That's right, chapter 3 is here.

3.

Zac's stomach complained bitterly at him, but he didn't move from his spot across the inlet near his house. He could see his mother moving between his room and the house, carrying dirty laundry, then back again with clean clothes. Clothes he wouldn't be wearing any time soon.

She looked so happy. He couldn't call her and tell her he'd run away. He couldn't do that to her. She would think it was her fault, when all she'd done was be the best mother a guy could ask for.

Rita had laid out his options for him plainly. Either reassure them he was okay, or let them think he had been kidnapped or killed, somehow.

Zac couldn't do that - the last two were definitely not an option.

There had to be another solution. Another solution that didn't include simply swimming up to the dock right now and revealing himself. Then he'd really lose her. She'd want nothing to do with having a fish for a son.

Finally, his mother went back inside, shutting the door. The laundry was hung up to dry in the warm Australian sun and Zac stared at it with a bitter smile. He could see his favourite t-shirt hung up on the line. It would get folded and put away, like the rest of his things, and even though his boat house was only feet from the water, it might as well have been a hundred for all the good it did him. He couldn't get in - all of his stuff was inaccessible to him now.

He literally had nothing but his fins.

His mother came back outside, a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. She settled down on the porch, and opened the book, tea at her elbow.

Zac glanced at the sun. She wouldn't be expecting him home until dinner time.

He had until dinner time to think of a solution.

Quietly, he ducked back under the water. He needed the girls. Now that he had had time to calm down, he needed to find the girls so that they could come up with a plan.

He checked the moon pool first. He normally would have checked Rita's first, as it was closer, but he had a feeling he'd find at least one person in the moon pool, and he was right. Mimmi was there, despondently picking through seashells on the ledge. She whirled around in surprise when he surfaced, and her expression went from upset to relief in moments. "Zac! I was so worried!" She launched off the edge and on top of him.

"Whoa!" Zac exclaimed, disentangling Mimmi's arms from their stranglehold around his neck and pushing them apart. "Mimmi, I'm fine!"

Mimmi breathed out slowly and settled back. She narrowed her eyes at him. "No one could find you!"

Zac waved his hand. "I was...thinking." He floated over to the edge of the pool so he could settle against one of the ledges. "Look, I can't tell my parents I've run away, do you know how much that would hurt them?"

There was a heavy silence. Mimmi blinked and glanced down, frowning. Her hand made shapes in the water as she seemed to think. Slowly, she shook her head. "What else can you say? I don't know what excuses land people would believe, but…it doesn't look like you have much of an option."

He refused to believe that. There had to be something he could say that wouldn't give his parents a heart attack.

"Can you say you're staying with a friend?" Mimmi asked hesitantly.

"For a month?" Zac responded.

Mimmi shrugged. "I don't know, Zac, what do you want me to say?"

He tilted his head back, letting it thump against the rock. He wanted to thump it harder - maybe it would knock some sense into him. He closed his eyes, mind racing, but he came up blank every time. There was no excuse in the world that wouldn't fall to pieces the second his parents questioned it. A month was simply too long to be mysteriously gone.

He felt Mimmi swim closer until she settled beside him. She let out a long sigh. "I know this sucks, and I know you said, once, that you'd rather be a land person than a merman, but…"

Zac opened his eyes and tilted his head to stare at her. She was chewing her lip and staring at the water.

"I think," she continued, "that this could be good for you."

Zac straightened abruptly. "What?"

Mimmi's jaw set and her eyes met his with determination. "Zac, you've lived your whole life on land - you don't even remember what it was like living as a merman because you were too young when our mother left you with the Blakelys."

"So?" Zac had a feeling he knew where she was going with this, and he didn't like it.

Mimmi pushed off the edge of the pool and gestured broadly, out in the direction of the ocean. "So? So, you're a merman, not a land-boy! You should have grown up here, in the ocean, but you never got the chance!" She shook her head, eyes pitying. "You don't know what it's like, or how to live like a merman, and you should. You should have that opportunity, otherwise don't you think you're missing a part of yourself?"

Zac had been ready to jump in with an angry comment about never having asked to be a merman, thanks very much, but the more Mimmi talked, the more he listened. Part of him agreed that maybe, just maybe, she had a point. But, still - not like this. Not when he was being forced into it.

She gestured again, reaching out to touch his chest, over his heart. "You were born a merman, and you were meant to grow up in the ocean. You were meant to. Legs aren't natural for us, and we only get to walk on land because of magic." She sighed. "I get that you grew up as a land-boy and that all of this merman stuff is new and different, but...I really think you should look at this as an opportunity to see how your life should have been."

