A Wish on a Full Moon
Woah guys, sorry it took so long to get this out. With the holidays coming up, it's just been so busy to where I was hardly able to work on this. And since I know I won't be able to upload more chapters until after the new year, I just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Thank you so much for reading this story and hope that 2022 is good to you all.
Btw, sorry this is a shorter chapter than normal. Had no clue where I wanted to go with this. :/
I do not own H2O: Just Add Water or any of the characters.
Chapter 44: To Forgive or Forget
With everyone now out of the room, the girls were able to discuss some necessary things with Mrs. Chatham as Emma tells her everything to her about the night before with the jelly incident. "Mrs. Chatham, when you were a mermaid, have you ever had something happen to your powers that seem like yours, but it felt like it wasn't at the same time?" Emma tries her best to explain, deciding to ease it onto her slowly. Mrs. Chatham raises an eyebrow at her, unsure of what she meant. "I beg your pardon?"
"What Emma is trying to say is last night, while we were in our room, something strange happened. We were just hanging around-." Cleo ignores the noise Rikki made, looking back at the doors to make sure no one comes back into the theater room. "That's one way to put it."Cleo continued while slightly glaring at the blonde who was trying to hold in a laugh. "Anyway, while we were talking, my cup of water suddenly turned into some sort of jelly."
Mrs. Chatham raises her eyebrows in surprise, though bites back a smile as she knew the only place it could've come from. Bella. Rikki rolls her eyes and leans back in her chair while the other two girls were focused on Mrs. Chatham. She knew where the jelly came from, but she couldn't tell them that. She could tell Mrs. Chatham since she knows what Bella is, but telling her in front of them? Not gonna happen. Rikki tunes back into the conversation when she hears Mrs. Chatham beginning to chuckle.
"Well, I've had several problems with my powers before whilst trying to control it, but certainly nothing like that. As you know, I had the same power as Emma's. I might've not been mermaids as long as you girls have, but I do have the experience. And I can certainly say that jelly is not a part of it."
Emma sighed in relief, though it still doesn't answer the question of where it came from, at least she knows she was right all along. "But, what about the jelly? Could it have come from her new powers?" Cleo asked, egging on the subject. Now Mrs. Chatham was even more confused as to what she was talking about. "New powers?"
"Oh, right. We haven't caught up in a bit, have we?" Cleo grimaced as she glanced over at the other two.
So as the talking continued, Cleo tells Mrs. Chatham everything about what happened on the night of their last full moon (excluding the details of the attack on Lewis) and all about their new weather powers: wind, lightning, snow, storms.
"I think it could be a part of Emma's new power, since it's similar and we still don't know everything about them," Cleo finishes up. Emma rolls her eyes. "I'm telling you, it wasn't me." "We've heard," Rikki muttered. Cleo sighs and looks at the older lady. "What do you think, Mrs. Chatham?"
"I, I don't think it is Emma's power. To be honest, I'm not sure where it came from," Mrs. Chatham said, looking downcast. "I didn't even know about other powers out there until now. We lost our powers the night Gracie had – had –." Mrs. Chatham cuts herself short, unable to finish the sentence as she shook the thought away. "You girls know as much about them as I do."
Of course, it had to be Bella. Where else would it come from? But the girls didn't need to know that, not now. She hated lying to the girls, but she needed to protect Bella. Bella needed her. She knew that when the time was right Bella would be honest with them herself and reveal her secret. So, she needed to keep up the act, for the girl who had to do it all alone. For the girl who needs to learn to accept others' help.
Shouldn't be too hard though; they believed her when she told them to give up their powers the night of the full moon with Doctor Denman. What's so different about it now?
Mrs. Chatham perked up as an idea came to mind. A little hint doesn't hurt, right? "But it could be the work of the full moon. Maybe it's trying to give you a sign." Emma and Cleo frown, unable to comprehend what she is saying. "What do you mean?"
Rikki sighs and leans forward, finally grabbing their attention as they all look at her. "Give her a break, will you? She's trying to say that it could be the works of the full moon. We'll get our answers later. You always believed everything else she said, why question her now?"
While the other two had their heads down in slight guilt, Rikki gives Mrs. Chatham a nod of understanding, and the latter returns it, something the other two mermaids didn't catch. The silent agreement. "You're right," Emma mumbled. "Sorry, Mrs. C," Cleo apologized. Mrs. Chatham turns back to them and nods. "It's alright, girls. All questions have an answer. Most of them just take some time to find."
"Yeah, maybe it will come in the near future," Emma agreed, smiling back at them. Rikki smiled as well, glad to have the problem settled, for now. At least they'll be off of Bella's back for a while, or in this case Rikki and Mrs. Chatham's. Bella so owes us a favor after this, Rikki thought with a smirk.
"Which is another thing we need to talk about."
Their eyes wide, three heads turn toward the buffet door as they see it close shut. The mermaids let out a breath of relief as they see the blonde boy carrying a tray of food with him and a cup of water. "Lewis," Cleo breathed out, a small smile slipping on her face. "That's my name," Lewis grinned as he sat in his seat, right next to them.
"So, what were you blabbing on about?" Lewis scowls at Rikki before continuing on to his previous comment. "According to my calculations, in here," Lewis said as he pointed at his head. "At the rate we're going on these viewings, we should be caught up to our present time by tomorrow at least." "Yeah, so?" Rikki shrugged. "So, what then?" Cleo frowned, looking over at her oldest friend. "Where are you going with this?"
