I met up with Cleo for an early morning swim around the reefs before school. It had been a while since I had seen the dugong pod. So I checked in on them. The calf hugged me once it saw me.
At that moment, I noticed an orange tail that went behind a bedrock. I assumed it was Cleo, though she would normally swim over to see the dugongs with me. She adored the huggable calf so much. However, Cleo came around from another direction with a worried and shocked expression and pointed to the bedrock. I knew it couldn't be either Emma or Rikki since they would be prepping for school already.
A familiar face revealed herself. It wasn't any of the other girls. My eyes widened on seeing that it was Charlotte, in mermaid form. She smiled at both Cleo and me. I had to guess she figured everything out and got into the moon pool during the full moon. The dugong calf released me from its embrace and swam back to its mother. Cleo gave me an expression that it was time to leave and inform the others. So we swam rapidly back to the mainland.
🌊
After our legs returned, Cleo and I hurriedly raced to school. We found Rikki and Emma along with Lewis seated on the ground.
"Guys, brace yourself," Cleo started in shock after seating ourselves with them, "We have news."
"So do we," Emma and Rikki stated in unison.
"Us first," I jumped in feeling out of breath after running.
"What is it, Cleo? Zoey?" Emma wondered.
"Come on. Spit it out before you choke on it," Rikki demanded impatiently wanting an answer.
"OK," Cleo nodded, "As long as you understand that life as you know it is about to change."
"It's about Charlotte," I added.
"She's--"
"A mermaid," Rikki filled in the sentence.
"Yes! How do you know?" Cleo asked.
"Lewis just told us."
Cleo turned to him with a glare, "What have you got to do with this, Lewis? Explain."
"Not now, Cleo," Emma suggested, "We have to deal with this somehow."
"Correction. Lewis has to deal with this somehow," Rikki snapped, "After all, it is his fault."
"My fault?" Lewis questioned, "How is it my fault?"
"Don't make me state the obvious, Lewis."
"Let's not point any blame on him," I suggested trying to calm Rikki down, "He didn't expect all of this to happen."
"Zoey's right, I don't think we need to play to blame game, Rikki," Lewis agreed, "The fact is, Charlotte is a mermaid. That part's history."
"Now it's up to you to do something about it," Rikki glared at him.
I felt bad for Lewis who felt expected to solve all of our problems just because he was going out with Charlotte. The girls and I could jump in and help him out with her, especially since she was another mermaid already. It made me guess Charlotte got into the moon pool during the full moon because she wanted to experience what Gracie, her grandmother, got to feel and see.
🌊
The PE teacher, Ms. Scarf approached me about my sports attendance, especially swimming. I informed her that I inherited Dad's allergy to chlorine. Plus, I had tried my hand at soccer, or football as the Aussies and other folks in the Commonwealth countries call it. However, I often got kicked in the thighs during tryouts by a couple of the other players. To not fail phys ed, I ended up signing up for beach volleyball. The other girls also signed up begrudgingly not wanting to fail the class. Ms. Scarf told each of us that we would need a fifth player.
After school, we met at the Sertori house. Rikki wasn't thrilled about having to sign up for beach volleyball since she wasn't into sports.
"I mean, beach volleyball. Come on," she complained.
"Rikki, let it go," Emma gave her a stern expression, "We've got much more important things to worry about."
"She's right Rikki," Cleo agreed, "What are we gonna do about Charlotte?"
"We should try and help her?"
"I'm sorry. What?" Rikki acted like she didn't hear it the first time. Knowing her, I knew she heard it already.
"She said maybe we--" Cleo started but was cut off.
"I heard what she said. And the answer is no. We weren't friends with her before, and this shouldn't change anything."
"Let's not jump to conclusions," Emma suggested, "We should stop and think about this."
Rikki turned to Cleo, "Do you have any of those chocolate ripple ice cream things? I need food if I have to think."
Cleo nodded at her.
