A/N hey guys, here's the next chapter, I was hoping to get it up sooner, but I haven't had enough time to type it all up. I'm already halfway through the next chapter too o hopefully if I get a lot of reviews then I'll find the motivation to type some more. Here you go, and sorry if this one isn't too interesting, but stay with me.

Chapter 11: Talks

Monday, March 14th

At the café

Rikki's POV

The girls and I are meeting here just the four of us to talk. Bella told u that she has something she wants to share with us. So, we all decided to come here after school to hear what he has to say.

Emma, Cleo, and I sit waiting on Bella because of course she was the last to arrive. Here she comes.

"Sorry I'm late, but I'm here now," Bella says rushing in.

"It's okay," Emma and Cleo say together.

"Well, now that we are all here, what did you want to tell us," I say.

"Well, there' something I haven't told you. When Lizzie and Jenna came back, I knew that I would have to tell you this. Like the two of you, I also have a twin. Um, her name is Diana, and as far as I know, she's been living with our older sister, Bethany, somewhere in America. I'm telling you now because I'm thinking about contacting them, and I want your opinion," Bella says.

"How long have you known, and why now?" I ask.

"I found out not much after I changed. I was about 11, and I ventured in my dad's study. There were picture, letters, and other thing that he sent to them and received from them. The pictures of two blonde girls, and then of the same two blondes with tails kind of made it obvious what had happened. I made copies of everything so I could be sure, and I never said anything to my parents. So, I've known since I was 11, and I decided to say something now because thing have worked out for you two, maybe it'll work for me," she says.

"And how do you think that meeting will go? Oh, I knew about you, but didn't bother until now," Emma says.

"It's not only that, but I'm afraid how my parents would react," Bella says.

"You realize that life's not exactly perfect for us right now. Sure, I have a sister, two new cousins, and an aunt, but you better believe that my mom's attitude puts quite the damper on our happy reunion," Emma says angrily.

"Emma, calm down. This is why she wanted to talk to u. although I'm not sure why I'm included," Cleo says.

"Well, we are a team, and it wouldn't feel right not including you," Bella says.

"It doesn't matter, you can't use us as a reason to find your sisters. Not after ignoring their existence for 7 years," Emma says before walking out.

"She's right, I'm a horrible person," Bella says quietly.

"No, you're not, but I do have to go so good luck," Cleo says.

"What do you think, Rikki?" Bella asks me.

"I think that it was wrong of you to ignore them all these years when you knew your dad still kept in contact with them, but I guess it's better late than never. So, you should contact them," I say.

"Thanks," Bella says.

Lewis and Cleo's house

Cleo's POV

After the café, I headed home so that I could talk to Lewis about this whole Emma and Ash thing. I told Ash I would help him out, but I feel bad just thinking about tricking her into meeting with Ash. Hopefully Lewis will help me feel better about it.

"Hey, how was your day?" Lewis says as soon as he come through the door.

"Alright, and yours?"

"Good, and why do you look conflicted?"

"Because of Emma and Ash, or more importantly what Ash wants me to do. He came to talk to me at the café before Rikki's party," I say.

"Okay well, what did he want?" he asks.

"He wants me to trick Emma into meeting him at the Italian café at 7 on Wednesday. I told him I'd do it, but I'm having second thoughts," I say.

"Well, why does he want you to bring her there?"

"Because even though he doesn't want to marry her or get back together with her, he brought a promise ring to show that he'll always be there for her and their children."

"Well that sounds great, but I don't think tricking her is the right way to go about this. Why don't you tell her what's going on, I'm sure she'll give him a chance. And you can tell her that if she needs you, we will be right across the restaurant having a nice romantic dinner," Lewis says.

"Okay, that sounds great," I say. "I'll talk to her later."

A while later

Rikki and Zane's place

The basement pool

Rikki's POV

After listening to Bella's confession, I told her that she should consider admitting to her dad that she knows the truth, and get a phone number for her siblings so that she can contact them. Since I know they are here in Australia, I figured that if she really wants to ee them, I can tell her the truth that they are actually here.

She didn't seem overly confident that she could work up the nerve to talk to her dad about this. After the last time we all told our parents, and knowing what they did to our siblings, I can understand her hestitation.

