Chapter 1:The Judge

The early morning sun beat down on the empty pool. Will stared at the water he so use to love, but now just seemed like a cage compared to the wide open ocean. His parents thought this would be a good experience. His sister thought this would be a way to get back to the relationship they use to have. Will only saw this as a distraction, and a step backwards. But he wasn't about to tell his parents his only interests now were the ocean, and three girls with mermaid powers. So here he was, at the pool, bright and early to try to impress some woman he had never met.

The company that was sponsoring this contest had set up a privet meeting between Will and one of the five judges. Each judge was to pick a contestant who would represent them in the contest. The winner got a scholarship and a lot of money for some charity.

The letter they had sent him said his judge would be some woman named Emma Gilbert. All he knew about her was that she had the same name as the man who was running the competition and that she knew something about swimming. He had no idea what this person looked like, or what to expect from her. But Will was watching the gates, waiting patiently.

Will was caught off guard when a girl his age walked into the pool area. She was tall, a blond, and wore a nice new looking track suit. She had a clipboard in one hand and a small spots bag in the other. She looked way more like a coach than a judge.

"Will Benjamin I'm guessing," She asked when she got close enough to Will. "I'm Emma Gilbert, your judge for this morning."

"You're my judge!" Will asked in surprise.

"Is that a problem?" Emma asked pulling her clipboard from her face so that she could look upon Will. Will shook his head as he said,

"No I just thought you would be…."

"Older," Emma finished with a laugh. "I hold the record for swimming here at this pool. I was head of the swimming team, and I was unbeaten. My father is also the head for this competition. Am I qualified enough?" Her tone was a little snarky, but Will pushed it off and got into the water anyway.

After what seemed like hours of swimming, Emma told Will that she had all she needed. Then, with little words, she left the pool, and Will alone. Even though he found this strange, Will pushed it off and headed to his boat shed to wait for his girlfriend Bella.

"How was the try out?" Sophie, Will's sister, asked when he walked into the boat shed.

"Interesting," Will admitted tossing his bag to the side.

"How was the judge?" Sophie asked as if she was interested. "Tough, easy…"

"Not what I was expecting," Will admitted before he realized what he was doing. "She was different that is all." By different he meant young

"What was her name," Sophie asked in a too caring kind of way.

"It's not any of your business," Will stated looking directly in his sister's eye. She smiled and sat down on the couch with a magazine just as Will's phone went off. Without saying another word, he left the boat shed, leaving Sophie alone.

After making sure Will was long gone, Sophie got up and started poking around Will's diving bag. Four towels, at least ten empty water bottles, two half full ones, three pairs of goggles, and tons of protein bar rappers were piled on top of what Sophie was looking for, but in the end she found the folder she was looking for. Opening it, the information she wanted was laying right on top, Will's judge's name. Smiling, Sophie tossed the folder carelessly into the bag and started for Rikki's Café.

Sophie spent three hours with online searching before finding someone that even remotely resembled what a coach should be like. It was an article from a school website talking about their top swimmer, Emma Gilbert, breaking some sort of record. It was dated three years prier, and there was no mention of her anywhere else.

"Why are you searching Emma Gilbert?" Sophie heard behind her. She spun around in her chair to find a curious Zane.

"Oh, you know…" Sophie started, hoping she could just throw out some answer to get him off her back, but he didn't look like he was going to give up so easily. "She's Will's judge for that diving competition, and I wanted to make sure that she was not going to….."

"Be tricking him," Zane finished for her. Then he laughed before saying. "Emma is not that kind of person. You can ask anyone."

"You know her," Sophie blurted jumping to conclusions .Zane was taken aback by this comment, not really wanting Sophie to find out he was close to Emma. Thinking quick on his part, he said,

"She is friends with Rikki and Cleo."

"So they would know if she was a sneak or lying?" Sophie asked, and Zane laughed again. To Sophie, all his laughing was a bit deserving.

"Yeah," He finally said. "They know everything about her."