The four of us got back downstairs. Lewis had arrived just as Mr. Sertori let Rikki help herself to a chocolate-dipped ice cream treat. She ate the entire thing in one bite.
"I've never seen a girl eat like that," Mr. Sertori gaped, "Is that normal?"
"Oh, it is for Rikki," Lewis answered, "She has a very fast metabolism."
"Should see her whenever she swings by my place and helps herself to any dish my grandma throws together," I stated thinking about a lot of the times Rikki visited and became a fan of Grandma's cooking that she often took some with her to share with her dad, "If there's pavlova, there's no stopping Rikki."
"Thanks, Mr. Sertori," she smiled as he went off into the other room, "You're a lifesaver."
Rikki licked off any of the remaining chocolate from the stick, "That's better," she sighed, "Now I can think. And I think Charlotte is no friend of mine."
"You haven't even given her a chance," Lewis remarked.
"Who invited him? If I don't like her, I shouldn't have to."
"You could at least try. You know very well it's not easy being green, for want of a much better expression. All I'm saying is that you guys have got each other."
"And Charlotte's got you."
"She did nothing wrong, Rikki. It just happened, just like it happened to you guys"
"Stop trying to wriggle out of this. We all know who's to blame."
"OK, enough," Emma called out, "Let's be responsible about this. Rikki, I'm sure you remember what it felt like when you found out you were a mermaid. And Charlotte is Gracie's granddaughter."
"That's beside the point," Rikki frowned.
"Fine. We'll have a vote. Who wants Charlotte in the group?"
Lewis raised a finger.
"I'm a yes," Emma raised her hand.
"I'm a nope," Rikki answered.
"I don't know," Cleo shook her head, "I can kind of see both sides of the argument."
I had to agree with her. There were positive and negative sides to having Charlotte in our group. I didn't have a straight answer for everyone. Even though Gracie and Ida were close friends, I didn't know Charlotte well enough since she and Lewis started dating.
"Cleo, I'd really appreciate some help on this," Lewis begged.
She turned to Rikki, "I guess it can't hurt."
Rikki gave her an expression asking Cleo if she was joking.
"Zoey, what about you?" Emma turned to me, "What's your vote?"
"I have no answer for that," I replied.
"Please, Zoey, " Lewis urged me, "It would help all of us out here."
Rikki gave me a hard stare as if to tell me to disagree with everyone else.
"It's both yes and no here," I answered.
🌊
We found Charlotte at the cafe. I could tell Rikki was reluctant to help her out. Emma was determined to do so. Cleo looked like she was uncomfortable with having to include Charlotte in on the secret. I could see the good parts of helping her mermaid side, but it made me wonder if she discovered her power. And second, we'd let Charlotte know how vital it was to keep it all under wraps.
"We know you've been going through a few changes lately," Emma spoke as all of us approached Charlotte's table.
"Yup, that's one way of putting it," Charlotte nodded.
"We wanna help you out. Show you the ropes. Right guys?"
All of us sat down at the table.
"Right," Cleo agreed reluctantly.
Lewis nudged Rikki to sit down.
"Yeah, right. Whatever," she nodded begrudgingly.
"Ditto," I answered.
"I mean, if you'd rather deal with it on your own, that's fine too," Emma added.
"No. Are you kidding?" Charlotte grinned excitedly at us, "I mean, this is gonna be great. We could be like sisters or something."
"Let's not get too excited," Rikki shook her head.
"There are a few things you need to understand about being a mermaid," Emma explained.
"Oh. Yeah, no worries. I'm cool with the whole beware-of-water thing," Charlotte nodded.
"Actually, there is one other thing," Lewis jumped in.
All of us gathered in Emma's room. Rikki placed a glass of water on the desk while I brought out a small flower pot and placed it next to the glass.
"Do you mind?" she turned to Charlotte asking her to move a bit.
Rikki raised a hand and the water started boiling.
"What? How did you do that?" Charlotte wondered in astonishment.
"Oh, there's more," Lewis corrected her.
Cleo raised a hand and the water expanded.
