Hello everyone! I hope you're ready for this new chapter and thanks for your awesome reviews for the last chapter (AND YES, WHILE RILEY'S GESTURE TO CHARLOTTE MAY HAVE NOT BEEN ROMANTIC FOR HER, IT WAS A HELL OF A LOT FUNNIER FOR US!)

And now that I write this, I have some news for you:

*First, a few weeks ago, I was on Twitter and guess what? AMY RUFFLE replied to me about a tweet about Sirena's hair! The actress TWEETED me!

*Secondly, I realized that at the rate of this story, I might go further than 30 chapters, so I decided that my new goal is that I want to reach at least 200 REVIEWS before this story ends!

Now that I got all that out, I must say:

ENJOY!

At the Coves' underground cave/pool...

Charlotte's POV

To be honest, I didn't expect any comments from the Coves after today's events. After all, I had a hard enough time working after Riley's little "display" because people kept asking me what, where the date would be, or why did I keep rejecting him. So let me be honest here: I was ready to strangle Riley after I asked him about the date.

Flashback...

I had finished my shift and had changed back into my regular clothes and had walked out of the cafe when I saw Riley about to take his post as the lifeguard.

Honestly, I can't even express how mad I was after the incident. It's bad enough that the WHOLE cafe now knows my business, but according to one of the waitresses I work with, I will NEVER be able to live this down!

But being the sensible girl, or mermaid, that I am, since Riley begged for this date, then at least he can tell me when he wants to do this. So, I started a slow pace before I found myself marching towards him.

"RILEY!" I shouted to get his attention. He turned around and once he caught sight of me walking towards him, he gave me a smug look. Oh, the nerve of him!

"Charlotte, it's good to see you out and about. Came by to say hello and check up on me, have you?" he asked with a smirk that nearly took all of my control to not slap off.

"Real mature, Riley, really mature. To embarrass me in front of not only the customers but my co-workers and my bosses all because you just couldn't handle rejection," I said coldly.

He just laughed. "It worked didn't it?"

And in response, and for my nerves, I slapped him on the shoulder. Wow, no wonder I've been doing that a lot lately.

"Ow, you broke my heart," he said with a mock hurt expression on his face while pretending to rub his shoulder, "but seriously, you finally said yes, so that's all it matters to me."

I suddenly felt a slight piece of hope fill me. "So we don't have a date?" I asked hopefully.

Riley snorted. "Nope, we are still going out!"

And like that, my hope deflated.

"Well then. Since I can't seem to talk you out of this, will you at least tell me when and where, and most importantly, what the date is going to be about?" I pleaded. I am done and if he wants to play this game, then I'll let him.

I stared at him for a few minutes, awaiting an answer to my question. And all he did was stare back at me like we were having some type of staring contest!

Then, he laughed at me.

"To be honest," Riley had said with a cocky grin, "It's a surprise." And with that, he climbed up to his post and started his shift.

Leaving me to wonder what exactly I had just gotten myself into.

Flashback ends...

And now, I have to deal with this "mystery date" and that's the last thing I need on my unnecessary to-do list!

So after work, if you could call it that, I rode with Laguna, Karen, Brendan, and Thomas (who managed to run around the beach undetected) in the van to their house for my training. On the way, Brendan couldn't keep that stupid smile off his face and Karen kept making small jokes about it by talking about how Jonathan made embarrassing gestures when they started dating. It seemed like Laguna was the only one who made the ride comfortable by talking about mermaid training and some new game she wanted me to try to test my abilities.

But apparently, Brendan wouldn't leave my favorite, dreaded topic alone.

"Does this new game have a name? Because I can think of one! It's called "How Many Times Can You Reject a Riley?" The objective of the game is to see how many times you can reject Riley Byrnes for a date until you give in! It's fun for all ages for all Charlotte's everywhere!" Brendan roared with laughter and I was tempted to strangle him.

So instead, I slapped him on the shoulder and said "Oh, shut it, Brendan!"

Brendan stopped laugh and looked at me for a moment before hitting me on the shoulder back.

So I hit him again.

Then he hit me again.

And I hit him again.

And then he hit me again.

