I am Teresa Andrea Bell, a somewhat short, athletic, silver-haired girl. My hobbies are running, drawing, swimming, writing, and drumming. My dream is to one day play the drums for a world-famous rock band.
I am Teresa Andrea Bell. I'm not exactly very social on the first meeting, but once I warm up it's hard to tell that I was nervous at all. When you hit on something that I'm interested in, you can guarantee that I'll find some way to butt in. I guess that's how this all got started.
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It was about a week ago that I ran into Ami at the local Swimming Pool. The first thing I noticed about this bookish girl is that her hair is blue. She was quietly doing laps in a less-than-crowded part of the pool. I was curious, so I swam over to her and started to chat with her. She was wearing a modest blue one-piece suit. Sensing a theme, I decided to start slow.
"You like the color blue, huh?" I asked.
She kicked off of the wall and started to swim in the other direction. I swam alongside her, hoping for a chance to get her to talk. It's hard to talk when you've got water in the face, though, so it was mostly gasping for air.
She's a good swimmer. I mean a really, really good swimmer. I used to think I was the best in the neighborhood until that race. It took all my effort just to keep up with her, and she didn't look tired at all! Finally, I decided to just hang on to the wall and rest for a while by floating on my back.
"You are good at swimming. I have not had a race like that since I was in Tokyo." She was resting against the wall, too. She sounded a little strange, but I couldn't quite place what was weird about it. "My name is... ano..."
"Your name is Ann-o? What kind of name is that?" I said smartly. Or maybe not so smartly. She blushed and tried again.
"I am sorry, English is not my first language, and it has been a while since I have had to introduce myself to someone new. You say family names last here, correct?"
I nodded. She's Asian? She's got almost no accent at all, and she's got a very European face! "Then call me Ami Mizuno, or just Ami if you wish."
"My name's Teresa Bell, or just Terri if you wish."
"Terri Bell. That is a terrible name for a person, ne?" She smiled a little.
I thought about it for a moment. Of course, a pun. I giggled, then we were both laughing. Now that one I genuinely hadn't heard before. Then again, Ami was the first person I'd introduced myself as Teresa Bell instead of as Andrea Bell. Spare me the Annabell Jokes and be glad I wasn't called Mary.
"I came here about a month ago, to prepare for the fall semester. I am studying to be a doctor, and the University offered me a scholarship..." Crap, a Med School student. Probably a genius, too. She won't have time for me or any non-doctor friends. To top it off, she takes the bus downtown from here and I gotta go all the way to freaking Andersen, which is in the opposite direction as The University! "...and that is why I am here. I start on the fifteenth of August."
"I start at the College On The River on the fifteenth..." I said glumly. It wouldn't register until later that I had missed the important-for-me part of what she had just said. "Oh, right, I was going to ask. Do you know where I can get hair dye in that pure a blue? I've been wanting to try an actual color instead of my natural silver..."
"Your hair is naturally silver? I had assumed you had bleached it. I was born with blue hair. It runs in the family, but my parents and their parents always dyed their hair black when they had the blue hair. Some sort of family curse, I believe, is how my mother explained it."
"I see. And you said your name was Ami Mizuno?" Why did that name ring a bell?
"Hai. I-I mean, yes."
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That... was a week ago. Interestingly enough, at about the same time Ami said she had moved here from Tokyo, rumors of a superhero in a leotard and a blue miniskirt started floating around the city, but I didn't pay attention to them until three days ago. The other locals had dubbed her "Mercury" for some reason. I looked at the photo of the latest '"Mercury" Sighting' and noticed blue hair. Well, yeah, of course the hair is blue, this is a blue-and-white newspaper.
Tha-thump. The bus I was riding on hit a bump. Someone pulled the cord that signals for a stop, and the driver slowed to a stop. Not. We were practically at the stop when the idiot pulled the cord, so we all flew forward at 30 miles per hour as the bus dropped to 10. My head slammed into the plastic thingy in front of me. That freaking HURT!
Turned the page... the old man behind me got up and hobbled off of the bus. I looked up briefly and saw blue hair. Really blue hair, almost...
"Ami?" I asked, not believing my eyes. But there was no mistaking that hair. She looked my way, smiled, and paid her fare. As the bus took off again, her and I converged on the same seat, somewhat closer to the front.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "The University is the other way!"
"I told you at the pool, did I not?" She didn't sound annoyed, more... sad. I guess she had people not really listen to her more often than she liked. "I turned them down because College On The River is a smaller school, and they offered me just as much in scholarships. I won't need to go anywhere near... Clifton, is it?... until I am done with my Preliminary Medical Studies."
"So you're taking your Pre-Med at River?"
She looked at me like I had two heads. "I am sorry, but would you please try that again? I am still unfamiliar with much of the local lexicon."
"You're taking your Pre-Med at the College On The River?" She nodded. "Cool! I'm starting there for some new computer science program!" I was excited. She looked at my hands nervously. "What, would you like my paper? I can get another one easily."
Before she could object, I forced the paper in her hands. It was one of those local Tabloid-type things, I don't remember or care which one specifically. I read it for laughs when I'm bored. The cover story was "'Mercury' Sighted in The City Of Anywhere!"
She dropped it like it was a poisonous snake about to bite her. "You hate tabloids that much?" I asked. "Sure, they're usually blatant lies, but they're still fun to read."
She relaxed a little, but I could tell she was still tense. "No, it is not that, it... I can not believe that I was so careless... How long have these stories been in the newspapers?"
"The real-deal papers? Not ever. They're only in the tabloids. This is the first time it's been a cover story, though."
She sighed a sigh of relief. "Would you like to shop for school books with me?"
I smiled at her. "Sure, I was gonna get my books today too."
I'll never forget the rest of that day. My life was thrown completely upside down, like with Will Smith on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, only less funny and more... scary, I guess.
