Although it seems a little too coincidental, yet another awesome H2O character was visiting for the summer: Ash!

He was having a welcome-back party at his house, and everyone's invited, of course. Music blaring, couples and friends dancing, people pushing people into the pool, mermaids in the opposite corner of the yard to avoid the pool... Fun time.

Nate's dancing alone (…and badly); his lady didn't arrive yet. She finally did, with Will and Charlotte. Will goes to find Bella, while the two girls find Nate.

"Hey sweetie," Sophie said with a peck on the cheek. "How's it going?"

"Great, and… wait, is that Charlotte? You look so different!"

"Yeah, hey Nate," said Charlotte with a fake smile.

"Charlotte's my cousin. She's staying with us for the summer," cut in Sophie.

"Oh, wow. Really?" Nate wasn't very fond of Charlotte, but he was nice to her for Sophie's sake.

Charlotte glanced at the pool-avoiders hiding in the corner. "Those girls are so pathetic. Too bad they have to avoid water."

"Yeah, from the time I spent with them, they seem like they have a sort-of fear of water." Sophie always thought it was odd, but she just didn't really bother talking about it, usually.

"It's weird…" started Nate. "Because she's a mer… water lover, I mean. Sort of. I don't know, just, ummm…" He didn't get how a mermaid could want to avoid water.

Charlotte snapped her eyes toward him when she heard what he said. "What? What did you just say?"

Nate looked at Sophie, who had a questioning look about her. "Nothing, never mind."

"No, you know they're mermaids, don't you?" Charlotte said in a strangely scary voice.

Sophie looked at her like she was mental. She was very embarrassed that her cousin was acting like this (even though it was normal for Charlotte) with the boy Sophie really didn't want her relationship ruined with.

Nate's eyes widened. "I'm not crazy? I swear I saw her. I saw Bella with a tail!"

"No way! I guessed she was a mermaid, but she actually is? Ha! So much for 3 being their sacred number."

"What?" Nate was now officially clueless…

…But Sophie was totally clueless this whole time. "Wait. You think that Bella's a mermaid?"

"And Cleo, Rikki, and Emma," said Charlotte. "They're all freaks. Don't believe me? Get them wet. Ten seconds after water, watch them magically grow tails!"

Sophie took the challenge, just because she wanted it to be true. One because she didn't want to admit that both her cousin and her boyfriend were crazy. Two because she could use them to her advantage, with all the money she'd make from exposing them. She walked up to the group, water bottle in her hand. She said a brief hello to Ash, and "accidently spilled" water on Cleo's head. The mermaid screamed and ran away, the rest of the anti-pool crew, boys and girls alike, following her. Sophie also followed.