The next day, Robby and Harry sought out Stan and Irene at the lab while Robby's parents sought out Jacob. Unlike the adults, however, the boys went about their search slowly. Sure, working with dolphins was fun and all, but the two had really hoped for a proper vacation. Going surfing, seeing the sights, getting a taste of the culture, the boys wanted to really experience Hawaii, not just see it primarily from the arena at the museum. Robby's parents promised to take them out to a few sights, but their work at the lab had to come first. The boys understood, they really did, but they only had so long before they would be heading back to California to prepare for college, and the hours were ticking. Sure, it had been only a few days since they had arrived in Hawaii, but with everything that had happened already, it had only felt like minutes. And now time seemed to drag as they dreaded the thought of having to work on vacation. The two almost wished they were dealing with the mystery of the pirate lurking around and the disappeareance of Jack Storm. Almost, they didn't want to have to deal with any more near-death scenarios. But it had most certainly been more exciting than cleaning bathrooms, which they knew was on the day's chore list.

"Golly, where are those two?" asked Harry, running his hand through his hair as they looked around. "I mean, we wanted to take a while to find them, but not this long."

"Afraid he's making the moves on your girl?" teased Robby.

Harry scoffed. "He's probably been making moves on her ever since he met her. But she doesn't seem interested in him."

"She doesn't seem interested in you," pointed out Robby.

Harry sighed. "Yeah, but we only just met. And if her sister has medical issues, she probably has a lot on her mind." He shrugged. "She might not be interested in going out with guys right now."

"She also could just not be interested in going out with guys at all," said Robby. "We really don't know her well enough to say."

"Yeah, there is that too."

"And you know, there is one place we haven't checked yet," said Robby.

Harry blinked. "Where?"

"The arena."

"Oh, yeah," mumbled Harry. "Playing with the dolphins."

"Irene really seems to like hanging around them," said Robby as they began walking in that direction.

Harry glanced at Robby. "Say, do you think there's any truth to what your grandpa said, about mermaids at Devil's Hat?"

Robby shrugged. "It's anyone's guess, really. There's no proof to their existence."

"There's also no proof to them not existing either," Harry pointed out. "There's still secrets hiding in the oceans and the seas that not even an expert like your father can convince the water to give up. We're still finding out things we never thought possible. I mean, heck, the kraken does technically exist! It's just giant squid!"

Robby chuckled. "Yeah, technically, but that's not good enough in Dad's book. The kraken was always described as more of an octopus rather than a squid."

"Well, I mean yeah, sure, but you do have to admit a lot of mythological creatures had some kind of basis. I mean, has your dad ever seen an old depiction of giraffes? They look ridiculous!"

Robby laughed. "That is quite true."

"Every legend has some truth to it, just wrapped in pretty exaggerations. You just gotta unwrap it."

Robby paused when they got to the arena. "But if that is the case, then what would be the exaggerations wrapped around the mermaid? Some people, my father among them, have already made the claim that mermaids are nothing more than dolphins or some other kind of cetacean."

Harry shrugged. "Well, if there are mermaids at Devil's Hat, guess we'll just have to meet some and find out."

Robby scoffed. "That might be easier said than done."

"Well yeah, they haven't kept themselves hidden for this long without anyone noticing for nothing. We're just going to have to be extra careful and look really well." He wraggled his eyebrows. "And we might find the treasure while we're at it."

Robby roleld his eyes. "Whatever." He turned and looked out the glass door. "And yup, looks like our two coworkers are out there."

Harry moaned. "Why did you have to remind me?"

"Because the sooner we can get these chores done, the faster we can hit those waves," said Robby as he opened the door.

"Touche," muttered Harry as he followed him out. Stan and Irene were out in the water, swimming with a couple of dolphins. Irene was playing with one while Stan was going around the side slowly with the other.

"Is that Poipu?" asked Robby as he and Harry leaned over the railing.

Stan paused in his swim and shot them a grin. "Yup! He's healing just fine, don't you think?"

"How long until he's fully healed?" asked Harry.

"A few more days, they think. The spearhead didn't go in too deep, so it will heal quickly."

