> "Hey so like, what's the deal with us still hanging around here?"

"Hey so like, what's the deal with us still hanging around here?" Luce tilted her head to her side, meeting Malachi’s gaze. “The sight here is kinda getting boring, with the bridge and all? You know I hate staring at moving things I can’t catch.”

Ozzy laughed again, this time it bordered on near hysterical. If her hands weren’t so busy they would be in the air.

“See, Malachi? Everyone wants to know!”

“Ozzy.” Malachi shot a glare towards her. The laughter died down and was instead replaced with a small chuckle. She went back to braiding. “It involves those orcas who you so lovingly ticked off. They...let’s see. They have us cornered here by hanging just outside of the shallows.”

“Wait- They haven’t left?...You’re kidding. I thought they’d get bored after…That’s so not like them.” Luce felt her face burn. She especially wanted to forget about that. The orca mermaids tend to have a small attention span and move onto the next school once they got bored of one.

“And guess who brought them over?” Malachi hummed.

Luce furrowed her brows while grinding her teeth.

“She made this happen?” Ozzy finally spoke up, a look of confusion on her face. “She made them want to stay around longer? Malachi, you know they would grab the first fish they’d find. They aren’t that smart. They would starve if they wanted to wait specifically for our school to feed on.”

“Do you want to personally find out yourself that they are still there? When I went outside the shallows to do the preliminary check for us a few days after the encounter, I caught sight of them. I am lucky to not have been spotted! And here I was, trying to not pin this on her by sharing this information.”