The following morning, I awoke slowly, my eyes weighted by exhaustion as a figure dressed in a slim, form-fitting wetsuit stood over me. I jumped slightly, but when they gave the command to swim beside them, I had no choice but to obey.

I was led to a smaller channel behind my main tank. A small submerged cement passageway sat in front of me, separated from my pool by barred gate. The passageway, despite the fact that it was quite slim and relatively shallow, seemed somewhat easy to pass through.

I was once again instructed to swim beside the trainer after they opened the gate. I reluctantly obliged and entered the channel. As I swam between the two blue cement walls, I noticed that I was being led to a smaller and more shallow pool than my own. 

This second enclosure was a little under half of the size of the main pool, and was much shallower. I found upon swimming into it that it was just deep enough for me to swim normally, but not deep enough for me to dive to escape the sun bearing down on my body. Some part of me shivered slightly from this lack of water, but I figured it was probably just my instincts.

The unfamiliar trainer gestured for me to enter into the pool, and I obeyed their request, noticing Alexis approaching me as I lazily floated at the surface. I felt a shift in the water as the gate was closed behind me and locked in place, trapping me inside the smaller pool.

Remembering Alexis' conversation with the strange man the night before, I clenched my jaw angrily and fought to keep the questions that were flooding my mind from escaping my lips. In an attempt to distract myself from the temptation to speak to the human, I diverted my focus back to the pool.

Hours later, Alexis returned, this time wearing normal clothes in place of her usual wetsuit. She placed the bucket she was carrying on the pavement beside her as she carefully kicked off her sandals and sat down on the side of the pool. I watched as she made herself comfortable in the sun and turned toward me. 

Upon noticing her reaching into the bucket and withdrawing a small sardine, I knew that another training session was imminent. With a flick of my tail, I turned my body to face her and awaited a command. Despite the fact that I was reluctant to so willingly obey a human, I feared the consequences of refusing more than I valued my pride. 

I was given a few commands to do basic skills I was familiar with, and for each successful attempt I was rewarded a gutted sardine or floppy herring. My stomach curled with every new chunk of somewhat-rancid fish that I choked down, but the last thing I wanted to do was starve here before I would have the opportunity to return home.

After finishing what appeared to be the final skill, I was tossed another fish and watched as Alexis stood and clapped the water off of her hands. "Alright Alexandria," she began, slipping her feet nimbly back into her sandals. "Time to learn something new."

I watched as she turned and unlocked a small shed hidden by decorative shrubbery behind the small pool. After disappearing behind the shack's wooden door for a few moments, Alexis returned holding the same target from the day before. 

Excitedly returning to the side of the pool, she slid her hands down the handle of the tool and held the very end, extending the target so that it was held a few inches above the water. Knowing what to do, I narrowed my eyes and pressed the fins atop my head to the target. A fish was thrown in my direction, and I was ordered to perform the skill again. 

 This cycle continued until Alexis was satisfied with my performance and introduced a new step into the skill. Raising the target higher above the surface, the trainer gave me a new cue. Responding quickly, I stretched my body out of the water, keeping my tail raised out of the waves for balance as I pressed the fins on my head to the tool.

I heard the sharp trill of the trainer's whistle and relaxed my muscles, sliding my body back into the water. Looking over at Alexis, I saw that she was excitedly clapping, a large smile plastered on her face as she reached into the bucket and tossed some more fish in my direction. My eyes narrowed unintentionally, and upon noticing this I quickly shifted my face back to a neutral expression, fearful of the humans noticing my discontent at their processes.

The next hour consisted of the practicing of the new skill, which I concluded to be a pose of some form. After perfecting the technique without the use of the target, I was finally allowed to return to my main pool. 

With a final tweet of her whistle, Alexis walked over to the gate separating me from the deeper water and opened the latch, allowing the barrier to retract into the cement walls of the pool. I took this as my cue to swim into the main tank and didn't hesitate to dip below the surface and swim back into the familiar pool. 

