H20 Just Add Water Fanfiction: Mermen of the Gold Coast

Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day in the Gold Coast, perfect for fishing. However, before Lewis got out of his house, he had to pry his younger brothers off him since the three of them wanted a piggy back ride. Much to the amusement of his older brother who was no help at all, he merely sat eating his breakfast, laughing and encouraging his brothers to continue tackling Lewis. When Lewis had finally escaped from them, and grabbed his fishing equipment, he made his way out of the house.

Lewis was walking down the path to his favourite fishing spot, when he nearly ran into his best friend Cleo Sertori, "Oh, sorry Cleo" said Lewis smiling sheepishly.

"It's ok, you going fishing?" Cleo asked.

"Yep", Lewis replied grinning, "want to join me?" Lewis asked.

"I'd love to, but Lilly asked me to fill in for her at the Juicenet Café today because she's ill", Cleo explained with an apologetic smile.

"Oh", Lewis said feeling disappointed. He and Cleo had been best friends since they were five. They met on a school trip to a park, when Cleo had tripped over a stone and had fallen. Lewis had helped her up, and taken Cleo to their teacher to get an ice pack for her sprained ankle. They later learned that Zane and Nate had deliberately put the stone there, hoping that someone would trip over it. They got a detention for their prank, and had held a grudge against Lewis and Cleo ever since. Lewis and Cleo had become friends because of the incident, and had grown close over the years and Lewis loved spending time with her.

"May be some other time", Cleo said bringing Lewis out of his reverie.

"Yeah, that sounds good", Lewis said trying to hide his disappointment by smiling widely at her.

"See you later", Cleo said.

"See you", Lewis said.

As Cleo walked down the path in the opposite direction to Lewis, he glanced back as did she. Their eyes met, and Cleo smiled shyly and quickly looked away. Lewis wandered what that was all about, she hadn't acted timidly around him since the day they first met. Lewis shrugged, turned around and continued his journey. When he reached the harbour he saw Nate, he inwardly groaned Nate was always trying out new ways to make his life difficult. Lewis carried on walking, hoping Nate hadn't seen him, but luck wasn't on his side today.

"Hey Lewis, come over here I need your help!" Nate called to him.

Lewis sighed, he really didn't want to face Nate but it would be rude to ignore him. So, Lewis walked to Nate feeling dejected.

"What's wrong?" Lewis asked cautiously.

"The spark plug from my boat has been stolen, and I need to fix my boat", Nate asked.

"Why do you need me? I don't know who took your spark plug, and it wasn't me I swear", Lewis said with his hands up in a surrendering position.

"I just need someone to pass me the tools I need, and I know it wasn't you who stole it Lewis", Nate said.

"How?" Lewis asked raising an eyebrow at Nate.

"You're not smart enough to pull something like that off", Nate said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course", Lewis muttered used to Nate's attitude towards him.

"So, will you help me?" Nate asked.

"Yeah", Lewis said against his better judgement.

"Great, just hop onto the boat", Nate said.

"But I thought you wanted me to pass you tools", Lewis pointed out.

"Yeah, but it'll be easier if we are both on the boat", Nate said.

"Ok", Lewis said and ignoring the feeling of uncertainty got onto the boat. He turned around when he realised that Nate hadn't followed him. Nate smiled maliciously at Lewis, and he realised too late that this was a prank. Nate pushed the boat, causing it to drift towards the sea. "Why are you doing this? You know I didn't steal your spark plug!" Lewis demanded.

Nate shrugged grinning manically, "Because you were just there Lewis! He replied and began to laugh hysterically. Lewis saw that some of Nate's friends had joined him, they had all burst into laughter. Some were rolling on the ground, while others were holding onto each other to stop themselves from falling over.

"You'll have to swim for it Lewis!" Said one of Nate's friends.

"I was just trying to help you fix your boat", Lewis shouted.

"Tell you what, if you can fix my boat you can keep it. I was going to get rid of the old thing anyway." Nate said.

Lewis sat down on the boat seething with anger, he tried to think of happy thoughts to calm himself down. This method worked, and he looked around looking for oars. There were none. Lewis sighed, this day had ended up taking a turn for the worse. He couldn't swim back, the boat had drifted too far out. He was beginning to panic, when suddenly from out of nowhere Zane jumped onto the boat. Lewis yelped in surprise, "What are you doing here?" Lewis asked.

