Hey Guys! Sorry to keep you waiting like before, but now I'm back and get ready! By the way, I would like to send a special shout out to the people who were able to un-scramble Lewis's sentence in the last chapter,

1) No one

2) No one

3) No one

Because no one got what Lewis said.

Here's the answer:

"...the new girl is a mermaid who stepped into a moon pool when she was nine and because she was in an empty moon pool, like you, she has three powers and you just did one of her powers!"

PS: Tell me if Charlotte was a little OOC/ Out of character! If she was, that was on purpose!

Previously...

"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 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 who 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 whats 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.

The, 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 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. You want to know why I didn't have my powers until now? Well, here's your answer: they were taken from me. 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 an 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 naïve, 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."

Present Time...

Everyone stared at Jonathan in shock. Sure they knew he could be strict and very stubborn, but he had overstepped his boundary when he said that.

"How could you even say that?" Karen asked as she stood up and got over her shock, "you don't even know her or even if what she just said was even the whole story!"

"Where's the need to? I say we have the story right here! Marana found her before us, saw Charlotte abuse her powers, and intends on having her do it again! Well, it's a free country and I'm entitled to say what I like! And I'm saying that we dispose of her and live our lives!" he said as he got up as well.

Karen was shocked.

"How are you! Dispose of her?! She's a human being, not trash. And don't go blaming my hormones and anything else, but I'm not dum. There's more to her story and I intend that we find out what really happened. For all we know, she probably had a reason to go that far!"

"Karen, you know I love you, but you heard the girl. That's why she wants her! Charlotte is greedy, uncaring, and she'll definitely join her sister if she wanted to!" he said back.

The "happy couple" started to argue their lungs off afterword. Jonathan continued to say hurtful things about Charlotte, completely ignoring the fact that Charlotte was RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Then, Laguna, whose face was red, jumped into the argument...though it looked like she was hiding something in the process. Brendan just covered his ears and ran out the room without no one noticing.

Charlotte...words could only describe how she felt. Alright, she'll admit, she's done a lot of things that she wasn't proud of and made a lot of mistakes. Plus, she always thought those things about herself over and over in her head.

But hearing Jonathan say that to her...she could handle Rikki's emotional/verbal abuse most of the time, but hearing those words said by him shattered her. It was like she was lifted off a burden to only get a harsher punishment.

As the three adults started to yell louder, Charlotte's moment to speak come too soon.

"How dare you..."she said so menacingly that she got the others attention. Then, she jumped out of her seat and started to yell.

"I CAME HERE FOR HELP AND TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON WITH MY LIFE AND THIS IS HOW I'M TREATED! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, JONATHAN, " said the words with malice," YOU REALLY MUST BE DENSE TO THINK I ASKED FOR THIS! I DIDN'T ASK TO HAVE SOME EVIL MERPERSON WATCHING ME AND CONTROLLING ME WITH ONE WORD NOR LISTEN TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE I BARELY KNOW OR NEED HELP FROM!"

She felt tears running down her face like a raging waterfall. Any small makeup that she wore was got smudged and started to run down her face. Her eyes were getting red and were filled with regret, guilt, and hurt. The three adults saw this and started to feel guilty themselves, except for Jonathan.

But despite the tears running down her face, she managed to calm down a little.

"Now, since I'm not wanted here and be judged by people who won't even give me a chance, much less a choice to have the last word, I think I'll show myself out the door."

With whatever pride and dignity she had left, she ran out the office and ran to the beach, leaving an awestruck expression on the others faces.

With the Cove's...

After a few minutes, the shock wore off on the three adults. No one had ever raised their voice to either of them like that, even Laguna, and that was saying something.

Karen was the first to break the ice. She turned to Jonathan.

"See what you've done? You just HAD to upset her like that! Don't you think you might have taken that a bit- no, OVERLY, too far!?" she asked.

Then, Jonathan turned to her.

"Karen, we can't trust her. She's bad news. She attracted Mar- her herself and there's nothing that we can do about it except get rid of her," he defended himself.

"But is it worth saying that she should take her own life? I'm sorry if this hurts, but your acting like a damn fool! You don't even know her and your making stupid suggestions!"

Then, Laguna jumped in.