Zac waited, but Mimmi's impassioned speech seemed to have come to an end. He...he thought he understood where she was coming from. For her, this was a good thing - a chance to bond with him and teach him all the things he should know. But, he just couldn't see it as an opportunity. Not when his parents would be worried sick, and not when his choice had been stolen from him. Not when it meant a month of no t.v. and no normal, land-people things.

Being a merman - he'd been okay with that as long as it just meant daily swims in the ocean and cool powers. But living as a merman? Surviving out in the ocean with nothing to do and everything to lose?

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mimmi."

Mimmi's shoulders slumped. She laughed bitterly. "If our mother had been able to raise us together, you wouldn't know any different, you know." She shook her head slowly. "You'd be completely happy never having legs at all."

"But she didn't," Zac pointed out, trying not to snap. "And I do know different." At Mimmi's downcast expression, he tried to speak in a more moderate tone. "Look, I have a life that I can't just up and abandon, you know that."

She nodded quickly. "Yes, I know, I get that, Zac! But, ignoring that," she waved a hand vaguely, "this is an opportunity. You'll get your legs back, but there's no use worrying about it until it's the full moon again. In the meantime, I just want you to think of this as a way to see how you should have grown up," she finished pleadingly.

Zac sighed, running a hand through his wet hair. "Mimmi…"

Mimmi turned away from him and crossed her arms. "Fine, spend the whole month moping, see if I care." She swam back over to her collection of shells and began to fiddle with them, separating them into piles. There was a line of tension between her shoulder blades that was hard to miss.

Great. So now his sister was mad at him, the situation was no better than when he started, and he still had no excuse for his parents. Just great.

Zac stared at the phone Rita held out to him like it might come to life and bite his hand off. It didn't help that everyone was there - everyone. Evie, Sirena, Ondina, Mimmi and Rita. Zac wasn't sure he could do this at all, let alone with four pairs of eyes boring into him as he did so.

He realised he was shaking his head and Rita sighed, hand dropping slightly from where it had remained outstretched for some time. Her eyes were pitying. "Zac...you have to call them."

He dug his fingers into the small towel Rita had handed to him so that he could dry his hands. "But what do I say? Sorry, Mum, Dad, I'm going on a month-long extended sleep-over with no warning?"

Rita sighed again. A few feet away, Zac caught Evie's sad expression and felt even worse. He didn't need her pity as well. Any of their pity, really. Pity wasn't going to fix anything.

The phone hovered near his head and he glared at it. Rita slowly bent down until she could set it in front of him. It rocked back and forth on the stone for a few moments.

Evie took a step forward and Zac envied her the ability to do so. "Zac...you have to tell them you're okay. They're going to be worried." She bit her lip. "I think it would be worse not to let them know you're okay."

He knew that. He did. It was just...hard.

Mimmi, who, despite being annoyed with him, was still sticking solidly by his side in the pool, nudged the base of his tail with her own. He glanced at her and her expression was sympathetic. "Zac, just get it over with."

He sighed. Then reached for the phone.

Punching in the number for his house phone was familiar. The ringing on the other end was also familiar. When his mother picked up, his breath caught and he jerked the phone away from his ear, shaking his head. Ondina and Sirena both crossed their arms and Evie made silent motions to place the phone back at his ear.

"Hello? Hello?" They could all hear coming from the tiny speaker on the end.

Slowly, Zac placed the phone at his ear and swallowed. "M-mum."

"Zac!" There was a pause. "Where are you? It's past dinner."

Zac licked his lips. "I'm, um…away."

Away? Away? Was that the best he could do?

His mum's voice was also suspicious. "Away?" she repeated skeptically. "Away where? Are you out for the evening?"

"Yeah," Zac blurted out. "Um, yeah, I've got a...project. And I'm staying at...Cam's house, tonight. To finish it."

Evie narrowed her eyes at him and Ondina covered her eyes with a sigh. Rita pursed her lips at him and shook her head. Zac set his jaw.

What? he mouthed. He was buying time. Buying time to think of a better excuse. That was all.

"Okay. You're eating dinner there? Make sure you two actually study," she added dryly. "Tell his mum and dad hello for me, will you?"

"Yeah, sure thing, Mum."

"Okay. Next time, call me. I'll see you tomorrow."

Zac nodded, eyes closing at the lie. "Yeah, um, see you."

"Bye, sweetheart."

"Bye," he practically whispered. Then he hung up the phone and placed it back on the rock to an utterly silent grotto. He daren't raise his head to see everyone's disappointed expressions.

Ondina cleared her throat, "Well. That went well. Good job at not telling her you're not coming back."

