Happy New Year!
Alright! Alright! I get it! And I completely understand! But work with me here! For those who know me, and my writing habits, know that I would never make a character go this bad without there being some type of twisted sub-plot in the making!
Now, for the first order of business: The winners of my contest, "Can You Guess What's Wrong with Charlotte?"
And they will happily announce as:
ByEmiWithLove (via PM)
Return to Neverland
King Saruman
So, congrats, and this chapter will be dedicated to them!
And, the second order of business: Review Challenge.
So, as you all know, we are 25 reviews away from reaching the big...300 REVIEWS! WOOHOO!
So, start reviewing guys so that any of you lucky fellows can get a chapter dedication!
Now...ENJOY!
P.S. This chapter is more dedicated to the Coves' side of events. You can't say that you weren't curious as to how the Coves were taking this raid change!
At Paradise Cove Cafe...
3rd POV
Laguna was losing it, as Brendan would say.
It started with the little things, such as checking her watch to see what time it is, 'visiting' the employees more than usual to do their job, or approaching the tables to see if the costumers were satisfied.
To a normal person, this would seem like a polite way to run a restaurant. But for the Cove family, this was troubling.
You see, Laguna is the type of person who doesn't have to ask or oversee her costumers to rate her business.
She KNOWS she's the best.
But then, her 'visits' became more like pestering, annoying, some would say. Or she would repeatedly visit the same tables over and over again, apologizing and says that she thought they were different costumers. And then she started staring at her watch for long times 2-3 minutes to 5-10 minutes.
Soon enough, there was irritation among the employees to do their job, especially the cooks when in the middle of, well, cooking, costumers getting creeped out that the owners were constantly at their tables, and now she was fidgeting over the fact due to her watched being removed, as if she was waiting for something.
To put it simply: Laguna was losing it.
Laguna, herself, would say that "A mermaid does not lose it."
But she was. Karen could see it, Jonathan could see it, Brendan could see it, the cooks could see it, the waiters/waitresses could see it, the costumers could see it...
Damn near, the WHOLE beach of Paradise Cove could see it!
But to find the source of this, you would have to look two weeks back to see what happened.
Flashback...
October 7th, 2009, Wednesday, Late Afternoon...
The Paradise Cove Cafe was busier than usual, not that booming business didn't help. The only one to not benefit from the extra tips and what more was Karen, who was on a late Maternity Leave, much to Jonathan's unseen joy.
Jonathan, being the co-manager of the cafe, was in his office, doing paperwork and denying wishes to hold any Halloween party at the cafe.
He wasn't cruel, but after the last time someone broke in and trashed the place, he wasn't taking any chances.
Brendan was grounded and doing the dishes/supply run. Karen made sure that she got her point across about the incident with the war game and thought working at the back of the restaurant would serve to teach him some humility.
Granted he was angry at first, at Charlotte and then his mom. But after taking his time to slowly rethink things, Brendan realized he had been unfair and was hoping to apologize the next time he saw her.
Laguna was walking around the outdoor deck of the cafe, watching the costumers enjoy their meals during the sunny day as well as hearing the joy and laughter on the beach. The breeze was warm and crisp and the smell of sea-salt and food was in the air.
But then, she suddenly felt a breeze of dark aura from behind her. Frowning, she turned around to see Charlotte standing behind her.
But her look made Laguna do an overview, twice.
She was dressed in all black, a dress with a blazer over it, and a choker around her neck.
Had Laguna not known any better, she'd say Charlotte went Goth. (Meaning she does pay attention to what her grandson says!)
"Well, you're early today," Laguna stated, "New wardrobe change for Halloween?"
Charlotte shrugged. "Maybe. I just wanted to try a new look. You like?"
"In this weather?" Laguna said, "Absolutely not. Go change into your uniform and start working. The faster you start your shift, the faster we can start your lessons."
And that's when Charlotte started laughing.
Hard.
She wrapped her arms around her waist and continued to laugh boisterously, disturbing the peace around the cafe and caused many customers to turn in their seats and look at her. Annoyed, Laguna grabbed the teen and rushed past everyone before throwing her into the office and slamming the door.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Laguna exclaimed, "have you lost your mind?"
