The three of us were silent as we walked up to the car. Bella paused at the side of the Jeep—waiting for Jet and I to catch up. I gave her a small smile as I passed her and walked around to the driver's side.

"Where are your shoes?" Bella asked Jet, covering her mouth a bit to keep from laughing. I was thankful she didn't inquire about his missing shirt too.

"Don't have any," Jet said as he climbed in the front seat and Bella hopped in the back. I widened my eyes at him in frustration. Didn't he know we were supposed to protect our secret no matter what? Not coming up with a probable explanation for why he didn't have any shoes with him definitely fell into the protecting part of the secret. Jet clearly didn't care though. He returned the look I gave him, adding an unfazed "what?"

I rolled my eyes. "He left them at home," I said, trying to save the already horrible situation. Between Bella mysteriously showing up on the deserted beach and Jet's cryptic remarks towards her, I was surprised that they weren't shouting interrogations at each other.

"Oh. I prefer to be barefoot on the beach too," Bella said, smiling again. If she was suspicious of us, just as we were of her, she didn't show it. She was so bubbly—it was impossible not to smile back at her—well, it was impossible for me. Jet stared straight ahead, his eyes narrowed on a tree in front of the car. The tree could have burst into flames from the intensity of his glare.

I started the car. Turning it around, I travelled back down the dirt road I had driven over only a few hours ago. The sun was only just starting to set—I could already tell that summer was coming—the days were getting longer. Only a week ago I wouldn't have been able to stay out as long as Jet and I did today without it getting dark. We were very quiet as I drove. I wanted to say something—start a conversation with Bella, but I couldn't think of anything to ask her other than "Can you turn yourself into another form?" I knew Jet certainly wasn't going to start talking. He just sat next to me—still shooting lasers through the windshield.

Thankfully, Bella spoke up. "So, how long have you lived here, Marina?" she asked, leaning forward and gripping the back of the seat to better hear my answer.

"My whole life," I said.

"That's really cool," she said, "You probably don't think so, but I kind of wish I had that. Moving around so much is hard. And it gets tiring." I nodded as if I understood.

"Yeah, it must be difficult to have to constantly start over," I said. I wondered if Bella moving a lot wasn't because of her father's work. What if it had nothing to do with his job and everything to do with some secret she was harboring? I thought about it for a moment. If my family was outed as shapeshifters would we pack up and disappear to another state or country? Yes. I knew the answer immediately. My father would have us gone that night. Nothing mattered more than our safety and the protection of our family secret. If the same held true for Bella then she had spilled her secret an awful lot. That was if she was even keeping a secret.

"So, I guess I'll have to get you show me around. Living here your whole life, you must know all the good restaurants and hang out spots," Bella smiled at me. I nodded, smiling back. "What about you John? How long have you lived here?" she asked.

"Since seventh grade," was all he said.

"Where did you live before this?"

"Colorado."

"So, you must prefer the mountains to the beach," Bella said, bringing up our conversation from the beach—which was probably the worst thing she could have done.

"Definitely," Jet said. Then, trying to sound innocent, but it sounded more sickly sweet, he asked, "Why do you like the beach better? Does it have something to do with the water?" I watched her reaction in my rearview mirror. I thought I caught a hint of fear in her eyes but it quickly disappeared. I didn't jump to her rescue this time—actually wanting to hear how Bella would answer Jet's questions.

She shrugged. Trying to seem like the questions didn't bother her? "I guess I just really like the ocean," she said. Jet gave me significant look. "It's so pretty, you know? It calms me." I gave him a look back. Jet didn't say another word until after I had dropped Bella off at her house.

"She's hiding something," he said as soon as we pulled away from the waterfront cottage, "And don't try to defend her, I know you suspect something too."

"Fine," I said, "Yes, I think she's keeping a secret, but it could be anything."

"Like being able to transform into water?"

"Transform into water?" I asked skeptically, "'You're crazy. Did you ever think that maybe she's afraid of water? That that's her secret?"

"She didn't sound afraid of it just now. It almost sounded like she was in love with it." He paused, thinking for a moment. "No," he said frowning, "it's something bigger than fear." I didn't want to admit it, but I agreed with Jet. Whatever Bella was hiding, it was important. Half of me wished she was a shapeshifter too, while the other half was trying to convince myself that Bella's secret had nothing to do with my own. I found my thoughts drifting to the mermaid I had seen. She was proof that shapeshifters weren't the only supernatural beings in the world. If shapeshifters and mermaids existed, what others were out there? Witches? Fairies? Vampires? I shuddered at the thought of the last one. Was it possible that Bella was one of those, or even something else?