"Whoa," Charlotte gaped.
"There's still more," Lewis added.
Emma raised a hand and the water froze.
"That's amazing," Charlotte smiled.
"There's one more," Lewis stated.
I raised a hand and the seeds in the flower pot grew rapidly resulting in a white orchid.
"Wow! That's awesome," Charlotte grinned.
Rikki raised a hand, melting the ice and the water dropped back into the glass, "It's a gift, " she shrugged finding it not such a big deal.
"They all got powers when they changed into mermaids," Lewis informed Charlotte, "So we need to-- well, we-- we need you to--"
"We need you to show us your power," Rikki filled in.
Charlotte smiled and stepped forward.
"Ok," Lewis nodded, "Now just focus all of your energy onto the water in the glass and the flower pot."
Charlotte raised both hands and focused. Nothing happened at that moment. She tried focusing her energy on the water and the pot, but no dice.
"That's ok," Lewis assured her, "That's -- that's fine. Just, um, take a deep breath and -- and try it again."
She did as told. Like before, no effect.
"Don't beat yourself up about it," Rikki stated, "Probably just a slow learner."
Charlotte glared at her.
"Like you?" Lewis inquired at Rikki.
"How long did it take you?" Charlotte asked turning to the rest of us.
"If I remember correctly, it took-- it took her and Zoey the longest, yeah."
"I wasn't even trying," Rikki sassed softly.
"It came out of the blue for me," I jumped in recalling the day I found my power.
"What if I don't get a power?" Charlotte wondered.
"That'll be devastating, won't it?" Rikki remarked.
"It'll come around in time," I expressed.
"Don't worry, Charlotte," Emma assured her, "We all agreed to help you."
Charlotte raised a hand at the glass, but again, nothing occurred. It made me think of the day Cleo and Emma discovered their powers while it took Rikki and me a while to find ours. During that time, it caused both Rikki and me to become close friends with each other.
🌊
The following day at school, as I met up with the other girls, I could tell Emma and Cleo were trying to get Rikki to go along with having to accept Charlotte into our group by saying some positive things about her. It didn't work since Rikki figured it out. She was capable of reading other people and could tell a lot by their personalities and actions. Rikki had expressed that she never liked Charlotte.
Ms. Scarf approached us along with Charlotte telling us that the latter had signed up for beach volleyball along with us as a fifth player. I could tell Charlotte was excited by the smile on her face.
After changing into PE outfits, we all met up for beach volleyball practice. Lewis had high hopes for the rest of us to accept Charlotte as one of us. Like Emma, I was willing to include her in our group as a way to help her get her mermaid self under control.
During practice, it seemed Rikki and Charlotte couldn't get along. Ms. Scarf intervened when things were about to escalate badly between them and reminded us that we were playing against a rival team the next day.
The four of us met up later on at the moon pool. I could Rikki was ticked off about Charlotte as she expressed her frustrations.
"It's not gonna work out with Charlotte," she told us.
"Give her a chance, Rikki," Emma begged her.
"It's not just her. Think about it. The original mermaids were a foursome. It feels like five is too many like it's out of balance."
"You're overreacting."
"Well, what if there's some universal law against it or something?"
"If that was the case, which it isn't, then she wouldn't have become a mermaid in the first place."
I got what Rikki felt. She felt things were well balanced with just the four of us as mermaids. Since Charlotte entered the moon pool for the first time, Rikki figured that something was off about it.
"Cleo, she's dating your ex-boyfriend," Rikki turned to her, "Surely, that's got to bother you."
"I broke up with him," Cleo shrugged, "It's history now."
"She's right, Rikki," Emma nodded, "We've gotta make this work, for all our sakes."
"Maybe use Gracie and Ida as examples of how they got the hang of everything," I suggested thinking of it as a way to work with Charlotte by referring to her late grandmother and my great-aunt.
Rikki turned to me like I was insane, "We don't know how they dealt with it, Zoey," she shook her head, "They didn't leave us a diary or guide on how to handle being a mermaid."