Robby smiled. "That's fantastic!" Poipu's head came above the water and waved with his good fin. Robby waved back. "Hi Poipu! Glad to hear you're doing better!"

"Thanks to you and Kalea," siad Irene with a smile. "He really couldn't have picked a better person to swim with."

Robby chuckled. "Yeah, for once, number thirteen was lucky!"

"So, is today dolphin practice day, or do we have to clean the bathrooms?" aske Harry.

Stan put a finger to his lips. "If Poipu needs more swimming and Kalea needs more playtime, we'll swim." He winked.

Harry grinned. "I like the sound of that. Need some help with them?"

"Are you kidding? Come on in!" said Irene with a smile.

Robby and Harry grinned. "Give us a sec!" They dashed into the changing rooms and quickly changed into swim trunks and life preservers. They came back out and dived right in. The two really got their chance to shine as all their years of working and playing with Balthazar really came through. Robby took to helping Stan with Poipu while Harry helped Irene play with Kalea.

"Wow, Kalea really likes you," Irene told Harry. She glanced at Robby. "Both of you, in fact. I've never seen him become so attached to anyone so fast."

Harry shrugged. "Like Robby's said, the two of us grew up with Balthazar and the sea life Mr. Hoenig took care of. It's almost second nature now, dealing with sea life."

"I can tell." She smiled at him. "It's a nice change from all the tourists we deal with. You two know what to do, we don't have to be as careful. And, um, I want to apologise, I did think you were no better than another tourist, particularly surfers."

"Oh?" Harry blinked. "Oh, wait, was it the hair?"

Irene winced. "Yeah, kinda."

"Oh, we were just trying it out. We were planning on cutting it before we head off to college."

"Oh don't!" Harry blinked in surprise at her outburst. "I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to. It, uh, it actually looks kind of nice on you."

Harry's mouth curled into a smile. "Really? Well, uh, thanks."

"So, um, what kind of girl does Robby like?"

Harry began to deflate, but he kept the smile on his face. "Oh, so, you like Robby, huh?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

"Um, well, I don't think he knows." He thought for a moment while he played with the ball with Kalea. "Hmm, but, based on what I've noticed that he seems to lean towards, he prefers brunettes, intelligent girls, obviously, and witty." He tilted his head. "In fact, now that I think about it, I think we both like similar girls."

"That must make things easy for you."

"Not if there's only one girl," Harry remarked slyly.

"Ah, yes, that could prove to be a problem." Irene tapped her fingers on her chin. "What if I could find someone for you?"

Harry chuckled nervously. "Um, thanks?"

"What, not interested in any of my friends?"

"Uh," began Harry. He had to think quickly, he didn't want to say no, her friends were probably just as cute as she was, but he was more interested in her. He then shrugged. "We could give it a go. But your friend might not be the one for me."

She smiled. "A fair observation."

"Hey, guys!" Robby and Stan were swimming towards them. Harry let out a soft breath. He was so glad to see them.

"What?" asked Irene.

"Robby was saying that he and Harry have only hit the waves a couple of times since they've been here."

Harry sighed. "Yeah."

"Well, I was thinking that since Kalea still needs to get some exercise, that we take you two to Devil's Hat. We'll let Kalea play while you two get some of the best waves at Dolphin Bay."

"Uh, are you sure? Robby's grandpa told us we had quite bit to do today." He sighed and added with a mumble, "Bathrooms in particular. He stressed that one quite often enough."

Stan let out a long groan. "Of course. Well, come on then, let's hurry up and get these fellows back to their beds and get going on the chores." He mumbled. "I am really not paid enough for this."

"None of us are, man," grumbled Harry. But they got the dolphins into their sectioned-off pens in the water near the lab. Poipu seemed to go to sleep immediately, but Kalea seemed very energetic still.

"We might have to play with him a bit more before we leave," said Irene.

"That's fine," said Stan, "but let's get everything else done first."

"Fine," grumbled the other three. They quickly set about getting the chores done. First were the bathrooms, which surprisingly weren't that bad, but were nasty enough that Harry felt sick.

"I will never complain when our moms ask us to clean the bathrooms ever again."

