The next day Ariel layered herself up and went out into the garden. The day before she had holed herself up in her room after the session with the Doctor and spent her time emailing her grandfather and reading a book she had borrowed from the library. It was a historical romance, full of cheese and drama; an easy read to distract her from the real world.

Emily had popped in every now and then but had given her space and hadn't tried to pry or become friends. Ariel hadn't been ready to talk to anyone, even if it was what the doctor wanted.

His journal idea was ridiculous. She had no idea what to write in it and the thought that it might miraculously help her fix her problem was absurd. His suggestion of getting along with the others kept echoing in the back of her mind. She didn't want to make friends with anyone, but from the sounds of it, she could be here a long time and the thought of having no one to talk to was enough to drive her mad. Autumn seemed like she would be tolerable, and Emily might be okay. Lucas was a definite no though. She would not be making friends with that thing anytime soon.

Finding a small seat in the center of the back garden, she sat down and placed her chest on her lap. The fresh air was invigorating after being cooped up inside all day yesterday. The garden was filled with a variety of flowers she had never seen outside of flower shops. Daisies, tulips, roses, lavender, and a small herb garden lined the west wall while a vegetable garden lined the east. Everything was arranged very symmetrically but there was also a wilderness to the garden with the numerous wildflowers growing across the grass creating an array of colour.

Near the herb garden, Ariel spotted a small patch of blue bells and got up from her spot to take a look. Bluebells had always been one of her favourites. She had never seen one in real life, only in photographs. Bending down, she picked a few to take back to her room.

"Beautiful, aren't they?"

She jumped and spun around. Emily was standing behind her with the man whose voice had startled her. With black hair, brown eyes and a lithe frame he had a dashing countenance that was marred by the scar running across the bridge of his nose. His accent was Italian but his English was clear.

"Yeah." She quickly picked up her chest, eyeing them both. "I was going to put them in our room."

She looked at Emily who smiled hesitantly. "Sounds like a good idea."

"So," Ariel looked back at the Italian. "Who are you?"

He smiled and reaching forward he took her hand, kissing her knuckles. "My name is Michael Rossi. It's a pleasure to meet you, bella."

"Uh huh." She snatched her hand back. "I'm Ariel."

"Of course! Ariel!" He glanced at Emily and it didn't take a genius to realize that she'd been a topic of conversation.

Emily averted her gaze and Ariel sighed. She would have to speak with Emily later on. Maybe if she did what the Doctor said he would make her case a priority or at least get off her case about being nice to others.

"What is that you're carrying?" Michael asked, motioning to her chest. "Something precious from back home?"

She nodded, looking down at the object at hand. "Something like that."

Michael's expression softened and he nodded, saying no more. Emily gave her a reassuring smile. Ariel wished it was something smaller and less obvious to carry around. If she had to put up with everyone asking about it she was going to go insane and snap again.

The sound of voices interrupted their awkward silence and they all turned to the noise. A small boy ran across the garden from the back gate followed by two women. Both were blonde though their ages varied. One looked a few years older than Ariel, while the other could have been her mother's age and she guessed she was the young boys mother.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"That's Mrs. Grimm and her son Ben." Emily explained. "The other woman is his tutor, Peyton."

"She is a charming young woman, though not quite as lovely as my Rosa back home." Michael said.

"Your Rosa must be quite the looker then." Even Ariel had to admit that Peyton was pretty.

"Oh yes, she is extremely beautiful. There is no other who can compare to her in my eyes..."

He started rambling about his fiancé back home and Emily stepped closer to Ariel, whispering, "Lucas has a crush on Peyton. It's really cute. He gets all quiet and shy whenever she's around."

"Peyton knows what we all are?" Ariel tucked that little nugget of ammunition away to save for a rainy day when Lucas was likely to bug her again.

"Yes, but she's okay with it. She's known the Grimm's since she was a little girl. I think they helped her uncle or something so she's aware of our...strangeness."

"That's one way to put it," she muttered.

Kestral stepped out of the house, the door slamming loudly and gaining everyone's attention. Spotting their little group, she bounded over, latching on Michael's arm as she arrived. "Hey guys, what's going on?"

She pointedly looked at Emily and Michael, avoiding Ariel's gaze. Ariel raised an eyebrow at her obvious snubbing.

"We were just admiring the lovely day, bella." Michael beamed, patting her head and Kestral grinned.

"Sounds fun. Hey Michael, come and play Monopoly with me. I need someone to help me beat Samson, he's too good."

"I like Monopoly –" Emily began.

Before she could finish her sentence and Michael could respond, Kestral was already dragging him away without so much as a second glance at the girls.

"What the hell was that about?" Ariel asked.

"Kestral has boy issues." Emily said quietly. "As in, she wants all of them to be focused on her and at her beck and call at all times."

