A/N: Thanks to Marril96 for reviewing! Sorry for late update, but I had school and my YouTube videos (please watch and comment, I barely get any! The link to my trailer on the chapter after the intro will take you to my page.) Happy Thanksgiving to you all! :== (My awesome turkey smiley.)

What Else Could Go Wrong?

Saturday

"What?" I whispered into the phone. I had just got the most shocking news in my lifetime: my mother was shot.

"I'm so sorry. I guess someone didn't like the way she ruled," he whispered.

"Do you want me to—" I started, but was interrupted by Feglio. "No, don't come here, or fly here, or I guess swim here. I would only want you to do that if she worsens."

"Are you saying she might?" Those words came flying out of my mouth before I could stop them. Truth was, I really didn't want to know.

"There's no telling. Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows what will come." I felt sick to my stomach.

"Okay," I said as calm as I could muster, but that wasn't that much. But if she does, I'm coming straight back home." It was a promise I intended to keep. Maybe a little stretched, considering I might just come storming over there this second.

He told me goodbye, which probably meant that he didn't want to upset me any further. I returned the bye, and hung up.

I explained what had happened to the guys, at which the tears that were held back before came tumbling down. Cleo comforted me, and I watched as my nails went from yellow to dark blue, which meant sad. But I knew it was much more than that.

"I wonder how Dafina's taking it," I said, my voice wavering and my chin quivering.

"Probably pretty bad," Emma said, as if she could read Dafina's mind now.

I sat for a while, crying and wiping them away. After a while, I got up. "Excuse me," I said, and hurriedly exited.

I ran out the door. Tears rolled down my eyes as I felt the cool air. I quickly wiped them away, and didn't spend any time running off the dock and diving in. I kept my mouth in a hard line as I swam past the corals and rocks that decorated the ocean floor. But I had no time to delay, for I had to find something.

I went into the moon pool, but didn't surface. Instead, I shuffled the sand at the bottom in search of the necklace. I pushed aside a big lump of sand, hoping, praying it was in there. It wasn't.

I shifted through a bunch of sand and shells, and by the time I had to go up for air, I was pretty tuckered out. I sucked in a deep breath, and ducked under.

After a few more minutes, all I wanted to do was lie on the sand and sleep. After one more effortless push of the sand, I at last found it. It was in a pretty deserted spot and camouflaged easily with the sand it was sitting on, so I wasn't surprised it had taken all this time to find. My necklace. At last, I had found it. I put it on, touched it, and smiled in relief. The only damage was a slight peeling in the gold from when I threw it, but other than that, it was fine.

I really didn't want to face the others. I was embarrassed and ashamed at how I stormed off like that. I was also very upset at what had happened. Instead, I swam out the entrance and went to my favorite spot in the sea.

Not far off the shore of Mako island, I had found a sea cave. It was completely underwater, so it was all filled with water. It stretched about ten yards back, so I had plenty of room. It was all black and made of rock. A slight crystal bloomed off one side. When I had found it, I didn't even tell the girls. I felt like this was my place, and my responsibility for my place was to keep it a secret (and I was pretty good with secrets.)

I entered the cave, and settled near the floor. Since I was underwater, sitting was impossible and not an option. But I could kind of float near the ground on my stomach, which was as relaxing as it was going to get.

I had once told Shane about this place. But since he didn't have a tail like me, he couldn't reach it, so I knew this place was all mine.

I sighed, which only came out in a flurry of bubbles. I realized I could stay down here forever. I then realized I would soon have to come up for air, even if I was a mermaid. I pushed that thought aside and played with the sand on the bottom.

Cleo POV

"Avery's not at her apartment," Rikki said, running up to me, breathless. I could tell by the way she put a hand on my shoulder to catch her breath that she'd been in a hurry. "I asked Spencer."

"You mean Shane," I said, stopping to let her catch her breath.

"Whatever," she said.

"I checked the JuiceNet, the docks, asked Lewis if he'd seen her, and around her neighborhood. Not a trace." I shook my head. Where could one girl hide?

"Once Emma gets here, we can all search the ocean." She grimaced, as if remembering how well that went when Emma and her were checking to find me after the whole battle with Charlotte.

Like on cue, Emma ran to us. "Guys, I checked literally everywhere. She wasn't anywhere!"

"We're going to check Mako and around there," I said. We walked onto the beach, and I signaled for them to come follow me. I ran quickly into the ocean and dived in, not wasting any time at all, and feeling my legs morph into a tail. I quickly swam to Mako, where we all surfaced, and, seeing that it was empty, shrugged our shoulders.

"Okay, I suggest we all split up," advised Emma. We all agreed to go our separate ways, and left.

