Zachery Johnson stepped off of the bus and walked towards the beach, followed by a number of other guys. They were in Malibu for a surfing competition that would take place at the end of the week.

"Hey! Zach!" A brown haired boy called, running towards him.

"Hi, Billy." Zach waved at his old friend.

Zach and Billy had known each other since they were little, then Billy had moved to Malibu, so the friends hadn't seen much of each other.

Zach was tall with blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black wetsuit that was dark blue on the sides.

"So, what's up?" Zach asked.

"Well…" Billy thought a second "You're here. That's one. And there's a major surfing competition…"

"Alright, Billy. That's enough." Zach laughed, pushing some blond hair from his face "So, what's the competition here like?"

Billy snorted "You have the competition in the bag, Dude! Malibu's best surfer is a weird girl named Merliah Summers."

Zach raised an eyebrow "Weird? Meaning what?"

"Well…" He pointed towards the ocean "See for yourself."

Zach followed Billy's gaze. His eyes widened and his jaw went slack.

On a hot pink and aqua surfboard was a blond haired girl with pink streaked through her hair, which was pulled up in a ponytail. She was wearing a mid-calf length light pink surf skirt with a short sleeved shirt that matched.

"Wow." Zach breathed as he watched her ride the waves, a couple other girls behind her. Even from the distance, he could tell that she completely loved what she was doing. Her smile could have lit up a city block at two-o-clock in the morning.

"Zach." Billy said, waving his hand in front of his friend's face "Hey! ZACH!"

The blond blinked and turned his attention to Billy "What?"

The other boy just rolled his eyes "Nothing." Then he jogged off.

Zach watched as the blond girl, what had Billy said her name was? Oh, Merliah Summers, rode up to the shore and jumped off her board.

Her, apparently, friends came in right behind her, and they started laughing.

Merliah looked up at him just then and cocked her head while raising an eyebrow. She stuck her board in the sand then started walking towards him.

Zach stepped back a bit uncertain. He could already feel his voice leaving.

"Hi." She said when she reached him "You must be here for the competition."

Zach nodded "Yeah." He smiled "I'm Zach Johnson."

"Leah Summers."

"Leah?" He raised an eyebrow, his smile growing wider.

She nodded "Yeah… it's easier than saying Merliah all the time."

Zach chuckled "Yeah. I know that feeling."

Leah glanced back at the ocean and cleared her throat "Well… I've got to run." She sent him a small wave "Later?"

"Definitely." Zach nodded.

A slight pink tint came to the girl's cheeks, and then she rushed away.

When she reached her friends, Fallon took one look at her and smirked "Is it me, or are you blushing?"

Leah covered one side of her face "No… I'm just… hot."

"Hot?" Fallon crossed her arms "Leah, it's only, like, 72 degrees."

Hadley suddenly gasped "Ooh! You like…"

"Hadley!" Leah clamped her hand over the other girl's mouth "Hush! And no, I don't. I don't even know him!" she placed her hands on her hips "And besides, he's my biggest competition."

"So was Kylie." Hadley pointed out. Kylie's an Australian surfer.

A couple years back, she and Leah had been rivals. But after a series of events where Kylie helped Leah save her Mermaid home, they had become best friends. They met up in Oceana all the time.

"Speaking of Kylie…" A thick Australian accent said behind them.

The three girls spun around.

"Hey!" Leah squealed, hugging the girl "What are you doing here?"

Kylie shrugged "I came in with the Australian surfers."

"Leah met a boy." Hadley blurted.

Leah rolled her eyes "Seriously? Nothing happened!"

"What's his name?" Kylie asked.

"Zack Johnson."

The Australian girl started laughing "You met Zachery Johnson? He's the best guy surfer in Australia!"

"You know him?" Leah asked slowly.

"Oh yeah." Kylie nodded "We talk a lot. Actually…" she looked around and spotted the boy in question "Hey, Zach! Come here."

The boy looked over at her, his eyes flicked to Leah then back to Kylie "What?"

"Come here!" Kylie repeated.

