Chapter 11

Hi guys, sorry this is late again. I had a lot more work to do than I thought. I hope you have had a good Easter and enjoy this chapter.

"I still don't understand why the water in the moon pool acted like that", Lewis said.

"Max said it was because the moon is sometimes our friend and sometimes our enemy", Ash pointed out.

"Yeah, but the very idea that the moon has emotions just doesn't make sense to me", Lewis said.

Lewis and Ash were in the Juicenet Café discussing the events of the previous night while waiting for Zane. Emma couldn't come because she was training for an upcoming swimming competition. They continued talking until Zane rushed up to them looking excited.

"Hey guys, guess what?" Zane said eagerly as he sat next to Ash.

"What?" Ash asked.

"One of my best friends, that I have known since I was five is coming to visit me", Zane said

"That's great Zane, when is he coming? Lewis asked.

Zane told them his friend Peter Hill was coming the following Saturday, and then proceeded to tell them stories about Peter. Lewis and Ash's eyes widened at this information, before they had made friends with Zane, he and Peter had played pranks on them for years. And knew from experience that Peter was trouble, and after hearing even more stories about the trouble Peter got himself and Zane into they became even more concerned. Especially as many of their pranks had involved water. Though Zane had been too excited about telling Ash and Lewis what he and Peter had gotten up to that he hadn't noticed their concerned expressions, until he had finished telling his storied.

"What?" Zane asked in confusion.

Lewis and Ash shared a glance, before Lewis voiced their concerns, "I'm sorry Zane, but we don't think you should hang out with Peter".

"Why not?"

"Because from what you have told us, and from what we have already experienced he sounds like trouble", Lewis explained awkwardly.

"I know he has been mean to you two in the past, but Peter is one of my best friends I was hoping you two would get to know him".

"I don't know Zane, there's more at stake now", Ash said quietly.

"He has a point Zane", Lewis said giving Zane a sad smile.

"I don't believe this! You two are supposed to be my best friends!" Zane shouted before bolting out of the café.

Lewis and Ash tried to run after Zane, but he was too fast for them and he was no longer in sight when they were outside. Lewis sighed, "This is just great" he said sarcastically.

Ash gave Lewis a worried look, "What are we going to do?"

"Give him time, hopefully once he's calmed down he'll understand our concern", Lewis said though he didn't look as though he believed what he was saying.

Unfortunately Zane didn't calm down, he was upset that Lewis and Ash didn't trust his judgement of Peter. Though it was true that Peter was a trouble maker, he wasn't dangerous and wouldn't hurt anyone. During the week that followed he avoided Lewis and Ash and mostly hung out with Miriam and sometimes Emma. Saturday came quickly, and he was waiting for Peter at the airport with his dad. Peter had moved to America and had been living in Manhattan for five years. When Peter had come over to them, Zane had hugged him enthusiastically he really missed Peter, Peter hugged him just as enthusiastically and then shook his father's hand.

"Hey, thanks for picking me up", Peter said.

Zane's eyes widened in surprise Peter wasn't usually this polite, maybe he was trying to get Zane's father to like him, given that last time he was at their house Peter had poured the water out of his father's water bottle and put in undiluted Ribena which had given him a big shock, which had been embarrassing for his father because he had been charring an important meeting, and that was only one of the minor things he did.

"No problem Peter", Harrison said sounding just as surprised as Zane felt.

"So how's it been going?" Peter asked after Harrison had taken his luggage and led the way to his car.

"Great", Zane said forcing a smile on his face, he hoped that Peter didn't notice. Zane was still upset with Lewis and Ash, part of him knew they were just looking out for him but most of him was hurt that they didn't trust him.

"Come on Zane, you know I can tell when you're lying. What's wrong?" Peter asked.

Zane sighed, he had already told Peter about his friendship with Ash and Lewis (missing out their merman secret), he told Peter he had gotten into a fight with them because he felt they hurt him, but didn't tell him why as part of it involved their secret. Zane noticed that Peter's expression had turned from concern to anger, he was very protective of Zane which was part of the reason why he got them both into trouble so much.

"You know what? I feel a prank coming on", Peter said angrily.

"Please don't prank them, they get enough of that from Nate".

"But-"

"Please".

