"Are you guys going to be at my show this afternoon?" Cleo asked her friends. She was met with a chorus of "definitely"s and "we'll be there"s. "Great," Cleo said. She gathered her things and headed to the marine park. She got dressed and placed the microphone on her head. People were starting to fill into the bleachers. Everyone took their place.

The show went well…until halfway through it. As Cleo turned to face the dolphins flip up into the air, she felt water creep up her legs. Before she knew it, she was a mermaid. Bella, Rikki, and Emma stood up. Rikki created steam to hide the transformation. The steam dispersed and Cleo sat on the water's edge in shock, staring at her tail. The crowd was amazed. Nobody said a word. Laurie was the first to recover.

"Nice magic trick, Cleo!" he said. The audience was slow to clap, but eventually the stands shook with their cheers. Cleo faked a smile and hoped it looked genuine. She looked over at the audience and saw Charlotte smirking. She turned and walked down the steps. Cleo was blinded by camera flashes.

Soon, the show wrapped up and Laurie jogged to where Cleo was sitting. Emma, Rikki, Bella, and Will jumped from the bleachers and joined their friend, careful to stay away from the water as much as they could.

"What's going on?" Laurie demanded, looking each of the girls and Will in turn. When nobody piped up, he asked again.

Cleo motioned for the others to kneel beside of her. Cleo rolled over on her stomach and pulled herself out of the water so that Bella, Emma, and Rikki wouldn't get wet. "We have to tell him," Cleo whispered.

"We've told enough people already," Rikki argued. "We might as well tell the whole world out secret!"

"How could something like this happen and then not be able to explain it to her boss?" Bella whispered back.

"Bella's right," Emma agreed.

"How about we just get her dried off and think of a plan later?" Will asked.

Rikki held her hand out, ready to steam-dry Cleo, but Emma smacked it away. "Not here!" she said.

"There's a storage closet not far from here," Cleo stated. "We could go there."

Will picked up Cleo and they all walked to the closet that Cleo had mentioned. Setting her down, Will said, "You're heavy."

Cleo just nodded. Rikki held out her hand again and steam began to fill the room. A few seconds later, Cleo had her legs back; Bella helped her to her feet. "What're we going to tell Laurie?" Cleo asked, fiddling with her fingers.

"A magic trick, like he said?" Rikki offered.

"The costume idea doesn't always work, Rikki."

"We'd have to tell him the truth," Emma said plainly. "Maybe not the whole truth, but just part of it, like you told your family."

Everyone thought for a moment. "If it's the only plan we've got, let's go with it," said Rikki. "There's no point in staying in here the rest of the day."

"Alright," said Cleo. She opened the door that led to the outside world. She sat down and patted the seat beside of her, wanting Laurie to sit down. "This is kind of a lot to swallow…" She began. Cleo told Laurie the tale of the mermaids. The others filled in details or covered for her if she accidentally started to tell the whole truth. Laurie didn't say anything during or after the story. Cleo bit her lip, waiting for him to speak.

"So, you're telling me that you're a mer…mermaid," he finally said. He thought for a moment. "Word about this is going to get out soon. Your 'magic trick' went unadvertised. This can't be a one-time thing."

Cleo sighed. "I kinda figured that…"

"I'll get you a raise if you do a-a, um, mermaid show?" he offered.

"She can't," Rikki said quickly. "Too close to the secret getting out."

"I don't have a choice, do I? Mrs. Getty will hear about this eventually and what will we do then?" Cleo said. "Right now we can tell her that this was a trial thing and hopefully she won't be that angry for doing this without her notice."

"Speak of the devil," said Bella. She saw Mrs. Getty walking towards them. Her expression was unreadable.

"What's going on? I've had countless people come up to me saying they loved the mermaid during the dolphin show! What mermaid?"

"It was something we were experimenting on," said Laurie. "We thought a mermaid might bring us more popularity and, obviously, it worked!"