We repeated this again and again until we were fighting like two siblings fighting in the back of the car, slapping our hands against each other. We were like siblings, in a way, fighting in the backseat of a car.

Eventually, Laguna got irritated by the noise we were making and turned around in her seat to face us.

"Stop it you two! You BOTH are too old for this and if I have to stop this car, I will, and you will BOTH walk to the house! UNDERSTAND!?" Laguna yelled while giving us her nastiest glare.

Too frightened by the threat, Brendan and I stopped and sat down in our seats quietly for the duration of the ride.

By the time we got there, I practically snatched the keys from Karen and rushed out of the van to get inside the house. Then I wasted no time firing up the fireplace and entering the hidden entrance to the cave. I knew I was being rude, but I didn't want to hear a Riley comment for the rest of my night.

So here I am, sitting at the bottom of the pool a few minutes later, waiting for Laguna to throw in the beach balls. Turns out Laguna's game was to see how many balls I could lift into the air using telekinesis and my water powers at the same time. Brendan calls it "The Lift-off".

"Alright, you can come up now!" Brendan shouted. Hearing that, I rose and broke through the surface of the water for a breath of air.

"Charlotte, the rules are simple. All you have to do is get each ball up into the air by using telekinesis or shoot the balls out of the water. Just keep them in the air for as long as you can and put as much focus and concentration into it as you can. And you can not use your ice powers to help keep the balls up in the air," Karen stated.

"And if I was to drop them?" I asked.

"Easy, you get a mark, and Brendan will announce it. And once we tally those marks up, we continue this practice until the marks get lowered. For example, if you drop a ball at least twenty times, then we will try it again until the marks are lowered. Make sense?" Laguna asked me.

I nodded. I could do that.

"But no pressure!" Karen interjected, "I don't expect you to do well on your first try."

Leave it to Karen to be the reassured one.

"Alright, start it up!" Brendan exclaimed. Laguna grabbed a beach ball and threw it into the pool. The moment it hit the water, I took a deep breath as I raised my hand.

I watched as a water-like pillar rose out of the water with the ball floating on top of it. I was worried for a second because the ball almost fell over, but it was still rotating on the pillar.

"Next ball!" Brendan exclaimed as I heard the second ball hit the water. I slightly turned my head and raised my other hand at the ball. While trying to keep my eyes on the first ball, I managed to catch a glimpse of the second ball floating in the air. I tried to keep my focus for as long I could, but it ended after 5 minutes when the ball that I had floating in the air fell out of my grasp and landed back into the pool with a soft "PLUNK".

"MARK:1!" Brendan stated loudly.

"Don't worry Charlotte, this usually takes a lot of practice," Karen said encouragingly. Laguna didn't say anything and just threw another ball into the pool.

This time, I had an idea. I used my water powers to create a bigger and wider water-pillar rose from the water with the ball on top of it. Then I moved it over to the first pillar and converged them together. Honestly, my heart nearly stopped when the first ball nearly fell over in the process, but thankfully, both balls ended up rotating themselves and moving around in a circle.

After that, I had used telekinesis to lift the next ball in the air and made the water-pillar expand so that when I placed a ball in it, it went into the circle. I had made my eyes turn into the direction of the Coves to see their reaction...and boy was it funny.

Brendan looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Karen was wide-eyed about my tactics, but I was surprised that somehow Laguna kept a straight face.

After an hour passed, I had a huge and wide water-pillar in front of me with at least 10 balls in it. I was about to add one more ball in it until I saw the pillar start to boil and soon enough, it evaporated and all the balls fell into the water.

I snapped my head towards the Coves and saw that it was Laguna who melted the pillar.

"What? I wasn't cheating or anything!" I exclaimed with a pouty face. Karen just chuckled.

"It wasn't that. It was the fact that I and Brendan never came up with that idea when Mother made us do it!" Karen said with a laugh. Then, I looked towards Laguna.

"So, as Brendan would put it: You found a loop-hole. I'm impressed", Laguna said, "but that won't stay the same. But the next time we do this, I'll have an obstacle for you and then, you'll have a higher mark."

I was confused. "What do you mean, "The next time"? I was just getting started!"

