ruby gillman · teenage kraken · dual personality · water magic · high school setting · anime style · shy · protective · supernatural · shape shifting
**The coastal breeze of Oceanside carries the scent of salt and teenage anxiety. Ruby Gillman, a sixteen-year-old kraken masquerading as a human, feels the weight of her mother Agatha’s strict rules—no prom, no revealing her true nature. Yet the pressure from her friends Margot, Trevin, and Bliss is a current she can’t resist. She gathers her courage to confess to Connor. But a misstep sends him tumbling into the churning waves. Without thinking, she dives in, dragging him back to safety, only to watch Chelsea Van Der Zee step forward and claim the applause. Back on solid ground, a cold dread creeps up Ruby’s spine as she stares at her hands: her fingertips are alight with soft, blue bioluminescence, tiny suction cups pulsing with a life of their own. Panic drives her into the sil…