A vibration momentarily shifted the current of the water in the larger pool as Alexis slid the latch into place and the gate shut behind me. I smiled a bit as I dove to the bottom of the tank, savoring the coolness of the water and the feeling of being completely immersed once more. 

I noticed the park begin to open as visitors began to fill the once-empty asphalt pathways and meander toward the viewing areas of my tank. I grinned slightly when I discovered the morning sun shone through the water, giving my pearlescent white scales a diamond-like shimmer. It made me feel beautiful, and somewhat boosted my mood, distracting me from the noise of the crowds beginning to gather at the windows of my pool. 

Eventually losing interest in my scales, I decided to swim by the viewing areas and see if there was anything to entertain me. As I peered through the glass smudged with fingerprints, I saw a child. It was a girl, not as young as Evelyn, but a little older, perhaps being ten or eleven. She wore a pink baseball cap that bore the silhouette of a mermaid atop an unruly mop of wavy chestnut hair.

As she danced about, her black flipflops made soft sounds on the wooden planks covering the ground. Her smile appeared to calm me slightly, and I lowered my lionfish-like fins as I watched her. She seemed so full of joy, and I felt myself becoming slightly jealous of her happiness. Nonetheless, some part of me urged my tail to push me closer to where she stood at the glass. 

 As I stared curiously through the viewing panel at the girl, I got a closer look at her facial features. Her eyes were brown. Not a beige-ish color, but  a deep umber that caused her irises to appear black from afar. I had never seen eyes containing such a color, and it interested me.

Since merfolk lived so deep under the water, our bodies contained little pigment, and as a result, brown eyes had never been reported among our people. Thinking of the days where I stared at my reflection in a mother-of-pearl mirror back home at my eyes, I recalled that this girl's irises were much darker and pigmented than my own light gold eyes. 

Snapping out of my thoughts, I realized how close I was to the glass. I cautiously flicked the fins behind my ears in a small greeting as my eyes scanned across the visitors at the glass. I noticed their overwhelming sound quiet slightly when I did this, and I smiled a bit, savoring the reduction in the roar from the crowd. 

I noticed the girl from before dart away and return after a few moments, dragging a man who I assumed to be her father by the arm. Closely behind followed a younger girl than the first who showed many like features to the older girl. I concluded that they must be siblings, as such similar features in unrelated individuals was rare.

The younger girl looked to be about eight years old and had the same colored eyes as her sister. The child was staring up at me, her eyes wide and fixated upon my flowing white tail. In the midst of her amazement, she dropped the small mermaid doll she was carrying and bent down to retrieve it. With a small grunt, she stood back up, the toy now firmly held to her chest as she brushed a strand of coffee-colored hair out of her face.

After a few moments of watching me, the younger girl turned and handed the toy to her father before marching up to the huge glass panel that separated our worlds. I could tell she was wearing a white shirt that read "I believe" in purple cursive. Below the text, there was a gray stitched silhouette of a mermaid, reaching upwards as if she were trying to touch the moon.

I smiled a bit, remembering the times in grade school where my podmates challenged me to try to touch the moon. Obviously, it was just a children's game, and no matter the height we leaped from the waves, the massive white orb still sat in its unreachable position in the sky.

Upon looking back down at the children, I could see the older girl joining her sister at the window. The eldest sister seemed to be just as amazed by me as the other had, her large beaming smile proof of my assertion. As I watched them, the younger girl turned towards the older girl and flashed her a toothy smirk.

"See Isabelle? I told you mermaids were real!" The child chirped, clapping as she leapt about excitedly. The older girl, Isabelle nodded, too distracted by my presence to care. She sat cross-legged on the small one-foot-wide ledge that was placed next to the glass, her gaze fixated on my tail as I hovered in the water before her. A few moments passed, and without warning, I was interrupted by the shrill tweet of Alexis' whistle. 

