Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This page is just things to know for this story to make sense (this will be updated whenever I think of anything else that might need clarification)

(BTW: This is my first writing ever so that is why chapters may seem to be going very fast, words are repeated, etc. so please excuse that)

*To keep things on track, I’m going to put a (!) next to the name of each chapter so you know which chapter is the newest (this is just in case I ever want to post a chapter in between others that are already made).

*If there is ever anything you want to see or if you have an idea for a chapter you would want me to write about feel free to tell me here!

*I usually go through my chapters even after I post them and find a bunch of typos of mistakes or something so I edit it and change it on here but I won’t change anything big that changes the storyline

1. The mermaids only transform when they come into contact with water like the ocean, rain, fountain water, water from a faucet, etc. so things like bodily fluids (sweat, saliva, etc.) don’t transform them.
2. The full moon is visible in the night sky from sunset to sunrise which is why the girls were knocked out for so long because the moon hadn’t completely set yet.

Chapter Text

In myths, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the legends of many cultures worldwide. They are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing treasure or falling in love with humans.

Some believe they are angelic creatures who save people from drowning and are friends with all marine life, while others think mermaids are evil and have an irresistible voice and beautiful features that they use to lure sailors to their deaths. Some even believe that mermaids are actually just manatees who were mistaken for women with tails by distraught or poorly-sighted sailors and divers. 

Nobody can ever seem to agree with what mermaids truly are. Do they have these great ocean powers, or can they not even summon a drop of water? Can they truly lure men to death with a song and pretty eyes? Who’s to say they can't? Who's to say that maybe mermaids are indeed real, and that they’re living among us right now. The stories all have one thing in common however, and that is that they are creatures born from the depths of the ocean. But what if that wasn’t entirely true.

What if you could become one as well?

Chapter Text

Sereia

All I want is to head back to my house after visiting my dad at the Queensland Marina. Maybe make some food and relax for the day. The dock is usually very quiet around the evening, so I definitely wasn’t expecting to bump into Egan and Dylan.

“Hey Sereia!” Egan calls. His dirty blonde hair pulled back in a stupid looking man-bun. Even his voice sounds so stupid. It’s bad enough I had to put up with him at school, but I did not sign up for it after school as well. I pick up my pace and keep walking. “Sereia!” Can he not take the hint?

“Sereia, you know it’s not polite to ignore someone when they're talking to you.” That’s Dylan, the son of the wealthiest realtor in Australia (I only know this because he talks about how rich he is every chance he gets). He’s an entitled prick who thinks he can do whatever he wants and get away with it, which I suppose he does. I’ve never understood how someone can be so utterly obnoxious and still have friends. 

They’re both sitting in Dylan’s latest speedboat with a toolbox trying to fix something. His speed boat is the newest 4 seater miniature Pantera model, painted jet black with a pair of yellow looking slanted down eyes near on the back. The interior was stark white leather. I’m a bit of a boat-geek, which I get from my dad. I absolutely hate Dylan but even I have to admit it looks very impressive.

“My mate Egan was talking to you.” Oh right, how could I possibly forget about that ugly walrus? “Why don’t you come over here?” No thanks. Unfortunately, my people-pleasing attitude gets the best of me. I walk right over to his boat and stop at the edge of the dock.

“Come on, get in. I promise I won't bite.” I seriously doubt that.

I don’t budge and instead give my best stern look (which probably makes me look like I’m squinting instead). “What do you all want?” I just want to go home and read my new book, but it seems my plans are being sabotaged.

“We’re just trying to fix a part of my boat, but neither of us can figure out what’s wrong. Maybe you could have a look?” This is so stupid! I should just walk away. Instead, I hop onto the boat and walk to the steering wheel. When I open the side panel, I don’t miss the way the two boys’ smirk at each other. Still, I squat down and stick my head into the panel and look around.

“Well, it looks like all you're missing is the spark plug. I feel like that’s a pretty basic thing to look for though…” As I finish, I stand up and turn around to find the boys standing on the gangway with evil smirks on their ugly faces. Dylan tilts his head, causing his black hair to fall to the side.

“Well, if you know so much about my boat, why don’t you just keep it?” And with that, Egan pushes the boat away from the gangway with his foot. I race to the edge of the boat hoping to jump off, but I’m already too far to jump and there’s absolutely no way in the seven hells I’m jumping in the water and swimming back.

“This isn’t funny Dylan. Help me get back. Please!”

“Nah, I’m okay. How about you get the boat running and help yourself. My dad will just buy me another one anyways.” The boys burst out in laughter and high-five while walking away as I slowly start to drift farther and farther from the gangway. Before I can yell out for help, I hear a thud behind me as the boat dips.

“Your guardian angel is here!” I recognize that voice from anywhere. Isla. I turn around and see her long curly red hair rippling in the wind. She struggles with trying to tame it, but instead gives up and flashes me a wicked grin. 

She, along with Naia and Aspen, are my best friends. We met when we were all 9 after Isla moved to Australia from the US with her dad. She had walked in late on her first day of 4th grade, and when the teacher asked why she was late, she told her, “A queen is never late, everybody else is simply early.” Me and Naia were the only two who understood the Princess Diaries reference and burst out laughing. Isla had then turned to us with the biggest grin and marched over to the empty seat next to us. From then on, we were inseparable. Later we sort of just adopted Aspen, I don’t really remember how or why. He’s an honorary girl at this point.

 I turn around quickly and tackle her with a tight hug. “You really shouldn’t have done that. The boat is missing the spark plug and without it we’ll just be drifting.” I finally let her go from my bear hug and immediately notice the grin on her face. I already know what she’s done. She reaches into her shorts pocket and pulls out a spark plug.

“I only took it to teach them a lesson after they kicked sand all over our stuff at the beach the other day. I wouldn’t have taken it if I’d known this would’ve happened.” A couple days ago we left for the least crowded touristy beach and went to one only locals really go to. It was just our luck that the boys were there too. Dylan came over to talk to Isla and made the mistake of trying to flirt with her (emphasis on ‘trying’). When she told him off, Egan kicked sand all over us.

“Well deserved. Just give it to me so we can get this boat started and back to the docks.” She hands me the plug and I quickly get to work putting it back in place, using the wrench in the toolbox to secure it.

“So nice of him to leave the keys.” Isla murmurs. She sits down in the driver seat and turns the keys, the engine roaring to life. I quickly strap myself into the seat next to her. Isla turns the steering wheel, but not to the docks, instead to the open water.

“Um, Isla, what are you doing?”

“Dylan told you that you could keep it, didn’t he? We’ll let’s take your new boat for a spin.” She turns to me with that same trouble-maker grin, before cranking up the radio. On our way out, we pass by the boys staring at us with a not-so-happy expression on their faces. Isla quickly turns the wheel, making the boat go a sharp left, dousing Dylan and Egan with water. She turns to me and we look at each other before giggling like maniacs. We speed away, and as we reach the exit of the marina that leads to the ocean, Isla turns down the radio and stops the boat.

“Hey Naia! Care to join us?” I turn to our right and see the third member of our quartet walking down the side of the marina. Naia looks up from her phone and gives us a smile before it turns to shock upon seeing the boat we’re in.

“Where in the world did you get that? It looks like it cost a fortune!” she practically screams.

“Sereia got it from Dylan. C’mon hop in. We’re gonna go for a little joyride.”

“Are you licensed?” Naia yells.

“Are you my dad?” Isla yells back as she pulls up to her. Naia tentatively climbs in and settles in the backseat. Before she can even buckle up, Isla starts up the boat. We speed out of there, turning up the music once again. 

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After about an hour of zipping through the water, the boat starts to slow down until it’s no longer moving.

“Why did you stop Isla? We’re having so much fun.” Naia complains

“I didn’t do anything. It just stopped on its own.” Isla looks over at me and shrugs. I sigh and get up. I look over the pedestal and notice what’s wrong.

“It’s all out of gas,” I groan as I turn to the girls. We all look at each other and slump in our seats.

“Well, what do we do now? Wait for the coastguard?” Naia asks.

“The coastguard doesn’t go around Mariana until it gets darker out since most stay away from the shallower water. So we’d be waiting here for probably four or five more hours” I say, remembering what my dad, who’s part of the coast guard, has told me before about their route. We each try to pitch ideas on what to do. All of us keep trying our phones, but none of them have service this far away from the mainland.

“What if we paddle to Mariana Island? It looks to be only about a third of a mile away and I’m sure there’s paddles somewhere on this boat,” Naia says. Since none of us have any better ideas, we all agree. At least Naia didn’t suggest swimming there. Eventually we found some paddles in a compartment under the floor.

It takes us a long time because of the size of the boat, but we finally make it to Mariana Island’s sandy shores. Once we reach the shallow water, we jump out and haul the boat up and out of the water as best we can.

“The sun is already starting to set. So the coast guard shouldn’t be much longer.” I say.

 I look up and take in the view of Mariana Island. I only come here once a year with my dad and sister for a camping trip. Me and Cassia hate it, but my dad loves coming here and so we’re forced to come as well. 

Mariana has a decent sized beach circling it, with the rest covered in forest full of thousands of bugs and a lot of birds, except for the east side, which is covered in mangroves. The west, however, is one giant flat rock people can walk on with holes in it. I went exploring there once and I almost fell through a hole to the maze of sea caves below it.

“Well, what do we do now? We can’t get a hold of anyone and there aren’t any boats anywhere that we can see. We’re basically stranded here.” Isla complains.

“We’re just going to have to wait here and hope we can flag down the coast guard or another boat later. Let’s make a campfire. Maybe someone will spot us,” I say. We soon get to work building a campfire, using wood from the forest and matches we found in the boat’s compartment.

Very soon it starts to get darker. We’re all huddled together by the campfire when Isla gets up to try our phones again. After yet another fail, she turns to us. Instead of walking back over though, she squinted somewhere up past us. Me and Naia both turn around and see what she’s staring at: a light. A very faint light, albeit, but indeed a light, on the west side of the island barely shining through the trees.

“You guys, I think someone may be over there. We should go check it out.” Isla says. “Plus, if there is someone here, then that means they have a boat to get off the island and back to the mainland.”

I look over at Naia, who shrugs and says, “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to at least check it out just in case.” I eventually nod my head in agreement. We go into the forest, slowly heading deeper and deeper. Finally we stumble upon a small waterfall flowing into a little pool. Isla heads out in front of us and starts to climb over the rocks.

“I see the light. Just a little bit farthu-“ Before she can finish her sentence, her body dips and disappears, followed by her screams. Naia and I rush over to where Isla fell and find a tunnel leading down below the surface.

“Isla?! Are you okay?! What happened.” I yell down the tunnel. I turn my ear to the entrance and strain to listen for Isla’s response. After a couple seconds, I hear a loud groan.

“Yeah, I’m ok! I slipped on some smooth rock by the tunnel! Be careful!”

“Could you try to climb back up?” Naia yells back down at her. We both sit in silence. I can hear soft sounds of rocks clattering farther down the tunnel, along with Isla struggling to climb back up.

“It’s way too slick and there’s nothing to grab on to!” Isla yells up to us.

“Ok, Isla listen to me carefully. Try climbing up again, and I’m going to reach down the tunnel and see if I can grab you.” Naia yells down.

“Alright, I’ll try.” 

“Sereia, hold my legs so I don’t slide down as well.” Naia slowly lowers herself down the tunnel, but before I can even grab on to her, she loses her grip and flies down the tunnel with a yelp. I try to reach after her but miss her and instead I lose my balance and hurtle down the tunnel as well. I run into Naia at the bottom.

“Well so much for Operation Save Isla,” Isla murmurs. Naia helps me up and we both dust off the sand on our shorts.

“Where are we?” I ask as I survey the room we’re in. It’s about six feet high and no bigger than my bedroom. The room is made out of some brown-ish colored rock with sand covering the floor. To my left however, there’s a small section of the wall missing with what appears to be stairs. Isla notices it too.

“Well, we can’t go up so I say we try heading deeper in and see if we can find a different exit.”

“But Mariana is known for its caves being mazes down here. We don’t have a map or anything to navigate it.”

“Got any better ideas? Do share with the class if so.” Isla stares at me for a split second before making her way through the doorway. After walking a long hallway, we entered a much bigger room than the one we were previously in. A sea cave.

The whole cave looks like some secret place right out of a movie. There’s a huge bank of sand, and about a couple yards away is a rock barrier that separates it from the pool of water. I walk over to the edge and peer into the almost crystal clear water. The bottom is covered in sand and rocks with different colored coral and seaweed. There’s also some fish swimming around as well.

In the middle of the pool a rock juts out of the water with a relatively flat top. The ceiling of the cave curves, making an arch, with a big hole in the top letting the moon light in, like a sky light. The strangest thing however, was that the water had a sort of faint blue glow to it that lit up the room.

“We’re inside one of the sea caves.” I say. I can see the moon almost completely in line with the opening of the sky light. A full moon. “This place is absolutely breathtaking.”

Isla nods her head in agreement with me, but Naia seems to be the only one focused on finding a way out. She bends down closer to the water. “There’s tidal rings, which means this is connected to the ocean. We can try to swim out through there.” She says. She points to a little opening on the back of the wall, mostly underwater, which looks to be like another tunnel. They both turn and look at me with pity in their eyes.

“Are you sure? I mean, we can always try the entrance again.” They both know I don’t like the ocean. I have major thalassophobia, so the idea of having to swim in an underwater cave makes me want to hurl all over the pretty white sand.

“This is the only way Sereia. Isla already tried climbing out, but it’s too slippery and we could get seriously hurt if we slip and fall down again. And we’ll be right next to you the whole time” Naia says.

“All right, I guess.” The three of us walk over to the edge of the pool and climb in. There are rocks under the water at the edge that we use to lower ourselves in.

“Ok, I’m going to swim ahead and see how long it takes to get out. Then I’ll swim back here to get you guys.” Naia, the champion swimmer, swims over to the possible exit. She ducks her head under the water and disappears. After a little while, she finally emerges. “It’s only about 20 seconds out. Shouldn’t be too bad for you two. Just stay right behind me and you’ll be fine.” Isla and I swim over to the entrance. We suck in a big breath, but just as we’re about to go under, the entire pool starts to bubble.

 “What is happening?!” I look at the others, but they look just as scared and confused as I do. I turn in the water, and that’s when I notice tiny little sparkly bubble things floating down into the pool from the hole in the ceiling and going into the water around us. 

We all look above us and notice the full moon, fully in line with the opening in the ceiling and seeming to almost glow brighter. But just as quickly as it starts, it stops. “What in the world just happened?!”

“I have no idea but let’s just get out of here.” Isla says. We all have to wait a second to slow our breathing, on Naia’s instructions. After, we regather our breath and head under. The saltwater really hurts my eyes to open them, but I know it’s the only way I could get out. The glowing of the water from the pool gives a little light to the short tunnel. At the exit, the bottom curves up so we have to swim straight up instead. The mouth of the tunnel ends up being about 10 feet from the surface. 

We resurfaced out in the water a short swim away from the shore, gasping for breath. It’s completely dark outside and the water looks completely black, bringing fear back into my body.

Just as we’re about to swim to shore, a light shines on us. A flashlight.

“Are you girls ok?! What are you doing swimming around here in the dark? You could get seriously injured!” The Coastguard, who are finally making their debut when we’re doing something that will get us in a lot of trouble.

Chapter Text

Sereia

L ater that night, after we’d all been picked up by our extremely angry parents, did I finally get to go home, but this time not to relax. After a long drive and an even longer lecture from my dad, I climbed the stairs to my room.

My younger sister, Cassia, passes me on her way out of the bathroom and says, “you smell like fish!” before disappearing into her room. She is so annoying! But she’s right; I smell like a fish graveyard.

I walk into our shared bathroom and flip on the lights. I turn to my right and look in the mirror. My hair looks black instead of brown, and my pretty beach waves are a mess of tangles instead. The salt water from the ocean turned the whites of my eyes red and makes my blue eyes look creepily blue. Not to mention the mascara faintly running down my face. 

I move aside the shower curtain and turn on the bath to very hot, just the way I like it. I strip off my clothes and climb in, sitting down in the soapy water and leaning my head on the wall. All of a sudden those exact same sparkly bubbles that I saw when in the sea cave appear all around me, then quickly disappear.

What the heck?! There’s no way I’m seeing this correctly. I rub my eyes, and when I open them, it’s still there. A huge dark blue fishtail thing is sticking out from the water, right where my legs should be! My jaw drops. What is going on!? I look like half a fish! Oh god. Ok Sereia, don’t freak out, just stay calm . 

It takes me a moment to unfreeze myself. The tail is at least 5 feet long itself and a dark blue, not navy but still pretty. Yea, Sereia, something completely strange has happened but at least the tail is pretty. On the side of it are side fins starting near the top of the tail and get smaller as they go down.

Oh god I think I’m going to have a panic attack; this is too much for me. I put my hand over my heart and breathe in slowly to try and calm down. 

“In and out Sereia, just breathe in and out.”

“Are you talking to yourself? God Sereia, you are such a loser!” Cassia says. I wait until her footsteps disappear before resuming my look over of myself.

After I finally calm down, I reach up to the sink counter and grab the hand-held mirror sitting by the edge. Nothing has really changed in my face except my eyes are no longer red and my hair is back to its pretty brown waves. And there isn’t any mascara on my face. As I stare longer into the mirror, I notice that I’m wearing jewelry that I wasn’t before. I have dark blue gemstone stud earrings, kind of like sapphires. On my right ring finger, is a pretty ring. It’s a plain bronze band with another sapphire embedded in it. 

But the creepiest part isn’t the fish tail or jewelry. On the side of my arms are some sort of webs and scales the color of the tail. And do my ears look more pointed?! They are! I look like an elf!

How do I get my legs back? Is that even possible? It has to be. Ok think, Sereia. The tail appeared when I got in the bath. So maybe it's the water? Let’s hope it's that simple. I reach for the drain cover and uncover it, letting all the water drain out. Ok next step: somehow get out of the water without having the ability of legs. I place my hands on the edge of the bath and use every muscle I have to hoist myself out.

“God, this tail adds like 50 pounds!” After much struggle, I finally tumble out of the bath.

“Ok, so water is most likely what turned me into this thing, so the opposite of water will turn me back.” What is the opposite of water? Fire? Oh, duh, I just need to dry myself off. I open the cabinet underneath the sink and grab my hairdryer. Luckily there is (for some reason) an outlet right behind the door. I plug in my hairdryer, turn it to the hottest level, then turn it on.

After a while, my tail was finally completely dry. As soon as it is, those sparkly bubble things appear around my body again. Yes it worked!

I stand up off the floor and look at myself in the mirror. No way. My hair looks as if it’s been washed and dried, plus there’s no mascara on my face. But the jewelry that I still have on catches my eye. I know for a fact I didn’t have this on when I got in the bath, so it must be something that came with the tail, but I get to keep it afterward. That makes literally no sense. The only reasonable explanation is that I’m going crazy.

What do I do now with this information? I need to tell someone about this. Luckily I know just the people to talk to.

Penguins of Madagascar

Mia Thermopolis

Guys I have something big I really need to tell you all

Can we meet at our part of the beach tomorrow morning?

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Naia

The worst part about tonight wasn’t getting stuck on an island with no way back home. It was definitely when I had to call my parents in the middle of the night and ask them to come pick me up from the Coast Guard.

My dad was the one who came to get me. The ride home was just straight silence. I tried to apologize for worrying him, but he never said anything. Eventually, we finally pulled into our driveway. Right before I accept defeat and open my door, my dad turns to face me.

“Promise me you won’t ever pull anything like that again Naia. I know you love swimming but even this was too much.” He says this in a calm tone that parents use when they’re incredibly disappointed in you but also secretly relieved that you’re still breathing.

“I promise.” This is the only thing I can muster from how exhausted I am. I know what I did was wrong and incredibly irresponsible, and talking to him about it is making me sick with guilt. I quickly climb out my door and walk into the house. My mom isn’t there at the door waiting for me, so she must have fallen asleep; maybe she thought I was staying over at Naia or Sereia’s house. After barely managing to walk up the stairs, I finally walked into my bedroom.

I walk over to my bed but stop myself. I feel all sticky from the salt water. Ew I really need a shower. I smell like the ocean, and not in a good way. But before I do that, I seriously need some water. Luckily I always keep a glass next to my bed. I walk around to the other side of my bed and grab the glass on my nightstand.

Shoot it’s empty. Guess it’s sink water for now. I cross my room to my bathroom. I hold the glass under the faucet and turn on the sink. Some of the water coming from the faucet runs down the side of the glass and onto my hand. 