Zach finally obliged and jogged over "Yeah?"

"Zach these are my friends, Fallon, Hadley," then she smirked "And I think you've already met Merliah."

Zach nodded "I have." His smile reached all the way up to his ocean blue eyes.

"Grab your board, Zach." Kylie said, pointing to a dark blue and green board several yards away "And let's hit the waves!"

Zach shrugged "Sure."

When he was out of earshot, Kylie leaned over to Leah "I actually side with your friends on this one. He likes you."

"He doesn't even know me!" Leah hissed.

"C'mon!" Fallon called, grabbing her board from the sand "Let's go!"

Zach joined them as they paddled out into the water.

Leah glanced over at him and smiled, then she stood up and started surfing. The others followed, doing an occasional trick here and there.

"Woohoo!" Kylie shouted "This is the life!"

Zach laughed "Agreed!" he looked over to Merliah to see her pull her hand out of the water. For a split second, he thought he saw something blue and sparkly come from her fingertips "It must have been the sun reflecting off the water." He thought.

All of the sudden, Leah let out a sharp gasp, and then tumbled off of her surf board.

"Leah!" The three girls cried in unison.

Then all four of them dove into the water.

Kylie pointed to the figure of a girl slowly sinking to the ocean floor.

The girls swam down and grabbed her arms, then quickly swam back to the surface. They gasped as soon as they broke through the water.

"Let's get her back to land." Fallon said needlessly as they began to swim for the shore.

They pulled Leah up to the beach and laid her on the sand.

"Leah." Kylie said, shaking the blonde's shoulders gently "Leah. Wake up."

"What happened?" Hadley asked.

Zach shrugged "I don't know. She just fell off."

"But she gasped first." Fallon added.

Kylie looked back at the ocean "She did that before. It must be that sixth sense thing."

The three girls sent each other a knowing glance, then Kylie jumped to her feet "I'm going to go get our surf boards." She said, placing a hand over her shell necklace, letting the girls know what she was really doing "I'll be back." Then she dove into the water.

Zach looked from the ocean, to the two girls, down to Leah, then back up at the other two girls confused "What happened? What sixth sense thing?"

"Oh, nothing." Fallon and Hadley said together.

Kylie swam to Oceana as fast as she could "Leah suddenly passing out has to be because something extreme happened down here."

As she swam, she didn't know if it was just her, but it felt like the water was getting seriously colder.

She swam over the last hill between her and Oceana. When she spotted the city, she gasped, stopping dead in her tracks.

Oceana was covered in a thick lair of ice!

"Oh my word." She breathed as she stared at the underwater kingdom "No wonder she passed out. If this happened suddenly…"

She slowly swam through the building, heading for the castle.

There was no movement anywhere. It was dead silent.

"Kylie!"

She spun around to see the sparkly pink dolphin, Zuma, swimming towards her.

"Zuma!" Kylie exclaimed "What happened?"

"Well…" Zuma looked around "I guess I don't need to tell you that we're covered in ice."

"I can see that." The mermaid crossed her arms "But how?"

"Don't know." Zuma answered "It was so sudden, no one saw it coming!"

"Is everyone okay?"

"I don't know. I just now was able to break through the ice that was over the palace door." Zuma looked around before turning her attention back to Kylie "I wonder why Merliah isn't here. I thought she might have been able to sense the danger."

"Well… she did." Kylie tittered "And she kind of… passed out."

"What!?"

"We were surfing!" the mermaid tried to explain "Then she suddenly gasped and fell off her board!"

"You need to make sure she's okay." Zuma said "Now that she has the power of Meriliah, she can feel when the ocean is dying."

"So, you're telling me that if this ice spreads, she can feel it every time a different part of the ocean dies?" Kylie asked slowly. She could only imagine what that felt like.

"Yes." Zuma answered "You go back to Merliah. I'm going to try to break people out of their houses."

"Wait! How's Calissa?"

Zuma looked back at the castle "You don't want to know."

"Is she…?"

"Frozen?" Zuma turned to swim away "Now quite. But real real close."