A/N: well…hi…guys. Please don't kill me! I'm sorry this took a month and x amount of days to get uploaded! I'm killing myself for it -.- I just finished exams and now I'm on winter break (hurray!) so now there will be much more uploads. Exams have been killing me for the past 2-3 weeks with cramming and such so I had no time to write. I mean, I did a little bit for my other stories but not much. But HI I'M BACK! I just want to say I love you all for sticking with me and I will never give up on this story. I've noticed a lot of my storys listed as favorites have gone on hiatus and I received so many emails and chapter updates saying "this is going on hiatus I have writers block blah blah blah, school work, blah blah blah, next chapter up in the new year" I thought about that and I would never do that to you guys! I just wanna say thank you again. Love you and please review (it gives me inspiration lol)

Chapter Twenty-One

When It's Good It's Going Great

Chapter Song: Hands Of Time by Rachel Diggs

Sitting in my room alone doing this weeks assigned homework, I looked down to the note book page with very little writing on it only for me to sigh in defeat, not being able to do anymore. It was way to boring. And thankfully, my phone rang, giving me a distraction to force me away from the work that had been awaiting me the past forty-five minutes.

"Hey Em." I picked it up seeing that the caller ID read 'Emma Gilbert'.

"Ari, Cleo's missing." Emma said seriously.

"What?"

"She never came home last night. She's no where to be found, we've looked everywhere.

"Moonpool? Mako? Anywhere?"

"Yeah, yeah, we checked all of that. We can't find her."

"I don't get it, why would she go missing? What if she got kidnapped?"

"We're almost positive she didn't get kidnapped."

"How do you know? Did she leave any signs?"

"No calls to us or her dad or Kim, just to Lewis saying how disappointed she was in him. He let us hear the message, she was in tears. And her dad said that she ran out of the house crying because she didn't want to do the dishes."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Lewis went out to look for her. We hope he finds her."

"Yeah, I do too."

"Ugh God Ariana, we don't know what to do. What if we don't find her? We don't even know what caused all of this. She's not the one to run away."

"Think about it, I'll give you one guess." I said, noticing why Cleo probably had run.

"Charolette." Emma hissed.

"You got it."

"That little snake. I'll go get Rikki, were gonna go see what she did."

"You know where to find her—anywhere Lewis is. Good luck finding Cleo. I'll give her a call too."

"Alright. Talk to you later."

"Please call me with an update." I said before she was about to hang up.

"Okay. See—"

"Wait, Emma." I stopped her.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't heard from Lewis in a while, right? I've been trying to call him for the past few days and his phones been off. I really need to talk to him."

"No, I haven't. None of us have. What's going on?"

"I can't exactly explain it right now, but if you see him, tell him to call me." She agreed and hung up. I couldn't only continue to think where Cleo was. Is she wasn't at the moon pool or Mako, had she actually ran? What if she was on her way here? She wouldn't do that. It was Cleo for Christ sake! She wouldn't last it out there for five minutes. Getting up, I walked over to my mirror and looked at myself thoroughly. My hair looked a mess and I needed to get changed out of these pajamas already. I began brushing my hair and putting it up into a ponytail.

"Hey." Jacob sashayed into the room eyeing my appearance. "Cute pajamas." He joked.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I look terrible, getting off that subject." I sighed.

"No, you look beautiful as always." He smirked. I put the brush down on the table and walked over to him.

"Well thank you for being a very good boyfriend and a very good liar." I smiled then gave him a long good morning kiss. I couldn't help but thank God for brushing my teeth after breakfast this morning.

"Well good morning to you too." He said with a smile growing by the second.

"When'd you get here?"

"A few minutes ago. I'm surprised you didn't hear us downstairs."

"Sorry I was kind of…never mind. Anyways, what's on the agenda today?" I said pulling away and walking over to my dresser to go pull out some warm clothes. Winter had finally rolled in and it was cold. Really, really cold. But it still continued to rain. Not snow, just rain. But by the looks of the sky the snowing weather was just about to roll in.

"Spending the whole rest of the day with you, which means, what would you like to do?"

"I'd rather not stay here since Sam's still not exactly on the best of terms with me, so anywhere but here's good."

