<span style="font-style: italic">They are leaving... Bastards...</span>Imogen thought to herself. The "worldly" teenagers were always the worst of them all. They would always tap the glass and try to climb up the slick cage. The adults would always smile at her and mouth "good job", as if she were an actress. The children would scream at the others, but not at her. She was a mermaid, the stuff of legends. But no matter how adorable the kids were, she was going to smack the next one that called her Ariel.<br/><br/>Her sea green eyes and silvery blue tail mimicked the small waves created by her movement. Pearls hung from her neck, arms, head, and torso; they constantly got caught on her delicate gills and shimmery top. She kept asking the ringmaster to forget the pearls, but he hasn't for twelve years now. Once again, she caught herself wanting-no yearning- to be like the others. To be able to fight back when someone hit her, made fun of her. But, then again, because she couldn't fight back, she wasn't punished.<br/><br/>Everyone was talking, yet she could not hear them for the water diluted sound.