Chapter 1: Intro
Rikki Chadwick continued rummaging through her bedroom. She had grown up in small trailers, moving around the country every year or so with her dad. She thought packing her things wouldn't take long but she had been at it for hours now. She recounted only taking thirty minutes to load her belongings into her dad's truck when they moved to Gold Coast. She also reckoned it had been a while since they lived in a place for more than a year, much less nearly five.
Rikki remembered meeting Cleo Setori on that Zodiac shortly after she moved to Gold Coast. Cleo was so apologetic for not approaching Rikki at their school. Rikki might have been offended if she thought she would be there for as long as she was. She also didn't expect her life to change as much as it did that night. The two had picked up Emma Gilbert on the boat and the three turned to mermaids in a volcano under a full moon. For the past few years, the girls had worked together to adjust to their new lives.
Emma moved about a two years ago and their new friend Bella moved back to Ireland just after high school graduation. Now, Rikki had been in college for almost two years and was surviving. She had never been academically driven so surviving was all she could ask for. As long as she could afford more than a rusty, old trailer in her lifetime, she'd consider herself successful. She thought that was in part she had Cleo in her classes and the brunette mermaid was much better at school when she paid attention. Rikki spent several nights over at Cleo's working on their homework, talking about their mermaid lives and Cleo's love life the past few years. Rikki's love life had been non-existent since she was in high school. Cleo, however, managed to keep an overseas relationship afloat. How lucky, Rikki had thought.
It was Cleo who had mentioned the two girls should get an apartment together. Rikki couldn't think of a better roommate. She had been saving up for three years and the two had a place all set for them to move in to tomorrow. Now, Rikki was stuffing her clothes into boxes and trash bags while her bed sheets were drying outside. She wiped her brow as she wondered how she had managed to accumulate so many items.
Rikki grabbed a trash bag that was bursting at the seems to take out to her dad's truck when she tripped over a box on the floor. She huffed and stood to move the box. What it was doing in the middle of the floor was beyond her. As soon as she rotated it, she recognized it immediately. It was taped shut over and over as if she was holding a strong monster prisoner in this box. She had written 'DO NOT OPEN' several times on the front of the box. She remembered sitting by her bed crying into the box with a melted pint of ice cream on her bedside as she stuffed a few items inside. She tossed it in the back of her closet and only recently pulled it out with a few other boxes that were taped appropriately with some of her winter clothes when she and her dad lived in harsher climates. She must have overlooked this one and thought it belonged with those.
Rikki set the trash bag at the entrance of her bedroom and bent down to pick up this box. She stared at it, wondering if she had the willpower to not just open it but face it's contents. She set it down on her bed as she turned around to pick up the trash bag and toss it in the bed of her dad's truck.
The blonde mermaid knew what belonged in that box. She had grabbed a hammer out of her dad's toolbox and a pair of scissors from her cabinet thinking of destroying it's items. She also remembered pacing her room, squeezing her hand, thinking of setting them on fire with her powers. Instead, she decided to throw them in a box. Maybe one day she would cut them up, smash them or set them on fire. Maybe that day was today but she knew she wasn't over Zane Bennett the day she packed that box.
It was his Zodiac she met Cleo on. He was an annoying, rich boy in town. At least, that's all Rikki had tossed him up to be until they were locked out on a hotel balcony together when they were fifteen. He was kind, loving and misunderstood by everyone from his father to her friends. She fell for him, hard. She tried to convince herself she was only dating him because she was trying to keep him away from their mermaid secret but she often found herself genuinely loving spending time with him, laughing and getting caught up in his arms. No, she didn't like him. That's why they broke up at the end of that school year but that certainly didn't last long. All it took was him showing up on a dirt bike to sweep her off her feet. The next year they opened a juice bar together named after her and she wondered if she had found her soul mate so early in her life. That was until he started questioning her faithfulness and cheated on her himself. He never took the time to break up with the girl he was with before her, she should have expected this. She thought he had changed but no, he was just an annoying, rich boy.
Rikki took a deep breath as she re-entered her bedroom. It felt like the box was staring daggers at her. She shook her head and laughed, she knew what was in that box. She could face it. It had been nearly a three years since the last time she had seen Zane anyway. Rikki walked into her living room and pulled a box cutter out of a junk drawer. She must have put the entire roll of tape over this box as she didn't realize how difficult it was to cut into it. Finally, after what felt like an eternity and a good arm workout, the flaps were open. Rikki questioned if she could face it's contents but knew she didn't have much of a choice. She could already see the old logo of their cafe staring back at her.
