Zane stepped into the wings as Rikki took her place behind the podium. She looked offstage, locking eyes with him for a long moment before turning confident eyes back to the crowd. Zane watched quietly.
"Thank you all for coming." Rikki said calmly.
The room went wild. Everyone was shouting and snapping pictures. Rikki stepped back smoothly as one reporter clumsily slung a bottle of water at her. It missed her by a mile, but Rikki's eyes narrowed.
"I'm here to talk to you and to answer questions, but I promise that if someone tosses water on this stage you won't get another word out of me." She said icily.
The room settled down quickly. Rikki looked around the room before continuing.
"I'm here today to talk to all of you about what's happened to me. About what happens when I touch water." Rikki said smoothly.
The room was in hushed silence as they looked at Rikki with wide eyes.
Rikki spoke quickly and efficiently. She told the group that something odd had happened to her a few years ago. She didn't tell them anything about Mako Island, and she left her fellow mermaids out of the story completely. She simply said that something odd had happened and that somehow one way or another she had become a mermaid.
Rikki described exactly what happened when she came in contact with water. She explained that it took roughly about ten seconds for the transformation to take place. She told everyone about her power to heat water and create lightning.
This all felt very surreal to Rikki, to be standing in front of practically everyone in their town and tell them all her biggest secret. She kept waiting to wake up from a weird and terrible dream, but it was all surprisingly real.
Rikki finished her prepared speech, careful not to mention a word about Bella or Cleo. This was where she ventured into completely untrue territory. She and Lewis had gone over their answers carefully, she just had to be cautious of getting all the details right.
"I would like to discuss my history with Zane Bennett and Lewis Mcartney." Rikki said, a tad shakily.
Zane stood at the edge of the stage. He didn't know what Rikki was about to say, but he was on alert in case she needed him to back her up.
"Zane and I began dating not long after I first began transforming." Rikki said. "He found out my secret and he's kept it. There isn't much else to tell. We broke off our relationship amicably and I recently began dating Lewis."
Zane stepped back, slightly surprised. He had expected Rikki to have more to say about the time they'd spent together. Instead, she'd summarized their entire relationship in one sentence. Zane was surprised to find that he was more than a little bit hurt at Rikki's words. He'd thought they had meant more to one another than just one sentence.
Rikki kept speaking. "Lewis and I are incredibly close." Her words were not untruthful, although they were deceptive. "He knows everything there is to know about my condition. He's conducted tests and collected scientific data. He is the person I am absolutely closest to."
Rikki's eyes flickered unwillingly towards Zane for a split second before she continued.
"Lewis, Zane and only a handful of others have known me for what I am. I decided to go public with the information and I am ready to answer questions now." She spoke.
Everyone in the room began to ask questions at once. Rikki pointed at a random reporter in the crowd.
"Thank you Rikki." The man breathed. "My question is, why now? Why come out publicly now?"
"I just felt the time was right." Rikki spoke without meeting anyone's eyes. "I was tired of keeping the secret to myself."
The room filled with further questions. "Do Zane or Lewis have any supernatural powers?" One female reporter shouted above the others.
"No." Rikki said quickly.
Lewis was swift to step up to the microphone behind her. "I have no superhuman or merman powers whatsoever." He said breathlessly.
"Nor do I." Zane stepped out of the wings and over to the podium. "Lewis and I are perfectly normal." He said clearly.
The crowd instantly began shouting out questions to the pair of boys. Lewis held his hands up in surrender and stepped back.
Zane stepped forward. "What questions do you have?" He said boldly.
Rikki's eyes narrowed a bit as Zane stepped up to the microphone.
"Did Rikki ever turn you into a merman?" A female reporter shouted at Zane.
"No." Zane laughed under his breath slightly at the question. "She doesn't do that."
"No I don't" Rikki marched out onto the stage and grabbed the microphone away from Zane. "I don't work magic on anyone." She said firmly, shooting a sideways look at Zane.
"What is next for you, Rikki?" An unfamiliar voice shouted from the crowd.
"That is up to me." a familiar voice walked towards Rikki as it spoke. Rikki stepped aside in surprise as Laurie took the microphone with confidence. He just barely managed to keep his voice from shaking with nerves as he spoke.
Laurie stood beside Rikki without meeting her eyes. Rikki looked at Lewis, confused. Lewis gave an almost imperceptible nod and winked quickly at Rikki.
"I am Rikki Chadwick's official manager." Laurie said firmly. "I will be arranging all interviews. I will set all meetings, and I will offer approval on all public appearances from now on."
Laurie looked around the room with an assertive calmness to himself. "From now on I will be approving all of Rikki's appearances. I will also be monitoring all of the testing done on Rikki Chadwick."
Rikki was glad to have Laurie's support up there on the stage. "I will be cooperating fully with the scientists here on the coast." She spoke quickly. "We will have a full report out within the end of the week."
Laurie retook charge over the microphone. "I have been monitoring Rikki since her first transformation." He lied. "She is the only known mermaid in existence." Laurie's eyes flashed meaningfully at Lewis as he spoke.