Even after getting back to the mainland and gathering at the Sertori house, Rikki wouldn't stop gripping her frustration about Charlotte.
"She practically forced her way into our world, totally uninvited," she frowned.
"Rikki, she's one of us, like it or not," Emma reprimanded her.
"No, she's not. She hasn't even got a power. Why doesn't she have a power? Because there are only four powers, and they're already taken. Which reinforces the notion that there's only meant to be four mermaids."
During Rikki's rant, there was a knock at the door, and Cleo answered it.
"I did it," Charlotte smiled as she entered inside, "I found my power."
"Please. You probably imagined it," Rikki sassed at her.
"No, no, I really did it. Here I'll show you."
Charlotte raised a hand, a vase shook a bit and water from it expanded above Rikki. She dropped her hand and the water fell on Rikki who turned to her sarcastically.
"Nice," Rikki snapped and fell over as her tail sprouted.
"Whoops," Charlotte remarked with a smile, "Sorry." She turned to the rest of us, "Did you guys see that? I just moved water."
She sounded excited about finding her power, which was also Cleo's ability.
"That's my power," Cleo sighed.
"I know. We can share," Charlotte grinned at her, "Besides, now you can show me how to use it properly."
"Great."
Cleo didn't sound thrilled about it. Charlotte sounded a little bossy. Rikki frowned and then used her power to dry off her tail and her legs came back.
🌊
The following day, it was the playoff against the other rival team. Patrick showed up to show some support after learning that my friends and I signed up for beach volleyball. He was surprised to find out Charlotte became a mermaid and asked me how I was dealing with having a fifth person in our group. To be honest, seeing how unhappy Rikki and Cleo were and how Emma was willing to accept Charlotte, I felt stuck in the middle once again. There was no straight answer for it.
As we arrived at the beach volleyball field, the rival team was already there warming up for the game. We had only practiced the day prior and felt that we weren't ready yet. Seeing how good they were at the sport, Emma reminded us that they were trying to break our confidence.
Once the game went on, we were in our positions. At first, when one of the girls from the rival team served the ball, Emma attempted to hit it back, but ended up falling over, resulting in the other team receiving a point.
Charlotte helped Emma back on her feet, "Come on, here. No pain, no gain."
"No pain, no gain? Who says that?" Rikki wondered sounding annoyed.
The second serve went on from one of the other girls. The ball came in my direction. I was about to hit it back, but instead, the ball rammed into my gut.
"D'oh!" I groaned and bent over in pain.
"You didn't have to do it that hard," Cleo glared at one of the girls on the other side of the net as she came to my defense.
"I'm sorry. Must have been a sudden gust of wind," the girl sneered at her.
As the rival team mocked us, I turned to Cleo who had a smile on her face, which told me she had an idea that would help our team win.
Rikki managed to hit the ball after it served, but it went out of bounds. Cleo discreetly held a hand out, causing a minor windstorm, bringing the ball back and it landed in the rival team's boundary. The girls there reacted in a confused manner when it seemed they were the ones scoring a point.
"What?" the same girl from earlier turned to the rest of us with a glare, "How did that happen?
"Must have been a sudden gust of wind," Cleo smirked at her.
It was our turn to serve the ball. Emma had a go at it and it flew out of the boundary. Cleo once again used her power and directed the wind to push the ball back toward the rival team. One of the girls tried to hit it but missed. Both Emma and Cleo high-fived each other.
When Charlotte got to serve the ball, the rival team managed to hit and attempted to get it over the net when Cleo invoked another windstorm, and the ball only hit the net and landed on their side. We scored another point.
During time-out, I could hear the rival team complaining about their sudden losing streak. Lewis cautioned us that they would figure out what was going on if we kept it up. He did have a point when it became clear that using Cleo's power was cheating.
"We can do this," Charlotte smiled at the rest of us, "We can beat them. Let's go!"
