Life was perfect. Finally everything just seemed right.
Lewis was home, continuing his studies at a local college and working with a marine bioligist. He felt that this was the best way to get the education he wanted and the time spent working out on a boat and in a lab with a marine bioligist was much more educational than time spent in a classroom.
Emma had come home from travelling with her parents. She had plenty of exciting tales to tell from her time spent abroad, including some rather close calls with water. She said that it was much harder to keep our secret when travelling, from shared bathrooms to weeks of rain, it seemed like an impossible task. Somehow she managed, but said she was very glad to finally be home with her fellow mermaids.
Bella and Emma got along great from the second they first met. Rikki and I were worried that their personalities might clash or that perhaps Emma would be jealous of Bella, feeling like we replaced her. Thankfully none of that happened and now we are quite possibly the strongest group of friends there ever was.
Rikki and Zane got back together and , except for an occasional quarrel, are going strong.
Sophie left to attend a college in England and I think we all agree, good riddance!
Will continues to dive simply for fun, not competing in any competitions. He will often come swimming with us, which Bella very much enjoys. I don't know about Rikki or Emma, but I don't especially trust Will. Something about him seems... fishy.
Bella trusts him completly, but I think she is just blinded by love. Will doesn't seem to like Bella for who she is. In my opinion he just likes her for what she is. He just likes being in on the secret, and finding out all he can about our mermaid powers.
Of course I have hardly any facts to base this on, just my own obsevations and assumptions.
We were all sitting around a table sipping smoothies at Rikki's cafe, which Zane and Rikki still own together. It really was perfect. I was wedged between Emma and Lewis, Bella was smushed between Emma and Rikki, and Zane was on the other side of Rikki.
Suddenly Zane stood up, followed by Rikki, and they announced that they had to go downtown and sign some papers for the cafe. Then Lewis stood up and said he had a class at the college that he simply couldn't be late for.
"Well I guess it is just us three, right guys?" I said cheerfully.
"Umm... actually I've got to get going." Emma announced.
"Why?" me and Bella said at the same time.
"I have to go pick Elliot up from soccer practice."
I pouted and gave her puppy dog eyes. "Sorry, I have to! I promised Elliot I would be there right at three." She grabbed her bag and waved as she left the cafe.
"Soo... just us two then?" I asked Bella. She grinned and nodded her head. "How about a swim?" she asked. "Sounds great!" I said.
Bella's phone beeped and she pulled it out of her bag. "Oh... sorry Cleo. Looks like we will have to do that swim another time."
"What! Don't tell me you have to leave too!"
"I just got a text from Will. He wants me to pick up his monofin from his house and meet him at the dock. He is way over on the other side of town and it would be closer for me to get it and take it to him so he can do a couple of quick dives."
"Arg. I guess I will come with you."
"Are you sure? You don't have to."
"Yeah I'm sure. I don't have anything else to do."
"Well okay. We could swim there I suppose."
"Yeah! That would be much quicker than walking and I need a swim anyway."
We headed out of the cafe and made sure no one was looking before we dove into the water and swam off.
We quickly arrived at Will's boat shed and then we hoisted ourselves up onto the dock. I levitated all the water off of us, a trick I had recently learned that came in quite handy, and we had our legs back in seconds. It worked even faster than Rikki evaporating the water off of us and I was actually very proud of it.
We walked right inside the blue unlocked boat shed that served as Will's house.
Bella instantly was looking in some cabinets for whatever it was we were looking for and I was snooping around Will's drawings and shells and stuff. Yes, I know I shouldn't be snooping around other people's things but I was just too curious.
I "accidently" bumbed a yellow folder of loose papers titled simply "Bella" off the messy table. Loose papers flew everywhere. Bella suddenly turned around "Cleo what happened?"
My hands flew up to my face as I pretended to be suprised. "Oh! I'm sorry, I am so clumsy!" I said while acting flustered and shuffling the papers around, not really picking them up.
"Here, let me help you." Bella said, making her way over towards. "No!" I shouted "No, really I got it. It's just a few loose papers, nothing I can't handle. I will just pick them up and put them back on the table! No problem at all, I can handle it myself. You just, you know, go and get t-the stuff, all that dive stuff, fins and what-not, whatever Will needs..." I babbled on about who knows what.
"Uh, yeah okay." Bella said, slightly skeptical. She headed back over to the cabinet and I began to look at what had fallen out of the folder. I gasped at what I saw.