Neither Jet nor Bella were anywhere to be found when I got to school the next morning. It was odd—not seeing Jet standing at the edge of the parking lot waiting for me. We had a deal—one would drive to school, in the morning, while the other would get to run. That way, at the end of the day, there would be a car for the two of us to drive home in. It was easier to travel as a wolf in the early morning than in the afternoon when there were a lot more people up and on the road. We usually switched on and off for who would have to drive, but I've been driving for the past month. Every morning I would find Jet leaning against the same tree with his arms crossed over his chest in his typical shorts and t-shirt. But, today the tree was bare. I went inside to see if I could find Bella, but she too was M.I.A.—which wasn't so surprising since I didn't actually know where her locker or her first class were.

So instead I got my things and went to sit with Tommy and Grace before the first bell rang. Tommy asked me where Jet was and I told him I didn't know. He seemed just as surprised that I didn't know where Jet was as I was that Jet hadn't been waiting for me. The three of us talked about the new movie that was coming out this weekend—nothing that exciting. I began thinking about the little information I had discovered about mermaids the night before. My search hadn't turned up anything interesting. The hits were mostly for movies and T.V. shows involving mermaids—a lot about The Little Mermaid. I had to scroll through five pages worth before I found anything that even remotely suggested mermaids existed—and after exploring the information a bit I decided that the site was questionable.

Ten minutes later I headed off to my Journalism class, where we talked about the importance of a good headline. I was a bit distracted though. Jet's disappearance bothered me more than it should have. Where was he? Was he even in school? Jet never got sick though—well, at least not since he moved here. And he wouldn't ditch, not unless something extremely important came up—like someone died. Oh God. What if someone did die? What if he died? No, no. I shook my head. That was ridiculous. I was sure Jet hadn't died overnight. I pulled my phone out of my bag, and, hiding it under the top of my desk, I texted Jet—asking him where he was and if he was okay—just in case.

Jet still hadn't texted me back by the time I got to American History two hours later and, inside, I was an emotional wreck. I kept telling myself that I was overreacting—that Jet was fine—but every time I got close to believing that was true my brain came up with some other crazy scenario that would have resulted in Jet's absence. I had already been through him sleeping late, a relative getting sick, a relative dying, him choking on his breakfast, him being seen while shifting, him being hit by a car, him being shot by hunters—the last two probably being the worst but they were all pretty bad.

When Bella slid into the seat next to me again, I smiled at her—pretending I wasn't still freaking out inside. Today she wore teal shorts and a short sleeved light pink shirt. Remembering the coral shorts she wore yesterday, I wondered if she had a thing for bright colored pants.

Thinking I'd solve at least one of my problems from the morning, I leaned closer to Bella and said, "Hey, I looked for you this morning, but then I realized I didn't know where your locker was." I chuckled a bit at my own stupidity to empathize the absurdness of the situation. She laughed a bit too, and again I wondered what big secret she was harboring. Maybe Jet and I were just being paranoid—maybe whatever secret she had wasn't that big a deal.

"Oh, it's just down by the library," Bella told me.

"Oh okay," I said, "I'll have to look for you there tomorrow then." She nodded and smiled. I was about to turn to face the front of the room when Bella spoke again.

"Yeah, I saw Jet down there this morning." Relief washed over me like a rolling ocean wave, but then confusion hit me like a crashing one.

"Jet?" I asked, "Where?"

"In the library," she said as if that was the obvious answer. I frowned—Jet never went to the library. He always insisted that there wasn't anything in the books there that couldn't already be found online.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Bella said eyeing me suspiciously, "we sat together and talked a bit before class. He said he was there doing some research for some stupid algebra essay he had to write."

"Algebra essay?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Yeah, weird right? Who assigns essays for a math class?" She rolled her eyes and faced forward again. I huffed to show my agreement, and turned back to my own desk. I didn't tell Bella that there was no algebra essay. I should know—Jet and I are in the same algebra class. But then why did he tell Bella that was why he was in the library? What was he really doing there? And whatever it was, why was it so important that he couldn't wait for me outside or even bother to tell me where he was?

I dipped my hand inside my jeans pocket and pulled out my cell phone again—still no texts. What was Jet up to?