Hi guys, I hope you enjoy this story.
Chapter 9
It was unusually quiet in the living room, this was because it was 6:30am. Lewis knew that if he wanted to work in the living room in peace, he had to be there this early. Lewis hadn't done this in a while, as he was upset about Ash and Emma not talking to him and Zane. But now that thing were back to normal, Lewis was happy and had decided to get a head start on his biology homework. Lewis normally started by writing in his journal, he wrote everything that happened to him in it, including his merman adventures, and his goals for the year, month and day. He kept his journal a secret, from everyone, because he didn't want his family to find out about him, Zane and Ash being mermen. And he knew he would be made fun of for keeping a journal, which he felt wasn't fair, it was a very practical thing to do and he bet that if Zane and Ash knew how helpful having a journal was they would keep one too.
Lewis looked in his pile of books for his journal, but couldn't find it. Lewis tried not to panic, he probably left it in his room by mistake. He looked everywhere in his room, but still couldn't find it. Lewis was now in full blown panic mode, he spent the next hour looking everywhere around the house, apart from his parents' and brothers rooms as they were currently occupied and still couldn't find it. He double checked the house again, and an hour later, when he returned to the living room he saw that his brothers were playing Mario kart on their Wii.
"Guys, have any of you seen my journal?" Lewis asked.
His brothers didn't reply, they were too engrossed in the game, Lewis sighed in irritation and stepped in front of the TV.
Lenny paused the game and said, "What did you do that for?"
"Yeah, I was about to win!" Max said irritably.
"No I was!" Charles argued.
"You two are crazy, I was the one who was winning", Spencer said, causing Charles and Max to jump on Spencer and wrestle.
"Guys! Guys! Stop fighting!" Lewis shouted.
"Why?" Max asked but continue to wrestle with his brothers while Lenny jumped of the couch before they could hit him by mistake.
"I need to ask you something important!"
"Sorry bro, no can do", Max said.
"Lenny, help me", Lewis said.
"But this is so funny to watch", Lenny protested. Lewis glared at him, causing Lenny to sigh, "Fine, guys break it up".
When his brothers stopped fighting Lewis spoke up before they could start again, "Have any of you seen my journal?"
His brothers burst into laughter, Lewis crossed his arms irritably having expected this reaction.
"You keep a diary?" Spencer asked incredulously in between laughs.
"A journal! Have any of you seen it?" Lewis asked.
His brothers all shook their head unable to speak because they were laughing too much.
"Okay, let me ask a different question. Have any of you stolen it?"
"I'm hurt Lewis, I can' believe you think we would steal you diary", Max said in mock hurt.
"It wouldn't be the first time you stole one of my books to annoy me, and it's a journal".
"Fair enough, but I didn't steal your diary, did any of you guys?" Max said, the others all shook their heads.
"Great", Lewis said sarcastically, he had a feeling that despite this one of them had taken it, "Are mum and dad up?"
"Yeah, they are in the kitchen", Lenny answered.
"Thanks", Lewis said walked to the kitchen.
"Good luck finding your diary!" Charles called after him among gales of laughter.
"Whatever!" Lewis shouted.
Lewis tried to calm himself down, there was a chance that his parents had seen his journal. His parents were eating breakfast when he got to the kitchen, and had the radio on in the background. They both smiled when they saw him.
"Hey Lewis", His mother; Jessie, said.
"Hey, listen have either of you seen my journal?" Lewis asked.
Jessie and Lewis' father; Ted both shook their heads with an apologetic look.
"Thanks anyway, can you let me know if you see it?"
"Sure, no problem Lewis. I hope you find it", Ted said.
"Thanks, see you guys later I'm going out".
"Okay, don't be back any later than 6:30 we're having dinner at 7", Jessie said.
"Okay, bye", Lewis said and left the house. He knew he should let the others know what was happening, but he wanted to make sure his journal was really gone first. Lewis went to the places he usually hung out and checked everywhere, he went to the JuiceNet café, the moon pool, his secret fishing spot, he even checked the school. But he couldn't find his journal. Lewis sighed, he couldn't keep this to himself anymore he had to tell the others. He sent a group message asking to meet up because he had something important to tell them. They agreed to meet at Zane's house as his father was out. As Lewis made his way to the house he dreaded telling them. He knew that Zane and Ash would be angry with him for putting their lives at risk. Emma would be for that reason to, she was very protective of Ash and though she wouldn't admit it Lewis knew she cared for Zane, she and Lewis had been good friends before the mermen situation so despite her anger she would be worried for him too.
