Tracey is having a rough time fitting in at the College of Charleston. To calm himself, he does a meditation session, but accidentally spells Candice when he hums a claxton song. Now he must find a way to bring Move-In Day Candice back before she declares him her one true love.
Meanwhile, the Octopus Man is planning his first attack on the young prince by using his pet, and Luna begins to suspect that what Jesse told her and Candice during Move-In Day is true: Tracey is a merman.
"Ahh! Today's the day! Today is the first day of class!" Candice Hope yelled so loudly that she succeeded in waking her best friend and roommate, Luna Cora, easily.
"Why are you so excited?" she yawned.
"Because Tracey and I are in the same Music Appreciation class! He asked me if I wanted to walk with him!" Candice shouted.
"Shut up!" said Luna. Instantly, she sat in bed. "Girl, that's amazing!"
"I know, right? Me and Tracey! Me and Tracey!" Candice started pulling her hair out, not only from excitement but also from nervousness. "What should I wear?"
"Just choose your best outfit," said Luna. She and Candice were freshmen at the College of Charleston and residents of Glenn McConnell Residence Hall. Their suite was Suite 308, and they were Room B. Each suite room at Glenn McConnell had two bunk beds, two closets, and two desks. Candice's side of the room, which was beside a window, had a theme color of pink, while Luna's was purple.
Candice hurried to her closet and threw open its doors. She was overwhelmed at the sight of all her outfits: dresses, skirts, miniskirts, t-shirts, etc.
On her own bunk, Luna laughed. "Don't worry. I'll help you."
***
It was a warm, summer morning in Charleston. The time was 8:15. Candice and Tracey Freeburg's Music Appreciation class started at 9:00.
Tracey, the ninja-like claxton prince, had been awake since 6:00 am. He went for a quick swim in the Cooper River before returning to the dorm so he could get ready for class.
While waiting for Candice to join him, he mediated in the Grace Church Cathedral's yard, where it had its usual Wednesday barbecue. He always started the day with a nice meditation session. It helped him remain calm throughout the day. Merlin the Great taught him about the power of mediation when he was his mentor.
Tracey, who had long, black hair and golden-brown eyes, cleared his head. Beside him, propped against a tree, was his green schoolbag. He shut out the excited chitter chatter of students and thought about the ocean, swimming amongst the fish, whales, and waves. As he did so, green sparkles floated around him.
"Inner peace," Tracey whispered to himself. Now, the sparkles floated toward his head and caused his hair to wave. Another thing that helped Tracey relax was music. He loved music. Not only could he sing, but he also played a variety of different instruments. The violin was his main one.
Joining the vision of the ocean was a claxton melody, and Tracey hummed it to himself. Unfortunately, even humming was dangerous.
Across the street, Luna and Candice had just walked out of McConnell Hall. Candice, though, went a little too far to look nice. On the first day of class, she wore a formal black dress, heels, and a necklace. The top bumps of her breasts were visible.
"Girl, are you sure you didn't go too far to deck yourself out?" asked Luna.
Blushing, Candice argued, "No! This is Tracey we're talking about, Luna!" Her voice, though, cut off when she heard something over a gust of morning wind: humming. Beautiful humming. Instantly, she was mesmerized. Her eyes landed on Tracey, who continued to meditate in the church's courtyard, and her jaw dropped. Freezing, she stared at him.
"Yoo-hoo." Luna waved her hand before Candice's face. She snapped, but it didn't even faze her. She wasn't affected by Tracey's humming because he stopped just before he could spell her.
However, Luna was smart enough to know that something weird just happened to her friend, especially when she suddenly yelled, "Romeo!" and crossed the street without looking both ways.
Tracey sensed the two girls and sighed. It was about time, but they broke his concentration. The sparkles around him vanished, as well as the vision of the ocean and claxton melody.
Tracey rose to his feet, asking, "What took you girls so long?" But then his eyes landed on Candice. "Whoa!" His whole face turned red. He lifted his maroon-colored, fingerless gloves and hid behind them.
Candice squealed, but Luna did a facepalm.
Tracey, who slightly peered out of his fingers, asked Candice, "Are we going to a formal breakfast after class?"
