"How about... no." She looked at him and smiled.
"What?! Why not! What if they get in danger?" Tortie looked almost hurt.
"That's exactly why, I don't want you getting hurt."
"What about me...?" Coral asked. "Am I unimportant?"
"You're an adult, Tortie is just a teenager." Mrs. Ren said.
Tortie sighed and sat back down, muttering swears under his breath.
"Hun, I don't see why he shouldn't go, it'll be good for him if he goes!" Mr. Ren smiled.
Mrs. Ren sighed, "Fine, you two win."
Tortie looked up and smiled.
"Ray, don't let these two get in trouble please."
"I'm not very responsible- but i'll try."
Mrs. Ren sighed, "Ok well, just please be careful. Also you guys should go pack."
Tortie grabbed Ray's arm and pulled him to his room.
"Wo-AhH!"
"Calm down, You need a new shirt! Yours is all dirty."
Ray looked down at his pink hoodie which was covered in sand, gunk and other wet stuff that he did not need to know the origin of.
"Ok you have a point."
Tortie wen't into a dresser that looked like it came off the titanic and came back out with an over sized grey Nike t-shirt.
"It's size 1-X, does that work?"
"You're mean." Ray responded.
Tortie laughed and threw the shirt at Ray before going back in the dresser and coming back out with a small kids backpack that was themed to look like the shell of a turtle. The backpack was worn and a small blood stain was on one of the straps.
"I'm gonna pack extra shirts and bandages in this."
Tortie pulled the blood stained strap over his shoulder and dragged Ray back out of his room.
Coral was already waiting with a satchel that had some extra shirts in it as
well and more bandages.
"Why do we need so many bandages?" Ray asked, a little worried.
"Sharks, sharp rocks and other things we might run into." Coral in-sighted.
"Oh yeah..."
"Anyways we'll need to go shopping for non-perishable foods and extra shirts." Coral added.
"Oh! That reminds me, I have 60 cans of tomato soup!" Mrs. Ren smiled.
"Guess that covers non-perishable foods." Tortie said, still excited he could go.
Mrs. Ren poured the cans into Tortie's backpack, she looked at the eight shirts in each of the packs.
"Hmm, you guys need more shirts. Go to the nearest sunken cruise, buy some more clothing there." She shoved them out the front door of the life-size sand castle, "I hope you guys make it back soon! Bye!" She slammed the door.
Ray looked over to the wide open ocean, to see this was a neighborhood of life-size sandcastles. There were younger mermaids and mermen playing tag, parents and young adults talking on sandy porches. Some mermen were cutting the sea-grass yards in front of their houses while others were catching crabs and lobsters.
Coral pulled a map out of her bag, it seemed to be a map of the underwater.
"So, the nearest sunken cruise is a little past there." She pointed somewhere in the distance of the deep blue.
She swam off, Tortie following closely behind pulling Ray with him.
...
They arrived at a big colorful boat, in faded words on the side it read "Epic".
"I went on this boat when I was 5, it sunk shortly after. I had nightmares for months afterwards." Ray said softly.
"Can't relate." Coral responded with.
They entered a hole in the side of the boat that merpeople were swimming in and out of, it was like this was a mall to them. He looked around the inside of the huge and fancy boat, his eyes adjusted quickly like he had night vision of some sort.
He followed Coral and Tortie into one of the shops to see some Caribbean merchandise.
Other shoppers were looking at sundresses and hoodies, Coral swam over to a yellow shirt rack with Tortie. Another person reached for the same shirt Coral was reaching for and they grabbed it first, Coral gave them a death glare and they frowned.
"You wanna die?" Coral muttered.
"Try me." The mermaid answered.
Coral leaped at the mermaid, pushing her to the ground and grabbing the shirt; lifting it triumphantly above her head. Ray looked over to see Tortie wrestling a little girl for a pink hoodie as well.
"What the fuck is wrong with you guys?" Ray was staring at the not-so epic brawl.
Tortie looked up at him, he was on top of the little girl, pressing her face into the soggy carpet.
Ray dragged Tortie off of her, and Coral off of the other mermaid.
"Hey careful! You're pulling my skin!" Tortie grasped Ray's wrist.
"Do you guys have any sanity left in you?" Ray dropped both of them.
"Survival of the fittest." Tortie had a stupid 'I'm so amazing, I wrestled a 4 year old.' smile. Coral nodded furiously in agreement.
"You guys are insane. Anyways, do you guys know any good places to eat? I barely touched the lobster this morning."
"Oh yeah, there's a pretty good place near here, it has really good-" Ray cut Tortie off.
"Let me guess, fish?"
"Yeah."
"Ugh. I hate seafood."
Both Coral and Tortie stared at him blankly.
"You're gonna have a rough time here then." Coral patted him on the shoulder.
...
"Fish-fil-a?" Ray looked at Coral.
"Yup. Its our original restaurant, and in no way was stolen from the humans."
"The title sounds a lot like Chick-fil-a."
Tortie looked at his sister, "Ooooh."
"Shut up!" Coral barked.
Ray swam inside to escape what he was afraid to get into, looking at the menu to see it only had various species of fish, scallops, oysters, muscles, crab, lobster and shrimp.
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Tortie swiftly comes in and bumps into Ray, Coral following after him.
"Lets get a booth!" Tortie said excitedly.
"No. Lets get a table." Coral pointed to a table near a window, right as she said that a merman took the table.
"Booth it is." Coral sighed, they all sat down at a booth.
"So i'll go get our food, what do you guys want?"
"Salmon I guess." Ray replied.
"Seaweed salad." Coral said.
Ray squinted at Coral.
"What? I want to try the vegetarian menu!" She blushed with an awkward smile.
Tortie swam off quickly.
"Soo, what about what went down with you and Tortie earlier?" Coral rested her chin in the palm of her hand.
"What do you mean?"
"Ya'know... when Tortie had his hands on your shoulders and you guys were face to face... blushing."
"Stahp!" Ray blushed.
Tortie sat down next to Ray, "Coral! You know I didn't mean it that way!"
"It's almost like you guys are gay."
"But I am gay." Tortie and Ray said at the same time.
Tortie has a gay meltdown while Ray turns into a tomato. A wild waitress has appeared, saving the day.
"Ya'll order 69?" She asked.
Ray let out a quick donkey laugh before covering his mouth, they all stared at him.
"Are you okay darlin'?" The waitress asked.
"I'm fine." Ray smiled, repeatedly hitting his head on the table.
The waitress set down a flounder in front of Tortie, a salmon for Ray and a seaweed salad for Coral. The waitress swam away and they all started eating, a voice came from above Ray's head.
"Has the angel we've all prayed for finally come?"