"To cold for a swim?" He wondered.

"No, my body temperature is warmer since my original power was heating things up. I know it's weird, but might be for you."

"My body temperature is 108. So no, don't worry about me. It comes with being a werewolf."

"No wonder you're so hot." Always, whenever I was either holding hands with him or close to him, Jacob felt way to hot. Well, now I know why.

"Thank you." He smirked.

"Don't get cocky." I warned him.

"Excuse me." he said with a laugh.

"Whatever, whatever, I'm going to go get changed so stay here and I'll be out in a sec." Going over to one of my dressers, I grabbed a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt then made my way over to the bathroom so I could change.

Ten minutes later I walked out fully dressed, hair brushed, make up slightly on, and teeth brushed. When I walked back into my room, I found Jacob sitting on the exact same spot he had earlier on my bed, but this time he was holding something in his lap. A box. And in his hand was a tiny perfume bottle. Then it hit me. That was the Sirgrebma the girls had sent me.

"Don't open that!" I yelled. Jacob's head snapped up.

"What is this?"

"That was underneath my bed, right?"

"It was kind of sticking out a little bit but basically, yeah."

"Oh my God, Jacob you can never open that."

"What is all this stuff? A locket? Some perfume? Care to explain?"

"You're acting like Sam," I groaned, "but it's not mine. My friends sent it to me. Remember the girl I said's name was Charlotte? This is all her stuff that they stole from her. It was way to dangerous for anyone to have it so they shipped it here for me to hide it." Jacob looked at me blankly.

"It's perfume…and a necklace." His blank stare continued.

"It's called makes anyone fall in love with a mermaid. And she's been trying to use it on my friend Lewis, but it washed off when they went swimming and he broke out of the 'spell' that it puts on him. There's another thing called Ambergris that makes any mermaid fall in love with you. But it smells like a dead whale."

"And the necklace?" He asked as I walked over to him, picked up the necklace, examining it then putting it down back in the box.

"See how mine has a gem at the top of it? Hers has a moonstone gem on the top and on the front of it. The moon stone gem has something to do with controlling the pool we changed in and her powers. Something like that. So my friends had to get it away so she could never get ahold of it again. There, story explained." I said, Jacob put the box aside.

"So if I were to use that Sirgrebma-whatever on me, I'd fall in love with you?"

"Either you fall in love with the first mermaid you see or if said mermaid used it on herself, you'd fall in love with her."

"Well that wouldn't change a thing because I already love you." He smiled, pulling me onto my bed, rolling onto of me, and kissing me. Our make out session lasted a few minutes until we heard a coughing, trying to get our attention, at the door. Both our heads snapped up to see Sam standing there awkwardly. It was like getting caught by my dad, it was just as awkward as that. When Jacob realized he was still on top of me, he scurried off and sat beside me like a child waiting to be punished.

"We're going out, we need you." Sam said with a straight face. His glimpse caught my eye for a split second, but I looked down to the floor with my reddened cheeks.

"Fine." Jacob plainly said, getting up from my bed, letting our hands go. I sat still on my bed until they walked out.

"Nothing like you and Emily haven't done." Jacob whispered to him.

"She's my sister." Sam retorted.

"You're sure not acting like it." Jacob finished off. It was silence from there on. I listened to the conversations held between the six boys downstairs, I could barely hear them but Sam kept telling them that they had some major 'patrolling' to do and they needed to spread out. That's all I heard, so I went downstairs to figure out more. Emily was my key in this. And I found her exactly the first place I thought of, the kitchen. And of course, she was baking…her favorite thing to do.

"Hey sweetie." She said, piping light pink frosting onto a vanilla flavored cupcake.

"Hey." I greeted, sitting down on one of the bar stools.

"Want a cupcake?" She offered, handing me one. I took it.

"Thanks." I took a bite from it.

"Any chance you know where they might be going?" I asked once I finished my chewing.

"I figured you would ask that," she smiled, "they went out trying to find that vampire again. She was spotted close by."

"Oh." Was all I could say. "Hey, Em?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you do it? The way they go out and you just say goodbye like they're going off on a normal workday. Aren't you afraid they can get hurt?"

