Ok, you guys are the best reviewers EVER! Thank you for being so nice and liking my story ;) Have any of you have heard of the Modern Woodmen School Speech Contest? If you haven't it's this thing where students all across the U.S. have to write a speech that has to be 3 to 5 minutes long. And guess what? I HATE IT! This year's topic is "A time when volunteers made a difference". So, wish me luck on rehearsing my speech and presenting it to the class ;) Even though I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT, I still think it's really good practice for my writing and speaking skills. I might not be able to update that often though. Well, enjoy the story! ;)
"Lewis, have you seen Emma? She's been missing for hours," Rikki asked as she and Cleo approached him. Lewis was fishing at the docks, which he seemed to do everyday now when he wasn't hanging out with Charlotte.
"Why, you guys haven't seen her?" Lewis said reeling in the fishing line.
"No, we went for a swim a few hours ago with her but we haven't seen her since." Cleo sighed getting even more worried by the minute.
"Well, is she working today?" he asked.
"No, but she said she and Ash were going to the café to look over some paper work," Rikki said.
Lewis began to pack up his fishing gear. "Have you checked there?"
"Yes! We looked all over! The door wouldn't even budge, so it must've been locked," Cleo explained.
"Is she at her house?" Lewis asked after he was finished gathering up his fishing gear.
"No. Elliot said he hadn't seen Emma since this morning," Rikki said.
"Sorry, I don't know where she'd be. Maybe she's at Mako?" he suggested.
Rikki sighed. "Okay. We'll see if she's there. If she's not, then we're calling you Lewis. This is serious, Emma could be anywhere."
"All right," Lewis said. "I'll see you later. I've got to go meet Charlotte."
"Of course you do," Cleo angrily muttered under her breath.
"Oh, give it a rest Cleo!" Rikki said. "Come on." And with that the two mermaids dove off the dock and swam to Mako Island.
"Are you sure there's no way out of here?" Ash impatiently asked Emma as they floated in 8 feet of water by the front doors of the café.
"Yes, I'm positive!" she yelled. "That door is sealed shut! It won't budge at all!"
"Oh no," he sighed. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," Emma admitted. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see if help ever arrives."
"But they'll see your tail!" Ash pointed out.
"Well what's better Ash? Having my secret exposed, or drowning?" Emma asked, and sank down underwater to the bottom and lay on the floor. She stared at it, thinking hard to find a way out of there.
Ash groaned and began to float on his back. 'How did I ever get pulled into such a mess?' he asked himself.
'Oh, I know!' Emma thought after a few minutes. She instantly shot up and exclaimed, "I know what to do!"
"Aah!" he screamed and fell under the water. Ash swam back to the surface coughing and gasping for air.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Emma said and rubbed his back.
When he was finished, he said, "It's okay, so what did you say earlier?"
"I said I know what to do! Maybe if I bang my tail hard enough against the door, it'll break open and all the water will flow out!"
"Wow, uh, won't that hurt?" he hesitantly asked.
"No, I've done it before and it didn't hurt at all. Mermaid tails are really strong and powerful, Ash."
He sighed. "Well, if you say it doesn't hurt, then go right ahead and try it."
"Great." She said. Emma swam over to the door and looked at it. Then she positioned herself at the right angle and slammed her tail into the door. BANG!
"Whoa!" Ash exclaimed backing farther away. The first hit had barely made a dent.
"That's weird," Emma said. "Let me try again." BANG! She hit the door again, this time a making a bigger dent.
"Is this going to work?" he asked getting nervous.
"Well it should, it did on Miss Chatham's boat," Emma pondered.
"Huh?"
Ignoring him, Emma attempted one last hit at breaking the door open. BANG! This hit was louder and more powerful than the rest, making an enormous dent. It shook the whole café, as if an earthquake had just happened. Above them, they heard what sounded like the ceiling cracking. And sure enough it was. The impact to the door had been so hard that it sent a crack up and into the ceiling, causing chunks of it to fall down and splash in the water.
"Aah!" Emma screamed as pieces of ceiling barely missed her. Ash leaped over the water to grab her. He pulled her with him and they crammed themselves against the nearest corner. Emma buried her head into his chest as pieces continued to fall. Minutes later the debris seemed to have stopped coming down.
"Do you think it stopped?" she breathlessly asked after the dust had cleared.
"It looks like it, but it's hard to tell," Ash said.
Emma swam over to where the pieces had fallen out of the ceiling. Debris was scattered everywhere, getting all over her. She looked up at the ceiling.
"Oh my gosh," she said in disbelief.
"What?" Ash swam over to where she was and looked up at the ceiling. "Holy crap," he breathed.
There was a hole about 2 feet wide carved into the ceiling. Apparently, some of the roof had fallen in with the ceiling and they could see up into the sky. It was already sunset.
"Sorry," Emma apologized. "I guess I hit the door too hard. Now it's even more of a mess in here!"
"Yeah, you're right. It'll take forever to clean it all up," he said, still staring at the ceiling.
"But I still don't get it! That door should've been blasted open with no more than 2 hits! After 3 it still hasn't moved, all it has is the humungous indent of where my tail was!" Emma shouted. "And look, it's already sunset! Soon it'll be dark out."
Ash sighed. "Well then I guess we'll have to spend the night here."
"But even mermaids can't sleep in water! I can only hold my breath for around 15 minutes!" she exclaimed.
"15 minutes? !" he said in shock. "That sounds like a long time to me."
Emma groaned. "That's not the point, Ash! The point is we could drown!"
"Okay, okay, calm down, Emma. Do you think there's anything you could do with your, uh, powers?" he asked hopefully.
"Hmm," Emma thought. "Oh, I know what I could do! Come here." She grabbed Ash's hand and they backed up. Then with her right hand, Emma froze the water in the other half of the room. "I know ice is pretty freezing," she said, "but it's all we've got. Besides, it's better than drowning."
"Cool," Ash said, still amazed at how she froze the water by just holding up her hand.
Emma smiled. "Okay, now let's see if it works." They swam over to the enormous block of ice. Ash pulled himself up on it first.
"Well, it seems like it works," he said, standing up. "I think it'll be alright."
"Good," she said. "Now how am I supposed to get up on that?"
"Oh boy," he sighed. "Give me your hands." Ash grabbed her hands and started to pull her up. "Jeez, Emma, you're heavy!" he grunted, pulling her with all his might.
"It's not me, it's the tail!" she yelled while she was slowly beginning to slip out of his hands. Finally, after minutes of struggling, Ash finally managed to haul her whole body up onto the block of ice.
Emma rolled over and lay on her back, breathing heavily.
He lay down next to her. "At least the café's closed again tomorrow," he sighed. "Wow, this has been the craziest day of my life."
Emma smiled. "You've seen nothing yet."
Yeah I know this wasn't the most exciting chapter, but I promise you the next ones will be a lot better. And I apologize again if it was poorly written. Please review! ;)