Charlotte just kept laughing for a few minutes until she regained composure. But her mouth kept twitching a bit though.
"I'm quite sane, I assure you. However, I was laughing at the irony of the real reason I came to you today. It's about my job," Charlotte stated before pulling an envelope.
Laguna eyed the teenage mermaid warily before taking the letter and opening it. However, after reading the context, Laguna harshly threw the letter to the floor and looked at Charlotte as if she had two heads and destroyed the beach!
"What is this? A resignation letter!?" Laguna screeched. What did this girl think she was playing?
But Charlotte just shrugged. As if she the glaring daggers her boss/teacher was throwing at her didn't seem to bother her at all.
Or perhaps she spent so much time with her that she's gone immune with it.
"Laguna, you and your family have been a tremendous help over the last few months, but I think it's time we parted paths," Charlotte stated, "besides, I'm beginning to think your staff feels you're playing favorites."
Charlotte tried to sound sincere, but her words were starting to sound too rehearsed
"Look, if this is about what happened at training, that wasn't was Marana! And don't get me started on how you pretty much didn't come to work the other day. You had everyone worried sick!"
Charlotte raised her hands in self-defense. "And I apologize for that. Some rather...sensitive things came up and I couldn't help. But in terms, yes. I am resigning from my job and as your student."
Sensitive? Laguna wasn't buying that.
"So...so what? You just walk out of here and not expect Marana to take control of you again!?" Laguna exclaimed.
"I know for a fact that she won't ever try to do that again. And I'm no coward. I'm not running as I did before," Charlotte said, taking one of Laguna's hands into hers.
Laguna shivered as she felt the chill from Charlotte's unnaturally cold hands before pulling away.
"Charlotte, this isn't a matter of running! It's about keeping you safe and away from Marana! You're my responsibility. I can't let you get hurt!" Laguna reasoned.
"Like how you let my past lives die? Or how you failed to save those lost in their destruction!" Charlotte exclaimed.
There was silence. It was so silent that you could hear a pin drop.
"You don't have the right to use that against me! I did everything I could to save those girls!"
"You did and you tried. But then, I started asking myself: Why is it the girls were always mermaids by the time they created their designated storm or natural disaster?" Charlotte asked, walking in front of Laguna as if to lecture her, "but then, I theorized, that at some point, each girl had to have been at the moon pool at some point in their lives. Maybe in a mountain range somewhere, on the cliff of an island, or maybe on a beach! But somehow, you never could catch them in time!"
By then, the tension in the room had now grown thick enough anyone could start to see it. The two separate generations of mermaids stared at each other, not knowing what to say
But now, Charlotte had to leave.
"Thank you, Laguna Cove. It's been a pleasure learning from you."
And with that, she walked out the doorway and out of the cafe.
Leaving a hurt and angry mermaid standing in her place.
Flashback ends...
And since then, Laguna's been on edge and everyone's been walking on eggshells around her. It didn't help when Karen called Charlotte's mother and dropped the phone when she heard how she too had been affected by Charlotte's new behavior.
Karen and Jonathan were shocked to hear about the exchange, while Brendan looked like he was licking a wound. Jonathan surprised everyone by saying that there's no possible way that the Charlotte Laguna talked to was the real deal. But that sounded more like he was in denial about the teenager that might've just proved him wrong.
But Laguna knew that something dark was lurking, she always knew. And she hopped to whatever higher power there is that she was wrong.
3 days later...
It happens every day when a new customer walks in. It means more profit and those customers starting to become regulars and spreading the word out more about the cafe.
However...
It's not when two people, no, two teenagers enter the cafe, ready to go at it like a battle royale.
And when they were fighting, LOUDLY, that said so much more when the customers started to leave.
And when the customers started leaving, that meant you had an agitated Jonathan and a majorly pissed-off Laguna on your hands.
Laguna herself was having a rough day as it is when she heard and got the complaint that two teenagers were going at it in the middle of the restaurant, she nearly blew her paperwork around the office and had to stop herself from going into her Dolphin tongue.
