Twice the Fun-Part 11

Aurora King


About 15 minutes later, Natalie squealed again. "We're here!"
 I gazed at the small, underwater town. There was different kinds of little buildings, which I guessed were stores. A little far back was a huge area with lots of underwater apartments and houses. All of the buildings were made out of really big seashells. 
 Mer-people were swimming everywhere. I wouldn't say there were thousands of mer-people, but there was definitely hundreds. But it was weird, because some mer-people had some weird hair colors, like blue, purple, green, pink, and even red. All of the mer-people had silver or gold highlights, no matter what color there hair was.
 Natalie led us toward the town. "Come on! Let's go shopping!"
 Air loved that idea. "Yes!"
 I frowned. "We don't have any money." I said, trying to make up an excuse so I didn't have to go shopping. I mean, come on! You end up in a magical world and instead of exploring, do you wanna go shopping? You can do that in our own world! No, I thought not.
 But Natalie took care of that problem. "Oh, don't worry! I'll buy. I have plenty of sand dollars."
 Darn it! Now I have to think of something else! I thought. 
 "Thanks Natalie! So, what kind of stores does Crystal Waters have?" Air asked.
 "Oh, lots of different kinds!" Natalie bubbled.
 "Like what?" 
 Natalie thought for a moment. "We have lots of top shops. And we have hair dye shops. And-"
 I gave up trying to find a excuse.
 "Please don't make me go shopping!" I exclaimed loud enough for the whole town to hear.
 Air looked at me like I grew 2 new heads.
  Natalie blushed. Everyone in the whole town seemed to be starring at us.
 Then I felt a little hot in the face too.
 Can't anyone in this town say, " no" to shopping? I thought. Or say, " no" to anything at all?
 If not, I knew that I wouldn't fit in well with the mer-people.
 A mermaid swam up to us. She had purple hair with silver highlights and a glittery purple tail. She looked like she was 15 or so.
 "Hi Natalie. Why don't you come over into my house and introduce me to your mer-friends?" the mermaid said.
 Natalie mouthed, "Thank you."
 I followed the mermaids, with Air behind me. We swam to a little seashell house and went inside.
 The purple mermaid closed the door behind us.
 "Thank you so much, Melanie! I thought I would explode from all of my embarrassment!" Natalie said.
 "Oh, no problem! I would have been really embarrassed too, if I were you!" said the purple mermaid.
  My face was probably as red as a tomato. Some of the red from embarrassment, some from rage.
 How dare they talk like I am a total embarrassment! And I'm right here, people!
 Air 'coughed'. "Want to introduce us, Natalie?"
 Air was way nicer than I was. Instead of saying that I would have said, "Well, since you two love to talk to each other so much, I'm outta here!"
 "Oh, sorry!" Natalie said, like she just remembered that we were here. "This is Melanie Aquatic. Melanie, this is Ariana and Aurora. They're shells."
 Melanie whispered something to Natalie.
 "Oh, sorry! This one is Ariana, this one is Aurora." laughed Natalie, as she pointed to each one of us as she said our names.
 "Hi, mermaids! So nice to meet you!" Melanie greeted us.
 Even though she saved me from embarrassment, I knew that I did not like her already...