Hey guys! Sorry, this chapter is mostly just setting things up for the next chapter, which is going to see a whole lot of action! Thanks so much for sticking with me, we're nearing the end of this one. I'll be updating frequently over the next few weeks! Thanks so much for all the reviews, they really make my day! :)
Cleo and Bella were ushered quickly through a long hall and through an unmarked door. They shielded their eyes as they stepped out into the bright sun outside.
"Hurry, this way." Laurie guided them briskly to a waiting car. He opened the back door for the girls to slip inside before dashing around to the driver's side door and getting in. He revved the engine and drove out of the lot just as a crowd of reporters burst through the doors of the studio.
"I can't believe we just did that." Cleo said numbly. She turned to look at Bella, who sat quietly beside her. "Did we do the right thing?"
"I hope so." Bella wasn't sure how she felt at the moment. The whole world knew her biggest secret. A secret she had never wanted to be shared.
"It was going to happen anyway." Cleo wasn't sure if she was reassuring Bella or herself. "I mean, Cole would have told everyone if we hadn't. At least now we're in control."
"Mm hmm." Bella nodded.
Laurie racked his brain for the right thing to say to his two young friends, but he couldn't seem to find the words. He felt terrible. If hadn't been so careless with Cleo's data... Laurie shook himself. There was no point in blaming himself anymore. What was done was done. In fact, Laurie realized that it wasn't just Cole who's feelings were hurt. Laurie looked at Bella through the rear view mirror. A third mermaid. After all he had done for Rikki it had never occurred to him that she might not be telling him everything.
"Where are we going, Laurie?" Bella caught him watching her.
Laurie quickly averted his eyes. "To the marine park." He drove carefully. "Your press conference starts in just about an hour."
"Right." Bella nodded.
The car sped down the road. Bella, Cleo, and Laurie reviewed their answers half-heartedly. The atmosphere in the car was a defeated one. No matter how hard the girls tried to be optimistic they couldn't quite make themselves feel it.
Neither Lewis nor Will had moved a muscle in nearly an hour. They sat, side by side, frozen on Will's couch. They couldn't seem to wrap their minds around what had just happened. Neither of them moved a muscle when the front door to the boat shed swung open hesitantly.
Zane stepped into the dark shed slowly, looking around for something. His eyes landed on Lewis and Will on the couch, then slid up to settle on the tv, which was replaying Bella and Cleo's interview for the tenth time.
"So they went through with it." Zane said blankly, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Lewis managed to wrench his eyes from the television screen. They narrowed as they focused on Zane. "What are you doing here?" He asked bitterly.
"Looking for you guys." Zane said bluntly.
"Why." Will didn't even pretend to be polite. All he wanted to do was grab Bella and run as far away as they could.
"I know you two are mad." Zane stood in front of the tv, blocking Lewis and Will's view.
"What do you know about any of this?" Lewis let some of his anger at his helplessness leak through to his words.
"I set up Cleo and Bella's interview." Zane crossed his arms over his chest.
"You what?" Will jumped to his feet and shoved Zane forcefully, causing him to crash hard into the television. It wobbled, but didn't fall over.
"Hey, cool it." Zane righted himself. "They asked me to."
"And you listened to them? What the hell, Zane?" Lewis said angrily.
"Hey, they were pretty dead set on going public." Zane defended himself firmly. "They were just going to dump water over themselves at the cafe the way Rikki did. I convinced them to do it on camera. Much safer." He added.
"Safer?" Will said incredulously. "Zane, all three of our girls are out now. Couldn't you talk them out of it?" Will sank back down onto the couch, his head in his hands.
"I tried." Zane's voice was slightly gentler this time. "They wouldn't listen."
"But why?" Lewis sat next to Will.
"Cole." Zane said simply. "There was no way they were going to fold to his threats."
"But we could have figured something else out..." Lewis ran his fingers through his hair roughly as he spoke.
"Like what?" Zane countered.
No one had an answer for him.
"Listen." Zane folded his arms over his chest. "There isn't anything we can do about it now. We just need to figure out where to go from here."
"He's right." Will nodded. "Now what?"
"Rikki thinks she has all of this figured out." Zane paced slightly. "But she has no idea what she's doing. I say we take matters into our own hands."
"Meaning what?" Lewis folded his arms tightly.
"She won't be seen with me in public." Zane ticked off items on his fingers. "Cleo and Bella were forced to reveal themselves. This Cole guy is trying to control the girls." Zane had an ambitious look on his face. "Let's fix it."
"How?" Lewis pushed.
"I'm not positive." Zane deflated. "But between the three of us we have to be able to figure out a way to get things under control. Right?"