Peter sighed and reluctantly agreed, though Zane knew what Peter was like and worried that Peter would prank them, and was particularly worried that he would use water. Zane was regretting telling Peter about their fight, Zane had been feeling upset and needed to vent, and he had forgotten how vengeful Peter could be. Thankfully they had reached the car and Peter dropped the topic. They caught up during the car ride to Zane's house. Peter told him that he was considering coming back to Australia after he had finished school, to go to university there. Zane was already planning on staying in Australia for university, so he was happy that Peter was going to be there too. He didn't know what Ash and Lewis were doing, it was still quite early to be thinking about this. But his father wanted him to start thinking about university now.

Peter noticed that was avoiding the topic of Lewis and Ash, their fight seemed to upset Zane more than he was letting on. Which made Peter angrier. He was very surprised when Zane had told him about his friendship with them, and he was afraid that something like this would happen. It hadn't happened as soon as he had thought though. Something must have happened to the trio, Zane had hated them for years. Peter had a feeling that Zane was hiding something big, and really wanted to question him about it. But he knew Zane wouldn't tell him in front of his father, he was more likely to open up if they were alone, so he decided to wait until they were in Zane's room. When they had got to the house, Peter followed Zane and his father inside. To his surprise Zane took his luggage up for him, without being asked. Ash and Lewis must have influenced him, Peter thought irritably. When they got to Zane's room, he distracted Zane before he asked about his secret. Knowing he would be more likely to catch him off guard.

"So are you seeing anyone?"

"No not right now".

Peter raised his eyebrow at Zane and smirked at him, "But there is someone you like right?"

Zane blushed and looked at the floor, "No there isn't".

"You do like someone, tell me who she is"

"No", Zane said firmly.

"Tell me".

"No".

This went on for some time until Zane lost his patience and said "Fine, I like this new girl called Rikki".

"Really? I thought you liked Miriam".

"Not anymore, I like Rikki now. But don't tell anyone".

Peter laughed, "Your secret's safe with me. So tell me about Rikki".

"She is sooo annoying…"

Zane ranted about Rikki for some time, and complained about how he had to work with her for an English presentation. Peter grinned at Zane.

"What?" Zane asked irritably.

"You really like her don't you?"

"What no I don't really like her", Zane said emphasising the word really, "I just kind of like her".

"You're lying", Peter said in a sing song voice.

"I'm not".

"You are".

"I'm not".

"The gentleman doth protest too much", Peter said grinning, and before Zane could argue back Peter tried to subtly ask "So how did you become friends with Emma? I thought you two hated each other", He wanted to ask about Lewis and Ash, but knew mentioning them would upset Zane, so he stopped himself from asking. Zane narrowed his eyes at Peter, making him wonder if he hadn't been as subtle as he thought.

Zane shrugged, "I needed help with studying, she helped me and we bonded though that".

Peter could tell that Zane was lying, but decided to drop it for the moment, asking Zane another time might be a better option. Peter was about to say something but Zane's phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, when he saw who was calling he frowned, hung up and put it back in his pocket.

"Who was it?" Peter asked, though he could guess who it might be.

"It was Ash", Zane replied. Zane hated ignoring Ash and Lewis, but he was still upset with them. He particularly felt guilty about ignoring Ash, he was the youngest of their group which made him, Lewis and Emma very protective of him. Zane hated not being able to keep an eye on him, but knew that Lewis and Emma would look out for him, not to mention Ash's family who were even more protective.

"How about we watch a movie or something?" Peter said, trying to distract Zane.

Zane smiled gratefully at Peter, "Yeah, let's go down stairs the TV screen is bigger down there".

While Zane and Peter were spending the afternoon watching movies Ash was reluctantly working with Nate on their presentation. They were at the Juicnet café and were working on their own parts of the presentation. After half an hour of arguing, they had finally decided on what they were each going to work on. It wasn't going well though, they kept getting into arguments usually started by Nate.

"So how come you're so scared of the water?" Nate asked cruelly.

Ash froze he didn't want to talk about this with anyone, let alone Nate, as it brought up bad memories. "I'm not talking about this with you".

"I'm never letting this go".

"Then you will be wondering about this for the rest of your life".

"Don't be so dramatic, and while I'm interrogating you. What happened on Mako Island?"

Ash gaped at Nate in shock, why was Nate asking about Mako Island? He couldn't know, could he? Before Ash had a chance to distract Nate from the question, Miriam grabbed Nate's arm and pulled him from the booth and outside. When they were out of earshot, Miriam let go of Nate's arm.

"What did you do that for?" Nate asked angrily.

"What happened to being subtle?" Miriam asked just as angrily.

"Subtle?"

"It means be careful and not obvious!"

"I know what it means!" Nate said indignantly.