It looked like... well it looked like scientific notes. On Bella. There was remarkably life-like drawings of her. And when I say her I mean her tail. Not even sketches of all of her in mermaid form, just scientic looking drawings of her tail, with labels and arrows scientific notes!
There was entire pages of research he had done on us, it looked like these notes could be about any creature that he was studying. But they weren't! This was about us! It was rather freaky.
"Um Bella... I think you should come have a look at this."
She walked over towards me and crouched down on the ground. "What is it?" she asked.
"This! Look at all this! It's like scientific notes and stuff on you!"
She picked up some papers and glanced through them "Huh." was all she said.
"Huh? That is all you have to say! This is really weird! And creepy! And stalker-ish! His notes refer to you like you are some sort of animal! Did you know he was doing this?"
"Well, no. I will admit it is a bit odd... but it's not like Lewis doesn't do the same thing."
"What?"
"Well you know, Lewis does all kinds of tests and notes and stuff on us, you never thought it was creepy before. Annoying, yes. Creepy, no. How is what Will is doing any different?"
"Lewis is different! He does tests and stuff to help us. What Will is doing is..."
"Very simillar. I don't see why you are so freaked out about this. You just want to break me and Will up don't you?"
"What? No Bella I was just looking out for you! This has nothing to do with you and Will being together. Why would I even care about that!"
Bella shook her head "I don't know. I'm sorry I just jumped to conclusions I guess. Wait, what where you even doing looking at this stuff in the first place?"
I froze. What was I doing looking in there..."It just fell off the table..."
"Sure it did." she snapped, suddenly angry again. "I can't believe you, snooping through Will's stuff. And I can take care of myself! I don't need you looking out for me so just leave me alone."
She stood up to leave and was about to walk out when she suddenly turned around "Wait, I'm not leaving. You leave. You have no right to be in here. Out!"
I sighed and stood up. How could I make her see that something was off about Will? I ran out the door and gracefully dove into the water. I sped away to the moon pool for some time to think.
I levitated some water up out of the moon pool and morphed it into different shapes. Suddenly I heard the famillar noises of someone coming in through the land entrance. I quickly dropped the ball of water I had been molding back into the pool and it landed with a splash.
"Cleo? Are you in here? Cleoo...oow!" I heard Lewis' voice echo off the rock walls.
"Yeah I'm in here, are you alright?" I called out. Just then a slightly disoriented looking Lewis stumbled into the main part of the moon pool.
"Yeah, yep I'm fine. Just hit my head on those rocks backs back there. So what brings you here?"
"I just needed some time to think."
"About?"
"Bella..."
"Bella?"
"And Will... Will and Bella, mostly Will."
"Huh? Is everything alright?"
"No, in fact everything is not alright."
"Want to tell me about it?"
I let out a sigh and nodded my head "Well, me and Bella were at Will's house... room...shed... whatever you want to call it. We were there trying to find some diving stuff, some fins or something for Will. Bella was looking in some cabinets and I was... well I was being nosy and looking through Will's stuff. I had knocked a folder onto the floor that had Bella's name on it and it was full of notes and drawings and other sciencey looking things on Bella! She didn't even know he was taking all those notes and stuff on her! Isn't that a bit creepy?"
"Hmm... yeah I suppose it is a rather strange. But that is what I do when I do tests on you guys right?"
"What! No this was way different... you take notes and do tests and research on us with us knowing and you do it to help us find answers. What Will was doing was different. Anyways, I tried to show Bella these notes and stuff and she thought I was just trying to come in between Will and her. Which I wasn't! Why would I evn care if they are together, I mean I do care, of course, if Will was untrustworthy and might tell our secret... Well anyways, Bella and I got into a huge fight and now I don't know what to do. How can I make Bella see that something is not right about Will?"
"Well, is something not right about Will? I mean what evidence do you have?"
"That's the problem... I don't have any evidence, just a creepy feeling. My instinct is telling me that we should steer clear of Will."
"I have to agree with you there. I haven't felt right about Will from the day we first met, but I figured it was just me that had that feeling. There really isn't anything we can do about it, let's just keep an eye on Will and in the mean time you should try to make up with Bella."
"Yeah, I guess your right. Hey, what time is it?"
"It is about four thirty, why?"
"Oh! I better get going, Sam said to be home for dinner by five."
Before he could say anything else I dove under the water and sped away.