"Where will we go from then? Once we get to the present, what will happen? What are we going to do when we finish? Will we go home? Act like everything is normal while everyone knows? Is someone gonna spill the secret or will your families protect you? Or will they forget everything when we return, and all of this would be a big waste of time? Will the full moon take us back home or are we going to have to figure out how to get out on our own like some sort of escape room? What's gonna happen?" Lewis exclaimed as his arms flung around wildly.
Rikki and Emma look at one another, shrugging. They never thought about it before, though he makes a good point. "I guess we'll go home," Emma finally spoke up after a moment of silence. "I mean, there's nothing else to do after that. We'll finally be caught up. There'll be nothing else to show. So, the only thing left to do after that would be to go home. I hope they don't forget. At least this way we don't have to lie to our families anymore."
Cleo nodded in agreement. "Kim's wish was for them to know the truth and that's what she got. Now that it's almost over, the wish will be fulfilled, and it will all end. Everything should go back to normal like they always do afterward. Well, as normal as it'll get with everyone knowing."
Lewis sighs and looks over at Mrs. Chatham with a concerning look. "What do you think will happen, Mrs. C?"
Mrs. Chatham shakes her head and chuckles. "Why do you all think I have the answers?" "Because you always do," Lewis raised an eyebrow as if it were obvious. "Just because I know some things about the full moon doesn't mean I know all the answers," she sighs before answering anyway. "To tell you the truth, I've never seen anything like this before. We never got new powers or granted wishes. But I can say that there may be more than what meets the eye. We won't know what will happen, but we will find out soon enough."
"And then what?" Cleo asked. "Then we face the tide," she answered. "Well, that helps," Lewis scoffed, crossing his arms. "I can't tell you the future dear, that is something you'll have to find out for yourself," she informed.
They remain quiet for a moment, taking in her words. The only sound that could be heard was their breathing.
Emma looks at each one of them, noticing their tired expressions. It's been a magical, interesting, fun-filled yet crazy past couple of days. Every day was practically like that for them, yet this adventure was by far the most insane. And it was only going to get worse from there, and from the looks of it, they all knew it as well.
Emma sighed and looked back up at them, wrapping her arms around herself tighter with a painful look. "I-I think we should forgive Dr. Denman and Dr. Bennett." The other four in the room whip their heads around at her, particularly the blonde human whose eyes were practically bulging out of his head. "I'm sorry, what?!" Lewis nearly shouted, trying to make sure he heard her correctly. "You want to forgive those monsters?"
"We could at least try to forgive them," Emma repeated and threw her arms around, sounding exasperated. "We can't stay mad at them forever. If we don't, then we'll never learn from our mistakes, we'll never be able to move on. Sooner or later, we have to accept what happened to us, and forgive and forget." Cleo and Rikki straighten up, a bit surprised that Emma was trying to move on about it for once. They silently felt impressed by her actions.
"Okay, well you forgave me about the whole DNA sample, and you can forget about those slimy snakes," Lewis shrugged, waving it away as if it can just be tossed out. "Lewis," Cleo said, giving him a stern look. Emma clenched her jaw, trying not to complain again about the thought of slime. Her tail was not slimy!
"It's easy to forget and do nothing, but it's hard to forgive," Mrs. Chatham mumbled, lough enough for them to hear as she gazed off into the distance. A flashback of Julia apologizing to them after their argument, and for exposing their secret to Karl ran through her head. They forgave her instantly, they were the best of friends after all.
"It would be easier if they were friends or allies, but we barely know them, their nothing but gold-diggers, willing to take money at any chance they get!" the loud noise of the blonde boy gaining her attention again until Rikki interrupts him.
"Emma's right." Rikki crosses her arms and glances at him with a raised eyebrow. "We forgave Zane even though he was a part of it. How's it any different?" Lewis huffs and points a finger at her. "Well yeah because Zane was a -." … I can't say friend, can I? We weren't. "We were -." … What were we? "He helped you guys escape. It was his idea."
"And Harrison backed out of the deal as soon as he came to his senses. People change, Lewis. I mean look at Kim for example, she used to want to expose us, now she's willing to help protect us and we became closer than ever, who would've thought," Cleo reminded as she smiled at the stronger relationship with her sister. Never in her life would she have thought she would be this close to her now, and all because of one secret too.
"We've all changed, not just throughout this. We're stronger, braver, and smarter than we once were. We can forgive, we can still move on, but I don't think we can forget. But that's a good thing, it just shows that we won't let the past affect us, not anymore," Rikki added before turning back to Lewis with a questioning gaze.
"So why can't Denman change? Why can't we forgive the ones who wronged us? If Emma's able to try and forgive, then I'm willing to give it a try as well." Emma nodded along with Cleo, silently agreeing with her. Lewis stays quiet, lost in thought as he kept thinking it over.
They hear the sound of the door opening, and they look over to find that a few others, such as the newbies, began walking back to their seats. Lewis sighed and rubbed his face. "We'll deal with this later. Go get something to eat, and then we'll see what else the moon has in store for us," Lewis whispered as he jabbed his thumb over to the door.
The girls nod then proceed to the buffet room where they grab them a plate and fix them some food for dinner and return to their seats where they see that everyone was back, and Bev had the remote in her hand. Lewis tenses up, the thought of what's to come still fresh in his mind as Bev pressed play.