A couple seconds later, bubbles appear all over my body, then they go away. As soon as they're there, I start falling backwards.

“Shoot!” I try to grab onto my sink counter but I’m falling too fast to be able to. Did my legs just give out? That would be a reasonable argument, if only I had legs! Where my legs once were, was instead a long fish tail.

“What the heck?” Why did I just grow a bright neon blue tail?! At the base of the tail on each side are pelvic fins that jut out about 2 inches from the tail. What the?! When I touch the tail, it’s slimy just like an actual fish. Eugh!

With my hand laying on the top of the tail, I notice a ring on my right finger. It’s a simple gold ring with a very beautiful light blue gemstone on it. I wonder what type of gem it is? Also, I wasn’t wearing this before. I don’t own any rings, much less wear them. So where did that come from? And what is up with my hands?! I have some sort of small bit of webbing in between my hands, not to mention the webbing and neon blue scales along my arms. This is freaking me out.

While I stare at my hands, those bubbles appear over my body again. When they go away, I have my legs back. As I’m sitting on the ground, my phone pings. I rush over to it and look at my text. It’s from Sereia. She needs to tell us something tomorrow. I wonder if this happened to her as well?

Penguins of Madagascar

Elsa

I have something to share as well

Let’s meet at 8 o'clock

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Isla

The car ride home consisted of my dad asking me a hundred times if I am sure I’m ok, to which I eventually just stopped responding. Once we got home, however, he went right to bed and fell asleep. I walk back to my room and lay down on the floor. If I tried going to sleep, I would just end up tossing and turning all night.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and I grab it to see who texted me. Once I see who it is, I check my messages. I wonder what they need to share about that can’t just be said over a facetime? And why as early as 8 o’clock? I’ll think about it later. 

I decide that right now, I just need to take my mind off of the events from tonight. I open the back door and walk over to the small public dock that people only really use to fish. It’s a little past midnight though so nobody is out but me.

Ugh, today drained me. I lay down by the edge of the docs and dip my feet in the water. A little less than half a minute goes by when sparkly bubbles appear all over me and my legs feel like lead. I slowly start to slide off the dock.

“Woah!” I quickly manage to grab hold of the dock and pull myself from the edge. I look over my shoulder and see that my legs didn’t turn into lead; they turned into a tail! Like a mermaid tail! I reach for my phone and turn on the flashlight. When I shine it on the tail, I let out an audible gasp. My tail is a dark-ish red color; it kind of reminds me of the color of a barn. Under my phone’s flashlight it looks like it’s glittering. 

No way! I’m a freaking mermaid! This is so cool and all but how do I get rid of it? I drag myself out of the water and feel my tail. It’s slimy and scaly like an actual fish, and wet as well. I reach over to the beach towel I brought with me and begin to dry it off.

After a long time, my tail is finally dry, and those bubbles appear around me again. When they go away, my legs are back.

“Ok, this is so cool!” I grab my phone and open it to my messages.

Penguins of Madagascar

Shirley Temple

diddo on the sharing

Magic Cookie

Okay..?

Chapter Text

Sereia

“So, the same thing happened to you guys as well?” I look at Naia and Isla as they both nod their heads.

“Anyone care to let me in on what secret you three have got going on?” Aspen looks at each of us.

Isla sighs before looking at him. “About 15 seconds after we touch water, we grow these…” She looks at Naia and I for help explaining. But honestly, neither of us have any idea either.

“And it vanishes when we’re dry.” I add on.

“These… tails look like…” Naia says.

“Exactly like…,” Isla sighs. “We look like mermaids.”

There’s a pause before Aspen eventually responds. “You're not as funny as you think you are, Isla. Seriously though, you guys are starting to freak me out.” He laughs slightly to himself before he notices our expressions. “Wait… you guys are serious?”

“Look, something very crazy has happened to us. We don’t know why, and we definitely don’t know how. Aspen, can you please help us?” Naia asks.

“Of course I’ll help, but in order to do that, I’ll need to know more. Let’s head over to our secret spot on the beach. It’s a controlled environment so there won’t be any surprises when you all, um… transform.”

“This is so cool. We’re freaking mermaids!” Isla says rather loudly.

“Shhh! Yell it out for the whole world to hear, why don’t you? We need to be more careful when talking about this,” I say.

“Sereia’s right. If the wrong people find out, we could end up stuck in some lab or chopped up for sushi. We can’t tell anyone about this. This secret has to remain between the four of us.” Naia says.

“I agree. Now let’s go. We need to figure out as much as possible now so that we can find out how to maybe reverse it or at least keep it under wraps.” Aspen adds. We quickly head out the door and head to our secret spot.

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Our “secret” spot on the beach is actually just a small section of one of the less popular beaches, a place where only locals and very few tourists go. Our spot is surrounded by big rocks that you have to climb over to get to it. We’ve never seen anyone here before, which is why we call it a secret.

“Ok, so what do you want us to do?” I ask Aspen.

“Well first, I would like to see this transformation you guys are talking about. Then, we’ll go from there.” We all drop our stuff off in the sand and hold hands.

The three of us walk over to the edge of the water. 

“Just walk out a little past our ankles so we don’t get swept up in the waves.” Naia says. Next to us, Aspen uses his phone as a stopwatch to time our transformation, and just as Isla had said before, it takes only 15 seconds to transform.

We all ungracefully fall down on our stomachs, landing in the water with the little waves rushing over us. Aspen just stands there shaking his head in amazement.

“I don’t believe this, this is incredible. You guys weren’t kidding about being mermaids.”

“Incredible for you maybe, but not for us.” Naia murmurs next to me.

“Let’s get you three away from the water. I want to observe you changing back.”

After much struggling on Aspen’s part, he finally manages to drag the three of us away from the water and into the sun.

“You guys are heavy!” He says, earning a glare from all of us and a little slap from Isla. 

It takes a while longer to transform back, but Aspen thinks it’s because we have to be completely dry to change again. Luckily it is very sunny out and we had our beach towels as well.

“Ok, so you guys transform into mermaids when you touch water. Since you all transformed at your houses last night, then that means that the type of water probably doesn't matter.” Aspen gets up from his spot and starts pacing.

“All three of you have different colored tails and jewelry, and also have different side fins. But other than those things, everything else is similar, like the top and the shape of the tail. And your hair never changes color from when you're dry so there’s that.” 

“Wait our tops?” I hadn’t really noticed our tops before, but now that I’m looking at them, My face turns bright red. Scales are all along our sides, dipping in the middle and then coming back out to cover our chest. I would have hoped that maybe we would be given some sort of bathing suit top looking thing, but I guess whatever turned us had other ideas to make us look as mermaid-y as possible.

“I feel so exposed!” Isla squeaks. Meanwhile Naia is attempting to grab her beach towel to cover up.

Aspen doesn’t seem to notice our embarrassment though. He finally stops pacing and mumbling, and plops back down in his original seat. “I have to be honest, I am at a loss for words.”

“Yay. Nothing.” Isla says as she falls backwards. Right after she says that, a huge wave crashes into the rocks by us and the water sprays right onto Isla.

Or at least it should have. Isla lets out a yelp and throws her hands up, attempting to block the water. As soon as she does, however, the water turns into steam and evaporates into the air.

I push back from where I was just then. “Am I crazy, or did an entire wave just evaporate?”

“No, I saw that too,” Naia breathes out.

Isla sits back up and stares at her hands. “Did I do that?”

“I believe so.” Aspen says. “The water evaporated right after you put your hands up.”

“Oh my God! Please tell me we got mermaid powers!” Isla grins at us like she got told she won the lottery. “You guys probably got powers too! We need to test it out.”

Aspen quickly grabs his water bottle from his bag and unscrews the lid. “Ok Naia, I’m going to pour this water on you. Try and see if you can do something to it, got it?”

“Sure…” She says. “Ok, I’m ready.” Aspen carefully tilts the bottle until a tiny bit of water drizzles out. As soon as it does, Naia thrust out her hands. At first it doesn’t look like she did anything, but then the water droplets fall on her leg, and they retain their shape.

Naia reaches out her hands to touch them. “They’re… cold,” Is all she says. “Like ice.”

Aspen takes the frozen droplets from Naia. “Not like ice, they are ice. You froze them! Fascinating.” He takes a picture of them before dropping them in the sand.

“Nice!” Isla pumps her hand.

“Ok, Sereia your turn.” Aspen turns to me with his water bottle in hand.

“You know what? I’m good.” I scoot away from him the tiniest bit, my attention focused solely on the ice droplets melting in the sand.

Aspen sets his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eye. “Hey, it's fine. It’s not going to hurt to find out.” He gives me a gentle smile, and I can feel my heart flutter slightly. Stop it, heart! I hope my face isn’t too red.

“Ugh, gag! Just do it already.” Isla rolls her eyes at the two of us. When Aspen turns back to me, she grins and winks at me.

“Ready?” Aspen asks me.

No . “Ready.” I hold my shaky hands out in front of me. Aspen pours the rest of the water above my tail. I close my eyes, but keep my hands up. I feel a tug in my gut, like what book characters always say when they use their powers. The tug feels slightly uncomfortable, but it only lasts for a second. I wait, and wait, and wait, but the water never falls on me. Maybe I can evaporate things too?

I open my eyes to look at the sight before me, and what I see doesn’t make sense. The water most definitely hasn’t evaporated. Instead, it’s just floating in the air, in a little bubble of water.

“What…” I start to say before Aspen interrupts me.

“Seems to me that you can control water.”

“Awesome!” Isla yells out.

Aspen pulls out a notebook and pen from his bag (who carries that around with them?) and jots down everything we’ve learned today so far.

“So Sereia is a hydrokinetic, Naia can do cryokinesis, and Isla you can do hydro-thermokinesis.”

“I have literally no idea what any of those words mean.” I say.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to write this down? What if someone sees what you're writing?” Naia asks him. She’s always been the most careful out of the group.

“Then they’ll think he’s just really weird. Which everyone knows he already is so it’ll be fine.” Isla offers. Aspen side eyes her when she says that. He flips the notebook closed and grabs his stuff.

“I would like to go back home and do some research. I’ve never read anything about someone turning into mermaids. Then again, I haven’t really read anything about mermaids, period.” He shoulders his back and climbs over the rocks. “I’ll see you guys at school tomorrow!”

“Shoot! I completely forgot the first day back is tomorrow. What if we touch water while there?” Naia asks.

“We’ll just have to be very careful.” I tell her.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I am the definition of careful.” Isla crosses her arms in defiance.

Chapter Text

Sereia

I trudge over to my locker and unlock it. I’ve just had Algebra 2 and Chemistry all before lunch time. When am I ever going to need to know about supplementary angles, or when will I ever have to know chemical compounds? It’s not like I’m going to become a chemist or mathematician!

Naia breezes to her locker while humming a tune. Easy to be happy in the morning when all you’ve had is study and photography. “Hey.” Is all I can muster right now.

“Hey!” She says before lowering her voice to a whisper, “had any trouble yet?”

 “We did a lab in Chemistry today. I just had my partner fill the beakers with water, but other than that it was not bad.” I whisper back.

“Hey girls. What’re we whispering about?” Isla shoulders up next to us.

“Three guesses.” I tell say

“Ohh. Well I’m happy to report no incidents on my part!” Isla says. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Ok good now we just have to keep it that way…” I trail off as I look in the courtyard where McKenna is standing on one of the picnic tables. What is she doing now?

“Sophomores listen up! I’m throwing the beginning of the school year party at my house on Friday. Party starts at 6 and remember to bring your swimsuits, because it’s a pool party, and everyone's invited!” She yells. I turn to Isla and Naia.

“Ugh, wish we could go. But no, we would just turn into fish.” Isla says. “Waaait a second… we could go! We just won’t get in the water.”

“Absolutely not. We could still get splashed, or someone covered in water could get some on us. There’s just too many possibilities.” Naia furiously shakes her head. “Besides, don’t you guys remember what happened last year?”

“How could anyone forget?” I mumble. McKenna has thrown a beginning of year party every year since 7th grade. Last year was the second time we went, and Isla literally dragged me out of my bed to get me to go. We were only there for about 10 minutes before Dylan, Egan, and their friends started picking up random people and throwing them into the pool, no matter how much they protested.

Last year, however, they picked up this one girl and threw her in the pool. Unfortunately, she was thrown into the very shallow part, and hit her head on the bottom. She didn’t get knocked out, but she did get a very mild concussion. Someone called 911 and she had to go to the hospital. As far as I know, Egan, who is the one who threw the girl in, got away with it because his dad just claimed to the lawyers that it was an accident.

I’m honestly surprised she’s still throwing a party this year after last year's disaster. But of course she didn’t get in trouble for it because her dad is the governor of Queensland.

“Pleasee! As soon as things get too rowdy, we’ll leave. I promise.” Isla does her best puppy eyes.

Naia eventually just sighs. “Fine, but we are going to stay together the entire time.”

“Don’t we do that anyways?” Isla says teasingly.

“Hey girls, what’s going on?” Aspen slides up next to me and smiles, making my heart flutter a little again. Why is this happening?!

“Just talking about what to wear to McKenna’s party.” Naia tells him when I fail to get a word out of my mouth.

“Wait, what? Are you guys seriously going to that?” Aspen looks at us with surprise.

“Unfortunately.” I mumble.

“What’s this I hear? You four are going to the party?” Dylan’s loud voice sounds near us. I look to my right and see him and Egan walking towards us.

“Go away Dylan. This doesn’t concern you.” Isla snaps at him.

“Really? Well, I will be at the party as well, so I think it does.” He smirks back at her. “See you there Isla.” He says before he stalks away, Egan close on his tail.

“I don’t know if I wanna go anymore.” Isla says to us with a pout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite Aspen’s numerous protests about the dangers and my many complaints about how staying inside and watching a movie would be so much more fun, we eventually all decided to meet up at my house to head over. McKenna is only a couple minutes walk from my house, making me the closest.

I put on my favorite dark blue bikini and slid on a pair of jeans and brown sandals to go with it. Naia has on her light blue one piece with cutouts on the side. She wears her usual black running shorts and black sandals. Isla has on her green bikini and light blue jean shorts, plus a cropped white shirt and her dirty white flip-flops. Aspen just shows up in yellow swim trunks, a black shirt, and black sandals.

“You look like a bumble bee.” Isla tells him as soon as he steps into my room.

“Shut up.” Is all he says back to her. “You look very nice Sereia,” he says to me while rubbing the back of his neck. My face turns bright red, and all I can mumble out is a small ‘Thanks.’

Isla and Naia both giggle at my predicament. “Ok, let's go.” Naia shoulders her bag, and we all walk out the door.

The walk to McKenna’s was only about five minutes, but you would have thought that we had walked to the other side of Queensland by the way the houses change so quickly. We enter a neighborhood that, if it had a personality, would be snobby. Finding McKenna’s house isn’t very hard, you just have to find the biggest, most expensive looking house and that’s it. McKenna’s family is loaded, to put it mildly.

Her house looks like one of those houses that a really famous and rich celebrity would live in and would appear in one of those expensive house tour videos. It looks like one of those very futuristic type houses. The driveway is big enough to fit at least twenty cars, but that wouldn’t be a problem with their four car garage. Add in the fountain out front with a sculpture of some goddess and the double staircases leading up to the house, you would think this is the British royal family's summer house in Australia.

We head over to the tall side gate and walk into the backyard, which is just as impressive as the rest of the house. Her patio is pretty small compared to the massive pool and rock wall with a slide built into it. There is a decent amount of people in the pool, some in floats, others jumping into it from the rock wall. To the left of the patio is a fireplace with people milling around it, or sitting on the huge couch just chatting. Music blasts from speakers that are probably hidden as the plants around the pool.

The sliding glass door to the inside of the house is open, letting the cool air from the inside breeze out. The most breathtaking part of the whole property though is their private beach.

“Imagine waking up to that view everyday,” I say.

“McKenna would probably tell you that the view sucks, and that she wishes she had a view of the mall instead.” Isla tells me.

Suddenly, some people start cheering and gathering around the pool.

“Looks like they’ve found their first pool victim.” Naia mumbles to us.

Sure enough, Dylan and Egan make their way through the crowd, dragging a guy from inside to the edge of the pool. The poor guy shakes his head furiously, begging to not be thrown in. Dylan smirks at Egan before nodding his head. A second later, the guy is in the air and crashing into the pool, splashing a handful of people near the edge.

Everyone climbs out of the pool, and McKenna runs over to Dylan and loops her arm through his before gazing up at him and saying, “Who are you going to throw in next?” Dylan smiles and his eyes rove over the crowd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

Dylan eyes everyone in the crowd.

“Don’t look him in the eye.” I tell the others.

“Is he Medusa?” Isla says, but she still averts her gaze. After a painfully long wait, Dylan finally speaks again.

“Hey Sereia! Feeling hot today? Maybe you should get in the pool!” He shouts over at us. My heart plummets to the ground and my head starts to hurt. This can’t be happening. It’s over. We’re dead.  

Sereia looks at me with panic in her eyes as Dylan and his goonies stalk over. Before I can think of anything, Isla steps in between Sereia and them.

“Don’t even think about it Dylan. I’m serious.” She tells him. Some emotion akin to anxiety flashes over Dylan’s face before his snobby smirk is placed on again.

“Oh, come on, Isla, it’s just a little water. It’s not going to hurt her.” He says. Isla tries to say something else, but Egan shoves her out of the way and picks up Sereia bridle style.

“Egan put her down!” Aspen tries to push his way over to Sereia, but gets held back by two guys.

“Aw, is her boyfriend coming to her rescue?” McKenna teases.

“Put her down, you say? Well alright then!” He says before tossing Sereia into the pool.

15 seconds. That’s all we have before our secret is exposed. Time almost feels like it slows down.

14 seconds. “Everybody! Head to the beach for some more fun!” McKenna shouts. 

13 seconds. The last of the party-goers climb out of the pool.

12 seconds. Just get to the beach already!

11 seconds. Some people run back for their belongings.

10 seconds. Dylan barely glances over at Isla, who sticks her middle finger up at him. His face screams ‘I’m ashamed of myself’ and this time he doesn’t try to hide it as he runs off to catch up with everyone else.

9 seconds. People are still walking around.

8 seconds. The last of everybody finally heads over to the beach.

7 seconds. McKenna runs back into her house for something.

6 seconds. Where is she?!

5 seconds. A flash of hot pink sprints out of the house.

4 seconds. “Later, losers!” McKenna yells as she runs to the beach.

3 seconds. 

2 seconds. I pear around the rock wall to make sure that everybody is down at the beach.

1 second. I let out a sigh of relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla

In the time it took for people to vacate the grassy backyard and head to the private beach, Sereia transforms.

“That was way too close!” Aspen says.

“Ok, we can talk about this on the way back, but for now let's get Sereia out of here.” Naia says. She walks over to lend a hand to Sereia, but quickly pulls it back. “I can’t believe I almost forgot. Aspen you’re going to have to pull her out. If we get wet, you’ll have to deal with all three of us.”

Aspen rushes over to the ledge and grabs Sereia’s hands. “I don’t mean this in a bad way, but your tail weighs a ton!” He says through gritted teeth.

“Sorry,” is all Sereia offers. After much struggling, Aspen finally manages to lift her out of the water and onto the patio.

“Aspen, check to see if anyone is coming.” Naia tells him. “Isla, come here, I have an idea.” I crouch down next to Naia and Sereia.

“Since you're able to heat water, and evaporate it, I think you’ll be able to dry off Sereia really quickly. Aspen, how are we looking?”

“Fine for now! Everyone is just standing around down there.”

“Ok good. Isla, you're up.” I raise my hand above Sereia’s tail and concentrate. The first time I used my powers, I hadn’t even noticed the little tug because it was too quick. But since I’ve been practicing at home, I can feel it. I focus my energy into my hand. The water on Sereia’s tail starts to steam.

“That kinda stings.”

“Well you’re going to have to suck it up.” Once the steam clears, those sparkly bubbles appear around her body and when they’re gone, her legs are back.

“Thank you Isla.”

“No. I should be apologizing. If I hadn’t insisted we go to this stupid party, this never would have happened.”

“Can we play the blame game later guys? People are starting to walk back up.” Aspen says. The three of us stand up and we all race over to the side gate and run as far away as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t know about you guys, but that is enough adrenaline for me.” I say as we cross the threshold into Sereia’s house.

Naia walks right over to the kitchen and takes out four cups, spoons, and some juice from the fridge. “Who wants some instant icy pops?”

We all crowd the kitchen and eat our icy pops in silence.

“Dylan is seriously stepping on every single one of my nerves!” I say

“He’s just trying to get under your skin, Isla. don’t let him.” Naia tells me.

