*Bella Edwards*

Okay, I'm happy for how everything worked out between Lainey and Blake, but honestly! WILL THEY STOP THE LOVEY-DOVEYNESS ALREADY?

"Guys!" I practically shouted at them as we were trying to study for a science test (definitely not our strong point) but were interrupted as Lainey and Blake stopped to kiss every 30 seconds. "We're TRYING to study here!"

Lainey rolled her eyes from her spot beside Blake. "You are so dramatic Bella. We can study for science in a bit, kay?"

I clenched my fists angrily as I spoke. "Dude, it's like 8:00 already! WE HAVE NO TIME LEFT!" A glass of water next to Blake started bubbling.

"Calm down Bells," said Nicole in an annoyed tone. "Let them fail the test if they want to."

I sighed and unclenched my fists just before I would have scalded Lainey and Blake.

Lainey and Blake. Blake and Lainey. That's all the world seems to revolve around anymore. Seriously, this is getting super annoying. I looked at the clock again and decided it was getting pretty late.

"Alright, well, I have softball tryouts tomorrow so I need to get to bed early, so you all need to GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" No one was surprised by my assertiveness. They could tell how irked I've been for the past few weeks of the whole Lainey/Blake thing. Nicole just shrugged and got up with a "See ya,", but Blake and Lainey were a little… distracted.

"Lainey," I tried to say calmly, but failed. "Could you PLEASE get your lips off of your boyfriend and get to your own house already?"

She reluctantly agreed and shot me a dirty look. I just rolled my eyes. She and Blake got their things and headed out the door, giving each other these lovey stares that just about make me want to puke.

The truth is, I do like romantic things. I love movies like the Princess Bride, Titanic, Twilight, and such. But I think that seeing all of this in real life makes me want to gag. There might be a just a little jealousy involved in this, but not a lot. I swear. Really. I mean it…

Okay fine, there was a LOT of jealousy involved in this! I just wish that I had someone like that. But with all of this crazy mermaidness, there isn't a possible way I could start a relationship. Lainey got lucky. It was only their time together as best friends for years before that made this work for them. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure Blake wouldn't have been so okay with Lainey and us being mermaids.

I'm also sort of annoyed with Blake's attitude lately. Every time we want to go swimming, he freaks out saying that someone might see us. We tell him that we've done it before he ever even knew about the secret, but he still persists we be careful a million more times. Lainey thinks it's cute. I think it's annoying.

I sighed as I put my science book into my bag and accepted in my head that romance was not an option. Neither was acing the science test.

I made a stop in the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my hair before climbing onto my bed and quickly turning off the light, landing in my soft bed of pillows and stuffed animals.

That night, all I dreamt about was Lainey and Blake kissing. So much for beauty sleep.

I yawned as I crawled out of bed the next morning and walked to my bathroom. I looked into the mirror and realized I looked like crap from my wonderful sleep last night. Well that was fabulous. I grabbed a brush and yanked it in my hair, then brushed my teeth and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

I could hear my older brother talk about all of his success stories while eating his favorite cereal. I rolled my eyes as I jumped down from the stairs and walked into the kitchen. There he was, the great Peter Edwards, high GPA, top of the honor rolls, football star, overachiever… I loved him and all, but I think that his great achievements always made me feel so self conscious. Maybe that's why I turned out to be shy around people I'm not close to.

He was talking about some football game. I didn't really care. I just grabbed a bagel, popped it in the toaster, and found a banana to eat.

"Bella dear," called my father. "Did you hear that Peter did this, and Peter did that, and blah blah blah blah blah…" I sort of droned it out and answered every few seconds with an "Oh my gosh, that's so great!" No one ever even asked how my life's going. Not like I'd actually tell them about everything in my life.

