HAHA. I know! Some of you may have seen that coming, and some may not. But don't worry, Lewis won't be in this story for long. Otherwise, this would be one of the many stories on this site that add too much drama to 1 chapter.

Read and review!

Previously...

Suddenly, she started to scroll down her contact list and found a number that she should've deleted a long time ago.

A really long time ago.

She clicked on the number and the person on the other side answered.

"Hello?"

"Lewis, it's Charlotte. I have a situation on my hands and would you rather hear this on the phone or video chat?"

Present time...

"So, let me get this straight," Lewis said as the two were talking to each other through the computer screen.

They were using an international link through Skype to talk to each other, and thankfully, he was straightforward on listening to Charlotte explain her 'problem', if she could call it that. After saying hello and talking about how their lives were, not mentioning the girls, Charlotte went straight to the point and told him what happened, mainly trying to avoid an awkward moment between them.

"You're a mermaid again?! Wait! Let me do something right quick." Lewis reached into a drawer in his desk, pulled out a flash drive, and plugged it into his computer. He waited a few minutes before talking again. "Alright, I made sure no one can try to listen in or try to hack into my laptop. So tell me, as clearly as you can, what happened."

Charlotte started to explain the incident in the locker room the best that she could, minus what had happened with Alaine.

"I don't know how, but I was in the middle of a shower when I changed. I dropped my soap, picked it up, and ended up falling to the floor, but instead of falling on my legs, I had a tail," she said.

"But you told me you would never go near a moon pool and nevertheless, jump in one during a full moon," Lewis said, a little hurt. Normally, Charlotte would have taken pity on him and all. But she wasn't having that and she was starting to get angry.

"That's the point!" she said through her gritted teeth. "I don't remember getting in one! I was like one day, I'm lying on the grass next to a broken-down bus and the next day, I'm waking up in a hospital!"

"Wait! You were in the hospital!? First of all, I need to see you change, because, for all I know, you could have hallucinated," he said.

How could I? Charlotte thought but nodded.

She locked her bedroom door and moved the computer to the end of the bed so that it looked like she was in the middle of her room. Then, she pulled out her water bottle from her gym bag and squeezed the water from the bottle and on her hand.

...Ten seconds...Twenty seconds...

Then, her body started to get encased with water that started to swirl around her and she fell to the floor, her new tail fully exposed.

Lewis, who had a front-row seat and saw the thing, looked at her in shock. She recognized the look well. It was the same expression he had when she told- more like showed him the first time she was a mermaid.

"Charlotte... I swear, if I ever get to come to America, I need to visit you. I don't know how, but I should be grateful that you called me the moment you found out. But why are you just changing now? Does it have anything to do with you being in the hospital?"

This got her. Is it possible the only reason she didn't change was that she was in the hospital? But that was impossible. The nurses could have bathed her while she was unconscious. Plus, she took a shower the day she left and she didn't form a tail then.

Then, his phone rang. He looked at it with a panicked expression and then looked at Charlotte, who had managed to drag herself back to the bed.

"It's Cleo. Listen, when I can, we have- no, we need to talk. You need to tell me what happened earlier or before you got sent to the hospital. I'll try to work on this and get back to you as soon as I can."

Charlotte sighed in relief. Though no one knew this, unlike the girls, Lewis was the only one who had fully forgiven her. Plus, how would Cleo sleep at night knowing that Lewis and she still kept contact with each other?

Suddenly, something crossed her mind.

"NO! I'm sorry Lewis, but if you ever come to America for whatever reason, stay for that reason only. Don't you DARE come to visit me! I mean if-" she was about to continue but Lewis stopped her.

"I know what you're trying to say. You didn't come to me with this as a lover or anything, but you're coming to me as a friend, and for the fact that I'm the only mermaid researcher out there that you know that'll talk to you. Don't worry, Charlotte. Your secret's safe with me."

She swore under her breath. If the Old Charlotte heard those words, it would have made her swoon. But this Charlotte wasn't like that. She just gave him a polite smile, which he returned.

Then, his phone started to ring again.