Anyways, as soon as she left, with the intent of talking to her dad, I called Lizzie and Jenna and told them to get mom and the other to come to my house so we could talk about them being here. So, here we are, and now it's time to get this show on the road.

"Okay, so obviously we are here to talk about why you girls are really here," I say.

"But before anything I said, it is important that Jenna and I both pressured them into coming here. It went so well for us, we wanted them to be happy, too," Lizzie says.

"Okay that's fair. But why did you come if you don't want to be here?" I ask.

"Well, I do want to be here. After those two left, I started to consider it more and more by the time they told us to come, I was jumping for it," Diana says.

"And I came because Lizzie told me that we might actually have a chance at being a family," my mom says.

"Well, I'm here because I didn't want them to go alone, they don't understand the rejection we faced 15 years ago. I didn't want them to go this alone," Bethany says.

"So, do you actually want to meet them?" I ask.

"Well, I do want to meet Bella and after all the letters and phone calls, I do kind of want to see my dad, but mom I can go without," Bethany says.

"That's good, at least you want to see them," I say.

"You guy didn't tell me, you were talking to your dad," Kelly says sounding a bit mad.

"We didn't want you to feel hurt, it was bad enough that we had a sibling to share this with, but to add the fact that our dad still cared enough to contact us, I thought would hurt you too bad," Bethany says.

"That's because it does hurt that bad. Everyone here has someone who cares about them except me. That's why I didn't want to come. I'll just go back to America and live my life alone," Kelly says.

"Don't do that. I'm sure they care about you, and if you really want to try with Cleo, I'm sure she'll love to meet you," I say.

"You don't understand, I don't want to force myself into her life, like these guys did, it's not right," Kelly say then gets out of the pool and starts to dry off.

"Where are you going?" Jenna asks.

"I need to be alone," I all she says before walking up the stairs.

"We shouldn't have mentioned the letters and stuff we got from dad," Bethany says to Diana.

"I'm surprised she never found out on her own," Diana replies.

"So, I know you three changed together, but how and when?" I ask.

"Well, it starts with my three best friends. For a few weeks, they started acting weird. Every time I asked, they would change the subject or make an excuse to leave. After about two months of this odd behavior, I was going crazy trying to figure out what changed. I even went so far as to try never leaving them alone so they couldn't talk about whatever it was. They got so angry that they actually screamed at me to leave them alone and ran off. I stupidly ran after them. I was so shocked when they ran into the ocean, and was even more surprised when I went in and saw their tails. Since I knew they had to come back to that spot because it was secluded, I hid and waited," she pauses to take a breather.

"What happened when they came back?" I ask.

"I forced them to tell me everything about them being mermaids. Then I told them that I thought it would be cool to become one. Of course they tried to stop me by saying that there had to be three people to become mermaids."

"So you brought along Diana and Kelly?" I ask.

"Yes, and because my friends had told me that their families were all accepting of their mermaids, I decided to tell our families, and they didn't react the same, obviously," Bethany says.

"So, you purposely became a mermaid and forced two young children to become one, too. Then you threw it in their faces that you changed their children. No wonder Kelly is bitter. At least for us it was an accident, you actually did this to them," I say.

"I know, I know. It' been the biggest mistake of my life, and I've been trying to make up for it ever sense," Bethany say looking truly sorry.

"Now you know the story, you have to help us reconnect, even if it's just with Bella and Cleo," Diana says.

"Well, Bella won't be a hard sell since she already knows about the two of you," I say quietly.

"You told her?" Bethany asks incredulously.

"No, I didn't. I found out today that she's known since she was 11. She just never said anything," I say.

"Why did she say something now?" Diana asks.

"Because of how well it worked out with Lizzie and Jenna for us, I guess that it seems like she's doing the same thing you girls are," I say.

"Okay well, maybe we should wait for her to contact us," Diana says.

"I guess, it that's what you want to do," I say.

"Yah, let her come to us," Bethany says.

At the beach

Cleo's POV

After talking to Lewis, I realized he was right saying that I should just tell Emma instead of trying to blind slide her. So, I went looking for her. She wasn't at home or work so I thought maybe she went for a swim.

