Chapter 5
Pearl's POV

I was naked and cold and afraid. Where was Pale?!?! How hard could it be to find clothes?

"When I see her again I'm gonna slap her so hard across the face she's gonna wish she was never-"

"So I got the clothes your looking for."

I turned my head and faced Pale. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she looked at me like I was an alien.

"Is everything okay? You look like you're going to explode."

"Pale! I'm not okay! You can't just leave me out in the freezing water for an hour and expect me to be okay! Where were you anyway!"

Pale glanced down at the water. "Uh, yeah about that, I kind of for caught up in something."

I rolled my eyes. Pale! Why can't you just do your job!

"Well, I got your clothes," Pale said holding them up.

In her hand were two weird thin objects. One had four holes, with red and white stripes. The other thing was long with three holes. It had lots of pockets and was olive green.

"Alright," Pale said moving in closer to me. "So this is a shirt, and it goes over your head to fit on your torso."

She took the red and white thing and put the biggest hole over my head. I slipped my arms through the two longest holes and my head through another small one.

"It's uncomfortable and itchy," I said scratching my back and stomach.

"Don't worry Pearl, you'll get used to it," Pale replied. "Now these are pants."

She held up the long olive green thing.

"These go on your legs and up to your hips," Pale replied. "Um...listen, do you think you can put these on yourself?"

I nodded and took the pants gingerly. I slipped it on through my ankles and pulled it up to my hips.

"There," Pale said, satisfied.

But there was still one big problem. "What do I do now?"

Pale scratched her head. "Listen, hop on my back, I'll ride you down the docks."

"But-but, it's the middle of the day, won't people see us?"

"I doubt it," Pale said. But, I could see in her eyes she didn't believe herself. I knew she had a plan, but she was questioning it.

"Come on," Pale said lying on her back.

I grabbed her shoulders and kneeled. She winced a little bit and shuffled me around, just so she was comfortable.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah-yeah I'm fine," she strained.

Pale then took off at lightning speeds towards the dock. My wet hair flew in the wind, giving me whiplash.

After about three minutes of traveling, Pale slowed to a halt.

"Here we are," she said. "I'm going to let you down now, it's a little deep do just grab on to my shoulders."

I nodded and hopped off her. The current pulled me a bit, but I did as I was told and gripped Pale's shoulders.

She guided me to the second out of three wooden docks. I looked around, and saw no one. Thank god.

Pale dragged me as far as she could.

"Okay, your going to need to stand up now, but be careful, it's slippery. And it may take you some time to get used to, because well, you never been human."

I crawled on all fours to the pavement. I slowly pushed upwards until I was on my tippy toes and my hands barely reached the floor. Slowly and carefully, my hands let go of the hot cement. My legs were shaking for a moment, until I gained balance.

Pale clapped her hands as I began to take slow steps in a circle.

"Wow, you're walking faster than I started swimming with a tail."

I laughed, but that slowly stopped. "Hey Pale, what am I supposed to do now."

Pale's smile faded. "Pearl...I-I don't know."

I walked closer to her and sat down in the water.

"There is always my mom's house," Pale said hopefully.

I smiled once again. "Great!"

Pale's face quickly melted to a frown once again. "But, your just like a baby. You don't know anything about the human world. I can't just dump all that stress and responsibility on my mom and David. And, along with that, I have no idea how David is going to react with raising a mermaid...or a teenager."

I sighed. "Well, what are we supposed to do?"

"Pearl! I'm thinking!" Pale snapped.

My heart sunk.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm just stressed. Lots of things are...you know what, just forget it."

I furrowed my eyebrows and placed my hand on Pale's arm. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything is fine, except for the fact that your human," Pale said rubbing her eyes.

I rolled my eyes. "Well yeah, obviously."

"Ugh! I just need to think!" Pale said slamming her fist into the water, creating a small splash. "I also have so much work to do back at the kingdom, stress, responsibilities, stupid stuff really."

I nodded. "I can call your mom."

Pale shook her head. "No, I told you, she's busy enough."

"Brian?"

"He's gonna end up accidentally killing you with a frying pan or something. Yeah, no way I'm having children with him."

"James?"

"Doesn't he already have two children to look after?"