“But why? What have I ever done to him?” I ask. God must not like me.

“Oh Isla, you are so sweetly oblivious.” Is all Naia says to me. What is she talking about?

“What is that supposed to mean?” The three of them just laugh and ignore my question.

Chapter Text

Sereia

“C’mon Sereia, please! We won’t even go that deep. We’ll just swim around the reef,” Isla says. It’s been only a week since we found out about ourselves, and Naia and Isla have been wanting to go swimming together. I told them to go by themselves, but they refused to go without me.

“No. Just because I’m part fish now doesn’t mean my view about the ocean has changed.” I have a bad case of Thalassophobia, but these two think that my mermaid abilities have changed that.

“But we’ll be right there with you,” Naia says. “And think of it this way: you’re going to have to get in the water eventually, better now then a time when you’re about to be exposed and have no choice but to get in.” She does have a point though. And I guess just going to the reefs won’t be too bad. 

“Alright.” They both jump into the air excitedly. “But we’re not going past the reefs. And we won’t split up. Okay?”

“Yep, we promise!” Isla yanks me out of my chair and pulls me out of my house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We make our way down to the marina. Our plan is to dive into the marina and swim out to sea. In my opinion, it’s not the best plan since someone could see us, but it’s better than going in a boat and possibly getting sprayed by water then transforming in front of a bunch of people. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.

“Ok, it looks like we’re all clear to dive,” Naia says. I give the docks a once over quickly just to make sure. When I’m positive, I look back at the others.

“Here we go, I guess.” The three of us dive into the canals. Once we hit the water, I start counting down 15 seconds until we transform. Once that’s up, our legs finally go away and our tails appear. I haven’t seen their tails very much but they're just as beautiful as mine are, with the fin looking very wispy and the whole tale shimmering from the sun.

I’m going to need to resurface. The pressure in my lungs is getting too great. I start to swim up to the surface when I hear Naia gasp next to me.

“Oh my gosh! We can breathe underwater! And talk!” Isla next to her opens her mouth and inhales.

“She’s right!” Isla looks over at me. “It’s ok Sereia, just breathe it in.” I want to protest, but they're both doing it, which means that it must be true. I open my mouth hesitantly and let the oxygen burning my lungs out, then I breathe in.

Only, I wasn’t exactly breathing in through my mouth. I look at the others to confirm my suspicion. We have gills on our necks! Three slits along the top of our neck, allowing us to breathe just like fish do.

“I don’t know how I should feel about this,” I say.

“I do. This is amazing! We won’t ever have to risk exposing ourselves when coming up for air.” Naia looks at Isla, who vigorously nods her head. “Alright, let’s head out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The swim out of the canals, as much as I hate to admit it, was quite peaceful. Sure, there were boats everywhere, but luckily no one decided to go for a swim or look too closely in the canals.

Once we got to the mouth of the canals, however, I stopped.

“Sereia, it’s going to be ok,” Naia says.

“Ya, it’s not like there's a drop off here. We can still see the bottom,” Isla chimes in. I can see the bottom, but I can also see so much more. Back before our transformation, the water would sometimes look a little murky, but now I can see everything so clearly. The coral and fish look more vibrant than they used to, and the water doesn’t seem nearly as cold as when we dived in earlier. It’s almost like my body has completely adapted to the ocean.

“I changed my mind. I can’t do this.” I begin to turn around when Isla grabs my arm and forces me to look at her.

“Yes you can. I’m not letting you chicken out on us. Now c’mon.” Isla swims forward, dragging me along with her. Rather quickly, the bottom of the sea goes from nothing but sand to a wide array of coral and fish. 

“This is incredible! We’re living out practically every little girl's dream right now!” Naia lets out a laugh and does a quick spin in the water.

“Hey! Watch it! You almost hit me.” We all three stop swimming and gasp.

“Who said that?” Isla says. We all turn around but don’t see any other person here.

“I’m down here. Yeah, right here. Jee I would have thought the newbies would show us locals some respect!” The three of us glance down to where the voice is coming from. Just then, a hermit crab appears out from under some coral, sporting a little blue toy car as a shell.

Naia gasps. “How are we understanding you? This should be impossible.”

“Well so is getting turned into mermaids. But here you are.”

“Wait, you know about that?” Isla asks.

“Sure, everybody does. But it’s not like that’s a regular occurrence. The last time that happened was about 45 years ago. And they stopped coming by a very long time ago.”

“You must be talking about Miss Laguna and her friends,” I say. I know hermit crabs can live almost 30 years in the wild, but is he really this old?

“Yeah, that name sounds familiar. Anyways, I’m Tao.”

“I’m Naia, and this is Sereia and Isla.” She points to each of us as she says our names. “And I’m really sorry about almost hitting you. I didn’t know you were there, honestly.”

“It’s fine I guess. It may take awhile for you three girls to get used to everything. Especially you with the dark blue fin. You’ve had a sick expression on your face ever since you all swam in here.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just kinda scared of the water,” I say. I remind myself to change my grimace.

“Well you best get over that. Anyways, I should probably introduce you to everyone else.” Tao turns around to the little cave that he came out of. “Darya! You can come out now!” he yells into the cave.

No sooner does he yell that than a Snowflake Moray Eel zips out of the cave and right into my face.

“Hello. I’m Darya! Are you new here? What am I saying, of course you are! Oh you three are so pretty. I want to show you around everywhere!” Darya pauses and I swear if fish could make an expression, she would be giving me an inquisitive look.

Tao clears his throat. “Darya, I would like you to meet our newest resident mermaids. That’s Isla with the colorful hair, Naia is the one who scared us, and Sereia is the girl who still looks shocked.” 

“Gee, thanks.” I say.

“Now, about those introductions…” Isla looks at Tao expectantly.

“Oh, yes! Best get those over with. Follow me everyone!” Darya swims over to Tao, who jumps on her back and hitches a ride.

“First fish I want you girls to meet is Atlan and Triton, the reefs most famous, and fastest, spinner dolphins.” Two dolphins swim up to us, one a dark grey and the other lighter.

“Darn right we’re the fastest! Fastest in the whole ocean.” Triton says.

“You all should race with us later so we can prove it!” Atlan chimes in.

Isla laughs. “We’ll have to take you up on that offer.”

“Alright, let’s move on.” Tao says. He takes us over to a huge patch of anemone.

“Careful girls, just because you three are part fish now doesn’t make you immune to the effects of an anemone like a clownfish is. It will still hurt if they sting you.”

The three of us exchange careful glances. “So you brought us over to some dangerous sea anemone for a health lesson?”

“No. I brought you over here so you can meet all of the clownfish! Guyssss! Look who I found!” Tao yells.

Just then a handful of clownfish swim out from the tentacles of the anemones and swim around us, shouting many questions. “What’s your name?” “Where have you all been hiding?” “Do you want to come play with us?” The smallest one swims up to Naia.

“Hello. My name is Fisher. What’s yours?”

Naia giggles, “I’m Naia.”

“Do you want to play a game with me?”

“I-”

Then Tao interrupts. “Not now Fisher, I’m trying to show them around the reef.”

“Oh. Okay. Bye-bye mermaids!”

“Bye!” the three of us say as the clownfish go back to the anemones.

“Now let’s continue!”

Tao and Darya race around the coral. We all try to stay with them, but the view of the ocean is spectacular. Everything is so much clearer and brighter than before. As we swim by, we take precautions to avoid running into the abundance of fish swimming in our path. Each time they do, they do a double take and stop to ask us questions. We also get to know more of them. I learned from a parrotfish where to find the tastiest algae, and a school of barber perch wanted to know what my favorite type of fish was (they were very disappointed when I told them it was the Peppermint Angelfish).

Eventually, we stopped in front of a huge rock.

“Just wait girls, Avisa has been wanting to meet you all for a while now.” Tao jumps off of Darya’s head and onto the top of the rock. “Avisa! I brought the girls with me!”

We wait for a hot minute, but nothing happens. Naia speaks up. “Are you sure there’s someone here wanting to see us?”

“Just give her a moment. You can’t rush a psychic!” psychic?

Finally, a huge manta ray appears from behind the rock.

“Hello girls. My name is Avisa.”

“Uh, Hi. I’m-” I began before being promptly cut off.

“Sereia. Yes, I know. And you two are Isla and Naia. So nice to meet you three. I’ve been expecting you all for some time now. I assumed you all would have come sooner.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that. It just took awhile to really accept what has happened to us, and to ‘mermaid-proof’ our lives.”

“There is nothing to apologize for Naia. All is well. I will see you three again. Goodbye.” Avisa then quickly disappears behind the rock as quickly as she had appeared before.

I turn back to Tao, who has hopped back on Darya. “So, what now?”

His eyes turn to me. “Well, I thought we should go-”

“Tao! How dare you not introduce me first! This is despicable! I am a celebrity!” A shrill voice breaks through the still sound of the ocean and fish. We all look behind us at the moon jellyfish swimming towards us.

“Jellyfish! Move before we get stung!” Isla yells. This time it’s my turn to calm her down.

“Moon Jellyfish sting won’t hurt us. She’s basically harmless.” Isla lets out a huge breath of relief.

“Good. I don’t want another repeat of when I was 12.” She says.

“Harmless? Well I suppose to you all I am. Now Tao, are you going to introduce me or not?” She gives a stern look to Tao.

Tao rolls his itty bitty eyes and clears his throat, “girls, this is Cordelia. Cordelia, these are the newest mermaids: Isla, Naia, and Sereia.” I give her a shy wave. 

“And you're not even going to mention my talent? Honestly, why do I have to do everything myself? I am the best oceanic singer in the entire ocean. Please, no autographs.” 

“Nice to meet you Cordelia,” Naia says.

“Likewise, I suppose. Now I must be off to practice for my next showing. Ta-ta!”

“Finally, she’s gone,” Tao says, giving everyone a good laugh. “Now, there is one more person you girls should meet. To The Crash!” Then he and Darya are off again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘The Crash’ turned out to be an old single person sailboat that apparently crashed about a decade ago during a race. It was jammed in between two tall, spiky rocks, and had a huge hole in the bottom of it.

“Jeez, what hit that thing?” Isla asks.

“Oh, that actually hit one of those rocks. The guy steering it flipped off, and the boat sank. It’s been in that exact spot ever since. Now, girls, I want you to meet Finn the sea turtle. Finn! Come on out!” Just like we did with Avisa, we wait for Finn to come out, but he never does.

“Maybe they're just somewhere else?” I offer.

“No, Finn is always hanging out here at this time of day. He must be close by.”

We all spread out around the rocks looking for a sea turtle, but all I see is coral and fish. No sea turtle.

“Helppppp! Somebody help me!” A little voice yells out near us.

“That’s Finn! Uh oh, I think I know what's wrong. Follow me girls!” Tao and Darya swim off with us right behind him.

Naia looks over at me. “I wonder what’s wrong. Hopefully nothing dangerous.”

Then we appear right in a little sandy clearing. 

“Oh no!” I say.

Right in front of us is a sea turtle I assume to be Finn, and three other sea creatures. And not just any sea creatures, a longfin mariana shark, a dragon moray eel, and a coconut octopus. 

“What is it?” Isla asks me.

“Those animals are very dangerous.”

“Well then we need to get Finn away from them. Come on!” Naia says, and before I can argue, her and Isla swim over the coral and right towards the danger.

However, I hesitated. I didn’t think it was such a good idea to pick a fight with three dangerous sea animals. But I also can’t leave them to fight them on their own. 2 vs 3 is not a very fair fight. Ugh! 

I quickly decide to join the fight, no matter how little I’ll be able to contribute to the fight. 

“Don’t worry girls, me and Darya have your back… from over here!”

“Stop! Leave him alone!” Naia yells.

The three bullies turn around to look at us.

“Who are you?” the eel says.

“We’re the new mermaids. So don’t even think about hurting Finn!” Isla says.

Then the shark swims up to the eel. “Hey, boss, Beryl thinks the mermaids need to be taught some manners.”

The eel then reels its ugly head at us. “Yeah, you can’t talk to us like that!” The eel then swims straight towards us.

“Our powers, quick! Just like we’ve practiced.” Naia throws out her hands and freezes the water around the eel, turning it into a giant eel-pop.

“Heron!” The octopus swims up to the now frozen eel. Then he turns toward us.

“What did you do? Unfreeze him!”

“No! He can thaw out in his own time.” Isla crosses her arms defiantly. 

“What do we do Mano?” Beryl asks.

“Umm. I conclude we should retreat.” The two of them quickly swim away and leave their boss behind.

“This won’t be the last you see of us mermaids!” Mano yells behind him.

Finn swims up to us from his hiding spot behind a rock.

“Oh thank you girls! If it wasn’t for you, I would be in big trouble. Those bullies always have so much fun scaring me.”

“Well we will make sure they don’t scare you anymore.” I say.

“Thank you mermaids! Bye-bye!”

“Bye Finn!” we all say.

“We should probably head back now if we want to make it in time for lunch with Aspen.” Naia says.

“Ugh I don’t wanna eat with that weirdo.” Isla complains. Her and Aspen have always been poking at each other ever since we were little. Now they just act like siblings, always bickering and whining about the other.

“Bye Tao! Bye Darya! We’ll see you all soon!” We wave at them before starting our long swim back home.

“Bye girls!”

Chapter Text

Sereia

“S ereia!” Cassia yells down to me from her room.

“What?”

“Can I borrow that new top you got? I need something cool to wear to Lorena’s birthday party tonight!”

“No! I got that top with my own money and you always ruin everything you borrow from me!”

“Ugh! I hate you! You’re so annoying!” God! Cassia really gets on my nerves. She thinks she gets whatever she wants because dad spoils her and lets her get away with everything. She could get away with murder. I can never get away with anything because I’m the older sister so I have to “set an example.

 Cassia doesn’t even care what I say anyways, like the fact that I said no. I better head upstairs because to her “no” means “yes, of course, anything for you, your highness.”

I get up from my comfy spot on the couch and run up the stairs. Hopefully I’m not too late. Sure enough, my bedroom door is wide open, which I always leave it closed. I march down the hallway and turn into my room, catching Cassia snooping through my dresser, and throwing any clothes that are in the way onto the ground. I like to keep my room nice and neat, but Cassia doesn’t care for what I like.

“Cassia! I said no! Get out of my room!” I shove her away from my dresser.

“My God Sereia just lighten up a little bit.” She glances back into my dresser when her eyes catch on something. “Oooh what's this?” Cassia lets out a giggle before snatching something from the dresser. “Oh my God! Is this a diary? That is so stupid.”

“Give that back Cassia! It’s not a diary.” I’m such an idiot! I’ve been meaning to hide that someplace else. I don’t really have any embarrassing stuff in there, except maybe the fact that I have written, in extreme detail, my mermaid life in there.

I need to get that back before she reads any of it. Knowing Cassia, everyone and their mom will know my secret before I can get it back.

“You are a total loser. This is so uncool. I can’t believe I’m related to you.” Cassia rolls her eyes, then darts out my room and across the hall into hers. I chase after her, but it seems that it’s useless.

“Cassia! I’m serious! Give that back right now!” her response is slamming her door shut in my face and locking it. “Cassia, I’m serious. This isn’t funny. I will tell dad!”

“Like I care!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassia

God. Sereia is a complete freak. Like seriously, who has a diary? I jump into my bed and start flipping through the pages. Like omg this is nuts. How does she have any freinds? Don’t they, like, get tired of her or smething? These pages are completely boring. She just details her day like a loser does. OMG wait, what is this?!

8/4/24

Dear Diary,

………………then I looked at my feet, but my feet weren’t there. They were freaking tails! I thought I was delusional. And I started to freak out. I managed to get out of the bath and text on the group chat to meet up with Isla and Naia today. Turns out they went through something similar. We also told Aspen and he deduced that we’re mermaids. Which is so cool if you think about it! While we were talking, Isla…………………………

Is this true?! Is my totally loser sister a mermaid?! This makes total sense now! Like why she started paying me to do the dishes or how she refuses to go anywhere when its raining; even the mall! Like who refuses a trip to the MALL?

“Cassia! That’s not yours to read. Give it back to me! I need it!”

“Fat chance!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sereia

This is a nightmare. She’s probably already read most of it. Wait, can she even read? Maybe she even took a couple photos. Oh no, what if she’s already texting her friends? I need to warn the others about it. Maybe we can come up with a way to get it back and convince her it wasn’t real or something. I get on my phone and quickly text our group chat.

________________________________

Penguins of Madagascar

Mia Thermopolis: 

Please don’t be mad but Cassia kind of stole my diary and I also sort of wrote down all about our maybe-no-longer-a-secret secret so basically she knows about us

Shirley Temple:

nice knowing y’all😚✌🏻

Elsa:

What?! Are you kidding me?! This is a complete disaster.

Magic Cookie:

This is not good.

Elsa:

We need to figure out a way to get it back from her.

Sereia do you have anything you can trade for it?

Mia Thermopolis: 

Umm she was looking for this new top I got when she found my diary maybe I can use that

Shirley Temple:

plane tickets to America are $1,377 each

Magic Cookie:

Try the shirt and maybe bribe her with money too just in case

Shirley Temple:

next plane leaves in 3 hours…👩🏻‍🦰

Mia Thermopolis: 

Ok good idea I’ll try that

Shirley Temple:

i can pick y’all up in 30?

Elsa:

ISLA!

you are not helping!

Shirley Temple:

agree to disagree

__________________________________

I need to get that diary back asap. Maybe if Cassia reads the diary and tells people that her sister is a mermaid, people will think she’s crazy and lock her up. She says crazy stuff all the time, so how would people know she’s telling the truth now? She definitely would have been lobotomized in the 1940’s. Psychologists would LOVE her. That thought makes me laugh out loud.

Where in the world is this top! Shoot! I think she took the top with her. There goes that half of the plan. I stride for my dresser and snatch my wallet off the top. Inside, there's some lip gloss, but no cash. Why is this happening to me? Ugh! Ok new plan: take the diary back by force. Not like that could go horribly wrong. 

I turn out of my room just as Cassia sprints out of hers and down the stairs.

“Dad! I need you to drive me to Ashton’s! NOW!” She screams at my poor dad.

“In a minute darling-”

“NO! NOW!” She treats him so rudely. I will never see how she is his favorite.

“Alright. I’ll go get the keys.” Ashton? Why would she be going there? Oh god. She wouldn’t tell, would she? Who am I kidding, of course she would. I need to warn Naia about what she’s about to have to deal with.

Mia Thermopolis

Cassia is heading to meet Ashton

I think she’s gonna tell him about the diary

Elsa

Uh oh.

Ok, I’ll try to handle it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

Cassia needs to be taught to not go snooping into other people’s things. I’m honestly not surprised however, because she is always messing with poor Sereia. Sereia has mentioned a lot that her dad lets Cassia get away with whatever she wants because he’s a “complete pushover” when it comes to her.

I know Ashton won’t believe Cassia though. He knows better than to listen to that gossiper, especially when she tries telling him stuff about me or the girls. But that won’t stop her from at least trying.

The knock at the front door jars me from my thoughts.

“Well hello Cassia, what can I do for you?” I wanted to scream at mom to slam the door shut in that hellion's face.

“I want to talk to Ashton.”

“Of Course. I’ll go get him. You just wait in the living room.” I need to do something. But if I interfere, that might just reinforce Cassia’s suspicion. The best thing I can do right now is listen and see what happens.

“Ashton! Cassia is here and she wants to talk to you!”

“OK! Coming!” Ashton rounds the corner and body slams into me without looking.

“Sorry sis!” He bounds down the stairs and into the living room. People say all the time that we both look alike, what with our light blonde hair and icy blue eyes. I can’t totally see it, but that must just be sibling-blindness, but we do both have the same smiles I suppose.

My mom smiles at me as she walks back into the kitchen to finish unpacking groceries. I smile back but as soon as she disappears, I creep behind the wall separating the living room from the rest of the house and peek around the corner just enough to see what they’re doing.

“Ok, Ashton, listen to me very carefully because what I’m about to tell you is going to save your life. Your sister, my sister, and Isla are mermaids !” She shoves, what I can only assume is Sereia’s diary, into Ashton’s chest. “That’s my sister's diary. It has all the evidence written in there. Read it!”

Ashton almost immediately pushes the diary back to Cassia. “I’m not reading your sister's diary. That's private.” At that, Cassia rolls her eyes so hard I’m surprised they didn’t pop out. She opens the diary and flips towards the back, probably where Sereia has written about us.