"I see." They fell into silence and she watched Emily look around nervously, obviously worried about being left alone with her. Ariel decided now was as good a time as ever. "Look, Emily, I just want to say sorry about yesterday. Clearly I was dealing with my own issues and I guess I shouldn't have taken them out on you and Autumn."

"It's okay, I know what you are going through. I know you don't mean what you say...I think."

Her voice dropped an octave and Ariel only just heard the last part of what she had said. "Look if I get mean, just get mean back. Don't just stand there quietly and take it like a wimp."

Emily nodded, sidling away and Ariel sighed. "Do you want to go for a walk or something? I promise I'll try not to be a bitch." Emily hesitated looking around the garden, as if hoping someone or something would save her. Rolling her eyes, Ariel walked away. "Forget it."

Walking fast, she moved through the back gate and entered a small sheltered path. A small woodland connected to the back of the Grimm's garden and she moved without observing her surroundings. She'd done her best and if they didn't want to hang out with her then she was done.

"Wait up!" Emily ran to catch up and Ariel stopped at the first bend. "I'm sorry I didn't answer you. I'm a wimp, like you said. Let's go this way."

"I didn't say you were a wimp all the time," she said, following behind Emily as she turned onto a hidden path. "Just to stop letting bitches like me walk all over you."

Emily hurried. "You're not a bitch –"

"I am a bitch," Ariel interrupted. "Come on. Especially at the moment, with everything that's happening. Just be a bitch back and we'll get along fine."

"I don't think I can be..." she trailed off.

"Trust me, you hang around with me long enough and you'll become one." Ariel looked around, taking notice of her surroundings for the first time. "Oh."

The path had opened into a wide field, enclosed on far sides by Ash and Sweet Chestnut trees. A variety of wildflowers filled the open area, with bluebells dominating the filed in a sea of blue. She gazed about in wonder, the small posie of bluebells in her hand falling to the ground.

Emily smiled at her reaction. "I thought you might like this field. There's a few similar ones further out but this one has the most bluebells."

"It's brilliant," she whispered. Stepping forward, she walked amongst the flowers. It felt as though she was in one of the fairytales her grandfather used to read to her as a child. A small laugh escaped her lips. It had been sometime since she'd thought of fantasy and fairies. The last time was probably two years ago, before she ditched her friends for new, better ones that were popular and laughed at people rather than being laughed at.

Nostalgia passed through her and she felt a pang of regret. She kind of missed the person she used to be and the friends she used to have. Back then it hadn't been so hard, having friends.

"S-so," Emily stuttered. "Did Dr. Grimm make you start a journal too?"

"Yep. Load of crap if you ask me. Why?" She turned back to face her. "Did he make you start one too?"

"Yeah, I've been writing in it sometimes, but I don't think it's helping." Her voice wavered and Ariel could tell she was lying. "I'm not much of a writer though so that could be why."

"Yeah, maybe. What do you make of Zeke?" Ariel asked suddenly. "He's a freak, right?"

Emily started. "I-I don't know. At least I mean I don't think so. He's a little eccentric but he's always been nice to us. Why? Don't you like him?"

"No, but then I don't like anybody so that doesn't really say anything." Emily's face fell slightly but she ignored it. Bending down, she started picking a new posie of bluebells. Emily started picking some as well, but she was more diverse in her picking, selecting from all the different wildflowers in the field.

"What's Australia like?" Emily asked. "Is it really hot there all the time?"

"Not really. I mean in summer it is, but Winter is still bloody freezing. Especially in Melbourne. You get four seasons in one day."

"What do you mean?"

"Well in one day you could have rain, sunshine, storms – anything. The weather sort of does its own thing there half the time - crap."

The chest slipped off her knee and hit the ground. Fortunately it was a short distance, but nonetheless she checked it quickly, turning her back on Emily so she couldn't see. Her heart was safe and sound, tinted blue in the natural light.

"You can leave it on the ground," Emily offered. "I'll stay over here if you're uncomfortable with me being near it."

"Do whatever you want." She left it on the ground, placing it between her feet. Secretly she thought it was nice of Emily to offer since she didn't even know what was in the chest.

"O-okay." Her voice held a defeated tone and Ariel sighed.

"Now is a time when you get snarky with me and tell me to 'shove it' or something since you were just being nice or whatever."

"I-I'll just stay over here. There's more of the red ones over here." Emily turned her back on Ariel and she bit her tongue. The girl had no backbone. If she wasn't careful she'd make her cry and then she'd be in trouble again. If the Doc heard she'd made someone cry he'd probably be on her case again or something.

"Hey Emily!" Ariel turned towards the new voice. It belonged to Ben who was running down the small path towards Emily, his little legs getting caught in the long wildflower stems. Her relatively calm, good mood vanished when Lucas made an appearance behind him.

