Will couldn't sleep at all that night. He jumped out of bed every twenty minutes, anxiously thrusting his hand under the faucet. Time after time, nothing happened. Will knew that it took at least until the next day for anything to really happen, but he couldn't help but keep trying. Eventually he dropped down into a chair at the kitchen table and forced himself to read a book until the sun began to rise.
He managed to wait until 7am before standing and eying the sink. Nervously, he walked over to it and turned on the water. He let the cool water gently run over his hand and patiently counted to ten in his head.
"Damn it." Will muttered, feeling defeated as he twisted the knob until the water stopped running. He leaned against the sink, letting his head droop. He had been so sure this would work. As much as he tried not to, he felt terribly disappointed.
"Oh well." Shaking his head, Will grabbed his bag and headed out the door. There was a diving comp in two days and he had a lot of training to do.
"Everyone make it through all right?" Rikki wandered sleepily into the kitchen, where Cleo and Bella were already sitting at the kitchen table.
"Sure did." Bella stood to refill her glass with orange juice. "Just another uneventful full moon."
"Good." Rikki said firmly. "I'll be thrilled if we never have full moon trouble ever again."
"So will I." Cleo agreed. "I'm glad those days are behind us."
"Me too." Bella sat back down at the table. "You working at the cafe today?"
"Yup." Rikki nodded. "And aren't you as well? I thought the band had a rehearsal scheduled?"
"Oh yes, I'll be over in a couple hours." Bella said easily. "Nate has a new song he wants us to rehearse."
"Well then I'll see you there!" Rikki grabbed an apple before breezing out the door.
"I'm out too." Bella quickly checked her makeup. "I promised Will I'd stop by his training session this morning. He'll need a break from Sophie."
"See you later." Cleo called lazily, flipping through a fashion magazine.
"Oops, excuse me." Will apologized after walking into a lady walking her dog down the sidewalk. He couldn't seem to concentrate on what he was doing, all he could think about was what he must have done wrong last night. Moon pool, check. Full moon, check. In the pool with the moon overhead, double check. Will furrowed his brow in concentration as he walked. Why hadn't it worked?
"Hey Will. You're here awfully early." Bob, who managed the training pool, looked up as Will pushed the front door open. "You're my first swimmer of the day. Training this morning?"
"Just like every morning." Will said unenthusiastically, trudging his way to the locker room. He quickly changed his clothes and pulled on his swim trunks. Stretching his arms up over his head, he stepped into the locker room shower and twisted the water nozzle. He closed his eyes and let his head drop back for just a second as the water cascaded down onto his skin. After just a quick rinse he twisted off the knob and stepped out of the shower, reaching for his towel.
Suddenly Will froze. Something didn't feel quite right. Will's legs began to tingle and, before he could react, he suddenly pitched forward and landed hard on the floor. Utterly shocked, Will flipped himself over onto his back and looked down at his legs. Well, he looked at what used to be his legs.
A long, elegant, blue fin had replaced his lower half. Will stared at himself in awe, running one hand down the shimmering scales. He felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest with excitement. It had worked. Will couldn't stop the huge grin from spreading across his face. He laughed quietly to himself, moving his tail back and forth gently. He couldn't wait to get in the water.
Wait- he had to get to the ocean, he couldn't swim here, in a public pool. Flipping over onto his stomach, Will dragged himself to his bag and managed to pull his towel free. He quickly dried himself off, suddenly anxious to be out of such a vulnerable position there on the floor.
"Will?" Bob shouted from the other room, his voice growing closer. "I heard a noise, are you alright?"
Frantically, Will rubbed the towel on his skin, trying desperately to dry himself.
"Will?" Bob pushed the door open and walked slowly into the locker room. "Didn't you hear me calling?" He looked at the boy, confused. "Why are you sitting there like that?"
Will sat, stunned, on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was breathing heavily and his face was flushed as he tore his eyes away from his legs to look up at Bob.
"Stretching." Will said dryly. Shaking himself, he stood on unsteady legs and cleared his throat. "I was stretching." He repeated, his voice stronger this time. "I've got to go."
"Go?" Bob said, puzzled. "So no training after all?"
