It was Tracey Freeburg's first day of college. He tried to talk his adopted parents, Emilee and Jesse, out of it, since he had very bad memories of human school, but never prevailed. Now there he was, standing before Glenn McConnell Residence Hall on Wentworth Street in Charleston, South Carolina. He shivered at the sight of the immense building, but told himself that there was no turning back.
Tracey was a very handsome young man with long, black hair that reached down his back and golden-brown eyes. He wore a gold-trimmed, dark green jacket with a black-and-white vest over it, white pants held up by a brown belt, black boots, and maroon fingerless gloves (how appropriate for the College of Charleston). His appearance was very ninja-like, giving him a very different look from the other kids in the move-in crowd. After all, Tracey Freeburg was no ordinary boy.
He was a claxton, the male equivalent of a siren, and a prince. His father, Tamesis, was the claxton king of Atlantica (the Lost World of Fairies). His mother, though, had been a fairy. She took Tracey as a baby to Merlin's Island after the Octopus Man (Poseidon) attacked his realm. However, she died from a broken wing soon after she turned him over to Merlin the Great, who was Tracey's mentor for eighteen years.
Tracey started as a fairy, but then chose to become a merman so he could return to his father, while still living with Emilee and Jesse above the waves. He loved being a merman, but at the same time, he hated that he popped a tail every time he got wet.
"Tracey, you're supposed to be blending in," Emilee told him. She had just hopped out of hers and Jesse's Acura and opened the trunk.
Jesse, her husband, helped her. He was an older man who wore glasses. Emilee usually wore her gray hair in a bun, and she, too, wore glasses.
"I am blending in!" Tracey argued with the older woman.
"By wearing that?" asked Emilee. "Did you bang your head on some coral while out on your swim? I told you to look 'presentable.'"
"But I like this outfit."
Tracey didn't ride with Emilee and Jesse to the college. He got carsick easily, because he wasn't yet used to cars, so he agreed to meet them there. Yes, Tracey swam to the Charleston Harbor and climbed out of the water at the last leg of the Waterfront Park. It was a rather enjoyable swim, considering that the whirling of boat motors caused his head to spin. Therefore, Emilee and Jesse never got the chance to check the outfit he wanted to wear for Move-In Day, because Tracey left early so he could get to the school on time. In his mind, the word "presentable" meant wearing the best ninja clothes he had.
When Emilee saw that she was not going to be able to convince Tracey to change, she said, "Fine, fine. I'll let you off this time. Why don't you grab a cart and check yourself in, while Jesse and I start unpacking your things?"
"But there are humans over there!"
"Shh!"
A few college kids heard Tracey's remark and gave him a funny look.
Poor Tracey. He had so much to learn about the Human World vs. the Magic World. That was one of the reasons why Emilee and Jesse enrolled him in the College of Charleston. If Tracey was going to live on land with them, he had to learn to live like a human.
Emilee and Jesse managed to enroll him as a junior, but to do so, they had to tell the school board one of his secrets. Emilee was a little worried about him. No, she was very worried. How long could Tracey keep up the human act before he popped a tail? Also, he was a claxton. What if he ended up spelling all the young ladies at the college?
Despite her worries, Emilee hoped that Tracey would succeed. She couldn't wait for the day when she and Jesse could finally call him a true human.
***
Tracey felt his knees knocking together. Why were the kids giving him weird looks? He did exactly what Emilee and Jesse wanted him to do: made himself look presentable. Yet, he still couldn't help but feel like people thought he was weird.
Entering McConnell's lobby, he found himself trapped in a mass of people. There was a desk to his left where students checked out carts, a lounge room to his right, and an open room beyond. The open room was where students grabbed the keys to their suites. In it was a line of desks. A group of RAs sat in a line, too. They grouped their papers, which consisted of students' names, alphabetically, to make the process easier.
