Lewis runs away as fast as he can from his house, not caring where he's going. Anywhere is better than his house at the moment. Lewis considers going to Cleo's, but quickly decides against it. He really doesn't need anyone else questioning him right now, and he knows that Cleo has been very concerned about him lately, too. Of course, Lewis knows that he will have to tell Cleo and the rest of their friends the truth at some point, but right now, Lewis just needs to let off some steam and clear his head. At least it seems that his brothers have a good enough sense not to follow Lewis, thank goodness. That would certainly not have made Lewis very happy. After about 15 minutes of solid running, barely stopping to even catch his breath, Lewis finds himself at the beach. He wasn't exactly expecting to end up here, considering he was only here earlier today. Feeling winded and completely exhausted, Lewis runs down to the sand and immediately flops down onto it, laying there limply as he tries to get his breath back. A second or so later, Lewis rolls onto his back and almost immediately groans and closes his eyes as he places his arms over his face to try and block out the sun, already regretting not bringing sunglasses with him. Not that Lewis is about to go back to the house and get them, obviously. That would just result in another draining lecture from Lenny, and now Zac and Jacob too. Lewis is already dreading the lecture that he will face tonight when his mum gets home. Ugh. Lewis wishes he could just disappear off the face of the earth, never having to deal with this sort of crap again.
After catching his breath again, Lewis focuses on trying to clear his mind. Lewis zones out and listens to the sound of the waves rolling into shore, the seagulls yacking away as they fly somewhere above him, the wind roaring in his ears, and the laughter of people all around him. Even just after only a few seconds, Lewis immediately starts to calm down. The blond teenager lets out a relieved sigh, allowing the anger and stress to slowly drift away from him and allow relaxation and calmness take over him instead. Without even realising it, Lewis slowly starts to drift off to sleep.
About half an hour later, Lewis wakes up to hear someone calling his name. Lewis sits up and opens his eyes blearily as he brushes the sand off himself. Lewis is surprised to see Max walking towards him, carrying his fishing gear.
"Max?" Lewis smiles in confusion as he gets to his feet and walks over to met Max Hamilton, whom he hasn't seen since the whole Charlotte fiasco.
"Long time, no see." Max grins in greeting as he comes to a stop in front of Lewis.
"Yeah, it has been a while I suppose," Lewis chuckles in response.
"How did it all go with Charlotte after the full moon?" Max asks the teenager curiously, but also with a hint of worry. He would hate that Charlotte might have gone and told other people about mermaids and put Cleo, Emma and Rikki in danger. Max also knew that if that did happen, it would be because of him. He was the one that told Charlotte about Gracie, and where and how to become a mermaid. He didn't realise she would cause so much trouble. She was so much like her grandmother, but also very much not alike at the same time.
"Oh, yeah, everything kind of went back to normal. Charlotte has kept her word on keeping mermaids a secret, and she has moved to Sydney with her mum to have a fresh start. As far as I know, she's still human." Lewis replies as he and Max begin to walk side by side down the beach, the salty sea wind whipping pleasantly at their hair.
"Good, good. I'm glad to hear it. The two continue to walk side by side down the beach while talking and laughing about fishing, Mako Island, the three mermaids, and just life in general. The two are indeed very similar, and Lewis suspects that he will be a lot like Max when he is older. 'Except for the whole massive regret about letting the love of his life go though,' Lewis hopes silently to himself. For a while, Lewis feels more relaxed than he has in days, and can almost forget about all of the problems that he is currently facing. Almost. Eventually reality has to come crashing down, doesn't it?
"How are you and Cleo?" Max asks curiously, gazing at the boy, who reminds him so much of his younger self, with a look curiosity and hopefulness. Max really doesn't want Lewis to make the same mistake he did 51 years ago, as it's a decision that he has regretted all of his life and wouldn't wish anyone to go through the same thing. Helping Lewis somehow heals some of Max's pain a little bit.