Zane didn't answer, but held up a spark plug and grinned at Lewis.

"You stole Nate's spark plug?" Lewis asked incredulously.

"Sure did, and look at what else I brought", Zane replied and showed Lewis two oars.

Lewis visibly relaxed, "You're unbelievable" Lewis said irritably.

"Hey, it's not my fault – well maybe it is – but Nate swapped my glass of water for sea water which tasted terrible. So this is my revenge", Zane explained.

Despite the situation, Lewis couldn't help but laugh at Zane's expression and how he had sounded so childish, Zane and Nate often played pranks on each other as well as other people.

"What's so funny?" Zane asked giving Lewis a puzzled look.

"You", Lewis said and was overcome by a fit of laughter, to Lewis' surprise Zane laughed with him.

When they had finally stopped laughing, Zane's expression turned uncharacteristically serious. "I'm sorry about Nate", he said.

Lewis gaped at Zane, "You're joking right?" Lewis asked.

"No", Zane replied while looking down and fidgeting with his watch. It was clear that he was uncomfortable and not used to apologising.

"Apology accepted", Lewis said causing Zane to look up in surprise and grin gratefully at him.

Zane got up and replaced the spark plug, and drove the boat around the harbour until he reached Nate and his friends. Zane turned the boat when he had reached them, which caused water to spray all over the group. "That's for giving me sea water!" Zane yelled at Nate, and zoomed way on the boat, laughing with Lewis.

While Lewis and Zane were speeding towards the sea, Lewis spotted Ash walking along the path having just finished horse riding. "Hey, Ash want a ride?" Lewis asked him.

Ash stopped when he heard Lewis call to him, he looked uncertainly at Zane wondering why he was with Lewis when the pair hated each other. What surprised him even more, was that Lewis was grinning at him, despite Zane's presence which was very unusual. "Are you sure this is safe?" Ash asked anxiously.

"Are you my mother?" Zane asked smirking at Ash.

Ash smiled and joined them on the boat. While Zane drove the boat out to sea, the three of them chatted happily. Until the boat suddenly stopped, Lewis and Ash glanced at Zane who was muttering "no, no, no," to himself.

"What's wrong Zane?" Lewis asked.

"The engine has run out of gas", Zane replied.

"I told you, this wasn't safe", said Ash starting to panic.

"Chill out, we can just use these oars", Zane said holding them up for emphasise.

"Oh", said Ash sounding sheepish and relieved at the same time.

Zane sat down and began to row the boat.

"So, what were you guys doing on this boat in the first place?" Ash asked curiously.

"It's a long story", said Lewis glancing at Zane.

"We'll be here for a long time", Ash pointed out.

"Touché", Lewis said.

"Touché?" Zane asked raising an eyebrow at Lewis.

"What? It's a good word", Lewis said defensively.

"Sure, sure", Zane said chuckling.

"Moving on", said Ash trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Yes, moving on", Lewis agreed and explained what had happened. When Lewis was talking about the prank, Ash glared at Zane jumping to the conclusion that he was a part of it. Lewis quickly explained that Zane hadn't known about the trick, which caused Ash's expression to soften.

"I wish you and Nate would stop pranking Lewis", Ash said to Zane.

"Sorry, but pranking is a part of me and I can't stop", Zane said not sounding sorry at all.

Ash sighed irritably, "That's no excuse-"

"Hey guys look, its Mako Island", Zane interrupted changing the subject.

Ash and Lewis turned to where Zane was pointing. A beautiful sight met their eyes, it was a huge island filled with forests.

"Anyone fancy taking a look?" Zane asked.

"No way", said Lewis shaking his head.

"No-one goes to Mako Island, it's surrounded by sharks and is very dangerous", Ash said.

"You're just exaggerating", Zane countered.

"No he isn't", said Lewis.

"Come on guys, where's your sense of adventure?" Zane asked raising his arms in exasperation.

"On a permanent vacation", Lewis replied crossing his arms defensively.

"Come on, it'll be fun", Zane said imploringly.

"To be eaten by sharks?" Ash countered.

"Look, either we go to Mako Island or we go back. And I don't fancy rowing the boat all the way to the harbour right now", said Zane.

"Or I could row the boat instead", said Ash.

Lewis was staring at the island, "you know, from a scientific perspective it would be very interesting to explore the island", he said.