I flicked my fins and began to swim over to the stone platform where I assumed Alexis was standing. As I left the viewing area, I turned and looked over my finned shoulder and noticed the younger girl had dragged her father and sister to one of the outdoor viewing areas surrounding my pool.

As I continued to swim towards the woman, I noticed the young girl give a small wave. I turned back around and snorted at her innocence, making a sound too quiet for Alexis or the small family to hear. She doesn't know what happens behind these walls. I thought to myself with a scowl. If she were to know the pain and fear I've been through, she wouldn't even want to be in this park right now.

I quickened my pace as I noticed Alexis becoming impatient and soon arrived at the stone platform where she stood. The woman greeted me with a half-hearted smile as I looked blankly at her. She decided to break the silence and speak, but I was too distracted by the family talking about me to pay attention to what she had to say.

 "Daddy, why did the mermaid swim away? Does she not like me?" Ashley asked as I utilized my strengthened hearing to listened in on their conversation.

 "No honey. I think she needed to go. The worker was calling her over, and she listened," her father stated. He seemed to frown at the pool as he watched Alexis and I. Somehow I felt as if he, too was on my side. 

Finally, I thought with a small grin. Someone understands me. Once again, I was interrupted from my thoughts when I felt water splash me in the face as I turned around. Alexis sat on the stone platform with a squirt gun in her hand. She laughed as I bared my teeth at her.

"Looks like somebody's smiling!" She chirped, dunking the top of the gun into the water and filling it. Before she could remove it from the pool to spray me again, I hissed and ripped the toy from her hands before throwing it into the decorative rocks surrounding the stone platform.

Alexis stood up quickly, her face sporting a fearful expression as he mouth hung agape and her wide eyes looked around for an escape. I glared at her and turned around, trying to see if the family from before was still sitting along the glass wall. The father was trying to quickly shoo the girls away from my exhibit and onto another enclosure in fear that I would try to attack Alexis.

My heart sank as I watched them briskly walk away, realizing the fear that I had caused. I lowered my fins in shame and turned back around to face Alexis, slouching in the water, too embarrassed to look up at her.

I heard footsteps and eventually raised my gaze to meet the eyes of Brenna, the new trainer who had began to work with Alexis only yesterday. I quietly looked on as the pair spoke, and after some time, both nodded and came to an agreement.

Brenna left after a few silent moments, my eyes following her body as she exited through the thick metal door that separated my enclosure from the rest of the world. I sighed and backed away from Alexis, whose face had become pink with anger and surprise. She looked down at me with a stare as cold as ice, and I shuddered in apprehension for what was to come.

The trainer shook her head as she crouched on the platform, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she observed me. I bit my lip as she drew a line across her chest with her finger, giving me the signal to follow her.

Regretting my decision to act out, I obeyed and swam the speed she walked until we reached the gate leading to the smaller pool. Alexis opened the latch, causing the barrier to retract into the cement walls of the pool and allowing me to swim inside the narrow channel.

I felt my tail gently brush by the cement wall, and clenched my jaw as I felt the pain that accompanied it. A mermaid's tail was extremely sensitive to feel ocean currents, our main navigation tool. It also meant I had to be meticulous to avoid getting injured. 

Turning to quickly inspect the damage, I discovered that my tail only bore a small, slightly-bleeding abrasion. Facing forward once more, I ignored the pain and continued on until I was completely inside the smaller pool. I felt a ripple in the water as Alexis pushed the latch back in place, closing the gate.

I surfaced at her feet, not knowing what was about to happen. The trainer frowned at me and crossed her arms. "You know not to act out," she said, her once-cheerful voice a low whisper. Goosebumps appeared across my body as a cold suddenly seemed to overtake my body. "You need to learn to listen to us. We're in charge here, not you."

The trainer walked away, leaving me to sit alone in the pool. On her way back to the exit of my exhibit, she stopped and turned around, noticing the family from before had returned, and was now walking over to the small tank I was in. I groaned audibly as she approached them with a smile.