When they had all arrived and settled in the living room, Lewis told them about how he had kept a journal. Which they found extremely funny and Lewis wasn't able to tell the story for twenty minutes because of this. Their laughter abruptly stopped though, when Lewis explained that he wrote about himself, Zane and Ash being mermen and that the journal was missing. He explained how he had looked everywhere but couldn't find it and was afraid that it had been stolen.
"I'm so sorry guys, I never thought this would happen", Lewis said.
"Lewis how could you? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!" Zane shouted.
"I kept it a secret from everyone, I thought it would be safe", Lewis argued.
"Maybe so, but you shouldn't have done that, now anyone could know about you guys", Emma said angrily and instinctively moved closer to Ash.
"I'm so sorry, but we really need to find my journal", Lewis said.
"Yeah we really do, is there anywhere else the journal could be?" Ash asked trying to remain calm, he was upset with Lewis for putting their lives at risk but knew he hadn't meant to. This was all so overwhelming, Ash could understand why Lewis felt he had to write his feelings about their situation down, so he continued to try and remain calm even though he felt panicked by the idea of someone else knowing their secret.
"I didn't check the waterpark, but I don't bring my journal there. I might have brought it there by mistake. And there's a good chance one of my brothers stole it. My whole family is out now so we could check their rooms".
"Okay, Emma and I will check the water park. Zane and Lewis check the rooms. Does that sound good?" Ash asked.
"Yeah", Emma said feeling happy that Ash had chosen her to be with him, "Shall we meet back here in an hour and a half?"
The trio agreed with Emma and they left the house and went their separate ways.
Meanwhile in an unknown location Johnny sat opposite Drake and watched as he gleefully look through the journal Johnny had found. It belonged to Lewis McCartney, and while it wasn't complete proof of Lewis, Ash and Zane being mermen, it held a lot of useful information about them. Johnny was still uncertain about helping Drake, he knew what he planned to do to the mermen. And while he tried to comfort himself in the knowledge that they weren't human, he still felt guilty about it.
"This is amazing Brooks, it confirmation that these three are mermen. I knew that there was a good chance, but as we're still waiting for DNA test results from them, this confirms my suspicions".
"What are you going to do? Are you going to capture them?" Johnny asked almost afraid to hear the answer.
"No not yet, I want to watch them for a bit longer and find out everything I can. I can't make the same mistake I made last time. Make copies of this journal and put it back before the original thief realises its missing".
"Yes sir", Johnny said and took the journal and felt glad that he could leave the room.
The walk to Lewis' house was awkward and tense, Zane was so angry he refused to talk to Lewis the whole way. And they were both so scared at the thought of someone else knowing their secret. When they got to the house, they searched Lewis' brother's rooms three times but couldn't find the journal. They met in the living room after they had finished searching.
"I couldn't find it, could you?" Zane asked.
Lewis shook his head sadly, "I really am sorry about this Zane".
Zane sighed, "I know you are, I'm sorry I over-reacted".
"You didn't over-react, you had every right to be angry. I'm surprised Ash wasn't".
"He's good a keeping a level head, even when he had lost his memory. I mean he did freak out, but if I was in that situation I would have completely freaked out and refused to go to school".
"Yeah, I don't know how he managed to go to school", Lewis said.
"We should probably head back to my house now", Zane said, Lewis agreed and the two made their way to Zane's house.
While Zane and Lewis had been searching in the house, Ash and Emma were in the marine park. They had been searching for thirty minutes when Ash spoke up, "Maybe we should ask Max to help us. It would help to have an extra person helping, and I need to thank him for saving me". Lewis and Zane had told Ash and Emma everything that happened with Max, Ash had wanted to thank him straight away but the others wouldn't let him because they didn't trust Max. Ash generally appreciated how protective they were of him, but there were times like this when he found it annoying. Ash hoped to change their minds about Max, he was grateful for Max saving him and as Max had also been a merman he felt that Max could help them.
"I think that's a bad idea, I still don't trust him", Emma said.
"Emma, Max saved me. If it weren't for him, I may still not know who I am".