Last summer, Pisces had twins. A girl named Anita and a boy named Daniel. As usual, the kids were born human and then around teenage years they turn into merpeople. Exactly what happened to Pale and Matthew.

I let out a large sigh. "Uh, Pete?"

"Brian still lives with him."

"But isn't he eighteen?"

"Like I said, he's clumsy, I don't want him accidentally killing himself, and neither does Pete."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. Hey what about Brian's mom?"

"Pete and her are back together."

My eyes widened in surprise. As far as I knew, Brian's mom hated Pete because of his mermaid obsession.

"They got married again?" I asked.

Pale nodded. "I was going to go to the wedding, but well, I'm a mermaid."

"But why did they get back together?"

"Pete got over his mermaid obsession. They all moved back into a nice house and sold the trailer to open up a fish market."

I sighed. "So I guess there is no one for me to go to?"

Pale looked at me with her large brown eyes. "I'm sorry Pearl, but I think your going to have to make a life here on your own. I need to get back the kingdom."

Pale began to turn around. I can't just let my best friend swim out of my life! "Pale wait!"

Pale looked back at me.

My stomach swirled with emotions. I have her attention, what do I do? Where do I start? What question do I even ask?

"Will I ever be a mermaid again?" I finally asked. "Will I ever be able to see the kingdom? My family? You?"

Pale shrugged. "You'll always see me and your family. As for the kingdom and being a mermaid, you need to figure that out on your own."

Pale waded out deeper into the water. I was not going to let my life slip away from my fingers that easily.

"Pale! Wait again!"

Pale turned around once again. I could see in her eyes she didn't want to leave either.

"You've been a human before! Why can't you become one now? This really matters!"

Pale hung her head. "Listen, Pearl. Those days were just luck. I have no idea how to be a human now, and I'm completely out of ideas."

Tears began to roll down my face. "Can I at least have a goodbye hug?"

Pale nodded. "Of course."

I walked deeper into the water, until it was up to my knees and Pale swam in a little closer.

I bent down and wrapped my arm around her. She hugged me back and pressed her head on my shoulder. None of us wanted to let go, all we did was hold each other there. My shoulder felt wet, I soon realized that Pale was crying. I couldn't help but crying either.

I began to soften up my grip. "No," Pale said. "Don't let go." I squeezed her harder. "I never wanted to," I replied. "Good," she responded.

I slowly felt my body heat dropping. Is that normal? Maybe it's just a human thing.

"Pearl," Pale said very sternly. "Do you feel any different?"

"No," I replied furrowing my eyebrows.

Pale quickly released me and looked down at herself. She let out a small scream and jumped on to her feet.

"I'm human!" She yelled. I wasn't sure if she was freaked of happy.

"Pearl! I'm human!"

Yep. Definitely freaked out. She wasn't naked either, maybe this was her clothes from when she was fourteen.

"Pearl! How did this happen?"

"I-I don't know," I stuttered.

Suddenly, something happened again. Splash! Pale was once again, a mermaid.

Pale looked down at herself, spooked out of her skin. "Woah," she said. "What just happened?"

I shrugged. "Maybe it has to do with water. When your out of water, your human, and when your in the water your mermaid."

Pale laughed. "Pearl your a genius!"

I sighed. "Yeah I guess I am."

As Pale began to pull herself out of the water, I couldn't help but to feel sad. Why is Pale half-human half-fish while I'm only human! But, the again, it's probably best because of her queen duties.

"Pearl!" Pale called from the shore. "Your idea worked!"

I looked down at Pale, who was sitting on the dry cement, with two legs. She quickly stood up, but now that she's human, did that really solve any problems?

"Great," Pale said. "Now I can take care of you. But, we're only seventeen, not old enough to buy a house, we don't even have any money for starters."

Ugh. Great, still no money, shelter or good clothes.

"Pale," I said, putting my hand on your shoulders. "We should go someplace, now that you can take care of me we can go to someone for help."

"My mom's!Gosh, I haven't seen her in forever!" Pale said putting her hand on her forehead. "And now that you have me, she won't have to worry about you."

Relief flooded my system. It was nice to know that we nearly had our first step sorted out.

"Come on," Pale said taking my hand. "Let's go show you where I grew up."