Sam hesitated. He needed to let go and allow her to return to the mainland, but it still didn’t feel right. She was his mate and supposed to be with him. He was supposed to protect her. He couldn’t do that from the ocean, forbidden to step foot on land without his father’s direct order. What he wouldn’t give to be named his heir at the moment. He could make his own choices then. It was never a job Sam wanted and never once had he volunteered, but he was getting closer to asking to be put into the running for it.
The king had several sons still living, and he had yet to choose which was going to follow his rule. It wasn’t like there was a rush on it. Sirens lived for hundreds of years. His father wasn’t even one century old yet. But it was something he would have to decide, especially since he had grown fond of the island and had not left in over a decade. It was hard to be king when you never left your little world. The longer the king took in choosing an heir, the more likely it was that there would be arguing over who was next in line. Siren and mer alike were already choosing sides. From the little Sam had seen of the politics, Tim actually had quite a following. Sam would have expected Nic or Ken to be next in line since they were the oldest. Even his brother Lee was close to a decade older than Tim, but it seemed his horrible older brother of only two years was next in line by popular vote. Since their father had yet to name which son would be his heir, everything was still up in the air for who would rule next. His oldest brother had been the heir for over a decade before hunters killed him, their father wouldn’t name one after that.
“Stay away from anyone new,” Sam told Whitney for like the umpteenth time, causing her to roll her eyes. He couldn’t help it; he had reports of night human hunters moving into the area. Whitney was so new to everything. He was sure she would be on their radar right away.
“I got it. I’ll just hang with Tina and Trudy, and they’ll keep me out of everything,” Whitney told him.
He had a feeling she wasn’t as serious as she should be, not understanding the danger of carelessness.
“Sam. Really. I’ll be fine.” Whitney placed a hand on each of his cheeks and kept his face toward her instead of scanning the beach.
They were too far away for any human to see them amongst the waves, but that didn’t stop Sam from looking for anyone watching them. He was letting her swim away unprotected, and there was nothing he could do about it. He felt so much like a failure.
‘Sam,’ Whitney said, tugging his arms and pulling him under the waves, ‘I will stay safe. I know how to control my fin, and I know how to be a night human. I’m not as new at this as you seem to think. I’ll be fine and see you on Friday.’
Sam stared hard at her. He had never trusted anyone in his life before, except his mother, but even that was difficult at times. She was loyal to his father, and Sam didn’t trust the king at all. If Whitney could see both the good and bad in his father, he was certain she was fooled into thinking there was any real good in the man. The siren king was as cold and calculating as all the blue siren were, probably worse since he was king. That was the part Whitney wasn’t seeing, and the part of Sam didn’t want her to see as he protected the worst memories of his from her. He needed her to like her new world and not regret it. He wanted her to want to be a siren and stay with him, and he was pretty certain if she knew the real side to them, she would leave. He had seen what night humans were to her and they were not the same to the siren. She still believed being a night human meant protecting day humans. He needed time to figure out how to tell her what she had joined and what he had made her a part of. For now, she had to believe they were good and there was good in them.
‘He did give you the okay for Friday, right?’ Whitney was worried, and Sam quickly realized his lack of response had been interpreted differently than he expected. Yes, that was Whitney. She was something different and unique, and he wasn’t going to lose her.
‘Yes. He said I can still sing for the band. From there we will take the boat out to the island, so you can bring anything you want to leave there with you.’
Smiling, Whitney pulled him closer. Sam let his worries melt away as his lips met hers. There would still be time to figure it all out. The sirens wouldn’t keep him from her. He wouldn’t let them, and he wasn’t going to allow his father to make him lose her either. He would figure it all out when he wasn’t watching from the shore to make sure she was safe.
The two green fins of her friends disappeared as they climbed onto the rock formation he had led them to. It would be safe to enter land from there, and no one would be the wiser. Sam knew that much would stay hidden; now he just needed to believe Whitney would stay safe when he couldn’t see or plan everything out. Her friends had come to pick her up, which helped only a little to relieve his ever-growing concerns.
‘You have to go now,’ Sam told Whitney. He had a second sense about going on land, much more than most of the merfolk. They were currently safe from possible unknown eyes, but that didn’t mean it would stay safe. It was the perfect time, and he needed it to be perfect.
Whitney nodded and swam a few yards away from him before turning around.