“Listen: Me, Isla, and Naia have gone swimming a bunch of times in the water. It took awhile for me to get over my fear of swimming, but it was definitely worth it. We’ve found out a bunch of stuff about what we can do now. The coolest thing we’ve found is that we can breathe underwater! And talk! Isn’t that crazy? Not only can we talk, but we can also talk to the marine life down in the water. We met this hermit crab named Tao and he is the cutest little guy ever. And these two spinner dolphins named Triton and Atlas, who challenged us to a race. I never even knew there were dolphins around Mariana before. ” She pointedly looks at my brother.

“How do you know that’s not something she just wrote down in there, like a dream she had?” He counters back at her.

“You are so gullible.”

“Am not! I just know my sister, and we tell each other everything, so if something as big as this did happen, she would have definitely told me.” That declaration sends a pang of guilt through me. It’s true, though, we always tell each other everything. But if we ever get found out, and someone finds out that he knows, he could be in trouble as well, and I wouldn’t want that in any universe.

“Seriously? I never even acknowledge Sereia’s existence unless I want something from her.” She smirks as if that is something to be proud of. I love my brother and he is easily one of the most trustworthy people I know. I briefly argued this to the others, but they refused to let me tell him. I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s for his own good.

“And look at all this. She drew them as mermaids too. And even wrote stuff down, like how they can control water, or freeze it or this here says Isla can boil it! Nobody’s dream is that detailed.”

Ashton looks back up at Cassia and gives her a light shrug. “I don’t know…”

“Fine. You don’t believe me now but you will soon. Try pouring some water on your sister. Apparently that is how they transform into their tails.” With that, she makes the grandest Irish goodbye of the century, and slips out the front door.

I peek around the corner again and see Ashton sitting on the couch staring at the floor, probably contemplating whether he should believe that sociopath or his older sister.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla, Sereia, Aspen, and I crowd the counter at the Juice Oasis. I’ve been working here ever since the beginning of summer, and since it’s a Saturday I have to work so we decided this would be the best place to talk.

Nothing like talking about a huge secret at the most popular cafe in Queensland.

“I'm sorry guys. I thought I could handle it, but I think Ashton is starting to believe Cassia. I can tell he’s holding out hope that she’s lying but even Cassia had a point and, as annoying and narcissistic as she is, she had evidence.” I sigh. This is not going how we want to.

“It’s okay Naia, you tried your best. We just need a new game plan. Anyone got any ideas?” Sereia turns to look at the others.

“Ship her to somewhere where she’s important?” Aspen says with hope in his voice.

“That place doesn’t exist. We need to deal with that vermin somehow, but what could convince her she’s wrong and make her drop it forever?” Isla returns her focus back to her drink, as if it’ll tell her a solution.

“The best way to stop a bully is to embarrass them so badly that they are scarred for life. At least, that’s what my mom used to say whenever I got mad at Cassia.” Sereia says.

There's a pause in our conversation before a voice sounds near us.

“Well who do we have over here?” Egan saunters over to the counter. He stares straight at Sereia and winks at her. “Sereia, looking good, as always.” I glimpse over at Sereia who looks like she’s trying to will him to go away with her mind. Aspen straightens in his seat. “What are we whispering about? Secrets are better when you share them with everyone.” That makes absolutely no sense.

“Leave us alone, Egan. Our conversation is none of your business.” Out of all of us, I think Aspen has the biggest reason to hate Egan. I mean sure, Sereia has that boat stunt on him, but Egan and his friends have been picking on Aspen for years.

“Shut up, four eyes.”

“What's this I hear? A secret? Well now you have to share.” Cue Dylan, with his arm around McKenna.

Here’s the thing about them: sure they're both popular, but their relationship has always seemed one-sided. McKenna has been publicly crushing on him since at least 5th grade. They started going out a week before school started this year so they’ve only been together for about two months, which is a lot longer than the four of us bet. I mean, Dylan once sprinted out of the school trying to get away from her last year. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why he agreed to go out with her after he’s said no for the past couple years. Maybe he finally realized Isla is way out of his league and will never like him.

“Hey Isla.” He nods her way. I once told Isla that I think Dylan has a crush on her and then she threw her shoe at me. I don’t really know why I think this but to me, it seems like Dylan only tries to get under her skin because that’s his weird way of acting on his crush for her. I know Sereia agrees with me, and we’ve started to convince Aspen as well. Isla refuses to talk about that subject.

Dylan’s little gesture to Isla has McKenna’s face turning red; we’ll, it gets her neck red, because she’s wearing too much makeup on her face to tell if the blush is real or not. For her sake, I hope it’s not. McKenna has never liked us, but I believe she also thinks Dylan is harboring some sort of feelings for Isla, which has made her more rude to us than ever.

“Dylannn, you promised to take me on your new yacht. Can we go pleaseee.” McKenna whines as she pulls Dylan’s arm towards the exit.

“Come on McKenna, don’t you want to hear this secret?” Egan says.

“What?! Someone has a secret and I don’t know about it? Absolutely not. You all need to spill now!” McKenna stomps her foot like a toddler throwing a tantrum. 

 Isla whirls around to face Dylan. “Leave us alone! What is y’alls problem? All you ever do is annoy us. We’re never going to tell y’all what we’re talkin’ about so just drop it.”

I’ve always thought that I’m pretty good at reading people, so I definitely noticed when Dylan's smug grin on his face faltered slightly when she said that. This always happens whenever Isla yells at him, which surprisingly isn’t often. Usually she just ignores him but I guess today she’s just not having it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla

I can not believe Dylan! What am I saying? Yes I can. He is the most annoying person I’ve ever talked to. Usually whenever he starts to get under my skin, I just ignore him or say some remark about his hair (which he is surprisingly sensitive about). This time, however, I do NOT have the time for him or his friends. I have something far more important to think about.

He’s been doing this ever since 4th grade after I moved. I never did anything to him originally so I don’t know why he’s still been doing it. I once asked him why he was so mean to me all the time, and he just looked at the ground and whispered something before running off. I meant to ask him what he said. It doesn't matter though because he still annoys the crap out of me.

The others have some idiotic theory that he has a crush on me, but if he does, why did he say yes to McKenna then? Why not just ask me out? I briefly started to believe them (though I would never tell them that), but he continued to be a big bully to us, so I quickly dropped the assumption.

After I yelled at Dylan, there’s an awkward silence among us before he clears his throat and turns to look at Egan, McKenna, and their other friends with them.

“Let’s go guys, I’m not wasting my precious time on these loners.” Dylan and the others start to walk away but Egan remains planted.

“What? C’mon man, don’t be such a-” Before Egan can finish Dylan looks at him over his shoulder.

“I said let’s go .” Egan remains where he stands for a second longer then stalks out the door after his friends. I turn back around in my seat.

“ Y’all, ” Aspen says in a fake American accent. I can feel my face starting to turn red. Sometimes when I’m mad or start to yell my old accent starts to make a little appearance. It started to go away soon after I moved here, and then by the start of 6th grade it was completely gone. But every once in a while it bubbles up.

“Shut up Aspen.” I give him a little shove.

“Oww, mom, Isla hit me!” He turns to Naia when he says this then puts the back of his hand to his forehead and acts out his demise. With that I hit him harder.

“Okay knock it off you too. Can’t afford to lose two of my best customers.” Mr. Louie Suco (AKA Louie), Naia’s boss and the owner/founder of the Juice Oasis, comes out from the back and laughs at the sight of us. Today he is sporting one of his signature bright Hawaiian shirts.

Louie is from Tauranga, New Zealand, and moved here with his uncle to open the Juice Oasis. His uncle died shortly after opening, and Louie has been running this place all by himself for years, until Naia convinced him to hire her.

“Best customers?! Louie, I am honored!” I pretend to act surprised when I say that. To that, he just chuckles.

“Naia, these three drinks to table 4 please.”

“On it!” 

He hands Naia the tray of drinks, then grabs a crate of mangoes he brought from the back. “Well, I need to finish restocking. Nice seeing you all.”

“See you, Louie.” Sereia calls after him. Once Naia returns and makes sure she’s all caught up on orders, she walks back over to us so we can finish our discussion again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sereia

Naia turns to me from behind the counter. “Ok so what’s the plan?”

Aspen drinks the rest of his smoothie then sets it on the counter. “I had an idea. What if we try convincing your sister that the diary is fake? Like you were writing it for fun or maybe for school. Would that work?”

“I honestly don’t really know. What we need is an explanation for the diary and a way to prove that I’m not a mermaid. I think your plan can cover the first part, but Cassia may just think we’re saying that to cover our tails. So we’ll need to somehow prove we’re not mermaids. Anyone got any ideas?” We all turn silent while we try to figure out a plan.

“Maybe we could-” Naia then lets out a quick gasp before yelling, “Sereia DUCK!” I quickly do what she told me and not a moment later, a stream of water goes over my head. After confirming I don’t have any water on me, I spin around in my chair and see none other than Ashton standing behind me with an empty glass.

“No! You were supposed to throw the water at her, not above her! I thought you said you could do it.” Cassia emerges from the booth next to Ashton and stomps over to him.

“Ashton! What in the world is wrong with you? Why would you do that?” Naia rounds the counter and stalks over to him.

“I’m sorry Sereia! Cassia made me do it!” He shoves the glass into Cassia’s hand and hurries to his sister.

“You sit down at the counter. We need to talk.” Naia sternly tells him.

“Cassia! Is that true?! You are in so much trouble.” I grab the glass from Cassia’s hand and set it on the counter.

“No I’m not! We both know dad will never believe you over me.” Even though I’ve lived with that notion my whole life, it still stings to hear that. That dad will always choose Cassia over me, no matter how many times she gets into trouble, and how many times I do something good. Lucky for me, I know a way around that.

“He may not believe me, but he will believe my friends when they vouch for me.” Is it wrong to say that I was delighted when I saw her realize that what I said is true? I don’t really think so. “I’m calling dad right now and telling him everything.” I start to reach for my phone in my pocket when I feel Aspen’s hand on mine.

He leans over to me and whispers in my ear, “let me handle this.” Then he turns to face Cassia.

“Sereia won’t call your dad if you tell us why you had Ashton try to throw water on your sister.” I don’t know where Aspen is trying to go with this, but I best stay quiet and not ruin it.

Cassia looks between the two of us before letting out a very much exaggerated sigh. She looks Aspen in the eye when she whispers, “because the three of them are mermaids!” There’s a brief pause before a smile spreads on Aspen’s face.

“You mean to tell me that you think your sister, along with Naia and Isla, are mermaids?!” I could tell Aspen was purposefully raising his voice so that everyone in the room could hear him.

As soon as he says that, other people in the cafe start snickering at Cassia, who is fastly turning red. Isla behind me starts giggling before walking over to her.

“Where on earth did you get that idea?”

“From her DIARY! She wrote it in there!” Cassia grabs my diary from off the booth and shoves it towards Isla.

“What are you talking about Cassia? I don’t have a diary.” I do my best to roll my eyes at her and cross my arms. 

“Yes you do! I found it in your dresser.” I rack my brain to think of any possible scenarios as to why I would keep a notebook in my dresser. The only thing that seems most convincing however is Aspen’s excuse he said earlier.

“Oh, ummmm, that’s not my diary. That is a uh project for my english class. We had to pick a children’s story to rewrite and I chose the Little Mermaid, and I wrote Isla and Naia in there as well. What you’ve read is just the project. It’s not real. I would think you wouldn’t be so gullible and naive anymore.”

“I’m such an idiot,” she says. At least there’s one thing we can agree on . “As if you could ever be a mermaid. You’re too afraid of the water.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Sea Cave, which is what we named our place of transformation, is the one place we can talk about our mermaid adventures without fear of someone hearing us. Us girls get to swim in through the underwater entrance, but poor Aspen has to walk through the jungle and and take the tunnel way.

The three of us swim in and find Aspen lounging in a pool float decorated with sharks. Shirtless. Oh god.

“About time you all got here. I have news to share.”

We settle on the stone steps lining the inside of the pool. Aspen struggles to move his floatie around so he can face us. Instead, he ends up tipping over and falling into the pool.

“Aw, did someone forget his swimmies? You know it’s not safe for kids to swim without an adult,” Isla says in a mocking baby voice.

Aspen gives her a heavy side eye before sitting on the stone steps next to me. I try my best not to stare at his chest. He turns to face us. “So here’s the thing. I’ve tested everything in here: the rocks, the water, the sand, even the shells at the bottom of the pool.”

“And?” I tilt my head to the side. Aspen stares at me with his mouth open for a moment before he finally speaks.

“And… uh everything is normal.” This elicits a groan from the three of us.

“So that’s it? Don’t tell me you don’t have any other ideas to test out,” Naia says.

“I'm sorry I don’t have any good news, really, but I’m trying my best. And it’s not like I can go on the internet to come up with ideas. Even if this has happened before, I highly doubt that they would go blabbing or post it on the internet.”

“Speaking of blabbing, Sereia, what did you do with the diary?” Naia inquiries.

“Isla said she would handle it.”

“I burned it,” Isla says with a straight face.

“Why would you-” Aspen starts before Isla cuts him off.

“Because I can.”

Chapter Text

Naia

I f one more person complains that their Mango Madness smoothie tastes like mangoes, I’m going to throw my hat at them and quit.

I like working at the Juice Oasis, but I swear people will find anything to complain about. After three people did that, I traded with Louie and went around taking orders instead. I only have 15 more minutes before my shift ends and I can finally head over to the cove to meet the others.

I picked up where Louie left off, and headed out to the outside seating area. The patio is fairly big, and fits seven circular tables, all of which are occupied since it is a Friday. The only person sitting at one of the tables is an old lady with very long, wavy silver hair. From far away, she looks like she has a swimmer’s build. Luckily, old people didn’t tend to complain and asked for simple orders. I paste on my best waitress-y smile and walk over. 

“Hello miss, what can I get you today?” The old lady turns her head and looks up at me. Her eyes were a pretty blue-grey. She has on a simple white dress and brown sandals. Her accessories consist of three pearl bracelets on each of her wrist, and a matching necklace and pearl earrings. She was also wearing a plain gold ring on her right ring finger. I wonder if those are all real? They certainly look like it. There was also a brown tote bag sitting on the table with a Queensland Marina keychain.

“May I have the Blueberry Blue Tail , please?” She says the word tail in the same voice that someone uses when they’re trying to hint at something. That word reminds me of my other identity. I’m most likely just paranoid and a little tired from standing for two hours though. I click my pen and write down her order on my little notepad.

“And is that all for you?” I look back up at her and she gives me a sweet, old lady smile.

“Did you know angelfish are the most spectacular liars? I wouldn’t trust them if I were you. They’ll try to tell you something is safe only because they love a good laugh. Like tonight, they’ll say that the full moon is safe for oceanic creatures, but they’re lying.” 

What is she going on about? Maybe she’s some conspiracy theorist. I just smile and nod my head. Just go along with it .

“Really? Why would the full moon not be safe for the fish?”

“Oh not just the fish, if you know what I mean. Also creatures who enjoy the sand above the water as well as below.” This conversation is getting a little too close to my secret. “Listen to me carefully, I have to warn you. The full moon is very dangerous for people like us. You must avoid it at all cost, don’t even look at its reflection. And when it’s out, you must remember to never touch water, no matter what.” 

All I can do is just stand there and stare at her. No way she can know. We’ve been so careful about our secret. And she’s not making any sense; why would a full moon be dangerous to mermaids?

I can’t give anything away. I need to act like I don’t know what she’s talking about. I’ll tell the others about this asap.

“Oh um… thank you for your… warning, ma’am.”

“Please, call me Miss Laguna. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other in the future.” As soon as she says that, I practically sprint inside. I run into the back storage room and look in my bag for my phone.

______________________________

Penguins of Madagascar

Elsa:

🚓🚓🚓

Magic Cookie:

Oh, level 3 emergency

What is it?

Mia Thermopolis:

Omg Naia is everything ok?

Shirley Temple:

what? did someone freak that there’s coconut in their Coconut Craze drink?🧉🧉

Elsa:

I can’t say it now since I’m at work but I'll tell you all when I see you. I get off in 10.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“She really said that?” I believe Sereia has asked me that three times since I told everyone.

I nod my head. “Word for word. Do you think she knows?”

“How could she? We’ve been super careful.” Isla says.

As soon as my shift ended, I raced down to our cove. The conversation really freaked me out. For all I know, she could know about us. But it’s more of her warning that creeped me out the most.

“Ok, let’s assume she does somehow know. Why would the full moon be dangerous to us?” I ask.

“Well you guys have been mermaids for basically a month now, and I know it’s about 29 days in between each full moon. So maybe there’s a connection between you guys and the moon now? I’m not sure though. It’s possible it's a coincidence,” Aspen says.

“A mysteriously creepy old lady tells us to beware of the moon because it’s dangerous for mermaids. The last time there was a full moon, we got changed into mermaids. I think that's too connected to be a coincidence.” Sereia says.

“I agree. We need to find out more. I wonder if we can try to find that lady again. Maybe she can tell us what exactly she meant.” I say.

“Can you tell us what she looked like? Maybe we can ask around today.” Aspen says. He pulls out his small notebook and a pencil from his bag and flips open to a new page. “Tell me everything about her. You're pretty observant so you must have caught something that could tell us who she is or maybe even where she lives.”

I think back to an hour ago, when I was taking the old lady’s order. She said her name, but now I can’t remember it. She was wearing a white dress and a lot of pearl jewelry. And I think she was wearing some ring. Maybe gold? Or was it silver? I can’t remember. There was a brown tote bag on the table and I think there was some key chain on it…

“Oh! She had a Queensland Marina key fob on her bag.”

“Ok, so she must have a boat there then. Only the people who dock their boat there get one. Did you see a number on it? Maybe we can find the exact place her boat would be.” Aspen writes down what I said, then looks back up at me expectantly.

“No, I just remember recognizing the fob because my family has one for our bay boat.” There was something else the woman said that was interesting… “I remember something else. When the lady was warning me she said that it’s dangerous for people like us. She said ‘us’ like she was also including herself. Does that mean she’s a mermaid also?”

“That seems to be the most logical explanation. But we need to find her to figure out what she meant.” Sereia says.

Aspen nods his head. “Good idea. Let’s head over to the marina right now. Maybe we can ask the harbor master about her.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ride our bikes all the way from the beach to the marina. Once we get there, we drop them in the bike rack, and start to walk along the docks, looking for the harbormaster. We eventually find him talking to some disembarking fishermen.

“Excuse me Mr. Lynes, we were wondering if you can help us find a woman who docks her boat here,” I say.

“Sure kids, but I am very busy today so make the questioning short.”

“We will.” Sereia promises. She turns to me to give a description of the lady to Mr. Lynes.

“She has very long gray hair. Looks to be in her early 60’s. And she has a lot of pearl jewelry.” Mr. Lynes scrunches his thick, white brows together to think.

“Unfortunately, that isn’t too much to go on, but if I had to guess, I would say that you’re looking for Miss Laguna. Her boat, Amphitrite, is docked in slot 50.”

“Thank you!” Sereia calls back as we race there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sereia

The old lady, or should I say Miss Laguna, was sitting outside her white Gibson houseboat. Miss Laguna had plants hanging from almost all the railings and the word “Amphitrite” was painted in black on the side. There were two lawn chairs near the front with a woman, who I assume is Miss Laguna, sitting there, sipping from a mug and reading a book. When she saw us, a smile grew on her face and she got up to walk over to the edge.

“Hello girls. I was wondering when you would come find me. I’m terribly sorry for being vague earlier, but I needed to get you somewhere where we could talk more privately.”

“You were expecting us?” Isla asks.

“Well, with four kids as curious as yourselves, I figured it was inevitable that you would come looking for more answers. But please, come on aboard. The conversation we’re about to have is not something you’ll want other people to overhear.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The inside of the boat looked a lot bigger than what’d you think if you just walked by it. When we first walked in, we were right in the living room, To my right was the helm. On my left was a kitchen with a built-in bar and stools. Past that was a plain wooden door with a heavy lock, so that must be where the bedroom and bathroom is.

“Please, have a seat. We have much to discuss.” Isla, Aspen, and I sat on the grey couch opposite the two chairs. Naia and Miss Laguna sat in those. “Now, I’m sure you have many questions, but before you ask those. Let me explain and we’ll see if I don’t answer some of them.” We all nod our heads and wait for her to start.

“For this all to truly make sense, I will start at the beginning and tell you the necessary details. It all started in 1980. Me and two of my friends had wandered into a sea cave on Mariana Island during a full moon. After we had left, the next day, we realized what we had become. Mermaids. We went on so many fun and breathtaking adventures together. It was truly magical.” She lets out a sigh as her eyes drift to a black and white photograph of three girls in their bathing suits hanging on the wall. The girls looked to be about 15 years old, and were sitting on the beach together smiling.