Once I was done with my breakfast, my mom came in and frowned, noticing that Peter was eating healthy granola cereal and there were the tell-tale crumbs of my bagel on the counter. "Honey," my mother said in a disappointed tone, so it was obviously meant for me. "Look at Peter! He eats healthy breakfasts that give you enough energy for the day. Why are you eating bagels and fruit? For one thing, bagels aren't very good for you, and secondly, you should really eat more than just some bread and some fruit! Are you trying to be anorexic or something?" I sighed. This conversation again.

My mom always thinks that I don't eat a lot because I'm trying to lose weight. And I can tell you this, that's not the case. From our studies, Nicole, Lainey and I could burn off anything we eat that day with just one half-an-hour swim, because of the energy we use swimming that fast. So if I wanted to lose weight, I'd go swimming 3 times a day, not eat light breakfasts. The real reason I didn't eat a lot this morning was because I just wasn't hungry.

I sighed and answered no. To make my mom happy, I grabbed some of the same cereal Peter was eating and poured some into my bowl. I didn't even like the cereal. It was pretty gross.

After finishing the rest of my breakfast, I ran upstairs and stepped into my walk-in closet. After a while of thinking, I picked out an off-the-shoulder grey top with a few blue splatters on the front, cute rubber bangles all up my arms in different colors, a pair of dark blue cut-offs, and some matching navy blue flip flops. I stopped in the bathroom again to put on my trademarked pink lipstick (I am in LOVE with that stuff!) and some mascara and a few sparkly barrettes in my straightened hair from the night before. I looked at my outfit before I left and thought of the day we went shopping that day at the mall before we had decided to go swimming. That was the day Blake found out about us, and the day everything got all out of whack.

We haven't gone shopping together since, mostly because Lainey is always a bit "busy at the moment." That's what she told us whenever we asked her to do something with us. We only saw each other at school and at our daily swims. Not even Blake can get in the way of those.

I did a quick spin in front of the mirror before approving my outfit and heading back downstairs to walk to school.

I grabbed my bag and was about to go outside until I heard a faint sound from the inside of my bag.

Hey hey you you I don't like your girlfriend!

No way no way, I think you need a new one,

Hey hey you you I could be your girlfriend!

I reached into my bag to grab my cell phone. It was Nicole. I tapped the answer button on the touch screen phone. "Hey Nicole, what's up?"

"I was just making sure you were getting a ride to school today."

"Why would I need a ride to school? I only live a few blocks away."

She sighed from the other end. "Just look out your window. You'll see what I mean." Then she hung up.

I creased my forehead as I set the cell phone back into my bag. What did she mean? I walked over to the main window in the living room and pulled aside the blinds in the window.

I groaned internally as I took in the sight before me. It was wet. Really wet. There were huge puddles all over the ground, and the trees above our house were soaking wet, dripping rain. There was a slight trickle of rain still left over from the rainstorm that must have occurred the night before. This was going to be super fun.

I walked into my mom's little office in our house. "Mom?" I asked. "Do you think you could drive me to school?"

She creased her forehead. "Why?" She went back to her paperwork, half-listening.

"Well…" I tried to come up with a good excuse. She looked away from her papers as she had noticed the silence and waited. "I guess I just don't want to ruin my shoes in all of the water."

This was actually a very lame excuse, since these are the shoes I used to wear to the beach all the time, so I never would have minded them getting wet if I wasn't a mermaid. Luckily, my mom didn't notice.

She sighed and checked her watch, then seemed to make a decision. She shrugged and got on her raincoat hanging on a hook next to her. "Why not?"

I prayed to God silently in my head, thanking Him for letting her drive me and begging Him for it to stop drizzling by the time I got to school.

On my way out I grabbed my umbrella that was painfully small. I took a deep breath as I stepped outside. After a few cautious steps from the house to the garage, I was finally safe. I sighed as I got inside the garage and into the car. Now I just had to deal with getting out of the car once I got to school.

After a short drive to school with my mom babbling on about how her health courses on online college were going for her (that's why she's been such a health freak lately), we arrived at the school. My eyes widened as I took in the huge puddles and rain that were in a plethora on the school grounds. (A/N: I love that word… even though I'm not sure if I used it right!) I panicked in my head as I wondered what to do.