"I know but, he could have had an ulterior motive. Come one we can find it ourselves", Emma said.
Ash would have argued further, but he recognised that tone. It meant that nothing he could say would change her mind. Ash sighed but let it go for the moment and the pair continued to search. An hour passed, and they were about to give up when a voice spoke up from behind them.
"Looking for this?"
The duo whipped around, a girl with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail was standing in front of a dolphin pool, holding Lewis' journal with a smug smile.
"Rikki? You stole Lewis' journal?" Emma asked in surprise.
Ash glanced at Emma, "You know her?"
"Yeah, we were in a group together for English, the other day".
"Oh, Rikki did you read the journal?" Ash asked trying to sound calm, but finding it difficult.
"Of course I did, you don't steal a journal and not read it, what is all this about you, Lewis and Zane being mermen?"
"It was an extra assignment that Mrs Pond set for Lewis", Ash said trying to remain calm.
"Really?" Rikki asked not sounded completely convinced.
"Yeah, I mean come on there is no way any of that is real", Emma said.
"That's a good point".
"So can we have Lewis' journal back now?" Ash asked feeling relieved that Rikki believed them.
"Lewis' journal?" The last person Ash wanted to be there asked. Nate snatched the journal from Rikki. Ash knew that if they didn't get the journal back from Nate, he would spill all of Lewis' secrets and it would be over for them.
"Hey, give it back!" Ash shouted and made a grab for the journal, but Nate lifted it out of his reach.
"No way, this is mine now", Nate said.
"It belongs to Lewis!" Ash said angrily, and the two fought over the journal. Nate lost his grip on the journal and it fell into the dolphin pool.
"No!" Ash shouted, at that moment Lewis and Zane rushed to the scene, they were on the way to Zane's house and were passing the park, and heard Ash's shout.
"What's going on? Are you okay Ash?" Zane asked in concern.
"Yeah, but Lewis' journal is in the dolphin pool".
"What?" Lewis asked angrily and glared at Nate.
"Nate, get the journal it's your fault it's in the pool", Ash said.
"You want it so badly, you get it", Nate said, and gave Zane a malicious smile
Zane knew in that moment what he was going to do. "No don't!" Zane shouted but was too late. Nate pushed Ash.
Just as Ash was about to fall in to the dolphin pool, Emma ran to him and grabbed his waist. She pulled him off the edge and away from the pool. After Ash had regained his breath from the shock of nearly being exposed, he hugged Emma. She hugged him tightly back, when they finished their hug. Ash whispered, "You saved me".
"I was just returning the favour", Emma said smiling.
Ash was startled back to reality by Zane's shout, Zane had stormed up to Nate and looked like he wanted to punch him.
"How could you Nate? You know Ash is afraid of water!"
Nate was about to reply but was cut off by Rikki's shout, "You pig!" Rikki pushed Nate into the pool. The group were shocked into silence for a minute, then burst into laughter. Zane and Rikki caught each other's gaze, and smiled they moved to hug each other but when they realised what they were doing they stepped away from each other and looked away awkwardly. While Nate was getting out of the pool, Emma got Lewis' journal out of the pool and made sure it was completely dry before handing it to him.
"I'm afraid it completely soaked Lewis", Emma said giving him a sympathetic smile.
Lewis took the journal and looked through it, Emma was right. Some of the writing was still legible, but most of it wasn't.
"It's probably for the best", Lewis said in a meaningful tone, though he looked at his journal sadly, he had spent hours writing in the journal and he had grown fond of it, and now the writing was nearly all gone and the journal was unusable.
"You're all going to regret this!" Nate shouted at the group when he had gotten out of the pool and ran off.
"What a jerk", Emma said.
"Yeah", Zane said sadly, he was angry with Nate for trying to push Ash into the pool, but he still missed Nate.
"Shall we go to the JuiceNet café? I don't know about you guys but I could use a smoothie right now", Ash said.
"Yeah, that sounds great. Rikki would you like to come with us?" Emma said. She hadn't liked Rikki much when they first met because she had been rude and very annoying, but pushing Nate into the pool like that changed her mind. Zane gave Emma a look that said "are you insane?" But Emma ignored him.
"Yeah, I'd like that", Rikki said to Zane's dismay.
The group made their way to the café and Emma called Cleo and invited her to join them, so she met them there. They spent the rest of the afternoon at the café.