"Come again?" Zane asked.

"It would be great for a science project to look around the island", Lewis explained.

"Oh, I see", said Zane.

"You can't be serious", Ash said exasperatedly.

"I am, listen I could take samples from things, such as plants, on the island and analyse them. Please Ash, please", said Lewis.

Ash sighed, "Fine", he said.

"Yes! Let's go," said Zane excitedly.

He rowed the boat until the shore of the island, (fortunately they didn't meet any sharks), where Zane tied the boat to a stone and left it there. Ash and Lewis got out of the boat, and the trio set off. As they waked in the forests of the island, Lewis could hear birds and waterfalls.

After a while of walking Zane spoke up, "you know what? Forget school, let's pack our bags and live here". Ash and Lewis laughed at this comment.

"I second that", Ash said high fiving Zane.

"But education is vital for future-" Lewis tried to say, but was cut off by Zane.

"Yeah, yeah come on Lewis live a little", he said.

"I suppose it would be pretty cool to live here", said Lewis.

"Now that's what I'm talking about", said Zane happily and the trio high fived, and then continued walking.

Lewis felt calm and peaceful on the island, especially with his two friends either side of him even though they had resumed their bickering. Lewis felt like he belonged in Mako, with Ash and Zane.

"…my phone doesn't have any signal", said Ash.

"Oh, boo hoo. I'm sure you can live without your phone for a few hours", said Zane.

"This is serious Zane, what if one or all of us get hurt? We wouldn't be able to call for help, we'd be stuck here", Ash reasoned.

"We'll just have to draw straws, to decide which one of you two I'll have to eat", said Zane.

"That's not funny Zane", said Ash glaring at him.

"Why don't we just try going higher?" Said Lewis gesturing to some rocks near them and effectively ending the argument.

The three of them began climbing the rocks, brushing branches out of the way.

"Ouch" said Ash rubbing his cheek, where a branch had hit him.

"Oops, sorry Ash", said Zane smirking at him and again not sounding sorry.

Ash glared at him, "Sure you are", Ash muttered sarcastically.

After a while of climbing, they reached the edge of a rock, which faced another with a big gap between them. Zane and Ash jumped over to the other rock easily, but Lewis wasn't as confident as them.

"I can't do this", Lewis said anxiously.

"Come on Lewis, I know you can", said Ash supportively.

"And if you can't, we'll just leave you here", said Zane smirking at Lewis.

"Zane", Ash scolded.

"What? I was just joking, we wouldn't really leave you behind Lewis".

"Lewis you can do this, just jump", said Ash.

"No, there has to be another way", said Lewis stepping backwards.

"There isn't-"Ash began to say, but was interrupted by Lewis' yell.

Lewis had fallen down a big hole in the rock, he slid on his back down a natural slide. When Lewis had landed, he was breathing heavily still in shock from the sudden fall. After Lewis had calmed down, he got up and looked around and discovered that he was in what looked like a cave.

"Lewis! Are you ok?" Ash asked concerned.

Lewis turned around, and saw Ash and Zane looking at him through the hole with anxious expressions. "Yeah, I'm fine", Lewis answered shakily.

"I'm going to check on him", Ash told Zane.

"Wait, shouldn't we call someone for help? What if you get stuck in there", said Zane while grabbing Ash's arm to stop him from going in the hole.

"There's no signal on our phones, remember? I'm just going to make sure that he isn't hurt, thanks for your concern though", said Ash smirking.

"I wasn't worried about you", argued Zane and quickly let go of Ash's arm.

"Yes, you were", said Ash.

"No I wasn't!" Zane said irritably.

"Whatever makes you feel better Zane", Ash said patting Zane shoulder. With that he slid down the hole, leaving a disgruntled Zane. Even though Ash knew what was coming, he couldn't stop himself from crying out in surprise. The slide down was very fast, and it took him a while to collect himself when he had landed.

"You all right?" asked Lewis offering his hand to help Ash up.

"Yeah, thanks", Ash replied taking his hand. Once Ash had stood up, Lewis let go of his hand and got out his torch.

"You have a torch? Ash asked incredulously.

"'Always be prepared'", Lewis quoted grinning at Ash.

A few minutes later they heard Zane's yelp, and turned back to the slide and saw that he had followed them.

Ash helped him get up, "What are you doing? You were supposed to go and get some rope or something, to help us get out of here", Ash said sounding exasperated.

