Alright, thanks for the reviews for the last chapter! Now, let's see what happens next in Charlotte's path, shall we ;)
1 Month Later: September...
Charlotte found herself standing outside the Paradise Cove Cafe once again.
It's been a month since, well, everything happened.
Charlotte had given herself a month of her own personal 'exile' from Paradise so that she could focus most of her energy on whatever was left of her 'normal' life and when she did return to Paradise, she would be ready to face all the craziness that would be thrown at her.
After that talk with Lewis that night and her "flashback", Lewis continuously insisted that if he had it, he could use some time from some scholarship in the States that he's applying for to come to Cali and see her.
Though her old self might have loved to have him for company, truth be told, this Charlotte let out her inner devil and threatened Cleo's life if he even dares try to cross the California border. And as evil, as that may have sounded, it was either that or become subject to Cleo's thoughts of her boyfriend cheating on her.
But Lewis scoffed at her, knowing that she wouldn't do such a thing, and her decision to "change herself" goes against that.
And she had to admit, he was right.
Damn him.
But luckily he was still in Australia and he won't bother seeing her.
Plus, it wasn't like she was scared of the girls. But if they found out that she was a mermaid again, they would practically give her the death sentence, and knowing Rikki's temper, she wouldn't mind delivering it, personally.
Plus, and this thought came to her again and surprised the heck out of her: How would Cleo sleep at night knowing that her EX-rival was a mermaid again, and, nevertheless, talking to her boyfriend?
As far as Charlotte was concerned, as long as the girls didn't know, she and everyone else didn't lose their heads.
But some good news came, along with the bad.
1.) Charlotte got on the softball team, much to everyone's surprise, except Alaine's.
The week after she found out her startling revelation, she was walking into her school when Alaine rushed up to her with a smile she was sure couldn't have fit her face and was dragged to the bulletin board. The girls who tried out saw her coming as made a path for her like she was royalty or something.
"Alaine, what's going on?" she asked.
"Look who made the team!" Alaine said excitedly.
Charlotte let go of her hand and read the setlist.
"AFTER A TOUGH VOTE, WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE NEW SHIELD MAIDENS TO OUR SOFTBALL FAMILY:
Alaine Williams
Clari Mills
Charlotte Watsford-"
Wait what?
Charlotte turned around and all the girls started to hug her, screaming "congrats" or "good job" to her. It was nice and suffocating at the same time. At least she had a good idea of why Rikki can be so cold.
"Girl, I think coach saw that, though you needed a little work on your throwing, you could be a good addition to the team," Alaine said, "so, all you need to do is manage your schedule well and there we'll see how good you are at your first game!"
After everyone was done either cheering for the fact they survived try-outs or being cheered up for not making the team, the bell rang and they all went to class.
2.) Her first choir recital was coming up, much to her mother's joy.
Somehow, and someone, had videotaped Charlotte's audition and sent it to her mom. To be honest, she thought that telling her mom herself about the recital would spark her interest, and by interest, she meant overly joyous and proud. But someone took the honor of videotaping her audition and sent it to her mom's cell phone. And Charlotte was completely clueless about the thing.
One day, when she got home from school, she took the leash from Thomas's collar, since she knew he wouldn't run away, and opened the front door to her house. She saw that her mom's car was in the driveway, so she knew that Annette would be inside the house.
"Mom?" she yelled as she entered the house, "where are you? I've got something exciting to tell you!"
But her mom didn't answer. Instead, she found a not on the wall that read: GO TO LIVING ROOM and a huge arrow pointing the way. Charlotte looked at Thomas and followed the arrows.
When they entered the living room, they found Annette sitting on the couch, but in her hand was, a denim-covered journal with the words CHAR-MAZING written in some type of red fabric on it and, to her astonishment, an acoustic guitar with a velvet-red cover on it!
"Mom..."Charlotte said in shock. As much as she loved her mom, this gift was something she didn't even know they could afford.
"You know, " her mom said, getting up from her seat, "when you told me that you were in the choir, to be honest, I thought you were a backup singer. But when I got sent a video from someone unknown saying to watch and listen, I could not believe that my little girl was had a voice like that, and definitely could not believe that she put together such a beautiful song.
So, I took a trip to a music store, and thanks to a really good employee there, I decided to get you a guitar and a personal song journal. The words on the journal were ironed on, but the guitar came as it is. I know that I haven't been a good mom lately, but I want to make it up to you. So, here you go. All we need to do is add a lock for the journal and put the strings on the guitar and tune it up. What do you think?"
Charlotte looked at her. As much as she loved her mom, she didn't think that buying her anything was needed to show it. She just needed her to be around.
She grabbed the gifts from her mother's hand and hugged Anette.
"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" she screamed in delight, "and it's funny you got me something music-related. How would you like to be at my first recital?"
