Sirena stared at herself in the mirror. Charlotte had dressed her in a tight black dress that accentuated curves she didn't even know that she had.
"Well, what do you think?" Charlotte asked, beaming at her outfit idea. "I bought it for a party that I was invited to a while ago, but I never ended up wearing it."
"I love it." Sirena answered without hesitation, spinning around in front of the mirror. The dress was as dark as the deepest depths of the ocean, a stark contrast to her usual polychromatic tail. The mermaid was trying to stay focused on the task at hand, but her new look had set her off course. It felt as if she had always belonged to this dress, and to the way of life that accompanied it. Charlotte grinned even wider.
"Good, then you can keep it!" Charlotte replied. Sirena shook her head.
"No, I couldn't take this from you."
"Seriously, you can have it. It looks amazing on you!" Charlotte replied. "Besides, it just reminds me of my old school, and I don't want to think about that."
Sirena turned to Charlotte, tilting her head in curiosity.
"Why not?" she inquired. Charlotte sighed.
"It's just that...well…" the blonde girl hesitated, as if she wasn't sure what she should say.
"You can tell me. I'm a really good listener," Sirena prodded. This was a chance to gain Charlotte's trust, but she was surprised to notice a growing feeling of guilt as her lies to the girls piled up. Charlotte sighed and adjusted her thick pair of glasses nervously.
"I've never really told anyone this, but I always felt so alone at my old school."
"You didn't have any friends?" Sirena asked. Charlotte laughed.
"No, I had friends," she replied, "But they were distant ones. I never felt like I was, you know, in with anyone." When Sirena didn't answer, Charlotte continued to explain.
"It's like...well, you know how people normally have groups of friends, or a club, or something that they belong to that really defines them? Something that gives them a place, like with the jocks, or the cheerleaders, or the band geeks?"
Sirena didn't know what any of those things were, but she nodded anyway, because she somehow still understood what the other girl was getting at. She thought of her life back in the pod. She and Zac had been discovered a few years prior by Lyla. The pod was supposed to be a place where orphaned mermaids could belong, but she had always felt so unimportant and out of place.
"Well," Charlotte continued, "At my old school, I didn't really have that. I mean, I was smart, and I liked science, but that wasn't really anything special or important at my school because 90% of the people there liked science, and EVERYONE was smart."
She stopped for a moment, twisting a strand of hair around her finger.
"There was so much pressure to be the best. Everyone was in constant competition with each other, so there wasn't time to really bond with people, or even to find who you are outside of school. I never got to go to parties, or go on adventures."
Sirena stayed quiet. She thought of how badly she had longed to be in this world, to explore it and enjoy the excitement of being somewhere new.
Charlotte glanced at Sirena. "You must've had a lot of time to figure out who you are, what with being homeschooled and all."
"What? Oh-" Sirena panicked. She had momentarily lost sight of her pretend backstory. "Yeah, I guess. But I still understand how you feel, like, with the loneliness and feeling out of place."
"Didn't you have friends?" Charlotte mimicked her, and Sirena couldn't hold back a giggle. Then, she decided to tell part of the truth.
"I have a brother back on the, um, island. And a best friend. But when it comes to the, uh...high school stuff, I feel out of place compared to everyone else here."
Silence fell over the room. Sirena glanced around, taking in Charlotte's room. Well, guest room. Charlotte had chatted up a storm on the way over to Lewis' house, talking about how happy she was to be in Dolphin City, how excited she was to be moving there permanently in the fall, and how she was going to decorate the guest room so it felt more like home for the summer. Sirena had mostly just nodded and replied with short, one word answers. The mermaid was more focused on taking in the sights around her. Dolphin City was truly a sight to behold, and when she mentioned this to Charlotte, she had agreed enthusiastically.
Now, Charlotte was standing before her, with significantly less energy than before. She picked up two glasses of a clear liquid that her aunt had brought up to the girls a few minutes before. Grinning, she handed it to Sirena and clinked her glass against the other girl's.
"Here's to new beginnings, and to finding our place," she said, raising her cup and then taking a sip of the liquid. Sirena mirrored her movements cautiously, but almost immediately spit out the drink. It seemed to burn her tongue, and her mouth was overcome with a strange prickling sensation.
"Um…" Charlotte murmured, staring at the stain on her floor. "It's seltzer water. Do you not like it? I'm sorry, I thought everyone knew what that was."
"No, I love it!" Sirena exclaimed. She hastily took another large gulp of the liquid and forced it down her throat, trying to hide her discomfort.
"Well, alright then…" Charlotte replied, looking at her strangely. Then, she examined Sirena's outfit more closely.