"Of course I'm afraid. God, I get so scared sometimes it's ridiculous. But I basically sit myself down and pray to God that he'll be with them so they all can be safe. Believe me, it makes me terrified to think that one of them might come back injured or not come back at all. One time Sam came back with a torn up shoulder. I was so scared he wasn't going to make it because of so much blood loss, but he did. And for that, every day I thank God for it. And I bet you're pretty concerned about Jacob, am I right?"

"Spot on." I said with a forced smile.

"You'll get used to it. I promise. It'll be like a daily routine. Hopefully, after this vampire's gone, we'll be mostly done with this whole war thing. And by the looks of it, you'll be around for a long time."

"Hope so. As much as I'd love to move back to Australia to be with my friends, I still hope so."

"You love him, don't you?" She looked at me like she already knew the answer. It was hard answering this because well, I was just a kid, I didn't know who I loved. I was reckless and I haven't ever had a boyfriend before. But the feelings I got when I was around him, I felt like I was on a love high. It was easy saying 'I love you too' to someone who said it first, but if someone asked me if I loved someone, it was hard to say. But when it came to Jacob, I easily knew my answer. I nodded my head, answering Emily's question. She wasn't surprised but she still held a smile on her face.

"I had the same feeling a few months after I began dating Sam. It was the biggest rollercoaster feeling of life." She laughed.

"It feels different. I just, you're normal, and you're human. I'm a fish; I was normal once but I never thought someone could love while I was like this. I thought I was such a freak." I laughed.

"As you can see so many people already accept and love you, mermaid or not. And in this town, it's not a big deal. It feels like being humans the weirdest thing." She shrugged, I laughed.

"Thanks Em, for making me feel better. It means a lot. This' been on my mind for a while."

"No problem, kiddo. It's the least I can do. I know exactly what it feels like to be the new girl in this."

"Sam isn't still mad at me about hiding this from him, right? I feel like it's awkward between us."

"Hey, it's a brother-sister fight, he's not exactly getting into it with me. But from what he said, he's not angry with you. He's angry with himself."

"If you say so."

"Really? Uh huh. Alright. Okay. That sounds good. Yeah, I understand, I'll call you later." I assured Lewis two days later.

"Here's the girls." He said handing the phone over to my far away friends. I heard him tell Rikki and Emma that he was going to go downstairs to get some food and he would be right back.

"Hey." Rikki was the first one to speak.

"Lewis never said anything about Cleo. Any news?"

"Hey, Ari." Cleo's voice quietly appeared on the other line.

"Oh my God, Cleo. You had me so worried."

"Yeah, apparently a lot of people were." She giggled.

"Would someone mind telling me what happened?"

"My stress took the best of me and I saw some disbelieving things with Lewis and Charlotte so it made me go overboard."

"Where were you?

"Mako, miles and miles in the middle of the ocean, everywhere."

"I thought you checked Mako?"

"The girls really good at playing hide and seek." Said Rikki.

"Oh God, Cleo, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"We are too." Emma interjected.

"Anyways, I forgot I had to ask you from my conversation with Lewis, has that ever happened to you guys?"

"Has what happen to us? Sorry, we just walked in the room, we figured something was going on since you were on the phone with Lewis. Or maybe you were just wondering where Cleo was."

"Okay, have you ever gotten so angry at a person that while you were using your powers you zoned out?"

"No." Cleo answered.

"No." Emma replied with confusion in her voice.

"No. Not unless it's a full moon." Rikki said last.

"What exactly happened?" Cleo wondered.

"You guys can't tell anyone else about this though."

"We've kept enough secrets to agree on that." Rikki declared.

"I was walking in the woods and then out of no where these people that go to my school popped out and it turns out they're vampires. So they were like confronting me saying that they knew I was different and one of the girls got sick of me lying and she attacked me but I used my powers so she got thrown against a tree and then I set like a ring of fire around her so she couldn't get out. And I didn't really realize I was doing it, I mean I did but I was enjoying it. And apparently I was in some kind of trance until Jacob shook me out of it."

"Oh my God, do they know?" Emma freaked.