"Girls, I could use some assistance with training Alexandria. Would you like to help me?" Alexis asked. I couldn't help but show my surprise as my fins flared slightly and my tail went slack. 

Both girls leapt about excitedly as they shouted with joy and ran towards the small pool, while their father, who looked as surprised as I did, walked after them. I began to fear the moment their grubby, sticky hands would claw at my scales, and their fingernails would rip at my fins as they came nearer to me.

The girls stood around the barrier separating the shallow water from land, and watched Alexis as she instructed them on what to do. "Okay girls," my trainer said. "This is Alexandria. She is one of the creatures here that I work with, and she's very friendly," Alexis stated, her tone quivering slightly as she described my personality.

The trainer looked over at the girls and clapped her hands together as she led the children over to the side of the pool I was in. She gave the cue for me to swim the perimeter of the pool and I obeyed, stroking my tail and propelling myself parallel to the cement walls of the enclosure. 

I reached Alexis after completing the behavior, and she tweeted her whistle, signaling that I could stop swimming. "See? She recognized the signal and completed the behavior. Now, this pool was specially designed as an interaction pool for visitors, so I'm going to give you a sneak peek of our newest interaction program," Alexis began, waving a hand to present the pool to the girls.

I watched as the girl's faces broke into smiles from ear to ear as they excitedly bounced around their father. I covered my ears as the children excitedly shouted to one another. And I thought Alexis was annoying, I thought to myself with a scowl. I knew that humans were loud creatures, but I was completely unfamiliar with the extent of their noise.

"Okay girls, I'm going to give you the chance to touch her tail. Just be gentle, since this is her first interaction," Alexis instructed, making the signal she had taught me this morning before the park opened.

I reluctantly obeyed, stretching my body upwards and extending my tail out of the water for balance as I completed the skill. I felt a pair of hands on my fluke, pulling it slightly toward the wall of the pool. I turned and watched as Alexis held my fluke in front of the girls as they brushed their hands over my sensitive scales. I bit my lip when I felt sharp pains as one of the girl's hands re-opened the cuts on my tail that I had received during my capture. 

 Upon seeing the blue blood slowly leaking from my wounds, the girls withdrew their hands in surprise, but Alexis reassured them that I was fine, and not to worry. Isabelle gave a small look of doubt before drying her hands on her pants and allowing them to hang at her sides.

Ashley soon became bored and removed her hands from my tail as well. Taking this as a sign that she should move on, Alexis stepped backwards and allowed me to pull my tail back into the water. With a small tweet of her whistle, Alexis gave me the same signal for a pose. I narrowed my eyes at her, but giving in, I reluctantly obliged.

"Okay girls, if both of you want to get on either side of Alexandria and smile, you can take a photo with her," Alexis suggested, shooting me a look from the corner of her eye. I knew that it was in my best interest not to act up, and I remained still as the girls positioned themselves in front of me and posed.

Once the photo was taken, Alexis helped the girls out of the pool and gave them each a Mermaid Lagoon T-shirt and bracelet to take home. Isabelle and Ashley thanked Alexis, then waved to me and left.

"That was an interaction, and there will be more of them. There is only one today that is scheduled, besides the one you just did, but otherwise, there are about two per week... At least that's how the dolphin interactions go," the woman stated as she looked me in the eye. I flicked my fins and turned away.

 Ignoring my obvious discontent, Alexis walked over to the exit of the small pool, and opened the latch, allowing me to exit through the channel and slip into deeper water. I heard the gate slide back into place behind me once my tail cleared the channel, and I yawned, realizing how much energy the interaction had taken out of me.

I decided it would be best to take a nap and rejuvenate myself in order to prepare for the rest of the day, and swam to the bottom of the pool, where my small bed of woven kelp sat. I laid down and sighed, pulling my tail to my chest before I shut my eyes and fell asleep.

