When Rita woke up the next morning she smiled to herself. Today was the day she and the girls had been planning for almost two weeks. Ava's room would be finished today, she would pick up the cake after work, and they would all surprise Ava. Rita couldn't wait to ask the little girl, who she now thought of as a daughter, to join her family forever.
She looked to the other side of the bed, expecting to see it messed up from being slept in by Ava, but instead it was neat and still made. She didn't think much of it, just figured she had decided to sleep with the girls. She got dressed and headed downstairs to the pool for her morning swim. When she passed the mermaid room, Ava wasn't in it. She was in there almost every morning playing with her collection of shells. Rita's worry was growing, but pushed the thoughts aside and continued with her morning swim.
When Rita returned from her swim, Ava still wasn't in the mermaid room. She hurried upstairs and was relieved when she saw Nixie, Lyla, and Serena, Ava was probably with them. "Hey girls!" Rita called out.
"Morning Rita" Serena answered back.
"Have any of you girls seen Ava?"
"She swam back to the moon pool with us," said Lyla, "but we haven't seen her since last night. Have you guys?" The other two girls shook their heads.
"That's what I was afraid of. I haven't seen her all morning and that's very unusual."
"Don't worry so much Rita, she's probably just out collecting shells." Nixie said.
"Hey check this out." Serena said holding up and shell that had a carving of five mermaids on it. "I made it to go in Ava's room, it has all of us on it!" Lyla and Nixie admired the carving.
"That's very beautiful." Rita told her. "Could you girls maybe go out and see if you can find her? She's too young to be alone out there herself for so long."
"Sure Rita no problem" Lyla told her. Rita thanked the girls and headed out for work.
The first place the girls check was the moon pool, but Ava wasn't there. They looked in all of her favorite spots in the ocean and all the places good for collecting shells. Still there was no sign of her. They decided to look on land. "Perhaps she's at the Café." Suggested Serena.
"You just want to see David." Teased Nixie.
"Well it couldn't hurt to look." Lyla chimed in. The three headed over there. It was about lunch time and some of the local students had stopped in for lunch. David was almost always there for lunch and Serena went to go talk to him. Lyla spotted Zac and Cam and she steered Nixie over to their table. "Hey Zac," Lyla said, "You haven't seen Ava today have you?"
Zac shook his head, "No I haven't seen her today why?"
"We haven't seen her all day and Rita's getting worried. At this point so am I."
"No sorry I haven't." Zac turned to Cam, "Have you?"
"Nope me either." Cam said a little too quickly.
"What are you hiding?" Nixie asked, she could see that Cam knew something.