The boys looked uncertainly at each other for a few moments before Lewis began throwing out possible ideas. Before too long they were all deep in conversation, trying to find a way to piece together their lives.
"Well that was weird." Cleo muttered to Bella as they walked out of the large auditorium. Their press conference had just ended and they were more than a little glad to be out of there. They had begun to adjust to the idea of being public, but it was still so strange.
Laurie ushered them into a small waiting room. They were to wait there while he brought the car around. The room seemed eerily quiet as the door swung shut and locked behind him.
"We did it." Cleo managed a feeble grin. "The worst is behind us."
"Yeah, until we leave this room." Bella said glumly. "Or try to go shopping or to the movies. Then it's going to start all over again."
Cleo didn't have an answer for her friend. She reached an arm out and wrapped it around Bella's shoulders.
"I just wanted to get out of the stupid swim test." Bella said quietly.
"What?" Cleo didn't understand.
"When this all started." Bella spoke. "When we were all talking about how nice it would be to be able to tell people what we are. All I wanted was to be able to tell the teacher what I was so that I wouldn't have to take the senior swim test. And now look at us."
Cleo nodded. "I just wanted to be a dolphin trainer." She said with a sad smile.
Cleo's phone blipped brightly. "Laurie's on his way to unlock us and take us to the car, be ready." She clicked the phone shut and slid it into her bag.
Moments later Laurie was ushering the girls through the short hallway and outside. Camera flashes blinded them as the tried to hurry into the vehicle. Laurie managed to get Cleo and Bella in safely before hurrying around to the driver's side door.
Cleo and Bella were shocked to have two arms wrapped around them as they settled in.
"Thank god." Rikki exhaled. She gripped her friends tightly for several seconds before releasing them.
Rikki looked terrible. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was running, and it looked like she'd been crying for hours.
"I am so sorry you guys, this is all my fault." Rikki choked on her sobs. "I mean, I just wasn't thinking. I had no idea how badly this would ruin your lives and-"
"Sh." Cleo took her friend's hand in hers and squeezed it reassuringly. "It's ok, Rikki."
"No it isn't." Rikki shook her head, wiping tears from her eyes.
"It was probably going to happen eventually." Bella tried to sound cheery. "At least we're in it together now."
It felt weird for Cleo and Bella to be comforting Rikki. Rikki was usually so headstrong and confident. Still, she was their friend and they weren't about to abandon her.
Cleo's phone rang loudly, surprising her. She looked at the caller ID before looking to the girls, fear in her eyes. "It's Cole." She said nervously.
"Answer it!" Rikki urged.
Cleo obeyed, pressing her phone to her ear. "Hello?"
She listened intently for a few seconds, her brows knit tightly together. "But why would you-" She stopped and looked at the phone. "He's hung up on me."
"What did he say?" Bella urged.
"He wants us to meet him at the moon pool tomorrow night." Cleo said shakily.
"Tomorrow is a full moon." Realization hit Rikki like a brick.
"But he doesn't know how to make the change, does he?" Cleo began to sweat with nerves.
"I don't know what he knows, but I don't have a good feeling about this." Rikki had never been at such a loss as to what to do next.
Laurie drove them quickly, dropping off the three girls at Cleo's home. They hurried through the front door before anyone could notice them and locked it tightly behind them.
Cole tucked his phone into his jeans pocket, satisfied with himself. He flipped through the pages he'd stolen off Laurie's desk during the mermaids' press conference.
"So that's the secret." He murmured to himself. "Laurie, Laurie, Laurie." He flipped to the next page. "You've got to take better care of your research." He flipped through page after page. They were handwritten, probably by one of the mermaids he guessed.
"Mako Island moon pool at midnight." Cole couldn't believe how simple this was going to be.
"Come on, hurry." Zane urged the other two boys to move faster. "I told Laurie we'd meet him in ten minutes."
"Did you tell the girls?" Will hurried after the small group.
"Nope." Zane said confidently. "Rikki has forbidden me to be seen publicly with her. She'd just say no. Are you two ready for this?"
Both Lewis and Will nodded firmly as they walked. They marched up to an unfamiliar house and pounded on the door.
"We know you're in there, Cole." Lewis called. Really the boys weren't sure where he was, but they wanted to sound firm.
To their surprise, the door swung open a few seconds later.
"What are the three of you doing here?" Cole said cockily.
"We have a message from the girls. They want to meet up with you." Will said coolly.
Cole's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You're lying." He said without question.
"You're right." Zane lunged at the blonde and pinned his arms at his sides.
Like a well oiled machine Will grabbed Cole's ankles and Lewis grabbed him around the middle. In a snap they had Cole hoisted into the air and carried him back inside the small house, slamming the door behind them.