After Geology, Tracey and his friends went to the Liberty Café for lunch. It was their favorite place to eat because of the large variety of food. There was a salad bar, a pizza bar, a dessert bar, a grill, and three other stations where food changed every day. To get into the café, students had to swipe their Cougar Cards.
Since it was 12:15 pm, the café was packed.
Tracey and his friends first grabbed a table near the back of the restaurant, then decided what to eat. Aiden was craving a hamburger, so he went to the grill. Candice got some pizza, Luna fixed a salad, and Tracey got some baked cod from the café's front station, the one closest to the entrance. He always went for the seafood plates.
There were a few TVs in the café that showed the Sports Channel, the news, and occasionally a movie. Right now, the top news story was the hurricane.
Tracey took a moment to study the storm's track. Currently, it was slamming the Bahamas with Category 3 winds and rain. The cone showed it moving up the United States' Southeast coast, where it appeared to be heading toward Florida, Georgia, and eventually South Carolina.
To Tracey, the storm looked like no ordinary hurricane. He thought he saw two eyes in it, not one. It took on a face-like form, leading him to believe that Poseidon created it. After all, he was all about getting him to return to Atlantica.
Tracey was lost in thought, at least until he felt somebody tap his shoulder. While watching the storm, a couple of students had crowded around him.
A girl offered him her notebook. "Prince Tracey! Can I get your autograph?"
"Me, too?" asked her friend, a brown-headed girl who had dyed her hair purple.
"No way, Mallory! I asked him first!" argued the first girl.
A boy placed his hand on Tracey's shoulder, saying, "Why don't you have lunch with me and my homies? We have plenty of seats."
Chuckling nervously, Tracey backed away from the crowd. "Sorry, guys, but I don't take autographs. I also already have some people I'm hanging out with."
"Aw," the students groaned.
Tracey wasn't out of the woods yet. Just when he thought he was, another group of students hurried toward him with their notebooks and phones out.
"Ahh! The prince!"
"Seriously?" Tracey asked. He turned on his heel and ran away from his fans. He never knew that being a prince was such a big deal in the Human World.
Luna, Aiden, and Candice had just returned to their table, and they sat down.
"Where's Tracey?" Luna asked. That was when she saw him.
Tracey did not get far from the crazy students before his left foot accidentally got caught in the leg of a chair at an empty table. Yelling, he fell forward, landing with a splat on the ground.
"Tracey!" Luna shouted. She, Aiden, and Candice hopped up and hurried toward him.
Tracey lost his lunch with the fall. The baked cod, beans, and rice splattered across the floor. He tried rising to his feet, but a wave of pain overtook his left ankle. Flinching, he fell onto his backside and grabbed it. "Ouch!"
Luna, Aiden, and Candice soon reached him.
Aiden spread his huge, beefy arms to stop Tracey's fans.
All movement and conversation stopped in the cafeteria. Students and staff members merely stared at the scene.
Glaring, Luna yelled at the fans, "You hurt him!"
"We just wanted his autograph," they mumbled. "It's not every day a ninja prince comes to the College of Charleston."
"I am aware of that, but he's just a boy!"
One staff member left her post to assist the young adults. She was a pretty lady who had dark skin, brown eyes, and curly brown hair. She wore a COFC Dining Services apron, along with dark pants and a white shirt. Her name was Esmerelda.
"Do I need to call EMS?"
"No!" Candice quickly shook her head no. "I mean, Romeo is fine. Aren't you, Romeo?"
"Sure." Tracey groaned, but he did not take his hands away from his ankle.
Candice and Luna grabbed each of his arms and helped him up.
In the meantime, Aiden continued to hold his hands out to the fans. "He's fine," he announced. "We're going to take care of him."
Everybody in the cafeteria continued to stare, at least until the four friends exited.
***
Luna, Candice, and Aiden took Tracey to the Cistern Yard. It was a sacred spot at the College of Charleston, located behind Cougar Mall and Randolph Hall. Sacred because it had the platform that students walked across when they graduated.
The area was wide, with green grass, benches, and many trees. The front of it had a huge, ancient-looking gate that people could walk through.
The Cistern was well-shaded by its many trees, and it was a popular place for artists to paint. Students also liked to hang out there with their friends. Most students knew of the Cistern Yard's sacred platform, so they made sure to stay off it, at least until graduation.
Luna, Candice, and Aiden sat Tracey on a bench under a large mossy tree.
"What happened to you in there, Trace?" Luna asked.
"One look at me, and everybody went crazy!" was his answer. "I swear, do you humans always react that way when you have a prince in town?"
When Tracey said that, Candice blushed. She chuckled flirtatiously and chewed her nails.
Aiden, though, crossed his arms and pressed his back against the trunk of the tree that gave the bench its shade.
"We need to get you back to the dorm," Luna told Tracey. "At least until we come up with a way to help an injured merman."
Tracey peered down at his schoolbag because he felt Gina moving around in it.
She poked her head out of it and spoke to him in tern language.
Tracey nodded as she talked.