To clearly state it, her mom would see her sing in person.
And 4.) Much to Lewis's pestering, and accidentally using her power to burn stuff, she found out what her powers were.
While Charlotte's mom was out of the house for the day, Charlotte decided to test her powers. Lewis was away from his town for the day, so he decided to grab his laptop and use video chat at the hotel he was staying at.
Charlotte brought in a small, water-filled pot from the kitchen. Lewis was watching from the end of the bed, so he had enough view to see her 'demonstration', as he called it.
"Alright," Lewis said, "are you ready to begin? All you have to do is put the pot on the table." He was shaking nervously.
Charlotte, however, was trying to slow her heartbeat. This was her fourth time, or whatever, who's counting, testing her powers. Since the other times didn't go so... well, this had to do.
She gently put the pot on a table she brought out from the coat closet and looked at the computer screen.
"O.k., now what?" she asked.
"Try to mimic the hand motions that the girls make. You told me how you hit the sand with your hands closed and a fire started. So, that's Rikki's hand motion. So, and don't be afraid for this, but try to copy Cleo's hand motion," he said.
Why don't you tell me to go get hit by a bus, Charlotte thought.
After taking a deep breath, she did the hand motion. She opened her right hand into a claw gesture and turned it to the pot. Then, she raised her hand up. She closed her eyes and tried to draw in all the concentration she could muster.
Lewis watched through the screen as the water rose out of the pot in her will. Charlotte opened her eyes and was surprised at what she was doing, but did her best to keep focus.
"Well that's a relief," Lewis said, masking his nervous tone with a sarcastic once, "you have Cleo's powers again. Now try Emma's."
Then, Charlotte opened her hand and form a "STOP" hand gesture and the water pillar immediately froze, as if she was doing it on instinct.
"Alright, you've got Emma's. Now, try doing Rikki's."
Charlotte closed her hand at the frozen pillar and watched as the pillar immediately started to steam up until it was no longer there and the pot filled with water like before, only it was hot.
"And you have Rikki's. So, as far as my guess goes, you somehow ended up in a moon pool that brought back your original powers. But I noticed that each power was quicker than the others," Lewis concluded.
Suddenly, an idea struck her.
"Hey! Watch this!"
She put her hand in a claw motion and caused the water to rise up again and form a ring around her.
"Charlotte, what are you doing?" He asked. But Charlotte wasn't done yet.
When all the water was completely out, she started to imagine the body of a dancing octopus. And almost immediately, the ring formed a little ball and took the form of a dancing octopus-like she imagined.
"Oh, so your powers are tied to your imagination? Funny," Lewis said in a sarcastic, teasingly way.
But she surprised both of him and herself. She made her hand into a fist, thinking it would evaporate, but instead of heating it, the octopus turned into a crystal-hard figurine. The octopus fell from the air and Charlotte quickly caught in her hand just in time. She left behind the table and hopped on the bed to show Lewis.
"So, what do you think just happened?" she asked, showing her figurine to him through the screen.
Lewis didn't say anything. He just looked at her in shock. It wasn't like the expression he wore when he saw her tail-no, tails. But it was of pure shock.
"Lewis? Lewis, are you okay?" she asked him. She saw him mutter something and asked him to repeat that.
"Um, Charlotte," he said extremely nervous, "do you remember when I told you about the new girl who the girls started hanging out with?"
"Yeah, you did mention her. She came after Emma left, which surprised me that the girls would already replace her, but she's human. It just won't work out," she said.
Lewis gulped. That was her opinion and he respected that, but she thought that Bella was normal? He wasn't sure how to explain this to Charlotte. After all, he could tell that she was trying to change herself for the better. But how do you tell your ex-girlfriend, who used to be a power-hungry mermaid who lost her tail, that she might receive a power that came from a different moon pool?
Well, he was going to say it. Just really fast.
"Well, um, Charlotte, you see...thenewgirlisamermaidwhosteppedintoamoonpoolwhenshewasnineandbecauseshewasinanemptymoonpool,likeyoushehasthreepowersandyoujustdidoneofherpowers!" Lewis said abruptly. (1)
To be honest, he hoped that she didn't understand him. You see, compared to Charlotte, Bella was only able to get into the 'club', as he called it because she was already a mermaid, and she didn't have a crush on any of the girls' boyfriends. Plus, with Emma gone, she had easily fitted in. And with Charlotte trying to change herself, he knew that her old self could easily pop up and go on a somewhat well-deserved rampage.
But, apparently, Charlotte was full of hidden talents.
"Mermaid expert who happens to be my ex-boyfriend say WHAT!"Charlotte exclaimed, clearly outraged.
Yep, despite how fast he said it, she heard him crystal clear.
Lewis was on high alert and quickly tried to calm her down.
