Rita swam close to the ocean floor looking for some sort of clue. She had no idea what she was looking for and she doubted that she would find anything, but for some reason she felt compelled to look anyway. She asked passing dolphins if they had seen a young mermaid, but none of them had. She would begin to feel disappointed and like looking was hopeless, but she would remind herself that Ava needed her to not give up and she would continue to look.
She was searching the ocean floor when she heard the sound of someone blowing their shell. She swam as fast as she could towards the noise, it was Serena. Nixie was already there and Lyla and Zac arrived together. Nixie gave them a strange look but Rita prompted Serena to share what she had found before Nixie could ask questions. Serena pointed to a dolphin, "she says she saw a little mermaid last night alone. She said she was upset and was heading that way." Serena pointed off into the vast ocean. It was a good lead and Rita was excited to have it but felt disappointed that there still wasn't much to go on.
"alright," Rita sighed, "let's start heading in that direction." She felt just as hopeless as everybody else but knew it was her job to keep the others spirits up. They began heading off in the direction Serena told them, Rita noticed Zac and Lyla holding hands as they searched the ocean. She saw Serena and Nixie notice too and the exchanged glances. She hoped Lyla knew what she was doing, Zac was dating Evie. She made a mental note to talk to Lyla after this nightmare was over.
Rita was able to find another dolphin that had possibly seen Ava. He described a young mermaid swimming around at night who was upset. He said the little one had been crying and whispering something about her mother. Rita closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself as she suddenly felt the urge to cry but she didn't want to cry in front of the girls. She thanked the dolphin and he swam off. She motioned for the others to follow her.
Not too long later they hit land. Rita wanted to turn around and try again but it was Zac who insisted on searching the land. "It can't hurt too look." He said, "Someone must have seen her if she came up on land, a nine year old would attract attention by herself on land it won't take much time."
"I agree," Lyla said," She seems to feel very comfortable on land anyway." The group agreed and decided to look on the land. They crawled onto the land and waited for their tails to dry. The stood out and took some time to check out the beach they had landed on. Serena noticed a restaurant off in the distance and the group began making their way towards it. As the got closer they noticed a lot of similarities between the Café and this restaurant.
The café here was called the Sydney sizzler. "where's Sydney?" Asked Nixie.
"It's a few hours north of Mako." Answered Zac
Rita went up to a waitress that was cleaning off a table. "Have you seen a young girl here, she would have blond hair and brown eyes. She's nine years old?"
The waitress thought for a moment, "Yeah I think so, she was here earlier this morning with her father."
Her father?