"Well, they weren't that bad. Looks like ours when we skip a cleaning, or two," said Robby.

Harry chuckled nervously. "Yeah, guess someone missed a week's cleaning."

"We didn't," mumbled Stan. "We have to clean them twice a week."

Robby and Harry glanced at each other in horror. "T-twice a week?"

"And it looks like that?" asked Harry.

Irene sighed. "Well yeah, we do get a lot of people coming in here, and not all of them clean up after themselves."

"OK, now I'm really going to be sick." Harry put a hand to his lips as his cheeks puffed out a bit as he walked away.

Irene scoffed. "Wait until you're cleaning out aquariums."

"I don't want to," mumbled Harry.

"Too bad, that's next on the agenda," said Irene as she pushed him towards the aquariums.

"Ugh," said Harry with a roll of his eyes. But he walked towards the aquariums with the others and helped clean the aquariums. "OK, cleaning the aquariums is more fun because we were dealing with fish," announced Harry when they were done.

"Whatever you say, man," said Stan with a slight chuckle, "still pretty bad."

"Yeah, it was," agreed Robby. "We are used to letting the fish do their own thing and being the ones in the aquarium."

"Huh, that's an interesting way of thinking baout the science lab," remarked Stan.

Robby shrugged. "It's how Harry and I always thought of it. It was like a human aquarium, and the fish got to observe us."

"It's a cute thought. I like it," said Irene with a smile.

"So, what's next?" asked Robby.

"Do we really want to know, though?" asked Harry.

"You're still going to find out. You're helping us," quipped Stan. Robby and Harry groaned. But they followed Stan and Irene and found out that it meant dusting, sweeping, and mopping the museum. There were groans and moans, but they got to work and got it done as quickly as possible. They took a break for lunch before continuing with the chores.

Finally, they got through everything they needed to do that day and got a little more playing with dolphins before calling it done for the day.

Harry and Robby were exhausted on their way back to the bungalow.

"So, are you enjoying yourselves?" asked James.

"You call cleaning out bathrooms and not getting money for it fun?" moaned Harry.

James chuckled. "No, actually, I would not."

"Don't worry," said Miriam, "it won't be long now. We just need to finish up a few more things with Dad, and then we can go see the beauty of Hawaii."

Harry groaned. "It can't come fast enough."

Miriam chuckled as she patted his hand. "Don't worry, it will be here before you know it." The family had a quick dinner when they got back to the bungalow and all four just about crashed not long afterwards.

The next morning dawned on a happier note. When they got to the lab, Stan and Irene had gotten Kalea, the boat, and a couple of surf boards ready to roll.

Harry threw his arms in the air. "Yes! Devil's Hat surf, here we come!" Robby chuckled as the four got into the boat and took off, Kalea swimming beside them. They pulled into the bay of Devil's Hat and Robby and Harry pulled out the boards. Harry dived into the water with a whoop. Robby followed him in.

"Hey, why don't you two join us?" asked Harry.

Irene shook her head. "No thanks, not a big fan of surfing."

Stan shook his head as well. "I like it better than she does, but not right now. I just want to sit back and relax man. You two go have fun with Kalea."

Harry saluted him. "Aye aye, Captain!"

Robby chuckled as he turned to Kalea. "Come on Kalea, let's have some fun!" Kalea whistled and jumped in the air before swimming beside them as they made their way towards the waves. Robby reached the waves first and paused for a moment, waiting for a bigger wave to show up. He grinned when a big one did start up a moment and began swimming towards it.

"Robby!" Robby turned his head with a cheeky grin to taunt Harry about coming in last for the wave when he saw Harry waving at him in a panic. "Watch out!" Then Robby saw the danger. A diver was swimming towards him with a harpoon gun! And it was being aimed at him!

(Author's Note: Well, what a dilemma! Me and Robby! I wasn't sure if I wanted to post just chapter nine to leave you all with a cliffhanger, but since chapter 10 isn't quite done yet, it's almost there, the decision was made for me, kinda. Well, expect a three chapter dump in two weeks! Stay safe out there and have a wonderful day! God bless!)