Secrets & Lies – Chapter One
This was the best part of being a mermaid Bella thought to herself. No matter what Rikki said about being able to swim ridiculously fast, swimming with the fish and the dolphins was definitely better. Bella looked around and realised she was almost at the moon pool, time flies when you're having fun! She swam slowly through the underwater entrance to the moon pool which had become the only place where her and her two best friends Rikki and Cleo could really be themselves. As Bella lifted her head out of the water, she realised she wasn't alone, there was another mermaid here, but it definitely wasn't a mermaid she recognised.
"Erm... Hi" said the blonde haired mermaid that was clearly just as confused as she was.
"Hey" Bella laughed. "Sorry, it's just when I saw that there was another mermaid in here I definitely wasn't expecting to see a mermaid I didn't know!"
"Oh, you know some other mermaids?"
"Yeah! I mean I guess they won't mind me telling you seeing as your one two, their names are-"
"Rikki Chadwick and Cleo Sertori" The girl answered, much to Bella's surprise.
"How did you know that?" Bella asked
"We all became mermaids together. I'm Emma, I've been travelling the world with my family we got back this morning and I couldn't wait to get back to the moon pool."
"Bella. Sorry, it's just that Cleo and Rikki never mentioned knowing another mermaid. And I know what you mean, this place is so magical, well at least it used to be, until Sophie and Ryan got to it." Bella sighed as she remembered the day that they had ruined the magic of this place, although Zane had been a part of it, he had apologised and since then had helped the girls in a lot of sticky situations at the cafe, and they had forgiven him, and eventually Zane and Rikki got back together.
"Sophie and Ryan? Jeez what happened while I was gone?" Emma asked, she didn't like the worry and sadness in Bella's eyes as she looked around the moon pool.
"It's a very long story, that I'm sure Rikki and Cleo would like to help you fill you in on."
"Come on, I'll race you back" Emma laughed and ducked her head under the water. Bella laughed and rolled her eyes, Emma was exactly like Rikki.
The girls arrived at a secluded area of the beach (Emma won), dried themselves off and began their walk to Rikki's cafe. They walked through the entrance and Bella scanned the room for a sign of Rikki, Cleo or even Zane but none of them were around. Hesitantly Bella walked to the counter to ask Sophie if she had seen any of them.
"No I haven't. And before you ask I don't know where they are." Sophie answered rudely, only adding to Bella's dislike for her, despite the fact that Bella was dating Sophie's brother Will, Sophie continued to hate Bella for no reason in particular.
"Do you want a juice?" Emma asked. "My shout."
"Sure, Banana smoothie please." Bella smiled and took a seat at an empty booth.
Soon enough Emma joined Bella at the booth, and Bella began to fill Emma in on what happened with Sophie and Ryan.
"Wow... I wonder why, for me, the full moon was normal. Well as normal as it can be, I mean I never got attacked by water."
"Maybe it's because you weren't here, near the moon pool."
"Do you really think that the water tentacle was that intelligent?" Emma asked.
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean why else wouldn't water attack you? You weren't close enough to Mako to be able to help to do anything about the comet, so maybe it just left you alone."
"Makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. I wonder where Cleo and Rikki have got to?" Emma wondered.
"Typical that the day one of their best friends comes home, its also the one day they decide not to come to the cafe!" Bella laughed. "Alright, thats it. We'll go stop by Cleo's and see if she's home"
The two girls left the cafe chatting happily and made their way to Cleo's. Sophie walked over to the table to clear their empty glasses, wondering how paranoid Bella had to be to claim that water had been attacking her...