As I head towards the beach, and start thinking about how the water has now not only affected my life, but the life of my child and future children. When we first became mermaids, all we ever thought about were ourselves, and how this would affect our lives, now I realize that it affects so many more.

As I continue thinking about the effects of this on my child, I realize that Emma is probably thinking about it, too, and now she feels alone because of Ash. Hopefully, I can convince her to meet with him on Wednesday.

Suddenly, someone with brown hair runs past me and straight into the water. She must be upset if she didn't realize she just showed a complete stranger her tail. Who is this mermaid? I suppose I should just follow her to find out. I get up and run into the water.

"Wow," I think. Either she's just in a hurry or she's been swimming a long time.

I see her entering the moon pool, and I head there, too. As I break the surface, I hear her muttering, "No one cares about me, every one lies and hides things. Apparently, I just don't matter…"

"Are you all right?" I ask her.

"It's none of your business, just leave me alone," she says to the wall then turns to me, opens her mouth, and pauses. "Cleo?"

"Yes, and you are?"

Her attitude seemed to come back, "No one, now leave."

"No, I'm not leaving. Tell me who you are and what'd going on," I say.

"Fine, but surely just looking at the two of us, you can figure out who I am," she says.

"Just tell me," I say.

"I'm Kelly, and my last name is the same as yours so figure it out," Kelly says

"You…i..we…" I stutter.

"Oh gosh, I'm your twin, ding dong," she says.

"Wow, I guess I don't know everything about my family," I say slowly.

"You're telling me," she says.

"So, have you always been around? And why are you upset?" I ask.

"Why do you care? You've lived your whole life without me, and you just met me," Kelly says with an attitude.

"I chased after you, not because I thought you were my sister and I should care, but because I was worried, you ran right passed me and didn't even care that you exposed your secret. It told me that something was seriously wrong, and it didn't matter who you were, I wanted to help," I say.

"Oh yah, because you're just the nice twin," Kelly says sarcastically.

"If that's what you want to believe," I say.

"You can't help me. You haven't been abandoned by your family, lied to be your best friends, and you mom hasn't found you only to tell you that she still doesn't want a fish for a daughter, but it looks like she got stuck with two fishes so I should go back home. As if that solves anything. And it wasn't like she was apologizing," Kelly says.

"But I can help with dad and Sam. And I can offer you a sister that would love to get to know you. There's also a little niece or nephew inside me that would love another aunt. Hopefully, you're better than Kim will be," I say jokingly.

"Look, I appreciate you wanting to help, but now that I'm here it just doesn't feel right. I came here for the wrong reasons, and even though it sounds nice to have a family, but it'll be forced and it'll be too late," Kelly says.

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

"I have too many problems that cause me to hate everything to do with my 'family'," Kelly says.

"But in all honesty, it's not my fault or Kim's. We didn't tell mom and dad to get away from you," I say.

"It doesn't matter, now leave me alone," Kelly says.

"Fine, I will, but think about. Just give it a chance," I say before turning and leaving.

Walking along the street

Bella's POV

After talking to the girls, I decided to tell my dad the truth. Of course I had to check that my mom wasn't home. Since she's responsive for not only kicking me out (because of the baby), but kicking my sister's out. So, I have to talk to my dad alone. I felt confident about telling my dad the truth, until I find myself at the front door. Can I really do this?

Can I tell my dad everything? As I continue to question whether or not I could do this, I suddenly find myself facing my dad.

"Bella, what are you doing standing out here alone?" my dad asks.

"I came to see you while mom's not around," I say.

"Well come in, then. I saw someone standing at the door, so I came to see who it was," he says.

"Thanks, I'm just nervous about what I need to tell you," I say…

"You can tell me anything honey," he says.

"I want you to be honest with me. Do I have sisters?" I ask.

He looks down, "Yes, you do. How did you find out?"

"That's the thing I have to tell you. I found out a couple years after a big change happened in my life," I say.

"What change?" he asks slowly.

"This one," I say before pouring a glass of water over my hand. "Dad, I'm a mermaid just like your other daughters."