"Well?" My mom asked, concerned. "Aren't you going to go in?"

I nervously glanced at the ground before me and instantly knew that if I attempted to go out there, I'd pop a tail before I even made it 10 feet. I thought for a few moments before I had an idea.

"Hey mom?" I asked quietly. "Could you go to the girl's bathroom inside of the school for me while I get my stuff ready in here?"

She was confused. "But… why?"

I cleared my throat. "Well… it's that time of the month… and I really needed some stuff…" I looked at her for a few more minutes before she got it.

"Oh!" she said, understanding. "Oh. Okay, well, I'll meet you by your locker, okay sweetie?"

"Thanks mom." I said as she stepped outside of the vehicle and left me to make sure my bag was ready.

Instead I sat there and thought some more. At least Step 1 worked… no, it wasn't actually "that time of the month". I was lucky that my mom didn't remember I had asked her to get me that stuff at the drugstore 2 weeks ago. I really would have been screwed then. I just needed to get her out of the car so I could think. I put my head between my hands and thought for a bit before coming up with something to try. I haven't ever done it before, so I wasn't even sure if it worked.

I concentrated first on the water on the door handles. If I couldn't touch those, I couldn't even get out of the car. I focused my power on it and evaporated the water. Then, once I knew no one was looking and the security cameras by the building were all in different directions than the one I was in, I evaporated the water in front of me. I took a deep breath and walked forward quickly, evaporating any water that was about to fall on me.

I made it to the school doors before I could have made a mistake. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was way too close. I should invest in a jumbo-sized umbrella.

I walked into the school doors and saw Lainey and Nicole standing by their lockers. Lainey was wearing a baby blue mini-dress with white polka-dots, white leggings that went down to her mid-thigh, matching blue flip flops, a white bow headband over her wavy hair (she must have spent a lot of time on it to make it wavy like that), and cute little sapphire rings on her fingers. Nicole was wearing an over-sized raincoat with a huge hat over her everyday shorts and top. She was wearing that pink, purple, and blue plaid over shirt over a black tank top today. I really liked that one.

I noticed Blake was also right behind Lainey, and they were holding hands. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't in the mood for all of this corny lovey-doveyness today. This would be one of the only days of my life that I'll be crabby because of the rain.

My mom walked up to me and handed me a tampon discretely. "Love you honey!" she whispered as she gave me a quick peck on the cheek. I said goodbye and walked over to my locker and tossed the tampon into a pocket of my bag. I didn't need it anyways.

"Hi guys," I said as I dialed the numbers on my lock. 30… 2… 12! My locker snapped open. (A/N: P.s. that was just some random number I came up with. If it's your locker combination then sorry! Didn't mean to use yours!)

"Hey," they responded sort of glum. I guess I wasn't the only one who was bummed about the rain.

"How was your morning, girls?" asked Blake. We rolled our eyes.

"Not fun at all." We all said together.

"Why?" Nicole smacked her forehead.

"Blakey," said Lainey in a sugar sweet voice. Again, it made me want to puke. "It was raining this morning."

It took him a while but eventually he got it. And then he freaked out. "Well are you guys okay? I mean, just a drop would have made you change and are you positively sure that no one saw anything? This is serious! You shouldn't have come to school today."

Nicole and I sighed. "We couldn't just tell our parents we're skipping school because of rain." I pointed out.

"I guess," said Blake uninterested. He was more interested in something else…

"BLAKE!" Nicole and I shouted together. He jumped and we rolled our eyes.

"Well, we don't want to be late for class..." said Nicole as she slipped away from us.

"She's right," said Blake as he straightened his back and held Lainey's hand. "Let's go."

When we got in our class, there were two girls standing at the front of the class that I had never seen before. Huh, I wondered. Are they new here?

As if to answer my question, our math teacher, Mr. Schnerver, (A/N: LOL thank you Megan!) started to speak.