"Thanks. Anyways, I gotta go and dry this tail off before my mom tries to come in here and Cleo gets sick of calling you and decides to visit you. Bye!"

Before Lewis could say anything, she ended the chat and logged out of Skype. And right on cue, her tail disappeared and she was back in her normal clothes. The first thing she did was unlock her door and opened it, only to show Thomas sitting there, looking at her.

"Well, you coming in?"

He did and made himself comfortable as he laid down on the floor, by the foot of the bed.

She sighed as she moved her laptop and laid on the bed, staring at the white ceiling.

What was she gonna do?

She couldn't wait for the next alignment. By the time it happened, she would be close to an old woman.

And now she was wondering if telling Lewis was a mistake. Sure, he had enough knowledge to help her and all, but thinking back to when she first told him she was a mermaid, the first thing he did was tell the others.

And that was one thing she knew for sure: The girls could not, in capital letters, NOT know that she's a mermaid again.

And as much as she wanted to think about herself, she was thinking about Cleo.

Charlotte could never forget how horrible she treated her, even if someone saw her point-of-view and went against the girls, she caused that herself and there was no way of taking it back.

That's truly why she returned the locket to Lewis and didn't apologize to girls directly:

She was unworthy of their presence.

Suddenly, she looked at her computer screen and saw it.

The number to Paradise Cove Café.

She quickly grabbed her phone and redialed the number. Maybe they'd think she was crazy...or maybe they were concerned about something.

But she knew one thing: Laguna owed her an explanation.

That Saturday...

Phil had no problem taking her, and Thomas, to Paradise Cove. He got a new bus, though his employers had given him a time limit since the 'incident'.

After he dropped them off in the parking lot, she saw a sign with the word NO PETS ALLOWED near the beach entry. She knelt to Thomas and said "I need to go in and see someone. So, stay here and don't let anyone call animal control on you, OK?"

WOOF!

She scratched him behind his ear affectionately. "That's my good boy." With that, she tied him to a pole and started walking to the café.

The beach wasn't as crowded as usual, so the café was half empty. Charlotte walked up to the register to find herself greeted by Karen.

"Why, Charlotte, it's been a while," she said with a smile on her face. Charlotte returned it.

"Well, I was wondering, is your mother was around?" Charlotte asked.

Karen smiled as she pointed to the outdoor patio on the side of the café. Charlotte turned to see Laguna's back facing her.

"She's been waiting for you," Karen said. "Go talk to her. She's been out there all morning."

Charlotte took her suggestion and went to join Laguna.

Laguna was staring out at the beach. From the back, her long, grayish-black hair was flowing down along her shoulders and she was wearing a plain blue dress and had no shoes on.

She looked at peace.

Charlotte started to turn away when she heard Laguna say, "I've been expecting you."

"You know, when you told me about your 'vision', it wasn't that hard to believe," Laguna said to Charlotte as the two were seated at a table, drinking some ice-cold lemonade that Karen had brought them. Charlotte was surprised, and a little taken back.

"There is a legend, well, a story you might think, that's been passed down through my family for generations. But I have one single question for you."

Charlotte was listening.

"Do you believe in mermaids?"

Charlotte did her best not to roll her eyes. No, I've been one for a few months last year, she thought.

"No, I mean, not like the 'Little Mermaid' type, but the stories that my grandmother had told me when I was little. They made me a believer for a while."

Laguna looked at her. "Oh really. What were they about?"

Charlotte gave a fake shrug and said "They were usually about three girls who find a hidden cave with a pool of water. And during a full moon, it gave them powers and turned them into mermaids. I don't remember the powers very well, but I think it was something like wind, water, or fire or so something. Aside from that, her other stories were about the sea."

Charlotte knew what she was doing. If she played it off like she didn't care, she wouldn't sound like she was telling the truth and this discussion would be bearable.

Laguna smiled at her. "She sounds like a fine woman and a good story-teller. Maybe I could meet her someday."

"I don't think that'll happen. She's dead."

Charlotte didn't mean to say it so bluntly. But she wanted to avoid this topic. You see, just like the Australia incident, because she had to steal that tape from Cleo and watch it, she ended up finding out her grandmother's secrets and look where that got her!

