Soon after Ryker left, Alya was going home, swimming in the vast expanse of the oceans, passing along fishes, sharks and giant squids until a small town came into view. The underwater town resembled actual houses built of coral and giant seashells. The streets were paved with abalone shells.
Her house was the orange one that mimicked the shape of a pineapple. She entered through the bottom floor.
"He gave me his number!" the mermaid burst through the door with pure joy in her heart.
Another mermaid was lying upside down on the sofa, her purple scaly tail pointing towards the roof, a remote in her left hand. Her purple hair matched her tail and her freckles were a faint constellation across her nose.
"Really sis?" she clicked, changing the channel.
Alya grabbed her tail and started to shake her, a massive smile on her face, "It's a real number this time!"
The other mermaid yelped as her tail was being violently shaken, the remote dropping from her hand and sinking to the floor.
"I'm happy for you sis, but could you please stop shaking my tail?" she said.
With a pout, the younger sister stopped.
"I've already sent him a few message but he hasn't replied."
"Give him some time Alya, not everyone is as clingy as you," the older sister said with a teasing smile as she changed the channel to a k-drama starring a cat demi-human.
An idea popped in Alya's head. She quickly went to the computer in the living room and logged into her favorite social media app, MerNet.
"You're not going to stalk him, are you?" her sister groaned, not even looking away from her show.
"No... of course not," the younger sister replied, her focus now entirely on the computer screen.
Ryker had made the unfortunate mistake of putting in his full name on the app, making it easy for Alya to find him. His profile popped up, and she quickly clicked on it, her heart thumping.
She giggled as she scrolled through his photos. Most of them were group pictures with a goofy-looking stone golem and a girl with green braids.
Alya felt a pang of jealousy as she stared at the girl in the pictures.
"Dryads are dumb, all they do is photosynthesize and smell like dirt," she said out loud, as if trying to convince herself more than her sister.
Her sister just sighed and turned up the volume on the k-drama.
Scrolling through his photo's she liked and commented on all of them with a simple heart. A smile formed on her face. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of posts. So Alya had to go through his friends list and stalked them instead. She landed on Kael's page, the fire dragon.
Fire dragons had a bit of a rivalry with the sea folk.
A small growl left her lips as she saw a photo of the dragon flexing his muscles on a beach. Then the photo of him with his acceptance letter to Meridian Academy made her growl even more.
"He's going to Meridian? That's an academy for landies."
Her breath hitched, as she had a dreadful thought. Ryker could go to this academy too. The thought of him leaving for a faraway place made her want to cry.
Quickly searching up the phone number for Meridian Academy, she called them.
A grumpy man picked up.
"Hello, this is the admissions office for Meridian Academy, a neutral territory for both Eastern and Western prodigies," he said with a bored, monotonous tone.
"Hi I'm Alya. I'd like to know if a Ryker Larduca is attending your school," she tried her best to be polite.
"Are you a family member?"
"Not yet," Alya replied.
The admissions officer on the other end sighed, "Miss, we're not allowed to give out any personal information about students or their enrolment status."
But Alya wasn't dumb. They would've said no if he wasn't attending the school, she thought. She couldn't let him go alone without her there to propose.
"I'd like to enrol as well," she said with a newfound determination.
"I'm sorry miss, all the slots have been taken. You'll have to wait for the next year's exam."
"But what if I'm a prodigy?" Alya countered, her tail fin splashing water onto the wall behind her.
She heard a chuckle on the other end, "I'm sure you'll do great at the exam next year."
"My baba is famous she could pull some strings for me," she said now getting desperate.
There was another sigh.
"Miss I do not know this baba and I doubt they'll be of any help. There's no room."
He was about to hang up, but Alya wasn't going to give up.
"Sis! What's baba's name again?" she yelled.
"You really should pay attention at family gatherings. It's Lorelei. Lorelei Kraken," the upside down sister answered, not bothering to look away from the drama on the screen.
"Excuse me did you say Lorelei Kraken?" the officer's monotonous voice suddenly changed.
"Of course. She is my baba."
The line was silent for a solid minute. Alya was starting to think he hung up but he finally spoke.
"Miss Kraken, I sincerely apologize, there must have been a mistake, I'm looking at the list now and a spot has suddenly opened up." His tone went from bored to panic.
"Meridian Academy will be happy to arrange any transportation. Could we ask what city you are currently residing in?"
The younger mermaid sister could not hold in her excitement.
"Umm could you arrange for me to get the same transportation as Ryker Larduca?"
More silence.
"Of course Miss Kraken. We will arrange it."
And with that the call ended. Alya immediately jumped up from the computer desk with a triumphant squeal, spinning around the room.
"Wait sis did you just use baba's name to get into Meridian Academy?" her sister who was watching her drama had now a look of disbelief on her face.
"Yes," she nodded. She was far too proud of her actions.
"And this... Ryker is he a vampire? Oh you didn't," her purple-haired sister swam off the couch and up to her younger sibling, taking a close look at Alya's expression.
"He has dark purple hair and red eyes like the Dracula family but he doesn't have their eye color..."
The older sis' face dropped, the color washing from her face. If their parents found out she let Alya do this they would have her sleeping with the fishes for real this time.
The Kraken family had a very complicated and fragile neutrality with both West and East, and Lorelei made sure to maintain it.
"Sis, maybe you should find a nice, cute merman instead," she suggested gently, "Maybe an octopus boy, I hear they have eight hands."
"Eight hands? That's overkill for a hug."
She went back to her computer, and typed out another message for her soon-to-be-mate.