"Hello class, this is Jeanette and Amy. They're new here and I expect everyone to treat them kindly. Is there anything you'd like to say, girls?" he asked as he turned towards them.

"Call me Jean," said the first girl with strawberry blonde hair down to her shoulders as she rolled her eyes.

"I'm okay," said the second girl quickly as her pale cheeks blushed a deep crimson. She had hair up in a ponytail that was just a little more blonde than strawberry. She obviously was pretty shy. I would know. I used to be really shy before I became a mermaid.

I squinted my eyes and cocked my head to the side, as if to get a better look at them. Jeanette- I mean, Jean- looked sort of… I don't know… spunky, I guess? Her hair looked like she had curled it and was pinned back with two bobby pins. She had a deep red tank top matching the blush on Amy's cheeks and a black cardigan over it that fell a little above her knees. She was wearing dark rolled up capris. I noticed that there were also lighter blonde highlights in her hair. She also was wearing black eyeliner and red lipstick. Her converse sneakers looked a lot like the ones Nicole was so fond of wearing.

Amy was Jean's polar opposite, it seemed. She was twirling a lock of her blonde ponytailed hair as she scanned the eyes of everyone in the room. Her baby blue tank top had white, sparkly flowers on it, and matched her boot cut jeans and blue headband. She was wearing white flip flops with no embellishment whatsoever on them. She, unlike her sister, was wearing no makeup at all. It looked like she was sort of a girly girl too.

All in all, they didn't look bad. But I couldn't really consider being friends with her, with our secret and all. This secret really was getting in the way of a lot of things. I sighed. It wasn't very fair. Then again, you know what they say. Life is like a cement trampoline. Actually I have no idea what that means. (A/N: I got that from "secret life of a mermaid" on youtube)

I looked over to Nicole and saw she was doodling in her math notebook. She must have made the same assumption as me. I looked a little over and saw Lainey a little preoccupied staring into Blake's eyes. Ew. I don't even think she knew that there were new kids here.

In the middle of class, Lainey tapped me on the shoulder. "What?" I whispered, hoping Mr. Schnerzer wouldn't hear. He is so strict that he would give you a detention for coughing. I'm not kidding.

"Who are those girls over there?" she asked, pointing her long finger embellished with a sapphire ring at the table where Amy and Jean sat intent on their math work. I raised my eyebrows at her. She really must have been busy with Blake.

"They're new here," I whispered as I rolled my eyes. "Mr. Schnerzer just announced it to the class."

"Really?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "Huh."

"Girls!" shouted Mr. Schnerzer as he stood up from his totally black doom-and-gloom desk. "No talking in class!" I rolled my eyes as a corner of his notes "mysteriously" caught on fire. Mr. Schnerzer grumbled and grabbed something to put it out. Even from across the room I could hear him mutter, "Great, again?"Let's just say I've been getting better at controlling my powers.

I saw that Jean and Amy were a little freaked out about it. They started whispering to each other and Jean glanced at me. I had no idea what they were doing.

After class, Jean said something to Amy and walked over to me as I was opening my locker. "Hey," she said. "What's your next class?"

"Art," I said in a voice that would hopefully say "You look nice and I'm cool with being friendly and all, but I'm not really trying to make any new friends so if you would just go find someone else to hang out with that would be nice." "Why?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I have art too, but Amy has Spanish. She found someone to take her there but I don't really know how to get there. I was wondering if you could show me the way."

"Um…. Sure, I guess," I said in a pretty noninterested voice. "It's just down this hall." We walked towards the art room while Jean asked me some questions.

"So, who are your friends here?"

"Lainey and Nicole. And Blake too. He's Lainey boyfriend."

"What's your favorite class?"

"FACE." (A/N: FACE means Family And Consumer Education in case you didn't know. It's one of my fav classes)

"Worst favorite?"

"Science."

"Where do you hang out at break time?"

"Outside on the benches by the basketball court in front of the side doors."

"What project are we working on in art?"