Laguna frowned, then gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry dear. I shouldn't have said that. But it truly sounds like she was a nice woman."

Charlotte smiled to herself a little. Yes, she thought, yes she was true indeed.

"But you got two of those right."

She looked at Laguna. "Two of what?"

"Two of the powers from her stories. In my family, we call them the Original Three: water, fire, and ice. Oddly enough, the 3 States of Matter. If you'd like, I can tell you what that's got to do with the legend, if you want?" Laguna asked.

Charlotte noticed something. Unlike when they first met, Laguna had a strong, stern look on her face. This time, she had a friendly expression.

"Alright, but only since it sounds interesting," she said. Laguna smiled at her, her teeth brightly shining in the sun.

"It started a million or two years ago when most of the earth was covered in water and water was suddenly bringing in the new land? Well, that sounds wrong. Let's see... ahh. Do you believe in the movies based on mermaids?"

Charlotte knew what she was talking about. "The Little Mermaid, Fishtales, Thirteenth Year. And Aquamarine. Yeah, I saw that movie. Cheesie, but fun to look at. The idea that mermaids can talk to sea animals and create waves is kind of ridiculous though."

She wasn't lying about that. Upon learning about the very existence of mermaids, she tried to find any books about them and binge-watched any relative movies she could find to get and sense of any patterns to make sense of it all. The whole concept that different colored tails were what real mermaids looked like and all was just pure fiction to her and she didn't believe it.

Then again, no one would believe that she was a mermaid once.

"Well," Laguna said, "they're real."

Charlotte did her best to look surprised as she continued.

"They're real. The source of power behind being a merperson is a mystery. Well that, and the Full Moon of course. But I've always had a theory to it: After the apes moved towards land, some moved towards the sea, and eventually, looking exactly how they were described: More fish than human. Probably came to be from living in caves and coming across one with a pool, like those from your grandmother's stories, and acquired a tail. But some started to change, their tails turned to different colors and the upper part of their body looking more like a land dweller, or human if you prefer. But this was a natural evolution with a hint of something supernatural. It couldn't be stopped. But, like any history, being something mysterious and powerful always yielded rebels who wouldn't conform and turn dark. We call them the Dark Ones. They tend to stay under the radar, using mostly living up to the reputation that merfolk drowned humans and such, fond of the older, forbidden traditions and refused to hide like their brethren, who were used to hiding in the vast oceans, occasionally helping humans, but stayed for from land dwellers. Unfortunately, there was a time the Dark Ones appeared more often than not."

Charlotte felt the urge to interrupt and did so.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that the mermaids that some mermaids went rogue and retreated to the darkest parts of the ocean? And what do you mean by their 'brethren'?" she asked.

Laguna's eyes widened and looked at her for a moment and then began to talk. Charlotte swore she had seen her eyes light up in joy for her question.

"The 'others' fit the description of the 'Little Mermaid'. They look like a land dweller at the top and a fishtail at the bottom. And they were more or less like what merfolk lore portrayed, staying out of human business unless necessary. Even protecting them when they were caught up in the works of Dark Ones. Humans have gone into places they have no idea the Dark Ones live, though I can't blame them. As far as most people know, mermaids were a type of fiction that was told to kids when they go to bed at night and most hope to grow out of. So you have no way of knowing your entering dark territory. Just don't speak of about the African slave trade. That's a harsh topic for those near the African coasts, understandably, since they tried to rescue as many of those captives who went overboard and weren't always successful."

Charlotte was surprised at this new information. She had no idea how much true background info that mermaids had, even if this was the basics. It almost felt like she had just opened up a door to something big. Something new.

If Lewis wasn't so nice, he'd probably kill for this information. Mostly because it fills in the holes in his research.

But this wasn't what she came for and had to get to the point.

"Miss Cove-"

"Call me Laguna, dear."

"Laguna, last time I was here, you told me about a legend in response to my 'vision'. That's the main reason I'm here: I want to hear it."

For a moment, the expression a Laguna's face stood still, almost looked like it was filled with darkness, and she didn't say anything. But it took a few moments before she exhaled a breath she was holding in and began to talk.

