7.

Four days, it had been four days. Four days of being stuck in the ocean and he was going stir-crazy. There was nothing to do. Maybe mermaids had developed a society and everyone had tasks to carry out and things to do every day, but for one lone merman whose whole life awaited him on land? There was nothing. Food was either collected specifically at mealtimes, or offered from Rita's fridge. He had no need to make jewellery and had no lengthy tresses to brush or decorate, like he'd seen Mimmi spend hours doing on occasion. He didn't sing, like Sirena, or speak Dolphin, or know how to look for ingredients for potions and spells.

All he had was an open ocean and nothing but time.

Mimmi was doing her best to keep him company, he could tell, but even she had a life on land now, people to see, a job to go to.

Zac wandered the coast aimlessly, mind churning over Mimmi's threat from the night before. He was so distracted he barely paid any attention to where he was swimming and somehow drifted towards a part of the reef that was usually occupied by scuba tours.

Only a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and the fact that the diver was facing away from him saved him. He threw up his invisibility immediately, freezing in place. The scuba diver twisted around, as if he might have glimpsed something, but when nothing caught his searching eye, the man kept turning until, eventually, he began to swim slowly in the opposite direction. A second diver emerged from behind a coral outcropping and the two joined up and kept swimming.

Zac released a small sigh, bubbles escaping his lips. He hung still in the water for a moment, letting his pounding heart slowly ease. He was a brainless idiot. He'd nearly exposed himself!

Clearly, he had a lot on his mind, but that was no excuse for carelessness. Turning quickly, he sped back towards the safer waters around Mako, where the sharks liked to dwell and scuba tours never ventured.

Not that there was anything to do in the waters around Mako.

He spent half of the day in the moon pool, rearranging the girls' shell collection and thinking. He wanted to come up with a good enough excuse that he could convince his parents not to worry, but at the same time, prevent them from grounding him until he died. Unfortunately, such an excuse did not seem forthcoming.

What Mimmi wanted him to do was impossible. Tell them the truth? The very thought sent shivers down his spine, straight to the tip of his tail.

Then again, Mimmi always treated everyone with more trust than they deserved. Ondina would agree with him that it was a terrible idea. Maybe he should drop a hint in her ear to talk some sense into Mimmi.

No, instead of revealing to his parents that their son was actually a merman, it was better to go straight to the heart of the problem - getting his legs back. What he needed to do was find a way to plead his case to the Mermaid Council. He needed to talk to Veridia.

He turned to leave, only to draw up short as he felt the ripples in the water hit his scales. He paused and sure enough, a familiar blonde head of hair rose from the water. Ondina blinked at him slowly, before her lips pursed. "What are you doing here?"

Zac raised an eyebrow. "Where else am I supposed to go?"

Ondina opened her mouth then shut it again with a sigh. Her eyes drifted past him to the newly organized collections of shells and her scowl returned. "Have you been messing with my things?" She swam over quickly, eyes scanning the rows of shells.

"I was bored," Zac complained. "Honestly, what do mer people do all day. There's nothing to do out here."

Finished inspecting her shells, Ondina turned and braced her hand on the edge of the pool. She stared at Zac like he was speaking gibberish. "There's plenty to do," she said, baffled. "If you're not in school then you have to help out the pod, like gathering ingredients and food. Some days you find things for jewellery, especially if you know you might be trading soon with another pod." She paused, thinking. "Then there's the scouts, who keep an eye out for land-people and warn the pod of their approach. It depends on your job. There are plenty."

Zac hadn't expected such a thorough answer. He digested it slowly, wondering if that was what his sister's life had been like before she came to land. Shaking his head, he focused on the issue at hand. "Yeah, but what do you do without a pod? When you're all alone and you have no one else around?"

Ondina opened her mouth again, but then it clicked shut a second later as her eyes widened. "Oh."

He shrugged. "Exactly."

She grimaced. "I...keep forgetting you can't just wander over to the café or...go to school, anymore." She frowned down at the water. "I've...got nothing. Unless you want to learn things we're taught in mermaid school."

"Mimmi's trying," Zac pointed out. "But she's got her job, so she had to leave."

Ondina was silent for a while, before, finally, she shook her head. "I've got nothing."

He sighed heavily. "Thanks anyway." Except he really wished she could have come up with some brilliant idea to keep him entertained. Swimming around was all very well and good if you had someone with you. It got lonely all by yourself. In fact, he'd even take Ondina's company over nothing, despite her prickly exterior.

He kicked up his tail and tilted his head back to stare at the opening in the volcano. He expected Ondina to either kick him out or leave, so was startled into flipping over when she approached him and asked, hesitantly, "I've...got some time now, if you want to...do something."

Zac gaped at her. Ondina never offered to hang out with him. He must cut a pretty pathetic picture right now for her to feel obligated to alleviate his boredom. Sadly, he was simply too bored to pass up the opportunity to actually do something other than float around and wallow in his own thoughts.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Hmm…" Ondina tapped her chin. "Oh! Mimmi said she was teaching you Dolphin. I can keep teaching you that, and then, when there's no one around, at least you can hang out with the dolphin pods."

