Tears filled Emma's eyes as she swam away from the other girls. Her talk with Ash had left her feeling emboldened, but when she saw Rikki and Cleo with Bella…her confidence fell apart. Why was she so insecure all of a sudden?

Emma glanced behind her shoulder quickly, a rush of water hitting her cheek. Two mermaids were swimming after her. Rikki was barely five meters away and gaining. She had gotten much faster since they'd last swam together, or perhaps Emma's emotions were making her slow. Cleo, as always, was far behind and dropping farther. If she could lose Rikki and be alone…

She swam randomly as fast as she could all around the Great Barrier. The ocean was a rush of colors. But Rikki stayed—literally—right on her tail. Couldn't Rikki see that she wanted to be left alone?

Eventually Emma found her way to shore and pulled herself under a dock. She could tell Rikki to get lost and go explore the island with Bella.

"Go away." She said angrily. Rikki probably had no idea why she was upset.

Rikki stubbornly swam up next to Emma. Cleo was nowhere to be seen.

"You have to tell me what's wrong." She said. "Otherwise, we can't fix it. Did something happen this morning? Or was it on your trip?"

Emma could be stubborn, as well. "As if you care."

"I do, you know that! Don't you know how much we've missed you?" Rikki exclaimed.

"You sure aren't acting like it." Emma said with tears in her eyes. None of this was coming out right. She sounded like a bratty toddler.

"What did we do wrong?" Rikki asked.

Emma took a deep breath to calm herself down. She wasn't going to cry. She was going to calmly explain how she'd been feeling since she got back.

"You guys never told me about Bella being a mermaid." She started. "That made me feel left out. Every time I started talking about my trip you or Cleo would interrupt, like you don't care what I've been doing. You don't even look at me, just at Cleo and Bella. It's as if I'm not even here. You all probably wish I was still gone!"

She took several more deep breaths to stop crying. Rikki shook out her long, wet hair.

"We didn't mean to…I didn't mean to." She apologized. Well, as close to an apology as Rikki would ever get. "Cleo and I missed you a lot, we just want you to fit in. I can't speak for her, and because she's not here I can't tell you how she's feeling but you really need to know…"

"Know what?" Emma asked.

"When you left, you didn't give me much warning. I had a week to even process the fact that you were leaving. And then you just stopped texting me, you didn't call or write….how was I supposed to tell you about Bella, or anything else that happened?"

"Oh. Right." Emma said, feeling dumb. She didn't think about how her departure had affected Rikki and Cleo. And she wasn't able to contact them after her phone broke. She couldn't even remember their numbers, as they'd been on speed-dial.

"Yeah, right." Rikki said. "And it wasn't easy at first with Bella. To be honest, I was not accepting of her. But I got to know her better and we became really good friends. I think that's what will happen with you and Bella, if you give it time."

Emma laughed and wiped her eyes. "When did you get so wise?"

Rikki laughed, too. They both stared out at the ocean.

"Come on." Rikki finally said, scooting awkwardly back into the water. "We should find Cleo and get back to the lagoon. It's getting dark."

Emma grabbed her arm. "One more thing…why didn't you guys invite me to explore with you?"

Rikki stared at her with big, condescending blue eyes. "Cleo and I texted you at least five times each to tell you where we were."

Emma sighed in relief. "Sorry, I never looked at my phone! I'm getting so paranoid."

"I can agree with that." Rikki laughed. "Let's go."

Both girls made their way back into the water and swam around until they found Cleo. Emma smiled as she looked at the girls beside her. Everything was back to normal.