A/N: I am so sorry! I can't believe I haven't updated since December! Read and review please.
Melody nervously swung her fins back and forth against her bed in Grandfather's palace, the way she would kick her legs against her canopy bed post at home on land. Aquamarina and Alicia were staring at her.
"So, what's the big surprise?" Aquamarina finally asked. She and Alicia were sitting across from the bed on a conch shell chair.
"We are going to have a special visitor today," Melody answered, smiling hopefully at her cousins.
"We are?" Alicia asked. She exchanged a baffled look with Aquamarina then leapt off the couch towards Melody. "Oh my cod. Oh my cod, it's Alex, isn't it?! He's the special guest! You made up with him, and he's here!"
"No!" Melody told them, deflating slightly. "It's not Alex. Definitely not. But I'll give you a hint…our special guest is a boy…"
Her cousins squealed as Melody threw open the door.
In stepped Cousin Caspian.
Aquamarina and Alicia's squeals died off as they exchanged shocked glances with each other, then Melody, before settling their glares on Caspian.
"What are you doing here?" Alicia seethed.
"Alicia, wait-" Melody began.
"Haven't you hurt Melody enough?" Aqua put in. "And where are Boreal and Marino? Are they beating up Alex while you hold Melody off?"
"No!" Melody cried. "Aqua, no! It's not like that…"
"Then what is it like?" Aqua demanded.
"Caspian wants to help me get Alex back," Melody explained in a rush. "We chatted last night and he feels bad."
Alicia rounded on the older boy. "How do we know we can trust you?"
"Look," Caspian said, "I think we made a mistake with Alex. And I hate seeing Melody hurting. We should not have threatened the kid. So I want to help Melody get him back."
Melody smiled, but the girls looked skeptical.
"I don't know…" Alicia's voice trailed off. She turned back to Caspian. "Think about this from our point of view. Melody may not know it, but ever since any of us girl cousins were born, you three have taken it upon yourselves to interfere and "protect" us from anything and everything, and it very often isn't welcome."
"Alicia." Caspian's voice actually sounded pleading, a tone Melody had never heard him use in all her time under the sea. "We meant well, we really did. We mean well. You are all like little sisters to us. It's natural to want to protect you. Especially when boys are involved."
"Protect us from what, though?" Aquamarina put in, her voice calmer. "You've spent all this time trying to save me, Alicia, Melody, and all the other girls from something that was never chasing us in the first place. And now look. You really messed things up for Melody."
"I know." Caspian hung his head. "I know we did. I'm sorry. But don't you get it? That's why I want to help."
"And I really think we need his help," Melody added.
"You do?" Alicia exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting up her forehead in surprise.
"Well, if he can scare Alex away, he can bring him back, right?" Melody smiled shyly.
"Right," Caspian told her, also smiling. "At least, I think I can. I'm going to try."
"You better," grumbled Alicia, who was still not totally sold.
"Here's what I think we should do," Caspian began. "We need to split up and look for Alex. I will stay here with Melody. We are going to hide out front and see if we notice Alex hanging around the front gates. Alicia and Aquamarina, you will go into town to where he usually hangs out-the park, near the school, wherever. I think he has been laying low-"
"Because he is afraid of you, Marino, and Boreal," Alicia cut in.
"-so we need to find him," Caspian finished loudly. "Then, he can talk to me and Melody. I can apologize, and she can explain things. Let's meet back here in an hour."
"Who put you in charge?" Alicia griped.
"Come on, Alicia," Aqua urged. "I think it's a good plan. And we certainly haven't been successful any other way. Let's at least give Caspian a chance."
Alicia sighed and yanked Aqua away by the arm.
"Bye, Melody!" she called sweetly over her shoulder.
The two remaining cousins headed outside to hide near the gates to the palace. It was quite busy out there, so they had to stay perfectly quiet and still. In addition to the guards on patrol, various descendants and friends and employees of Triton were floating in and out at any given time. Flounder, Aunt Andrina, Harold, their older cousin Ariana, Aunt Aquata-
"Boreal and Marino!" Melody whisper-shouted at Caspian in horror as the other two triplets filed into the palace.
"Get down!" Caspian hissed. They both flattened themselves to the sand.
Melody watched Marino and Boreal swim past from below her lashes, afraid of accidentally meeting their eyes. They really did look identical. She darted a glance at Caspian and realized that even though she could set him apart from the other two personality-wise, she certainly couldn't do so looks-wise. They were just too physically similar.
Once the danger had passed, Melody sat up and looked at Caspian. "So you didn't tell your brothers that you're helping me?"
Caspian gave her a why-would-I-do-That? Look and Melody chuckled.
"I don't think they would understand," Caspian told her honestly. "Alicia and Aqua are right. We've kind of always gone for the protective angle, so if they knew what I was doing, they'd think I was putting you in harm's way or something."
"Well…assuming that Alex and I make up, what will you tell them?" Melody asked him cautiously. "If they see us together-" If he still wants to hang out with me, Melody added silently, "-won't they get angry and try to intimidate Alex again? And won't it look suspicious if you suddenly don't want to help them out with scaring him?"
Caspian ran his hands through his thick hair, looking troubled. He obviously had not thought that far in advance.