‘I’ll miss you,’ she told him across the bond, turning back to follow her friends to the shore.
Sam watched her fin disappear, and her legs climb onto the rock. She followed her friends up and stood on the edge looking back into the water. It was dusk, and with the setting sun, Sam knew she wouldn’t be able to see him, but he sat and watched her. Her golden hair framed her face. He couldn’t feel her thoughts as she stood out of the water he was swimming in, and it felt like she was leaving him. His heartbeat picked up as he watched her turn and follow her friends, climbing back around the rock formation, toward the shore. He could never lose her. It would kill him inside. He would do whatever it took to keep her.
‘I’ll miss you more,’ he said silently to her back as she disappeared from his view.
It felt like a typical Monday as Whitney made her way to the lunchroom. She was ready to find Tina and Trudy to complain about her already rocky morning, since it was James and Noah that had picked her up. Yeah, they were her friends, too, but they were guys and probably wouldn’t have understood her pain as much as the girls. She was in need of girlfriend time to help her cope with the separation from Sam. She had to make it through the week to see him again, and it had only been a few hours. She didn’t know how she was going to make it that long.
With her new joining of the siren, she could now tell who each siren was in school. While she couldn’t see it before, even when she had just become one, she could now that she was a part of their clan. Their siren markings swirled just below the skin of many of her classmates just as hers did. It was like she joined a new club which should have been exciting; except for the fact joining didn’t mean they would like her. While she was mostly ignored before by everyone since she had started her new school, now their indifference seemed to be replaced by hostile looks as she passed people in the hallways. She couldn’t wait to have lunch with the only four faces she was sure would be happy to see her.
Whitney had brought her own lunch and quickly made her way to their normal table. Sitting down alone for a few minutes was usual when she brought a lunch, as her friends—Tina, Trudy, Noah, and James—always ate school food. As she waited for them, Whitney grabbed her math homework and quickly jotted down the last two answers … now she wouldn’t have to worry about it later. The room around her began to fill up as she finished. Good thing she remembered to bring it to lunch. Otherwise, it probably wouldn’t have gotten done.
The lunchroom was filled with students and noise by the time Whitney looked up. Her table was still empty, which was a bit weird. As she thought back, she hadn’t seen either Tina or Trudy in the morning, which was strange since Tina had a locker right near hers. Whitney felt dread settle in her stomach. Sam had seemed really worried when he left, but wouldn’t explain why. Was there something happening to the sirens on the mainland while she was gone? That couldn’t be it. James and Noah had traveled from the island with her. Things were fine then, but now she sat alone.
Standing up, Whitney didn’t need to scan the room to discover that her friends were safe. They were already at a table sitting and eating. It just happened that it wasn’t the table Whitney was at. Instead, they sat at Sam’s old table right next to Amber, the mer who Sam turned down being mated with and who now had a big grudge against Whitney.
Whitney glanced at her friend’s faces and saw that they were miserable at their new table. Perfect-looking Amber without a single hair out of place finally noticed Whitney looking over at them as she turned Whitney’s way. She smiled and gave a little wave before pointing to the table where Whitney was sitting.
Looking down, she saw a paper on the table where her friends normally sat.
Take my friends, and I’ll take yours. Sam’s worth at least four greens. Thanks for the new servants.
Whitney wadded the note up in her hand and began to push up to go over and tell Amber what she thought, but Tina caught her eye and shook her head, which was enough to make Whitney pause. While she wanted to go over and give Amber a piece of her mind, she trusted her friend. Something in her eyes said to listen to her. Instead of going over to the table, Whitney let Amber think she had won and sat back down alone. It wasn’t like Whitney wasn’t used to being alone in a lunchroom. She had transferred schools once before coming to their school. She would be fine. Once she got to the bottom of things, she would get her friends back.
Sitting back down, Whitney checked over her math homework. It was the only distraction she had with her, and she needed a distraction to keep from blowing up at Amber. It was ridiculous. Whitney wasn’t keeping Sam from Amber. Sam wanted nothing to do with her, or the sirens in general. That wasn’t Whitney’s fault. And actually, Whitney didn’t blame him on the Amber front. Whitney’s mother had told her more than once when she was a child that if you didn’t have something nice to say, you don’t say anything at all. That definitely pertained to Amber. Whitney had nothing she could say about the girl.