That...was actually pretty smart. Dolphins, Zac gathered, were exceptionally playful and awfully fond of racing. "I...yeah. Sounds good."

They smiled at each other. As Ondina gestured for Zac to follow her out of the moon pool, he decided that one more good thing had come of this disaster. Ondina was being more friendly now than she ever had been before.

They found a small dolphin pod playing around just beyond the reef on the other side of Mako. There were some boats so far out they were mere specks, so neither of them were worried they'd be spotted. Ondina spent several hours teaching him how to make the clicks in the back of his throat.

"It's helpful in the dark, too," she explained when Zac managed to squeak, but failed to get the extra click in there. "We don't use echolocation the same way as dolphins do, but when you can't see someone, the sound travels easier underwater, so you can communicate through sound instead of gestures." She demonstrated with a gesture that clearly meant 'come over, up to the surface' and then said the same thing in Dolphin through a series of clicks. "Come on, listen underwater."

Zac ducked under the waves and watched her curiously as she made the same clicking sound. It was distorted a little, travelling through the water, but it was so much easier to hear than if she'd tried to speak in English. She gestured at him to drift further away and put some space between them, so he did. She made the same noise, and he could still hear it.

One of the dolphins broke away from the pod and swam up to nose at them. He clicked something that sounded, to Zac's untrained ear, like a question, and stuck his nose right up against Ondina's stomach. Ondina laughed and pushed him away with a grin, shaking her head. She squeaked 'No' (that one, Zac understood). The dolphin turned to him and did the same thing. Zac shrugged at it, shooting a questioning look at Ondina.

Smirking, she made a similar series of noises like the ones she had originally wanted to demonstrate. They sounded like any other series of noises dolphins he'd ever heard, but Zac was slowly becoming more capable of distinguishing that some sounded different...just not quite how they were different...yet.

Since he thought they sounded the same as when she had said 'come over, up to the surface', he gave a flick of his tail and breached the lapping waves.

"Good!" Ondina grinned at him. "You got it!"

"Did I?" he wondered, surprised at himself. He shifted to the side, arm coming up to shield his face, as the overly friendly dolphin popped up beside him and blew spray at him from his nose. "Hey!"

"He wanted to know if we were going to play a game," Ondina explained, voice laced with laughter. "I told him no, but you haven't refused yet, so he'll keep messing with you until you do."

By this point, Zac was fairly sure he could say 'yes', 'no', 'please', 'thank you', 'hello' and 'goodbye' and that was it. When he tried to say 'good morning' half the time he ended up saying 'good night' and when he tried to say 'I'm hungry', he apparently said 'I'm a fish'. Ondina thought it was hysterical and wouldn't stop laughing at him.

No, he tried to squeak at the dolphin. The grey nose bumped his arm and the dolphin turned to peer at him in the eye. He clicked something.

"He wants to know 'no, what'?" Ondina translated.

Zac glanced at her helplessly.

"I taught you 'play'," she urged.

Shrugging sheepishly, he shook his head. "I don't remember."

Rolling her eyes, Ondina made a short click-whistle sound and the dolphin immediately perked up eagerly.

Zac tried his best to copy it. He was honestly shocked when he managed to produce dolphin-esque sounds. He was almost certain that land people couldn't speak dolphin no matter how hard they tried. It must be part mer-magic.

The dolphin made a sad clicking noise in response to his declaration and rolled onto his side, clapping his flippers encouragingly. Zac hesitated. "How do I say 'later'?"

Ondina raised her eyebrows, but obliged. When the dolphin heard, he chirped happily and swam a circle around them before swimming back over to his pod. Zac watched him go with a faint smile.

"Looks like you have a new friend," said Ondina.

Zac laughed. "Yeah, looks like."

He was falling behind in his studies and it had barely been a week. The problem wasn't the lack of time - no, time was something he had plenty of these days - but rather how hard it was to focus on school work when that life seemed so far removed from the ocean. Not to mention how difficult it was to keep himself propped up on the ledge of Rita's grotto pool, upper body dry and itchy, as he tried read his textbooks and work on homework problems without the aid of a decent writing surface, or the teacher's lecture.

Zac wasn't exactly a stellar student on the best of days, but not attending class and trying to read the textbook when he was distracted by just about everything uncomfortable about the situation was...well...not conducive to being a good student.

Perhaps he should have cared more, but he found it hard to worry about school when he was more worried about his parents' reactions to his fish-half. It almost felt like he was on holiday. All those little worries that plagued everyday land-person life just...vanished in the ocean. Remembering to wake up on time, or do his laundry, or clean his room...go to school, do homework, study for tests...hang out at the Café… None of those obligations had any hold on him while he was stuck in the sea, unable to go on land. So he just...stopped worrying about them.