"Well." Caspian straightened up against the plant behind which he and Melody were hidden. His shoulders were back and his eyes were bright. His usual confident demeanor had returned. "Let's worry about winning Alex back first. We can worry about my brothers later."
Melody agreed, but she was still nervous. They sat in their hiding place and even though they never saw Alex near the palace gates, Melody enjoyed talking to Caspian. He was actually pretty nice and had a lot to say.
"Wait, so Grandfather can't tell you guys apart either?" Melody burst out laughing at Caspian's story about Grandfather addressing them by the wrong names at a state dinner with the king of Pacifica last year. "I'm glad I'm not the only one!"
"You definitely aren't," Caspian assured her, laughing. "Grandfather mixes us up all the time. I don't think he has ever called me by my actual name. We don't even bother correcting him anymore."
"That's so funny." Melody giggled again. "I just assumed the rest of the family could tell you and Boreal and Marino apart effortlessly." Melody's heart tripped when her voice said the word family. It felt great to say and hear.
"Most people can…except for you," he teased. The cousins laughed, and Caspian peered around the plant again. "I think it's been about an hour. We should probably head back inside."
The cousins regrouped in Melody's bedroom.
"We saw Alex near the playground!" Alicia screamed, almost knocking over the conch shell chair as she and Aqua barreled into the bedroom. "We talked to him!" Her usually buoyant hair was wild and her face was red. Aquamarina looked similarly disheveled with excitement.
"What?" Melody screamed. "What did he say? What did you say?"
Caspian grimaced and tried to hide the fact that he was partially covering his ears to deflect the shrieks. The girls barely noticed.
"Well, he was really nervous at first," Aquamarina panted. "Because he thought we were with the triplets."
A guilty expression washed over Caspian's handsome face. He looked down at the floor.
"But we promised him they weren't here," Alicia went on. "So we told him how you still want to see him and how you miss him."
"Annnnd…?" Melody prompted, leaning so far off her bed that she nearly fell.
"Annnnd he wants to see you too," Alicia gushed. "So you are going to meet-"
"Caspian?"
The cousins froze. Boreal-or was it Marino?-was calling for Caspian. It sounded as though he was right down the hallway!
"Hide!" Melody hissed.
"Quick!" Aquamarina whisper-yelled at the same time. "Go out in the hall. Pretend you were there all along!"
Caspian kept staring wide-eyed at the girls in horror. He wasn't attempting to hide or to flee. Finally, Aquamarina shoved him out the door and slammed it behind him.
"There you are!" Caspian's brother exclaimed out in the hall, his voice muffled by the closed door. "The game's about to start."
"Where have you been all day?" a new voice added, belonging to Marino/Boreal.
"Oh, I was just…in town," Caspian answered, still sounding identical to the other two voices. "I met a girl…"
Their voices faded away and Melody, Aqua, and Alicia collapsed against the closed door in relief, their hearts still racing.
The girls spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the plan to meet up with Alex the next day. They giggled over their uncle Phillip's jokes at dinner and listened to Melody talk about living on land. She promised to bring them to the land palace someday. It was a great day. Plus, Eric and Ariel were letting her spend the night! She fell asleep thinking about their plan to meet up with Alex.
The next morning, Melody floated into the huge kitchen, smiling to herself. This was it! She and Alex were going to make up on this very day, and maybe even go on a date! This was too exciting.
Melody heard voices in the hallway as she ate breakfast. One of them belonged to Grandfather.
"Don't forget," Grandfather was saying, "you boys promised Aunt Attina you would hang out with her little Angelo tonight. You know how he looks up to you."
"I know, Grandfather," the triplet replied. "We'll be there."
"Seven o'clock, Caspian!" Grandfather reminded him. "Don't forget!"
Melody's eyes lit up. She could tell Caspian the rest of the plan as soon as he was done talking to their grandpa.
A few minutes later, her cousin walked in the room.
"Good morning!" Melody trilled. "Are you ready to hear the rest of the plan?"
"Plan?" Caspian repeated, looking confused.
"You know!" Melody exclaimed. "The plan for me and Alex." Without waiting for a reply, she went on, "Alex is going to meet me in the back gardens after dinner, around 6:45. Alicia is going to sneak him in the back gates, to the gazebo. You'll wait there for him and apologize for scaring him, okay?" She took a deep breath before hurrying on. "Then, you Boreal, and Marino are going to Aunt Attina's, but Aquamarina is going to be the lookout, just in case you come back early or something. Once you're gone, I'm going to tell him I like him-" her face turned red as she spoke the words- "-and tell him we should still see each other. Then, Alicia will sneak him back out before you triplets come home. Great plan, huh?"
"Great," Caspian said coolly, finally able to get a word in.
"Anyway," Melody continued, "I really appreciate you doing this for me, Caspian. It means so much to me. And I know you'll like Alex if you get to know him. So I just wanted to say thank you, thank you THANK YOU! You're the best." She hugged him tightly around the waist before floating out of the kitchen as Caspian watched her go in confusion.
Or rather, as Marino watched her go. Because, unfortunately for Melody, he was certainly not Caspian.
Just like their grandfather, Melody still couldn't tell Marino and his brothers apart.
And this time, it was more than just a mixup.