“Um …” A shadow fell over Whitney’s paper as someone stood beside the table, blocking the light.
Whitney glanced up to find a girl standing there, staring down at her paper, but not her. She had never seen the girl before, and she was sure she would have remembered her. She had long black hair that was tipped pink around the edges, some tattoos, and too many piercings to count. Even with her school uniform on, the girl stood out. How could you not with a Celtic cross taking up most of your forearm? That wasn’t something you saw often in a school with teenagers. Whitney’s mother would have killed her if she got a small tattoo that could be concealed. This girl’s wasn’t hidden at all.
“Can I sit here?” the girl asked quietly, pointing to the empty table.
Not only had Whitney’s friends ditched her, but everyone else seemed to shy away from her, too. It looked like life at her new school was easier if you were human, and not siren … at least in her case.
“Yeah, seems my friends have ditched me for the popular table, so it’s all free,” Whitney told her.
It was possible Tina and Trudy could hear her over all the noise with their super siren hearing, but that didn’t stop Whitney. It was kind of true that they ditched her, whether they wanted to or not. Then it hit Whitney as she remembered something from just nights before. Tim had made her friends do whatever he wanted because he was a blue and they were greens. The siren world was divided into two classes, and the blues had free reign to boss around the greens. They had to follow his orders because all four were green siren. Amber was a blue. Whitney stared across the cafeteria at her friends. Tina looked miserable, and Trudy looked pissed as she stood to go get something from the lunch line. Tina’s twin brother, Noah, actually seemed just as angry as Trudy as he stood and he moved to follow. One word from Amber, and he was sitting back down. There was so much Whitney needed to learn in the mer world, but finding out how to command someone to ignore jerks like Amber was at the top of her list now.
The quiet girl sat down kitty-corner from Whitney, like she was leaving room for her friends to come back. It was kind, but not necessary.
“Really, they aren’t coming back to the table soon. Seems they are being used by the popular kids and can’t really get out of it.”
Whitney waved at her friends, including Trudy, who was returning from the lunch line with more food that was being snatched away by one of the guys at the table. At least now her friends knew she understood.
“Are you new here?” Whitney ventured to guess, motioning for the new girl to move down and sit across from her.
The new girl seemed surprised by her offer and looked around one more time like she was afraid it was a joke or Whitney’s friends were coming back to kick her out of the spot. Neither was the case. Whitney had been new on two different occasions and knew how fun it really wasn’t.
“I’m Whitney Mallory,” Whitney continued to talk like the girl had answered yes. It seemed like there was a slight head shake, or at least Whitney thought that’s what she saw since it seemed the new girl was the quiet, shy type. “I was new last year; I know how it feels.”
“I’m Jade,” the new girl added, finally sounding a bit surer of herself as she stopped looking around the room like someone was going to sneak up and pull her out of her seat.
“What grade are you in?” Whitney asked, trying to keep the conversation going and hopefully loosen the shy girl up a little.
“Senior.” She looked back at her food quickly, causing her pink tips to brush over her shoulder and into her face, like she could hide behind it.
Whitney had no idea how someone that stuck out so much thought they could hide. The girl’s complete sense of style was unique, and Whitney knew there had to be a stronger personality hidden down inside somewhere.
“I wonder if we have any classes together. Did they print you off a schedule?”
Whitney was now determined to get the shy girl to open up.
Jade rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a perfectly folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, she handed it over to Whitney.
Whitney scanned it quickly. “Not a single class,” she exclaimed. The school was pretty big, but with seven classes during the day, Whitney thought she’d have at least one with the new girl. “But my friend, Trudy, has gym class for third hour like you. She has red, curly hair.”
Taking back the class schedule when Whitney handed it to her, Jade appeared to think for a moment. This time she didn’t automatically look back down.
“I think I remember seeing her. She was all alone and not speaking to anyone. It seemed like she was having a bad day,” Jade commented. For being so shy, she seemed to notice everything around her.
Whitney nodded over to the popular table. “I’d count any day where you have to interact with Amber a bad day.”
Jade followed her gaze and nodded as she noticed Trudy.
“Are you in a fight with your friends?” she asked, and then immediately covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to pry. We’ve only just met, and I’m asking personal questions. I’m really sorry.” Jade’s head went down as she stared at her food to avoid meeting Whitney’s eyes. She was finally acting normal and went straight back to being shy.