Defying everyone's expectations, Mrs. Getty didn't say anything except, "Keep it up. I'll have someone make flyers tonight and you can have your 'mermaid show.' It starts next week." She turned on her heel and walked away, clipboard in her hands.

(Next week, marine park) ~

Making sure no one was looking, Cleo dove into the pool. She swam down to the window where visitors could see into the tank. There was a small crowd sitting there (on the other side of the window, of course) waiting for the show to begin. Once positioned in the middle of the window, Cleo waved at the little girls sitting on their parents' laps. There were some boys there, too, but they didn't seem to be nearly as interested in this as the girls. But some of them were. Cleo did a back flip in the water and other tricks she had planned. By the end of the show, the audience was quite entertained. After that, Cleo was to sit in the middle of the park in mermaid form for people to get pictures with her. Then after that, she still had to do the dolphin show. It was a long day. But she did get the raise Laurie had mentioned.

Cleo walked through her front door at exactly eight-thirty that night. Her family had already eaten, so she grabbed a snack and a juice. She read a book for a little while and then, exhausted, fell quickly asleep.

(Charlotte's bedroom) ~

Charlotte huffed, clutching the flyer she received of the "Gold Coast Mermaid." Her plans were always failing. She couldn't the girls' secrets exposed! She thought harder. The only way to get them would have to be in the Moon Pool. That was it. This would be fool-proof. She grabbed the phone on her bedside table and dialed the local news crew. It would be tricky persuading them, but she would somehow get them there. She had to.

"Hi, um, yes," said Charlotte said after the news station answered. "I have your newest top story." They discussed the details for a few minutes. "So you'll meet me in a week from Tuesday? At four o'clock? Thank you." Charlotte smiled evilly.

~ (With Cleo, Emma, Rikki, & Bella, halfway between the Moon Pool and the mainland)

The girls had decided to take a break on their swim to the Moon Pool. They watch the colorful fish swim and played a game of tag amongst the coral. Emma noticed something move beside of her. She looked over to catch the end of a large white tail. Emma followed it. The tail was long and there was a dorsal fin running along the length of it. Pale arms extended where the tail began. It was a normal arm, followed by a regular looking hand, but the fingers were webbed. There was a familiar mass of red hair at the top of the body. When the hair moved away from the neck, Emma thought she saw something that looked like…gills. The strange-looking mermaid swam to where Emma's three friends were. By their shocked expressions, Emma's suspicions on the mermaid's identity were confirmed. It was Charlotte. But I thought she wasn't a mermaid… Emma thought. On the beach…This doesn't make any sense. Rikki motioned for everyone to surface, so they could talk.

Charlotte was the last to come out of the water. The instant her entire neck came out the water, her tail disappeared and her legs reappeared. She was having a hard time treading the water.

"Explain," Rikki demanded.

"Well, if you step into the Moon Pool during a full moon at the time it lines up with the top of the volcano, you're a mermaid," Charlotte explained as if talking to young kids.

"Why?"

"It's magic. I don't know why it happens, it just does. I thought you knew that already." Charlotte slipped under the water accidentally. Her tail reformed for a second, but then legs took its place when Charlotte started to tread again.

"I meant, why did you go back a second time? How did you know that you'd be a mermaid a second time?"

"My powers started to come back. Why am I explaining this? I just wanted you to see that I was a mermaid." Charlotte turned and dove into the water. She swam away quickly, leaving the other four girls to eat her bubbles.

I didn't know what to have Cleo do for the mermaid show. The only mermaid show I went to was the Wiki Watchee (I think that's how it's spelled) show in Florida when I was eight. And there weren't enough mermaids for her to that. (They performed The Little Mermaid in the water! Lol.) If have an idea for a mermaid show, let me know.

(P.S. The "eat her bubbles" thing came from my sister's swim team. Instead of "eat my dust" they write "eat my bubbles" on them instead.)

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