Lewis is currently sitting in his room, trying to process what the hell just happened at school this afternoon. It all feels surreal, like it should be something out of Lewis' nightmares. Unfortunately it actually happened. Thank god he made it to the storage room and locked it in time. Lewis shudders at the thought of the consequences if he had not done so. However, despite all of that, the main thing on Lewis' mind is the exploding beakers. Did he do that? Does that mean he has water shaping powers, like Cleo? Lewis never even considered that he would get a power. Just another thing he has to worry about, and Lewis really doesn't need to add any more stresses to his plate right now.
"Great. I'm a fish that can move water now, I guess." Lewis mumbles to himself under his breath while he stares at his hands. Why, oh, why did all of this have to happen to him? What did Lewis do to deserve this sort of punishment? It's not fair. Lewis has always striven to do the right thing, but this is what he has been given in return? Lewis honestly can't believe that the girls haven't gone insane yet. How can they handle all of this? It has only been roughly a week and Lewis can't deal with this anymore, yet the girls have been managing it for over two years. Maybe Lewis is just pathetically weak after all. Lewis sighs, knowing that this type of thinking isn't going to help in any way. What's done is done and Lewis needs to figure out a way to move on in his life, and find answers to the mysteries of Mako Island if possible. However, Lewis can't afford to hope for a way to reverse what has happened to him. The only concrete way of becoming human again is to jump into the moon pool when all of the planets are aligned with the full moon, which only happens every 50 years. Unfortunately for Lewis, this event happened last year, when Charlotte lost her powers. If Lewis has to wait another 49 years just to become human again, why even bother. It's too late by then.
Lewis sighs to himself as he gets up from his bed and makes his way over to his desk and sits down. He then unlocks his desk drawer and pulls out his journal, with all of his findings and observations on Mako Island and mermaids (and now mermen, Lewis supposes), reading over his notes. While Lewis has not made much progress in terms of making life easier for himself or the girls, he has at least started making progress on figuring out the science of Mako Island. Of course, he knows that not all of it will ever be able to be explained, but whatever is explainable, Lewis will find out. He also has many detailed notes on the mermaids' tails, powers, how long they can hold their breath underwater, how fast they can swim, and so on. Eventually, Lewis will have to record his own merman stats into the journal and likely compare them with his friends' mermaid stats. Despite still not being happy about the situation that he is in, Lewis is definitely curious about whether there is any differences between mermaid and mermen abilities. He already knows that colour of the tails are different; who knows what else could be different? There's only one way for Lewis to find out, but he will have to tackle that another day... once he tells his friends about what happened to him. Lewis still doesn't know how he will approach that situation yet, terrified of what they might think of him. Not to mention that Lewis hasn't even come to terms with what he is yet, so if other people find out, he would be overwhelmed by all of their questions, confusion and curiosity. Lewis is just trying to approach this whole thing one step at a time, only focusing on one aspect to solve at any one time. Compartmentalising is probably going to be key for Lewis to come to accept his new lifestyle.
Lewis flips his journal open to the closest blank page, grabs his pen and begins to scribble down some notes about what happened to him at school today, as well as his theory about him having the same water shaping powers that Cleo has. He pauses for a moment, wondering what the implications of sharing the same power as Cleo are, and why the moon gave them the same powers. Unfortunately, there's no real way for Lewis to find out the answer to that, unless the moon could suddenly start speaking. That would certainly be nice and make life a lot easier. Oh, if only.
About 10 minutes go by, Lewis completely absorbed in writing notes in his journal about his own discoveries of being a merman and comparing them to the three girls' experiences of being mermaids, but he is suddenly snapped out of his little bubble when he hears someone knocking on his door. Lewis almost jumps out of his skin at the sound and he swears that his heart decides to just exit his body at this point.
"Lewis? Are you in there?" Kelly McCartney calls out from the other side of the door, causing dread to flow through Lewis' veins. Under no circumstances, Lewis cannot let his family find out about this new life of his. Both because it's too risky, and that Lewis is terrified that his family might think that he's some sort of monster now. Lewis isn't even sure himself if he's a monster or not, if he's completely honest with himself. In a completely hurried panic, Lewis rushes to shove his journal back into the drawer underneath his desk, locking it securely.
"Yes, Mum, you can come in!" Lewis calls out as he quickly shoves the key to his desk drawer into his pocket while whirling around in his desk chair to face the door. Not a moment later, the door opens and Lewis' Mum steps into the room.
"Dinner's ready, honey. I made your favourite: salmon and roast vegetables. I know you've been having a tough time with school lately, and I thought you deserved a bit of a break." Lewis' mum smiles down at him, seemingly completely unaware of how nervous Lewis looks right now.
"Wow... you didn't have to do that for me, Mum..." Lewis comments in surprise.