“But being a mermaid was not all we thought it would be. On the night of our first full moon after we’d become mermaids, we decided to celebrate our one month anniversary by spending the night together. As soon as the moon rose however, one of my friends, Cynthia, started acting… strange. I remember she raised her hands at our drinks and boiled them until they completely evaporated. Then she tried to walk out the door. Loreli grabbed her, but not before she was entranced as well. Then both of them walked out.”

“I knew something was wrong right away. I walked over to the door and as I saw the others turn left to make their way to the harbor, I had a very strong urge to look up at the moon. And I did. Once I did, I completely blacked out. I still can’t remember a thing. The next morning, the three of us woke up at the sea cave. None of us remembered what happened but the feeling of needing to look at the moon. That’s how I know this.”

“Wait, so you're a mermaid?” Isla asks.

“Yes, I have been ever since that day in 1980.”

“So that’s…” Aspen counts on his fingers, “60 years?!” Miss Laguna lets out a laugh and nods her head.

“Indeed. But we don’t have time to discuss my life. Right now, we must focus on yours.” She shifts in her seat to the three of us. “I wish to offer you three some advice on how to deal with this, if you want it.”

“Of course we do.” I say.

Miss Laguna folds her hands in her lap. “My advice, which helped my friends and I, is to stick together on nights like these. The easiest thing to do is sleep through it, however, the nerves of the night will most likely keep you up, so try to stay in a room with little to no windows, and avoid water. If you touch water during a full moon, you won’t be able to transform back until the moon sets and the sun rises.”

“Thank you Miss Laguna. Really. Your advice will help us a lot tonight.” Naia says.

“It’s my pleasure girls. I remember being so frightened when I was younger, the three of us having to figure things out on our own. I’m just happy to be able to pass on my knowledge to you three. Which reminds me, I have something I need to give you girls.” She gets up from her chair and walks into the back of the boat. After a minute, she returns, carrying a notebook.

“I want you all to have this. After I found out about you three, I wrote down everything I could remember from being mermaids. Every new discovery, and every piece of advice I could offer. Even after all these years, it’s not much, but I believe it will help with some problems.” She hands the notebook to Naia, who puts it into her bag.

“Despite that, I do hope we will get more chances to have a nice chat. It’s been so long since I could talk to someone about this.”

“Of course we will. We’ll come to visit all the time,” Naia promises.

Miss Laguna smiles at us before saying, “that’s wonderful to hear.”

“I do have a question though,” Aspen says. “How did you even know that they are mermaids? Did you see them transform or was it something else?”

“The truth might seem very crazy, but I got a feeling. It was like the feeling you get when you transform for the first time. I didn’t know what it meant until I passed the three of you at the beach one day. Then, I just knew.”

“I always meant to reach out and help, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you with all the information I could give you. But since the full moon is coming tonight, I figured it would be too dangerous to let you all go about your day without the knowledge of what might happen.” She pauses before standing up. “I wish we could chat more, but I don’t want to keep you here until the last second and you're not prepared for the night. Perhaps tomorrow you can stop by and tell me about it.”

“Well see you tomorrow then.” I say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After much consideration, we agreed to spend the night at Naia’s house. Her basement is underground so we won’t have any issues with the moon’s reflection. We all arrived an hour before sunset, when the moon is supposed to rise. Once we got there, we put all our things in the basement and ate a quick dinner. Then we headed back down.

It seems Miss Laguna was right, though. Our nerves of what could happen got the better of us and kept us up a lot longer than we thought. Around midnight, we were just starting movie three when Naia got up to use the bathroom.

“Just be careful.” I told her.

“I will, I promise. I won’t look anywhere but the floor.”

5 minutes after she left, we started getting concerned. 10 minutes later though, we were freaking out.

“Maybe she needed something from her room?” I say. Isla doesn’t look convinced though.

“Even so, it wouldn’t take her this long. Something must have happened. We need to find out what. C’mon, we’re going up.” She pulls me up from the floor and I follow her up the stairs. “Remember to avert your eyes. Just look at the floor.”

We enter the kitchen from the basement. “Naia! Where are you? Isla and I are getting worried,” I yell. But I get no response back.

“Oh crud! The back door is open.” Isla calls. I rush over to her and sure enough, the door to Naia’s backyard, and the canals, is wide open.

“She must have looked at the moon somehow and left,” she says.

“Miss Laguna said that on her first full moon night, when she blacked out, she woke up in the sea cave at Mariana Island. Maybe Naia is trying to make her way there,” I say.

Isla quickly closes the back door then turns to me. “Ok, but how do we get there? We can’t touch water or look at the…” she trails off.

“Well, yes I know that. Maybe we can call Aspen? But it’s the dead of night so he’ll most likely be too tired to steer a boat three and a half miles to Mariana. There’s got to be a better way.” I stop when I notice Isla focusing on something behind me. “Are you even paying attention to me? We need to focus. What is more important than helping Naia?” I turn around to see what has captured Isla’s attention.

As soon as I do, I realize what Isla’s ignorance meant too late. The sliding glass doors give a perfect view of the night sky, and the full moon in it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

The thing that wakes me up from my deep sleep is the pounding headache and the familiar smell of the sea. When I open my eyes, it takes me a minute to get my bearings, but when I do, I realise that I’m in the sea cave.

What in the world? Why am I here? I look to my right and both Sereia and Isla are passed out in the sand. There are marks in the sand coming from the pool that makes it seem like the three of them were dragged from it.

I scoot over to Isla and Sereia and shake them awake.

“What? What’s going on?” Isla sits up groggily and looks at me, then takes in her surroundings. Her eyes widened. “Oh, please don’t tell me…”

“I honestly have no idea what happened. Do you?”

“Yeah. You went up to use the bathroom and never came back, so Sereia and I went to look for you. I found the back door open, and then… well, I actually can’t remember the rest.” We hear a groan from near us and see Sereia slowly lift herself up from the sand.

“My head is killing me.” She pauses when she looks around at us. “Why are we at the sea cave?”

Isla flops back into the sand and covers her face with her hands. “It seems our plan to hide in the basement didn’t work.”

Footsteps sound behind us. We all whip around to the walking entrance to the cave just as Aspen peaks his head around the corner.

“Woah what happened to you?” Isla asks. His hair and clothes are completely disheveled and covered in sand.

“I think I could ask you guys the same question. After the total weirdness that you guys were exhibiting last night.”

“What are you talking about?” I say. He takes out his notepad and pencil and writes down something, while muttering “amnesia.” Then he finally looks up at us.

“Miss Laguna did warn that you wouldn’t remember.” Is all he says. He walks over to us and sits down by the edge of the pool.

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Isla asks.

“Yes, well, I woke up around midnight and decided to check your locations. When I did, at first it said the three of you were still at Naia’s, then it quickly changed to Naia’s location being here, and you two still at her house. So I snuck out and came here. When I finally got to the sea caves, you three were in the water, just looking up at the moon in the ceiling hole. You didn’t even seem to realize I was there. When the moon finally disappeared from the hole, you guys dragged yourselves out of the water and just passed out.”

“That’s… strange,” is all I can offer up.

“Yeah, I was freaking out but you didn’t do anything other than that, well, that I’m at least aware of. Nobody has posted on the internet that they saw three mermaids, so I’ll take this as a win.”

“Well, we better get back before our parents start to worry.” I say.

“Well, it's one in the afternoon so I think that ship has sailed.” Aspen says.

“ What?! ”

Chapter Text

Naia

“H ey mom, can we get icy-pops please?!” My little brother Ashton calls from up ahead.

“Fine! But get all of us one. And take Naia with you!” My mom calls back.

“Okay thank you!” Ashton sprints over to me and grabs my hand then drags me down the dock. We had just gotten back after a morning on the boat, which I spent covered in beach towels and eating chips. My brother was very disappointed that I didn’t want to play with him, but I was able to give an excuse about the mariana sharks (which I then got in trouble for since it scared Ashton out of the water for the rest of the time).

We eventually came back in since my dad got called into the hospital again (he’s an orthopedic surgeon). He is always working so the rare times he can hang out with us is always the best. My mom on the other hand is a news anchor, and a very successful one at that, so she’s also very busy. Despite being a news anchor, she is actually a very quiet person when she isn’t on screen.

“I want to get the chocolate one, what about you?” Ashton asked me.

“I think I’ll get the…” My train of thought stops when I look down the dock and see Miss Laguna talking to some old guy. Is that the harbormaster? It is. What are the two of them talking about? It looks pretty stressful.

I stop Ashton and pull out my wallet to give to him. “Here’s my wallet. Go buy the icy pops. Just get me whatever. I’ll be right back.

“Okay. What are you going to do?”

“Oh I just saw a friend I want to say hi to real quick. I won’t be long I promise.” With that I sprint off in the direction of Miss Laguna and Mr. Lynes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey Miss Laguna. Mr Lynes.. Is everything all right?” I say. Mr Lynes looks at me with relief spelt all over his face, but all I focus on is the annoyance Miss Laguna has

“Oh Naia! Everything is just fine. Mr. Lynes and I are just having a disagreement.”

“Miss White, can you please tell Miss Laguna that her houseboat is not suitable for the open ocean?”

“What exactly is going on?” I ask.

Mr. Lynes sighs before looking me in the eyes. “I saw Miss Laguna trying to leave the harbor on her boat. I have been trying to tell her that houseboats are not meant for the sea and the worst will most definitely happen.”

I turn to Miss Laguna. “He’s right. It’s too dangerous for you and Amphitrite.”

Miss Laguna smiles at me and gently places her hand on my shoulder. “I know you mean well Naia, it’s just that it has been so long since I’ve gone on the water with her. I wish to just go with her one more time.”

“Miss Laguna, please don’t do this. I know you’ve been out on the ocean with her before but it’s just too dangerous. It’s been years since the last time you took her anywhere.” I plead. 

Miss Laguna sighs before giving me a small smile. “Alright dear, if you insist.” I let out a sigh of relief, before turning to head back to my family waiting for me with some delicious icy-pops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day at school, we are all gathered by my locker to wait for the bell to ring to end the school day.

“How did Mrs. Peters get a teaching degree? I swear chemistry is the hardest subject ever, not to mention our teacher has to HATE kids.” Sereia says.

“I know! And she just gave us another test! That should be illegal. I’d rather jump off the roof than predict one more chemical reaction,” Isla adds. Isla and Sereia both have chemistry together, and had just gotten back from taking another of Mrs. Peter's infamous tests that almost nobody passes.

“I for one think chemistry is very easy. I’d be happy to tutor you if you need help, Sereia.” Aspen says, to which Sereia blushes a little bit.

“Thanks Aspen, that's really sweet of you.” Aspen blushes and scratches the back of his neck.

Isla leans in to whisper in my ear, “Notice how he didn’t offer me any tutoring sessions.” We both laugh at that. Those two are so sweetly, yet infuriatingly, crushing on each other. It was cute when we were little but it's been going on for some time now which has been slowly driving Isla and I insane. Any attempt to get them together has been futile.

I feel my phone ring in my bag. I unzip the big pocket and dig it out. No Caller ID . Whoever was calling wasn’t anyone in my contacts. Still, I pick it up.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Naia White?”

“It is. Who is this?”

“This is Mr. Lynes down at the Queensland Marina. Your mother gave me your number and told me to call you at this time.”

“Oh, Mr. Lynes. Is everything all right?” The others had fallen silent when I picked up the phone, but now the mention of Mr. Lynes has them all curious to know more. I shuffle my books around that I’m holding and put my phone on speaker phone.

“I’m calling about Miss Laguna. I’m sure you remember our conversation the other day about her houseboat.” Dread fills my stomach when he says that. Shit! “Yeah so I walked out by her boat this morning and it wasn’t there. She doesn’t have any family that I know of but you and your friends seem very close with her so I just thought I’d let you know about the situation.”

“Do you know where she might have gone?” Isla asks.

“Some fishermen said she looked to be headed towards Mariana.”

“Alright, thank you Mr. Lynes.” I hang up the phone and look up at the others. “What do we do?”

“We need to find her ASAP. I bet those fishermen are right when they said she is probably going to Mariana.” Aspen says.

I nod my head in agreement. “Okay here's the plan. After school lets out, we all need to hurry down to the marina and get to Aspen’s boat.” I then meet Aspen’s eyes. “Aspen you get in your boat to start looking for Miss Laguna’s boat, while the three of us get in the water and look around there. Maybe Darya has seen her. She seems to know everything that goes on around the water.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Sereia says. Isla and Aspen nod their heads in agreement.

When the bell rings, I turn to run out the courtyard but instead I end up running into someone.

“Oh, hey Naia. Sorry about that.” I look up and see Biron. Gosh his chest was so strong. I wonder if he’s been working out. He must be since he surfs so much.  

“H-hi Biron.” I say. He smirks at me and his beautiful sun kissed blonde curls fall in front of his cute face, making me blush even more than I already am.

Behind me, Isla clears her throat. “Um, Naia, aren’t we in a rush to go somewhere?”

“We are?” I stupidly say. As I say that, I realize that I’m smiling up at Biron rather dumbly. Quickly, I fix my face. “Oh yes, right, we are. Sorry Biron.”

“Oh It’s alright Naia. I just wanted to ask you a question really quickly?” He gives me the cutest puppy dog eyes when he asks. Has his eyes always been such a pretty sky blue?

“Sure! Anything.”

“Great! Well I was wondering if you would be able to be my trainer for the upcoming swim meet? I really want to win this thing.” As soon as he says the word ‘swim,’ my heart instantly drops. I would literally give up anything to be able to spend a day with Biron in nothing but a swimsuit (absolute eye candy!), but my secret is not something I could give up.

“I'm so sorry Biron, I wish I could, really, but I just am um… too busy with work and school to be able to help you in time for the meet.”

“Oh, alright, I understand. Well, I hope you can at least come to the meet to see me swim. Bye guys!”

“Oh I’ll be there, watching only you!” I call back then immediately I realize how weird that sounded.

“Naia we really need to work on your boy talk.” Isla says as she pats my shoulder. “And Sereia too.”

“What?!” Sereia shrieks. Her face blows up red and she quickly looks away from Aspen, who is just as equally embarrassed.

I gasp at her. “You as well! But we’re losing focus on what's important. Now let's go!” I race out of the entrance and over to our bikes, the others closely follow me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After biking for almost 10 minutes, we finally make our way to the marina. There, we lock our bikes and run over to slot 113 where Aspen keeps his boston whaler 150, nicknamed the ‘Jolly Roger’ for reasons unbeknownst to us.

“Ok, everyone remember the plan?” They all nod their heads. “Alright let's do this.”

Aspen jumps into his boat and turns it on. The familiar rumble of the engine sounds and he quickly zips out of his slot and heads toward the mouth of the marina.

“I hope nothing bad has happened,” Sereia says. She’s always been the one to worry the most out of the four of us, but I think I can be positive when I say we’re all equally worried for our friend.

I glance at our surroundings to make sure nobody is near to see us jump in, since I’m sure lots of people would be worried to see three teenage girls dive into the marina and not resurface.

We dive in and wait to transform. The wait is tricky since in the short 15 seconds we have until we transform, we can’t breathe underwater, and we slowly start to float up. Luckily, we’ve been doing this for awhile now and have picked up some tricks to the trade.

As soon as we transform, we dash out of the marina, keeping our eyes peeled for anything.

“Ok, I think the first thing we need to do is go see Darya. That gossip knows everything that goes on around here.” I say

“Good idea. Let's go,” Isla says. We pick up our pace, using our “aqua boost” as Isla so proudly named it; we use this to swim faster than usual, and even helps us with our races against Atlan and Triton.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We finally make it to the giant clam that Tao and Darya are always by. Very quickly, we spot–or more accurately, hear– Darya talking off Tao’s ears ( do hermit crabs have ears? ).

“Darya! Has anyone seen a white boat anywhere?” I ask.

“Well of course we have! White boats are everywhere you know.”

“What about one that looks very old and has a bunch of plants hanging all around it.”

“Hmmmm. Yes I think I did hear of a boat with plants everywhere. I think they said the boat was headed towards Mariana. Was that helpful? Hmmmm?”

“Yes, very helpful Darya, thank you!” I say. With that, we take off in the direction of Mariana.

It doesn’t take long for us to spot the boat. Mainly because it was sinking.

The propeller wasn’t caught on anything and the bottom was way too far down for the boat to have hit a rock. It must have given out from all the waves and chaos from the ocean.

“It’s barely started sinking. Come on, we still have time to get Miss Laguna!” The three of us swim up to the boat and surface. Miss Laguna was standing on the bow of the boat on a chair to avoid the water.. 

“Miss Laguna!” I call. Her head whips up from her task and relief looks to spread over her.

“Girls! Thank goodness you all are here. I do hope you brought a boat with you, seeing as my old self won’t be able to swim to shore very easily.”

“Aspen came looking for you with us. I’ll go out and find him,” Sereia says. She dives back into the water and swims away. Isla and I turn back to Miss Laguna.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” I ask.

“This old girl won’t sink anytime soon. There is something I need to get inside. Something very important to me.” She says.

“It’s too dangerous to go inside! You can’t, please!” Isla yells. She swims over to the edge of the boat and props herself up. “Please, Miss Laguna. Don’t do it.” She looks over her shoulder at something in the distance. I turn around to see what she is looking at and realize it’s Aspen’s boat speeding over here, Sereia right next to it. “Aspen will help you off the boat and back to the mainland. We can always come back and get whatever it is you want, but you need to get off the boat. I promise.”

Miss Laguna hesitates as Aspen pulls up his boat along Amphitrite. He reaches out his hand towards her to help her. She looks at us again before finally sighing and taking his hand.

“You girls better keep your promise. What I want is something that can not fall into the wrong hands.”

“We promise.” I say. And with that, Aspen speeds away on his boat, with us following close behind. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla

The next day after our very heroic rescue, I’m half asleep in my bed when Naia and Sereia let themselves into my house with an announcement. 

“I am going to dye my hair!” Naia announces from my kitchen.

Now I’m wide awake. I jump out of bed and slide into the kitchen. “WHAT?!”

“I have been debating this for a while now and after much consideration I have decided to do it.” Naia then produces the box of hair dye and places it on the counter. I grab the box and look at the color.

“‘Carnation Pink.’ You’re dying your hair pink? Are you serious?” I ask her. Naia has naturally very blonde hair, like I’m talking Elsa blonde (hense her text name; which is also completely coincidental that they both can freeze things). She gets that from her mom, whom she looks almost identical to.

She has refused to do almost anything to her hair for years, just keeping it straight as usual. I look over at Sereia. “And you agree with her on this?”

“Well it’s her hair so it doesn’t really matter what I think. I’m just being supportive.” Sereia is too nice for her own good.

“Besides, it’s a light pink color. Not like I'm dying it ‘Indian Sunrise’ and make myself look like a red herring.” Naia picks up the box of hair dye and heads to my bathroom. “Come on guys. Let’s do this!”

In the bathroom, I grab the box from her. “Ok so we need to put on gloves to mix the dye, let it sit for 30 minutes, and rinse. Should be a breeze.” Sereia comes back from my room with my desk chair.

“I feel like I’m at a salon.” Naia says. “I can’t wait to see the results!”

“Good morning girls!” My dad says as he peaks in from the doorway.

“Morning Mr. Foster!” They both say.

“Morning dad!”

“What are you ladies up to so early in the morning?” He asks.

“Naia’s dying her hair pink.” I tell him.

“Pink? Really? Wow. Well I just wanted to say I’m heading off to the store. Do you girls need anything?” he asks. I love my dad. He’s always been so happy that I have the girls and Aspen. I had a lot of trouble making friends in my short time living in America, so when I came back from school my first day and announced I had made two friends, my dad took us for ice cream because he was so happy.

“Could you get us some of those sparkling water drinks you guys always have? The mango ones please?” Naia asks.

“Sure thing! Have fun girls!” My dad calls as he walks away and out the door. 

“Alright, let’s do this!” I say.

“Hey, maybe you both should dye a piece of your hair too!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m so sorry about the tail Naia. I completely forgot this includes water too.” Sereia says for about the fifth time. To be fair to her, none of us realized we would have to use water. Luckily the both of us could take precautions, but Naia still had to suffer the consequences.

“Seriously, it’s fine Sereia. You don’t need to keep apologizing. This was my idea.” Naia says. She is currently laying in the bathtub, her tail hanging out of the side of the tub and getting in the way of us helping her.