Marching out, she was followed by Jonathan and saw the two culprits yelling their hearts out while causing more customers to get annoyed and leave their tables.
The first teen, to their surprise, was Riley Byrnes. They were completely aware of his obvious affections for Charlotte, but they had never seen him so mad before.
The next was a beautiful black girl in a yellow, floral dress, one they had never seen on Paradise before.
"You know, you have some nerve showing your face here!" Riley exclaimed.
"It's a free country, Bucko, and I came here to see Charlotte!" the girl yelled back.
"Why? Isn't it obvious she wants nothing to do with you!"
"Ohhh, so smart, especially coming from the guy who can't keep his eyes above the equator and thinks with his dick!"
"You know, for a small girl, you might as well turn around before I shove your-"
"RILEY!" Laguna and Jonathan yelled simultaneously.
This caught the two teens' attention and immediately shut them up.
"You two! My office! NOW!" Laguna exclaimed, gritting her teeth. She was beginning to run out of patients (as if she had any already) and began to wonder why she's being surrounded by teenagers all of the sudden.
Seeing steam about to burst from her ears, the two quickly were escorted to her office by Jonathan, who knew this wasn't going to be good.
An angry Laguna was more terrifying than what Charlotte thought she'd seen.
Once they were all in there, Laguna practically made them stand in front of her and gave her most deluxe "I'm-going-to-kill-you" look.
"Riley, I'm already agitated and you driving my customers away is not helping!" she exclaimed before turning to the black girl, "and who are you?"
The girl jumped at the tone sent towards her and recomposed herself. "My name is Alaine Williams. I'm a friend of Charlotte's."
Riley snorted. "Yeah right!"
Alaine snapped her head towards him. "Do you really wanna go there!?"
"I may not hit girls, but I do know whatever sob story you're about to cook up is all an act!" Riley argued.
"Well, what do you want me to say?" Alaine asked, "Because I can say 'Sorry' and nothing is going to change!"
"How about you start with admitting that this is ALL YOUR FAULT!" Riley exclaimed, pointing at her, "She would still be the same girl if you hadn't gone and stabbed her in the back!"
"Fine then! You want to hear it: I screwed up! There! You happy now!? I screwed over the only damn person who gave an actual damn about me and now she's gone!" Alaine screamed.
"No, I'm not happy. I'm thankful that you admitted your faults and wrongdoings towards her, but that's not enough! She's been different ever since you broke her heart and now, she's pretty much has a temper and personality that could put Disney's sea-witch, Ursula, to shame!" Riley exclaimed.
Laguna flinched at the comparison. It was one thing to compare real mermaids to Walt Disney's version, but still. Not a lot of mermaids that moved onto land didn't exactly like the idea of multicolored tails. The omens surrounding it are bad enough.
But then again, looking at Charlotte's case, who was she to judge?
Just as the teens were about to go at it again, Jonathan chose to intervene, thankfully.
"Alaine, huh? I know you," he stated.
But Riley and Alaine jumped at his voice while Laguna gave him a look.
"Oh, you do?" Alaine asked skeptically.
Jonathan nodded. "Sure I do. You started as Charlotte's tormentor, somehow became her friend, and then went back to being her tormentor."
Laguna didn't miss Riley's small victory smile. Somehow, he and Jonathan have their little relationship worked up and it's a lot better than his relationship with Brendan.
Alaine sighed. "I guess I should have seen that coming. Look, hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do-"
"Understatement of the Century," Riley retorted.
"Shut up!" Alaine snapped before continuing, "Anyways, I know I'm not anyone's biggest fan right now. But something happened today and I need to talk to Charlotte."
Laguna sighed. This girl didn't know.
"Alaine, Charlotte quit her job a few weeks ago. I guess that she's probably at home," Laguna explained.
"What? No way! Char loves this place! She wouldn't quit even if you paid her!" Alaine defended.
"She gave me her resignation before she left. I'm sorry dear, but your trip was unnecessary," Laguna said.
She hated the defeated look in the young girl's eyes, but it was simply the truth.
However, Riley was surprised. Well, not surprised, but shocked either.
"Did she quit on the 7th?" he asked.