"Notan designs."

"Do you like to swim?"

I paused. All of her other questions had something to do with school. Now suddenly she's asking me if I like to swim?

"Well… I'm… hydrophobic…" I said, sticking to the story everyone else believes.

She stopped and looked me in the eyes. "You didn't answer my question."

I just stood there for a while. I'm not the best actress, and I wasn't sure how to handle this. "I'm hydrophobic. I can't even doggie paddle in the water." I finally replied, feeling pretty smart that I told the truth, sort of, but kept my secret.

She narrowed her eyes and just stared at me for a while. I was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Well, don't want to be late on your first day, do you?" I asked her as I walked the rest of the way to art. She silently kept up behind me.

"Hey," I said to Nicole as she sat next to me and Lainey at our usual lunch table by the vending machines.

"Hey," she replied. We were all silent for a moment. Not even Lainey and Blake were making any gooey lovey remarks that make me want to throw up.I wasn't sure why we were all so tense. Blake answered the question.

"So… how do you girls like Jean and Amy?" We a wrinkled our nose. I was a little surprised. I guess I wasn't the only one with a weird impression of them. Or, Jean at least. Amy wasn't in any of my classes.

"Jean kept asking me questions about school. Then suddenly she wanted to know my preferences for swimming." I said, emphasizing how weird it was.

"Well what did you say?" asked Nicole. She always gets so worked up over our secret.

"I said I was hydrophobic. But then she told me I wasn't answering her question and I told her I couldn't."

"Weird," said Lainey thoughtfully. "Practically the same thing happened to me in language arts. She started asking me these random questions about me and then asked if I like swimming. I told her I was allergic to chlorine but occasionally swam in the ocean. But I said I didn't like the ocean much so I didn't really like to swim."

"I had history with her and she did the same thing," said Nicole bewildered. "I answered basically the same way. What do you think is up with her? Do you think she knows our secret?" She whispered the last part.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, Amy doesn't seem to be doing the same things." I reasoned, almost thinking out loud.

"Hi guys," said a voice from above us. We looked up to see- lo and behold- Jean herself, with Amy right beside her. They pulled up some chairs from another table and sat down across from us.

"So, what's up with you guys?" she asked. "Doing anything after school?"

Woah. This was weird. It was like she could read our minds or something. After school we were going to go swimming. We glanced at each other.

"We were going to go down to Lilly's," said Nicole without missing a beat. Lilly's was our favorite smoothie store just a few blocks away from where we lived. This was a good idea to mention, since it was a reasonable story.

"Isn't that the smoothie store?" asked Amy, then blushed. "I mean, I just haven't been able to go around town yet so I don't really know about the places here much…"

"It's okay," said Lainey, sort of inspecting her. "Yes, Lilly's is our favorite smoothie store. Where did you guys move from anyways?"

"Key Largo," said Jean.

"Key wha-wha?" asked Nicole. I rolled my eyes.

"Key Largo," said Amy timidly. "It's in Florida."

"Oh," replied Nici.

"Would you guys mind if we hang out with you after school?" asked Jean. We thought this over.

"Um… sure!" I said, not wanting her to think something was up. "We usually go there right after school. It's not far away. We walk there."

"Cool," said Jean with a smile as she got up. Amy saw that Jean was getting up so she followed her. "Well, see you there!" Then they walked away.

"Well that was weird." Said Blake as he got up to dump his lunch. I looked at the clock and sighed. Lunch was almost over. I glanced at my half eaten sandwich and then tried to take a few more bites before the bell rang. I would need the energy.

"I probably failed the science test!" groaned Nicole as we walked to Lilly's after school. I felt her pain.

"It was so tough!" I agreed. "And not getting the chance to study didn't help the matters." I gave Lainey the evil eye and she just shrugged.

"Well I didn't think it was that hard." Nici and I rolled our eyes. Of course.

"Hey!" shouted a voice from behind us. We turned to see Jean running after us, her math books threatening to drop out of her bag the entire way here.