"Jonathan, she's right. Since I've been on land, I've learned one thing about land dwellers. And that's this: they don't admit their mistakes so easily. And if they did, only a few have real guilt about it. And Charlotte is one of those few people who do. Trust me, I saw the look in her eyes. I'll admit, something like this would not be permitted in a mermaid council, but at least they let other mermaids get one more chance to redeem themselves."

"But this isn't a mermaid council, Laguna. This is about one person, a teenage girl to be exact, who has the power to end all civilization as we know it. We don't have time to go through the path of trusting her and stuff like that," he said, "for you, all you see is the mermaid that sacrificed herself for every person she endangered. But to me, all I see is a reckless girl who can't handle having power and the death of us all. We can't risk that, I can't risk that."

With that, he started to walk away from them..

But both women knew what he planned to do..

"Jonathan, you are not to harm a hair on Charlotte!" Laguna said angrily, pointing at him.

"I agree with Mother on this one! Don't you dare put your hands on her!" Karen said too, her mother instincts and pregnancy hormones kicking in.

Then, he turned to them one more time.

"Oh really? Well give me one good reason, one, that will convince me otherwise!"

Laguna was fuming. She couldn't handle the thought of him killing her friend.

"EASY! THE DAY SHE HAD THE VISION, I SAW ALL OF HER MEMORIES! EVERY LAST ONE!"

Realizing what she just said, Laguna quickly clasped her hand over her mouth.

Jonathan and Karen looked at her in shock and Jonathan no longer had the urge to kill Charlotte.

They now realized that there was more to the situation than they thought.

By accident, Laguna traded her gift of visions for Charlotte's memories and still has them.

And now Charlotte had the burden of possibly seeing the future.

With Charlotte's POV...

I ran out the café and down the beach as fast as I could. By the time I was sure I was out of sight, I collapsed onto the warm, soft sand and let out a long-awaited wail that I held in for so long.

Was karma still against me, even after a year of depression? I'll admit, since Australia, the rest of my Junior year as a normal girl was like bad luck hitting her in the face repeatedly in every direction! But this was sort of my second year, the year I turn 18 for Pete's sake, and I felt like karma was still against me!

I was seriously starting to doubt Lewis's belief that Fate's decision to let me redeem myself was really false hope and only said to me out of self-pity. I didn't deserve anything that's happened to me. All I wanted to do was finally live my life my way and the right way. After all, I took in a stray dog that saved my life, joined a tough sports team and liked it, joined the school choir and now likes to write my own songs.

Why is karma so against me after I've done all those good things?

As I continued to wail and sob, I curled myself into a ball and hid my head into my chest.

For every time I cried...I just wanted to die.

3rd POV

"Charlotte? Is that you?" a voice called from behind her.

She lifted her head and shifted her body a little and, to her surprise, turned and saw Riley looking at her in deep concern.

All great, she thought, he's seen me cry.

Riley saw her tears, ran up and held her tightly in his arms. Then, he started to rock her back and forth very gently. Charlotte's mind didn't even care about that because she was still crying and wailing to notice.

"Shhhh, it's okay. Just let it out," Riley calmly whispered into her ear. His perfect, gentlemanly voice sounded like a soothing lullaby.

Charlotte kept crying for a few minutes until her wails and sobs turned into whimper and sniffles. Riley smiled. She seemed to calm down. Then, she looked up at him. Then, after a few minutes, she instantly got out of his grasp, got up, and started to walk away.

"Hey! Wait up!"Riley called as he ran up behind her. But she didn't say anything. Why was she walking away from him after he just comforted her?

So, as a better approach, he ran in front of her. She stopped walking, but she looked away.

Well she's prideful, he thought.

"Riley Byrnes."

She looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

Riley took a breath and said"My name is Riley Byrnes. I work at Paradise Cove as a lifeguard at the beach and the closest mother figure I have is Laguna Cove."

He had no idea and didn't really intend on saying that, but that was as close to a proper introduction that he could get.

Charlotte stared at him. Her face and eyes were still red from crying and her brownish-red hair was slightly messy. He liked it.

"Listen, I know what happened back there between us was slightly...awkward, but I think we should formally introduce ourselves to one another. I told you about me. Now it's your turn."

Charlotte just stared at him. But if he looked closely into her eyes, it would seem as if she was debating with herself on whether she should speak or not.

Then, she talked to him.

