The girls burst into Rita's office. She was talking with another teacher but when she saw the distraught look on the girls faces, she asked to continue the conversation later. "Girls, is everything all right."
"She's gone" blurt out Lyla
"What who's go-" Rita sat down in her office chair, suddenly realizing who they were talking about. Had Ava been hurt while swimming from the moon pool back to her place alone at night? She knew she shouldn't have kept letting her swim by herself like that. But she didn't want to give the young mermaid too many boundaries after all she had previously though the situation was only temporary.
Lyla interrupted her thoughts, "Cam was playing some stupid joke on her and now she's run away."
"What joke?"
"Cam told Ava that we didn't want her here and that we were going to get rid of her and that she would be without a family again. He thought she knew he was joking he was trying to throw her off about the surprise we had for her or something. But she thought he was serious and apparently left because she didn't want to burden you."
"Burden me? Oh no, she was anything but a burden." Rita said mostly talking to herself. She all of a sudden felt as though she had been punched in the gut. "We have to find her, it's dangerous for a young mermaid to be out there alone, especially Ava who knows so little about the sea." Rita regretted now not taking the time to teach her more.
"How are we going to find her?" Serena asked, "the ocean is so big, I don't know where to start."
"I don't know, but we will. I think we can find her with our moon rings, I have it in a book back home."
Rita ducked out of work early and the four of them headed back to the house. In the mermaid room, Rita looked up some information in a book and passed out the moon rings. The four of them put their first together. "Think about Ava," she instructed, "Will the ring to show her to you. Focus now."
An image appeared above the rings. It was Ava, she was on land somewhere. Her face looked frightened and she was dirty. There was a hand that held her arm tightly and was pulling her through a crowd. Ava kept trying to pull away but wasn't strong enough. "Rita I'm sorry" She cried, "I want to go home.." the image disappeared and Rita's heart broke.