Hydrophobia

Planning and Phil

                                                                              *Jack's POV*

I was surprised Rose had actually told me what had happened. If it had been me I would have tried to keep it secret forever. I mean, sure, I was one of them too, but I had known since birth. Rose was just finding out about it and she was at an age where it wasn't possible in her mind for it to be true. I mean Mermaids don't exist, right? They're just made up by sailors who saw Manetees.

"Amanda?" I called down the stairs.

"What?" She asked angerly.

I was yelling at her in the middle of a movie apparently.

"I need to talk to you and Phil about something." I answered starting down the stairs.

"Why?" She whined.

"Rose just called." I said and Amanda looked at me surprised.

"What about?" She asked.

"Well, apparently she turned Siren again. I think she's a little freaked out and I think as her friends we need to help her understand what's up." I explained.

"Why do  you need to tell Phil this?" She wanted to know.

"Because he can help us explain better. Rose is more likley to believe us if we have proof. I will show her my tail and you can show her you... breathing underwater thingy." I said.

"But what will Phil do? Show up here and say 'Hey Mermaids are real! See I'm one!' That's crazy? What if she freaks out or gets sick or something? I've never had to explain the existance of our race before!" Amanda asked freaking out herself .

"That's why I gave us about an hour and a half to plan. Rose is going to stay over here in her room for the night so she can kind of relax and take all of this in. It won't be easy for her, I know that. But we can't just let her be scared of what she is!" I argued.

I had called my spare room Rose's room. That's what it was now. Rose was welcome there whenever she needed a place to go. I felt that was the least I could do. She was going through something I might've had to go through if I hadn't grown up with one of my own kind. She has no one but us to explain it to her and I intended to be as much of a help as I could. 

"Ok fine. You have to call Phil though. I'm not going to let you have my screen." She said starting her movie back.

I ran back upstairs and hooked my TV up to the underwater camera. I hit the call button and waited for Phil to pick up.

"Whatz up, my favorite guy cousin?" He asked as his face came up on screen.

It was like underwater Skype.

"Ha ha Phil very funny. I'm your only guy cousin. Look I need a favor." I said.

"What can I do for you? More half human half Siren chicks you need me to help you stalk? Speaking of stalking, the one you want me to check on is a real cutie. Where'd you find her?" he asked.

"How'd you find out what she looks like?" I asked irritated. "And that's not the point. I need you to help me explain to her what she is."

"I have my ways Cuz. Why do we need to explain it? Doesn't she know already?" He said.

"No she doesn't. She's totally freaked out. She's also scared of water as it is, so now she's even more scared of it." I said.

"Well, this'll be fun. When do you want me?" He asked.

"In about 3 min. Can you get here that fast?" I asked.

"You're kidding me right? You're talking to the merdude who invinted the sport of Dolphin training." He asured me.

"Good. Get here then." I said and switched the TV off.

"Phil's coming over in a few min. You might want to get him somethig to eat. I'll go find him a pair of pants." I said as I ran downstairs into the laundry room.

Being our cousin, Phil's dad was our mom's brother so he was only half merman too. When Phil's dad had married a mermaid, Phil was born. He was 3/4 merman so his legs looked like scales when they changed. It was really gross and I knew that the last thing we needed was to totally freak Rose out and make her go crazy. 

"You make him somthing to eat." Amanda snapped at me. "You invited him."

"I'm trying to get him a pair of PANTS so he won't freak Rose out." I snapped back.

"Oh yea, I remember now. Fine, I'll make him a sandwich. But only because you CAN'T." She said and went into the kitchen.

"Thanks." I whispered not wanting her to hear. 

It wouldn't go well having her get a big head.

When Phil showed up he knocked on our backdoor and stood outside in a soaking wet towel from th waist down. I caught sight of his feet and realized I had forgotten something else.

"Sorry for my frog feet, They have trouble going normal after not using them." He said grinning.

I tossed him the pair of pants and shirt I'd found and went in search of tennis shoes as he walked off to the restroom. Hopefully he wouldn't decide not to wear them.