Me~ Hey, hey, hey peoples!

Peoples~ HEY!

Me~ Ok, so I got this idea just lying in bed, thinking about mermaids, from Animal Planets "Mermaids: A Body Found", and then I was all like "What if such and such happened, and then buddy and buddy fell in love! *gasp*" Haha. You guys actually thought I was gonna tell you, didn't you? Yeah, didn't think so.

Georgie~ Haha, hey you guys! Again! Now BMB does not own MR; JP does. If she did, Dylan would've died 10 seconds after he showed up on the scene, Maya would've been a good guy, Jeb would've gotten torn apart by an Eraser AND Ari would've lived and became the biological little brother Max thought she would never have. So yeah, just had to get that out of the way. Don't expect this every chapter. Just sayin'.

Me~ Yes. Thank you Georgie. Now on with the story!

Max's POV

I broke through the surface of the aqua-blue salty water, and swam to the boat that I own and anchored a little ways away. I named it The Iron Archer, after a childhood fantasy and a favorite superhero of mine; my favorite superhero was Iron Man, and I've wanted to be an archer up until I was ten, like that red haired girl from Brave, so I just mashed them together, it sounded pretty cool too. When I made it to the backside of the boat, where the diving platform was, I pulled myself out of the cold Atlantic water and took off my black and yellow flippers, put my miniature harpoon on its hooks, and my Catch Bag off my hip and onto the medium sized cooler to my right. As I made my way to the steering wheel I unzipped my wetsuit, letting it hang around my hips, and did a habitual swivel of my head looking for something out of the ordinary blue-green rolling waves. It was just something that I've done since I was 10 with my mom.

You see, my mom, Valencia Martinez-Batchelder, runs the Martinez Marine Aquarium & Marine Research. A family business that my mom's side of the family has been taking care of, where they go and help any aquatic creatures, from whales to guppies, -well not really guppies per say, but you get my point- for about 50 years now? Yeah. That sounds about right. My great-grandma opened it for about 10 years, until she died of a heart attack, then it was passed to my grandma who kept it in the sky for about 20 but died, then my mom for the last 20.

Too bad she's dead too.

Mom died about a year ago from a boating accident. We were out on one of her runs out in the Atlantic, to collect water samples and go diving, that sort of thing, you know? And anyway, this storm came outta nowhere… she fell overboard and drowned… we never found her body…

Anyway, back to what I was saying, there was something that my mother believed in. Hell, everyone in my mother's side believed in…. Mermaids. Yeah, I know what you might be thinking, "What?! Mermaids?! Are you freaking kidding me?!" But it's true. In fact, my mom said that she saw them herself. And her mom and her mom's mom before her. They all saw them. Said that when they turned 18, something happened causing them to nearly drown. But there was always these few creatures that had saved them.

And I believe her. Or at least I did. Not so sure anymore. I mean, if they were out there, and they did save my Nan and great-Nan, why not my mom? Yeah, I ask myself that a lot.

Yeah, that's what I did. I was looking for mermaids. It sounds stupid, but the reason why I haven't stop doing it when my mom died was because I hoped she was out there. With them.

Mom always said that if you came out at midnight, sang, and looked hard enough, that they would come close just to listen and sing along with their sweet melody. Don't even get me started how many times I've done that.

I made my way towards the boating dock on the beach just below the MMAMR, anchored the boat, walked up the beach and in through the doors of my sweet little family business. If, you know, a 'sweet little family business' meant one of the biggest research facility in Newfoundland, Canada. (A/N Yes, that's a real place. I do live there people. It's an island in Canada, in the Atlantic.) I grabbed the fish I had caught, put them in a pail and brought it to our rehabilitating dolphins.

As I was feeding the dolphins, lost in my own thoughts, I was almost tackled into the water from behind. I whirled around to find my precious little brother rolling on the floor laughing. I smiled and snatched him up, slinging him up over my shoulder and tickling him until he couldn't breathe.

"What are you doing here, Ari?" I asked when I could breathe; I had been laughing hard with him.

"Dads drunk again." I scowled. How dare he get drunk again. He knew I was going out for the day. He knew poor Ari was going to be home alone with him. Defenseless. He knew that when he drinks he gets abusive.

Not that he cares or anything. He stopped caring when Mom died.

"Well then, we're just going to have to have some fun then." I hinted, trying to swallow my anger.

"TO THE TURTLES!" He screamed. He absolutely adored turtles. I laughed. He was such a cute little 10-year-old boy, with his dark brown hair. His chocolate brown eyes, tan skin and lean build so similar to my own.

He ran ahead to the circular pen that contained the turtles. All the pens were giant, circular glass containers that held different types of marine animals. In this case, turtles, dolphins, sharks, and lots and lots of fish. There were a couple of extras in a back room that we use for emergencies. Large ones, able to fit about 10-15 dolphins comfortably.

"Can we clean out the turtle pen, Max?"

"It doesn't need to be cleaned today; you cleaned it yesterday, Squirt." I grinned and ruffled his hair.

After about an hour later, all the animals were fed. "Do you want to go visit Georgie and Charmaine?" I asked. There really wasn't anything else to really do since Jeb was drunk (He lost the privilege of being called Dad when he started drinking). It probably won't be safe to go home until about 10:00 tonight. It was about 5:30 now.

"Yeah! Let's go see them!" he grinned at me and took off towards the front entrance. I chuckled and pulled out my phone to text Georgie -Charmaine didn't own a phone.