"I might never know of the origins of how the stories that your grandmother told you came to her, but I can say she told stories close to an old legend in my family. You see, I come from a long line of merfolk followers. We, as in my family, knew that they existed, but never bothered them. Instead, we made sure to protect them and keep their existence a secret in any way. Though many people never believed anything about merpeople and my family's association with them (a fact we ensured never happened), every once in a while, a tail would stick out of the water for reassurance," Laguna grinned as she said that. I could I have sworn I saw a hint of mischief in her eyes.

"So, your family was like some kind of mermaid protection program?" Charlotte asked.

"Somewhat. No one knows how that started, but I guess that it took long enough to garner that trust. But this is how the legend started:

Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there was a pod of mermaids. And inside that pod were 3 young mergirls: Marana, Ane'lie, Marana's little sister, and my namesake, Laguna. The three were some of the last mermaids to get their powers. Ane'lie, Ane for short, was a free spirit, and aside from the "Ursula" fiasco, she could have been Ariel, with that spirit and long, red hair.

Marana was sort of the leader of the group and the beauty, or so I heard. Ane would do small errands for her and did as her sister told, mostly out of love. My namesake was a little different. She was born with the ability to see the past, most likely to prevent problems in the future. She was a good friend of Marana's and a best friend to Ane. Both of them were known for playing tricks and pulling pranks. Though that constantly got them in trouble with the elders, as you teenagers say, it was worth it."

Charlotte chuckled.

"On the night the girls and the others got their powers, something went... strange. Marana received the ability to control fire, which was joyous for her. Laguna received the ability to manipulate water, much to her liking. But Ane... she received all three powers that night: fire, water, and ice. Typically, it always starts with one ability (which happens to suits them most) and the other abilities develop over time. So imagine the shock that she'd developed all of them together. And with that, she needed training. For a while, the trio had control over their powers. Heh, Ane and Laguna made a habit of using their powers to play pranks on the pod while Marana was more or less at the butt of their jokes!

But one day, they swam into the open sea and ended up in shark-infested waters. Ane wasn't looking and somehow... just on instinct, she turned around and froze a great white shark completely. Because most sharks are cold-blooded, they need warmer waters to stay alive. The Great White is partially warm. But, Ane'lie somehow managed to freeze it completely, and with one push forward, the shark shattered into bloody pieces of fragments."

Laguna held her hand up, made hand gestures like Emma's, and pushed it forward. It seemed as if she was just demonstrating it until there was a loud crash behind them. The two turned around to see Brendan on the ground, wearing strange-looking gloves and picking up shards of broken glass. Charlotte pointed to the gloves and raised an eyebrow at Laguna.

"He always pricks himself, so we made him wear gloves," Laguna explained. Charlotte nodded in understanding and told her to continue.

"Laguna and Marana were there when it happened. It's safe to say they got out of there quick! While Laguna wanted to take Ane to the council, the merfolk council, and see if they could at least suppress her powers, Marana had a different plan at the time. She reasoned that no one had to know what happened. And it was an act of self-preservation. Though Ane'lie didn't go to the council, her sister had her doing more strange 'errands' at the time, a task Ane always did out of love and obedience.

However, as the years passed and the three mergirls turned into beautiful mermaids, they were starting to grow apart. Marana seemed to be getting... darker, like rebelling against the pod, breaking the rules, and many other things. A Dark One. Laguna didn't know what was going on with her friends. While Marana was being dark and manipulative, Ane was being secretive and mute, the exact opposite of who she was. One night, Laguna went to face them and overheard the sisters' terrible plan... to use to take control of the land dwellers."

Charlotte didn't realize how into the story she was until Laguna told her to wipe the drool from her face and continued.

"As hard as it was to believe, Marana had planned this since the shark incident. Whenever the pod found a new moon pool, Marana would force Ane into it and make her get new powers. Not impossible, but a difficult feat. Do you understand what I'm saying? Marana was making her sister so powerful that it would have been unearthly of the consequences. Laguna told the council immediately and they all agreed to suppress her magic, for her sake and theirs.