Tracey assumed that the room was where he had to go first. Unfortunately, he did not get far before he tripped over his foot and crashed into a curly-haired girl. That was what he got for flying his whole life; he still struggled to walk properly. If things couldn't get worse, the collision caused the girl's water bottle to spill all over his shirt and vest.
Tracey gasped when he saw that he was soaking wet.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the girl yelled.
"Just forget it!" Tracey shouted. Within seconds, he pushed past the girl and followed the lobby's hallway to the men's restroom.
People stared at him, and the girl yelled, "Wait!"
Tracey shoved open the restroom door and dove inside. He pressed his back against it right as his whole body glowed green and purple. As he fell to the floor, he mumbled, "Great."
***
Back in the lobby, Emilee and Jesse appeared, carrying a few of Tracey's bags.
"Tracey?" Emilee called, but she received no answer. She and Jesse searched the area, but they could not find him anywhere.
"Where is he?" asked Jesse. That was when his eyes landed on the girl Tracey collided with. She was a pretty brunette with brown eyes and an acne-free face, and the only student who looked available. She wore a silky pink shirt, blue jeans, and high-heeled boots.
Emilee and Jesse approached her, and Jesse cleared his throat. "Hey. Sorry to bother you, but have you seen a black-haired boy by any chance? He looks a bit like a ninja and is about twenty."
The girl, who had just screwed the cap of her water bottle back on, nodded. "Yes. It was weird. He and I crashed into one another, and then I accidentally spilled my water bottle all over his shirt."
"Wait a minute! You spilled your water bottle on him?" Emilee asked in a frightened voice.
"It was an accident!" said the girl. "I tried to apologize, but he took off running for the men's restroom. It was like he was scared of being wet."
Emilee and Jesse's eyes widened.
At the sight of their faces, the girl asked, "What is going on?"
"Nothing! Thank you!" Jesse quickly announced.
Beside him, Emilee groaned and slapped her palm to her face.
The couple dropped Tracey's things off on a counter in the lobby and quickly made a run for the hallway.
Behind, the brunette had a suspicious look on her face.
***
Emilee and Jesse almost ran into the hallway's wall. They were moving fast, but managed to find the men's restroom.
Emilee banged on the door and asked, "Tracey, are you in there?"
"Emilee?" Tracey's voice said from the other side.
"Yes, it's Emilee!" Emilee yelled. "And Jesse's with me!"
"I need your help! Please!" Tracey begged.
At his command, Emilee and Jesse pushed open the door. They stepped into the restroom… and their jaws dropped.
Tracey was a merman. His tail was green with gold splotches. Wrapped around his forehead was a gold, seaweed circlet, and a green and gold seaweed sash stretched from his right shoulder down to his left hip. He also sported gold gauntlets with spikes on his wrists, and on his upper, left arm was a tattoo-like whale design—the symbol of a claxton, or a Fairy of Whales.
Smiling nervously at Emilee and Jesse, he lifted his hand and waved. "Hi."
"Tracey, seriously?" Emilee frustratingly asked. "Not even ten minutes in, and you already pop your tail!"
"It's not my fault! She crashed into me! Can you just get me dry?"
"Ugh." Emilee once again did a face palm. Turning to Jesse, she said, "Jesse, keep watch," and Jesse saluted her.
"Aye, aye, Captain!" He stepped out of the bathroom and instantly stopped a young man who tried entering. "Uh, you can't go in there!"
"Why?" the student asked.
"There's a leak! I swear, kid, you're going to break your neck. Why don't you use the bathroom in your suite?" With that, Jesse gave the student's back a gentle push.
Inside the bathroom, Emilee kneeled before Tracey and reached into her purse, pulling out a towel. She always kept one on hand, just in case something like this happened. Placing the towel on his tail, she started to rub it down.
"Why don't I sing to pass the time?" Tracey asked her.
"No! No singing!"
It was too late. Tracey opened his mouth and sang in a beautiful, claxton-like voice, "Come with me, my one true love, and I will take you to the sea."
Emilee slapped her hand over his lips. She was starting to have second thoughts about sending him to college. She had to admit that it was very hard to raise a claxton.