"Now," Laurie gestured for Rikki to join him at the podium. "If you have a current, authorized press pass, we would like to invite you to the marine park for a demonstration of what Rikki is capable of. We will also be setting interview arrangements at that time."
With that, Laurie took Rikki gently by the elbow and led her firmly offstage, followed by Lewis and Zane. Once out of sight, he sank down into a chair with a huge exhale. "I am so glad that's over." He breathed.
"Laurie, you were amazing out there." Rikki's eyes were wide open with shock. "How did you- Why did you- I mean, how did you come up with all of that?"
"Part Lewis, part google." Laurie rubbed his temples as he spoke. "Lewis gave me details. Google told me what a manager does."
"Thank you, Laurie." Lewis said sincerely.
Laurie met his eye. "At least I'll actually get to publish these results." His eyes narrowed as they flickered on Rikki. "I suppose that makes up for Cleo lying to me about the existence of other mermaids. But Lewis," Laurie looked him dead in the eye. "I will expect total honesty from now on. From all of you."
Zane, Rikki, and Lewis nodded seriously.
"Ok then." Laurie's face broke out into a grin. "On to the marine park? I have a car parked out back."
"Are you two coming?" Rikki looked to Lewis and Zane.
"Might as well." Lewis nodded. "I can help Laurie answer questions about you."
"I guess I'll come along as well." Zane said reluctantly.
"Don't do us any favors." Rikki said coldly.
"I'll have to do formal interviews at some point." Zane raised his shoulders. "Otherwise, everyone will keep hounding me. Might as well get it over with."
Rikki rolled her eyes as she pushed past Zane towards the door. Laurie and Lewis led the way out the door. Rikki walked with that pair in front of her and Zane close behind her. A huge crowd was waiting outside for them, but they pushed their way through.
They were just a step or two from the car when an obnoxious teenager shouted through the crowd. "Hey mermaid, catch!"
Before anyone could react, a stream of water sliced through the water and splashed onto the whole group, including Rikki. An elderly man snatched the water gun out of the teen's hands and whacked him in the back the head with it.
"Rikki, hurry!" Lewis held open the back door of the car. Lewis knew their exit would become much more difficult if Rikki transformed right there in the open.
Rikki shot a withering look at the boy before turning to dash into the car as quickly as she could. She jumped into the backseat, followed quickly by Zane. Lewis shut the door behind them and climbed into the passenger seat.
"Ugh." Rikki groaned as her familiar golden fin appeared. There wasn't much room in the backseat of the car, and she became rather smashed against Zane as her fin took up almost all the free space they had.
Laurie started the car engine and navigated them out of the parking lot.
"Sorry." Rikki muttered as she tried to position herself so that she wasn't laying right on top of her ex boyfriend.
"It's no problem." Zane's voice was surprisingly gentle as he helped Rikki readjust.
"Thanks." With Zane's help, Rikki managed to get into a half-sitting position. She met Zane's eyes and for just a moment she forgot how angry she had been with him. She was glad to have him there.
Rikki shook herself. "So, is Ally going to be meeting us at the marine park?" Her eyes narrowed.
Zane frowned. "No, she's not part of the press." He said matter of factly.
"I guess that's the only reason, right?" Rikki's voice reverted to her cold tone. Rikki held her hand out over her fin and began to dry herself. The water steamed away quickly, leaving Rikki with two toned legs.
"Wow..." Laurie said in amazement as he watched in the rear view mirror. "That is seriously cool."
"Thanks." Rikki pushed her way to sit as far away from Zane as possible. "So what's the plan for after we get to the marine pool?"
"Lewis?" Laurie waited expectantly for direction.
"We do a full demonstration." Lewis said . "Rikki, you jump into a clear water tank, change, we help you get out, and you use your power to dry yourself off. We'll tell the crowd to take all the pictures and videos they want. While we're doing that, one of us will be making interview arrangements. I hope you're prepared to do a whole lot of talking. And Rikki," Lewis added solemnly. "I really hope you're ready, because there are going to be a lot more of these. Even though it seems like a huge crowd is out there, they're all Australians. Once this story goes seriously global you're going to have people from all over the world who want to meet the mermaid."
Rikki nodded. "I know."
"And I get to be your manager." Laurie laughed. "Too cool."
The car pulled up at the marine park and drove quickly to the employee entrance. Only cars with staff IDs could get in that way. They pulled into a spot nearest to a large clear tank and hurried into the waiting room to get things set up. It only took a few minutes to get everything set the way they wanted it. They arranged a partition to separate Rikki and Laurie from the rest of the room. Zane was to work with the interviewers and Lewis was going to help wherever he could.
"Ok." Lewis rested his hand on the locked doorknob and looked to the rest of the group. "Are we ready?"
On one side of the door were four people. One of them was regretful, one one was excited, one was worried of being caught in a lie, and one was more than a little bit scared.
On the other side of the door was a crowd of people, anxious to see the mermaid in action.
"We're ready." Rikki nodded shakily.
Lewis opened the door.