"No! That's not even the point, Emma" I paused for a moment, "sorry, that was harsh. They don't know, they think I've only got powers and that's it. They thought I was a witch. Did you guys know that there were witches too? We're not alone in this obviously as I've discovered for the past few months."

"Okay that's just insane. That's never happened to any of us." We all went silent.

"What if it happens to Charlotte?" Cleo brought up.

"No, I'm nothing like that psychotic bitch." I hissed.

"We never said you were. But look at the big picture, you and her now have the same powers. That never happened before until these new powers were acquired."

"Ugh no, it can't be." I moaned, not believing I was one bit like Charlotte.

"Would you guys mind asking her for me? I mean I know it's a lot to ask and I completely understand if you don't want to do it…I wouldn't."

"Well, we would but…she's been gone for the past few days."

"What?"

"Lewis told her off and broke up with her for Cleo and she hasn't been in school for the past few days. We went to her house but her grandmother said she left town to go visit a friend." Emma explained.

"Ew, Charlotte's to much of a freak to have friends." Rikki sneered.

"Um, agreed. But hey, at least she's out of the picture for you guys. Wait a second—oh my God, Cleo, you guys are back together now? Congrats!" I squealed.

"Thank you." She happily spoke.

"Hey, Ariana, we're leaving for our party now, you sure you don't want to go?" Emily popped her head in. I held the phone away from my ear so the girls didn't get confused with me talking to them. Emily was dressed nicely in some nicely put together red dress and black blazer. In her hands, she held a plate covered with plastic wrap, inside you could find freshly baked goods.

"No thanks Em, you guys have fun though!"

"Thanks sweetie. We'll see you later, ok? Sam said Jacob's going to be here in a few minutes, you okay waiting up for him?"

"He's my boyfriend Emily, not my babysitter." I laughed.

"Fine, fine. Don't mind me." Emily held her hands up as if she had been caught red handed. She gave me one last quick smile then left the room and eventually, I could here them leave the house to go to the car.

"So, you and Jacob, how are you guys doing?" Emma brought up.

"Perfect. Perfectly perfect."

"Oh really?"

"Guys, I love him. I know you must think I'm rushing things, but, I really do. He's my first boyfriend I've ever had and I fell in love with him."

"What if he doesn't love you back?" Cleo asked.

"He does. He told me, and it means the world to me. It's this thing that werewolves have, it's called imprinting. They find one specific person that they're attracted to and they can't help it, but they instantly fall in love with her. It's so weird but at the same time it makes me so happy to know that someone actually loves me."

"Aww!" All three girls gushed at the story.

"Wow, your boyfriend's a werewolf, you're a mermaid, so are your best friends, and your enemies are vampires. This is one messed up world we live in." Rikki chuckled.

"Agreed to that."

"You guys are gonna have really weird kids." Even with not being with her right now, I could tell Rikki had that smug grin she held on her face at times like these.

"You're hilarious," I said with barely any emotion, "anyways, Jake's going to be here in a minute. I'll talk to you guys later, alright?"

"Okay. Talk to you soon!" They all said their farewells and I got off the phone. After the call had ended, I checked the time on my phone. It was a quarter to five but looking out the window would be deceiving. It was grey and cloudy with the sunshine making failed attempts to peak through. So, it was the usual. Making my way downstairs, I went over the conversation I had with the girls. Everything was going great! Cleo wasn't missing anymore, she and Lewis were back together, Jacob and I were completely and irrevocably in love, my secret wasn't being bothered right now, and we were all safe. For the first time in a while, I felt like everything was slowly getting back to normal. I wasn't dying to cover up my secret, I wasn't being tracked by Denman and her people, and I wasn't in a fight with anyone I love…well, Sam didn't count. We just aren't on talking terms yet. But I wasn't going to let him ruin this perfect feeling. Everything was absolutely wonderful. A loud knock on the front door took me out of my daydream. Jacob sure did take a while for living right down the street, I thought to myself. I hopped off the stairs and went straight to the door, turning the knob and opening it. When I fully opened the door, I realized that this wasn't Jacob. Oh my God…

"Miss me?"