The air is unusually cool and crisp this morning, and Evie loves it. It's not raining, so she decides to walk rather than bike to the beach. It's not like she needs to be anywhere urgently; Zac can wait a little bit for his breakfast.
She's not bringing Cam anything.
She's not really sure what she thinks of Cam at this point. With last night's theatrics, she highly doubts he's given up on becoming a merman, but she wasn't really involved with much. She was just Cam's unwitting tool, something she probably won't forgive him for, but she wasn't involved in Zac and the mermaids' planning, or much of anything, really.
She's nowhere near impartial, though. Cam stepped way out of bounds, there's no doubt, and even though she still kind of wishes Zac had never fallen into the moon pool almost a year ago, Evie's got to admit that he's been more energized in the past year than she's ever seen him. She's happy for him.
That he still insists on lifesaving worries her, though. The threat of exposure at the beach is a real one.
That's where it got interesting, though, because Cam protested Zac going back. Maybe it was just an underhanded attempt to keep Zac from watching him at all hours, but there's something about his concern that seems very real.
"Evie!" Evie snaps out of her thoughts. Across the street, Emma's waving at her. Evie smiles and looks before crossing the street to meet her.
Emma started lifesaving with Zac and Cam in December at the behest of her mom. She's an amazing swimmer, on track to be in the next Olympics, if Evie's not mistaken. She moaned about it for the first week, but eventually got into it. She mostly handles water rescue, which is great for Zac's cover.
"On your way to the beach?" Evie asks, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.
Emma nods. Her hair is damp and pulled back into a low ponytail. She must have just come from swimming. "Yep," she says cheerfully. "I don't start for another hour, but I don't think they'll mind."
Evie nods in agreement. If there's anything they like having at the beach, it's an extra pair of hands. "I'm headed down there myself," she gestures to her bag. "Mind if I walk with you?" They're already walking together, but there's no harm in asking. She wants to stay on Emma's good side, after all.
"Sure," Emma says. She's a nice girl, if a bit distant. They share a few classes, and occasionally they'll study together if there's a particularly big test coming up, but Evie doesn't know that other girl all that well.
"Are you excited for school to start back up soon?" Evie asks. It's awkward, and Evie's sure Emma notices, but thankfully the blonde doesn't mention it.
"Sort of," Emma shrugs. "I'm not excited for the work that'll come with it, but it'll be nice to see everyone again.
Evie's about to say something about hanging out during summer, but then she remembers that Emma doesn't have much of a social life outside of swimming. She's close to all of her teammates, but her other relationships have frayed noticeably. Evie remembers back in year 9, when Emma and Cleo, another girl in their grade who runs a tutoring business with her two best friends, were inseparable. Then Emma's swimming career took off, and they started hanging out less.
Though maybe it was for the best, because Cleo's kept Evie from failing a few really tough tests a couple times.
"I for one am thrilled," Evie comments. "I can't wait to stop working for my dad for a few months until breaks. Dealing with customers is tiring."
"I can only imagine," Emma laughs. "Remind me again why you do that?"
Evie shrugs. "It gets me a bit of pocket money. Plus it's easier working for my dad than the alternative. I don't have to call in sick."
"That's true," Emma admits.
They reach the beach, scorching yellow sand meeting them at the end of the sidewalk. Zac and Cam are there, as expected, but they're not watching the water, or even the beach. They're talking to each other in hushed voices. Evie can't hear a thing
Emma rushed away with a wave to the shower house to change as soon as they reached the beach, so Evie's alone, and she's extremely curious.
The boys are standing next to a patch of sea oats, which is perfect cover. Evie isn't exactly silent, but the sound of the surf and beachgoers are enough to keep her hidden. It also probably helps that Zac and Cam keep sending nervous glances towards the water, like someone's going to drown while they aren't there.
"Look," Zac sighs as he turns back to Cam. "I dunno about it. You haven't really been the best mate ever recently." What's 'it'? Is Cam trying to convince Zac to do something he doesn't want to do? Oh, if Cam thinks he can get away with manipulating Zac, he's got another thing coming. Not from Zac, obviously, because the boy's gullible and as thick as a brick, adorable as he is, but from her. Evie's got a ridiculous protective streak, and Cam should know by now not to mess with that.
"I know." Cam's exasperated, and not in the fake way he's so good at using. Evie's known him long enough to be able to tell the difference. It worries her. "I've been a shitty friend, and I deserve everything you're saying. It's just—I miss you, man. I miss the way things were back then, before any of this merman shit ever happened."
"You mean before you tried to kill Lyla and the others and destroy the moon pool?" Yes, good one, Zac. Tear him a new one. Don't fall for his cunning. Evie may or may not be silently geeking out at the prospect of Zac winning a verbal battle against someone like Cam, who's a master at convincing people.
"I," Cam hesitates, which is very unlike him. Either this is a ridiculously elaborate ruse, or he's actually trying to apologize to Zac. Holy crap. "How many times have I said I'm sorry?"
