The Girl with the Golden Voice

"Come now, Elicere darling, or you will be late for your first Singing class!" My mother's lilting voice calls me from my dream and I groggily open my eyes. "Azure is already waiting for you, so you shouldn't take too long brushing your hair, darling," She reminds me. I smile and rush out the door, my transformed legs pumping loudly until I splash into the water. I dive and transform into half-fish. My fin at the end of my tail fans the water, propelling me forward into the dark oblivion known as school. I have been going to school for nearly five years now, and at age nearly-sixteen (my birthday is tomorrow), I get to learn Song. This isn't your normal singing... This is Singing (big difference, I know). There is, in fact, a difference-- Singing is the magical lure to all sailors, inevitably dragging them to their doom. I can't wait!!!
I smile underwater and feel the cold, clear water rushing between my teeth. My hair flies out behind me in slow motion as the rocky floor that had been below me suddenly vanishes. With a flick of my tail, I dive down through the water, "falling" down the dark cliff. Another giant slab of rock looms ever closer, but I keep swimming down to meet it. I brace myself for an impact (a habit I should really get rid of) that never comes. Instead, I slip through a concealed door and into a tunnel.
Through the slippery tunnel I swim until, deep in the cliff, I reach the entrance to school. My friends Lunia and Azure greet me at the coral gate. "Hey, Lu! Hey, Zu," I say cheerfully. Lu laughs and shouts, "We're going to learn to Sing! I can't believe it!"
Lunia is like a sister to me. A fraternal twin sister. And the fact that we both have the same birthday is the "icing on the cake". I've never had cake, but I know you eat it on your birthday... I wonder if mother will let me have cake on my birthday tomorrow...
Azure is like the bossy, older sister that I never had. She looks down at me disapprovingly, but I smile and say, "Azure knows how to sing. She's a real Siren." Lu laughs, "And a good one at that!" Azure laughs, but her eyes are still frowning. Azure's job is to make sure her appointed students get good grades and what-not. She is a truant officer, of sorts. But I like her all the same.
Lunia and I hurry to our first class-- History. On each of our desks resides a small model ship. We proceed to learn about ancient shipwrecks. Neither Lu nor I can focus on History, Science, or Literature. Shipwrecks, salinity, and siren-speak do not interest us anymore. After Literature we have lunch, which builds the suspension leading towards our first class of Song.
Lu and I hurry to the Coral Reef, a bustling restaurant filled with colors and sounds. I order my favorite drink, a coral smoothie, and a few breaded tuna bites. It is what I always get. Overhead, as we swim back to school, waves crash and lightning flashes. I hope my mother is all right. She has been staying inside every day, never swimming. I worry about her. We arrive back at school just before class starts.