She transformed right after we put the dye in so we had to find a way to get her heavy self off the bathroom ground and into the tub. It took much struggle, but we eventually got her in. We also remembered to lock the door so my dad wouldn’t walk in.

“Just finish washing the extra dye out.” I say to her. The fact that the tail weighs about 75 pounds (yes, we weighed them) makes me feel bad for Naia when she has to get out of the tub.

“Alright well I think it’s all out.” Naia announces.

“Finally!” I rip off my stained gloves and shove them in the wastebasket.

“Aren’t you two going to help me out?”

“Uh hello? We can’t get wet. Sorry but you're on your own,” I tell her. Naia groans then plants her hands on the edge of the bath.

“Ok one… two… three!” With that she quickly hoists herself up and not so gracefully falls to the ground.

“This bathroom is too small for all of us.” Sereia says as we both have to quickly step out of the way to avoid Naia’s wet tail.

“I’ll just dry you off real quick then we can see the final results.” I crouch down beside Naia and hold my hand above her tail. I latch on to the tug feeling and push it out through my hands, drying the tail. After about five seconds the moon bubbles appear (yes, I named them), and Naia’s legs follow right after.

“Alright, you’re all good to g-” I freeze as I look at Naia’s very blond hair. I look over at Sereia who is equally puzzled.

“What? What is it? Is it really that bad?” Naia stands up to look at herself in the mirror. “What in the world?! Where did the pink go? There is no way I rinsed out every bit of the dye!”

“Maybe your transformation has something to do with it.” I say. There can’t be any other reason as to why her hair is back to normal.

“Ugh! That’s so annoying.” Naia says. “Maybe Miss Laguna would know?”

“I doubt it but we can ask her when we meet up to talk about that thing she wanted so badly on her boat.” Sereia says.

“We should probably head over now so we have time to search the wreck.” Naia says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even though Miss Laguna’s houseboat had sunk, she still had a place to stay. She apparently owned a little beach house right on Cairns' northern beach. This fact saved us all a lot of time worrying about where Miss Laguna would stay. She told us she usually stayed on her houseboat and visited her house on occasion. But now her house is her permanent residence.

We had promised her yesterday that we would meet up with her at the Juice Oasis at noon to discuss what it is she wants us to get from the wreckage of Amphitrite.

After picking up Aspen, we biked over to the Juice Oasis. When we got there, we found her sitting at a table on the outside patio. She smiled warmly when she saw us.

“Girls! So nice to see your lovely faces. And you as well Aspen.” She waited for us to take a seat before picking up the conversation. “Now the item I want you all to get from the wreck is a very valuable and crucial thing. In the lower deck of the boat there is a safe with some small items inside. One of the items is a small, circular gold locket. But the picture inside is what is most important.” she lowers her voice so only we hear what she says next. “It is a photo of my friends and I when we were young. And it’s not just any picture, it is one of us as mermaids. So you can see why I was so hesitant to leave my boat.”

“The code to the safe is 041680. The day we first became mermaids.” Wow, she is really old.

“That shouldn’t be too bad.” I say. I look at the others and they all nod. “We can head out right now and get it for you.” We start to stand up when Miss Laguna grabs Sereia’s arm. “Please be careful with my treasure girls.”

“Don’t worry Miss L, your treasure will be returned to you shortly from the ocean floor.” And with that, we walk out of the Juice Oasis. Right as I’m rounding the corner, however, an arm is stretched out in front of me, blocking our way.

“What is this about a treasure I’m hearing?” Dylan asks. Damn it! How is Dylan always overhearing us?! I’m going to blame Aspen.

“Leave us alone Dylan. Shouldn’t you be wasting your dad’s money somewhere?” I shove him out of the way and stalk past him and Egan.

Dylan doesn’t take the hint and steps in front of me again. “Yeah, well finding a treasure on that old lady’s ship sounds way more fun.”

“Don’t even think about it.” I tell him. All he does is grin at me and jog off.

“I’ll race you there, Isla!” He calls back to me. Him and Egan race off in the direction of the marina.

“Great! how are we supposed to get the locket now?” I ask.

“Well not all three of you should go now. I’m thinking only one of you so that there's a less likely chance of being spotted.” Aspen says

“Okay. I think I should go. I’m the fastest out of the three of us.” Naia says.

Aspen nods his head. “I agree. It’s the best chance we have. You’ll need to leave right now though. Good luck.” With that, Naia races off to find a place to dive in the water.

I call after her, “We’ll meet you at Miss Laguna’s house!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

“We’ll meet you at Miss Laguna’s house!”

I run off down the canals to find a place to dive in. Eventually I found a little dock. There were some boats docked along it, providing me with some coverage. I looked around, triple checking to make sure nobody would see me.

Quickly, I dived into the water and started to swim, not waiting to transform. Only a couple seconds later the moon bubbles appear, bringing along my tail. With my tail, I can swim much faster than with my legs.

We made a list of rules for us once we became mermaids, and one of those was we couldn’t use the aqua boost in the canals except for absolute emergencies. We made this rule since, even though the canals are 7 meters deep, the aqua boost can still create little waves on the surface which could attract attention. 

Without the aqua boost, I have to make sure to just swim faster than the casual pace we usually keep. I make sure to keep to the bottom of the canals. The water is very murky so you can’t see the bottom, but I still don’t want to take any chances.

Once I finally get to the mouth of the canal, I finally use my aqua boost.

 The aqua boost isn’t anything hard to do. It’s like the equivalent to sprinting; it wears us out just the same, but we’ve been able to start doing it for longer. Regular swimming is sort of like walking; you could do it for a long time, but eventually you get kinda tired.

With the aqua boost, I make it to around the location of Amphitrite. I couldn’t remember exactly where it is, but I know it’s in the vicinity.

It takes a few minutes of swimming before I finally find it. Amphitrite is sitting at the bottom of the water atop some rocks. It looked to be pretty much intact, despite it tilting on its side.

I swim up to the entrance to the boat when I hear a propeller. I glance behind me and see a Red Inflatable Boat speeding towards me. That must be Dylan and Egan. I wonder how they got here so fast.

I turn back around to the task at hand. The door to the boat is already open, making it easier to swim in. All the furniture and items had slid around the room, some blocking my path. Luckily it isn’t too hard to move them around.

I finally make my way to the back of the boat. It wasn’t much, but there was a bed, small dresser, and a door that I assumed led to a bathroom. But I don’t see a safe anywhere. If I had more time I would look everywhere, but I don’t. Dylan probably has some sort of sonar thing that will help him search for something big underwater, and probably has scuba gear for him and Egan.

Fortunately, though my tail is very large, it’s almost impossibly flexible, allowing me to move around the small room. I open all of the dresser doors, look under the bed, and in the nightstand drawer, but I don’t see anything resembling a safe. The last place to look is the bathroom.

I have to maneuver myself in the small room so I can open the door. The bathroom is exactly how one would imagine a bathroom on a little houseboat to be. There wasn’t too much room to look, but I still yanked open the cabinet under the sink.

Finally I find what I’m looking for. In the back under the sink, behind all Miss Laguna’s stuff is a small metal box with a combination lock. Shit what was the combination?!

Okay umm, I remember her saying it was the day she was turned into a mermaid. I know she turned into a mermaid when she was 15, so that would have been in 1980, I think? And the first number was a 0, I remember that.

Tao mentioned once that we turned around the same time Miss Laguna and her friends did, so maybe their day was also in April. Yeah that sounds right.

But what was the date? Shit! I can’t remember. Maybe there’s something here that has a clue to the date.

Quickly, I turn around in the cabin to look out the window. The boat has finally stopped, but I don’t see any divers anywhere. I guess I’m good so far.

I remember finding a box of photos under the bed. I’m pretty sure old photos always had the date on the back of them.

I push myself over to the bed again and grab the box of photos I left floating around it. The box is filled with tons of photos, each featuring three young girls, who I assume to be Miss Laguna and her friends. I toss the photos around me, quickly looking through them. Nothing!

“Ugh! I’m so screwed.” I turn around in the room to try and see anything else that could help. My search yet again leads to nothing.

Something catches my eye though, a photo I missed. Floating around the dresser is a picture frame of three girls. I grab the frame and look at the photo inside it. Nope. Just another picture, in this one though they look to be at least in their 20s.

Just as I’m about to set down the picture, I feel something in the back. The back of the photo feels very uneven. Without even thinking, I rip the back off. When I do, a smaller photo sits in the back of it. 

When I flip over the photo, I gasp. It’s of three girls–no, three mermaids– posing next to each other on the stomachs in a sea cave. Our sea cave. On top of the photo is written “First day of Mermaid Confidential.” Eureka!

On the back of the page is printed the date “16, April 1980.” Let’s freaking go! 

I quickly grab the safe and spin the combination lock to the right numbers. With a click, the safe door opens and inside, among other items, is a small, circular gold locket.

I snatch the locket out of the safe and swim back up to the window to check on the guys again. However, when I look out, I see two divers swimming towards the wreck. Damn it! I was too slow.

I need to get them away from me. Maybe if their scuba gear started acting up… I stretch out my hand and focus on the water power (named by Isla). I focus on the ground below them. I make sure to cool the water and not freeze it, which stirs up the sand and creates one big cloud for me to use as my escape.

I wait a couple seconds and eventually, Egan swims up to the boat and gets out of the water, but Dylan doesn’t emerge. I can’t wait for him, the cloud will start to dissipate soon, and so will my chances of escaping unseen.

I turn around in the room and swim out the door. I use my aqua boost to speed out of the sand cloud and to hide behind some coral. But my stomach plummets when I turn around.

Dylan has emerged at the top of the sand cloud, his entire face and body turned right at me, frozen, seemingly in shock. How can he see me if I’m hiding behind all this coral? But when I glance over to my left, I see what he must see.

The end of my tail sticks out from behind the coral, completely visible to Dylan. When I look back over at him, the situation goes from bad to worse.

He has pulled out a camera and looks to take a picture of my tail. I quickly move so that I’m more hidden, but it’s too late. He’s already swimming quickly back up to the surface.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

“He saw you?!” Isla asks wide eyed. I finally got back from the wreckage and swam all the way to Miss Laguna’s house. 

“Yeah. And I’m pretty sure he got a picture of my tail also.” I groan. This couldn’t have possibly gone any worse. 

“Well let’s just hope he didn’t see your face.” Aspen says.

“I don’t believe he could have. The water is far too murky and dark for regular people to see something that clearly.” Miss Laguna says. She walked out from her back door onto the patio carrying a tray of lemonades for us. “Don’t feel too bad Naia, with a secret like this one, it was bound to happen that another person would catch on to your world. Something similar happened to me.”

“Wait, what? Really?” I ask.

Miss Laguna nods. “When I was only about 20, I went swimming alone through the canals. Afterwards, I was climbing out behind some boats to dry off when I heard a camera sound behind me. It turns out it was Mitch Arevo.”

“Wait, isn't ‘Arevo’ Cynthia’s last name?” Sereia asks. 

“Yes. At the time they were only dating, but he didn’t know about our secret. Us girls always assumed he suspected something was… different about us, but we never could have imagined something like this would happen.”

“Well what happened?” I ask.

“I dove back into the water and hid at the sea cave out of shame. Cynthia and Loreli found me and I told them what happened. Well, Cynthia was absolutely furious and went to go confront him. We found him fishing at the docks. When she approached him, he didn’t seem all too surprised. She argued with him that what he saw was just a misunderstanding, but he knew too much already, so she broke it off with him out of fear of what he might do with the photograph.”

“And what did he do? Did he tell anyone?” Aspen inquires.

“No, he kept his word and never told a soul. Eventually, he and Cynthia got back together and later on got married. I never did find out what happened to the photograph, but I assume Cynthia had it destroyed.”

“Well that’s a nice story, but if I’m being honest Miss L, Dylan is not like Mitch. He will tell people the second he gets the chance. He’s probably blabbing about it right now!” Isla says as she slumps back in her chair. Her phone dings on the table, and when she unlocks it, she goes wide eyed.

“Holy shit I just predicted the future,” she whispers. She places her phone on the table for us to see. It’s Dylan’s Instagram story.

The background is what I assume to be the photo he took of Naia, and it seems the camera he used was a lot better than we thought. You could very clearly see Naia’s bright blue tail, and a tuft of pink hair floating up from behind the coral. In big white letters it read, “Saw this sea creature by Mariana Island. Can anyone identify it? Reward to who can.”

“Oh, we are in deep shit now.” Isla says.

Chapter Text

Naia

“O h my gosh did you see Atlan’s face when Tao said Naia won? It was hilarious! We seriously need to race the twins more often.” Last night we had promised the twins we would race them again this morning. It was a close end, but the onlookers all agreed I won.

“I don’t think Triton has ever been happier to realize he’s the only one to beat you, Naia,” Isla says.

“I wish I could’ve been there to see it.” Aspen says. He’s always been a little pouty when we talk about all of our mermaid adventures. Maybe he’ll just have to fall into the sea cave during a full moon sometime.

I laugh at that. “I know it’s-”

“Hey guys!” Biron calls from behind us.

“Hey Biron. How are you doing?” I ask him. 

He smiles at me. “Fantastic in fact. The weather is perfect this week and because of that I’m planning an amazing party for my birthday tomorrow. I’m inviting all my friends, so naturally I wanted to invite you guys.”

“Yes! I mean, uh, super. We’re free right?” I look at the others.

Sereia nods her head. “Sounds great, Biron.”

“Amazing! So listen, my uncle is lending me his yacht so bring your bathing suits. I’ll see you guys at the marina tomorrow.” He waves to us and walks away.

“Crap. I don’t think we’ll be able to go.” I say. Biron is such a great–not to mention cute–guy, and a very good friend of mine. Not being able to go because of our secret just makes me feel like a crappy friend.

“What are you talking about? Ofcourse we can! We just won’t get in the water.” Isla says.

Aspen frowns. “I don’t know about that Isla it could still rain. And everyone else will get in the water and be wet. It’s pretty risky.”

She rolls her eyes at that. “So was going to McKenna’s pool party.”

“And remember how that went?”

“Yeah but Biron is our friend, and since it’s his party, he won’t let Dylan or anyone else throw people into the water. We could just hang out on the boat.” I say.

“Alright fine, we’ll go. But just be very careful. We can’t have another pool party incident. This time, there will be nothing to hide a tail.” He says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey guys! So glad you could make it,” Biron yells down from the top of the yacht.

“Damn what does his uncle do for a living? This yacht is pretty damn big” Isla says next to me. The yacht has three levels and looks like it cost his uncle’s first born child. There are a bunch of other people on board, most from our grade and the rest I assumed to be Biron’s surfing teammates. 

We jump onto the lower deck of the yacht and Biron rushes down to greet us. I give him a hug. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. And happy birthday by the way!” I tell him

“Thanks. I’m super excited. I’ve planned a ton of cool things to do today. We’re gonna have a blast.” He starts up the stairs with us in tow.

“So, Isla, you just couldn’t resist my charm, is that really why you came?” Dylan says, leaning on the railing.

Isla walks past him. “Girls, did you hear something? No? Well me neither,”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re right Naia, this was a great idea.” Isla says stretched out on her towel. The amount of time Isla spends ‘tanning’ is astonishing despite the fact that she only gets burned.

“Hey Isla. You’re not going to spend all day backing in the sun are you? You’ll end up looking like a lobster.” Dylan steps in front of Isla, blocking her sun.

“Excuse me?” She raises an eyebrow at him. It only takes a second for Dylan to realize what he said.

“Oh, um, I just meant that, uh- how about you join me for a swim?”

“With you? Sure, why not. But you go in ahead of me, okay? Just swim straight out to sea for an hour then I’ll join you.” Dylan frowns at that and walks away.

We all laugh at his disappearing figure. “Don’t you think you're being a little rough on him?” I ask her.

“No way!”

“Listen up everybody. To start off my party I’ve decided first we should have a diving competition. There’s a diving board at the front of the boat my uncle installed just for this occasion. The winner will get to drive the boat around for an hour.” Biron turns to look at me. “Naia, I’m counting on you to blow us away.”

“Uh oh. I can’t dive in!” I turn my head and look at the others, who both shake their heads.

Up ahead of us, McKenna jumps off the diving board, doing two flips before diving into the water below. Everyone else cheers for her.

“That was awesome, McKenna. You’re such a great diver.” Biron yells from the water.

McKenna emerges from the ladder on the side of the boat. “What can I say? It’s my natural grace. I’m perfect. And what about the big swimmer? You’re not diving? A little scared of the competition I suppose.” She points her perfectly manicured nail at us and laughs.

Isla grabs my arm, pulling me onto my feet. “Come on, let’s go somewhere else.”

We walk to the lower deck in a lounge room. The seats are a smooth brown leather, and windows wrap around most of the room letting in the sunlight. We sit down around the small glass table.

Sereia leans forward. “Don’t let McKenna get under your skin.”

“She already has,” I whisper. It’s bad enough that I couldn’t dive in even if I wanted to, but she didn’t have to call me out for it.

“Honestly, she gets on my nerves. Always chasing after any boy, like Dylan and Biron. She seriously just needs to pick one of our guys to drool over and shut up.” Isla says next to me.

I raise an eyebrow at her. “One of our guys?” She’s obviously not talking about Biron, so she can only mean someone else.

Isla flushes when she realizes what she said. “Not a word.”

I look over at Sereia who is trying not to smile. “Could you repeat what you said, I didn’t quite hear it.”

Isla looks like she’s about to argue when we hear something. We turn our heads to the glass doors and see a little hermit crab walking towards us.

“Girrrrrllllsssssss! Finally, you can hear me. I need to tell you guys something.”

“What is it, Tao?” I ask. I walk over to him and pick him up, setting him gently down on the glass table.

“There’s a HUGE storm heading this way. Almost all of the bay has already left. I came to warn you.”

Isla looks at us equally confused. “What are you talking about? It’s perfect outside.”

Tao blinks his eyes at her. “Well unless you’ve been out in the past 10 minutes, then you wouldn’t know about the strong wind that has picked up and the quickly darkening skies.”

I crawl over the seat and stare out the window. Sure enough, dark clouds are starting to expand over the sky. With the way it looks, it won’t be long until it starts pouring.

“Shoot. We can’t go outside if it starts raining or we’ll for sure get seen,” I say. “We need to tell Biron to turn around the boat and head back into port.”

We stand up to go, but are thrown off balance when the boat launches forward.

“Looks like he already knows.” Sereia says. People start racing down the steps and very soon the lounge room is starting to crowd. I grab Tao and the four of us head up to the helm.

Biron, Aspen, and Dylan are all in there, arguing about something.

“I’m telling you we need to head to Mariana. The harbor is too far away. We’ll never make it in time.” Aspen sounds exasperated.

“No. We need to at least try.” Dylan argues back. Biron however has his head under his hands, like this has been a debate for longer than when we walked in.

Isla walks over and stands next to Aspen. “I agree with Aspen. Mariana is our best bet right now. We don’t have time to argue anyways.” She looks at Dylan when she says this. Dylan looks like he wants to argue back but instead sighs and nods his head.

“Fine, whatever.”

Before we know it, the rain outside is pouring. I hear thunder all around us, with the occasional lightning streaking across the clouds.

Biron stands up from his seat. “McKenna is still out there! I have to help her.” Before any of us get a chance to argue, he is already out the door.

I make out his figure through the rain, leaning over the side of the boat. 

“Do you see her?” Sereia asks. We’re all squinting out through the window trying to get a glance, but the rain is pouring too hard so we can no longer see them.

McKenna bursts through the door. “Biron fell over the edge!” My draw drops. “He helped me over, but then a huge wave washed him away. I tried to see him, but he must have gone under! I’m so sorry.”

“I’m going to help him.” Without waiting for a response, I shove past McKenna. I glance over the edge and confirm what McKenna said. He’s nowhere to be seen, and I’ve already wasted about 8 seconds just standing here looking. I climb over the edge and dive into the dark water.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It doesn’t even register to me at first that Biron could see my tail and everything else. But the secret be damned. As long as he survives I don’t care if he knows.

It doesn’t take another second for me to transform once I’m under the water. There’s nothing but ocean all around.

Except for the quickly retreating figure of a boy in green swim shorts sinking.

I swim as fast as I can to him. Once I’m close enough, I grab onto him. His eyes are closed and even though I’m holding him very harshly, he doesn’t stir. Shit. He must’ve somehow lost consciousness.

I need to get him to Mariana and out of the water quickly. He’s probably already inhaled so much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla

“This is all McKenna’s fault! She was probably too scared of breaking a fingernail!” Dylan growls out.