"Really? Because it sure didn't look like it back there!"

"I know what I'm doing".

"I don't think you do, you'll never get an answer out of Ash if you ask him like that, he's not stupid unlike some people".

"Hey, I'm not stupid".

"Sure you're not", Miriam said sarcastically, "Just be more careful okay".

Nate rolled his eyes, "I will".

"You better", Miriam called after Nate as he went back to the Juicenet café.

When Nate went back inside he noticed Emma and Lewis glaring at him, he glared back and sat back in his seat opposite Ash. Though he would never admit it to Miriam, she did have a point. Nate decided to try a different tactic, "How is you're research going?"

Ash looked up and narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Nate, "Since when are you interested in this?"

Nate put his hand on his heart in mock hurt, "You wound me Ash, I've always been interested".

Ash rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, "Yeah right", he picked up his note book and gave it to Nate, "Have a read of my notes if you're so interested".

It was Nate's turn to narrow his eyes at Ash, he had hoped to make Ash think he had forgotten about Mako, but he had a feeling his plan hadn't worked. However, he reluctantly read his notes, while Ash read his. They worked for another hour, and Nate had tried to find a way to, as Miriam said, subtly bring up Mako but was unable to. And this really frustrated Nate, he wanted to know what they were hiding.

During the next couple of days, Zane spent most of his time catching up with Peter. They had met up with Miriam, who was also good friends with Peter. Zane was sad that Nate didn't join them this time, but given that they weren't friends at the moment he wasn't surprised. He still wasn't talking to Ash and Lewis either, which also upset him. Zane and Peter were at the Juicnet café, and he could see them with Emma. He noticed that Peter's hands had curled into fists. "Please don't do anything stupid".

"They upset you", Peter protested.

"I know, but like I said before they were just looking out for me. They didn't mean to upset me".

Peter wanted to argue further but Zane went to the bathroom and he knew Zane wouldn't listen to him anyway. On his way to a booth, he saw that a waitress was about to hand Lewis his smoothie. Though Zane didn't want Peter to get revenge, he couldn't let it go so he deliberately bumped into the waitress so that the smoothie went all over Lewis. Lewis stared at Peter in shock for a second and then jumped out of his seat and when he realised that the bathroom was occupied ran to the storeroom.

"What did you do that for?" Ash asked angrily.

"You know why", Peter said darkly and walked to a booth.

When Peter had sat down he noticed Ash had gotten up presumably to argue with him more, but Emma pulled him down and whispered something and he reluctantly stayed in his seat. Peter smirked at Lewis when he came out of the store room, he glared at Peter but didn't confront him instead he went back to his booth. When Zane came back they talked for the rest of the afternoon. Peter had wanted to tell Zane about the smoothie incident, but knew that Zane would be angry with him so decided to keep it a secret.

The next day Ash and Lewis were walking to the Juicenet café when they noticed that Peter was walking by himself and kept glancing around. This was odd because Peter was usually with Zane or Miriam and he wasn't normally so secretive.

"I wonder what he's up to", Ash said curiously.

"We could follow him", Lewis suggested.

"Since when did you become so sneaky?" Ash asked in amusement.

Lewis shrugged, "Turning into a merman has changed me a lot, come on let's go before we lose him".

The duo followed Peter, they walked for about fifteen minutes and when Peter stopped walking they saw that his destination was a warehouse. Lewis and Ash shared a confused look.

"What's he doing?" Lewis whispered.

"I have no idea".

When Peter went inside the warehouse, they slipped in after him and hid behind some crates. Peter walked to a group of three people who were looking through one of the crates. They tried to see what was inside, but Peter was in the way.

"Is it all here?" Peter asked a man who looked like he was only two or three years older than him, while the other man and woman looked like they were in their late twenties.

"Yes, it's ready to go", the man replied.

"Good, come on I need to show you guys something", Peter said, Peter and the others left the warehouse and closed the door.

Lewis and Ash waited a few minutes to make sure they wouldn't come back in, then came out of their hiding place.

"This is bad, this is very bad", Lewis said anxiously.

"It looks that way, but let's look inside the crates to check. They could be filled with party decorations for all we know", Ash said but he didn't sound convinced. They walked up to one of the crates, shared an anxious look and opened it. They stared in shock, inside was a lot of very expensive looking jewellery. "We need to call the police", Ash said urgently.

"I don't think so", said a voice behind them, causing them to whip around and come face to face with Peter, who was pointing a gun at them.