In magic years, twenty was still considered a kid. Magical beings did not become full adults until around age twenty-five, because they aged more slowly than non-magical beings. While Tracey may have been one of the oldest students to attend Move-In Day, he technically wasn't the oldest, but the youngest by magic years. He still did not know the true extent of his power, so he had to be very careful around humans.
Finally, Emilee got him dry. As soon as she did, Tracey once again glowed. His tail vanished, and it wasn't long until he was back in the ninja-like attire that he started with.
He and Emilee sighed with relief.
"Let's try not to get wet again, okay?" Emilee said through gritted teeth.
***
After the tail shananzo, Tracey was finally able to check in. He got in line at the A-F section of the open room's table. As he stood there, Emilee and Jesse continued to bring in a few of his things. Spying on him was the curly-haired girl.
She hid behind the shoulders of her best friend, an auburn-haired girl named Luna.
Luna was about her age. She had green eyes and wore a short-sleeved white shirt, a pair of ripped jeans, and sneakers. She and the curly-haired girl had been friends for as long as they could remember. They went to the same high school, and now they were going to the same college. Both of them were History Majors. However, Luna also knew the curly-haired girl well enough to see that she was crushing on the boy who crashed into her.
"Candice, you're doing a very poor job pretending that you did not just crash into the hottest boy you've ever seen."
"I'm not crushing, Luna! He's hiding something!" Candice argued, although she blushed. "Why would he run away when I spilled my water bottle on him?"
"Some people don't like water. What's the big deal?"
"If he doesn't like water, then he shouldn't be at this college!"
Tracey heard the two girls. Bewildered, he peered over his shoulder, and his golden-brown eyes landed on Candice.
She gasped and quickly hid herself again. "He's looking at me! How does my hair look?"
Luna laughed. "Yep, you're definitely crushing."
"I am not!"
"Yes, you are. Come on, admit it. You feel like you could faint any moment, am I right?"
Candice's cheeks puffed out. She glared at her friend.
Luna winked, giving her a peace-out sign. "Come on, girl, you've got this. Check it. He's coming this way."
"He is?"
Indeed, Tracey was. He gave up his place in line to talk to the two girls. Stopping before Luna, he waved and said, "Hey."
"Eee!" Candice squealed. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from the good-looking ninja.
"Is your friend okay?" Tracey asked Luna.
"Oh, she is. She's just having a moment," Luna replied.
Tracey scratched his head and said, "I see. Well, um—I'm Tracey." He held his hand out to Luna.
She took it and gave it a quick shake. "I'm Luna, and this is Candice."
"Luna—" Candice mumbled, but Luna went ahead and pulled her out from behind her.
Now only mere inches away from Tracey, Candice felt like her head was about to explode. She loved him so much that she had trouble speaking. "You have beautiful hair! No! I mean, what is with this getup you're wearing? No! I mean, what are you hiding?"
"Hiding? I'm not hiding anything." However, Tracey felt himself shaking.
"What's your Suite Number?" said Luna, who scratched her chin. "I seem to recall that one of our suitemates is named Tracey."
Candice froze. She looked like she was about to throw up.
This was Tracey's answer: "Um, I think it was Room 308?"
Now it really looked like Candice was about to throw up. She slapped her hands to her lips.
"Well, well, well," said Luna. She gave Candice a gentle poke in the ribs. "It looks like we're a few of your suitemates."
"My suitemates?" Wait a minute, Emilee and Jesse never said that Tracey would have to live in a dorm full of disgusting humans! Oh, gosh, this was way too much for him to take! A room full of humans meant that everybody would bully him, just like Peter Nelson.
"I-I have to go," Tracey said, pushing past Luna and Candice.
Luna waved goodbye, but Candice remained frozen. "All right, we'll see you later, then!" Then just like that, she placed her hands on her hips and glanced at Candice. "You can faint now."
And Candice did. She fell into Luna's arms, a huge, goofy smile on her face.