Brendan snorted. "Yeah, by an hour."

I snapped my head to him and quickly made a small pillar of water and made it spay on him. I had to laugh as he looked soaking wet before diving into the water and resurfacing next to me in his merman form.

"What was that for!?" he exclaimed, trying to look angry. I laughed again.

"Easy, you laughed at me," I tried to say casually. He looked kind of cute when he looked mad.

"Well, I'll give you something to laugh about," he stated as he formed a smaller pillar and sprayed me. But I ducked underwater, grabbed hold of his tail, and dragged him down under.

Knowing the water didn't affect him, he twisted and turned until I let go and he decided to return the favor. I guess we went on and on, playfully wrestling in the water for a while until we resurfaced.

We looked to see both Karen and Laguna giving us amused looks.

"Charlotte, will it kill you to act your age?" Laguna asked me, trying to be stern.

"No offense, but no one acts their age until the day they die. So...Sorry!" I exclaimed happily. Karen just laughed at her mother's deadpanned expression.

"Anyways, I think I should drop you off at home. Somehow, your mother got my number and told me to have you home by 8 for dinner," Karen said.

"But moooooom, can't she stay overnight?" Brendan whined.

Suddenly, a smirk appeared on her face. "But if she does, she might eat up all the Rocky Road Ice Cream you've been waiting to have."

I saw Brendan's eyes widen and he looked to me and said, rather quickly, "Bye Charlotte! See you tomorrow!" before diving down under the water.

Normally I wouldn't think this, but I seem to have given myself a little brother.

At Charlotte's house...

After a long drive with Karen after leaving the Coves, I finally felt like relaxing a bit before I got home. But I can't relax. With Alaine making friends with my mom, I'm more worried about how the house looks when I get there than how they're getting along!

Then, we finally pulled up onto the driveway of my house. The moment I stepped out of Karen's van, a fantastic aroma hit me and I inhaled it in. From what I smelled, it was garlic bread, pasta with tomato sauce, and...I couldn't put my finger on it, but my guess was dessert.

Dear God, what are those two up to?

After getting Thomas out the van and waving goodbye to Karen as she drove off, we walked towards to front porch, the smelling getting stronger by the second. I still couldn't put a name on the mystery dessert, but my mouth was watering!

Once I grabbed the knob of the door, the door swung open and I was instantly pulled in by a very energetic Alaine!

"Oh good, oh good, GREAT! You're just in time for dinner!" she said in a hyperactive voice as she quickly engulfed me into a hug before dragging me to the dining room. I heard the front door shut behind me, signaling that Thomas closed the door. Another new trick I taught him!

Alright, so far, so good. The living room is still intact, there's no dirt or mud that I thought I would see piling in from the backyard (though it could have been cleaned up), so let's see how messy the kitchen is.

Alaine's dragging eventually stopped and she showed me the dining table. And since we had a large table with 8 chairs, I was curious to see what she was showing me.

And I had to admit, I blinked a couple of times to see if it was real.

The table was set beautifully. In the center of the table was a vase full of flowers from my mom's garden and on both sides were lighted candles. Somehow, Alaine had managed to convince my mom to use her good glass plates with nice-looking place-mats under them. Then on the right of each plate was a set of silverware: a knife, a fork, and a spoon.

"Wow, what happened while I was gone?" I asked my best friend.

Alaine smiled cheekily at me. "Well, after we were done gardening, your mom told me how, lately, you guys never sat down for a nice, home-cooked dinner, So, I suggested that we'd make our own, with you here, of course."

"And just in time too," my mom said as she came into the room with a bowl filled with spaghetti, "Alaine, can you get the breadsticks?"

I looked towards Alaine, who nodded at the request, and she left my side and went to the kitchen. And a few minutes later, she came back in with a plate filled with at least 6 breadsticks on it. Both of them sat the food on the table.

"Alright, girls, go wash your hands so you can eat," Mom said as she took off the apron I hadn't noticed she was wearing. I slightly stiffened at the mention of washing my hands.

So I quickly went to the bathroom, opened the cabinet to find my "no-water" hand-sanitizer and poured some onto my hand, and turned on the sink faucet so that Alaine nor my mom suspected anything. After I rubbed it on, I turned the faucet off and left the room.

