Here's the next Chapter. You'll notice I'm going to have each chapter start with one of Jazz's journal entries.

Let The Chaos Ensue...

Pearls

- Danny tends to make gifts for people out of the things he finds in the ocean. He has a natural talent for making jewelry and an instinctual habit of gifting these items to people who he deems close enough to be part of his 'group', 'swarm', 'troop', or dare I say 'gossip'. I'm not sure why, but that's what a group of mer's is called. Which is slightly weird. Also, Danny doesn't realize he does this, he only knows that he makes gifts for them.

It was a nice thought, really, it was. The only problem…

Danny had just breached from the water and headed for shore once he pulled himself out of the water, he placed a giant oyster onto the beach, froze, then slowly pushed himself back into the water, just allowing his eyes to show over the waves to stare at his two best friends.

They sat down on the beach and waited for their friend.

He ducked down under the water and back down to the reef. "This is bad," he said. Bubbles slipping between his lips.

Swimming in small circles, back and forth, he looked at the sea floor then got an idea.

Swooping down, he scooped up a handful of muddy dark sand, then swam to the surface. Rubbing the muck in his hair, he waved at his friends and shouted. "Hey guys!"

They stood and waved back. "Danny," Sam said. "What are you doing way out there?"

"Swimming," he said as he swam closer. "But I'm kinda naked right now, so if you could go in the house to wait for me.

Sam went beat red and covered her face, Tucker just laughing. "Sure man."

She turned and ran into the house, Tucker cackling as he followed. Danny waited until the back door shut and rinsed his hair and pulled himself ashore, quickly morphing back to his human form. Grabbing his oyster and a towel from the beach shed, he walked inside and shut the door, giving a cheeky grin to his friends, Sam still red as a tomato.

"Sorry guys, I didn't know you were coming otherwise I would've put on some trunks," he said.

"Ha ha ha," Tucker laughed. "You skinny dip!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm gonna take a quick shower then we can take a look at this bad boy!" he said as he set the giant oyster on the table.

…

"What even is that?" Tucker asked.

"It's a giant oyster you dummy," Sam said, elbowing him.

"Yeah, and it's gonna be full of pearls," Danny grinned. Then, with his bare hands, he pried the thing open with a resounding *crack* of the shell. "Ohhh… look at that meet." He took a piece of it and shoved it in his mouth, the other two watching in horror.

He held out his palm and spit out two pearls, one white and the other pink.

Tucker snatched them out of his hands. "I could sell these!"

Danny swiped them back and said. "Nuh uh, I'm using these to make a gift."

"Danny, you have to cook that or you're going to get sick!" Sam said in a stern tone.

Danny stared at her and took another bite of the oyster, spitting out three more pearls. "Are you mad because you can't eat raw food?"

"Danny, you can't eat food raw!"

"What are you talking about, I've been doing it my whole life, and I'm just fine."

Defeated with the boy's odd logic, she sighed. "I'm not going to argue with you on this, just… I don't know, don't complain if you do get sick."

"Something that's never happened," Tucker added.

"So anyways," Danny said, taking another bite of his oyster and spitting out a few more pearls. "Why are you guys here so early, what gave you an idea to be here to meet me at the beach when I was done with my swim? Not that I don't appreciate it, it's just that you would've had to wake up at like five to get here on time with all your school work done and such."

"Eh, Tucker and I worked on the essay late last night and finished it before we went to bed, so we decided to surprise you on your beach. Didn't know you went skinny dipping though."

Danny grinned and laughed. "Fish's gotta swim."

They chatted as he ate through all the meat of the oyster and spat pearls into a bowl like watermelon seeds.

"What's wrong with the pearls? They're beautiful but you keep glaring at the bowl," Sam said.

"I need at least one black one," he said. He pulled the last chunk of pearls and meat out of the oyster and spat it in his hand. Two pink, a white, and… one black.

"Yes!"

They had about a half hour before they needed to leave for school so Danny grabbed a small hand held drill and started putting a small hole through each pearl, moving them to a second bold. By the time he was done he had almost a hundred pearl beads.

"What are you going to do with them?" Sam asked.

"I'm working on a necklace for someone," he said.

"Who is it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, who's the lucky girl?" Tucker wiggled his eyebrows.

"It's not like that," he defended.

"Then tell us who it's for," Sam pushed.

"No, you'll make fun of me."

"C'mon man," Tucker said.

Danny Sighed and gave in to his friend's pressure. "There's two, the one with the white pearls is for Jazz, and the one with the black and pink pearls is gonna be for Dash."

"Dash?" Tucker said. "Come on, he's always picking on you. And he's a dick to me."

"Seems fine to me," Sam said.

"You have no say, rich kid."

"Well you have a point, Tucker. Why are you giving one to Dash, Danny?" Sam asked.

"He's always pulling your hair and calling you names, I just don't get it, Danny."

The boy in question lowered his head. "See, this is why I didn't want to tell you." He grabbed the bowl of pearls and the drill and huffed off to his bedroom.

On his way up the stairs he tripped, spilling the bowl everywhere. The other two came chasing after him and stared at the mess.

"Oh… Danny we're sorry. We didn't mean to make fun of you," Sam said.

"Yeah, we just don't understand why you'd wanna give something nice to that dick." Tucker said, received a sharp elbow to the ribs.

