Chris blinked.

Then he blinked again.

But she was still there. Mimmi was still on the floor with a tail.

Chris looked around the room to the others, when he realized that none of them were looking at Mimmi, all eyes were trained on him, testing his reaction. It took him a minute to find his throat so he could clear his voice and finally look at Mimmi and say, "What are you?"

Mimmi looked as if she had been slapped across the face, a tear streaked down across her cheek. One of the girls, Ondina as Chris recalled, rushed over to her friend's side and began to pat her lower half dry with a towel. Rita made her way across the room, and guided Chris towards the couch, "It seems that a chat is in order." She said calmly.

Chris scoffed in response, sounding rude even to himself. At the time, he was unable to think before he could act because his mind was racing at a million miles per minute. There was a whoosh that swept over the room and from the corner of his eye, Chris could see that Mimmi was on her feet once again. She made her way over to a chair in the back corner of the living room, avoiding all eye contact with him but he was sure that there were still tears glistening in her eyes.

No one was paying much attention to Mimmi, except for Ondina, everyone's eyes were still glued to Chris. It was as if they, at any second, expected him to jump up and started running through the streets, yelling about what he had just seen.

"Chris," Rita began, "Have you heard the stories about the mermaids that protect the bay?"

He looked over at his principle, any local knew the story. Their most famous tourist attraction her, aside from the beaches, was the legendary but elusive mermaids that were said to live out by Mako Island and hadn't been seen for centuries. But anybody could be smart enough to realize that the stories were made up to attract visitors.

Rita continued, "We are those mermaids."

Chris was about to retort on the impossibility of the situation but after what he had just seen, how could he deny it? He had just watched a girl's legs stitch themselves into a tail. No amount of special effects of mirrors could achieve a deception so life-like. He thought over what Rita had just told him, "You said 'we.'"

Rita nodded slowly, "Yes, we."

Chris looked at the group before them, and suddenly they weren't so interested in looking back. He especially looked at Zac, Cam, and David, whom he had shared a class with since the seventh grade. "And you three?"

Cam looked at the two others, who nodded to give him approval, and then spoke for the group, "We're mermen."

Once again, Chris only found himself able to blink. The world spun around him and reality warped into something unrecognizable. These people who he had known for most of his life, were not even human. He looked at the others, and come to the realization at none of them were human. In fact, he was the only one in this room that was human.

"We weren't always like this," Cam rushed out before he could stop himself, "Evie, David and I used to be humans but we ended up in the right place at the right time. Zac thought he was human, but it turns out that he was born a merman and is Mimmi's twin sister. And the others are mermaids from birth out at sea with their pod."

For the first time, Chris dared to look over at Mimmi. The could each read the helpless expressions on each other's faces; Mimmi's fear of having her most precious secret uncovered and Chris having so much impossible seeming information to take in. He knew in that moment, that the only person that he wanted to be with right now was Mimmi, as crazy, weird and even scary as this all was for him, Chris needed Mimmi to know that her secret was safe with him and that she could trust him no matter what.

Chris cleared his throat and spoke, "Can I talk to Mimmi, privately please."

She searched his face with new fear shining in her eyes, and desperately looked over at Ondina, pleading to not be left alone. Slowly, she stood up from the chair he was sitting in and Chris caught himself staring down at her legs. His gaze quickly darted somewhere else.

Mimmi sniffled as Chris followed her out of the room. As they retreated, the remaining merpeople in the living room looked around at each other, wondering how a happy occasion could have so quickly gone bad.

Cam was the first among them to speak, "Can I just point out that he's been exposed to quite a bit of magic just now."

All of the merpeople sitting around the living room paled slightly.

"You don't think…" Ondina trailed off, unable to complete her thought.

Rita picked up where she left off, "Yes unfortunately, I think that Cameron is right." The group exchanged nervous glances, not knowing how to break it to both Chris or Mimmi. It was one thing to discover that the world of mermaids and magic was real but it was another to find out that you were going to become apart of that world. Cam and David, at some points, both secretly or not so secretly wanted a life like the others. They had time to discover the secret, learn the ins and outs of magic and then become a part of it. Chris was literally jumping in feet first, with no escape.

"We'll have to protect him," Cam piped up after the long pause of silence.

"That's right," David agreed, "We can't let this happen to anyone else against their wills. It is time that we fight back. This ends this full moon."

Okay okay, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been uploading for a while and I know that this chapter is really short. Honestly, I've had this chapter written for a long time but I wasn't 100% happy with it for a while. Hopefully you'll be seeing a little more of me.

Like and leave a review let me know what you think! You can also check out my other Mako Mermaids stories. Love you guys!