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"Rio!" My dad’s voice sliced through the sudden tension in the kitchen "Apologize to your sister"

"Yeah, like that’s going to happen" He shoved away from the table and headed toward the stairs

"Rio!" My dad made to follow him

I started to tell him not to worry about it, that I was used to Rio’s little fits, but Sabrina beat me to it She laid a hand onto hier frorier Who the hell did she think she was, butting into irlfriend, but that didn’t give her the right to interfere between him and us The fact that I had just been about to tell hio as as completely beside the point

Mark cleared his throat, et going, Teame starts in less than an hour"

I could have kissed hie for a while

After disentangling myself from Moku--which was much easier said than done--I left hi Phineas and Ferb reruns as I dashed up to ame didn’t start until seven, Mark and I were supposed to ether in as sure to be a packed stadiuaot todeep breaths as I tried to calm down from my intense and crazy reaction to Sabrina While it was true I didn’t like her, she wasn’t the first person I hadn’t gotten along with since beco mermaid And no one else had encapsulated me with such deep-seated fury that my powers spun out of control whenever she was in the room

So as it about her that settotal control over my power I didn’t knohy my discipline had suddenly abandoned me, but I didn’t like it At all Anystupid, that I was just jealous because she was obviously trying to usurp my relationship with Moku Which, if I were honest, was h tofor hi with that made me furious

But this was er or distrust or dislike When I looked at her, I felt uneasy Defensive Murderous Only Tiaht emotions like those out in endering such confusion and rage h I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do aboutwas up, no evidence that she was anything but the high-priced hairdresser she claimed to be Yet every tier, more violent Surely that wasn’t a coincidence

Since there was nothing I could do about it now--so his girlfriend--I walked over to my closet and stared at the wardrobe that looked both fa bikinis and sarongs for close to a year, it felt strange to be standing in front of row after row of jeans; thin, clingy sweaters; tank tops; and T-shirts There was also a handful of dresses--each one of which I re out for a specific occasion--and yet it still felt like they belonged to someone else To someone I used to be

I reached out, stroked my hand over what had, at one time, been my favorite sundress It was the same blue as my eyes, with little bow straps and a short, full skirt that I loved because it s that had never really been uys--on irly-girl routine

That was one thing that hadn’t changed since I’d beco here in the middle of the room I’d taken such pains not to spend time in these last couple of days, it felt like it was the only thing that hadn’t

Even after two and a half days on land,and sagging in all the wrong places My naturally curly blond hair was freaking out, like it had forgotten how to be dry after so --hard and lumpy and uncomfortable compared to the mattress of encapsulated water I slept on deep in the Pacific

I lovedhere had becoo of the dress, I told rab a pair of jeans and a sweater heavy enough to keep at bay the omnipresent chill I felt whenever I was on land After all, Mark aiting for me

Mark, who had accepted the truth of my duality without so much as a minor freak-out

Mark, who had nearly died at the hands of Tia--still wanted me Still loved me with the same desperate intensity that I loved hih Except when it wasn’t

Frustrated with the confusion tuh tide, I walked to the plate-glassthat made up the western wall of ainst the sand and wondered what the hell irls who thought she deserved everything, who believed it was her right to have her cake and eat it too And yet here I was, clinging to two lives that really couldn’t coexist, no matter how much I wanted them to I was tied to one, desperate to hold on to the other, and in the end was doing justice to neither The fact that Mark and my father and Moku and the merpeople of Coral Straits were too polite to tell me so didn’t mean that it wasn’t true I hadn’t believed Kona, hadn’t believed Hailana, when they’d told me I had to choose I’d been so certain I could be both mermaid and human So what if my mother hadn’t been able to make it work? That didn’t mean I couldn’t I just had to work harder at it than she ever did

Intellectually, I knew the sive up my humanity To dive deep into the Pacific and never coain After all, the hu quite nicely without me in it The same couldn’t be said of the Pacific, which was poised on the brink of a deadly war A war in which I was a key player

But so I had tried going deep before, had tried leaving behind my family, Mark,e had Besides, I couldn’t leavesignal I had stood at full alert whenever she was around

I shifted a little so that I was resting, full body, against the cool glass of theAs I did, the cheap throw rug beneath my feet crunched as I stepped on splatters of paint I had dropped there in what felt like a different life Looking at the s for the feel of a paintbrush inI hadn’t allowed myself to want inwasn’t exactly a doable hobby for a mermaid