After Tracey's secret is almost revealed in his Geology class, he goes to the Liberty Café with his friends, only to have a bunch of his fans gather up on him. He tries to run away, but accidentally twists his ankle when it gets caught in the leg of a chair. His friends attempt to get him back to the dorm, but a sudden sprinkler system causes him to pop his tail.
Because of his injury, Tracey cannot transform back into a human. To heal, he has to return to the ocean. Now Luna and Candice must find a way to get him there without him getting caught. They have to rely on Aiden, who is hesitant to help the Human World's worst enemy.
It was early morning at the College of Charleston. Classes were supposed to start in about an hour.
Dr. Lincoln always started his day with a nice game of Candy Crush. He was eager to beat his high score, but had yet to get there. Dr. Lincoln was the new Music Appreciation professor. He was a goofy-looking man with short black hair and always wore thick glasses. He wore the typical college professor attire, unlike his first day of teaching. It consisted of a dress shirt with a tie, khaki boots, polished brown shoes, and a tweed jacket.
He sat behind his desk at the front of the empty classroom, his phone before him. Beside his ankle was his leather satchel.
Dr. Lincoln had Candy Crush turned all the way up and was deeply involved with it. He didn't know what it was, but something was satisfying about matching up different candies and hearing "Sweet" and "Divine" over and over. In fact, Dr. Lincoln was so into his app that he leaped out of his skin when he heard a knock at his door. Dang it! He forgot that he had a meeting before class today.
The professor quickly stuffed his phone into his satchel. Then, smoothing his hair, he said, "Come in," in his best professor voice.
The door opened to reveal one of his students, twenty-year-old Tracey Freeburg.
"Ah, Tracey, my boy! Welcome! Welcome!" Dr. Lincoln gave his student a huge smile.
Tracey was a handsome young man with long black hair and golden-brown eyes. He wore a ninja-like outfit: a gold-trimmed green jacket with a black-and-white vest over it, white pants, black boots, and maroon fingerless gloves. Over his shoulder was his green schoolbag.
"You wanted to speak with me, Professor?" he asked his teacher in a nervous voice.
"Yes, yes! Come, take a seat." Dr. Lincoln grabbed a stool that was beside the classroom's piano, and he dragged it to his desk.
Tracey's knees knocked, but he went ahead and approached him. A small sound that sounded like a sneeze came from his schoolbag, but he faked a cough to silence it. Dr.
Lincoln, though, had already heard it. However, he didn't ask Tracey anything about it.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" questioned Tracey.
Dr. Lincoln opened his mouth, but "Divine" was heard from his own schoolbag. He blushed.
"What's that?" Tracey asked. "Dr. Lincoln, do you play Candy Crush?"
"No! No, I do not!" Dr. Lincoln quickly reached his hand into his bag and turned down the sound for his phone. To get himself back on track, he cleared his throat and hooked his fingers. "Let's get right to the point, shall we? I know you're a prince."
"Um, yes, sir." Tracey gave his professor a slow nod. "I think the whole school knows that."
"However, I also know that you are no ordinary prince."
"I'm not? Geez, what a coincidence," Tracey said in a nervous voice. "What makes you say that?"
Dr. Lincoln's eyes had landed on Tracey's left, pointy ear. Occasionally, he put hair behind it. "Kid, we are about to get very serious here," Dr. Lincoln threatened.
Tracey gulped, finally seeing that his left pointy ear was visible. As quick as a flash, he covered it with his hair. He waited for Dr. Lincoln to give him a heated lecture, but he never did. In fact, he did the exact opposite.
Dr. Lincoln cheered and jumped from his seat. He dragged a dry-erase board from his bag and a black dry-erase marker. "This is incredible!" he cheered. "I never thought that I would teach a prince! Tell me, son! What kingdom are you from? Is it a modern kingdom or a medieval kingdom? What does your father do for a living—I mean, besides being the king? What about your mother? How did he meet her? Where is she now?"
"My mother is dead," Tracey replied.
"Oh." Dr. Lincoln quickly lost his smile. "Sorry about that, son. That must be pretty hard for someone your age, huh?"
Tracey sighed sadly. He didn't have many memories of his mother, but he knew she was incredibly beautiful. Merlin told him. He also said that nothing in the world mattered more to her than him and that she was willing to give up her life to protect him.
It was strange. Dr. Lincoln also looked sad. He went from being a goofy professor to a depressed individual. "What happened to her?" he asked Tracey in a low voice.
Tracey shrugged. "There was… a dispute, and she was caught in the middle of it."
"Do you remember her?"
"Not really. I was really young when she died, but I know she was incredibly beautiful. Dr. Lincoln? Are you okay?"
Dr. Lincoln had turned his back on Tracey. He now faced his Promethean board. "I'm sure you look just like her," he said.