She held her hand out in the middle. Emma and Cleo placed each a hand on top of hers. Rikki and I too placed our hands on theirs.
"Team!" we cheered in unison as each of us felt ready to go.
Once the game resumed, Emma served and the rival team managed to hit the ball. This time, Cleo didn't use her power taking in Lewis' warning. The ball came back over to our side and Charlotte hit it over the net. However, the ball went out of the boundary and rolled towards the water.
One of the girls ran over to it, grabbed it, and handed it over to her teammate.
"Uh, don't you wanna dry that off a little, first?" Emma asked.
"What? Not scared of a little water, are you?" the girl smirked at her not taking Emma seriously.
That spelled trouble for the rest of us.
The girl served the ball, hitting it so hard that it went over the net in Charlotte's direction.
"Stop!" Emma shouted rushing towards her.
"Charlotte!" I warned her as she managed to hit the ball over the net.
"Hurry up and get in the water. Go!" Rikki urged her.
On taking note that she had ten seconds to hide before her tail sprouted, Charlotte ran for the water and dove in. The rival team wondered what was going on, which halted the game. Lewis ran off to find Charlotte, leaving the rest of us to deal with everyone else.
🌊
A few minutes went by. Ms. Scarf informed us since we were over the usual amount of time for a break in the game, the referee gave us another minute, and after that, it would be a forfeit telling us that if we lost the game, we were out of the competition and that we would fail.
"Well," Rikki started.
"Don't say it," Emma glared at her.
"Say what? I told you so? You know me better than that, Emma."
The referee blew the whistle letting us know that we had thirty seconds. The other girls and I got back to our positions.
"This can't happen," Emma sighed worried that we would be out of the competition if Charlotte didn't get back.
"Well, not everyone is as reliable as--" Rikki began before being cut off.
"Charlotte!"
I saw Charlotte had returned and got back into her position. I wondered how she was able to dry off quicker despite having Cleo's power.
"Oh, wait! Wait! We're good to go!" I called out to the referee and noticed Charlotte smiling like never before.
When the game resumed, I had a turn at serving the ball. Cleo had her hands behind her back which I guessed was to hold herself back from using her power, but only used them to hit the ball whenever it came in her direction or when it was her turn to serve.
On getting to the match point, I helped the other girls by preventing the ball from hitting the ground or getting out of bounds. Emma managed to hit the ball over the net after each of us had a whack at it. The ball ended up hitting one of the rival team members in the gut and landed on the ground on their side of the net. We had won the game! Neither of us failed!
The five of us got into a group hug in celebration.
🌊
All of us went to the cafe to celebrate. Lewis bought each of us our drinks. Patrick and I sat in one of the booths after getting our beverages. I could tell Rikki had been wondering like I had about Charlotte and how she managed to dry off quickly.
"Come on, Rikki, admit it. Things worked out well," Lewis grinned at her.
"Yeah," Rikki went over and joined Patrick and me in the booth, "But there is one thing I can't figure out." She turned to Charlotte, "How did you dry off so quickly?"
"Oh, that," Charlotte grinned, "That's easy." She held a hand out and Rikki's drink, along with Patrick's beverage started boiling.
Rikki shielded her glass while Patrick and I turned to Charlotte in shock.
"Wait. I thought you already had my power," Cleo pointed out.
"Yeah. Guess I've got Rikki's too," Charlotte nodded, "Oh, and another thing."
She held her hand out again and our drinks iced up. Charlotte repeated the same thing and grass and small flowers emerged from the ice.
"I also got Emma's and Zoey's," Charlotte smiled excitedly at the fact she had multiple powers, "Isn't this great? I must be some sort of super mermaid."
Lewis rushed over to help cover up the evidence while Rikki got out of her seat. She sent Charlotte a glare before exiting the cafe. Emma and Cleo followed her out. I could tell Rikki felt that something was off about Charlotte having four powers. Then it occurred to me, the other girls and I were in the moon pool when we received ours. Charlotte had entered it by herself, which would explain how she got them all.