"Where's Amy?" asked Lainey as Blake put his arm over her shoulder.

Jean shrugged. "I don't know. Don't really care either. It's not like I'm her babysitter."

I turned to Nici and Lainey and gave them a knowing look. Looks like my assumption was right. It didn't seem Amy had anything to do with Jean's odd behavior. Or, well, it might be normal for her. I don't really know.

"Okay," said Nicole as we stepped into Lilly's, the beads hanging from the doorway sliding to the left for us to walk through. We looked around at the place. Apparently this place has been renamed twice. At first it was called the JuiceNet Café, then Rikki's, and then Lilly's. It's been called Lilly's I think for the last 30 or so years. Each time they renamed it, it was redecorated. Amanda, the usual cashier we see here after school who goes to our high school, said that JuiceNet Café had sort of a beachy theme with surf boards and stuff, and then Rikki's had more of a nightclub type atmosphere. Now it had a lot of bright colors, like pink and orange and blue and stuff. I admit it looks a little young, but they have the best smoothies and I go here all the time.

"Hey Amanda!" said Nicole as she sat on a chair next to the counter. "Two strawberry banana boomboxes and one citrus dream." I smiled. Nici knew us so well.

"Right on up," grinned Amanda with a wink as she set off to make our smoothies. She was always so cheerful. As we waited, Jean looked over the little 10 inch laminated menu that was set in multiple places on the counter we were all sitting by.

"Hmmm…" Jean turned to us. "What do you think I should get? The strawberry kiwi kooler and the peachy surprise sound good."

I shrugged. "I like both."

She looked over it for a few minutes until Amanda came back. "One peachy surprise, please?"

"Be right back!" she said after sliding the two strawberry bonanza boomboxes over to me and Lainey and the citrus dream over to Nicole. She knew us well too.

I grabbed the foam cup filled to the brim with fruity goodness and took a slow sip. Aah. Refreshing.

"Here ya go!" said Amanda as she handed the peachy surprise over to Jean. "I can tell your new here. If anything's wrong, just call me." Then she walked away to take someone else's order.

Jean was a little hesitant with her drink, but eventually took a cautious sip.

"Mmm!" she said in shock. "That's really good!"

"I love them too," said Lainey gleefully as she sipped her concoction. "I've been having this one since I was a little kid."

After a few minutes of savoring the fruity flavors, Amanda was back to us.

"Hey," said Amanda in this mysterious voice that I know all too well. I put down my drink in anticipation and waited. "I've got some free time. Do you girls want to hear a story?"

"Yes!" we cried out at the same time. Amanda has been working here practically all of her working life, and she has heard a lot of stories passed down about the weird happening in this café. Even the ones from when it was called Rikki's and the JuiceNet Café. Although, I'm pretty sure that half of the stories are bologna.

"Well," she started, a mischievous grin creeping onto her lips. "You know how this café used to be called Rikki's?" We all nodded except for Jean who quietly listened. "Well it was bought from a guy named Zane. His girlfriend's name was Rikki, which was why he named the café Rikki's, obviously. So anyways, Zane was someone that people would call a strange man. You see, one day he went searching for something on a boat, but apparently it sunk and he almost drowned. What saved his life is actually still a mystery. He was still fading in and out of consciousness but he claimed afterwards that he had seen something with a giant golden tail bash into the door of the boat before he blacked out. He awoke on Mako Island with a girl who was out there and had found him there. He kept claiming that he couldn't have been able to get out of the boat, but she insisted that she found him just lying there on the beach. A while later, he went out swimming again to try to find the creature he had seen, claiming it was too big to be an ordinary fish, and he said that what he found was extraordinary. Apparently, he said he had found a mermaid. He said the mermaid had long red hair and a shiny golden tail and it was swimming away from the wreck of the boat he had almost drowned in, but everyone just laughed. He kept insisting it was true and even contacted a marine biologist. Then suddenly he stopped talking about it. He never said one more peep about the wreck. About two years later, he bought the JuiceNet Café and renamed it Rikki's. People say that a lot of weird things happened there, and most of them stopped once Zane had handed it down to his son and daughters. After another 10 years, his relatives closed down and someone bought it and renamed it Lilly's. Nothing weird happened again once Zane and all of his relatives were gone from the café. No one really knows why." She leaned away from us, an expectant grin on her face. "Wasn't that somethin'?"

