Chapter 1:

Today was a hot normal day in La Jolla, California, so Nikki and I decided to hit the public pool for some tanning time. After we swam a couple of laps and tanned for over 30 minutes, I heard a group of familiar voices. “Nikki, I’m starting to burn I think, so I’m gonna swim for a little longer.” I said covering my eyes from the sun to look at her. “Okay I need to head out anyways because I have to get to work at the coffee shop.” She responded. “All right see you later Nikki.” I said as she gathers her things. As I watched her walk away I walked over to the lazy pool were all the waterfalls were. I got in quietly I swam over to Taylor’s group and rapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck, and said hi to all his friends. “You missed me?” I asked still hanging on to him. “Of course.” He smiled turning around to face me. He hugged me tightly and went for a kiss, and suddenly the whole group started making kissing noises at us. I pulled away and felt my face change red. He turned to face him and said smiling “Oh shut up I don’t see any of you with a girlfriend.”When he turned around I swam to the waterfall so we could have more privacy. Then I heard Paul say “Well Taylor, I don’t see you with a girl either.” I quickly saw Taylor turn around and scan the pool with careful eyes. As I watched him look for me I saw his face twist with concern. Finally our eyes met, I stared into his dark eyes as he stepped under the waterfall to me. ‘’Don’t do that to Me Mia.’’ He frowned. “Sorry.” I said looking down at our feet. He came closer and put his hand under my chin so I could look at him. ‘’Don’t worry I’m not mad you just almost gave me a heart attack. The thought of losing you is unbearable.’’ He said softly. I could see this was all from the heart and I believed him. I smiled and hugged him tightly not wanting to let go. I looked up at him and he looked down at me. “I hate being short.’’ I mumbled under my breath. Taylor just smiled and said, “I love you just the way you are, I wouldn’t care if you had flippers, or were a secret vampire.’’ He sat on the pool floor pulling me into his lap. “I will always love no matter what.” He said shyly. ‘’Even though I am a big klutz.’’ I joked. “Yes even though you’re a big klutz, but I will always be there when you fall.” We both started to laugh. Then I said seriously, “Thanks Taylor and I will always love you no matter what, even though you’re a giant dork, but you will always be my giant dork. That’s why I love you.’’ I smiled shyly feeling my face change colors. As I stared into his eyes he smiled the smile that could light up an entire room and leaned in and kissed me. I pulled back to see his face, for a second we looked at each other and leaned in for another kiss. As we leaned we heard someone come up it was Alex. “Umm… sorry for the interruption, but the need us on the rez.’’ He said shyly looking at us. Surely he was dared to come and break up our little session because I could see Bronson and Paul laughing near the entrance. I got up to sit on the edge of the pool. “Go I’ll be okay, I need to head to the library for my shift anyways.” I said to get him from glaring at the other boys. “How will you get there?” He asked shifting towards me. “I’ll ride my bike.”I smiled. “Yeah and with your luck you will probably fall.” He said getting out of the pool. I looked up at him and said, “Would it make you feel any better if I say I’ll bring extra band aids with me.” I could see he was trying not to laugh and he finally said “Fine.” He seemed a little upset to lose this fight but I just smiled at him. “I’ll be fine.” I said kissing his cheek. “Bye Tay.” I said. “I love you.” He said pulling the rest of me out of the water and into a hug. He kissed my head and said “I’ll be back soon. Be careful and safe please.” “I will try but there will be no promises.” I said kissing him back. “But it’s not like the books will attack me.” I muttered. He laughed and walked away. As I watched him join the group I heard him ask sourly, “Why do you guys do this to me?” “Oh Taylor, what are you talking about?” Bronson said slyly and then everyone laughed except Taylor. I just smiled and walked to gather my things, to head home and go for a boring shift at the library.












Chapter 2:

As I walked into the library I could see Mr. Barnes waiting to tell me something. “Hey Mr. Barnes what’s up.” I said walking up next to him. “Good afternoon Mia.” He said solemnly. “Mr. B you put me in charge of upstairs didn’t you.”I said smiling. “Yeah how did you know?’’ he asked sort of confuse. “Your expression gives it away big time.” I laughed. “It’s totally fine Mr. B this will give me three hours to catch up on a good book.”I said running up the stairs. As I reached the empty desk there was a book screaming for me to read it. It was like a déjà vu, but I didn’t know for what. I picked up the book to see the barcode or anything that would say it belonged to library, but no barcode, no nothing. The book was old fashion black leather with a little string to keep the page, and that’s when it hit me, this was someone’s journal that was here before me. The little devil in my head said, “come on just one peek, it won’t hurt anyone.”, and the good side of me said, “don’t you dare take a peek just give it to Mr. Barnes.” I debated for a few moments whether or not to read the book, finally what nobody knew wouldn’t hurt them and I opened the diary. After reading the first page I knew this didn’t belong to anyone that worked in the library. Her name was Asmay, and the first entry was over 43 years ago. The first few entries where about Asmay and two of her friends discovering this secret cove down at the beach and how they found this secret pool where later on the used to swim into the coral reefs. After about the fourth entry she said that her and her friends magically transform into mermaids with powers that control the water. I was amazed but what I had just read, I got into the book very quickly reading about all their Mind-blowing experience. She talked about swimming with dolphins, exploring local reefs, even swimming to this island about 10 miles into sea, and how they would spend their days together and white sandy beaches. Then as I reached the last few entries I jumped to the sound of my cell phone buzzing away in my pocket. “Hey stalker, what’s up?”I whispered into the phone. “Hey Mia, I can’t go back into town today, but if you want you can come over for dinner.” Taylor said straight forward into the phone. “Uh…sure that sounds great, I still have half an hour or so here and then I wanted to check out this place I found.” I said calmly trying not to sound too excited. “Well make sure you take some just to be safe.”He said to my surprise. I could hear all the guys talking or fighting in the background and it made me smile. “Bye Tay.” I said quickly. “Bye Mia, see you soon. “He whispered, and we both hung up. After I hung up I called my mom to ask about going over to Taylor’s house and of course she agreed. “Anything to be with her new boyfriend.” I muttered silently. I cleared my head of all my thoughts and got back to the book. This entry was talking about Asmay’s best friend Iris, telling her boyfriend her secret. Soon after telling him he told the whole school and then a group of people exposed her out in public. As soon as the saw what she was, they took her away. Asmay said they took her to research facilities, and all the experiments killed Iris. I was in complete shock to read this; I couldn’t believe it got that bad. The last entry wrote about how Asmay would miss her friend and how Lily and Asmay gave up their power on a Blue moon in the pool. That was it, the rest of the pages were empty. The dates in the book were over 43 years old, and that was when I checked the last entry’s date. It was exactly today 44 years ago. This was so very interesting and convenient, so I decided to search mermaids on Google. I read articles about Iris and other firsthand sightings. I was in the middle of reading all about sirens when Ms. Green came up to relieve me of my job. She was eyeing my books and computer screen very suspiciously. “Uh…it’s a research project I’m doing for school.” I said quickly getting my things and Asmay’s journal and shoving it in my bag. Before she could respond I was all ready down the stairs shouting goodbye to her. To my surprise when I got downstairs I see my best friend Jordan coming in. “Hey Jordan do you want to go check out this place I read about?” I asked nonchalantly. “Sure.” She said looking relieved. “It will probably be better than studying.” She said with a big smile across her face as we walked over to her car.