1. Introduction

1. Introduction
“Will you cut it out, George?” Scarlett snapped.

George shrugged innocently. “Stop doing what, Lett?”

She glared at him. “You know what I mean.”

George looked innocently down at the empty bucket in his hand. “I dunno what you’re talking about, Lett.” He put the bucket down and grinned unremorsefully.

Scarlett raised one eyebrow and pulled a scroll out of her bag. It was made of a thin rubbery material to make it water-resistant. “Procrastinating. The deal is you pick the berries and I don’t tell Mom you skived off homework for a week.”

“Come on, Lett…all the berries?”

“Come on, George…a whole week of hooky?” Scarlett mimicked mercilessly. “Get to work. Now.”

George frowned at his older sister and with a sigh flicked his tail and scooted through the water towards the field of berries. Scarlett eyed her brother with a look of disbelief.

“You forgot your bucket,” she informed him.

George came back and grabbed the bucket, dragging it after him as if it weighed a hundred pounds.

Once he reached the berry patch, he began picking. The thorns scraped his fingers uncomfortably, but not painfully. The berries came away easily, a sign that they were ripe, and little by little the bucket began to fill.

A small jerk on the bucket made George turn around quickly, scratching a finger on a thorn. “Ouch!” he muttered, glancing around.

A little mergirl cowered in front of waving fronds of seaweed, copper-colored hair disheveled and shaggy, huge brown eyes staring up at him. She had a bunch of berries in her hand, and he suspected they were from his bucket. The stray stuffed them in her mouth hungrily, never taking her gaze off George.

“Hey…want some more?” he coaxed, holding out the bucket. Scarlett wasn’t watching them. He felt safe offering the little stray some berries.

She stared at him distrustfully, then darted forwards and grabbed another handful from his bucket. She said shyly, “I’m Kaycee.”

“Hi, Kaycee. I’m George.”

Kaycee looked at the bucket. “I’m hungry.”

“Want to come back with me and get something to eat?”

She shook her head.

“I’m not going to eat you or something.”

Her eyes widened at his playful words and she finned backwards.

“I said I’m not,” George clarified. “That’s my sister Scarlett over there −” he pointed to his sister with her bright red, stick straight hair and the maroon tail. She was reading her scroll and paying no attention to either Kaycee or George.

Kaycee looked at him suspiciously. “Really?”

“What do you think I am?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, come on.”

She hesitated for only a moment, but then she came forwards and took his hand. “I don’t have a family.”

“That’s okay.” He wondered what Scarlett would say when she saw Kaycee. He wondered what Mother would say when she saw Kaycee.

The pair swam over to Scarlett, who looked up from her scroll and saw Kaycee first. “Who’re you?” she asked.

“Kaycee,” the little stray said shyly. "I don't have a family. He said I could come and have some food."

Scarlett glanced at George. “You know what Mom’s gonna say?”

George swished his tailfin back and forth uncomfortably. “Not really.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “It figures. You spend so much time on your practical jokes you don’t have any time to get to know the rest of us.” Looking at Kaycee kindly, she said, “Mom’s going to say… welcome to the family.”

Author’s note: Scarlett, George, and Kaycee are indeed mermaids, if I didn't make that clear. This is the introduction to the 100 story challenge. Now that I've finished this one, I think I'm going to do one a week, so I'll be finished in a little less than two years (52 weeks in a year, one story a week). They will not have any overarching plot, just a common setting and cast. Hope you enjoyed this, and comments would be appreciated.