"Not enough," Zac murmurs. "I'm sorry," he apologizes, straightening. "I can't trust you yet."
They just sort of stand there having a mild stare-off. It's weird, and Evie wonders not for the first time why she has to be the one to deal with all this weirdness.
"I'm sorry too." Cam says after a while, and he turns around and walks back towards the lifeguard stand. There's a slump in his shoulders that almost makes him look like another person entirely.
Evie doesn't know what that conversation means, but she does know that Zac and Cam are brothers, in a loose sense of the word, and eventually Zac's going to forgive him. It could be either good or bad, but regardless, it's inevitable. Zac reluctantly follows Cam back to the beach.
Something tickles her ankle, and Evie realizes she's still crouching in the sea oats and stands up. She makes her way back onto the clean sand, earning a weird look from Emma, now in her swim suit, but she ignores it.
"Zac!" she calls, and Zac nearly falls off the stand with how fast he turns around. Evie holds up the plastic bag. "I've got food!"
"Something's up with them," David says as he dries his hands on a towel and leans against the Ocean Café's counter. The blond is a lot more perceptive than Evie originally gave him credit for, but he's still dense if he's only noticing now that there's something weird about Lyla, Sirena, and Nixie. Evie noticed on their first day here, how they didn't really mesh well into society. She originally would have brushed it off as cultural differences, but they spoke perfect English, and there wasn't any accent Evie could detect.
And then they tried to pay with Spanish escudos and kept stalking her and her boyfriend, and Evie couldn't ignore it any longer.
David was spared from the most of their oddities, and him being head-over-heals for Sirena probably helped blind him for those two weeks where everything got a little dicey.
So Evie's a bit surprised when David points out the Mermaid Trio whispering in the far corner. It looks like something is wrong, and with a quick look around the café floor to make sure it's slow enough for her to leave her post, Evie walks over to them.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
Nixie immediately goes on the defensive. "What makes you think something's wrong?" There's a small twitch in her lip that gives away that she's hiding something, though Evie didn't need the confirmation.
"Look," Evie hisses. She's got no time to play mind games with mermaids. "Even David can tell something's up, so you can either tell me and I can help cover for you, or you can ignore the fact that you're practically broadcasting it across the café."
The three mermaids share glances as if debating whether or not to trust her.
"Nixie was out swimming last night," Sirena starts. Nixie glares at the other girl like she wants to wring her neck, but doesn't say anything in protest. So Sirena continues. "She was out at Mako at around the apex, when she felt these sort-of shock waves come from the island."
"And that means…?" Jeez, it's like they forget she's not privy to all their mermaid secrets.
"It means that someone else fell into the moon pool last night," Lyla explains. "The same thing happened with Zac."
Evie isn't sure what to do with this information. "Have you told Zac yet?"
Lyla shakes her head. "We were going to, but Cam was there, and we don't want to risk him knowing." Evie doesn't remember the last time she saw Lyla be cautious in any way. The mermaid tends to run headlong into things. She's stubborn as a mule and very much a rule follower, as long as the rules benefit her. She's a lot of things, but cautious isn't one of them.
"It's probably for the best he doesn't know yet," Evie concedes. "He'll just run off and try to befriend whoever it is, and the last thing we need around here is more merpeople." She meant it as a sort-of jab, but only Nixie seems to take it that way. "Do we know anything about them?"
"Nothing," Nixie says. "I didn't think anyone besides teenage boys were stupid enough to try to get past all of Mako's defenses, but I guess I was wrong."
"That does narrow it down some, though," Lyla adds. "Who's ballsy enough to go to Mako? And who would stay there long enough to find the ground entrance to the moon pool?"
It's a question that'll have to be left for later, though, because David's waving Evie over. "I'll tell Zac when I get the chance." She bids the mermaids a quick goodbye and goes to see what David wants.
"I know it's not your job," David starts, "but do you think you could go help Bella pack up since it's not that busy?"
It's not like she has that much to do anyway.
"Sure thing, just let me shoot a quick text to Zac." It's honestly a marvel that the mermaids haven't gotten the hang of texting yet. Then again, Evie's not entirely sure they can read, much less use a smartphone. Still, it would make communication so much easier, so maybe it's worth the headache of teaching a group of teenage mermaids how to read.
Evie: Hey, nixie told me some stuff was going on at the pool yesterday, something about new club members. Talk to them about it when you get the chance though because I don't get off until six
Read 1:37 PM
Typical Zac. He's always doing this, reading her messages and then forgetting to reply to them. But then her phone buzzes.
Cam: np, eves ;)
Holy shit. Holy shit, no. Evie rushes to delete the message, but the damage is already done. Cam knows about what happened last night, and it's entirely her fault.
Bella clears her throat from across the room, and Evie remembers she's got a job to do. She can't do anything about Cam now, so there's no use in worrying about it. She's so busy telling herself this while she's carrying speakers that she doesn't notice one Rikki Chadwick walk into the Ocean Café and order a water, with a straw preferably.