Waterworks (H2O Just Add Water) 🌊

62. Revealed

I met up with the girls for a swim around Mako before Bella's band practice. As usual, I came across the dugong pod and was embraced by the lovable calf. When Bella was first introduced to the dugongs, the calf also hugged her which she found cute. It made me wonder if dugongs were drawn to mermaids.

At the cafe, Bella had rehearsal. Cleo, Rikki, and I watched her, and the band perform, prepping for the gig. 

After the rehearsal, Bella caught up with Will about something. I knew that while swimming, Bella found a fossil of a shell and thought about him since he collected shells and fossils from various parts of the world. The only thing I could tell Bella was to be careful how she presented it otherwise, Will would start looking further. 

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The following day, I found out Bella almost got herself exposed in front of Will while out on their little date on the beach. He tried to kiss her and had inadvertently touched her while his hand was wet, and she quickly headed for the water without being seen.

"Please try not to be so hard on Bella," Cleo begged Rikki, "I mean, she is smart enough to keep our secret."

"Yeah, I guess," Rikki shrugged.

"True dat," I nodded, "I mean, long before meeting us, she did strive to keep it all to herself when she thought she was the only one."

I turned and saw Sophie with a questioning expression. Something told me there was something on her mind.

"Is everything okay?" Rikki wondered at her.

Sophie approached us at the counter, "Bella gave my brother a shell. An extremely rare, extremely expensive one."

"There's always weird shells drifting onto the shore," Cleo explained, "I'm sure it's nothing special.

"Usually depends on what part of the world you're at," I added. 

"Oh, this is special, all right. Will's never seen anything like it," Sophie stated, "And he knows his stuff, believe me."

"Oh, do you want us to have a look at it?" Rikki offered, "Maybe it's the kind of thing we've seen before."

"Thanks, but I don't have it with me. Will's already given it pride of place on his desk. I'm gonna get someone to take a look at it."

"Oh, I wouldn't go to all that trouble. That's silly."

"Will thinks it's worth a fortune, so it'd be good to know exactly how much."

Sophie then left. I wondered if her mentioning the cost was because she and Will were financially struggling, or that it was out of greed.

"I'll stall her," Rikki suggested.

"What are you doing?" Cleo wondered.

"Stopping this from getting any worse than it already is."

Rikki left the cafe, possibly headed for Will's place to either destroy the fossil or something. Cleo attempted to stall Sophie to buy Rikki time, but that failed as the red head was ambitious. 

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Later, I found out Rikki had managed to destroy the fossil. She found out Will had been researching the strange incidents involving Mako Island after finding an article about the storm the girls and I conjured up last year. Even though he was a chill guy, neither of us were ready to tell him the truth. Rikki ended up giving Bella an ultimatum after warning her about Will. It was all reminding me of when Rikki started seeing Zane and attempted to keep it hidden from Cleo and Emma long before he found out about us.

Bella contacted the other girls and me. All four of us met at the moon pool where she informed us that Will had seen her full mermaid form when he dove after her. 

"I know you warned me, and I tried. I really did," Bella confessed to Rikki.

"This is a disaster," Rikki remarked, "He's gonna tell everyone. We'll end up on display at the marine park with Ronnie."

"No, you won't. He only thinks that I'm a mermaid."

"I think he'll figure it out."

"No, he asked me. I lied. I said I'm the only one."

It made me think back to when I revealed myself to Patrick and only told him that I was the only mermaid until he figured out that I wasn't the only one.

"Thanks. For protecting us," Cleo commended Bella.

"Please forgive me," Bella turned to Rikki with a pleading expression.

"I guess what's done is done," Rikki stated.

"I'll fix it. I'll deal with it, and you guys won't have to do anything."

"No. We're in this together. We'll fix this together."

"She's right. Whatever affects one of us, it affects all of us," I jumped in, "You won't be alone in this Bells. Plus, I'm certain Will wouldn't say a word of this to anyone. I don't think he's said much about the water tentacle as of late."

Bella turned to me with a small smile.

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When it was the night of the gig, Bella tried getting a hold of Will, but there was no reply. The rest of us convinced Bella to get on with the performance.

Just after Bella started singing, Will and Sophie arrived, and they appeared to be talking about something. Rikki was convinced that he was telling his sister about everything. Bella paused the gig and approached Will who was about to leave and both of them spoke for a bit until he left.

Bella informed the rest of us that Will had promised to keep her secret. All of us would have to keep a close eye on him ensuring that he wouldn't do anything that would hurt Bella or any one of us.