Emily Windsnap and the Moonlight Ball

Shiprock was all abuzz with the latest news – a grand ball was to be planned along the outskirts of Shiprock. Squeals could be heard from the Shiprock School as herds of girls rushed out of the caves, carrying their things with them as they rushed out into the oceans with excitement. Some rushed off to the cave stores while some of them murmured and giggled with the extension of gossip. However, there were two mermaids, one blonde and the other sandy brown, that spiraled out into the chaos and chased each other with the excitement of the party.

"Oh, Emily, this is so swishy. Imagine, a grand celebration on the shores of Rainbow Rocks," sighed a young mermaid with a green and silver tail that glowed as she flicked in the waves. "Oh, how romantic!"

The other mermaid, Emily, smiled as she said, "Yeah, I bet. Have you asked Seth to escort you?"

"No!" Emily's friend, whose name was Shona, exclaimed. "I'm waiting for him to ask me."

"That is the most proper thing to do, I suppose," Emily said, lifting her bag higher on her shoulder.

"Ah, yeah, says the girl who has already got a boyfriend," Shona smirked, teasing her friend.

Chuckling, Emily quietly held a hand to her face as she blushed. "Well, to my understanding, I think you already established that. You two are always together."

"Just like you and Aaron," Shona joined in, taking out a brush to comb out some of the ends of her hair.

Gazing up to the surface, Emily looked over to her best friend and said, "Hey, you want to grab a snowcone?"

Flicking up to join Emily, she put her brush away and said, "What's a snowcone? I've heard of ice cones, but we get those only in the winter."

"Then, you're really in for a treat," Emily said as they surfaced beside the beach. Surprisingly, the beaches were quiet as they perched on some rocks by the sea. Flicking her purple and green tail out of the water, Emily pulled a blue and black sweatshirt over her suit as she waited for her legs to come back.

Shona, again, took out her brush and continued to brush the rest of her hair in the midday sun. "I haven't seen much of Aaron today. Where is he?"

"He said something about staying after school, or something like that. You know, I'm curious."

"About what?"

"About why you avoided me those last few weeks. I really missed you."

Shona let her brush fall as she looked up at her friend.

"I mean, I know I mentioned him a lot, and I can understand that it made you feel left out. And, I'm sorry if it got on your nerves …"

"Emily …"

"… I just wanted to apologize for not being a good friend …"

"Em, you don't need to apologize," Shona said, placing a hand on her best friend's hand. "Do you know why? It's because I understand. It wasn't the fact that you and Aaron always were together that bugged me. In fact, this actually makes me a worst best friend than you. I was happy for you, but I have to admit that I was jealous. I thought that you didn't have time for me anymore." She looked up into Emily's eyes. "I thought I was losing my best friend."

"Shona …" Emily murmured, fresh tears flowing from her eyes.

"But, I now know that was never the case. Besides, I kinda know how you felt about it, now."

Emily smiled as she hugged her best friend. Grinning into her eyes, she whispered, "How does it make you feel?"

"Ah, wonderful. I feel like I'm the luckiest mermaid in the sea."

Weeks ago, Emily had spent a lot more time with her boyfriend, Aaron, rather than with the friend who had shared every adventure that Emily had had thus far. However, when the sea was at stake, Emily had given her friend a magical shell that was originally bestowed on her by Neptune himself, and, seeing that she wanted to share everything with her dearest friend, Emily had given Shona her shell phone, which led Shona to help Emily in her latest quest to save the seas from Neptune's lost brother, Njord. Joining Emily, Shona soon made a special friend of her own and immediately began to have a crush on him.

Breaking apart, Emily got up on her feet and said, "Now, I'll be right back with those cones."

As Emily walked over to the ice cream vendor, a stir in the water washed over Shona's tail as she turned her head over her shoulder to behold a familiar face. Smiling, she blushed inwardly as Seth shook salt water out of his hair.

"One strawberry and one peach blueberry snowcone, please …" Emily started to say before a set of hands closed around her eyes.

"Guess who?" a familiar voice chuckled as he tickled her under one of her ears.

"Aaron," Emily laughed, immediately turning around to meet his lips, but he beat her to it as he touched hers with a soft kiss.

Giggling, Emily pulled away as she said, "I thought that you said that I should be the one to remind you about this."

"Well, this time it was my turn," Aaron said with a smile. Seeing the vendor hand Emily the two snowcones, he asked, "Hey, what are those for?"

"I'm treating Shona to a snowcone." Turning her head around, she said, "I think he has something for you, too."

"Huh? Oh, cool."

As Aaron took his cone, he heard the vendor say, "And, a complementary cone for you, too, sir."

"Really?" Aaron said, taking a bite of his blueberry cone.

"Yep, enjoy them," he said, turning to Emily. "No charge, missy."