"I just wanted to make sure you guys were ok, and what rope?" Zane said.

"He's got a point", said Lewis trying to stop another argument.

"I suppose", said Ash reluctantly.

"This place is so cool, we should have a look around", said Lewis looking at Ash and Zane silently asking for their approval. They both nodded, which caused Lewis to smile widely. They walked around the cave, "This is fascinating", said Lewis.

"Yeah, very fascinating", said Zane sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Ash who grinned at him.

"I've got to take some rock samples", said Lewis eagerly putting down his backpack and taking out equipment. Ash helped Lewis take the samples, while Zane stared at them as if they were aliens.

"Don't tell me you guys actually enjoy doing this?" Zane asked them.

"We sure do, this is actually very interesting you should try it Zane", Ash replied smirking at him.

"No, thanks", said Zane.

"Suit yourself", said Ash.

Zane made a face at Ash, and began to look around the cave by himself.

"His loss", said Lewis.

Ash agreed with him, and they went back to taking the samples. After a while Zane came back, looking excited.

"Hey guys, you've got to see this", Zane said motioning them to follow him with his hand.

Lewis and Ash looked at each other, and followed Zane. Lewis was intrigued, he wondered what could have made Zane so excited, when he looked bored minutes before. The answer to that question was answered, by the sight that greeted him when they had reached their destination. Zane had found another part of the cave, about half of which was comprised of a pool of water. Lewis stared at the pool, it looked beautiful and made him feel even more peaceful than he had felt in the forests of the island. Lewis walked towards the moon pool, crouched down and put his hand in the water. He moved his hand around in the pool, feeling as though he were one with the water.

"This is amazing", said Ash jolting Lewis out of his thoughts.

"Yeah", said Zane for once agreeing with Ash.

Lewis looked up and saw that there was a hole directly above the pool, and realised that this was an inactive volcano. "He guys look", he said pointing above him and voiced his thoughts.

"The volcano isn't going to erupt, right?" Asked Zane anxiously.

"No, it's been dormant for more than a thousand years. I don't think it's going to blow anytime soon", Ash replied reassuringly.

After a while of exploring and taking samples, Ash spoke up "Hey guys, how are we going to get out of here?"

Lewis and Zane glanced at each other with worried expressions, "I have no idea", Lewis said.

Zane shrugged and looked for a way out, he walked up to a wall of the inactive volcano and began to feel around for a secret passage.

"What are you doing? This isn't an Indiana Jones movie", said Ash.

"I'm looking for a hidden passage, there was a secret slide down here, so there might be a secret way out", said Zane.

"That actually makes sense", Lewis agreed.

"Thank you, and for the record I love Indiana Jones", said Zane and smirked in triumph at Ash, who merely rolled his eyes at Zane.

The three of them searched the walls, but had no success.

"I haven't found anything, what about you guys?" Said Ash, Zane and Lewis shook their heads to indicate that they hadn't discovered anything either.

"Aw man, it would have been so cool if there was a secret passage out of here", said Zane sounding disappointed.

Lewis turned his attention back to the pool, he knew there had to be a way out of the volcano. He crouched down again, and noticed that there was a tunnel that probably led out to the sea. "Hey guys, I think I found a way out", said Lewis. He showed them the tunnel, and explained how they could swim through it to get out.

"Lewis, have I ever told you that you are a genius", said Zane.

"Nope", said Lewis.

"Well you are", said Zane patting Lewis' back.

"I'm not sure about this", said Ash sounding worried.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Zane asked.

"Well…no not really", said Ash.

"Come on then, you'll be fine", said Zane giving Ash a reassuring smile.

"But I can't swim", said Ash anxiously.

"I'll help you", said Zane comfortingly.

"Ok", said Ash sounding unconvinced.

Lewis got in the pool first, followed by Zane and Ash. Lewis was about to swim through the tunnel, when he noticed a silver reflection on the water. He looked up, and saw that the moon was directly above the pool. Lewis pointed this out to the others, and they all craned their necks to look at the moon. It was then that one of the strangest events that Lewis had ever experienced happened. A whirlwind of bubbles leading from the moon came through the hole of the volcano, and surrounded the three of them along with a bright light. The wind that carried the bubbles, was so strong that Lewis wondered whether it would lift them out of the water. But to his relief that didn't happen, instead the whirlwind of bubbles continued to surround them for a while, and disappeared as quickly and suddenly as they had come through the hole. Silence followed the event, the trio stared at each other in shock.