"Your outfit looks a little too formal for tonight," she mused.
"I'm thinking maybe a denim jacket will help, and you can borrow my Nikes..."
"There is something WRONG with that girl, Lewis," Emma ranted, "It's like she's not even from this planet. I mean, who has never seen a menu before?!"
"I don't know," Lewis answered, "But if you could stop using those bags of chips as stress balls and just throw them in the cart, that would be extremely helpful."
Emma rolled her eyes and tossed the bags into the cart. They were perusing the aisles at the local grocery store, searching for party snacks. Lewis stopped, grabbed a few bags of candy from a shelf, and placed them inside the cart. Cleo was back at the entrance to the store, waiting for Rikki to arrive so they could order some sandwiches and a small pizza from the kitchen.
"I'm sure she's just socially awkward." Lewis replied. "I mean, she's never really been around that many people her age."
"Exactly, Lewis, because she lived on MAKO ISLAND, the island that we know every inch of. You know? The one that's never had anyone but us and the occasional tourist on it?"
"Right, forgot about that," Lewis answered, frowning in thought. Emma nudged him with her elbow as they walked.
"Got something on your mind? You're not as sharp as you normally are," she mentioned, casually. Lewis glanced at her, a look of surprise crossing his face.
"What? No!" he exclaimed, and then, realizing that he sounded panicked, he repeated, calmly (but firmly), "No."
"Geez Lewis, calm down." Emma grinned, nudging him again. "I already know your secret."
"Um, you do?" Lewis stopped walking and looked at her nervously, twisting his hands around the handle of the shopping cart. Emma's smile grew even wider.
"Yeah," she replied, "I know that you're secretly in love with Cleo."
Lewis sighed, exasperated, but a wave of relief crossed his face. He began walking again, pushing the cart forward as Emma trotted alongside him.
"Yeah, I'm aware that you know that. It seems like everyone does except Cleo." He sighed, running a hand through his curly hair. "Although, honestly, it seems like she DOES know, and I think she might like me too."
"Then why don't you ask her out?" Emma asked. "Take her on a date and tell her how you feel about her!"
"It's not that simple, Emma." Lewis quickly responded. Emma let out a huff of frustration.
"Lewis, nothing will ever happen with Cleo if you're both too afraid to tell each other how you feel. You'll just be doting after this girl you can never have forever, and then you'll marry some random woman and have kids, but you'll always wonder what could've happened if you'd just grown a pair and asked her on a date."
"First of all," Lewis retorted, taking a sharp turn into the freezer aisle, "I think that's a little overly dramatic. Second, it's not that I'm afraid of telling Cleo how I feel...for the most part anyway. I'm afraid that if I tell her, and she doesn't feel the same way, or even if we try to make it work and it doesn't, that our friendship will be ruined. She's my best friend. I can't lose her."
Lewis stopped in front of the ice cream section and opened the sliding glass doors. Emma helped him pile treats into the cart. She didn't seem to have anything else to say on the subject of Cleo, so they fell into a comfortable silence.
After about another half hour of walking aimlessly around the store (their cart was filled with every snack food the store had to offer, yet Rikki and Cleo were nowhere to be found), their two friends emerged from around a corner with a pizza box and a bag of sandwiches.
"That took you long enough," Emma stated.
"Sorry guys! The line at the kitchen was super long, so the food took forever." Cleo apologized.
"Don't be sorry! Me and Emma had fun walking around the store, didn't we?" Lewis asked, turning to his curly haired friend.
"Yeah, we did!" Emma exclaimed. "We talked about all kinds of stuff, like-"
"So anyway, what did Zane want, Rikki?" Lewis interrupted. Emma glared at him but kept her mouth shut.
"Oh, well...he wanted to apologize to Sirena," she answered, a little quietly. All three of her friends stared at her in shock.
"Zane?" Lewis asked. "Zane wanted to apologize? To someone that he barely knows?"
"Yeah, it came as a shock to me, too." Rikki replied. But then, she shook her head.
"But we have more important things to talk about, like who the hell Sirena is, and where she comes from."
"She said that she comes from Mako Island. That's really suspicious." Cleo said. Emma nodded in agreement.
"Whenever there's a mystery involving Mako Island, it's almost never a good thing." Emma added, frowning. "We need to get to the bottom of this."
"How about," Lewis cut in, "we just enjoy tonight with our friends, and then worry about Sirena tomorrow?"
"Sounds good to me!" Rikki grinned. "I'm starving." The other two girls nodded in agreement, and, with that, the four friends headed off to the docks.