"Oh, heck no, Romeo! These are my school clothes!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! I always dress like this!"
"You didn't during Move-In Day."
"Well, I had a slight fashion change overnight. So, are we going to class or not?"
"Sure." Tracey, though, had a very hard time removing his hands from his face.
"Great! Let's go, then!" Suddenly, Candice snatched Tracey's arm and dragged him down the church courtyard.
Luna stayed behind so she could clear her head. She was so embarrassed. Why did Candice suddenly get so mesmerized by Tracey, and when did she start calling him "Romeo?"
Candice didn't remove her hand from Tracey's arm the entire time they walked to The Albert Simons Center for the Arts (SCFA) for Music Appreciation. It was on St. Phillips Street, across from Cougar Mall, which was a park on campus that housed a few educational buildings. Luna had her Historian's Craft class in Maybank Hall, one of those educational buildings.
She, Candice, and Tracey walked to the crosswalk that split the two sections of the campus.
Luna tried to pull Candice away from Tracey, but she refused to let him go. "No! You can't pull me away from Romeo! We're going to get married and find our own little place in the ocean!"
"The ocean?" Luna asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, dang it!" Tracey yelped. He just realized he must have accidentally spelled Candice while humming during his meditation session.
"'Dang it?'" Luna questioned. "What happened, Tracey?"
"Nothing!" he quickly spoke. "I can assure you, Luna, that after Music Appreciation, Candice will be back to normal. She's just excited. Yeah. That's it."
"Come on, Romeo! Let's go to the Bermuda Triangle!" Candice begged. "That can be our home for now on!"
The Bermuda Triangle. Luna was very suspicious. She watched as Tracey dragged Candice into the SCFA, arms crossed. Her mind returned to what Jesse, Tracey's adopted father, told her and Candice when they were helping him unpack Tracey's things.
"'Girls, what if I told you that—I don't know. Tracey is a merman?'"
No! That was crazy. Merpeople didn't exist! Luna was perfectly aware of that! However, she still couldn't help but feel like something was off with the unusually handsome boy who looked very different from the other students at the college.
***
As usual, the Octopus Man watched Tracey from his bubble TV in his home cave with his pet. "Perfect," he boomed. "The boy's already spelled a young lady. That means he cannot control his powers on land. Thank you, Tracey, for giving me that little humming performance. Now I know where to find you."
His eyes landed on his pet, a creature still hidden by shadows. "Go, my pet. You are to swim to the Charleston Harbor and confront this ailing claxton. Once we tell him who he is, he will not want to live on land again, and that is right where I want him."
His pet growled, making a sound that sounded like laughter.
Poseidon pointed him forward with his trident.
At his command, his pet took off into the pitch blackness of the Atlantic Ocean.
***
Music Appreciation was in Room 316 in the SCFA, down a long hallway and through double doors. It was a fairly large room that could hold at least seventy students. There was a piano at the front of it, as well as a Promethean board. Two chalkboards were in the room, on either side of the desks, and a line of windows was behind them. There were also music stands and pictures of music notes and instruments on the walls.
There were only a few more kids in the class when Tracey and Candice entered. Tracey took a seat at the front of the room, but Candice would not let him sit without sitting beside him. She propped up her head and stared at him, sighing dreamily.
Tracey shivered. This was his very first college class. He could not screw it up. Not that he had already done so by accidentally spelling Candice. He just hoped that the professor, Dr. Lincoln, wouldn't have his students sing in class. Tracey could sing on his own just fine, but not when a bunch of college students surrounded him, because he would run the risk of spelling them all, not just Candice.
He tapped his foot as well as the butt of his pencil while he waited for class to start. Where was the professor? He wanted to ask him if he had assigned seating. He did not know much more he could take of Baby Doll Eyes beside him. Besides, he needed to find a way to solve his situation.
Candice kept trying to touch him, which led Tracey to scoot his body a half inch away from her.
Before long, it was five minutes past class time, and the teacher still had not shown up. What was the deal?
A few students assumed the class was canceled and picked up their bags to leave.
Just before they could, a "Hi ho!" was heard from one of the classroom's open windows, and a hook gripped the window frame. From it came the students' teacher, Dr. Lincoln. He was a young, goofy-looking professor who wore huge, thick glasses and rock-climbing gear.