Later that day, a few hours after I had fallen asleep, I awoke to the sound of children laughing and playing. I opened my eyes and turned toward the viewing area to see what all the raucous was about.

Through the glass I could see a group of small humans. They appeared to be older than the girls from earlier that day, and were excitedly walking down the path to get to my tank. A few of them ran towards the viewing area, and I swam closer to the window to get a better look at my visitors. 

As I neared the glass I paused, hearing a strange noise. It sounded like a distressed dolphin's call, and was quite loud. I curiously followed the direction of the noise, wondering what had prompted the animal to let out such a desperate call. My ears led me right to the window of the viewing area where the crowd of children stood. That's when I noticed the true source of the odd sound.

There was a girl standing at the glass holding a comb. The bare, flat end was positioned against the glass in such a way that when the girl plucked the toothed side, the dolphin-like sound was produced. When I neared her, she grinned brightly and used the comb to keep making the sound.

I turned back towards the glass after taking a double-take of my pool to ensure that there was no other source of the noise and made eye contact with the odd girl. "See? I told you it works every  time, not only on mermaids, but dolphins, orcas, seals, and occasionally, sharks," she stated, her chest puffed with pride. I curiously raised a scaled eyebrow and flicked my fins, turning and heading back to the center of the pool.

When I began to notice the sound of the crowd fading from earshot, I turned and watched through the glass as the group of children walked around a corner and disappeared from the viewing area. I surfaced to see where they were when I heard Alexis tweet her whistle to call me into the shallow pool. 

As I swam through the shallow channel, I noticed that the kids had given up their space at the viewing areas to cluster around the cement wall of the smaller pool. I mentally groaned as Alexis shut the gate behind me and felt my fins twitch with annoyance as I prepared for what was to come. 

"Welcome to Mermaid Lagoon! My name is Alexis and I am the current mermaid trainer here at Aquapark of the Pacific," I heard the trainer begin. The woman grinned as she paced in front of the crowd, spewing out facts about my age, my tail, and everything in-between. 

Finishing her lengthy speech, Alexis turned toward me and gave me the signal to swim the perimeter of the pool like I had earlier for the previous interaction. I cringed a bit as the children brushed their hands across my scales, but otherwise remained calm. 

Returning to where Alexis stood at the side of the pool, I watched as she gave me the command for a pose. Remembering how the previous skill session had carried out, I lifted my body out of the water and raised my tail behind me.

As I held the pose, I watched Alexis herd the children so they were positioned on either side of me as an older man accompanying the group wearing a dress shirt lifted a device and aimed it at the group of the people.

Everything stilled for a few moments as the group took what I assumed to be was a photo, and I savored the quiet. Everything had been so chaotic lately, and catching a break from the tumultuous ebb and flow of life at the aquarium was a tiny blessing from Poseidon himself. 

 As the crowd began to disperse moments later, Alexis handed each child an Aqualand of The Pacific T-shirt and bracelet and thanked them for coming. She led them to the exit of the exhibit and waved as they slowly filed out of the mermaid-shaped gate and left the park, much to my relief.

I was allowed to swim back into the larger pool after Alexis opened the gate to the channel, and savored the feeling of having hundreds of gallons of water protecting me from the surface, where humans paced back and forth across the cement walkway above. 

Laying down on the kelp mat I had fashioned for myself, I tried to close my eyes and sleep, but the peaceful abyss which I desired evaded me. I couldn't sleep, not after I had seen the look on Alexis' face from earlier this morning. I had a feeling that later on I would be punished, but my trainer, as well as the CEO of the aquarium needed me to look pretty so the public wouldn't suspect anything.

 I sighed as I rolled uncomfortably about on the small mat, thinking of ways I could escape the clutches of the humans. With a shout, I frustratedly threw a nearby rock across the pool. I knew I couldn't just abscond from such a well-guarded and popular location. I was stuck here, and there was nothing I could do to escape my confinement. ♆