"Oh, don't be silly. You've been working so hard this year, and I can tell that you've been feeling the pressure lately. I promise you, Lewis, that you will do great, and I'm glad you've got a good support network of friends. I don't tell you this often enough honey, but I'm so proud of you." Kelly smiles lovingly at her son.
"Thanks, Mum. That means a lot." Lewis replies, his anxiety calming down a little.
"You're welcome. Now, let's get downstairs before dinner goes cold, or one of your brothers steal your food." Kelly announces before turns around and walks out the door.
"Ughhhh, Daniel better not steal my food again, I swear to god I will kill him!" Lewis groans as he stands up and rushes out of his room, following his mum downstairs and into the dining room where Daniel, Lenny, Zac and Jacob are already digging into their meals.
The next morning, Lewis is sitting in his usual booth at the Juicenet cafe, waiting for Cleo to arrive. He can't help but drum his fingers on the table nervously. Now that Lewis is at the cafe, he's not sure if meeting Cleo here is a good idea after all. What would he even say? 'Hey Cleo, I'm a fish too, sorry I didn't tell you sooner'? No way.
However, Lewis does know that his girlfriend has been worrying about him a lot, judging by the desperate call he had gotten from Cleo earlier this morning. It's the reason that he had agreed to meet in the first place, to try and calm Cleo's anxiety a bit. Lewis feels bad that Cleo is stressed because of him and his stupidity, that's totally unfair on Cleo. Lewis hasn't meant for all of this to spiral out of control so quickly. He's only been a merman for just under a week and he's already causing massive strains in his relationships with his family, friends and Cleo. Lewis sighs, not knowing what to do. He realises that Cleo and the others have to find out eventually, it's not something he can hide forever, despite how much he wishes he could. He hates lying to Cleo like this, they have always told each other everything. Lewis is just scared that she will feel betrayed once she knows the truth. Deep down, Lewis realises that all of his fears about Cleo's future reaction is pretty irrational, but despite knowing that he can't stop thinking about it. Cleo means the world to Lewis; he does not want to lose her.
"Lewis! I'm glad you could make it! It feels like I haven't seen you in ages!" A familiar voice calls out, breaking Lewis out of his thoughts. Lewis looks up and smiles as he watches the brunette mermaid walk towards his booth and then sits down across from him, with a bright smile of her own.
"I'm glad to see you too, Cleo. I've missed you." Lewis responds honestly, causing Cleo to smile even more as her cheeks turn slightly pink.
"I've missed you too, Lewis. I've been really worried about you," Cleo says as she reaches her hand out across the table and takes Lewis' hand in her own, squeezing it gently.
"I'm really sorry I haven't been around much or talked to you much in the last few days, I've just been... caught up with homework and stuff." Lewis apologises, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice.
"Zane said he saw you at school yesterday, and that you ran out of class in a hurry and locked yourself in the storage room. What was that all about?" Cleo frowns in concern.
"Um... I, uh... I-I just needed to leave." Lewis stammers awkwardly, unable to look Cleo in the eyes.
"Why? Did something happen?" Cleo asks softly, not letting go of Lewis' hand. Cleo can't help but notice how Lewis is avoiding her eyes, hardly able to even look up at her, instead keeping his eyes on the table. Something is definitely up with him, and Cleo is going to find out what.
"No, no, it's just... I had to get out of there. It was just too much for me yesterday. The stress of school and how I'm still falling behind in everything, knowing that my chemistry teacher hates me, and the tension between Lenny and I lately. I just needed to be alone. Yes, I left in a bit of a rush, but I felt like I couldn't breathe." Lewis explains hesitantly. He isn't exactly lying to Cleo, but he also is not telling her the truth either. Lewis has been worried about his schoolwork, wondering if his chemistry teacher thinks that he's an idiot, and things with Lenny have been rough since their argument the other day. In fact, the two brothers haven't talked since then. Of course, those things haven't been his main concern or the main reason he has been avoiding everyone and everything lately.
"Oh... why didn't you tell me earlier? I would've tried to help you through those things. I know that you feel like you have to always be strong for me, as well as for Emma and Rikki, but you don't. Not to me, anyway. You don't have to try and pretend like there's never anything wrong when there really is. Just because mine, Rikki and Emma's problems are on the weird side, it doesn't make your problems any less important. You and I are a team. We both help support each other when in need, it can't just be one sided." Cleo says after a moment or two of contemplation.
"I... You're right, Cleo. I'm sorry. I should have just told you sooner." Lewis sighs apologetically, finally having the courage to look up into Cleo's eyes, which are staring warmly and kindly at him.
"It's okay, Lewis. I'm glad you told me now. We can get through this together, okay? We can do more study sessions and help you get your grades back up. You're the smartest guy I know, you'll be able to do it easily." Cleo replies with a confident smile, and Lewis starts to feel a bit better.
"Thank you, Cleo. That would be great. Thank you for believing in me." Lewis smiles gratefully at his girlfriend, once again wondering how the hell he ever got so lucky to have Cleo in his life.
