Tyler's mind was racing with thoughts. He couldn't even focus on what the teacher was saying. The sound of Zen and Neako's cries was filling his head.

"Tyler." Someone pulls him from his thoughts and he looks up.

Adin was at the classroom doorway and he motions for Tyler to follow him. He looks to the teacher and she nods her head. Tyler grabs his bag and swims out quickly.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"Mr. and Mrs. Shallow wants to talk to you about Zen and Neako." Adin explains.

"What's there to talk about? Their both gone. I'll never see them again." A lump grows in Tyler's throat and he looks down to the floor, "He was more of a brother than you ever will be."

Adin glares at him and rolls his eyes, "He was just a fre-"

Tyler's fist digs itself into the side of Adin's face with anger rising in him.

"Shut up." He growls, "Shut up! He was always there for me, for the times where you fucked up my life! I will never see you as anything more but an obstacle in my life."

"Tyler?" A girl with long brown hair and a tiger shark tail swims up to him, "I heard about everything that happened." She hugs him and rubs the back of his head.

"Not even a care in the world that he just punched me?" Adin exclaims.

The girl moves away from Tyler, "If Tyler punched you then you must have deserved it."

"I hate you, Ashley." Adin mutters.

"Yeah, you see,.... I don't care." Ashley glares at him.

"Wait, why are you out of class?" Tyler looks down at her.

"I just told my teacher that I had some family issues." She smiles for a second and then looks back up at Tyler, "I'm sorry, babe, I know how much they both meant to you."

Tyler hugs her again and sinks his head into her shoulder. Adin rolls his eyes and pushes them away from each other.

"Enough, let's hurry up and get to the Shallow's house." Adin says.

Tyler shakes his head with a glare and mutters, "Just get out of my life already."

He swims down the hall with Ashely trailing right behind him.

"You okay?" She asks.

"No, too much is going on right now and I still can't wrap my mind around it." Tyler sighs.

"If you want to stay at my place for a bit you can. My family would be fine with you living with us." Ashley was concerned.

"No," Tyler shakes his head, "I need to start handling problems on my own. I need to start taking care of myself."

Ashley swims in front of him and stops, "Tyler, it's not that we don't think you can take care of yourself, or anything like that, it's just that we are trying to let you know that you have people you can depend on."

"Yeah, don't forget that." A merman appears behind Ashley.

She gasps and whirls around with a fist flying towards his face. Her fist is caught and the man snickers. He had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a slick shiny silver tail.

"Second time this week I scared you." He smiles.

"And what are you doing outside of class, Pablo?" Tyler shakes his head.

"Meh. Got in trouble again because I tried to ditch class." His smile fades away, "I heard about what happened to Zen.... I wasn't able to say goodbye. I can't even remember what the last thing I said to him was."

"Stop, both of you, " Ashley says, "He's not the type of person to kick the bucket so easily. There is a chance we will see him again."

"There is no way he's still alive and you know it, Ashley." Tyler swims past Pablo.

He swims all the way out of the school and continues through the loud village. Many people stare at Tyler as he swims by causing him to swim faster. He finally comes up to the front door of Zen's house and takes a deep breath. He knocks on the door and waits for a few seconds until the doorknob begins to shake. Zen's mother opens the door and looks up at Tyler with bright red eyes. She sniffles and opens the door for the rest of the way. Tyler swims in and nods his head to the tall merman floating in the middle of the entryway. He had short silver hair, brown eyes, and armor that covered his entire chest and stopped at the end of his tail.

"How are you, Tyler?" He asks.

"I'm doing good, Mr. Shallow." Tyler says.

He sits at the small dining table and feels his heart sink as he realizes he was sitting in Zen's dinner seat.

"I'm sorry we pulled you out of school early but I was wondering if you had anything special that belonged to Zen." Mr. Shallow says, "You know the most about him and we know that you know his most prized possessions."

Tyler looks down to the ground to think, "Everything he liked he kept in his regular bag, but.... That was the only thing he left with. Even his favorite shells that you guys had given him was in that bag and so was the blue knife he had gotten from you, Mr. Shallow."

Mrs. Shallow covers her mouth as she begins to weep. Mr. Shallow rubs her back and looks down at Tyler.

"Your brother came to ask us if you could stay with us. He said he had already talked to Zen about it and Zen agreed." Mr. Shallow says.

Tyler looks up and him, "When did he ask you?"

"Just this morning." Mrs. Shallow says after catching her breath.

Tyler feels his blood begin to boil, "I'll come back later and hopefully remember more things he loved."

Both parents nod and Tyler swims out of the house.

"Zen would have told me if Adin talked to him, plus the only time I was away from both of them was right before Zen was taken." Tyler feels his body tense, "That bastard better not have gotten my friend killed."