CLEO
The world was safe, school was done, and Lewis was home. For once it seemed like everything was going to be alright. She had just cleaning up her room when a text from Rikki arrived on her phone.
Everyone's meeting at the cafe for lunch, wanna come?
She texted back that she would indeed attend and headed out. The sea air was always wonderful, but with everything back in order the world seemed that much brighter to Cleo, then her phone rang.
"Hello."
"Cleo?" it was Emma.
"Emma, What have you been up to?"
"Look, I need your help, something's happened."
Cleo's eyes widened. "What happened, Em?"
"I'm coming home soon and will tell you everything then, but I lost control of my power."
"Emma. It's ok, I'll tell everyone you're coming back and we'll fix this."
"Alright, I'm getting on a plane in the morning, but my brother already left."
"Your mum let Elliot come back on his own?" Cleo was surprised, Last she remembered Elliot had ben young and had a crush on Rikki, nowhere near ready to fly by himself.
"No, no, my adopted brother, His name is Takura. I met him in Japan, and my parents ended up adopting him, anyway, he's coming back and getting the house ready for us."
"You're coming back, like to stay?"
"Unfortunately yes, we have to cut our trip short because of the incident."
Cleo's jaw hit the floor as Emma's words hit her.
"Emma, you're coming back, that's great!"
"Yeah, I'm happy to be coming home, but I wish it weren't to tell you all of this bad news."
"It will all work out once all of us are together again." Cleo reassured,
"Of course it will. It always seems to."
"Alright, Emma, I'll tell everyone you're coming, bye."
"I'll be home soon, bye Cleo."
Cleo hung up her phone and picked up her pace to the Cafe, Hopefully Lewis and Rikki wouldn't be too put off by this turn of events.
RIKKI
The message went through. Lewis was looking at her expectantly, so she nodded at him. He smiled and turned to look at Bella. He chuckled softly, causing Rikki to cast him a look
"I wonder if they will let me play with them again, just once."
Rikki smiled, turning to watch the rehearsal. "They might, I'll ask Bella after the rehearsal. She wrote a song about us you know, they'll be playing it tonight."
That made Lewis smile a little. Rikki looked over to Zane, and caught him staring back at her.
"He's still obsessed with me you know."
"Is he? Well, you two were close enough for him to name this place after you."
"Yeah, but it's been over for a while now. He should move on, God knows I'm trying." She indeed had been trying, but forgetting everything they had shared for the past several months wasn't easy. There were so many good things to remember, but then he had kissed Sophie on the docks, and that was unforgivable.
Lewis sighed "I miss you three when I'm gone, more than anything, especially Cleo."
Rikki punched his arm lightly. "Of course you miss her, you're in love with her."
Lewis nodded thoughtfully "Yeah, yeah I am, and it's the best thing ever."
Cleo walked in and sat down, her neutral expression immediately arousing suspicion in the other two.
"What's going on, Cleo? You don't seem like your usual self." Lewis asked, concerned.
"Emma's coming back," Cleo Informed the group, "and she has a new brother." Cleo ran the group through the content of her phone call, making the finer points clear as best she could.
"Emma's always been able to figure a way out of tough situations, she'll be able to figure this one out too." Rikki reassured her friend. "Look, Emma going to be back sometime within the next couple of days and she'll let us know more. until then we'll have to wait for her brother to arrive."
The band took a break, and Bella walked over to their table, sipping water from a bottle. "Hey everyone, what's going on?"
"Our friend Emma is coming back in a couple of days. She's our other mermaid friend who went on a trip with her family."
Bella nodded, pausing to check her ringing phone. "It's Will, I'll tell him to meet us here." Bella stepped away and answered her phone.
Rikki Looked up as a guy She didn't recognize walked into the cafe. Rikki smiled at him, taking stock of his deep black hair. Nikki thought he looked a little handsome, albeit a little out of style in his black tank top and cargo shorts. As the boy turned and looked around the café, Rikki noticed a symbol printed on the back of his shirt, next thing she knew, Cleo was across the room talking to him. Rikki saw Cleo motioning for her to follow, so she did, leaving a very confused Lewis in their wake.
Cleo spoke first, "Are you Takura? Emma mentioned you when she called today."
The boy looked up at the two, and lightly blushed when he saw Rikki "I am indeed, and your'e Cleo?"
"Yes, and this is Rikki."
"Rikki? The namesake of this café?"
"That I am, though I am not connected with it anymore." Rikki piped up finally, sounding a bit nervous, unusual for her.
"So, Emma probably filled you in on the big picture, but there are a few more details for me to give. Emma and I were in Los Angeles two weeks ago, and she and I went to a club in the city. Everything went well until we made our way home. Emma and I were ambushed by some thugs."
Rikki nodded. "Ok, what happened?"
"She and I were trying to fight them off. I was doing alright thanks to my martial arts training, Emma though, She wasn't doing so well. Eventually she panicked, bringing up her hand and freezing the man. The way he was standing he ended up falling over, shattering into quite a few small pieces."
Rikki and Cleo couldn't believe their ears. To hear this guy tell it, it seemed like Emma had killed a man.
"We left the city that night, heading for San Francisco. We made it, then I bought a ticket back here, Emma had to get a ticket on the next plane, with our parents and Elliot still in the states."
"Well, we'll have to deal with that as soon as she gets back."
"That's not the wort of it. She and I also had an unfortunate visit with a marine biologist at the aquarium in Portland. She was certainly surprised to see Emma, but was happy to inform us that she planned on returning to Gold Coast to study."
Cleo stopped him. "You don't mean Dr. Denman do you?"
Takura let out a light sigh. "I'm afraid I do."