"My mentor told me that she was strong," Tracey explained. "She would travel the four corners of the world to keep me safe. I'm sorry, Dr. Lincoln. How much I want to tell you about my kingdom, I just can't. I need to do what my mother couldn't. Protect it."
Dr. Lincoln gave his student a small smile. "You have the heart of a king. I'm sure you will make a worthy heir when your time comes. It's okay, Tracey. I understand. You can go. I'll see you in class."
Tracey took him up on his request. He stood and prepared to leave, but before he could, Dr. Lincoln called, "Wait a second!"
"What's wrong?"
Dr. Lincoln rose to his own feet. Slowly and carefully, he approached Tracey. It wasn't long until they were an arm's length from each other.
Dr. Lincoln lifted his hand, and he moved it toward Tracey's face.
He immediately became uncomfortable. "Um, Dr. Lincoln. What are you doing?"
"I'm sorry." Dr. Lincoln moved his hand away. "I don't know what's come over me."
"It's okay," Tracey said with a touch of sadness in his voice. "I'll see you in class." Turning on his heel, he headed toward the door with his eyes closed.
Behind, Dr. Lincoln mumbled, "Yeah. See you in class."
***
"Dude, he tried to touch you? That is weird," Tracey's roommate, Aiden, said when Tracey joined him and his other two friends, Luna and Candice, in the hallway. Aiden and Candice were in the same Music Appreciation class as Tracey, so they decided to tag along with him, even though they were an hour early.
Luna, Candice's best friend, also had a class that started at 9:00, but hers was The Historian's Craft. She took the two prerequisites for it, Ancient History and Modern History, at her high school, so she could get a jumpstart on her History Degree when she went to COFC. Her class was in Maybank Hall, but Tracey, Aiden, and Candice's was in the arts building (SCFA).
Aiden was a huge, beefy young man who had just recently moved into Glenn McConnell Residence. In a way, he was Tracey's bodyguard.
Tracey's friends noticed that he looked upset. They moved aside so he could walk between them.
He sat on a chair and sighed sadly. He wished he could get at least some kind of image of his mother, so he could see if he really looked like her, but he doubted he ever would.
A gush of air whooshed past him. It was Luna. She placed her hand on his shoulder and asked, "What happened?"
***
Tracey wasn't the only one who was down. Dr. Lincoln was, too. He didn't even rhyme. He liked to teach his classes with rhymes because they reminded him of music, but nope. He just read from the textbook during class. It was called The Enjoyment of Music.
Dr. Lincoln's class was so boring that students got on their phones or laptops. A few others nodded off.
Tracey usually sat in the front of the room with Candice and Aiden, but didn't that day. He, instead, took a seat at the back of the classroom.
They were starting Renaissance music, one of Dr. Lincoln's favorite historical time periods, but he sure didn't sound like he was having fun. He just said, "The Renaissance was a time between 1400 and 1600. Sacred was religious, but secular was prestigious. Aw, what the heck?" Dr. Lincoln closed the book. "Class is getting out early. Only get me if there is a mayday."
"But, Dr. Lincoln," said a blonde-headed girl, Julia, who was an RA at McConnell. "What's with the frown? Why do you look so down?"
Dr. Lincoln said nothing more. He picked up his schoolbag and left the classroom.
***
"Whoa. Was he really that messed up?" Luna asked Tracey, Candice, and Aiden. They met her outside in Cougar Mall after her class, since all four students had Geology together, and told her what happened.
Aiden, who looked a little angry, glanced at Tracey, who watched them with a confused look. "I'm blaming him. That creature must have done something to our professor."
Creature? That was a little rude.
Tracey narrowed his eyes and growled.
Luckily, Luna stepped in for him. "He's not a creature, Aiden! He's a human boy."
"Whatever." Aiden was still having a hard time believing that Poseidon's nephew was walking on land with humans. Closing his eyes, he turned his back to him. "That 'human,' is a threat."
Again, Tracey growled. He went to Geology class in a snit, but was still upset about his mother.
Intro to Geology was held in the science and math building of COFC (SSMB). It was in a huge auditorium with at least 110 students. It was definitely his largest class. A lab class was also required for a science course. Tracey's was on Wednesdays at 6:00 pm. It was the only class he didn't share with either his suitemate or roommates, to their concern.
Before making his way to a seat in the first few rows of the auditorium, Tracey slipped into the walkway beside it. It had a wooden border and was a relatively secret spot. He made his way over to a dark corner and opened his schoolbag. Right when he did, a tern flapped out of it and hovered before him. It was Gina, Tracey's best tern friend, that he met back on Merlin's Island. She was a Magic Animal with telepathy.
"Wow, Tracey. It sure is cramped in there," she told her friend.
"Sorry, Gina, but I have to hide you somewhere."
"No worries. I'll let it slide this time. Huh? Hey, is there a reason why you have such a sour face turned on?"
"Didn't you hear Aiden?" Tracey asked. "He called me a creature."
"I'm sure he didn't mean that."