Laguna looked at him. "Yes, she did. How did you-"
"Well, thanks to this idiot here-"
"HEY!" Alaine exclaimed.
"-Charlotte went through this dramatic makeover around this time. It's the last time I saw her at Paradise too. Anyways, she not only started to switch to black but also became this Mean Girl that put this mean girl," Riley gestured to Alaine, "and her posse to shame. She stopped caring about others' feelings, started causing huge issues around school, which no one can prove, and well, became quite the Bitch."
It was official: These teens had officially caught their attention.
For Jonathan, he's now meeting the young lady who sent Charlotte's life out of spin.
And for Laguna, she knows that there was so much more going on that Charlotte wasn't telling that day. A Bitch? No, She had ALL of Charlotte's memories and she knew damn well that the teenage mermaid wouldn't dare revert to her old ways!
"Are you two sure this is Charlotte Watsford you're talking about?" Jonathan asked.
They both nodded.
"If you're talking about a beautiful, reddish-brown haired Australian, which I found out courtesy of Brendan himself, strong-willed yet nursing a broken heart due to an idiot not staying in his lane, amazing singer, great kisser yet is quite guarded about her past, then yes! We are talking about Charlotte Watsford," Riley concluded.
Both Alaine and Laguna both rolled their eyes. Accurate for a guy yet Riley never knew his boundaries. But overall, accurate.
And Laguna will be talking to Brendan about indulging in personal information later.
She turned to Jonathan. "Take Riley outside and hear what he has to say. I need to speak to Miss Williams."
Both Riley and Jonathan gave her a surprised look, and Jonathan had grabbed Riley and forcefully dragged him out of the office before he could say anything.
And with that, it was just the human and the age-old mermaid in the room. Alaine had made some shotty comments about her former friend's boss, but judging from the look she was getting, the moment she and Charlotte were good terms, she would take everything she ever said back and apologize.
"So, I'm guessing you and Char are close?" she asked.
For the first time in a while, Laguna laughed. Wasn't that an understatement.
"I guess you can say that. I'm not playing favorites, but Charlotte has found herself an interesting addition to the lives in my family," Laguna admitted, "and are you?"
Alaine shrugged. "As of now, I honestly don't know. For what Riley and Jonathan said, I admit that I wasn't so nice to her for a while, and I regret that deeply. Truly, I do. It wasn't until I was dropped from my so-called friends that we became true friends. She doesn't know I know this, but I can tell when she's always holding back something when she tells me about her past. And honestly, I can't blame her because...I've been doing the same thing. However, the truth came out and she's had my back ever since.
I honestly don't blame her if she did hates me for what I did."
Laguna looked over the girl. Outwardly, she looked fine. But it was always the inside where you could see the true emotions.
"So why did you turn away from her? If anything, I know Charlotte would have never given up so easily," Laguna assured.
"I know!" Alaine exclaimed, "but there's only so much a person can take before being pushed over the edge. And..."
"And what?" Laguna asked.
It took a while for Alaine to get her voice out. She's heard actions speak better than words, but it seemed that acceptance was a harder pill to swallow.
So, she swallowed hard.
"I told her that if she couldn't get 3 girls to like her, then, why should I," Alaine admitted.
Laguna was taken back. And coming from the person who had the person of topic's memories, she knew what Alaine said was a low blow.
A low blow.
And also, she now knew what Charlotte was so bothered that one lesson and the anger behind their little spat.
Perhaps, Karen was right about needing to know Charlotte first as a person instead of a reincarnation.
"How could you have said that?" she asked.
"I know this sounds hard to believe, but I didn't take it well behind closed doors either!" Alaine stated, tearing up, "I promised her that I wouldn't judge or use her past against her and I did just that! And now, I feel like I created a monster in the process."
By now, she started full-on crying and Laguna handed her a tissue. She could relate to breaking a promise, especially one to a dear friend. But you either had to own up to it or move on.
And with Charlotte, moving on was NOT an option!
With that in mind, she startled Alaine by grasping her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.