Whitney looked at the strange, shy girl and just shook her head. “You’re not prying … just an innocent question. And no, we didn’t get in a fight. In fact, I was with them last night. As far as I knew, they’d be sitting here today when I came to lunch, but obviously they aren’t. It’s more of a family thing,” Whitney stated. That would make the most sense and be the truest description, she thought. “Their families all have a history together that I’m not part of as the new girl. I don’t really fit in here in general, but they didn’t care in the least. Tina, Trudy, Noah, and James are all really cool like that. But you know when family gets involved, sometimes it’s not that easy.”
Jade nodded her head knowingly as she finally looked up from her food. “Yeah, family can be a bit of a problem, but you can’t do anything about it. You don’t get to choose what family you are born into.”
Whitney laughed and tried to smile. The only choice she would make would be to have her family back. It had been over a year and was still hard to think about the fact that her parents were really gone. She’d give anything to go back to having family problems. But in a way, the sirens kind of were her problem now with her bond to Sam, but she still felt like an outsider.
“So can I ask you something?” Jade stopped picking at her food. It was obvious why the girl was rail thin. She had to be at least five foot ten inches tall, but couldn’t weigh more than a hundred and forty pounds. As she sat there not really eating while Whitney stuffed her face, Whitney wasn’t sure how she weighed that much.
“Sure,” Whitney finally replied after she swallowed her handful of chips.
“What’s up with the fish theme?” Jade pointed to the walls around the cafeteria that, of course, had huge six-foot tall fish on them.
Whitney burst out laughing. That had been her exact first thought of the school when she had moved here, and not a single person she had talked to about it could understand why she found it so strange. Jade was the first one who finally saw that it was weird. Whitney had just met her, but she had a feeling they were on the same page.
“Exactly what I want to know, and no one will tell me.” Okay, maybe she understood better now, but did the merfolk like fish that much?
She had really only been inside Sam’s place, and it wasn’t all fishy-looking. Then again, she couldn’t think of a single decoration. The walls had no pictures or paintings, and the few pieces of furniture all seemed to be the same brown color as the floors and walls. He wasn’t a good example to go by. Now she wished she had a tour of a few more siren homes. Maybe it would have given her a better idea why the school was all fishy.
“Really,” Whitney added. “I asked over a dozen people about it, and everyone thought I was crazy. Best part is that they don’t just decorate with fish, they serve it once a week here, too.”
Jade’s eyes bugged a little. “Seriously?”
Grinning, Whitney nodded. It was kind of nice to have another outsider around. The friends she had made the past year and a half had been great, welcoming her right into their group, but they didn’t understand. This was the only place beside the island they had lived. They didn’t find anything of it different or odd.
“They all had me convinced I was the weird one. Fish every week to eat and fish on the walls. It was like someone took the whole live-next-to-the-ocean theme a bit too far.”
“Completely what I was thinking. I mean I could picture an old lady obsessed with the ocean having seashells as her decoration and handing out fish-shaped chocolates for Halloween being less oddball than this school. Do you realize that the paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms have what look like shark faces on them?” Jade seemed to lose her shy shell as they talked more and found common ground as outsiders.
“Exactly. And if you squint at the air holes on the lockers, they are shaped like a star, which I figured was a starfish idea,” Whitney added. “I could so picture an old lady house themed out in the ocean, deciding to decorate the school the same way. Fish chocolates. That’s a good one.”
“Oh my goodness, I feel so much better now.” Jade pushed her food away, done eating after only a few bites. “I was beginning to think I was just imagining things.”
Whitney chuckled as she remembered the exact same feeling. Quiet Jade was turning out to be just the person Whitney needed to meet to make her day go better. Losing her friends stunk, and she was going to have to do something about it, but gaining a new friend was a great compromise. Even better was finding someone who understood that the school was beyond obsessive about the ocean. It made her day.
Whitney slung her bag over her shoulder as she walked away from school. Lunch had been nice with Jade. She was completely different than Whitney’s first impression of her. While she was still quiet, the rest of the time Whitney saw her between classes, she had a glint in her eyes and a wiggle of her eyebrow to tell Whitney what else was completely odd about the school. It was like they knew a secret that everyone else just didn’t see, and it made them both break out in giggles more than once. The school really over did the fish and ocean theme.