I took a sharp turn to the left, avoiding a reef, and swam along. I was pretty far from Mako. I sensed it. But all the same, I decided I wouldn't give up until I was dead. Emma and Rikki did the same for me.

My eyelids drooped a little. Even though it wasn't late at all—about five thirty, actually—I still kept going. I silently played loud music in my head to stop myself from zoning out and pretty much falling asleep and drowning (I found it funny that I could have such a thought—a mermaid drowning.)

When I was just about to give up, I saw a flash of orange in front of me, turning around a corner that was made up of a bunch of plants.

My head snapped up. I saw it again—scales. Yes, definitely scale. It was a tail, no doubt.

Once I caught up to it, I grabbed the tail. I dug my fingernails in the fin, not caring at anything but how much work I did. The tail squirmed in my grasp, and stopped. The body that was attached turned around to face my square in the eye—and gave me a death glare.

Rikki! I immediately let go of the tail, and mouthed, "Sorry," to Rikki. She rubbed her tail and mouthed something back, but it was too confusing. I think it had the words, "Sorry…to…tail."

"What?" I mouthed. She pointed at the surface impatiently. I nodded and surfaced.

"Say your sorry to my tail," she repeated to me again once we'd surfaced.

"Oh. Well, you have to get better at mouthing things. You're pretty bad at that. No offense," I said.

"Are you guys really having this discussion?" a voice said behind us. At first, I thought it was Avery, and I spun around excitedly. But when I saw it was Emma, my face obviously showed my sorrow.

"No sign of Avery," said Emma. I sighed. What was going to happen now?

"What if she's in trouble?" Rikki asked.

"I know who we can ask," Emma said quietly.

"Who?" I asked curiously.

"Who stayed with Avery when we were fighting?" asked Emma. "Who stuck with her? Who had been spending a lot of time with her lately?"

I cast a glance at Rikki. I could tell she didn't like the answer more than I did.

Rikki POV

"What?" Shane said.

"Did Avery ever tell you of a place she might like a lot?" I asked for about the fifth time. The words tasted familiar on my tongue.

"A place to hang out? A place to hide?" he asked, confused.

"Second one," I said.

"Well," he said after a pause. "She did say how she liked her apartment building. Said it was comforting with me around." He grinned like a love struck idiot. "She also said she always liked where she had last lived."

I tapped my foot impatiently on the ground. This was getting us nowhere.

"And," he said, as if giving out a big secret, "There is also an underwater cave she said she liked, even though she couldn't get to it because humans couldn't dive that far down without professional equipment. But she still she liked it, even though she couldn't reach it, which is a little fishy to me."

I shot a wild look at Emma and Cleo. They gave me the same look. He didn't know how fishy this was about to become.

"Wait, so where exactly is this cave?" asked Cleo, rushing to the point.

"I checked it out. I mean, got to the place, but didn't dive that deep. I don't have the equipment."

Cleo pestered him even more with questions. He answered them as best he could, and tried to give us directions, even though he had no idea why we'd need them. I knew that this news had gotten Aysel pretty upset, and that she could stay down there a long time. Down there…all alone. Who knew how long she could keep it up?

"She won't come up to us," I whispered to Cleo. "But maybe to Shane. She'll run away when she sees us."

"We can't let that happen," Cleo argued. "We won't let that happen."

"Would you rather have our secret revealed or Avery in jeopardy?" I asked. She heaved a sigh.

"Huh," said Shane, looking at one of his atlases he'd found inside. "Avery's spot is in a sharks' breeding ground."

"WHAT?" bellowed Emma, snatching the atlas from Shane. She gasped and realized it was true.

"We need to find her," agreed Cleo. I could tell she knew the fear that came with being in the middle of a shark's habitat.

"We need Shane," I said, and Cleo actually nodded yes. She knew that Shane was the only one who could handle sharks besides Lewis, but he was all the way at his house, and we didn't have time for getting him.

"For what?" Shane said suspiciously.

"Your girlfriends in trouble, dude," I abruptly said.

"What? Wait, why?" he asked.

I took a small step up to him. "Shane," I said coolly, "Do you believe in mermaids?"

A/N: Will telling Shane to secret to save Avery be worth it? Can Shane get Avery? Review! Oh, and I have so many random questions, and I am curious to hear the answers from you. I'll call them "Rikki's Random Question of the Day." Please answer the questions, as I want to hear the answers XD.

CAUTION: Very random questions. My not be suitable for people who cannot handle randomness.

Rikki's Random Question of the Day: Does it bother you that in a restaurant, someone else before you used the silverware you use? Even just a little bit? Even if it has been washed?