After eating breakfast the next day, Raven and I go straight to the grocery store, early in the morning. It was a long drive but we had no problem finding things to talk about. When we arrived at the store, we filled two shopping carts with enough food to last seven people for the next month. Meat, fruits, dairy products, bread; anything you could think of, we bought. Then, after putting our groceries in the car, we headed to the mall.

We didn't buy much from the homeware store, except for some things for around the house and the others. Raven insisted that we go to clothing stores, and I hesitantly agree. We buy some shirts for the boys and ourselves, and Raven then insists that I buy a dress for a special occasion. I didn't have a dress, nor do I remember the last time I did, so I found that going through the checkout was embarrassing and I felt bad because I knew almost for a fact that I will never wear it.

Again, after putting our purchases in the car, we start the long journey home. This time, because Charles had owned a high-end car with a 45s record player embedded into the dashboard, we inserted a newly bought vinyl into the slot. The music wasn't the best quality and we could hardly hear it over the loud motor, but that didn't stop Raven and I from singing along noisily. The time flied so fast and I had so much fun singing along that when we arrived at the mansion, I couldn't help but feel displeased. The feeling washed away when I stepped out of the car and breathed in the warm feeling of home. A home away from home.

I walk around the car and open the trunk, lifting two bags and walking them inside. Alex comes out to help Raven and I take everything else in and we get the job done faster then I anticipated.

"Where's everyone else?" Raven asks Alex, just as we took the last few bags in, and closes the trunk of the car.

"Sean's watching a movie or something, I don't even want to know what Hank's doing in his lab and the other two are over there," Alex points to the far front of the yard, and we see Charles pointing a gun to Erik's head. I wasn't worried. I know they wouldn't be doing it unless it wasn't necessary, and I was sure that they were testing Erik's abilities. Raven however, was worried. When Alex saw the look on her face, he told her to relax.

"Erik wants him to," he says and Raven rolls her eyes. She turns around and walks inside, leaving Alex and I standing still outside. It was like that for a few moments until I turned around on my heels, "come on, we should help her put the groceries away," I say and walk inside, hearing Alex follow behind me.

When we enter the kitchen, I see Sean pigging out on the groceries, pulling foods out and eating it straight from the bag. I snort, taking the bag away from him and putting it's contents away.

"Hey, I was eating them!" Sean protested and for a second he reminds me of my little brother. I tell him that we'll be having lunch soon and he rolls his eyes, "whatever."

When we finish putting away all of the groceries, we sit around the island counter, talking about the training. Alex says that Charles was soon going to start training us separately starting with him this afternoon. Erik had a quick training session when we had arrived home from the store, that's why Charles had a gun pointed to his head.

"So when do we get to see your mermaid tail?" Raven asks me, the others look at me curiously.

"Yeah, you've seen ours, why haven't we seen yours? Sean then says, sassily. I clear my throat nervously before telling them I'm not ready yet.

"Maybe when I've trained a bit, I'm still not used to it either," I say. Alex and Raven nod understandingly but Sean continues to push the subject.

"C'mon, you've had like six years to get used to it?" He says and I shrug my shoulders and take a sip of my water through a straw. Hank walks in, holding a syringe and we stare at him questioningly.

"Uh, Amelia? I was wondering if I could get a blood sample from you. You don't have to but I just thought I might like to check out your cells and such. Who knows, having a tail might not be your only ability," I raise my eyebrows at this and sit up straight in my chair.

"Wait, what are you saying?"

"Well it's a possibility. Maybe I can find out whether or not you could eventually grow your tail at will," he shrugs.

"Oh my- yes of course. Like right now?" I say standing up, my glass of water in my hand.

"Well we can do it right now but I still have a few things to get ready, it might take a while."

"Okay that's fine, I'll just get ready also," I say looking around at the others smiling. It seems like they were tuning into the conversation and looked almost as happy as I.

"Great, come to the lab in five minutes time," Hank then turns around walking away, most probably to the lab. I turn around and look at the others, jumping around and almost squealing.

"Did you hear that? What if I can control my tail? Oh my gosh, I can finally have a shower for the first time in years!"

When I finally calm down, after hugging my three friends, I spin around and start to make my way to the door when Sean stands up in front of me and we collide. The glass in my hand crashes into both of our stomaches, and I feel a cold substance running down the front of my body. Raven gasps and brings her hands to her mouth, Alex stands up quickly and Sean looks at me in shock, arms raised and mouth gaped open. Before I can transform, I run to the bathroom around the corner and leap in. The next thing I know, I had slipped on the bathroom floor and was lying down, eyes towards the ceiling with tears welling up in my eyes.