"Oh, he did," Tracey argued. "I don't know what to think of him now."
"Tracey, who are you talking to?" a voice suddenly asked from the other side of the wall he hid behind.
Tracey jumped. "Hide, Gina!" he whispered to his friend.
Nodding, she slipped back into his bag.
It turned out it was Tracey's Geology professor, Dr. Hamilton, talking to him. He had brown hair and looked like a paleontologist, wearing a Jurassic Park hat.
Smiling nervously, Tracey scratched the side of his head and came out of hiding. "Uh, nobody, Dr. Hamilton! I'm totally alone!"
"All right, then. Why don't you join the rest of the students in the auditorium?"
"Yes, sir." Tracey slipped past his professor and entered the auditorium.
Dr. Hamilton was the opposite of Dr. Lincoln. He was a no-nonsense guy and a hard grader. He also wrote really fast on the chalkboard. Because of his fiery personality, he knew Tracey had been talking to somebody. He made an interesting discovery when he checked out the wall where he had been hiding. Gina lost one of her feathers. It floated to the floor when she rushed back into Tracey's bag to hide.
Dr. Hamilton picked it up, with a curious look on his face. "What is that boy hiding?" he asked himself.
***
Just like in Dr. Lincoln's class, Tracey isolated himself from his friends. He sat at the very end of the auditorium's third row.
A few girls behind him tried to get his autograph, because he was the COFC Prince, but Tracey refused. That was only because class had just started.
Dr. Hamilton stood behind a podium and pressed a button on it that lowered the auditorium's two Promethean boards. "Welcome back, students," he said in a stern voice. "I hope you had a good weekend, going to parties with your sororities and fraternities. However, I believe some of you may have had a little too much fun. I looked on OAKS this morning and saw that only about a third of the class completed the online quiz."
A young man sitting in the back row accidentally cursed. He realized he was one of the students who had forgotten the quiz.
Tracey was a good student, so he had finished it.
The quiz had been about sedimentary rocks. Dr. Hamilton never gave his students multiple-choice questions, but always used fill-in-the-blank, short-answer, and essay prompts. He also noticed that Tracey's answers were phenomenal compared to the rest of the class, and it made him slightly jealous. Tracey was a very smart individual, and it showed in his work.
"And those who did the quiz," continued Dr. Hamilton, "I expected much more from you." He didn't look at Tracey. After all, he was the only student who earned a perfect 100 on every quiz.
Students were scared of Dr. Hamilton. None of them slacked off or played on their phones or laptops.
He picked up his water bottle from his podium and hid his hands behind him. Then, slowly and carefully, he started toward Tracey. "Must I remind you, students, that quizzes are worth 50% of your grade?"
The students knew that, but Dr. Hamilton's quizzes were ridiculously hard.
Before long, he stood beside Tracey. Behind his back, though, he was slowly unscrewing the cap of his water bottle. "We are going to start today with a special lesson. I'm sure y'all have heard of the hurricane swirling in the Atlantic right now, am I right?"
That was true. There was a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. While it wasn't expected to hit Charleston directly, it was expected to clip it with its outer rain and wind bands.
Dr. Hamilton remained serious. "We're going to take a look at its track and see where it's going. I'm sure none of us want to get… wet, am I right?" At that point, the professor brought his water bottle to his lips but deliberately tilted it slightly.
Tracey gasped when at least half the water bottle spilled over his white pants.
Luna, who sat further down the row, noticed that. She, too, gasped and whispered, "Oh no!" under her breath.
"My apologies, Tracey," Dr. Hamilton sarcastically told him. "I guess my old age is catching up to me. I can't even hold a water bottle anymore."
Tracey did not argue with him. He snatched his schoolbag and shot up from his seat, pushing past his professor. The students stared as he hurried up the auditorium's side ramp and exited.
Behind, Dr. Hamilton turned on an evil-looking face.
***
Tracey ran into the men's bathroom, only to glow green and purple. Once the magic vanished, he was no longer a human, but a merman. He fell onto the floor behind the bathroom's sinks, but ended up hitting his head on one of them.
"Ouch!" the merman silently yelped. His schoolbag opened, and out flew Gina.
"Whew, Tracey! You haven't changed one bit! You still run like a ninja," she told him.
"Gina, now's not the time to be cracking jokes," Tracey said in a stern voice. "I think Dr. Hamilton knows I'm a mer-freak. Why else would he coincidentally spill his water bottle? I'm sure he thinks I'm the one who created that hurricane."
"Tracey, sometimes it's best not to jump to conclusions too fast," Gina explained. "What proof do you have that Dr. Hamilton knows you're a merman? It's like with Aiden. You're overthinking things. I think you're just scared."
"Humph. Ninjas don't get scared." Tracey sat, closed his eyes, and crossed his arms.
"Just act natural," Gina said with a small smile.
Tracey sighed. He hated it when he had to act like something he wasn't.