"Aw, thank you," Emily said, walking back to the beach with Aaron next to her.

Walking over to Shona, Emily and Aaron watched as Seth and Shona giggled quietly amongst themselves in quiet conversation.

Leaning in close to Emily's ear, Aaron whispered, "Seth and Shona seem to be getting along fine."

"Yeah, those two are inseparable," Emily whispered back. "But, Shona said that Seth still hasn't asked her to the Moonlight Dance, yet."

Smiling at the scene, Aaron whispered, "Well, does he have to? He could just take her."

Emily shrugged. "You know Shona, she wants the moment to be completely right and romantic. But, something tells me that she would go with him even if he doesn't ask her."

As the two stopped in front of Shona, they watched as they looked up from their talk. Seeing Emily, Seth grinned as he washed some wet hair away from his forehead. "Hey Emily," he said, turning back to Shona. Kissing her hand, he said, "I'll see you later." And, with that, he dove back down into the sea.

"Did he ask you?" Emily said, handling Shona her cone.

Sighing, Shona took a bite of her cone as she said, "No, not yet."

"Then, what did you two talk about?" Aaron asked, munching the rest of his treat.

"Oh, Neptune has got him on some sort of peace mission in the Misty Gulfs, and he said that he may not see much of me this weekend."

"Aw, I'm sure if he's crazy about you, then he will find a way around it," Aaron said absently as Emily elbowed him in the side. "Ow, hey."

"Aaron. Shona, I'm sure it's just temporary. He is Neptune's new advisor after all, but he's obviously crazy about you."

"I guess," she said, licking her lips. "Is this strawberry?"

"Yep," Emily said, settling back down next to her.

Aaron, seeing that the girls needed to talk, chuckled as he dipped the rest of the cone into this mouth. With blue stained lips, he kissed Emily on the cheek as he said, "I'll see you girls, later."

"You're lucky, you know. He completely adores you," Shona said, her tail flicking the water lazily.

Emily was about to say something else, but a sudden burst from the sea silenced her as a familiar head arose from the depths with a sea rose in his mouth.

"Shona, you might want to look behind you," Emily said gently, watching Shona's gaze land on Seth.

Surprised, a small smile spread across her face as a small bit of her snowcone fell on top of his head. Giggling, she handed me her snowcone as she accepted the rose from one of his hands as he licked a bit of her snowcone that fallen across his nose. "Hmm, that's good. So, Shona, you going to the Moonlit Ball?"

Smiling, Emily got up from the sandy bank and walked away towards her boat Fortuna when she heard the delighted squeal of a very happy Shona.

Back on Fortuna, Emily was snacking on a bowl of potato stew as she witnessed her father appear at one of the trapdoors below.

"Hey, little un," he said, pulling himself to kiss his daughter on the cheek. "You going to the dance tomorrow?"

"Yeah, Aaron's escorting me," Emily said with a smile.

Sitting a loving hand on his daughter's cheek, he said, "You're growing up too fast."

Chuckling, Emily nuzzled her father's hand as she said, "Are you taking Mom to the dance, too?"

Her dad thought for a moment. "I want to, but it just depends if she has to work that night. You know your Mom." Leaning up closer to her, he whispered, "I'll see if I can swing her, though. Even she can't resist a good time."

Laughing, Emily and Jake watched as her mother danced into the room with her ear buds in her ears. Moving in time to the music, her mother Penelope wasn't watching as she shuffled near the trapdoor where Jake was reaching for one of her hands. Gently clutching it, he gently spun her around on her toes, but as she opened her eyes, she suddenly lost her footing and fell right into his arms.

Plucking out her buds, she giggled softly as she said, "Hi."

Emily shook her head and said, "love is in the air."

The next morning, Emily heard a knocking outside the porthole of her room. Groggily rubbing her eyes, she got to feet as she opened the porthole of her room to see the early morning sun.

"Emily! Emily!"

Hearing Shona's voice, Emily smiled as she saw her friend wave outside in the waves as she ducked under to swim into one of the trapdoors. Bending down to unlatch her bedroom trapdoor, Emily smiled as Shona jumped up to the edge. Emily's door was a little higher than the other trapdoors, but you could still grab onto it and hoist yourself up to perch on the side.

Shona shook the early droplets off her tail as she stared up at Emily with dreamy eyes.

"What's up?" Emily asked, perching on the side of her bed and hiding a yawn.

"It's today," Shona sighed, no doubt imagining the night with Seth. "It's going to be so magical."

"I suppose so," Emily said, stifling another yawn.

"I apologize if it's too early, but we only have fourteen hours to get ready."

Emily nodded, leaning against her bedpost with tired eyes. "Right."

As Shona watched her friend struggle to keep her eyes open, her dreamy expression dropped into a smirk as she flicked up her tail to splash cool water on Emily's face.