In the natural light, Lucas' coat gleamed brightly, the black hair smoothed down in perfection, making him looked like a primped idiot. Ariel turned away, smothering her grin as images of him with a bow tie on trying to woo that Peyton woman entered her thoughts.

"Hey Ben." Emily tousled his hair. "What are you guys up to?"

"Just going for a walk. Mum says I have too much vent up energy so Lucas is helping me get rid of it."

"I think you mean pent up energy," she laughed.

"Yeah, that's what I said." He said defensively.

"Sorry, I must have heard wrong."

"Hey Em," Lucas' soft voice drifted across the field. "You okay with...?"

"Of course –"

"What's that meant to mean?" Ariel spun around, glaring at him. Every fibre in her being was telling her to just keep her mouth shut, but just his voice had her on edge again, and his word choice flared her anger faster than when Paige had melted her favourite Barbie as a child.

"Nothing," Lucas growled.

"Nothing my ass," she muttered, turning away.

"She said a naughty word," Ben whispered to Emily.

"Watch your language around Ben," Lucas warned.

She turned to look at the young boy. "You shouldn't say those words. Only grown ups like me can say it and even then it's still wrong."

"Then why do you say it?" he asked.

"Because when I get angry it just comes out." Picking up her chest, she walked over and crouched beside him. "Hi. My name's Ariel."

"Like the mermaid?" He glanced at Emily which confused her.

"Yeah. Like that."

"My name is Ben." He held out his hand and she shook it, trying not to laugh at his serious face. He pointed to her chest. "What's in that?"

Her smile faded. "Something important."

"Her manners," Lucas muttered and her anger flared again.

"You want to say that again, beast boy?" She stood up, resisting the urge to stand on her tiptoes so she could reach his eye level. "I thought the Doc told you to use your manners?"

He stepped closer, using his height to tower over her and she regretted not packing some high heels. "It's hard to use my manners when I'm talking to someone unpleasant."

"I imagine you find it hard talking to anyone at all," she sneered. "Especially certain pretty teachers you'd like to show your under furs to –"

She jumped for two reasons. The first, because Lucas roared, the sound so loud and shocking she wasn't prepared for the force of it. The second was because he shoved her – hard. The force sent her soaring and she landed heavily, dirt and bluebells flying through the air.

The air left her lungs in a large whoosh and she stared at the sky, stunned, watching a cloud slowly drift over the sun. Emily's face appeared in her line of vision, etched with worry. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she gasped. The pain in her shoulder ached, the sensation numbing and she knew that it should be throbbing – her heart! "My hea – box! Where is it? Is it okay?"

"Here. I caught it before it fell." Emily placed it in her lap and she snatched it up, her body relaxing. Tears stung her eyes and she sat forward, looking away.

Her gaze turned towards Lucas who was looking at her horrified. Ben stood next to him, unafraid with his hand resting on his arm. Lucas' mouth opened and closed before he turned and stalked back towards the house.

Ben ran after him, calling out his name. Emily watched them leave with worry. "What you said wasn't very nice."

"Him calling me unpleasant wasn't?"

"Well...no it wasn't nice. Still, you didn't have to say that to him. I didn't tell you that thing about the teacher so you could tease him."

"I know." She looked back at Emily. "I didn't exactly hold onto that piece of ammunition for as long as I had hoped. He didn't have to get so agro though."

"You don't understand. He can't help it. His curse affects his anger and makes him act like..."

"A beast?"

"Yeah," she answered quietly.

So he was one of the ones that was dealing with anger management issues. Her eyes closed. He was probably going to rat her out to Dr. Grimm right now and get her kicked out. She did feel a niggle of guilt for provoking his anger problems, but she still felt he deserved it.

"Lucas is a really nice guy," Emily continued. "If you just got to know him –"

"No thanks. It's probably best we keep away from each other. He grinds on my nerves and if I'm nice to him I recon I won't have any left for the rest of you."

Something wet hit her cheek and she looked up. The sky remained unchanged but another drop landed near the first and she frowned. "Must be a sun shower or something."

"What?" Emily squeaked. Panicked she started running for the trees and Ariel watched, dumfounded as the girl moved as though possessed. Just before she hit the tree line, she cried out and collapsed to the ground.

"Bloody hell." Ariel took chase, running across the field and came to a stop before her. "What happened..."

Her voice drifted off as she watched Emily struggle to roll over, her eyes widening in surprise.

Her legs had vanished and been replaced with a large golden fish tail, the scales twinkling in the sunlight.

"Damn it," Emily said miserably.

Apologies for any errors, wattpad has a marvelous way of screwing up my documents. Anyway, I'd love to know how you are liking the story so far? What do you think of Ariel? Like or hate? Comment below :)