The students merely stared as he crawled through the window into the room. At the sight of them, he, too, stared.
A blonde-headed girl raised her hand and said in a gentle voice, "Hi."
"Ah! My students!" Dr. Lincoln announced. "Welcome! Welcome to the Wonderful Dr. Lincoln's Music Appreciation class!"
Out of all the students in the class, Tracey looked the most weirded out. He couldn't care less about Candice, who wasn't even fazed by Dr. Lincoln's weird entrance. She was too busy drooling over him.
Dr. Lincoln pulled off his rock-climbing gear and set it down on top of his desk at the front of the room.
"Let's take roll, shall we?" he asked.
"Um, Dr. Lincoln," said the same blonde-headed girl who said hi. "You realize that you just rock-climbed into the classroom, right?"
"Yes, I am!" Dr. Lincoln said in an excited voice. "It's a hobby of mine, young people of the universe! I have to get my exercise one way or the other! Oh, now who is this?" The professor's eyes had landed on a still weirded-out Tracey. "Golden-brown eyes! Black hair! You definitely look quite different from the rest of the students in this class!"
"I do?" Tracey asked, but now looking at it, Dr. Lincoln had a point.
"One look at you, son, and I can tell you have a talent for música. Come, come! Sing us a song!"
"Huh?" Tracey asked, but Dr. Lincoln grabbed his arm. He forced Candice off him, much to her disappointment, and pulled him out of his seat. He pushed him toward the Promethean board, at least until Tracey was smack in the front of the room, facing the other sixty students.
"This is Music Appreciation! We start every class off with a song to get us in the groove!" Dr. Lincoln explained.
"No! No! You don't understand!" said Tracey, who began to sweat. "I don't sing."
"Of course, you do! I'm sure your voice is as beautiful as a siren's! Already do I feel spellbound by the thought!"
Tracey's eyes widened. The sweat poured down his temples, drenching his shirt. Hold on! He was wet! Then that meant—!
"Uh, I just remembered that I forgot something very important downstairs!" he said. And just like that, Tracey grabbed his schoolbag and sprinted out of the room.
"Romeo!" Candice shouted.
"Hm, how interesting," Dr. Lincoln said under his breath. He scratched his chin and moved his eyes back and forth from Candice to the doorway.
***
Tracey hid in the janitor's closet. He didn't care that it was cramped; he just did not want to wind up in the aquarium.
He turned on the light and locked the door, only to pop his merman tail a short time later. Seriously, now he had to worry about sweating? That wasn't good for the summer months in Charleston, South Carolina. They were known to be brutally hot.
Clenching his fist, Tracey punched the floor. He had to calm down. Once he did, he would no longer sweat, which meant he could get dry. However, that also bought him time to think about how on Earth he would lift his spell from Candice. He didn't need her drooling all over him for the rest of his life. Trust him, magical beings lived a long time—three hundred years, in fact.
Tracey was also considering dropping his Music Appreciation class, now knowing that his worst nightmare had come true. Dr. Lincoln was going to make his students sing in class. He also felt like Dr. Lincoln didn't like him. No wonder he dragged him to the front of the room. He just wanted to embarrass him.
***
Luna went to her Historian's Craft class, only to learn that her professor was doing a conference and had canceled the first day. Seriously? That wasn't a good impression to leave on the students. Sure, Luna was upset, but it also gave her the chance to slip into the Addlestone Library on Calhoun Street. It was a huge student library that had high-tech moving bookshelves and computers. One side of the ground floor was dedicated to tables where students could work, and the other to the huge computer lab.
Luna, though, slipped into a smaller computer lab: a classroom where students learned from a librarian how to use COFC's research databases. The computers sat in a circle, all touchscreens.
Luna double-checked to ensure she was alone before pulling off her bookbag. Then, sitting at one of the computers, she typed in her MyCharleston User Name and Password. Students needed to sign in to both MyCharleston and the library computers. MyCharleston was a place where students could check their grades, sign up for classes, and do other unique things. Luna, though, did not do that when she logged in. Instead, she went on Google and typed "Male Sirens and Mermen" in the Search Box.