"Listen," Laguna started, "I can't speak for you that you made a mistake. That is self-evident. But what I can say is that you have the choice to fix your relationship. Beg on your knees, yell until you're blue in the face, even come to her house every day if you had to! If you want to fix your friendship with Charlotte, you need to take action and make it happen. So many young people don't take that chance and regret it for the rest of their lives. You have time to fix this and make it count! Do you understand me? Make her understand that you truly want this friendship!"
Alaine was caught off guard by Laguna's words and nodded. The mermaid sighed in relief.
Finally, she's made progress.
"Now, is there anything else you need to let out?" Laguna asked.
Alaine was silent for a moment, in thought, before speaking.
"Actually...There's one more thing. I don't know how, but I just get the feeling I should tell you this," Alaine said hesitantly.
Now, Alaine was nervous. What she saw could have been a trick of the light, but with those sprinklers going off like that, and Charlotte's sudden glee in the water, she just had to let it out.
Laguna nodded in encouragement.
"Well, it started during school and Charlotte... Charlotte was more, dark. Darker than she ever was these past few weeks. I know I'm responsible for that, but still. Anyways, this group of girls I left had locked her in the locker room and left the water on, completely flooding it.
I swear, I tried to talk them out of it, but the deed was done. Soon enough, water was everywhere, steam was catching in and those girl...they just watched. Then, I heard a scream. I remembered that there was a busted pipe and it was FILLED with hot water...and I watched as she got burned," Alaine admitted, tears streaming from her eyes.
Laguna's gut wrenched. Though she wasn't fond of what had been bothering Charlotte before the incident, for a moment, perhaps now Alaine can relate to one of Charlotte's many inner struggles.
But she was also panicking. Charlotte's secret was, in no doubt, revealed. She only hoped she made herself invisible to save herself.
"Alaine..." she started.
"NO!" Alaine exclaimed, wiping the tears from her eyes, "I need to get this out. I screamed for her, trying to at least open the door until it busted open, soaking everyone! And the thing is: The water was ice cold. And then Charlotte walked out."
What now?
"She...walked out?" Laguna asked. That couldn't possibly be right.
Alaine nodded. "Yeah, her clothes were drenched, her makeup was running and her hair looked like it had been through a washer. She just glared at us and suddenly, the sprinklers went off. After that all the girls ran off, some horrified by her. But then, she looked at me as if she could see through my soul and walked away."
Before Laguna realized what she was doing, she hugged Alaine and comforted her. As much as it equally disturbed her that Charlotte managed to get wet without revealing her tail, she left quite a scare on her former friend and it just won't do.
Alaine sobbed into her arms and wept for the event. It almost seemed like such a bad nightmare out of a movie scene. A horribly, scary movie scene.
But Alaine wiped her tears and pulled away. She had to get this last piece out before it was too late.
"And, there's something else I think you should know," Alaine said hesitantly
Laguna made her look her in the eyes before nodding to continue.
"When she looked at me. I noticed something, something about her eyes. It...I swear, I think I'm going crazy! But her eyes...It was just for a moment, but," Alaine struggled before spitting out, "She had the eyes of an abyss!"
And suddenly, Laguna's heart froze and all the life was sucked out of her.
"What?" she barely whispered.
, Barely swallowing, she nodded and had Jonathan come and escort her out as she walked back into her office and locked the door.
And then, leaning against the door, Laguna laughed.
She laughed into hysterics.
She laughed until tears came falling from her eyes.
She laughed until she felt like Charlotte the day she quit her job and stopped coming to her lessons.
She laughed until her voice broke and began full-blown sobbing.
"...a shade of blue as deep as the ocean's abyss."
The last time she saw a pair of eyes with that matching description, it was at the very beginning.
Back where her vow begins.
Back where she spent her childhood in the pod with her best friends.
Back when joy and laughter was all she'd known and as well as the innocence of it.
Back when she used to help cause so much trouble, she was often scolded.
Back when her best friend was the pride and joy of the pod.
Back when the said friend would rely on her sister for everything.
But also...
It was back to the time where she watched a mermaid become so horrible, so terrifying, that those eyes were the last she said before her best friend's demise.
Before Ane'lie's demise...
The only one capable of doing this whole mess from the beginning...
And the answer to all her recent problems all together...
Marana.