After hearing that, Sophie quickly logged off the computer and ran off to find Rikki and Cleo. The task, she soon found out, was easier said than done. Sophie, like everyone else in town, knew that Rikki, Cleo, and Bella were the hardest girls to figure out. But she never thought that it was actually going to be that hard to find them. It was.

Later that afternoon, Sophie walked into Rikki's café, after spending four hours looking for three girls that were imposable to find. Rikki and Cleo were sitting right on the couch as soon as she walked in. Taking a deep breath, she walked straight up to them, not wanting to waist any more time.

"Hey guys," She said confidently.

"Hello," Rikki said regrettably. "What are you…."

"What do you know about Emma Gilbert?" She asked, cutting Rikki off, and rendering her speechless.

"How do you know that name?" Cleo asked for Rikki, without any less surprise or confusion.

"She is Will's new judge," Sophie answered quickly. "And I want to know what you two know about her. And don't lie, Zane told me you two knew her well."Rikki smiled and looked towards Zane's closed door.

"Oh did he, now." Rikki said looking to Cleo, who shared her smile of annoyance. Then they both looked back to Sophie so she could say, "Well what do you want to know?"

Sophie smiled, and started rapidly firing questions at the two girls so fast that they couldn't catch their breathes long enough to answer any of them. Their question and answering session lasted for another two hours, that is until Sophie finally couldn't find anything else she really had to know about Emma.

At the pool, Will and Bella waited patiently for Emma. Bella was interested to meet the girl Will described as his judge. They did not have to wait long, because before they knew it, Emma walked casually into the pool area.

"Hello, Will, I have the scores," She said as soon as she was in earshot of Will and Bella. She turned to Bella and smiled. Then she turned back to Will. "The best I've seen."

Emma handed Will the sheet to read. He took a long look at the sheet. If he had looked up then he would have seen Sophie before she had gotten so close. She had her arms crossed and her eyes locked on Emma. Will knew as soon as he saw his sister things were not going to go well.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Sophie yelled making Emma turn around and take a long look at Will's older sister.

"I'm not quite sure what you mean?" Emma admitted with a strong voice, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You're such a liar," Sophie announced, getting the attention from Bella and Will, who were just ideally watching the scene as it played out.

"Why do you say that?" Will asked, discarding the sheet with his competition results. Sophie didn't pay much attention to her brother's comment. She just kept her eyes locked.

"I spoke to your friends. They told me everything." Sophie said strongly.

"Really, well, I doubt that," Emma came back stronger, keeping her stand. "I know my friends." Sophie smiled.

"Really, do you?" Sophie asked in a know it all voice.

"Sophie, that is enough," Will said stepping in front of Emma to block her from Sophie.

"No," Emma said with a smile. "I want to hear what Sophie has to say. I'm curious."

"Cleo and Rikki, they told me everything about you," Sophie started again, but was cut off.

"Cleo and Rikki." Bella and Will said almost simultaneously. Emma turned back to looked at Bella and Will, shocked by their reaction to her friend's names.

"Yeah, you know them?" Emma asked in a confused way.

"Oh," Sophie said, shocked and a bit confused. "No one told you. How long have you been gone? Obviously you are out of things. Well I'm not. Bet you weren't expecting that either. Were you?"Emma laughed at Sophie's comment.

"That's it I'm out of here." She said before she started to walk off out of the pool area. But before she could make it too far from the others, Will put out hand, still wet from practice, and placed it on her shoulder.

"Just wait." Will said. Although Emma was not paying any attention to will's words, but to the water that was now running down her shoulder onto her back.

With no words at all, Emma ran past Bella and Will and into the one stall bathroom that was just behind them. Both Bella and Will watched as she disappeared, with wonder, curiosity and fear. Sophie just started with discuses and confusion.

"I told you she was weird," Sophie said right before she walked out of the pool area, leaving Bella and Will to their questions, almost all of which already had answers. They had their suspicions and guesses to what Emma was hiding. They knew Cleo and Rikki had some explaining to do.