Now that school was over, and Whitney was walking away, she felt a little more sad that her friends were gone. Normally on Mondays Whitney would walk with Tina to Tina’s part-time job, and then head over to the ocean to sit and be alone until she either had to go home or to her own job. Now, she trudged along the well-worn path alone. Tina was nowhere at school, or at least anywhere Whitney could see. She didn’t come back to her locker during the day. Whitney had a feeling their orders included avoiding her. She needed to learn how to break the command given to the greens and get her friends back. They were the only things that made school and moving not stink as much as it had. What got to her even more was that they were people. Amber had no right to order them around. She was making them do something they didn’t want to do and treating them like her servants. Whitney wished becoming a night human included instantly knowing how to be one so she could rescue her friends.
She kept walking past her normal beach and over to the one behind the diner where Sam had taken her on their first date. Even though it was only recently they told each other the truth of their feelings, she had spent enough time with him over the past year. He had been her swim instructor, but she also had classes with him and saw him all the time in the hallways. She didn’t even realize how much she had seen him until she couldn’t see him. Even though it was more than likely intentional on Amber’s part, school felt empty without him or her friends. She had expected to have the comfort of her friends, but even that was gone.
Whitney walked slowly to the second beach and made her way through the parking lot and small woods to the shore. As expected, the coast near the diner was as empty as it had been each time she had been there with Sam. She was half tempted to walk out to the rocks and climb around the bend to just disappear into the water to find Sam, but something kept her back. Her gut told her it wasn’t safe to just be running off on her own. Instead, she dropped her bag on the sand and waded ankle deep into the water.
The music of the water was soothing after such a rough, unexpected day. While she liked the music before she changed into a siren, now there was a completely different draw to it. As the waves crashed on her legs, she could hear the melody play louder. It was as if it was calling her home. She could almost feel Sam, like he was in front of her reaching for her hand. With the roll of each wave, the urge to leave shore and never return grew larger inside of her.
Whitney watched the waves farther out and wished she could make Sam appear. Life back home was more complicated than she thought it would be. She thought she was joining the sirens, but instead, she found herself fighting them. She missed him greatly, even though it had been less than twenty-four hours. Even more, she needed help with the land sirens. She had no clue about any of it or how to get her friends back. Breaking a siren’s song wasn’t something Sam had covered in his ‘how to be part fish’ lessons they had done in secret the week before.
‘Why can’t you just defy your father?’ Whitney thought to herself.
‘Whitney?’ Sam asked, sounding as shocked as she was to hear his voice.
Whitney scanned the horizon for some sort of sign he was close as she stepped deeper into the water to make her way over to the rocks to go out farther.
‘Where are you?’ She eagerly looked for him.
‘At the island. I’m running drills with the new recruits,’ Sam replied. ‘Where are you?’
‘At the beach by the diner,’ Whitney replied.
‘How is this possible? We’re too far apart.’ Whitney felt a stab of pain as Sam mentally gave a grunt. ‘Sorry. I need to pay attention, or they’ll hit me again.’
‘Hit you? What the heck are you doing?’
‘Nothing much. Just working my way back up the ladder after my father demoted me. Starting at the bottom with physical training sessions. It’s a real fun time.’ This time she didn’t feel the pain of being hit, but rather Sam hitting something instead. It didn’t seem like it was “nothing much” like he expected her to believe.
‘Sam, we need to talk more, but obviously, this is a bad time. I can come back tomorrow if you’ll be free.’ Going to him wasn’t an option—he was too far away—but it was great that she could talk to him. Whitney watched the water knock against her calves as she tried to picture Sam and be inside his head enough to see what he was doing. ‘I need to know more about being a siren and how you use your songs to control greens.’
‘You’re in the water?’ Sam asked incredulously.
‘Yeah, it feels nice,’ Whitney replied, still unsure what he was up to, but obviously, he had seen inside of her head to know what she was doing.
‘Get out of the water now and promise me that you won’t come back into the ocean without me around,’ Sam told her. Another silent oomph made it known she was still distracting him.
‘But what if I can’t talk to you again?’
She had tried over a dozen times to talk mentally with him since she had come on shore earlier. Nothing worked until now, and she had a feeling the singing of the water wasn’t its only magic.
‘That makes a lot of sense, but I still need you to get out now. There are things you don’t understand, and it’s safer if you stay out of the water unless I’m there. Please promise me you won’t go in the ocean without me.’