Danny sighed and started picking up the pearls. "Look guys, I don't know why I picked Dash for this necklace, I just did."

"We won't bug you about it. Come on Tucker, help pick up the pearls," she said getting on the floor and gathering the jewels.

"Yeah, and we should probably be quick about it if we don't wanna be late for school," Tucker added.

…

Danny sat in Mr. Havish's class carefully tieing the thin twine into a complex looking cord. Focusing solely on his task at hand he missed being called on by the teacher. So much so that the entire classroom was now watching him work intently for a good five minutes. Only coming out of his trance when Tucker slapped the boy on the back of the head.

"Wha… what did I miss?" Danny looked up to see the whole classroom staring and laughing at him, Mr Havish with a slight look of concern on his face.

"Danny, are you alright, you normally pay much more attention. What are you working on?"

Danny held up the unfinished piece, now a spiraling cord, and shrugged. "I'm sorry, I was just really focused. I make jewelry for my friends sometimes, and this particular design I was just really excited about. Sorry, I'll put it away."

"Thanks Danny," Mr. Havish said. Then he returned to class.

…

On their way home, Tucker gave Danny, who was lost in thought, a tap on the shoulder.

"Hm? What's up?"

"Man, you've been spacey today," Sam said.

"I know, I'm just really excited to give Jazz and Dash their necklaces."

"Hey, how come you've never made us jewelry?" Tucker asked.

"Hm? No I have, we were just really little. If you guys want I can make you new ones."

"I'd like that," Sam smiled.

"So cool!" Tucker cheered.

As they reached Danny's front door, the boy ran up the steps quickly with a brisk goodbye. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go fight a shark for its tooth," then shut the door in their shocked faces.

He grinned as he wandered inside and dropped his stuff off at the bottom of the stairs. He walked out to the back porch and left his clothes there after making sure his parents weren't home, then dashed out into the ocean.

It took him about 15 minutes, but he'd found a shark.

Now for the hard part.

…

Danny sat at the kitchen table with a towel around his waist, Jazz practically screaming at him.

He knew from experience, she wasn't mad, just worried.

"A shark!? Really Danny, don't you know better than that? How are you not dead?"

"It was just a tiger," he muttered.

"Just a tiger? They attack unprovoked, no wonder it attacked you."

"Actually," Danny lowered his head, trying not to grin. "It was for a necklace, Jazz," he said. "But good news, when it bit me it left three teeth in my shoulder and now I have four!" He nodded his head to his treasures left on the table.

Jazz sighed and walked forward, lifting the gauze from the wound to look at the bite that covered more than his left shoulder. The bleeding had soaked through the gauze so she pulled it off and tossed it in the trash.

"More good news," she said. "You'll have the coolest story to go with the necklace and the proof to show with it."

Danny's grin spread when he saw his sister smile, he hugged jazz with his good arm while she wrapped his shoulder in a new layer of gauze. "You're the best!"

"So who's the necklace for anyways?"

"Uhhhh… Dash?"

"Dash? Really?" She asked. "Even though he tournaments you?"

"It's really not that bad, he teases me as if he were a third grader," Danny chuckled. "He'll pull my hair and call me names, maybe toss sand in my face but he's not actually a bad guy. He's a dick to Tucker, but he's never done anything to seriously hurt anyone. Except maybe during dodge ball. The thing is, I know he's a good guy. And if I needed him, he'd be there for me."

"Well," Jazz said. "I trust you, and it's your choice. Just remember the deal we made." She finished tying up the gauze and stood back.

Danny nodded. "I don't get to tell anyone until I'm 18 and have my own place," he said for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Good, now go to bed and rest your arm. Be glad it's the weekend so you have time to heal, and don't forget to thank god you can control your super healing. If that was a scar by Monday you'd be in trouble."

Danny nodded and headed to bed.

…

Danny held the simple yet beautiful piece of jewelry dangling in front of Dash's face. His eyes filled with joy and surprise when the boy told him he had a gift for him.

It had a simple lobster clasp and a loop of twine at the ends, and the cord was plain until it reached the bottom where the pink then black, then pink pearls were and the shark tooth made up the pendant.

"Where did you get this, Danny?" He asked, his brain too fried to come up with a good name to call him.

"I made it," he said. " I got all of it from the ocean too, except the cord, that's just hemp twine I knotted to look like that."

"The pearls and shark tooth too?"

"Mhmm," Danny nodded.

"I bet he just got the tooth offline," Tucker whispered to Sam behind him.

"Well actually," The raven responded, pulling at the collar of his shirt. He revealed the shark bite, the deep cuts still healing and scabbed, the skin around each puncture bruised an assortment of colors. "I wrestled a tiger shark for it, and I've got the bite to prove it." he grinned.

Dash's face quickly became the color of his letterman and held his breath, taking the necklace, he squeaked out a thank you before running off.

The rest of the week all the students were talking about was how Danny supposedly wrestled a shark for Dash. Kids were coming up to him all week asking to see the bite mark, others to ask him if the two were an item. Some wanting to ask if he was simply gay.

He laughed it off and showed them his wound and didn't say anything else. After all, not everyone got to be the topic of gossip. And Danny liked listening to what they could come up with, just to get a good laugh.