"Yeah, yeah, we're good. We're still together, and I think we're happy." Lewis nods, just a little too quickly. Max catches onto this, as well as hearing Lewis' voice waver a little, and Max begins to suspect that something is up.
"So, there are no dramas at all?" Max probes the issue as gently and subtly as he can.
"Uh... no, not really to be honest. I mean, we're really happy together, and I'm so glad that I realised that she was the only one for me before it was too late. But... I was almost too late, Max. It still makes me feel a bit guilty, to know that I had hurt Cleo so much, and made so many dumb decisions thinking that it's what Cleo wanted. I still have haunting dreams about it sometimes..." Lewis sighs, deciding that he can admit some of the truth to Max. He's sick of having to lie about every single little detail to everyone around him, so even if he can only say a small portion of the truth, it helps Lewis feel way better.
"Are you sure that's all it is? You look awfully exhausted, like you haven't slept in weeks." Max queries worriedly with a frown as he examines Lewis' dishevelled appearance, trying to figure out if Lewis is hiding something.
"Yes. Yes, I'm 100% fine. Just some bad dreams, that's all. Nothing too crazy. Cleo and I are fine though, I assure you." Lewis replies, trying muster all the confidence that he can into his voice.
"What were you doing sleeping on the beach, Lewis? You didn't look like you were planning a trip down here." Max continues, his eyebrows furrowing together suspiciously. To him, Lewis looked like he had washed up onto the shore unconscious and that the sea gulls and other animals and bugs were going to start eating him from the outside in.
"No, I guess I wasn't..." Lewis trails off, his body tensing up again with nerves as he prepares himself once more to be on the defence and how to retaliate against all of Max's inevitable questions.
"Is there anything that I should know about, Lewis? Is there something wrong with the girls? You can trust me; I'm here to help." Max asks gently while giving Lewis a sideways glance.
"Uh..." Lewis hesitates as he contemplates telling Max the whole truth. Lewis is sick of lying to everyone he knows and loves, and he's sick of being afraid all the time. Lewis knows that he can't deal with all of these new developments on his own, and if he doesn't feel comfortable talking to his girlfriend or their friends yet... why not talk to Max? He already knows about the magic of Mako Island and would be understanding of Lewis' situation. In fact, maybe Max would even help Lewis with his research and find out exactly why this has happened to him, as well as the mermaids. Lewis' spirits lift a little at the thought, desperately wanting someone to confide in him, apart from his own thoughts. Lewis opens his mouth to say something, but before he gets to talk, he hears a cry of warning from behind him.
Lewis whirls around with widened eyes just in time to see a beach volley ball heading straight towards him, as someone hits it way out of court. To his horror, Lewis can see the tiny droplets of water flicking off the ball in all directions. The ball must have been thrown into the water recently. Without any time to lose, Lewis instinctively jumps into action, not wasting any time to think. Lewis dives as far to his left as he possibly can. His body aches in protest as he hits the ground while sand suddenly flies all over the place, ending up in his hair, ears and mouth, but Lewis doesn't care. There are more important things to be worried about right now. As he coughs and splutters, Lewis scrambles to sit up and watches as the volleyball flies past him safely, and thankfully no droplets of water falling onto his skin, meaning no tail. Lewis breathes a huge sigh of relief, hating how close that was. He now realised how stupid it was to just fall asleep on the beach like that. He could have easily been splashed. Lewis blushes and waves as an award apology to the group of teenagers playing volleyball as they stare at him weirdly while one of them go and run after the ball. He then turns his attention back to Max, who is gazing at Lewis mysteriously. Lewis gulps nervously, afraid that Max has figured him out.
Max watches as Lewis dives sideways into the warm sand to avoid the volleyball hurtling towards him. At first, Max is very confused by Lewis' sudden and unexpected reaction to something so harmless, but as the volleyball flies past, he notices the glistening droplets of water on the ball and flicking off in all sorts of directions as the ball continues flying through the air. Suddenly, a theory starts to formulate in his head.