Rikki placed the sharp object on her wardrobe and dove into the box. On top were a few old menus from Rikki's and her cheesy name plate Zane bought her, the last relics she owned from the failed place. She knew Zane had taken the neon sign they placed outside. She wondered if he still had it. Rikki shook her head again as she looked further into the box. Next was a small photo album she had put together shortly before they broke up. She had planned on giving it to him to try to convince him she still cared about him, and only him. He blew her off that night and she began questioning if he was the one being unfaithful. She sat on her bed and flipped through the photos. She smiled sadly as she thought how difficult it would be to convince some versions of herself they wouldn't live happily ever after.
Rikki tossed the album aside as she retrieved the final items in the box. A pink iPod stared back at her. He had given her the iPod when they started dating in secret. She had been giving him a hard time about being late for their date when he had presented her with the expensive gift. She had denied the gift at first. She would never receive a gift like that from anyone else in her life and it reminded her how different their lives were. He continued to press her until she accepted it. Some of the coloring was fading but Rikki flipped the small object over and read the inscription of 'shut up and take the gift' between the wires of the headphones. Rikki supposed she could use some music while she continued to pack her things. She pulled the iPod charger out of the box and connected it to a socket in her room.
Rikki pulled the last two items out of the box upon her return. One was a black suit jacket. He had first given it to her when they were stuck on a hotel balcony and it had started to rain. That fateful day was where the tides turned for them. She entered the hotel room upset that she was in his company, simply wanting free food. She left with a smile on her face, only disappointed they weren't able to complete their kiss. She had given the jacket back to him in the elevator but she stole it back when she was at his home, right before he left for the summer before their last year of high school. She didn't mention it but he had to have noticed it was gone.
The other was a red, lacy dress Zane had given to her early in their relationship. She said she wanted it when they were on a date at the mall but didn't expect him to buy it for her. He presented it to her when they were on the beach and she remembered how blown away she was at his kindness. Of course, he only bought the dress to get her to go to his dad's lunch but he had listened to her. It really was a beautiful dress.
It was also an expensive dress and she had only worn it once. She frowned at the dress slightly. It was a damn shame she had let it simply sit in her closet like an old shirt these past few years. She briefly wondered if it still fit. There was only one way to find out.
Rikki took the dress into her bathroom and changed into it. It zipped up perfectly. She also remembered being impressed with how accurate Zane had been at guessing her size. She could barely do that half of the time. She kept her back to the mirror as she put the dress on. The mirror in her bathroom was small so she would have to go back into her bedroom to view herself in her full sized mirror. Rikki took a deep breath as she exited the bathroom. Hopefully the reflection of herself in this dress wouldn't bring back all of those feelings she had for the raven-haired boy.
Rikki let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding as she looked in the mirror. The dress still looked perfect. She remembered it being a bit loose on her chest but now she filled it well. A bit too well, as if she might have explored a size up had she been shopping for this dress herself. Seeing as she didn't have that option, she was perfectly fine with the way the dress looked.
After she admired herself in the dress, Rikki stepped to the socket to see if her iPod was charged yet. The battery was still low when she checked but she didn't remember having many songs on the iPod. A low battery would be fine. Rikki unplugged the pink device and placed the earbuds in her ears. She didn't know what song she was going to start with until…
"I even made you up a playlist."
He had simply titled it Playlist #1. She loved all the songs he had put on said playlist. They were her favorites, meaningful to their relationship, even a guilty pleasure. It really was a great playlist and Rikki figured there were some songs on the playlist she had not heard in ages. She shuffled the playlist and was transported back to being a sixteen year old girl, sitting on the sand dune with an ear bud in one ear, the other in her boyfriend's while they listened to the playlist and reminisced over each song.
AN: Hi, guys! I hope you enjoyed this intro. I've seen a few stories referencing the iPod and playlist Zane give Rikki in Season 2, Episode 8: Wrong Side of the Tracks but never a full blown story about the playlist. I tried to pull songs I think Rikki would enjoy and also keeping them in date with that episode. I think this fic will be super fluffy and a little more mature than what I generally write. I'm also not to sure I'm going to have a schedule with this fic, just updating it as I go. I might post everyday, I might only post once a month, we'll see! I hope you guys end up enjoying this and as always, feel free to follow, favorite and review. What songs do you think were on the iPod?