"Now, Char, I-I know it seems a little unfair to you," that's an understatement, "and maybe it was for the better," no, it wasn't, "and besides, Emma's gone, so of course they added her to the group."
Lewis earned himself the death penalty.
Charlotte's eyes started to twitch and she started to grit her teeth as her face started to turn red. The octopus fell to the floor as she put her hands by her side and started to mentally count to 20...then 19...then 18...then 17...then 16...then 15...14...13...12...11...
10...
She knew how she was about to react.
9...
This response was very irrational.
8...
The girl she left in Australia was about to come out...
7...
and she was doing her best to keep her down.
6...
The other girls had no right to replace Emma.
5...
And they had no right to accept a new girl in!
4...
Her eyes started to blink and twitch fast.
3...
"Um' Charlotte? I think I should log out before you start to...um...bye!" Lewis quickly said. Then, the screen went black.
2...
Then, the screen went black.
1...
And thankfully, it was just in time.
'Why...those...little..."Charlotte said through her hard, gritted teeth and then busted into a large screaming outburst at the top of her lungs and started to swear words no one thought she knew that echoed all through the house.
And poor Thomas, who was outside her open door and hid under Annette's bed until Charlotte stopped screaming. (2)
Safe to say, Lewis didn't hold her outburst against her and, thankfully, was still talking to her. He told her about the other two powers the new girl, that's what Lewis called Bella for Charlotte's sake, and urged her to practice them, which resulted in more aquatic animal figurines. He told her that the new girl's powers were close to Cleo's, but could turn anything into jelly.
"Well, at least I can learn to make Jell-O easily," Charlotte joked after hearing this.
And now, here she was, standing outside the Paradise Cove Cafe, ready to face the wrath of an old, old woman.
Who just so happens to be your guardian, she thought.
She took a deep breath and started walking towards the cafe. The place was busy as usual. The tables were filled with families, couples, friends, and basically, anybody who loved the beach. There was so much active chatter, music, and anything else she didn't notice herself bumping into anyone until she was on the floor, holding her forehead on where a bump was about to form.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, miss, I didn't look where I was going!" exclaimed a male voice as she saw him reach his hand out to her from the corner of his eye.
Still holding her forehead, Charlotte used her other hand to take his as he helped her up.
"No, you're fine. I should have paid attention and-"
She didn't finish her sentence.
She looked up to see the guy in front of her looking deep into her eyes and she couldn't help but do the same.
He had the body of a surfer dude, minus the 3-inch difference from her height, and had the built-up abs seen through his blue and redshirt. His hair was in a similar style like Lewis's from the previous year, but only it was more curler and black. His eyes were brownish-black too, though it must have been just her, it was a beautiful brown, like the type of dark chocolate that you would instantly indulge and melt into. His skin was slightly tanned, but it wasn't pale or pink either. It was in between and hard to tell. It looked nice on him.
"Riley! Stop staring at that girl with your bipolar self and get back to work!" someone shouted from behind them.
The two jumped back from each other, breaking them from their trance and caused them to blush (3). They turned around to see Laguna staring at Riley, which seemed to be the guy's name, with a stern look on her face, but then looked surprised when she saw Charlotte.
"Charlotte? Well, what a surprise. I didn't expect you to come by," she said.
Getting out of the "awkward" moment, Riley said "Excuse me, Miss Cove. I'll get going," and, with that, left the café after taking one last look at Charlotte.
Both of the young women watched him leave until he was out of sight. Then, Laguna turned to Charlotte.
"I hoped I saved you some trouble there. Though Riley can be a gentleman, he... has his, um, days where he shouldn't be around anyone."
Charlotte turned to her and looked at her with a surprised expression on her face.
"Oh! Me-him-us-together? Sorry, but I'm not interested in dating at the moment or any time soon. But I came in looking for you! You see... I know you, at some point, were my best friend," Charlotte said, "a month ago, I had, or at least I think it was a flashback. It was during a storm and... I heard you call me Ane-"
"Get into the office! Now!" Laguna whispered angrily. Her face looked angry, but her eyes were filled with panic. She pointed towards the back of the kitchen and Charlotte went in there, with Laguna hot on her heel.
When they got in there, Laguna quickly called in her family. Soon enough, they were all seated around her, like little kids waiting to hear a story. Laguna was the first to say something.
"Charlotte, on the behalf of my daughter, I was...advised to let you have some time to yourself, but now it's time to get serious. Tell us exactly what you saw."
Charlotte took a deep breath and retold her "flashback". She told them about the storm, the vows, and the lightning strike that "killed" her.
Laguna shook her head as soon as she finished. "I don't know what to think. But she's quickly gaining on you. She knows you. She knows your strengths, your weaknesses, and everything else. As far as I'm concern, for every time you were reborn, something about you stays the same. But I can't help but ask, when did everything start to become 'abnormal' to you?"