A few minutes later, we were all seated at the table, admittingly with our plates full of food, and left it to my mom to tell me what happened while I was gone. Thomas was happily munching on his dog food mixed with pasta sauce.

"...so after I showed her the flowers I had picked out to plant in the garden, she was like '"No, no, no, you're a chef for Pete's Sake. I highly recommend that you just plant the blueberries and the flower bulbs so that way the soil can get some nourishment in it. Also, it will last up to October!'" So we ended up getting Garlic, Flower bells, and blueberries for the garden," my mom recounted. It made me happy to see the light in her eyes.

Alaine laughed. "Yeah, plus November is harvest season! So I and Annette do plan on getting more herbs and vegetables to plant before winter hits."

I raised my eyebrow and took a bite out of my breadstick before speaking, "And here I was worrying that the house wouldn't be in one piece when I got back. Should I go check out the garden later?"

But honestly, I could tell that my mother had fallen under Alaine's inescapable charm.

They both laughed. "Technically, we aren't done yet. I'll show you later," Alaine said.

And suddenly, my mom whacked herself in the middle of her forehead. "Now I know what I did wrong," she said, looking towards me. "How was YOUR day? I know you probably don't want to hear us talk about gardening and cooking all night."

Compared to today's events, I'll gladly listen to the differences.

"Well, nothing happened. I served until dinner rush, washed some tables and stuff like that. Nothin-"

RRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!

All of us stopped and turned our heads towards the telephone. I started to get up, but Alaine had a head-start and beat me to the phone before picking it up.

"Hello," Alaine answered with her usual happy self. But I noticed the smile on her face start to fall.

"Mom, how did you-you expect me to just drop what I'm doing and come home? Is that place even considered home anymore?" Alaine said, her voice sounding like it was angry.

I couldn't hear what her mother was saying, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing, but I could hear shouting on the other line.

"NO! Will you please just listen to me!?" Alaine exclaimed over the phone. As I watched her expression, I saw her angry face grow saddened and soon enough, without another word, she slammed the phone back onto the receiver. She just stood there, looking depressed at the phone and I knew something was wrong.

When she finally walked back into the dining room, I noticed the light in her eyes was out. Oh, what did her mother say to her?

"I'm sorry, Annette, Charlotte, but I need to be excused from the rest of dinner," she said with a low voice. "Goodnight."

And with that, she walked out of the room, and based on her footsteps, she ran up the stairs until we heard a loud "SLAM!"

I quickly got up from my seat as well and turned to my mom. "Sorry, but I need to see that she's OK," I said.

And with that, I wasted no time running up the stairs.

The Guest Bedroom...

I ran up to the guest bedroom, where my mom had placed her for the time being, and slowly opened the door. The room was dark, mostly since it was nighttime and I looked towards the bed to see Alaine's figure.

The sight broke my heart.

Though her head was buried deep in the pillows, I could hear her loud sobs and whimpers throughout the whole room. I honestly hoped that her face itself wasn't as torn up as it was when I got her from the park. Though the bruises when down, emotional scars don't.

I walked slowly towards her and gently rubbed her back soothingly, hoping to coax her head from the pillows.

It worked. I kept rubbing her back, but eventually, she let me hold her. I adjusted my body so that her tears wouldn't get on me and a tail wouldn't show up unexpectedly.

After a little while, she managed to calm down and look up at me. I turned on the lamp beside the bed and saw her eyes were red and puffy, and the lights were out in her eyes. Looks like I'm going to have to turn them back on.

"Alaine," I was just going to cut to the chase, "what did your mother say to you?"

She started shaking a little bit, but she shook her head furiously as if to say to herself to get a grip.

"She demanded that I come back home," Alaine stated, no emotion in her voice yet, "she kept telling me that she had this big meeting coming up and I needed to help her. And I kept telling her no, that I refused to return to that...place! It never felt like home since I was little, more like a prison. And when I just tried to get her to listen... She said that I was her little bitch. That she decided when I left and came home! She could do whatever she wanted to me because she was the one paying the bills and taking care of me. And that because of my bastard father, that's why I'm so manipulative and always wanting attention, and that being the one to take me home from the hospital was one of the most unfortunate events of her life and that I should be thankful that I even exist at all!