It still didn't mean he wasn't bored, but it was the kind of boredom that came with having too much free time, not from having to do tedious tasks like homework and studying.

"Zac? Zac!"

Zac jerked his head up from where he'd lain his cheek against his crossed arms. Groaning, he pulled his arms back from the grotto ledge and dunked them (and his head) under the water to get rid of the itchy dry feeling that was beginning to plague him. When he popped back up, Evie was giving him an unimpressed look from over the top of their chemistry textbook.

He blinked sea water out of his eyes and tried to look innocent.

"Zac, if you can't pay attention, I'm not going to waste my time trying to go over this with you," Evie lectured crossly.

Zac shrugged, reaching up to prop himself on the ledge once more. He was beginning to hate that stupid ledge. It was an insurmountable barrier, not to mention highly uncomfortable.

"Sorry, but it's hard to follow."

Evie sighed. She closed the book and set it beside her on the ground, next to Zac's other textbooks, half of which he hadn't touched in over a day. "You're missing so much school," she worried, chewing her lip. "I honestly don't know how you're going to catch up if you don't stay on top of things."

Zac let go of the ledge to spread his hands helplessly. "Evie, do you know how difficult it is to work on stuff when I can't leave the water? And paper does not do well if it gets wet."

Evie sighed again. "I know. It doesn't look very...comfortable." She eyed where Zac had spread out his notes and the awkward angle he had to prop himself up at in order to actually write on the paper.

"Why don't we take a break… Go for a swim?" Zac cajoled hopefully. "There's this pod of dolphins I've been meaning to introduce you to."

The look Evie gave him then almost seemed worried, but Zac figured she was still fretting about his lack of attention to his schoolwork. Evie tended to worry about those things far more than he ever had. Instead, she merely began to pack away her own things into her backpack. With her head still ducked over, focusing intently on putting her books and notes away, she asked, deceptively casually, "So...have you given any more thought to telling your parents?"

Zac stiffened. He pushed away from the ledge with a quick kick of his tail and bobbed in the middle of the pool. "Do we have to-"

"Yes," Evie interrupted, abandoning the pretence of putting away her things. She stood up and crossed her arms. "We do. Because you're avoiding the issue...still."

Zac narrowed his eyes. "So if I said you had to tell your dad the truth you wouldn't be worried or nervous or think it was a bad idea?"

Evie's frown deepened.

"Not to mention, it's not just me I'd be exposing," he pushed.

Her arms dropped. "I know that," she said, quietly, "But, Zac, I don't see much other choice here. Your parents need to know. I'm sure they'll be shocked - I know I was, when I first found out - but it'll work out for the best, I know it. We're fine, aren't we?"

Zac shifted uncomfortably. He remembered the complete lack of hesitation he'd had in diving in after Evie, knowing he'd expose himself and just not caring because otherwise Evie would drown.

But back then had also been different. Before, all he'd been exposing was how he had cool secret powers. It had been different when he had thought he was a super-powered human. Now that he knew he'd been born a merman - that he wasn't, hadn't ever been, human - that was a whole different ballgame.

Evie had had time to come to terms with his 'powers' before she found out he was a real merman, but his parents would have no warning before he told them they'd adopted a fish-baby. He couldn't imagine them being anything other than shocked. And even if they did try to accept it, they'd probably always wonder about him and act weird around him and…

"Zac." Evie was crouched by the edge of the pool now, expression wry. "I can practically see your thoughts. They're not going to hate you, and sure, they might act a bit weird, but can you blame them? It's a hard thing to accept that magic and mermaids and stuff is real."

Zac bit his lip.

"But you have to give them a chance. And time."

"What if they freak out like you did and go to the police...or worse...My dad's a doctor, Evie. What if he thinks he can...I don't know...cure me or something?"

"Now you're being ridiculous."

Zac scowled.

"Come on, I'll go swimming with you and I want you to think about it more. Mimmi, Rita and I have all talked about this, you know, we all think you should tell them."

Zac turned away, huffing. Great. Now his sister and his 'aunt' were also conspiring behind his back. Perfect.

"Cam was fine with it. I was fine with it. They'll be fine with it," Evie concluded. "Now, what was that about dolphins?"

Zac seized on the change of subject quickly. As they swam out of the grotto and in the direction of the dolphin pod's latest location, Evie's words echoed around his head. He knew she was right, he was probably being way too hesitant about all of this, but...it was hard to give up that last tiny vestige of normality he still had left.

Then again, he thought morosely, that ship had sailed when Veridia took away his legs. Even if he managed to get home next month, there would be questions.

Evie was right, he needed to tell them.

[16.08.16] No, you're not hallucinating...that was a new chapter. A little bit of a filler chapter, I confess, but I thought Zac and Ondina could do with some bonding time. A little plot progression at the end... Oh, who am I kidding, what plot? I'm completely winging this, people. Let me know thoughts!
[15.11.16] Edited to remove minor timeline plothole. At this point, Carly has not found out yet. Will update with next chapter soon!