It was. My shocked face at the story was identical to Nicole, Lainey, and Blake's. They were obviously thinking what I was thinking. Did this Zane guy actually find out about mermaids somehow? I was sure that the girl on the beach who claimed she found him there must have been the mermaid who saved him. And his description of the tails was spot on. This must have been a true story.

Jean looked pretty shocked too. "I… I have to go…" she said awkwardly as she left her unfinished smoothie on the counter, something I would never dream of doing, and then slid out of the café.

"Amanda," said Lainey in a voice an adult would use to reprimand a small child. "You scared her off!"

Amanda shrugged. "Oh well. It was a cool story though." Someone else in the café must have been ready to order since she picked up her notepad and left. "Got to go! See ya!"

I tossed my smoothie container. Even if I wasn't done, I still would need to get out of here. We needed to talk.

Outside of the café, Blake started asking questions.

"That Zane guy must have known all about mermaids!" he whispered to us. "Do you think that the marine biologist he contacted found out anything?

"Probably not," I reasoned. "Otherwise, wouldn't the whole world know about mermaids?"

"Good point." He said.

"What I want to know is why Jean was even more freaked out than we were," said Lainey, thinking. Her eyes widened. "You don't think…"

"No way," said Nicole with a shake of her head. "It's not even possible. Jean could not be a mermaid! She doesn't even live here!"

"How do we know she didn't come on a vacation or something and then transformed?" questioned Blake.

I shook my head. "Not likely."

"Well, something about the story made her freak out," accused Lainey. "Whether she's a mermaid or not, I don't think we should try to be good friends with her."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you Einstein." She rolled her eyes back and grabbed Blake's hand. That only made me roll my eyes again.

Nicole looked at a watch she had worn today. "Well, I think we've got enough time to go for a quick swim. You guys up for it?"

"Of course!" I said.

Lainey grinned and gave Blake a quick kiss. "We'll be back soon, 'kay?"

"Okay," said Blake as he kissed her again. Nicole rolled her eyes and pulled Lainey apart from him. "Let's keep it G-Rated here!" she shouted back to Blake as we headed for the small beach we love to hang out at… whenever Lainey isn't "busy".

We dived into the ocean and felt the familiar transformation as our legs merged from flimsy looking sticks in the water into a strong, graceful tail fit for swimming through currents. Which, by the way, is actually pretty fun.

Nicole grabbed our hands before we could start swimming and gave a hand signal. We grinned as she counted down on her fingers from three to one. Once she hit one, we all sped away, racing towards Mako Island. And for the record, I'm pretty sure I beat them.

(A/N: Wow that was a long chapter! Sorry about how long it took to get this up. I've been pretty busy. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. It will probably be pretty short. Also, the song mentioned is "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne. Of course, I don't own it. Don't own h2o either. But that's pretty obvious, otherwise why would I be writing on a fanfiction site? Anywho, I want to thank mochimochi32 for reviewing. It was really helpful and I love it when people review! Now, I'm not going to be like those people who say "no next chapter unless I get this many reviews!" or whatever, but I would appreciate it if you guys could give me some feedback. Thank you SO much to all the people who added me to their favorite stories list, like x-Ruth-Finch-x and mochimochi32. Thanks guys! If there was another person, sorry I missed you; it was hard to find the people who added my story. Again, I don't know exactly how to use the word "plethora" so if I used it wrong so-rry! ;-) And I know that the smoothie's names aren't the most creative; I just came up with them. So, review, rate, subscribe, and EAT YOUR TACOS!)