"Charlotte Watsford."

This time, he was the confused one.

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "My name is Charlotte Watsford. I'm 17 1/2 years old, unemployed, in my Senior year of high school, and my mom is a chef and works at a small, but well-known restaurant in L.A."

For a moment, she smiled at him, but then hid it. Riley smiled back at her. At least he knew something about her.

"So, since we can now say that we know each other, do you... want to hang out with me for the rest of the day? I mean, my shift was up anyway, so maybe we could do something," Riley said, "I know what your thinking. I only just want to get to know you better."

He waited a few minutes for her answer, but then smiled when he got her reply.

"Ok."

At Sunset...

Charlotte was staring out at the edge of the pier...the same edge that she jumped from a month ago.

She, to her own surprise, had a really great day with Riley. While avoiding any water-related activities, they played volleyball, which she was really good at, rode on a dirt bike that he rented, which she reallyliked, and, to sum it up, enjoyed each other's company.

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. His dad called him and he had to leave. So, she stayed at the beach until her bus came to get her.

Through the purplish-orange sky, she saw the moon starting to rise over the horizon. It was a full moon.

Charlotte considered going back into the café to avoid getting moon-struck, something she really really didn't want to go through again, but she didn't want to face Laguna's family. Mainly Jonathan.

As she continued to stare off into the horizon, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Laguna walking towards her. Her hair was down and she was wearing a blue nightgown and her feet were bare.

"I thought I'd find you here," she said.

But Charlotte ignored her and continued looking at the moon. She let Laguna walk until she was right next to her.

"It's a full moon out tonight. To land dwellers, it could be the most beautiful thing. But to some merpeople, it can be the most dangerous. It's like mind control over the soul. It can guide other mermaids to their destinies. Though some believe that the moon is deadly, it's simply just doing its job. Whether its guiding mermaids to lay eggs or simply increasing their powers, it's its job," she continued, "Charlotte, because you're... a special case, you won't get affected by the moon like you were before and can resist easily."

Charlotte looked at the elder. "What do you mean by that? And besides, I'm not wanted here. Your son-in-law said that loud in clear."

"Ah, but Riley seems to think otherwise," Laguna countered back.

Oh crud, she saw them together. Even after she warned her about him. But Charlotte had a fading habit of not caring all the time.

"He was just being nice to me. That's all. Besides, what do I have that he likes?" she asked.

"That's something you need to find out for yourself," Laguna said, "and the reason I said that you're a special case is because, for a while now, you were, and still are, the holder of a special gift. Something that I now no longer have. And it makes you more invulnerable to get moon-struck."

Now Charlotte was worried. "Laguna, is there something you want to tell me?"

Now, Laguna looked more sheepish than worried.

"Charlotte, do you remember what happened the day we first met?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I received a vision about me being a mermaid."

"Well, in order for you to receive that vision, there was a transfer."

Charlotte had a feeling that she was not going to like what was coming up next.

"Laguna, what happened to give me a vision?"

Now she was going to hear the truth.

"Charlotte, I don't know how, but somehow...you got my gift to see visions. So, at first, she should have been able to use words to tempt you into joining her, but instead she showed you her visions, more like illusions if you ask me, to tempt you into joining her. And by now, it would've worked."

There was a few moments of silence. Laguna was really worried on how Charlotte would react. After her confession to Jonathan and Karen, he had the nerve to demand what she saw about Charlotte, but there was no way she was telling him anything.

Then, Charlotte let out a funny choke and started laughing really hard. Laguna looked at her like she was crazy.

"What are you laughing at? This is not a laughing matter! This is serious!" Laguna exclaimed.

But Charlotte started to hold her stomach as she laughed harder and had tears falling from her eyes. After a few minutes, she needed air and stopped laughing. Her breathing was heavy, but she was still holding her stomach.

As she wiped her tears, she said "I'm sorry, but part of me had to let that out. You see, if I really somehow got your gift to see visions, it explains so much. There was absolutely no way I could have seen myself, centuries ago, with only just words. I had to ACTUALLY see it! And it would explain that dream Marana sent me a month ago. It was right before I became a mermaid.

It was at a beach, in Australia. There were 3 girls and their boyfriends were there. They were waiting for someone. Then, I come in," then she sighed, "we were all friends. Then, right before we dove into the water, we waved back to the boys and one of them looked at me like I was special or something. Then, after we dove into the water, we..."