"Of course, Lewis. I love you, I will always be here for you." Cleo says softly as she places her other hand on top of their already interlocked hands.
"Is there anything else that has been on your mind lately? You know that you can tell me anything, right?" Cleo adds, and suddenly Lewis' small good mood begins to fade as dread starts to set back in again. Lewis evades Cleo's gaze once more as his heart starts beating faster out of nervousness. He isn't sure how to respond to Cleo's question. Lewis can't keep lying to Cleo, he knows that she will see right through him. Plus, she deserves to know the truth, and she would be the most understanding and caring out of all of their friends, Lewis is sure of it. Even though it's only been a week, it has been torture keeping his new merman status a secret from everyone in his life, let alone trying to pretend life is going on like normal, as if one drop of water couldn't ruin everything. Maybe sharing the secret with someone would help make it a little easier? Even before Lewis knew about mermaids, Cleo, Emma and Rikki has each other. They never had to deal with their secret alone. That probably made it a lot less scary. With that in mind, Lewis impulsively starts to speak, all of his fears gone just for a moment.
"Yeah, there is actually. Something happened to me last week, and I've been trying to figure out how to tell you..." Lewis begins to explain, returning his gaze back to Cleo, who is looking at him with curiosity and concern.
"What is it?" Cleo asks breathlessly, having no idea what Lewis might possibly say.
"Well, you see, I'm actually kind of a-" Lewis continues to explain, completely confident in telling Cleo the whole truth, but is suddenly interrupted by a loud commotion at the entrance of the Juicenet cafe. Lewis and Cleo turn to look towards the entrance and see Emma, Rikki, Ash and Zane all walking over to them with grins on their faces, Zane appearing to be laughing at some sort of quip that Rikki just told.
"Hey! You guys are already here! Great!" Ash says enthusiastically as the group make their way over to Lewis and Cleo's booth. Without waiting for permission, they all cram into the booth with Lewis and Cleo, who both exchange a slightly disappointed look with each other.
"We were thinking of heading down to the marine park. There's apparently a really cool dolphin show on today. Want to come?" Emma asks Lewis and Cleo cheerfully. Emma's smile fades ever so slightly as she Lewis' eyes seem to widen with fear while Cleo just looks hesitant.
"Um, actually, Lewis and I were just in the middle of talking about something. Maybe some other time, Em. I can see the dolphins whenever I want anyway, considering I work there." Cleo replies apologetically.
"Are you guys talking about what happened at school yesterday? Apparently there was some sort of explosion with the beakers in the chemistry lab. Is that why you ran out, Lewis? Did you get spooked?" Zane asks, leaning forwards as he does so, suddenly paying more attention to the conversation instead of just talking with and holding Rikki close to him, watching her happily.
"No. No, nothing like that. It doesn't matter anyway. I think we are done here. I've gotta go anyway, my brothers want me back home to help them with something. Enjoy the marine park." Lewis hurriedly answers, standing up from the table and begins to try and move past his friends. Everything comes crashing down on him at once. It was a stupid idea to try and tell Cleo about his secret today, especially in the cafe. What the hell was he thinking?
"Wait, Lewis, you were in the middle of telling me something! It sounded important!" Cleo exclaims, reaching out her hand and trying to grab Lewis' wrist to stop him from walking away. She is very confused by his sudden change of emotions, and frustrated by the fact that he clearly was going to tell her something significant before their friends interrupted them.
"I'm sorry Cleo, I have to go. Everything is fine. I told you everything I needed to. Go and enjoy the marine park." Lewis insists, finally managing to get out of the booth as the group stare at him with confusion and suspicion.
"But, I-" Cleo fries again, but is suddenly cut off by Lewis.
"Just drop it, Cleo! I said I was fine!" Lewis finally snaps and shouts loudly at his girlfriend, much to everyone's shock, including his own. Lewis immediately starts to feel the weight of guilt drop into his stomach as he sees Cleo flinch slightly while the hurt, sadness and shock appear on Cleo's face, whereas the rest of his friends simply frown at him, probably judging him. The merman's heart aches, hating how everything has become one giant disaster for him within the span of just a week. As much as he wants to put the entire blame for everything solely on Mako Island and the full moon, the only person he can really truly blame for all of this mess is himself.
"I'm sorry. But I really have to go..." Lewis sighs sadly before rushing out of the cafe as fast as possible, leaving Cleo and the others staring after him in shock and confusion.
"Okay. Can someone tell me what in the hell was that?" Zane asks exasperatedly, gesturing towards the door wildly.
"I don't know... but I'm really worried about him, now more than ever. I don't think he's lying about being stressed about school and his grades, but there's something else going on that he's not telling me, but I don't understand why. We used to be able to tell each other everything." Cleo answers in almost a mumble, still hurt and in shock from the way that Lewis snapped at her. He as never done that to her before. What could be going on to make him this on edge? Cleo feels almost afraid to find out.