But it was too late. On the surface of the Atlantic, Marana had ordered Ane to create an electrical storm, one that was powerful enough no one could escape. Laguna rose to the surface and saw the largest, widest waterspout she had ever see. So many black thunder clouds covered the sky that only lightning and thunder could be seen. Then lightning hit the water as well as the thunder. It seemed like a two-person orchestra: like music. Ane was the musician and Marana was the composer. She tried to destroy the council by ordering Ane to strike them with lightning, and it nearly electrocuted everyone. The merpeople escaped from them with their lives and even Marana abandoned ship, leaving Ane'lie to finish what she started. Ane'lie found herself creating the walls of a huge whirlpool and made the hand gestures to command the storm to head towards land.

She was all alone... except for Laguna. Though she didn't know how Ane was being played like a puppet, she would always be her friend. It took a great amount of time and effort for Laguna to command the water, things she practically didn't have. At the point she was close enough t talk to Ane, she begged and pleaded for her to stop. And the moment Ane'lie saw the tears running down Laguna's desperate face, she made an eternal vow, one that could never be broken."

Charlotte was so scared to ask that she wasn't sure what to do. But she had to know. "What did she vow?"

Laguna looked at her like she was debating with herself on whether or not to tell her. But she sighed and continued.

"She specifically said:

By the power vested on myself, by the High Mermaid Council and the Moon, that I shall die at this moment but forever shall my reincarnation and descendants be land dwellers and never touch the sea forever as a merperson.

Then she glanced at Laguna in surprise as she made a vow too. She said:

By the power vested on myself, by the High Mermaid Council and the Moon, that I will spend my days on land and sea, have children and descendants that will help as I age to watch over Ane'lie's reincarnations and her descendants forever, to prevent the Great Storm from ever happening again.

With those vows made, the storm collapsed, hitting and destroying Ane'lie and surprisingly sending Laguna far away. Ever since, she had remained on this very earth, searching for her reborn friend and protecting her. That, my dear Charlotte, is the legend of the Cove family."

Charlotte stared at her in awestruck. Though part of her was trying to make a mental note to do more mermaid research, the other part of her was frozen. She now knew that there was no way that Laguna was lying to her about this. Laguna was a mermaid, or at least, her family was a group of merpeople.

But she hid it quickly and played it off. As far as she knew, her last 24 hours of being a completely normal human being were over. Her last twelve months of it was over.

"It's a good thing you came to me when you did or else you would've had no idea how to use your powers."

Charlotte looked at Laguna and quickly got up from her seat. "I'm sorry, but I think you've got the wrong idea. You see, I asked to hear the legend because-"

"Because strange things have been happening to you and you have no idea why," Laguna said, "I think that we should speak more-"

"NO!" Charlotte shouted. A few heads turned to them. To avoid the awkward moment, she leaned in close to Laguna and said "Listen, I have no idea on what the heck you're talking about. I'm just an ordinary girl with an ordinary life with ordinary problems. There's nothing special about me except that I love art and I like being average."

She knew she was in denial. Denial was a normal trait. Normal was something everybody has. Normal was something she tried to be. But that was wrong.

Then, Laguna whispered to her "You're in trouble, Charlotte. Your already a pawn in her game and she won't stop playing until she gets what she wants. If you just let me help-"

Charlotte didn't want to hear it. She quickly started walking away from Laguna, not wanting to hear any more of her "advice". She didn't want to be special. Special was bad. As in, no good, bad luck, no luck, just anything not good. She had drilled this into her head a long time ago. It's bad enough that's she's a mermaid, but now she was gonna cause more trouble than needed.

And this is NOT how she wants to spend her life.

Just as she got off the last step of the patio, she bumped into Brendan, who was carrying a crate of wet crabs. As they collided, the crate spilled, the crabs and the water pouring all over her.

"Oh, sorry. Are you OK?" he asked as he wiped the crabs off her and tried to help her up. But Charlotte's mind was screaming three things: water, ocean, RUN!

She got up quickly and made a mad dash as she ran to the beach and immediately dived into the water.

READ AND REVIEW!