"You can understand that thing?" Aiden growled.
Tracey glared. "She's not a 'thing!' She's a friend! She says that the best thing we can do right now is—!"
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the Cistern's sprinkler system turned on, and it sprayed all four friends.
Luna and Candice screamed.
"My hair!" Candice yelled. "It's ruined!"
Tracey used the moment to finish what he was trying to say. "…make sure we don't get wet!" He jumped to his feet, but flinched when he put weight on his left foot. He gripped the back of his thigh as he tried to find a place to hide.
His friends followed him.
Tracey limped over to a garden that was on the right side of Randolph Hall and the Cistern Platform. Opening the gate, he ducked inside.
Candice, Luna, and Aiden ducked in after him, and Aiden closed the gate. Within the small encampment was a flower garden and a path. The other side of it led back out to St. Phillip's Street.
Candice and Luna brought their hands to their mouths, but Aiden merely stared.
Once they were safely inside, Tracey's body once again glowed. He ended up on the path. Popping his tail, it almost hit Candice, Luna, and Aiden.
Aiden's jaw dropped. That was the first time he had actually seen Tracey transform, so he was dumbfounded.
Tracey, who had landed on his front, groaned. "Ugh. Now what are we supposed to do?"
Luna tried to remain calm. "Not to worry, Tracey. We'll just wait out the sprinklers and get you dry. Once you're human again, we'll take you to the dorm."
"It's not going to work," said Tracey.
"Why not?" Luna questioned.
Gina also looked worried. She flapped her wings, landing on top of Tracey's head. He peered up at her, and she returned his stare.
Then, taking a deep breath, he told his friends, "A merman can't transform back into a human when they're injured. The only way to do so again is for the merman to heal, and the only way to heal is if I return to the ocean."
"What?" Luna and Candice shrieked at the same time.
"Then this situation just went from bad to worse," Luna admitted.
"Let's not give up hope too quickly." Candice tried to sound confident, but even she had no idea how she and her friends were going to get out of this mess.
"Are you kidding, Candice?" Luna, who started to sweat, asked, "How are we supposed to get him to the ocean without him getting seen? Next thing we know, he's going to be the Number One news story on TV!"
"This is what we do," Luna explained. "We stay here until nightfall, and boom! Once there aren't as many people on the street, we make a run for it."
Luna opened her mouth, but was interrupted by squawking.
Gina pecked Candice's head.
"Ouch!" she yelped, bracing it. "What's gotten into you, Gina?"
Tracey propped up on his elbow. "She said that I can't stay out of the water for more than an hour. If I do, then my body will dry out. And next thing you guys know, the whole campus will smell like dead fish."
"Aiden, we need your muscles," said Luna. She glanced at Aiden, who leaned against the garden's gate, arms crossed.
Unfortunately, he was not too eager to help Poseidon's nephew. "Forget it. If we get Whippersnapper to the ocean, then he is going to destroy Charleston."
"Aiden, seriously? What's gotten into you? Candice and I can't manage him by ourselves." Luna clenched her teeth in disgust. Why was Aiden being such a jerk all of a sudden? When he first moved into McConnell, he acted like he was head over heels for Tracey. He didn't start to act like that until after he learned he was a merman.
Aiden furrowed his brows. Before Luna stopped him, he pushed open the gate and stepped back out to the Cistern.
"Aiden, stop!" Luna yelled, but Aiden did not return. "What's gotten into him?" Luna growled.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" asked Candice. "We've lost our muscles."
"Can I be of service?" a sudden voice asked.
Candice, Luna, Gina, and Tracey jumped when a new figure came into the garden. He was a shorter man who had black hair and a pair of huge, thick glasses.
Luna and Tracey recognized him instantly. "Dr. Lincoln!" Dr. Lincoln, it was.
"It's not what it looks like!" Tracey yelled. He held his hand out to Dr. Lincoln, in case he tried to grab him.
"Girls, we can't stress him out," the older adult explained to Candice and Luna. "That's his weakness."
"What are you talking about?" said Luna. "You can't just waltz on in when we're trying on early Halloween costumes!"
Dr. Lincoln scoffed. "Poppycock. I know he's a real merman, so don't give me that. I knew he was in danger, so here I am."
"How?" Tracey frightfully asked.
"Now's not the time to be asking questions. We've got to get you to the ocean." With that, Dr. Lincoln approached Tracey. "Girls, I'll get him by the torso. You grab his tail."
"No!" Tracey screamed. He fought Dr. Lincoln by constantly slapping his hand away. How could Tracey be sure that he wasn't just trying to turn him over to the aquarium?
"Calm down," Dr. Lincoln said in a gentle voice. "The Octopus Man is using your stress to his advantage."
"What happens if he gets stressed out?" Luna frightfully asked.
"Oh, you do not want to know," was all Dr. Lincoln said.
That was enough to convince Luna, but she did have some doubts about the Music Appreciation professor. "How can we be sure that you're not just trying to reveal him to the whole world?"
Dr. Lincoln clenched his fists and said aloud, "I would never do that to my own son!"