"You guys saw that too right?" Zane asked nervously.

"Yeah", said Lewis and Ash nodded his agreement.

"Thank goodness, I thought I had imagined it", said Zane.

"That was incredible", said Lewis.

"Yeah, hey Ash are you ok?" Zane questioned Ash looking at him with concern.

Lewis turned to Ash with equal concern, Ash had frozen and was staring at them not blinking.

"Ash", said Lewis patting his back.

"Huh", he said and blinked a few times, "oh sorry, I spaced out".

"Ash, you scared me", said Zane in a whiny voice.

"Aw see you do care", said Ash grinning widely.

"What? No I don't", said Zane.

"Let's get out of here", said Lewis effectively stopping yet another argument. He swam out with Zane and Ash following him. It was difficult to swim through the tunnel without any goggles, but fortunately the tunnel was short and they made it without Ash freaking out.

"What now?" Zane inquired when they were out of the tunnel, and were in the sea.

"Why are you looking at me?" Lewis asked.

"Because you always think of something", answered Ash, Lewis scowled at them.

"I did mention that you are a genius right?" Said Zane nudging Lewis' arm.

Lewis' eyes lit up, and he began to think. Zane and Ash grinned at each other, and high fived.

"Hey, that's your idea face what's the plan?" Ash asked.

"We mustn't be far from the shore of Mako, so we could probably swim there", Lewis explained.

"I knew it, the boy's a genius", said Zane happily high fiving Lewis.

Ash coughed to get their attention, "Aren't you forgetting something?" He asked.

"What?" Said Zane.

Ash sighed, "I can't swim".

"Oh", said Lewis.

"Well, I could…" Zane began, but was cut off by Lewis.

"Hey, look it's my brother Lenny", he said eagerly.

Ash and Zane looked in the direction that Lewis was pointing, sure enough a figure on a boat was waving at them. They waved back, and Lewis asked for Lenny to help them and the boat came towards them. When the boat arrived, Lenny helped Ash get on first because he couldn't swim and was uncomfortable about being in the water. Lenny and Ash then helped Lewis and Zane onto the boat.

"What are you guys doing here so late?" Lenny asked incredulously.

"Can you please take as back to the harbour, we'll explain along the way", Lewis replied.

"Ok, here take these towels you all look freezing", said Lenny.

The trio took the towels and thanked Lenny. They told him what had happened, leaving out the strange event that had occurred in the pool, during the journey back. Lenny told them that his and Lewis' mum had sent Lenny to look for Lewis, when he still hadn't come back late in the evening.

"Wow that's quite an adventure, and I also wish that you and Nate would stop pranking Lewis especially as it led to this" Lenny said to Zane.

"Sorry Lenny, I'll talk to Nate but no promises", Zane said.

"Thanks for the ride back Lenny", said Ash while glaring at Zane who mouthed "What?" to him.

"You're welcome", said Lenny.

After a while they reached the harbour and Lenny parked the boat and the four boys got off the boat.

"Lewis, you and I should get back home, I have signal on my phone now so I'll let mum know you're ok". Lenny said and walked further away from them, to ring his mother.

"See you guys around?" Lewis asked Ash and Zane hopefully.

"Yeah, how about we meet up at the Juice Net Café?" Ash suggested.

"Sounds cool", Zane replied.

Lewis agreed with Zane, Lenny had finished his phone call and motioned for Lewis to go over to him.

"See you guys tomorrow", said Lewis waving goodbye.

Ash and Zane nodded at Lewis in confirmation, and waved back. Lewis turned around and jogged to Lenny. When they had reached their house, Lenny rang the doorbell. Their mother answered the door.

"Oh Lewis", she said and hugged him tightly as if afraid she would lose him again, and Lewis hugged her back. When she released him, she stepped backwards to let them go inside. She then hugged Lenny, and thanked him for finding Lewis, Lewis' father came down and hugged both him and Lenny too. His mother cooked him a late dinner, for which Lewis was very grateful, while Lewis ate his dinner he recounted to his parents what had happened and even though Lenny had heard what had happened he listened too.

Lewis was so exhausted by the events of the day that after dinner, he went straight to bed and instantly fell asleep.