(Georgie Me)

Hey, could Ari and I come down to your place? Jeb's drinking again.

Sure. I'll tell Charmaine and Mom. You staying for supper?

If you'll have us.

K.

Georgie and Charmaine were my closest friends on the planet, they're sisters too. They know that Jeb abuses us, so their house is kinda our safe haven. We have a spare change of clothes and necessities stowed away in Georgie's room in case we needed to change and sometimes we needed to sleep over he was so bad.

I walked out of the front doors and locked up the MMAMR for the night. As I walked down the stairs leading to the doors, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

BTW we're having spaghetti for supper. Ari's favorite right?

Haha, yep. We'll be there in a few.

K.

I smiled to myself then walked over to Ari and took his hand then started to walk down the street towards Georgie's house. We walked through the small town, street by street. The overcast sky making everything dark and gloomy. 15 minutes later, we walked up the asphalt driveway to the side door of a two story house. The first floor had grey stones while the second had white siding and brown shingles. But before we could make it to the door, 5 people ran out and tackled us into a group hug.

"About time you got here!" Charmaine cried into my ear.

"Um, ow." I complained, leaning away. "And sorry but we had to walk, remember?" She just rolled her eyes and started to lead Ari and I into the house along with Georgie, Victor, Christian, and Dawson, my closest friends.

Victor, Christian, and Dawson were brothers, Victor being the oldest and Dawson being the youngest. Christian and Georgie were dating and were head over heels about each other. Charmaine had a crush on Dawson, but he's too oblivious to notice. We've all been giving him hints –Much to Charmaine's dismay (she doesn't want him to know about it)- but he still has no clue.

We trudged into the porch where the smell of tomatoes and oregano wafted towards us from the kitchen.

"SPAGHETTI!" Ari screamed, kicking his shoes off, sending them 3 feet into the air, and sprinted to the dining table where crisp white plates could be seen from the doorway.

"No running, Ari!" I called after him, but of course it was no use.

"Oh don't worry about that, Max, you know you're welcome to do whatever you please here." Georgie's mom, Naomi, chuckled. I smiled gratefully at her; she truly was a blessing. If it weren't for her, I don't know what we would've done.

We all crowded around the oval table and started scooping pasta and spaghetti sauce into our plates, talking and laughing like a real family should. Naomi was at the head of the table, to her left was me, then Georgie, then Christian, then Victor was at the other end of the table, then Charmaine the Dawson, then Ari.

An hour of eating and chatting later we put on Finding Nemo, Ari's favorite movie. When the movie was over, it was almost 10 and Ari was half asleep.

"I'm going to see if Jeb's still drunk, can you get Ari in the shower?" I asked.

"Absolutely." Naomi said, giving me a sympathetic smile. I returned her smile then walked out into the chilly night air, jogging towards my once-home to keep warm.

It only took me about 10 minutes to get there jogging and taking short-cuts. I crept towards the house as quietly as I could, trying to slow my breathing. I took my key chain out of my pocket and fumbled for the right key in the half a dozen keys I have. One for the house, two for the MMAMR, one for the boat, a key for Georgie's and Charmaine's house that Naomi gave me in case of emergencies, and one for the guys' house that their mom, Pauline, gave me for the same reason.

When I found the right key, I slid into the key hole and lightly stepped through the threshold. Without taking my boots off, I tiptoed down the dark –the lights were off- hallway to the living room. As I went to turn the corner, an ugly, unattractive face appeared not three inches away from my face. I jumped back gasping and internally cursed.

Jeb was drunk.

And, by the looks of it, very, very mad.

Not a good mix as you can imagine.

I made a run for the door, but before I could make it, something hard hit my right shoulder, causing me to stumble and fall face-first into the hardwood floor.

"Whar' do ya tink yar goin'? You tupid, wertless garl." He slurred. Oh yeah, he's drunk. I quickly got to my feet and sprinted out the door into night that seemed twice as chilly and dark than before. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started texting Georgie with my right hand, my left favoring my right arm and shoulder, which seared with pain whenever I jar it.

Georgie, he's still big time drunk. We're gonna have to stay at your place; we won't be able to go home tonight. Can you get Ari to sleep for me?

Absolutely. He's asleep in your room. Yeah, we stay over so often, we have our own room.

Thx. Any chance you can get the First Aid kit ready too? He threw something at my shoulder and it kills!

Ready and waiting.

I didn't stop running until I ran in their porch, out of breath and my shoulder on fire.

"Max, are you alright?" Georgie cried rushing to my side and leading me into the kitchen.

"Just peachy." I muttered sarcastically. I sat in one the chairs in the dining room while Naomi brought in the First Aid kit.

"Can you take your shirt off, Max? I need to get I good look at your shoulder. The guys left a while ago, so it's just us." She added seeing my expression. I nodded and slowly and carefully shrugged out of my blue Hollister t-shirt.

After a few minutes of poking, prodding and wearing an ice pack, Naomi suggested that I take a shower and that's exactly what I did.

I walked out of the bathroom and into Georgie's and Charmaine's spare bedroom, or "My" bedroom. Curled up into a ball was Ari, sound asleep. I felt a surge of pity for him because he doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve to be beaten because of someone else's irresponsibility. But I guess that's just life.

Me~ Hey, now I know that it's not the best chapter I've ever written, but it's just to get everyone familiar with the characters, and what's going on, and to get the stage set. It'll WILL pick up within the next few chapters, probably the next chapter, so don't give up on me just yet!

R&R you guys & gals!

~BMB out!