Pool Monster

“Class Say hello to Venessa, she ha s just moved here from I nverness Scotland . ” Mr Fredric announced standing at the front of the class with a 12-year-old girl standing next to him. She had frizzy ginger hair, green eyes, and freckles. She waved to the class.

Sat at the front of the class was Chloe. She had straight brown hair and brown eyes. She wore glasses and was a bit of a nerd. ‘Poor girl, starting at a new school in year 8 that must be tough.’ She thought to herself. No one wanted to sit next to Chloe, the teacher’s pet. People fought over the two seats behind her as they could copy her answers but Chloe did not know that. Consequently, she had a spare seat next to her.

The new girl came over and sat next to Chloe. “ Ma name's Vanessa, call me Nessie. Gled tae meet ye .” Nessie introduced herself with a strong Scottish accent and shock Chloe’s hand.

“I’m Chloe, nice to meet you. Sorry, you have to sit next to me all the other seats are taken.” Chloe sheepishly replied.

“ Nae problem .” Nessie replied.

“Mr Fredric said you were from Scotland. Where do you live now?” Chloe asked.

“In the Nene.” Nessie replied.

“I think you mean on the Nene, Do your parents have a houseboat?” Chloe asked confused.

“ Errr … Ay , Sorry I did mean on.” Nessie replied.

In the first year Chloe had learnt that Nessie really did mean in the river as she was a lake monster in disguise. Just a small one on the scale of things but still big enough to fill a room if she reverted back to her true form in the wrong place. Her family was “The Lock Ness Monster” technically a hole family of monsters living in Lock Ness. She had moved out like many of her siblings to find her own lake or river to live in.

Lake monsters matured quickly and at 12 Venessa had felt it time to move out. Her brother was to take over the mantle of “Lock Ness Monster” with his fiancée who was by the nature of things was also his second cousin. Not a lot of choices on the British Islands. Some of her extended family travelled across the globe to find suitable mates.

10 years later both girls were 22, best friends and in University together studying biology. They shared a student house although Nessie mainly used it to keep her human stuff and would access the river form their garden.

Nessie was not ready to settle down with a mate yet and was enjoying her time as a human and a monster. One had friends and could go to the cinema and other public things. The other could travel up and down the river between her home in a lake and her university with her human friends. Some rumours had started about the Nene Monster. Her family were never great at hiding. Some told of a large grey seal that swam all the way up the river to fish in the lakes. Besides human, a seal was Nessie’s prefeed disguise. Others said that a freshwater crocodile had escaped from a private zoo and was living in the river. Very few talked of a great serpent or plesiosaur-like creature which was closer to Vanessa’s true form. One story said that the Lock Ness monster had moved to Peterborough. Not entirely true but it amused Nessie to know how close the humans had gotten to the truth.

Chloe also loved the stories. Her bedroom wall had a collage of news clippings and artist’s impressions of the Nene Monster. She was still a huge Nerd, even in University she struggled making friends and found she was the smartest in her class. However, she was bullied less, and people didn’t try to copy over her shoulder.

Nessie had made more friends. She still spoke with an accent, but it was less pronounced, and she used less Scottish words and phrases. She did her best to stay hidden humans tended to lash out or experiment on things they do not understand. Lucky for her the so-called “Nutters” or more respectable Cryptozoologists tended to announce that they “were searching for the creature”. This gave lake monsters like her plenty of warning not to use their true form until they gave up.

Most of Nessie’s new friends were human but she had also befriended a Centaur, a dragoness and a werewolf. She knew of another, but she hung out with the popular girls. Her name was Mandy. Monsters had an innate sense that told them that a person was not truly human but not what they were. To Nessie, Mandy was a mystery. Only her “monster” friends knew she was one too. They had a big party one day and revealed all to each other although Nessie had to just say what she was as the room was too small. Chloe had been there too; it was actually the only party Chloe had been to all year.