Sam was now pleading, which was strange for Whitney. He was always so self-assured, and went with orders more than not, so pleading seemed out of character. Whitney found it odd for him to be begging, but her confusion quickly turned to anger. She needed his help. He had turned her into a siren, and now she knew nothing about being one.
‘Please, Whit. Don’t make me beg. Stay out of the water, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know on Friday when I come to do the concert. I promise.’
While she wanted to argue more about it, a strange sensation came over her. It was like a cold shiver that told her something was going on. Sam would get his way, but it wasn’t because he told her to stay out of the water; her inner senses were telling her to. Sam was going to think he won and continue bossing her around, but Whitney wasn’t about to defy her inner sense. It had kept her out of trouble on more occasions than she could count.
‘Fine,’ she replied. ‘But you will have to keep that promise.’
Whitney could feel a sigh of relief from him as she stepped back out of the water. Without him in her head, she was truly alone again. For a brief moment, she had felt whole, and now it was gone. She moved back enough so that the coming waves wouldn’t touch her and sank down into the sand. Why did life have to be so complicated? First, she was a night human but didn’t fit in with her clan. Then she was a human who was unknowingly friends with night humans. Now she was a night human again and still didn’t fit in. When was life going to stop throwing her curveballs? She just wanted a nice happily ever after. By the looks of it, she wasn’t going to be getting one of those.
“Do you come here for the sound of the waves or the view of the sparkling water?” a deep voice asked from beside her.
Whitney didn’t look up as she scanned the water.
“I come here to be alone,” she replied, still staring at the water for any sign of her new merfamily. Why was Sam so insistent she get out and why did she feel the need to leave the water? Was there something dangerous in there?
“Ouch,” the guy said as he sat beside her. “My sister said you were having some problems with your friends, and I suppose that would make just about anyone grumpy.”
Whitney finally turned to the unknown guy. Sitting down he was taller than her by almost a whole head. He had to be at least close to her old friend Owen’s height of six foot three inches. His dark, almost black, hair was pulled back into a short ponytail which made his crystal blue eyes stand out completely. While his sister was full of color from her hair to the various tattoos, her brother was dressed only in black to go with his black hair, and aside from the eyebrow that was pierced, there was nothing about him that said dangerous like his quiet sister.
“Sorry, it’s been a bad day,” Whitney said, apologizing for her snippiness. She didn’t need him to say he was Jade’s brother; she could see the familial resemblance in the shape of his eyes and the curve of his mouth.
Jade’s brother was new in town and truly didn’t deserve her anger directed at him. He wasn’t the one keeping her boyfriend from her, or making her friends ignore her.
“I completely understand. That school isn’t the most welcoming, and if I found a few friendly faces that have now ditched me to start over, I’d be completely mad about it, too,” he told her. Obviously, he was well informed. “I’m Jax, by the way. Jade’s awesome younger brother by a whole eleven months.”
“You’re a junior then?” Whitney asked, still scanning the surf. Nothing was there. Sam really wasn’t in the water nearby like she hoped he was. She turned to Jax as she tried to hide her disappointment.
“Nope, senior. Jade has a September birthday, and I have August, so we’re in the same grade. She’s never really liked that, what with being the older sister and all, but I think it’s fun. People assume we’re twins all the time when they find out. She hates that.” Grinning, Jax leaned back and put his hands in the sand. He was much more talkative than his sister.
“So where did you guys move from?” Whitney asked, keeping the conversation going. Jade was too quiet to get much out of her beyond discussing their school’s wacky fish obsession.
“Here, there, and everywhere. I don’t think we’ve lived in one place more than eight months. My mother’s job keeps us jumping around.”
Whitney thought about that a bit. Eight months and a new place wouldn’t be fun. She had started over only twice in her life and hated it each time. Heck, it took at least eight months to get used to somewhere. He would never have a place feel truly like home at that rate.
“Jade said you moved here last year. Where’d you come from?”
“I used to live on the West Coast, near the Washington-Oregon border in a little town you’ve probably never heard of,” Whitney replied. She still didn’t like to share where she was from in case people asked more. While she wasn’t part of the night humans there, she still felt loyal to them. “Been here just over a year now.”
“Your parents travel for work, too?” he asked.
“No. My parents died. I moved here to live with my aunt.” Whitney was used to telling the story. There would always be a bit of a ping of sadness when she said her parents were dead, but she didn’t shy away from it.