Aspen grabs Dylan’s arm. “We’ve got to go! The storm is only getting worse and it’s too dangerous.”

“And leave Biron? No way we’re staying.” Just then a huge way heads straight for us, the boat rising with it and all of us falling to the ground.

“We can’t stay here! It’s just not possible!” Sereia yells. I wrap her in a hug, hoping to stop her shaking, and mine.

“We’re getting Naia and Biron back on the boat!” Dylan yells at her.

“Much more of this and there won’t be a boat for them to get back on!” I yell back at him. “Naia is an amazing swimmer. She’s gone through all the lifeguard training. If anyone can get Biron and survive it’s her.”

“Not even a damn lifeguard can survive this! Hell, the coast guard is probably shaking in their boots.” He says. I let go of Sereia and grab his arm.

“Dylan please.” He finally looks me in the eye and hesitates a moment longer before turning over the engine.

The engine revs, but it doesn’t turn on. Dylan looks over his shoulder at me then turns the key again. And again. And again, until we hear a loud bang from behind us.

Aspen sighs from where he is standing next to Sereia, his arm around her shoulder comforting her. (I’ll have to tease her for that later if we survive this and also not get exposed). “Shit. The engine must’ve blown.” Aspen runs a hand through his hair. “I’ll have to go down and fix it.

“WHAT?!” Sereia shrieks.

Aspen grabs Dylan’s arm and drags him over to the door. He looks over at Sereia’s horrified expression. “We’ll only be a minute.” She quickly goes over to him and throws her arm around his neck. I swear I see him blush.

“Be careful,” she whispers to him.

He seems startled for a moment before hugging her back. “I promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We wait for what seems like hours before Dylan and Aspen run back in. Aspen freezes at the doorway, where Dylan slips on the water and they both fall down.

Aspen shoves Dylan off him and looks at us. “Okay, start her up, quick!” He yells at us. I reach over to the key and turn it. I can hear the engine humming and vibrating the boat. After a moment, the engine roars to life.

“Brilliant! You’re a genius Aspen.” Dylan gives him a high five.

I clear my throat at them. “I hate to interrupt your bromance, but, well, there’s still a storm out there.”

“Guys, I think we’re about to be in serious trouble,” Sereia says. She points at something out the window. It’s hard to see through all the rain, but it’s also hard to miss the giant wave heading our way.

Without any hesitation, Aspen speeds us as far away as he can.

I know next to nothing about boats, but I do know that boats shouldn’t be speeding over waves, especially not ones that look and feel like a tsunami and a hurricane had a baby that was raised by a typhoon (I’ve been told I tend to exaggerate at times).

The boat zips across the water as fast as the little propellers can move this huge thing. But it’s still not enough. Up ahead, I can make out Mariana.

“Go faster Aspen!”

“I can’t. I’m already at the max!”

“Hold on tight guys. Because we’re about to rock and roll!” Dylan yells.

I grab Sereia's arm. “You need to try to calm the wave,” I whisper scream at her.

“Look Isla, I’m glad you have faith in me, but I can’t control a wave that big! I can still only control a bucket of water!”

“Nuh uh, girl, I’ve seen you stop the damn rain once. Now get up and work your magic.” With that, I hall her to her feet.

Sereia looks behind her at the boys before raising her hands. After a moment, she squeezes her eyes shut.

Slowly, the wave starts to die down little by little. It’s still there when Sereia collapses to the ground, but it’s no longer big enough for it to do much harm to the boat.

“Oh, man, we made it!” Dylan says. Sure enough, Mariana is dead ahead. Once we get near it, the rain completely stops and the water calms down. “Lucky for you guys I was here to save the day.”

“Whaaat?” Aspen says confused.

I lead Sereia to a corner of the helm. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird that the storm stopped all of a sudden as soon as we reached Mariana?”

“Honestly? I know now that Mariana is a huge mystery. For all we know, the island is protecting us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

I see the yacht heading straight for the beach on Mariana. 

Next to me, Biron yells out, “We’re over here!”

“You see? I told you they would find us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually everyone had gotten out of the liferafts and checked to make sure it really was us and not our ghosts.

Dylan calps Biron on the back. “So spill it dude, how did you two make it?”

“It’s all thanks to Naia.” He smiles at me. “When I fell over, the boat smashed into my head and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was stretched out on the beach with Naia, who’d saved me.”

Isla gives us a concerned look. “Are you saying you don’t remember anything when you were under?”

“Like I said, I was out cold. Why?”

“Oh, uh, nothing at all.”

Chapter Text

Isla

“W ow. Check out those pearls. They're beautiful,” I say. The girls and I decided to take a trip around the shopping center. We had stopped at the severely overpriced touristy ice cream shop and then decided to wander around.

This whole area is targeted for tourists, with one shop even having a shirt that read “I survived the outback!” (we are most definitely not even close to the outback).

Before I became a mermaid, I did not really care much for pearls, thinking they were just something that old ladies buy. But maybe my transformation has something to do with my sudden interest in owning something with pearls on it. (Honestly, I could just go find an oyster and bribe them for their pearls. Those guys are surprisingly very eager to make trades, and pretty darn good at it too).

“You know, there used to be some old belief that pearls were the tears of mermaids.” Sereia says next to me while examining the pearl. Looks like I’m not the only one with a sudden interest.

Naia walks up to the window and pears inside. “They’re just calcium carbonate.”

I roll my eyes at her. “You're always so poetic.”

“Let me explain,” she says. “When you put something in an oyster, like a grain of sand, the oyster protects itself by covering it with calcium carbonate, and the end result is a pearl.”

“It also takes a little magic,” an accented voice says next to us. I turn around and a man in a white suit with a maroon shirt steps out of the shop doors. His glossy brown hair pulled back in a half up style.

He walks over to us. “When I polish my pearls, I can make them more beautiful by whispering to them of the beautiful young ladies who’ll one day wear them.” He must be the owner then.

“I wish I could wear some, but they’re just so expensive,” Sereia whines.

The owner gives us a bright smile and waves his hand as if dismissing her statement. “Nonsense young lady, you like that necklace, yes? Then take these tickets.” He pulls out a handful of teal tickets from his suit's breast pocket. “You could win it at the raffle tonight.” He places the tickets in our hands then turns to head back into his shop.

I look over the tickets. “Says that the raffle is tonight on the beach.”

Naia grabs both our arms. “C’mon, let’s go enter our names.”

A flash of white-blonde tackles Naia from behind. Ashton whirls around her, carrying a neon blue remote control plane.

“Hey sis, whatcha doing?”

“Heading over to the raffle by the beach to enter our names for tonight. What are you doing with your plane?”

“Can I come? My plane is supposed to pull a banner for tonight’s celebration and I was going to the beach to test it.”

I reach over and ruffle his hair. “Alrighty, c’mon loser let’s go.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“-and then I’m going to finish it off with a big loop!” Ashton says in front of us.

We had all dropped off our tickets then walked down the small docks by the rocks to watch Ashton show off his routine.

Right next to us are the oyster farms with a huge fence and trees surrounding us. A faded red oyster fishing boat is docked right next to the farms.

When I look back over at Ashton’s place, it starts flying everywhere.

“Ashton, is something wrong?” Naia asks. We get up to walk over to the boy who looks to be having a fight with the remote.

“Oh, no, not again!” He races down the dock and along the shore line.

The plane then crashes into the fence, landing with a thud right along it.

The three of us look at each other, then run to where Ashton is surveying his crashed plane.

“It always does this! Every time I try to control it here, the plane goes all crazy!” He looks at us with pleading eyes. “Can you ask Aspen to fix it? He’s good at that kind of stuff, right?”

Naia lets out a small sigh. “Yeah I’ll ask, but no guarantees he can fix it.”

Ashton gives her a bear hug. “Thanks sis, you’re the best!” He hands her the plane then races off down the beach.

Naia turns to us. “We have to meet up with Aspen anyways at the Juice Oasis so I’ll just ask him there I guess.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had just sat down in the Juice Oasis when Sereia’s phone started to ring.

“Oh hang on guys, my dad's calling me.” Aspen slides in next to her with our drinks that he got while he was waiting for us.

Sereia nods her head and says goodbye to her dad and then faces us. 

“What’s wrong?” Aspen asks her.

“My dad said that the Coast Guard has been put on high alert because a jewel smuggler was arrested and the police think there’s more of them. He said the police don’t want to risk losing them so they've decided to double surveillance.” Sereia then slumps down in her seat and sips her Melon Mash smoothie.

“Oh wow, that doesn’t sound too good.” Naia says next to me.

“Maybe somebody in the water has heard or seen something? We could ask them.” Aspen says.

Sereia sits up quickly. “Oh, that’s a great idea. Let’s go!” She shoves Aspen out of his seat.

“Noo, I didn’t even get to try my smoothie!” I whine as she grabs for me next.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh girls! I’m so glad you're here. There’s an emergency. Triton has been kidnapped!” Tao screams at us.

“Ohh, I’m scared. I’m so scared. Maybe they’ll come and kidnap us too!” A striped puffer fish, Trike, says from behind a rock.

“Calm down Trike,” Tao says. “There’s no need to panic. Come on, girls, let’s go see what we can find out.”

Tao leads us in the direction of Atlan, who is swimming in circles around Avisa. Besides the fact that Triton has supposedly been kidnapped, the only way to tell the twins apart is because Atlan is a darker grey than Triton.

When he sees us, Atlan stops his circles and swims over to us. “Thank goodness you girls are here. It’s a disaster, I’m so worried! We were just having a race and when I got to the finish line, Triton wasn’t there which is weird because we’re usually neck to neck.”

“That's horrible Atlan, but what happened after?” Sereia asks him. She’s always been the best at emotions.

“Well I turned around and saw him caught in a net. And these fishermen were pulling him into a boat.”

“Did you see the boat? A description would be helpful,” Naia says to him.

“Yeah it was white fishing boat, with these reddish markings on the side like two shark fins.”

Next to me on the rock, Sereia speaks up again. “Hold on a second, can’t dolphins make certain noises to communicate with each other?”

“That’s what is freaking me out the most. Triton called once and then nothing. Since then, there’s been no contact with him at all. Maybe he’s just two far away to hear me.”

“Well we’re not going to give up until we find him,” Naia says. “What we need to do is come up with a plan to find him.” She looks at us to wait for our agreement before continuing. “The three of us will get Aspen’s help. You guys need to find any clue you can, no matter how little, and warn everyone in case the boar comes back. Tao I’m trusting you to take charge. Can you do it?”

“You can count on me! And if anything comes up, Darya and I will come try to find you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And that’s what has happened so far. Aspen, you absolutely have to help us.” Naia had just finished getting Aspen up to date on the kidnapping and our plan. We had found him doing research in his garage, and immediately started spouting off our plan before he even knew we were there. 

He dropped a wrench on his foot and yelled like a girl. It was hilarious.

“Easier said than done. Triton could have been captured by anybody; A water park, scientists, animal traffickers. My point is he could be anywhere right now. And if the police can’t find him, I don’t see what I can do.” He reaches over to grab something out of his tool box.

I grab whatever he took and hold it away from him. “Yeah well you can’t hide a dolphin in a bathtub. Whoever took him has to know what they’re doing. Aaaaand, we also have resources the police don’t.”

He glances over at Sereia and quickly looks away after seeing her puppy dog eyes. Seriously, how does this girl not realize the effect she has on him?!

“Well, I’ll have to do a lot of research. And you guys figure anything else out, but be careful. This is seriously not like anything we’ve done before. It’ll be dangerous.”

“Oh really Aspen? I assumed the boy scouts took him.” I roll my eyes at him. 

“Sereia, are you heading down to the Oceanic Center today?” Naia asks. 

“Yeah, why?”

“Ask Dr. Eltha if he’s heard anything about animal trafficking. Isla, you head down to the harbor and ask around about the boat. Aspen will do research, and I’m going to help the search underwater.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

“Hey Atlan, how are you doing?” I ask. When I swam down to the reefs, he’s still frantically swimming all over the place.

After a hot minute, he looks over at me. “Oh, hey Naia. Did you say something?” The poor guy must be worried out of his mind. I’ve only known the dolphins for a little over two months, but I do know that they’re inseparable.

“I have an idea, follow me.” At first it seemed like he wasn’t going to, but I guess he knew just like I do that right now worrying isn’t going to help us find Triton any faster.

Swimming next to me, Atlan finally speaks up. “Where are we going?”

“There’s someone who knows all the secrets of the bay and who sees everything that happens. Avisa.”

We finally find Avisa swimming with a bunch of minnows. “Avisa!” I call. She does a circle in the water and swims over to us. “We were wondering if you knew where Triton was?”

“Sometimes I misplace things, and end up looking far away, but in reality, it is a lot closer to me than I thought.”

What . “What are you talking about?” I say exasperatedly. “Can you please just tell us if you know or not?”

“If you are incapable of understanding the question, then you shouldn’t have asked.” And with that, she swims off again, the minnows tailing her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sereia

I walk back over to the Oceanic Center entrance. I have been working here ever since I was 15, but I was only allowed to feed the animals and clean, but this year since I’m now getting paid and have a ton of experience and knowledge, I get to lead tours and have more access to places.

“Hey Oran.” I greet the security guard at the entrance. He nods back at me and steps to the side so I can head into the staff building to clock out for the day. At 5'6, I easily surpass his height of 5'3.

As I walk into the feeding room, Dr. Eltha walks out of the main room.

“Oh, Dr. Eltha! I was looking for you to ask a question.”

“Sure, Sereia, what can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to know if marine parks are allowed to capture dolphins in the wild.”

“Oh, absolutely not. It’s illegal in Australia. Parks can only use dolphins raised in captivity, seeing as their a protected species. If needed, they buy them from other parks.” Ok, so mark marine parks off the list of who could’ve kidnapped a dolphin.

“And speaking of dolphins, would you help me finish putting away the medicine before you clock out for the day?”

“Sure! No problem.” I follow him down the hallway into the huge storage room and over to the heaps of neon orange (dolphin medicine), neon green (seal medicine), and hot pink (shark medicine) boxes sitting on the floor.

“We just need to put one of each color in the medical room and the rest will be stacked in here.” I grab a pink box while Dr. Eltha grabs the other two. We walk again further down the hallway and to a room labeled ‘Medic.’ 

Instead of opening the door though, Dr. Eltha stops in front of it, looking at the door handle. The broken door handle. Did someone break in?!

“Sereia, put the box down and go get Mr. Adair, and do not come back in. Just go ahead home.” Without hesitation I do as I’m told and race down the hallway.

I fling open the door and turn to Oran, quickly explaining the situation. He nods curtly and then runs down the hallway. Except it’s more of a running wobble since he’s on the bigger side.

I lean against the wall and wait, but out of the corner of my eye, I see two guys, one of them carrying a bright orange box and slipping out of the side gate. That box has all the dolphin’s medicine in it! But why would these guys want dolphin medicine?

Triton. They must have taken Triton. But why? Doesn’t matter, I need to know where they’re going. Oh I wish Isla was here, she’s the brave one out of us, but I can’t chicken out now.

I sprint down the path and swing open the side gate. Multiple cars are parked, but one catches my eye. A white truck with a maroon ‘M’ on the side. That must be the symbol Atlan was talking about!

I creep around to the car next to it and wait for the two men to get in. Just as they’re about to pull away, I jump into the truck bed and hide under the tarp covering it. The car lurches forward, driving out of the parking lot and to who knows where.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naia

I finished my help with the search underwater, but we weren’t able to come up with much besides that a grouper swears he saw the boat heading back to the mainland, so hopefully that means Triton is still near somewhere.

The others are still doing their part so I headed back to Aspen’s. There, he is just wrapping up his research.

“Ok I found an interesting fact. Did you know that the army uses trained dolphins to patrol military ports? They’re apparently able to detect a presence or underwater object and alert the port.”

“So you think Triton was captured by the Australian army?”

“No, I looked on their website and it says they only use dolphins raised in captivity. They believe wild ones are too difficult to train. But that’s not what is the interesting part.” He turns his computer around to show me the screen. It’s the Australian army’s website.

“It explains in this paragraph that dolphins can be remote controlled from a distance with a special kind of radio control unit that allows them to guide the dolphins movement and direction.”

“That sounds like torture for the poor dolphin. Why would anyone do that?”

“Well they don’t do that anymore, it was used back when they thought it was humane. But now it’s illegal to even make the equipment. They just rely on dolphin training now.”

My phone rings in my pocket. When I grab it, Ashton’s face lights up my screen. I press the green button and put it on speaker phone.

“Hey Ashton, what’s up?”

“Has Aspen figured out what is wrong with my plane yet? I need it for tonight.” I look over at Aspen who smiles.

“Sure do buddy, there was an issue with another radio signal in the area that was taking over your signal. The plane was just following the strongest signal.”

“But there’s no one else where I’m flying, just that old oyster farm.”

“Don’t worry about it. I fixed the remote so it has a stronger signal.”

“Thanks Aspen! I finally finished fixing my plane.” Ashton yells over the phone.

“You better not have used my nail polish to cover up the scratches again.” I say.

“Uh I have to go. Bye sis! Bye Aspen!” And then he hangs up the phone.

“Thanks for helping Aspen, it’s really sweet of you. I’m sure Sereia would agree.” Despite my jab at his forever long crush, he looks to be completely zoned out. I shake his shoulder. “What is going on in your weird brain now?”

“I’m thinking about the mysterious signal taking over your brother’s plane. What else would be strong enough to have that sort of signal except for illegal ex-military equipment. The equipment that, even though it can no longer be made legally, could still be bought somewhere.”

“Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?” I say. Behind me, the door to the garage opens and a mess of red curls and jean short steps out.

Isla takes another swig of her can of Coca Cola and drops the empty can in the trash. “Thanks for the coke, Mrs. Turner!”

Aspen rolls his eyes at the sight. “Can you please stop coming over here and stealing all of our cans of soda?”

“Yeah but your mom basically expects me to get some when I’m here. It’s like a right of passage now.” She plops down in the small bean bag chair in the corner. “So anything interesting happen? And where’s Sereia? Her shift ended almost two hours ago. She should be here.”

“I’ll check.” I say. I open my phone and check her shared location. “Ummm, it says she’s at the oyster farms.” That’s weird. Why would she be there?

“Wait what? What’s she doing there? That’s so random.” Isla says.

“I don’t care why she’s there. She’s most likely in trouble, so we need to go help her.” Aspen stands from his chair and marches to his car.

Isla whispers in my ear, “who does he think he is? Sereia’s knight in shining armor?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sereia

It was only about 10 minutes when the road switched to gravel and eventually stopped. I heard a car door open and the squeak of rusty metal. The door slammed shut and the car moved forward again, but this time not in a rush. We must be here, wherever here is.

The two driver doors open and slam close, and the sound of footsteps walk towards the trunk. I maneuver my way into the very back behind a bunch of bags.

The truck bed door opens and a man reaches in and grabs the orange box.

“He still won’t eat. He doesn’t look very well.” a familiar accented voice says.

“He’ll be doing a lot better once we give him this.” a gruff voice answers back.

“Yes, but we’ll have to double the dose. Our business is too profitable to abandon. And Julian was already caught, so we can’t be as well.” Doubling the dose might just make Triton even worse if he really is sick. “But first, come look at these pearls I’ve received.” I wait a moment longer until I hear a door slam shut.

I lift up the cover and check around me before climbing out. When I turn around and fix the cover, the words on the bags catch my eyes.

‘Mammon’s Fine Jewelry’ it reads. That name sounds so familiar. 

It doesn’t take me long to realize why though, because a box had tipped over during the ride, and a bunch of teal tickets had spilled out. On them they read, ‘Enter your name for a chance to win a pearl necklace from Mammon’s Fine Jewelry!’

The store owner! He must be a jewelry smuggler. And that Julian guy he mentioned is the guy the police caught.

I run around the corner of the building to get a sense of where I am. I quickly recognize the stone walls in the water. This is the old oyster farms. Docked next to a wall is a white fishing boat with a maroon ‘M.’

“That must be the boat they used to kidnap Triton. And that ‘M’ must be the shark fins Atlan was talking about.” I scan the rest of the farm, and a light grey dolphin catches my eye. I hop from wall to wall to get to him.

“Triton! Oh thank goodness you’re not hurt! Everybody is worried sick looking for you.” Triton’s eyes meet mine.

“Sereia? You found me! Help me out of this gear- Look out!” He shouts. I turn around to my right and see a man with a scraggly grey beard walk out of the shack. That’s the guy who was holding the box at the oceanic center.

“Hey, who are you? You can’t be out here!” He starts to run towards me.

Without even thinking, I dive into the water.

