“Geez, what an asshole!” Colton grumbled. He swam towards Damon and spoke again. “Damon, you’re like a brother to me. If I ever treat you like how Micha treats Cura, feel free to punch me.”
Damon nodded but said, “I don’t think that’ll be necessary, since you have more self-awareness that he has.”
Colton smiled as Tim threw in his two cents, “I agree with you guys and all but it's probably best to not say our thoughts on Micha too loudly. After all, he knows people that control our bank accounts.”
Cura loosened her fist and let out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Tim’s right. I can’t stand him but it’s no good letting him get under our skins right now.” She turned her heads towards her group. “Sorry for the soured mood. Ana, you mentioned schooling right?”
Ana nodded. “I have no idea how to teach merchildren, so I could really use some pointers.
“Very well,” Cura replied with anger slowly dying in her voice. “Let’s take a small tour of Syreni Elementary School. It’s a little out of the way from the science center but I hope this doesn’t inconvenience you, Damon.”
“Not at all,” Damon replied. “I'm curious to see what school would look like for Isabella.”
Everyone nodded and proceeded to follow Cura to the school, although she seemed to flick her tail fin harder than before - Likely still upset over what happened with her brother. Adrian noticed this and swam up to Cura.
“Hey,” he said, laying a hand on her back. “I’m sorry over what happened with Micha. I should’ve said something.”
“It’s fine.” Cura sighed. “The issues between my brother and I go way back. I come from a family of ambitious people and the rest of my siblings managed to get high ranks in mersociety. I, however, always felt sympathetic for the farmers and the many humans who were turned into merpeople and struggled to fit in. My family didn’t like that and my relations with them felt bitter ever since.”
“Damn…” Adrian muttered his breath. “Curse them. You’re doing a genuine service by helping us. You didn’t need to help us but yet you did everything to make sure Tim and the others were safe. Your family may not like what you’re doing but I do. Thank you.”
Cura looked to Adrian with misty eyes, her eyes shimmering like gems under sunlight. “No… Thank you, Adrian.” She whispered.
Adrian recoiled a bit as he felt Cura’s hand gently stroke his cheek. It felt so… unfamiliar to him but yet it felt… nice. A smile began to appear on his face.
Before things got more intimate, they were interrupted by the sounds of merchildren laughing and playing as they were swimming out of a building made out of coral, with the words “Syreni Elementary” carved in.
“Ah, that must be the students enjoying an early recess,” Cura said. “That means we can talk to the staff of the school without interrupting their classwork.”
Damon, Monica, Harmony, and Ana looked at the children with a smile. The various merkids had a variety of colored tails. Though, there were some kids with tails with more unique looking designs that might’ve come from a relative that was formerly a human.
Colton was also looking at the playing kids with endearment when he suddenly felt a small hand touch his tail’s behind.
He turned to see a brown-haired merboy with a green tail stroking his tail.
“This looks so cool.” The boy whispered in awe. Suddenly he jumped up in surprise as he realized Colton noticed him. “Oh, I’m sorry!”
Colton chuckled. “No, no. It’s fine. Say, why were you touching my tail in the first place?”
The merboy shrugged. “I just thought it looked cool. I had never seen a tail that looked like yours before. How did you get it?”
Colton smiled. “Well, I was a human and this tail was my swimsuit.”
The merboy grinned. “You’re a human? That’s so cool! I thought my big brother was the only human around!”
Lupe raised a curious eyebrow. “Hold on, your brother was a human?”
The merboy nodded and showed off his tail. “His tail looks just like mine.”
“Huh…” Lupe wondered but her train of thought was interrupted by Cura's voice.
“Alright, everyone,” Cura said. “We can go inside. Ana, follow me.”
Ana and her husband nodded as they followed Cura into the school. The school certainly looked more interesting than the hallways of the surface but it’s not difficult for a child to move around in and get in class.
Sitting by a doorway was a young mermaid holding a book and a friendly smile on her face. She had blonde hair, a beautiful orange tail, and a perky chest covered by seashells - Certainly not the typical appearance of a teacher on the surface.
“Thanks for allowing to talk to you on such short notice, Nerissa, or as the kids call you, Ms. Wilson,” Cura said with a smile.
Nerissa chuckled. “That’s going to be MRS. Wilson, soon.” She turned to Ana, “Ah, I assume you’re interested in how I teach here?”
Ana nodded. “I was a teacher for several years on the surface. I had a good reputation and was about to get a promotion before my friends discovered a merbaby and… Well, you can piece the story from here.”
Nerissa chuckled again. “Yup, it happens. I’m pretty sure there's a good chunk of former humans, even in this city. I was born a mermaid but my great-grandmother was a human. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.” She said with a warm smile.
“Ah, good,” Ana said. “Well, I was wondering if there’s anything I should know about being a mermaid teacher. What’s it like and how could I teach the kids?”
“Good question,” Nerissa said as she held out a big book that looked very official-looking. “This is a lesson plan sent by the government to teachers on what to teach the kids. The school offers a variety of subjects, like math, reading, history, art, and such.”
Ana sighed in relief. “So, it’s not that different from regular school on the surface.”
“Nope, not that different. Although, you should pay close attention to the books recommended by the kings and the history of the merpeople.”
“Oh? What’s merfolk history like?” Ana inquired.
“It’s pretty out there if you’re a human but bear with me. It’s said the birth of the merpeople was caused by a god who wanted to make a race of people to matched his image but could live underwater. So the god waited by the ocean until he found a human girl who was facing through a flooding storm raging on her island home.
“The god offered the girl to live in the water and to swim with a strong tail instead of her failing legs. The girl accepted the offer and the god fused her legs into a royal blue tail, pulled her ears into fins, and opened a pair of gills on her sides. She became the first mermaid ever to be born.
“The girl was about to go into the water when she was discovered by a young boy who had a crush on her. He begged the god to not let the ocean separate her from him and offered up his human legs as a devotion of love. The god accepted the offer and turned him into a merman.
After his transformation, the god gave the boy and girl crowns and ornamented their body with gold bangles and pearls. The god named them the first king and queens of the merpeople. Satisfied with his work, the god proceeded to transform everyone else at the island - turning their doomed island into the first merkingdom.”
Ana looked at Nerissa with a very confused but fascinated look on her face. She rubbed her eyes as she processed what she had just heard. “Well… That’s going to take some getting used to. No offense, miss, but that doesn’t seem realistic compared to documented human stories."
Nerissa chuckled but nodded. “Indeed. Well, there is a more scientific theory that explains how merpeople came from the apelike ancestors of humans that wanted to explore the sea rather than travel on land.
“Of course, if you told a merchild which they would rather learn, the tale with magic and romance or the story that requires research and knowledge of the ocean - I think you could guess which of these lessons will make the classroom less sleepy.”
Ana giggled as memories of her less engaging classes flooded in. “I can see that. Hopefully, the literature doesn’t bore my class either.”
Nerissa nodded. “Agreed. Compared to human literature for schools, merfolk literature is… well, more engaging. No offense.”
“None taken,” Ana said. “Believe me, I couldn’t tell you how much work I had to do to get my students to read The Great Gatsby or the works by Shakespeare.”
Cura smiled as she heard the two teachers getting along so well. She checks the time to see that there are still around three hours left until she has to meet Micha for lunch.
She swims outside the school and looks for Damon and Monica, eager to offer them a chance to see what’s employment like in the science center.