“Oh, sorry. I’ve heard it stinks to move away from home,” Jax replied as she knocked the wind out of the conversation. Jax didn’t deserve that. He was really easy to talk to, and something about him just felt like he was a friend already.
“I moved there when I was a teenager, so while it was my home, it felt more like a second home. I get the whole moving around thing,” Whitney continued the conversation, and Jax almost sagged with relief about not killing it.
“So West Coast …” Jax tapped the sand, his fingers sinking right into the yellow bits. “Yetis. That's where yetis live, right? Meet any yetis while living there?”
Whitney stared at the water to avoid giving anything away. Yetis were make-believe, but then again everyone thought shapeshifters and mermaids were also, and those were real. If she wanted, she had the fin to prove it. Jax might have been hinting that he had heard about the night human world, but he smelled as appetizing as any day human. She wasn’t really a pro on telling the difference between day and night humans, but if she went with her stomach, she’d have to guess day human. If he knew about the night human world, she didn’t know how he knew. And if he didn’t know, she wasn’t about to be the one to tell him.
“Nope. Never met a yeti, but I suppose my best friend’s uncle could be mistaken for one if he went out into the woods. Uncle John is enormous and sports a full beard for winter. If he was blond instead of brunette, I could completely see it.”
Whitney smiled at the thought of John as a blond. He had been her best friend’s guardian, and she knew him very well. Again, she felt too comfortable with Jax and had to change the subject off her old life before he asked too many questions she couldn’t answer.
“And of course, everyone knows that yetis aren’t real, but then again, I also never met Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny either, and I think they’re supposed to be all over the place,” Whitney replied. That was a safe enough answer.
Jax nodded along and smiled as she answered.
“I dunno. My mother always said Santa Claus can’t be seen, but is always there watching me be bad.” He took the bait and moved the conversation away from a past that she had no way of explaining.
Whitney laughed. Her mother had said the same thing growing up. Whitney could remember that threat was good for months leading up to Christmas.
“So no yetis and no parents. That sounds like a boring life,” Jax continued prying into her life without giving anything away about himself.
Whitney shrugged. She couldn’t give too many details, but if she kept it vague, she would be fine. At least she hoped. “I had two best friends—Cassie and Owen. I’m really not a big fan of being popular and having a hundred friends. Two were enough for me. Until this morning, I had four here, and that was great.”
Jax appeared genuinely shocked. “I guess I assumed you were one of the popular crowd …”
“Because I have blond hair and blue eyes along with my killer tan?” Everyone assumed that about her. It was nothing new, but there was no way she was ever going to fit in with Amber and her crowd, being a night human or not. Whitney had no time for people who were rude, controlling, and beyond fake. It wasn’t fair to label everyone in the popular crowd that way, but for Amber, it was head on.
Jax seemed a little embarrassed, as he now used the ocean to avoid meeting her gaze. That made Whitney turn the internal chuckle she had into a full laugh that was bubbling to get out. She never found it offensive that people assumed wrong about her. It actually amused her, and here Jax was again judging her by her appearance. Whitney had a feeling that was why Jade felt so familiar as soon as they started talking, because she was judged by her appearance also. They had the same problem. The tattoos and multicolored hair had everyone assuming she was one way when she wasn’t.
“Ever heard the phrase ‘never judge a book by its cover’?” Whitney teased.
His cheeks flushed a little. Yes, she hit the nail on the head with that one. Whitney smiled even wider. It had been a long time since she could just kid around with a guy. Tina and Trudy were great, but girls were so much different than guys. And Noah and James were part of their group, but not quite the same. James was Tina’s twin and very protective—he didn’t take joking around well—and Noah was way more reserved. Whitney had adjusted to her new school last time, and a big part of that was Owen. She missed him almost as much as she missed her best friend, Cassie. Being able to sit and joke with Jax was making her miss Owen terribly.
“Yeah, I get that. My sister complains about that a lot,” Jax finally told her.
“I bet she gets it all the time. By the way, she’s really sweet,” Whitney added, moving the conversation back to him.
Jax nodded. “I was worried about this school. We’ve been to others that are a lot more welcoming. With this one, it is like everyone is in their own little cliques, and there’s no getting in. We had a tour last week, and I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be a fun school. Jade doesn’t make friends easily in a friendly environment; these types of schools are horrible for her.”