"Zac," Evie added, voice laden with resignation. "You know you can't do that forever."

Rita stepped forward silently and bent down for the phone. Zac's eyes met hers as she rose again. She sighed, smiling sadly. "Evie's right, Zac. It worked, for now, but eventually she's going to ask where you are."

Zac nodded. "I know, but… Maybe we can come up with a solution. I just need to buy some time."

Rita hesitated, eyes flickering from him to Mimmi. "Then I hope you know what you're doing."

He turned when Mimmi put a hand on his arm. She floated next to him silently, expression shuttered.

Evie spoke again, tearing his attention away from his sister. "I'll bring you your school work tomorrow. You can work on it in here, I guess. I'll help you study," she added, smiling.

He smiled back, weakly. "Thanks, Evie."

She nodded, then came forward, crouched, grabbed his hand with another smile, and squeezed it softly. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Their hands parted when she stood again, and Zac hated that he couldn't just climb out after her. He swallowed. "Bye…"

Evie shot him a parting smile over her shoulder. Zac raised a hand, then let it fall back to the ledge.

After that, Sirena and Ondina decided to call it a day, and it was only after all four of them were crowding Rita's pool that Mimmi seemed to realise they might have a problem, because she went, "Oh!" and her eyes widened and she looked suddenly hesitant.

Rita, who was just about to leave, paused and turned back around.

"What?" Ondina demanded, as Mimmi bit her lip and glanced between Zac, Ondina and Sirena.

"I just realised that...that," she paused and glanced again at Zac. He frowned, wondering what the big deal was.

"What is it, Mimmi?" Rita asked.

Mimmi shrugged one shoulder awkwardly. She addressed both Ondina and Sirena. "Do you girls mind...if Zac stays with us?"

"What?" Ondina exclaimed. She shot Zac a look.

Zac, meanwhile, had suddenly come to the same conclusion as Mimmi. The girls currently occupied the moon pool. Three mermaids was crowded enough, but Zac as well? Not to mention, he wasn't sure how comfortable he felt sleeping with three mermaids right next to him. They probably felt the same way.

"You want to share the moon pool with Zac?" Sirena glanced down, frowning. "That's...I mean, it'll be a bit of a tight fit, and…"

"Why doesn't Zac sleep here?" Rita quickly interjected, right as Ondina opened her mouth with what was likely a protest. "As long as you're comfortable with that, Zac?" she added.

Zac shrugged. Sleeping in mer-form anywhere was not exactly something he was comfortable with.

"But…" Mimmi hesitated. She glanced between Ondina and Sirena, and Zac. "I promised I'd stick with him." She turned to Zac, "I guess I can stay here, with you?"

Zac shrugged again. He honestly wasn't sure whether he'd prefer to have someone there, or if he could deal with sleeping by himself. In a pool. At night. By himself. He opened his mouth, shut it, and frowned.

"He's a big boy, he'll be fine," Ondina dismissed with a wave of her hand.

Mimmi whirled on her, lips pinched. "But he's always stayed on land - this is new and different for him. I know I wouldn't be comfortable staying on land by myself. But I've always had you there, Ondina."

Ondina contemplated this, squinting at Zac and exchanging looks with Sirena.

"I think someone should stay with Zac," Sirena finally offered. "Whether he stays with us, or here...we could always try both?"

Mimmi started nodding. "Right, maybe just for tonight we should all stick together." She gave Zac an expectant look.

Zac finally managed a word in edgeways. "I...maybe I should stay here at Rita's."

"No," Ondina said, abruptly. "Mimmi's right. Just for tonight, we should stick together." She paused and pointed a finger at Zac. "But don't get any ideas. You can stay on one side, we'll be on the other." She spread her hands apart, showing him by exactly how much he was going to stay on 'his' side.

He sighed and nodded wearily. "Fine, whatever." It wasn't worth arguing about. He'd just have to think of it like a camping trip. With girls. And no tents. That was...normal, right?

Rita glanced between them all in amusement. Her lips quirked. "Well then, you seem to have worked it out. I'll see you tomorrow, Zac." She nodded to him. "Girls." With that she was gone.

That left Zac, his sister, and Sirena and Ondina. He looked around, feeling the slightly awkward atmosphere and wondering how they were going to pull this off without stepping on each other's toes...fins. He was regretting it already. But he didn't have much choice, did he?

[10.08.15] So, here we go, the plot progresses. Zac has time to contemplate things and realises this is going to be a lot harder than he thought. Mimmi is naturally trying to make the best of the situation. Zac is not cooperating.

Let me know what you think!