It took a little more than four seconds since the water touched my skin, for my legs to be replaced with a golden tail, almost as long as the length of the room. The door was still opened and I heard a pair of footsteps coming from the corner, which made me crawl over to the door using my elbows and slam it shut, not being able to reach the lock from the floor. I sit against the bathtub with tears now streaming down my face. I am so embarrassed and feel a unknown anger for Sean in my stomach.

When I finish crying, I look up and see that my tail is still there and has droplets of water spread out amongst it, the lights on the ceiling reflecting off of it. I reach for a towel and start drying myself off, wondering what to do when I leave the room. Go back to the kitchen with my friends? Run straight to my room? I decided on going straight to Hank's lab since he wasn't there to witness the incident.

I had finally dried myself off and I witnessed my legs reappear. With a sigh of relief, I stand back up on my two feet and walk over to the door. When I open it, I check to see if the coast was clear before power walking towards the staircase; towards Hank's lab. I didn't notice Alex sitting on the chair beside the door, until he called my name.

"Amelia," he says, I pretend not to hear him and keep walking until he repeats my name once more. I turn around and give him a smile.

"Yes," I say to him, looking him in the eye and pretending to not be embarrassed.

"Are you okay? You ran to the bathroom so quick, I didn't get to ask you before," he says sincerely. I couldn't help notice how attractive he looks when his eyebrows are furrowed. I shake the thought of of my head.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just didn't really want you guys to see me," I mumbled looking down at my feet and playing with the hem of my shirt.

"I understand. I'm sure Sean didn't mean to, it really did look like an accident."

"Sure," I mumbled once again. "It's just, I can't help but thinking he did it on purpose. He kept pushing the topic of seeing me with a tail, but I guess I'm just thinking to much," I say whilst trying to avoid eye contact. When he squeezes my upper arm, I can't help but looking at him.

"I guess so, but he felt really bad about it afterwards. He ran straight to his room as well," I raise my eyebrows and to my dismay, he drops his hand.

"Really," I ask, "he ran to his room?"

"He sure did. I just told Raven to go check on him."

"Oh, well I should probably talk to him after I go see Hank," I say before changing my mind. "Or should I? I don't want him to be angry at me, what if he doesn't want to talk?"

"Angry at you? Why would he be angry at you?" Alex furrows his eyebrows once more and I restrain myself from swooning. After a moment of distraction, I answer him.

"Well when I was young, the same thing happened with my younger brother. I ran out and he got mad. He thought I didn't want to talk to him or something. He was only seven so Sean's probably different." Alex grins after I tell him this.

"I doubt Sean is much different from a seven year old," he says and I laugh, thankful that I have a friend such as Alex to make me feel better.

"Well you should probably go see Hank, I think he's waiting for you," Alex says and I agree with him, saying goodbye before heading upstairs.

I reach Hank's room and knock three times. After getting the okay, I walk on in and see Hank in the far right corner of the room, putting rubber gloves on next with a table with equipment laid out on it. There was an empty blood bag, a vaccum tube and a needle.

"Amelia," Hank greeted me and I say hi. "I was just about to come and get you,"

"Yeah sorry, I got a bit held up," I say apologetically.

"That's fine, I only just finished preparing the equipment anyway. Come sit down, he patted the seat beside him and I went and sat down.

After twenty minutes of me squeamishly giving blood, we had finally finished and Hank dismissed me. I close the door behind me and make my way to Sean's room. Hesitantly, I knock on the door.

"Come in," I hear Sean call and I twist the handle open. He's sitting on his bed when I walk in, reading some sort of comic book, which was typical of him. Sean looks up at me and opens his mouth to say something to me.

"Listen, Amelia. I'm sorry that I spilled water on you, I honestly didn't mean to," he says very quickly, and I am taken aback by what he says next. "But, it was your fault, I mean I stood up first and you weren't looking where you were going."

I furrow my eyebrows and am lost for words. "My fault?" I say, "I stood up first, you were the one that wasn't looking where you were going."

"Well if you weren't too busy jumping around like a little kid then maybe- you know what, never mind. I'm sorry," he says, and goes back to reading his comic book and pretending as if I had left the room. I roll my eyes and mumble a 'whatever' before turning around and roughly shutting the door behind me. I make my way to my bedroom across the hall and again, roughly shut the door behind me. Sighing, I jump over onto my bed and bury my head in my pillow.

In my opinion, the way he apologised wasn't even a real apology. He was clearly the one who bumped into me and he's making me take the blame. It angers me how very rude he was. For all I know, he did do it on purpose, to embarrass me or just to see my tail. After thinking about it for a while, I mentally forgive Sean and try to forget about it.

•••