Do you want me to start at last year or early on, Charlotte was tempted to say but held her tongue.
"It all started the day I moved here, the first day I came to Paradise Cove. And, if I remember right, it was short, maybe a few hours, after I passed out from receiving the 'vision' from Laguna. That night, I was out on the pier. I heard a voice calling to me, telling me to 'come' to it. It got me as far as to have me jump off the pier and almost drowned. At first, it was like a trance and I liked it. But the horn from the bus that drove me here broke of the trance. After that, I hurried out the water and went home."
The Cove's eyes widened in shock.
"She's been after you since the moment you moved to California!" Karen said, "I swear, Mother, she never works that fast! Even if it wasn't her reincarnation, she usually waited at least a week before possessing someone's mind. But she tried-no, she's already controlling you when you only spent a few hours here. How is that even possible?"
"I have a theory," Laguna said, "one that none of us are going to like."
Everyone looked at her in expectation. Charlotte just wanted to know what the heck all of this had to do with her being a damn mermaid! After all, she doesn't even know how she even ended up in a moon pool in the first place!
"I believe that...that she knew that Charlotte was Ane'lie's reincarnation before we did. Possibly, she could have watched her since the day she was born. For all we even know, she could have known that Charlotte was Ane'lie for almost 18 years and had given us Potentials so that we wouldn't even come close to finding her."
Everyone stared at her in shock. From what Charlotte could tell, this was extremely bad news and even she wasn't that thrilled that an evil mermaid has watched her.
"Mother! You honestly believe that we've been on a wild goose chase for a girl who might've been easy to find?!" Karen exclaimed.
"Because she wanted to be sure of something. Something that would have made sure she could be easily controlled." Then Laguna turned to Charlotte.
"Dear, I'm going to ask you an important question and I need the truth."
Charlotte was petulantly listening.
"Until recently, had you ever, ever been a mermaid before?"
Oh boy. She couldn't lie her way out of this one, but they didn't need to know the entire truth.
"Yes. When I was 16, I found out something about my grandmother, Gracie. Turns out, that along with her friends, she was a mermaid," Charlotte confessed.
"It makes sense. Your grandmother was a mermaid, so of course, Ane'lie's reincarnation would follow in her footsteps. But how were you not a mermaid until now?
This part made her nervous. Of course, it was crucial to know why, but she couldn't tell them about the girls. So, she told it in a simple way.
"She gave up her powers during an eclipse that came every 50 years. She was tired of being special, so she gave it up, got married later, had my mom who gave birth to me. So, in a way, I almost missed being a mermaid by a generation. But, at some point, I found and jumped into a moon pool.
At first, I was anxious about what my powers were and then I found out that I could manipulate water, freeze it, and had thermal heat powers, along with weather powers."
Everyone was shocked, except for Karen's husband, Jonathan. Laguna looked worried like she was a girl that knew her friend's husband was cheating on her and she was scared to tell that friend the truth.
"Alright, so we know the what and how in this story, now what's the WHY? WHY didn't you still have your powers when we all met? Did you give them up like your grandmother or something?" he asked, surprising everyone around him. They had no idea he was so into her explanation.
Charlotte gave a small sigh. She had to tell them the truth.
"I honestly wish I did that. You see, I was ticked off at a lot of people back then and I..." she took a deep breath,"...I abused my powers on them. I used my gift to make other people's life horrible and it came with a price. Do you want to know why I didn't have my powers until now? Well, here's your answer: they were taken from me. Do you hear? The same moon that took away my powers and my tail! I admit it! I was selfish, mean, and irresponsible with my powers and as karma would have it, I was lured back into the moon pool that, on the exact same eclipse, took away my... my only connection to my grandmother.
So, there. Now you know."
After telling them her tale, Charlotte felt something being lifted off her shoulders and a HUGE wave of comfort washed over her.
Was that relief?
There were a few minutes of silence until Jonathan spoke up and said:
"She's after you because you know how to use your powers for evil. If Laguna is right, you brought this danger onto yourself and are willing to risk others to end it. Charlotte...you are a selfish child who is naive, ignorant, and irresponsible. You are ungrateful and unworthy of your gift, and if I had it my way, I would suggest you take your leave off of this planet before you ruin any other lives." (4)
To be continued...
1) Can you unscramble the sentence that Lewis said? Winners get to be mentioned in the next chapter!
2) Sorry if you think Char's outburst was a little out of character, but if you were in her shoes, wouldn't you be a little angry?
3) I know I said that Charlotte wouldn't be getting a love interest, but it wouldn't hurt to give her something to look forward to later on?
4)Do you think that Jonathan had a right to yell at her or say those things to her?
Don't reply to me with 'good story' or 'I like it' or ect. Tell me how you honestly feel about it.
READ & REVIEW!