After the 15 seconds, I transform and peak my head above water. The man had disappeared, so I swim over to where Triton is. I undo the harness around him and let it sink into the water.

“C’mon Triton, we’ve got to get you out of here.”

“I appreciate it Sereia, but you shouldn’t have come. I can’t get out of here, I’ve already tried.”

“We can do this together. Just follow me!” I swim through one of the underwater tunnels with Triton at my heels.

“Wait!” Triton pauses next to me. His eyes close for a second before shooting open again. “I hear Atlan! He’s on his way.”

I try to swim over to Triton but am instead greeted by a snare pole behind shoved in front of my face.

“Gahh!” I quickly move back, and hide under the wall tunnel. “Tell him to hurry! They have me cornered!” After a minute, Atlan looks back at me.

“He’s here! And so are Isla and Naia.” Atlan swims off to the gate under the water. Isla and Naia appear on the other side of it along with Atlan. “We need help guys. They’ve almost got Sereia!”

“Isla you heat the water around the gate then I’ll freeze it, and the metal should become more brittle then.” They set to work quickly heating then freezing the water. Then they turn to Atlan.

“Alright Atlan it's up to you now.” Atlan swims back out of view, then a moment later a blur of grey smashes into the gate, shattering it. Triton races out into the open water.

I am about to go out after him when something snags my tail. I look behind me to see the guy has snared my tail and is trying to pull me up. Luckily my tail is on its own very heavy. “Guys, help!”

“I’m coming Sereia!” Isla yells. I see her race into the walled room. “Just hang on, I’ll get you out.” Isla grabs ahold of the pole and starts to pull on it.

After a struggle, the guy eventually lets go of the pole, dropping it into the water. I reach to my tail and take off the snare. I then grab Isla’s hand and together we bolt out of the walls.

Just as we’re swimming away, a bunch of boats come into the area. On the side of one boat, I see the words ‘Queensland Coast Guard’ on the side.

“Aspen called the coast guard!” Naia says. She swims over and gives me a bear hug, with Isla joining in.

“Those guys are totally busted!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And we’ll end this celebration with fireworks! While they’re being set up, it’s time for this evening's big special raffle. The prize is a magnificent pearl necklace offered by-” The governor, Mr. Lausen, pauses as a man in a brown suit whispers something in his ear.

Mr. Lausen has a shocked expression on his face. He clears his throat and turns back to the microphone. “I’ve just been informed that Mr. Mammon has been unexpectedly detained, and the necklace is in police custody. So there will be no draw for the necklace tonight.” A lot of grumbles rise up from the crowd. Mr. Lausen gestures to the other prizes. “But there will be plenty of others. So let the raffle begin!”

Sitting next to me on the beach, Isla snorts. “Yeah it’s unexpected that a jewelry smuggler has been detained.”

Naia points out into the water. “Guys look, It’s Atlan and Triton!” Sure enough, the two twins are jumping out of the water, putting on a show for the crowd, who are busy filming the routine.

I smile at the sight. “Those two sure look happy.”

Isla laughs and crosses her arms. “You know, I’m glad nobody couldn’t get the necklace. It would’ve been a waste anyways. I already have that pearl I traded from that oyster.”

Aspen squints his eyes at her. “You mean the one you traded for a scale from your tail?”

“You make it sound like a bad thing. Pearls are a dime a dozen in the oyster world, so why have one of those when you can have a glittery red mermaid scale?”

Chapter Text

Sereia

I was walking out of the bookstore when I saw the board sitting outside the door.

“Isabella Florence and Asher D’Amore are coming to Cairns to shoot a movie?!” No freaking way. Isabella is my absolute favorite actress ever. Someone once told me we look alike with our wavy brown hair and face, and I nearly screamed from the compliment.

“Yes, Freya, we’ll be at the docks in two minutes. No need to freak out.” I immediately recognize that American accent from all the interviews I’ve watched. No freaking way!

I whip around to see none other than Isabella Florence standing right next to her iconic purple sports car. Her assistant Cato Halloway, whom she’s been friends with since she was 12, putting away the phone.

Oh my gosh! I should ask for a picture. I pull out my phone and start to walk towards her when I freeze.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isla

“Well, what did you do then?” I ask her. Sereia just sprinted into my house, out of breath from running. Naia had just arrived when Sereia started spewing out her story.

Sereia sighs and flops backwards on the couch. “Nothing. She got in her car and left.”

“I can’t believe you. If it had been Asher D’Amore, I would have leaped right into his car! He’s the definition of tall, dark, and handsome.” I sigh dreamily, thinking about my celebrity crush. “And his British accent is just too perfect!”

Naia pats Sereia on the head. “Well, you know Sereia, she’s too shy.” Sereia looks at Naia like she’s going to disagree, but I interrupt to save myself from that.

“Either way, they're shooting a movie in Cairns! Isabella Florence and Asher D’Amore. Ugh! I wish I could marry him. He’s so hot.” I say.

“You do realise they're married right? Have been for like 10 years.” Naia asks me.

“Wait but I thought she was dating that Gabriel Davis dude 10 years ago,” I say back to her.

“No, he confessed to liking her on national television but she rejected him because she had been secretly crushing on Asher,” Sereia says.

“Ooh, that's rough.” I say.

Sereia’s phone rings on the table. I grab it and, once I see that it’s Aspen, try to hang up. Naia snatches the phone from me and presses the green button.

“Hey Aspen, what’s up?”

“You three are together right now, right?”

“Always,” I say.

“Well you’ll never believe what I just found out.”

I hold up my hand as if that’ll pause him. “Let me guess, stars are in Cairns to shoot a movie.”

“Well, yes, but there’s more. They have invited professional oceanographers onto set to help shoot some scenes, and since I’m in the local oceanography club, I got invited to go and work with them.”

“WHAT?!” Sereia screeches. She bolts up from her seat and falls backward off the coach. Without hesitation she snatches the phone from Naia. “Aspen, listen to me carefully, you need to find a way to get us on set too. Please! I’m begging you.”

“Woah, woah, woah. It’s not up to me for things like that.”

“Well whose is it then?” She seethes into the phone. I think if she squeezes the phone any more, it’ll pop in half.

“It’s Dylan’s. His grandfather is apparently an old friend of the directors. If you want to go, you’ll need to find a way to convince him to bring you. Luckily, I’m sure that won’t be too hard for one of you.”

“Nuh uh. Absolutely NOT. In no universe will I EVER ask for anything from him .” I cross my arms and huff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day at school, Naia and Sereia are giving me thumbs up as I walk over to Dylan. I’ve been putting off asking him all day, until we now only have 10 minutes left.

With a sigh, I walk up to Dylan and clear my throat. He turns around from his locker and looks at me with a surprised expression.

“Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise.” He smirks down at me. I almost want to just walk away now, but I also don’t want to let my friends down. He leans against his locker. “What can I do for you?”

“Okay listen, Naia and Sereia really want to work on the movie and we heard that you could get us in.”

“Well it’s not as easy as making a phone call, but Freya did give me permission to bring a few friends on set, and since you're asking, I guess I’ll bring you and your friends along. Think of it as a favor. I’ll just ask for something back in return sometime.”

The way he says this makes me think he’s not teasing me and is actually wanting me to come along, but that’s stupid. He hates me. This is just a favor he’s doing for me; one that I’ll have to return.

“Thanks.” I mumble and quickly turn away.

“Meet me at the harbor!” He calls after me.

I walk up to the others, who are squealing and jumping up and down.

I cover my face with my hands to hide the blush. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the bell rang, we took off down the street to the harbor, where Dylan is waiting with his boat in the distance.

“This is crazy,” I say. “I mean they're just normal people like us.”

“Well, we’re not exactly normal…” Sereia says.

“Are you kidding me, Isla? You should have seen your face when you heard Asher D’Amore was in Cairns. What’s bothering you is owing something to Dylan.” Naia pokes me in my side.

Dylan waves over at us from his boat. He’s already climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the boat on.

“Come on guys, we gotta go!” We hop into his boat. I’m about to settle into the seat farthest from Dylan when Naia shoves me forward and takes my seat. I turn around and gawk at her, but she points to the passenger seat right next to Dylan. I grumble before sitting down.

“So what’s this movie about anyways?” I ask him.

“It’s called Seabound. It’s a love story between a fisherman and a mermaid he saves from his nets.” With that, Dylan pulls out of the harbor and we speed to Mariana.

“They already filmed most of the movie in America, but these ending scenes they wanted here. Today is supposed to be the last day of filming. The last bit is the mermaid gives the fisherman a kiss and he turns into a merman to follow her into the water and live happily together.” Dylan yells over the sound of the motor and rushing air.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once we finally reached Mariana, we all hop off the stern of the boat to avoid the water and onto the sandy shore.

The whole beach looks crazy. Trailers are parked everywhere, with set pieces and hundreds of people all over the place.

Dylan leads us over to a woman with wavy strawberry blonde hair and the most beautiful amber eyes. “Guys, this is Yvette Hasen, one of the two directors. Yvette, this is Isla, Naia, and Sereia. I’m sure you can find something for them to do.” He gestures to each of us as he says our names.

“Sure thing.”

“Oh and where are Freya and our stars? I don’t see them anywhere.” He says.

Yvette points to a handful of boats near a bunch of rocks sticking out of the water away from the shore. “They're over there. They’re just about to start filming the last swim scene together. They won’t be back for a while.”

Sereia tilts her head. “Are you sure? It looks like they're coming back right now.”

We all turn to look, and sure enough, the boats are heading our way.

“What in the world?” Yvette runs over to where a boat had just pulled up to the shore. We follow after her. “What’s going on? Why are you back?”

A man with wavy chestnut hair jumps off the boat and storms into a trailer, a woman with dark brown hair and tan skin following after him. Was that Bellona Donato?! It was! What’s wrong? And who’s the guy she was chasing after?

A woman with straight chestnut brown hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen walks over to Yvette and sighs. “Icarus claims to have seen a real mermaid with green hair and a grey tail, and obviously nobody believes him because they're not real! Honestly, what is with people?” The woman, who I assume is the other director, Freya Regalia, whips out her phone and dials a number before turning to walk over to the trailer that Icarus and Isabella had walked into.

I feel someone walk up behind me. “My grandmother does not understand people at all. Only work, work, work. Boring!” I turn around and see a guy standing next to Dylan, who looks to be our age, and with the same dark hair and tan skin as the woman.

“Wait, I’m sorry, but who are you? And what’s going on?” I ask him.

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Bellus Regalia. Those two people you saw run into the trailer are my parents, and Freya is my grandmother. My dad thinks he saw an actual, real mermaid and is mad nobody believes him.”

“Huh, so you're a nepobaby. Good to know.” I smirk at him.

“I mean, you can call me whatever you like.” He says back. Weirdo.

I walk back to the table where I was pouring drinks, Naia and Sereia following me.

“Did you see Dylan’s face when Bellus said that? That was pure jealousy!” Naia elbows me in the side. “You have him wrapped around your finger, you know that?”

“Shut up. No I don’t”

“Guys I think we should circle back to the mermaid thing. What if Icarus really did see a mermaid? That means we aren’t the only ones.” Sereia whispers to us.

“He was underwater in the ocean with no goggles or any kind of gear. I could dangle some seaweed in front of him and he would think it’s a mermaid.” I say, rolling my eyes.  “And if there was another mermaid, I think we would know. The others underwater would see her and tell us.”

“Yeah I guess.” Sereia says, though she doesn’t sound convinced. Aspen walks up behind her.

“Did you guys hear about Icarus?” He says.

“We were just talking about it,” Naia tells him.

“Well I think he could have seen a manatee. When sailors used to claim they saw a mermaid, it turns out they were actually seeing a manatee.” He states.

“I’m offended. Those sea cows look absolutely nothing like us!” I say. Honestly, I don’t see it at all. They're big and grey, while we have way longer tails that are most definitely not grey.

“Honestly I think you guys should investigate. Maybe clear everything up.” He tells us.

I look at him in surprise. “Wait, you want us to put ourselves in a situation where someone will most likely see us? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“All I’m saying is that I’ve been spending a lot of time with the crew and they all say that the directors are going to have to give into Icarus’ demands in hopes he proves himself wrong. They need the movie to go on as soon as possible.”

Just then, a door slams and Icarus walks over to a boat in full scuba gear. “I am going to find the mermaid and prove all you doubters wrong!” He announces. Bellona trails after him, along with Bellus

“Alright we need to go right now,” Naia tells us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the water, we swim around asking all the sea animals if they have seen another mermaid. Not even Avisa knew anything about it, which led us to one conclusion: there is no mermaid.

“Just what I thought. That Icarus’ guy is wrong. We need to just give him some time to figure that out, then the movie will go on and all of this will be forgotten.” I look over at Naia, who is in turn looking at something past me. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Do you guys remember what Aspen said about how sailors thought they would see manatees?” Sereia and I both nod our heads.

“Well look.” Naia points at something behind us, and we twist to get a look.

“Is that a manatee?” I ask. It looks just like one, but something feels off about it. Not that I’m a manatee expert or anything.

“No, that’s a dugong. It looks similar to a manatee, but it’s not.” Sereia sighs. But it still looks similar enough. A plan forms in my mind. Naia smiles at me as if she’s reading my mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So all you need to do is let us put this seaweed on your head and swim over to those men by that boat,” I tell Doey, the dugong. Turns out he was the ‘mermaid’ that Icarus had spotted. He had just been eating some seaweed, which explains the green hair and grey tail.

“Doesn’t sound like a lot of work.” He tells us in a gruff voice.

I peak out front behind the rock we’re hiding and see the divers enter the water. “Alright, it’s showtime.” I tell him.

We had tied some seaweed to his head to resemble hair, and all he has to do is swim out from behind the rock and up to the divers. 

Doey swims out towards the divers. Very quickly, one of them spots him and signals to the others. They each clutch their stomachs in what I assume to be a laugh. One of them, probably Icarus, looks at everyone and quickly swims back up, and the others follow suit.

Doey swims back over to us. “Was that okay?”

“It was perfect Doey, thank you!” I tell him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On land, Icarus was pouting in a chair next to his trailer. Bellona sat next to him, rubbing his back.

“Don’t feel embarrassed hon, it is more common than you think to mistake a manatee for a mermaid.” She tells him.

Icarus shrugs off her hand and stands up. “I’m not embarrassed. Now, what are we still doing standing around people? There’s still one last scene to shoot!” He claps his hands at the crew.

Yvette nods her head. “Isabella and Asher are on their way to the shooting location. It’s on the north side. Dylan says he found the perfect place.” She smiles at everyone, probably happy to finally get to the last scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ok, listen up kids, I’ll explain the scene. Morana’s kiss will turn Col into a merman so they can live happily together under the sea. The scene takes place with Morana in the water and Col leaning over the railing, in the same place Col had originally caught Morana in his net. They kiss, and he jumps into the water with her. The end.” Freya yells out at everyone huddled on the little beach lining the cove.

Freya claps her hands together. “Let’s get rolling then!”

In the scene, Isabella is in the water wearing a dark purple tail, holding Asher’s head right at the edge of his boat. They kiss, and then Isabella disappears in the water, with Asher diving in after her.

“Cut! It’s in the can!” Yvette yells and everyone cheers.

Bellus walks up next to me. “Besides my dad’s drama story, this was a pretty great day. I got to meet you after all.” He winks at me and my stomach churns. Who does this guy think he is?

“Can I get your number? We should hang out sometime,” he asks me.

“I think I better not-” I begin to tell him before he cuts me off.

“Oh, c’mon, who wouldn’t want to date the son of famous actors?”

This time I’m not being so nice. “I said no.”

He looks at me as if I just told him I was going to cook his pet fish and eat it. “Well I’ll give you time to think about it then.”

This time I take a big step back from him and stand next to Naia and Sereia, who have overheard the conversation.

Bellos opens his stupid mouth again like he was going to say something else, when another voice spoke from right behind me. 

“She said no, Bellus, now back off. Okay?” I recognize that voice from anywhere. Dylan. He places a hand on my shoulder. When I look back at him, he’s glaring at Bellus.

Bellus looks like he’s about to argue when people running to the water catch all of our attention.

“What’s going on?” I whisper to myself. I grab Dylan’s hand and drag him over to everyone else.

“What’s the commotion?” Naia asks someone next to us.

“The waves are getting really choppy out there. Their boat is going to crash against the rocks!”

I give Sereia a side glance and she is already subtly raising her hand to calm the water.

“Stay right here,” Dylan whispers in my ear and drops my hand. He sprints over to his speedboat and hops in. He speeds over to where Isabella and Asher are holding onto the boat for their life.

Dylan helps them each onto his boat, and quickly gets out of the way before the prop boat crashes into the rocks and begins to sink.

Everyone cheers as he docks back at shore.

“This calls for a celebration!” Yvette yells over the commotion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This has been a very eventful day.” Sereia says, stretched out on the rocks next to Naia.

“I can not wait to go home into my comfy bed,” Naia responds.

I’m about to add a comment of my own when I hear feet shuffling behind us. When I turn around, Dylan is standing awkwardly behind us.

“Uh, I’m sorry to interrupt, I just was wondering if…” He runs a hand through his straight black hair, messing it up a little bit. “If I could talk to Isla real quick. Alone.” His eyes travel everywhere but my own until he finishes talking.

Both girls look over at me and give me the most obvious smile ever. “Yeah, sure thing.” I give them a glare as they get up and walk back over to where everyone else is celebrating.

I sigh and stand up to be at eye level with Dylan (well eye-level adjacent since he’s got like 3 whole inches on me).

“Okay, before you say anything please just hear me out.” He looks me in the eye and waits for me to nod before continuing.

“So I don’t really know how to go about apologizing for how I’ve treated you and your friends for years. And I only ever did it for a really dumb reason which I know is no excuse. I had asked my brother a long time ago for advice and when I talked to him about it again, I realized I completely misunderstood him. And I-”

I hold up my hand right in front of his face. “Just hang on a second. What are you going on about? What reason?” This is all so confusing.

Dylan lets out a huge sigh and his eyes and head cast to the ground. Very quietly, he whispers, “I like you.”

Slowly, he lifts his head to the side and looks at me, expectantly. Oh, he’s waiting for an answer . No, that’s not all exactly.

He’s waiting for a rejection.

“I don’t know what to say,” I tell him honestly.

Dylan looks a little panicked when he says, “And you don’t have to. I’m not trying to pressure you into anything. I just have wanted to tell you for a really long time now.” He turns to sit down on the rocks. After a moment, I sit down next to him, closer than I would have before.

After a couple minutes in silence together, I’m the one to start talking. “For how long?”

Dylan lets out a small laugh. “Well, it really clicked for me when you threw your shoe at me on the beach in 7th grade, but I know it started when you had walked into that classroom that first day of 4th grade and talked back to the teacher about tardiness.”

I cover my mouth to hide my smile. He’s liked me that long?

“Why did you never say anything sooner?”

“Like I said before. I asked my brother for advice and misunderstood it. He’s been dating his girlfriend since his freshman year of high school. He told me that he teased her and she was flattered by it. I was a stupid 7th grader and thought by ‘tease’ he meant ‘be mean’ or ‘bully.’ So that’s what I did to you for years.”

Finally, he looks over at me. “He came to visit from college, and I talked to him about… well you, and told him about everything. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so pissed. So I realized I needed to set the record straight.”

He’s being serious, I realize. This isn’t the same boy that has been mean to me for years, and now that I look back on it, all those times I had told him to stop or yelled at him, I had always noted something in his demeanor change. I could never figure it out before, but now I can see it clearly in his eyes right now.

He’s ashamed. And scared. Ashamed because of what he had done, and scared because he believes he’s ruined everything between us. But he hasn’t.

And now I’m realizing something about myself as well. Everytime he teased me about something, or cracked a joke, I would always turn away to hide my smile, or say a snide remark in hopes he would miss the blush creeping up my neck and face. Oh God.

I like him.

And he must somehow be able to see my thought process, because he gives me a smile. A genuine smile, not that troublemaker smirk he usually gives. 

“So… about that favor you owe me.” He stops and waits for me to meet his gaze. He clears his throat and lets out a shaky sigh before continuing. “There’s that new Jurassic World movie that just came out, and I know how much you like that franchise.”

I pause for a second. Is he asking me out?!

I lean in close to his face. “It’s a date.” I whisper. I get up from the rocks and walk back to where the girls and Aspen are all huddled by a table, trying to act as though they weren’t trying to listen in on the conversation. The whole walk, I keep reminding myself to not look back.

Naia’s eyes glitter with excitement. “So, what was that about?”

I down the rest of her soda and look down at the can as I say, “I have a date.”