She didn't want to say more, but Laguna had a good idea on who those people were.

"Cleo, Rikki, and Emma. The other mermaids you met, I presume?" Laguna asked, shocking Charlotte to death.

"Wh...wh...what?"

Laguna sighed. "That's what I've tried to tell you, Charlotte. Somehow, when you got my gift, to do that, you traded your memories for it. Charlotte, I literally know everything about you and some of them you're not proud of."

Charlotte was so shocked that she put her head down in shame. Laguna knew.

"Well," she said, trying to lift the tension,"since you know everything, how much do you know?"

Laguna shrugged her shoulders. "Well, for starters, you weren't born completely healthy. You had a high risk for heart failure and your lungs were almost clogged up. The doctors fixed you up, but if you were, I don't know, 10-30 feet or so up in the air, you would pass out and your heart would most likely stop."

Great, she knows my medical history, Charlotte thought.

"When you were 4, you discovered your love for art and dancing. But when you were 6 and your grandmother died, your mother couldn't fully afford the funeral and dance lessons, you dropped your love for dancing, but kept your love for art. Then, when you were 7, you won an award for a piece of artwork you had spent a week on, but your mom wasn't there. But you brushed it off so you didn't look disappointed. And after that, you constantly dealt with bullying and unwanted fights.

But the moment you lived in Queensland, Australia, everything changed for you. You were no longer teased, had a boyfriend, amazing powers that came with being a mermaid, but all you needed left was friends. I know what happened down there, Charlotte, and I know you're still in recovery from it."

Charlotte froze. Laguna definitely knew. Having the gift of visions is one thing, but unknowingly trading for that with your own memories was a complete nightmare.

"And to be honest," Laguna said,"I didn't judge you, unlike my selfish son-in-law."

Charlotte did a double-take and looked at her in shock.

Laguna used this as a reason to explain.

"Believe me, I didn't trust you the moment when I saw what you did. But that night, after Karen convinced me to let you have your space, I went through your memories again and I saw something that no one else saw."

"And what's that? I should have my memories erased as well?" Charlotte guessed sarcastically.

Laguna just shook her head and continued.

"Not even close, and besides, mermaids can't do that. Anyways, it was that despite how others see it, your actions didn't go unjustified. And to be honest, as bad as you acted, you didn't deserve to lose your tail."

Now Charlotte was looking at her like she grew two heads.

"Say what now?!"

"If my theory is correct and you did unintentionally draw her to you, I can see why they took your powers away. But in a pod of mermaid, there's a mermaid council. They're there to make sure that things like that didn't go unpunished but still kept the peace, but unless you broke an ancient law, you would have still kept your tail," Laguna said.

"So, your saying that if they knew another way, I could have kept my tail, just not my powers?" Charlotte asked skeptically.

"In a pod, abusing your powers wasn't uncommon. In fact, that happened all the time in pods. Mermaids usually don't know how to handle that much power at first, so they can easily abuse them. That's why there were mermaid councils: to stop that kind of situation from getting out of hand. The usual punishment for the abuse was usually taking away their powers temporarily, an entirely different process, and shunning them from the group. In a way, if I may use this as an example, would've still been a mermaid in a pod, but you would've been alienated from any activities and have your powers stripped only until the council saw fit that you'd deserve them again.

Though I'll side with those girls that you didn't use your powers well, I'm completely on your side that you had yet to prove yourself and that you would've kept your tail," Laguna explained.

That was a lot for Charlotte to take in. Despite how badly she acted, someone still had faith in her. And, to her, that felt pretty great and a huge honor as it was a huge responsibility.

'Well, even if I kept my tail, the girls would have HATED to see me in the water," Charlotte said, trying to ease the unnoticed tension.

"They're not a mermaid council and despite being ones for a year, they don't know the rules that go with being a true mermaid, and in my book, dating a land dweller and letting them know the secret is absolutely UNFORGIVABLE in my book!" Laguna exclaimed before calming down, "but I want you to know that you're not alone and you have people who are on your side. Plus, I really think that you should start training. Mar...Mara... Marana will still try to possess you, mentally and physically."

Then, before Charlotte could stop her, Laguna looked at the moon. So, Charlotte kept her eyes focused on her instead of the moon.