Sputtering, Emily giggled and held up her hands as she said, "Alright, I'm up. Give me a second to get changed and I'll be right down."

Soon, dressed in her jean jacket and black swimsuit, Emily jumped into the water to await the formation of her beautiful tail. However, before it completely formed, Shona was already pulling her out into the sea.

At one of the Grand Caves, Emily watched Shona go through hundreds of dresses, but none of them seemed to appeal to her until …

"Emily, what do you think about this one?" She held up a baby blue dress that was adorned with an emerald green shawl and cape.

Emily nodded. "It looks great. Have you tried it on?"

"I will, but we need to find you a dress first," Shona said excitedly, pulling Emily closer to the fine aquatic wear.

Finding a simple violet top and a black rap, Shona then herded them both to the fitting rooms. Coming out first, Shona spun in a regal air, clearing spinning in her dreamy reverie. The emerald cape stood out against her silver green tail, but it was the blue dress that she saw that fitted, for it matched her Seth's innocent baby blue eyes.

Emily came out wearing the violet top over the top of her black bathing suit and with the black rap rapped around her small neck and cascading down her back.

Shona turned around to see her friend swim over to her. "Wow, Emily, you really pull that off." Swimming around her, she tugged at the end of the cape as she examined the length of the top. "Hmm, it's missing something." Tilting her head up, she saw a bright green material fabric belt that was hanging against the wall. Picking it up, she wrapped it around the base of Emily's tail where the violet top meet her scales.

"There, you look marvelous," Shona said, bringing her friend over to a mirror. "Alright, next we have to go and get our hair done."

"Oh dear," Emily murmured as Shona once again dragged her out into the sea.

At the salon, Shona had her hair done first as Emily sat down to snack on a bag of grapes she brought with her. However, it wasn't long before Emily was brought to her own hair stylist.

Shona was adorned with fresh curls curling down her back in a fancy matter, and she ecstatically watched as Emily's short mousy brown hair was brought up into a small bun style. Secured to the top with a silver pearl clip, the stylist then took the ends that hung down about her neck and slightly curled them down so they trailed and tickled the back of her neck with the current of the tides.

"There's only one more thing more to do and we'll be ready for tonight," Shona said happily.

"And what is that?"

"Tail makeovers!"

As the day reached on to the twilight lights, the commotion at Rainbow Rocks reached the edges of the town of Brightport as couples settled along the sandy beaches and in the swallow depths.

"I don't see Seth, yet. Where could he be?"

"Relax, Shona, he's probably just running late," Emily said gently, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Give him some time. Aaron isn't here yet, either, but he went to bring to his mother. This is the first dance that they ever really been to."

"I know," Shona murmured, scanning the crowds. "I just want this night to be perfect."

"I'm sure it will be," Emily said, turning Shona to her. "But why are you so impatient. I thought that you would be enjoying this."

"I am," Shona said gently, "but it's just that …"

"You want Seth to kiss you, don't you?"

Shona nodded, shyly. "It's just it's so sweet when Aaron kisses you. I just want that to happen to me, too."

"It will, Shona, but you have to give it time. Love doesn't quite happen that way, but when it does come, it is all worthwhile. You have got all the time in the world, Shona, and Seth is a sweet guy."

Shona smiled as she nodded. "I know. I guess that I'm just wondering if love will ever find me like it did with you and Aaron."

Seeing Aaron coming forward in the crowd towards her, Emily said, "I know it will Shona. You know, he could just be waiting just for the right moment to."

"Right moment for what?" Aaron asked, stopping at the shore in front of Emily and Shona.

Grinning, Emily said, "This." Then, before Aaron knew it, she planted a sweet kiss on his lips. "Now, it's my turn."

Grinning at each other, Aaron tenderly took her hand as they dived down into the sea floor to join the dancing and fun.

Shona smiled, patient for the first time that night as she started to flap her fin in time to the music. Diving under the waves, she began to spin as the music enveloped her in a shimmering crescendo. Jumping from the waves, she elegantly dove back down and gingerly bumped into a familiar face that she saw to be modestly happy.

"Hey, Shona," Seth greeted with a shy hand running through his blonde hair. "You look really wonderful."

Blushing, Shona smiled as she took his hands as he guided her over to the dancing floor.

Swimming in time to a siren lilac melody, Shona went over Emily's words in her head. Now, it's my turn. So, as Seth dips her in his arms at the end of the song, Shona notices that he is thinking the same thing. So, connecting her hands, they kiss under the beautiful light of the moon.

Thanks to those who's enjoyed it thus far. :)

I got inspired to write this after I read the fifth installment in the Emily Windsnap series, which was one of the best books in the 5 books thus far I think.
I own nothing, all credit goes to the authoress, Liz Kessler. Have a splash-eriffic day.