Will didn't hear him, he was to preoccupied with his thoughts. He quickly threw his things into his bag and took off out the door. "See ya!" He called with a grin as he ran outside.
Bella hung up her phone, disappointed, as she walked into Rikki's cafe.
"I didn't expect to see you in here this early." Rikki said as she wiped clean a smoothie glass.
"I didn't either." Bella said glumly. "Will isn't answering his phone and he wasn't at the training pool."
"Aw, bummer." Rikki put the glass away, looking sympathetic. "He's probably out running, I'm sure he'll turn up soon."
"Yeah." Bella said, dropping into a chair. "I'm sure he will."
The two girls looked up as someone pushed their way into the cafe through the beaded entrance.
"What are you doing in here, Sophie?" Rikki didn't bother faking a smile as Will's sister marched up to the bar.
"Have you seen Will?" Sophie said snottily, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Nope." Rikki said coolly. "He's not here, so please feel free to leave."
Sophie spun on her heel with a huff and started for the exit.
"Wait, Sophie." Bella jogged to catch her. "You can't find Will?"
Sophie paused reluctantly. "No." She sneered. "He was supposed to meet me for training this morning but Bob said he'd already taken off. Now he isn't answering his phone." She strutted away without another word.
Bella watched her go, nervously fiddling with her hair. She turned back to Rikki. "Sophie can't find Will? She practically keeps him on a leash."
"I really wouldn't worry too much." Rikki shook her head. "He's gonna turn up."
"Well he'd better." Bella said uneasily. "And soon."
Truth was, Will hadn't thought about Bella in hours. He had run straight home, dropped his bag onto the dock, and dove straight into the ocean.
It was incredible. Will didn't know how he'd ever been content with just human swimming. This was the most amazing feeling he'd ever had in his entire life and he never wanted it to end.
Will flew through the water with incredible speed, only getting faster. He hadn't needed to surface for oxygen in what felt like an eternity and he had never felt more comfortable in his skin. Well, in his scales.
Glee flowed through his veins as Will swam to the surface. He'd gone out further than he'd meant to, though he'd swum far away on purpose at first. He didn't want to accidentally bump into Cleo, Rikki, or especially Bella. He wasn't ready tell them quite yet, and he definitely didn't want them to find out about him until he was ready to show them. It was the weirdest thing, but Will found that he didn't really want them to know. At least, not yet.
He liked being able to fly through the water, alone with the sea and his thoughts. He didn't really want to have to share it with anyone else. He knew how silly that sounded, but he just couldn't bare the thought of Bella tagging along behind him as he swam.
"Geez Will, hypocrite much?" He muttered to himself. Still, he didn't spare much of a thought for Bella or the other girls. His life had changed and he couldn't imagine ever going back to the way he had been before.
He reached the surface in only a few seconds. He threw his head back, tossing water into the air. The sun was just starting to set off in the distance. With the utmost reluctance, Will slowly began swimming back to the shore. He knew he'd have a lot to answer for after disappearing for the whole day. He was sure Bella and Sophie would be angry with him for not telling them where he was.
Sophie. Will's heart sank just a fraction. Obviously training for any more diving competitions was something he'd never be able to do again. The thought of telling Sophie that he was quitting made him slightly nervous, though not nervous enough to make him that anxious. Sophie would just have to deal with it. This was his life and if he didn't want to compete any more he didn't have to.
Will took his sweet time getting back to the dock outside his boat shed. It wasn't until he reached it that he realized he didn't really know how to get out of the water.
Will quickly reviewed his options. He was too worried to swim to the beach, what if someone saw him when he was pulling himself out of the water? There was the tiny shack of a room that Zane had built, but it was locked. Will would have to wait for one of the girls to come let him out, and what if they saw something? No, that wasn't an option. Will eyed his dock apprehensively. It was definitely secluded, no one would be close enough to see him.
Will swam to the edge of the dock, determined to pull himself out. He could do this, his arms had never been stronger thanks to all the training he had been doing lately. He would pull himself out onto the deck, dry off, and get inside to safety.