But, to her surprise, she didn't look awestruck like the girls had looked.

"Don't worry, aside from the gift, I spent years learning to keep my self-control during full moons. Before I go, I need to tell you something: First, don't look at the moon now.

Secondly, stop thinking of yourself as a horrible person. Just because you did some of the bad things doesn't mean that you're horrible now. During my time on land, I learned that a person can either have a good side or a bad side. You are one of those people who have both of those, but your learning how to handle it. So stop being letting those girls make you so insecure and assume your role as the hero."

With that, she turned her head and started to head towards the café.

Charlotte watched her leave and thought about what she said.

Laguna truly believed that she was a different person than what she saw.

Was she insecure after the mermaid ordeal?

Truth be told...

Yes.

Did she see herself as the villain that deserved hard life?

Yes.

Until now.

After she left Australia, she moved to a city called Atlanta in the States. At first, she was okay, but then she started to get bullied by other girls on everything about her, from her height, to her weight, to her hair, to her clothes and to everything about her! Then, it got worse when she started to suffer from physical abuse...aka they had beaten her up.

And the messed up part: Charlotte saw them as the good guys and herself as the bad guy. So she let them hurt her.

In her mom's point of view, it took the promotion from her boss and a visit to her daughter's school, and accidently seeing Charlotte's beatings in action, to have her instantly agree to move to California for her job.

But, in a way, as much as others would hate her for thinking this, she kind of liked being the bad guy.

If she wasn't, like many other heroes of today, the villain gave the hero a purpose. If there weren't any villains, then the protagonist would be pushed around and have no self-confidence.

Hey, maybe she did do something nice for Cleo after all.

But, the more that she thought about it, no one likes being the villain. They're supposed to have no heart or a care for the world. But she had the opposite: she had a heart and cared for the world.

Then, as if she was looking for an answer to her problems, she looked up at the moon.

At the moment, she didn't feel moon-struck like she did before nor did she feel a magical surge of power flowing through her. Instead, she felt a pull on her conscience.

Come...

She knew that voice anywhere.

Marana.

The moment Charlotte heard the voice, her mind and her body received a strong, tingling reaction, like it was forcing her to obey the command. But instead of following it, she had a different reaction. She looked up at the moon one more time, then she looked deep into the sparkling water of the sea.

"NO! Listen and listen good! I don't know who or what you are, though I have a really good idea, but I'm NOT going to be your little puppet or anything else! If you really want me, then your going to have to come and get me...personally, because I refuse to listen and play along in your little mind games!

Keep your visions, keep your own 'gifts', and keep EVERYTHING! Cause I don't want it or NEED IT! So... LEAVE ME ALONE!" Charlotte shouted at the water and heard her voice echo out into the open. Then, she looked at the moon.

She felt the tingling slowly fading from her as she turned around and started walking off the pier and towards the café. Though she knew there was going to be more yelling and shouting involved, with just a few terms and negotiations, she'll agree to begin her training as a powerful mermaid by a imortally-vowed mermaid named Laguna Mermaidian.

Somewhere in a dark cave under the sea...

A voice heard a declaration that, though it didn't frighten her, it left her slightly disturbed.

"So, my dear sister has finally developed ,what those hideous land dwellers call, 'spirit' in her. And I see that Laguna has finally found out that I knew about my dear sister's existence, but no one can learn more of my plan. Perhaps I should send a dear friend of mine to look out for my sister."

The voice turned to a tiny snake that was resting on the cave floor.

"Wake up my little pet. It's time you paid my sister a little...visit. This is something rather...interesting to watch.

Though I pity her. Does she truly believe that she not afraid of me?"

The cave shook as the voice gave out a terrifying laugh as the tiny snake started to grow increasingly as it headed out the cave.

Charlotte truly doesn't know the amount of danger that is coming for her.

Now THAT was a long chapter! Chapter 15 and over 5,000 words! I barely go over 4,000 words! And for those who might need clarification, Laguna knew what happened to Charlotte the whole time and Jonathan doesn't know the true reason on why she abused her powers!

In case you saw the bolded words in the parenthesis, feel free to tell me what you thought. NO BASHING CHARLOTTE!

Don't reply to me with 'good story' or 'I like it' or ect. Tell me how you honestly feel about it.

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