprisingly, we have a lot in common.”
        “Really? I would never have guessed,” I say lying. I knew they had a lot in common. They just needed to see it for themselves.
        “How’d it go with Stacie?”
        “Great! I learned a lot about her today, and she learned a lot about me. She actually seemed to care about the things in my life unlike other people…”
        “Like your parents?” Nick states more than asking. He knows about my parents. Being my best friend, he knows a lot about my family life. When it comes to that, I don’t mind telling him since his family is the same way. Nick doesn’t get paid much attention at his house, which is why I think he acts out at school. Here, he gets the attention he doesn’t get at home.
        “Yeah, like them.”
        “I know how you feel,” Nick says sighing.
        “Hey, I’ll meet up with you later, okay?” Nick looks at me shocked, but nods his head anyways. He’s probably shocked I’m leaving him with four minutes left until the bell rings. We usually split when there’s two.
        I leave Nick and swim towards my next class. Hopefully, I will pass by her on my way. I need to ask her something, something important. As I swim through the hallway, I glance around me frantically. Please, let me pass by her. At the end of the hall, I can see a familiar purple tail swimming next to an orange one. I hastily swim towards it.
        As I arrive near her, I clear my throat making Stacie look up at me. God, she is so beautiful. I can’t believe she is partnered with me. I can’t believe I am so lucky to have her as my partner. Just look at her. I can’t believe Stacie is so beautiful. Her flawless skin; her big, beautiful eyes; her big, pink lips; and her perfect body are only a few qualities of hers that amaze me. I don’t deserve her. Why should I even ask her?
        “Alex?” Stacie asks concerned, bringing me back to Earth. Marissa chuckles a little making me blush.
        “Uh, yeah. Hi,” I stammer. She giggles.
        “Hi. Didn’t we already say our hellos in history?” I blush even more.
        “Yeah, right. I forgot.”
        “Was there something you wanted?” Marissa asks questioningly in a nice way. I nod. Should I ask her? I don’t know. She might say no. Ugh, Alex! You are such a coward! “Well? What is it, then?” Marissa asks chuckling.
        “Um, I wanted to know if you wanted to meet up at my house sometime to work on our project?” I ask stuttering, turning towards Stacie. She looks at me wide-eyed. Marissa nudges her. “Um, Marissa and Nick can come over sometime, too. We can all work on our projects together…” I say hoping this might make her say yes. Stacie opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
        “We’d love to,” Marissa says interrupting Stacie. I look at Stacie before quickly nodding to Marissa. “Does Nick know about this, though?” Marissa asks.
        “Um, yeah…” I say.
        “Okay, good. We can talk about this later, then. I can’t be late to class, and neither can you two,” Marissa says smiling. She swims away waving goodbye. I wave once back out of politeness.
        Why did I have to chicken out in the middle of asking? I didn’t want there to be other people with us. I wanted Stacie all to myself. If only she didn’t look at me like she did, we would be all alone. Wait! Nick doesn’t know about this at all! Hopefully, Marissa doesn’t see him before I do. That way, I can let him know about my plan before she does.
        I glance over at Stacie who looks as if she’s thinking hard about something. Is she thinking about coming over to my house? Hopefully, she is okay with it. I wouldn’t want her to come out of niceness and not purely wanting to. I notice we have only a minute left until the bell rings. I place a hand on Stacie’s shoulder scaring her. She looks at me in shock.
        “We’re going to be late, if we don’t leave now,” I try to say calmly. She glances and must notice how much time we have because she nods with a wide-eyed expression.
        “I’ll be late!” she screams as she takes off towards our class. I watch her go before realizing I’ll be late, too. I follow her to our class. It’s a good thing we are in the same class right now. Also, it’s a good thing our classroom is close.