"Not a fan of volleyballs, Lewis?" Max asks, raising an eyebrow slightly and a smile starting to form on his face.
"Well, I don't really want to be hit in the head with one, no." Lewis says as he scrambles to his feet and hurries to brush the sand off himself, hoping that Max will just drop the subject. Lewis knows the more that Max questions him, the more likely Max will come to the correct conclusion himself. That time when Max blackmailed Lewis into taking him to Mako Island and into the moon pool, where he splashed water on Cleo, is proof enough that Max has a way of digging up the truth. While Lewis really does want someone to talk to about this new side of him, Lewis wants it to be on his own terms. He doesn't want to be exposed. Lewis may not be able to control the fact that he's half fish now, but at least he can control when, how and who knows about his secret.
"Alright, fair enough." Max raises his hands in the air as a sign of surrender, deciding that he won't push the issue with Lewis further, as it is clear that he doesn't want to talk about it. When Lewis is ready to share, Max will be more than happy to help Lewis with whatever is going on... Until then, Max will just continue to ponder over his theories. Just as suddenly as the tension in the air around the scientists appears, it disappears just as quickly once Max decides to stop interrogating Lewis further. They go back into a more easy and relaxed conversation as they continue walking down the beach with the wind rushing past them while the waves roll into the shore in the background.
Four days later, Lewis is running to his chemistry class, internally kicking himself for waking up late this morning because he accidentally didn't set up his alarm last night. His teacher would absolutely not be happy with him if he was late, especially as chemistry is one of the subjects where he is starting to fall behind in. It's one of Lewis' favourite subjects, but of course he has had more pressing issues to deal with and other experiments to conduct lately.
As Lewis rounds the corner of the block that the chemistry lab is in, Lewis glances at his watch. He is indeed late, but thankfully not too late. If he continues to hurry, Lewis will only end up being about five minutes late, and to some teachers, they don't even notice someone new arriving within the first five minutes for the lesson. Lewis hopes that his chemistry teacher will be like that as well. After a few more seconds of running while his lungs feel like they are about to burst, Lewis finally makes it to the chemistry lab room. Not wanting to waste a second longer, Lewis bursts into the room, but yelps as he falls over his own feet in his haste. Lewis cries out in surprise as he falls onto the ground, landing with a hard and painful thud.
"Ow," Lewis mumbles as the students surrounding him laugh hysterically at his clumsiness.
"Lewis McCartney!" His teacher, Ms Taylor, shouts sternly, causing Lewis to wince. He really doesn't know if he wants to look up to see his teacher's face, but he knows that he doesn't really have a choice.
"Yes, Ms Taylor..." Lewis sighs heavily and begins to lift his head up to see Ms Taylor standing up from her desk, staring down at him sternly.
"What on earth are you doing? Not only do you show up to my class five minutes late, you decide to make the loudest and the most dramatic entrance ever!" Ms Taylor exclaims in frustration.
"I know, I'm sorry Ms Taylor, I slept in..." Lewis sighs heavily as he quickly recollects himself and clambers to his feet, grateful that he at least zipped his bag closed so that his books and stationary didn't fall all over the floor.
"That's not good enough, Lewis. Especially since your grades have been dropping lately. I'm starting to see why. You're lucky that I'm not going to give you detention. Now, take your seat, before I change my mind." Ms Taylor scowls and points to the seat next to a girl named Chloe.
"Yes, Miss..." Lewis replies, feeling deflated, as he makes his way to his seat, very aware of the entire class having their eyes on him. Man, it would have been nice to have at least one of his friends in his class, but unfortunately that is not the case.
"Right. Now that everyone is here and no more distractions, let's get on with today's practical. Please open your textbooks to page 256 to find the instructions for your experiment." Ms Taylor announces, clapping her hands once, wanting to move onto today's lesson. No point focusing the whole lesson on a student who is disorganised and distracted. In the end, Lewis is the one that will suffer the consequences, not her.