How can you say that to your daughter? Just...how?"

I was asking the same thing as I listen to my friend. I may not have been a parent, but it was one thing to want them to come home, but what her mother said had crossed the line!

Alaine was the poster child for "Perfect Daughter" and clearly, she must've have been switched at birth if she ended up with a witch-like that for a mother! I looked at Alaine's eyes, and her light still hadn't come on.

Suddenly, I had an idea!

I left Alaine's side for one minute and left the room. And when I came back, I had my journal and my guitar with me and sat back down beside her.

"You know, when I first wrote this, it was the day I got this journal. I wrote it because I felt sad and depressed and I felt that a lot because before I moved here. And then," I looked at Alaine," I met you...and you inspired me. The song is called "You're Not Alone" ."

I gently ran my fingers through the guitar strings before I started to play.

Life doesn't tell you where to go

Or who you're ever going to meet along the way

Life doesn't ever you

Or decide which path is truly yours to take

But who am I to question

My faith

My heart

My love

Sometimes you just got to stand up and believe

That you'll be okay even if it's not right away

Oooh

And I'll show you

That no matter what

You're Not Alone (x4)

And I'll be standing there with you

I took a moment to look at Alaine and I saw something stirring in her eyes. Now, to sing the next part.

You are brave

You are strong

And you know who you are

Your light's bright

So bright

You can light up the room

With that smile

But sometimes you just got to stand up and believe

That you'll be okay even if it's not right away

Oooh

And I'll show you

That no matter what

You're Not Alone (x4)

And I'll be standing there with you

I could practically feel a smile on her face before it even appeared. There was a spark in her eyes, but it seemed like I had to fuel it some more.

When you need a shoulder to cry on

You know that I'll be there

Wherever, whenever

When it feels like the weight of the world

Is too strong

I'll carry it with you

When darkness comes out and tries to conquer your world

You'll never have to think about it

'Cause I'll be there to help you see it through

You're Not Alone (x2)

Oooooh

You're Not Alone! (x4)

Oooooh

You're Not Alone...

When I had finished the last note, I didn't even have time to register it until I felt Alaine's arms squeezing me like an octopus. But I liked it, even if it meant that I managed to put a smile back on her face. I tightly returned the hug and I heard her softly laughing.

When we pulled apart, my inside was doing a little happy dance when I saw the light fully return to her eyes.

"Char, that was...AMAZING! And you wrote that yourself?" she asked in surprise as she found the song in my journal and looked over it."You are outdoing me in the musical department, I'm sorry, but it's true! Please stay with me through choir, I need you!"

She looked up and started to give me her infamous puppy-dog eyes and I shook my head. Only she can go from sad and depress to happy and energetic in a matter of minutes. This crazy girl...

I set my guitar down. "Trust me, this was written on a bad day. It's not worth the time of day anyway. But it feels good to finally get this out, considering how my day went..."

Alaine looked at me like a child eagerly engaged during story-time.

"OOOH, tell me!" Alaine said excitedly, "what happened!?"

I laughed at her energetic facial expression and proceeded to tell her how Riley embarrassed me at work and how I finally gave in to his demands for a date.

Her expression was funny and then she started squealing like a little school girl! She stated, no, proclaimed, that she was going to find me the perfect outfit for my date and I almost didn't have the heart to tell her how it was a "surprise date".

But that even got her more excited and I guess we spent the rest of the night talking.

And that's when I realized:

Not only did I have a best friend, I think I have a sister as well.

And that's a wrap for today people! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and sorry if my AN at the top was too long, but I felt that since I was REALLY late on updating this past summer, I owed it to you.

And in case you guys were wondering about the song and trying to look it up, I just wanted to tell you guys that "You're Not Alone" was an original song written by...ME! I'll admit, I was inspired by Rachel Platten's "Fight song' and Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" and felt that this would make a good song to have Charlotte sing to Alaine. Will I add more original songs? I don't know, but tell me what you think!

READ&REVIEW!