Gripping the edge of the dock, Will mentally counted to three and then pulled with all his might. He managed to get himself up to his waist out of the water. He dropped himself onto the dock, hanging at the hips with his fin still submerged. Reaching forward, he dug his fingers into the space between the planks of wood that lined the dock and pulled.
It took a long time, but Will eventually managed to pull himself up out of the water to lay on the deck.
"I've got to figure out a quicker way to do that." Will muttered to himself, mentally constructing a ramp-type structure that would make getting out of the water easier.
"What the hell is this?" A shrill voice came from just a few feet away, shocking Will.
He turned his head, terrified, trying to see who had caught him.
Sophie stood, frozen, her eyes locked on Will and his fin.
"Will, what is this?" Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke.
"Sophie, I can explain." Will said desperately, pushing himself up onto his arms.
"Explain?" Sophie stepped back quickly before he could reach for her. She looked him up and down before speaking. "This..." She gestured to his lower half. "This isn't fake, is it? It's real."
"Sophie, listen, I can explain this." Will looked around quickly for his bag. If he could just towel off he could talk to Sophie without freaking her out. His bag was nowhere to be seen.
"Looking for this?" Sophie held a familiar red bag out to him. "You left it on the dock, I was going to put it away for you." She eyed Will warily, keeping her distance. "Talk."
"I will." Will said honestly. "Just let me dry off first."
Sophie let out a long exhale, obviously uncomfortable. After several awkward seconds she reached in the bag and tossed Will his towel. "Then do it. Will you be... erm, human again after you get dry?" She shuffled her feet nervously.
"Yeah." Will's brain ran at a mile a minute as he dried himself.
Sophie didn't speak as she watched him. A few minutes later Will transformed back into a young, human, man. In spite of herself, Sophie gasped. "You just-" She stammered. "I mean, Will what in the world is happening to you?"
"I can explain everything." Will tried to sound soothing. This was his sister, after all. If anyone was going to understand and accept him it would be Sophie. "Come on inside." He nodded towards his front door. "I'll tell you everything."
In all honestly, Will didn't tell Sophie everything, just the abridged version. He left out everything about Bella, Rikki, or Cleo. Other than the girls, he told his sister everything he could. He told her all about Mako Island, about what had happened that morning, about what happened to him when he touched water...
Sophie took everything in as best she could, but it was a lot to process. She nodded, and nodded, and... nodded. Will couldn't read her reaction. Had he made a huge mistake in telling her?
"Sophie?" He said after he had finished telling her everything. "Don't you have anything to say?"
"What do you want me to say, Will?" Sophie stood, pacing distractedly. "Do you want me to say that I'm cool with you being a... a merman?" She looked at him closely. "I mean damn, Will, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."
"I know it's a little incredible..." Will tried to comfort her.
"Incredible?" Sophie clenched her fists at her hips. "No, Will. Incredible is you shaving two tenths off your fastest dive. This is just..." She threw her hands into the air. "This is impossible!"
"But it is possible." Will placed both his hands on Sophie's shoulders, looking her dead in the eye. "This is real, Soph. And I need to know that you'll keep this a secret."
"Does anyone else know?" Sophie raised her eyebrows. "What you are?"
"Only you." Will said honestly.
"Will..." Sophie broke free from his grip and paced to the other side of the room. "Do you know what this could do for you? What kind of money you could make?"
"No." Will said firmly, without a trace of humor. "Soph, you can't tell anyone about this. Promise me."
Sophie met his eye for a long second before speaking. "Fine." She said grimly. "You're my brother. I won't tell anyone." Her tone softened. "I love you."
"And I love you." Will hugged her to him tightly. "Thank you, sister."
"No problem." Sophie said blankly before pulling away from him. "This is all so weird, Will."
"Yeah I get that." Will walked away, hanging his head.
"Will?" Sophie's eyes widened. "What is this?"
Will frowned. "What do you mean?"
Sophie pointed at him. "What are you doing? Stop it!"
"What are you talking about?" Will said frustratedly. "I'm just standing here."
"No, Will." Sophie had a panicked look on her face as she stared at Will's feet. "You aren't standing." She looked up at Will with open eyes. "You're hovering. Will...you- you're... flying."