Whitney couldn’t imagine what it was like to move around so much. Perhaps that was the reason Jade was so shy. Had she ever had a forever friend? Whitney had Cassie. Even though she lived across the country now, Cassie would forever be her friend. Whitney had gone back several times since she had moved, and it felt like nothing changed. Everything around them changed, but their friendship never would. It killed Whitney to not be able to tell Cassie about being a night human again. She hoped that maybe someday she could tell her since Cassie had let her know that she was actually part night human herself.
“Do you go back to the same places ever or is it always new places? If not move back, more like a visit, get to see your old friends?” Whitney hadn’t been back to her friends since Christmas last year, and there was no way now she could go back. It was possible they would know immediately that she was a night human.
“Yeah. There are three towns we head back to between new cities. We own houses in each of them. That feels more like home when we go back, but it doesn’t make up for the months all over the place. You can’t keep friends in a town you see once every three years or so. Everyone changes too much. I mean, who stays friends with someone since kindergarten when they live in the same town anyways?”
Jax’s life sounded way more complicated than most, and he seemed to be making the best of it. Whitney’s problems of getting her friends back seemed trivial compared to moving around so much and starting over all the time. She couldn’t imagine life without a true friend or two.
“So enough about that. What do you guys do around here when you aren’t in school? I get the whole ocean thing, but if you couldn’t tell by my wonderful tan, I’m not quite a sun and surf person.”
Jax was almost as pale as a lot of night humans Whitney had met over the years. If she wasn’t able to smell he was a day human, she would have guessed he was a night human first.
“I work, and that’s about it. Without parents, I have to make my own spending money.”
“I get the work thing. My mother makes us help her at her job to earn our spending money. ‘Working builds character,’” he said in a very gruff, authoritarian tone.
Whitney giggled, trying to picture Jax’s mother by his imitation. He made his mother sound really tough.
“I heard there’s a local band here in town that tours the state.”
Whitney knew exactly who he was talking about. Sam’s band was supposed to be a secret, and from what she heard, non-siren weren’t told it was Sam and his friends. It was easily well-known around school about Sam’s band, but they always kept it to a rumor to keep their identities secret. No one outside of the mer had an idea that it was really Sam and his two friends, Mark and Leo. Everyone knew the band and their songs, even if they didn’t know it was Sam, and they were more than a little proud of them.
She gave a fake surprise look. “And where would you have heard that?”
Jax shrugged. “I hear there’s a concert this Friday. I think Jade would like it if you came with us. Rock music at night is way more my style than surfing the waves.”
Whitney smiled. She already planned to go, but with new friends, it would be even better. And trying to picture Jax surfing was making a new giggle want to burst out.
“I think I can do that. I already have Friday night off from work to see my boyfriend.”
“You mean the boyfriend Jade is convinced isn’t real?”
Whitney pouted. It came off weird when she told Jade about Sam being her boyfriend, but not anything more. How could she tell anyone where he lived and where he was? He was supposed to be at school. Whitney hated lying, but even then, there was too much to make up a story about. In reality, she should have thought more about it. She was going to blame her lack of a better response that everyone in the school already knew where he was as her reason why she never thought of a better excuse.
“Sam is real. I promise.” And now she had the perfect excuse to show why he wasn’t around.
“Jade figured you got asked out one too many times and had to make an excuse to keep the guys away.”
Now that did make her laugh out loud. She hadn’t been asked out once since she had been at her new school, and for that matter not once at her old school, either. Sam was the first—and now it seemed only—boyfriend she was ever going to have.
“Far from it,” Whitney replied once she stopped laughing.
Jax seemed shocked, which made Whitney grin.
“High school boys are chickens,” she told him, and this time he laughed.
“I’ll have to admit that’s true.” Jax grinned.
“Good. Now that we have that covered, let’s hear about what you think of the school, because Jade and I compared notes and found the same things strange.”
Whitney turned to an easy conversation, but it wasn’t like it she felt forced to talk to Jax. He had this air about him that made her want to talk to him, and it was fun. She spent the last year unable to say things to her friends because she was scared of offending them, but now she could say what she thought. New people in town weren’t as scary as everyone around her acted. It was refreshingly nice, and she couldn’t wait to get to know Jade and Jax a bit better. She had her own problems to solve, but at least being friendless wasn’t one of them.