I was exhausted from the long flight that I took from New York to Australia and I barley had any sleep when arrived I home. The airplane flight was about 10 hours long and I didn't get any sleep because of my little brother Elliot. He was playing on his Nintendo game and had it at this highest volume so you could hear the music on the game very clearly. I was recently in New York for about 2 weeks so me and my family decided to come back to Australia during the summer before I went to collage.

As I was walking into the café, I was totally shocked to see that the Juice net has changed to the name "Rikki's". The whole café was arranged differently and there were different types of drinks and waiters in the café.

I came up to the counter to see the menu and at the front of the menu in bold letters it said "Rikki's".

"What the-?" I asked as I was whispering to myself but no one heard me.

I turned around to look at the tables and I saw many people sitting in booths and drinking smoothies. I looked at one specific booth and saw that two people staring at me. I didn't know who they were until I took a closer look at them.

One of them was a guy with short blonde hair and this other girl had long straight brown hair as they were both sitting next to each other and talking. As I walked closer to them the girl with the brown hair stood up and smiled at me.

"Emma?" The girl asked as she came closer to me.

Immediately I recognized the voice and knew who it was.

"Cleo?" I asked as a huge smile appeared on my face.

"Oh my god!" Cleo said as we both ran up to each other and hugged.

"Oh my god! I can't believe your back! I can't believe your here. We haven't seen each other in like… forever! Where did you go! How was it? Did you meet and cute French boys?" Cleo asked as she blurted out with so many questions.

I laughed at her questions as we both hugged each other again.

"So much has been going on here since you left, you wouldn't believe what has happened around here." Cleo explained in excitement.

"Yes, I can kinda tell. What's up with the café being called Rikki's ? I asked her but she changed the subject.

"Oh my god! Rikki is gonna be so excited to see you. We need to go see her right now!" She said as she grabbed my hand.

"Wait a second! I don't even get a hi?" Lewis asked as he walked up to me.

Immediately I came over and gave Lewis a quick hug as there was an awkward silence after the hug for about a solid 2 seconds.

"Oh ya! Rikki! She'll be so excited to see you!" Cleo explained as we both started power walking out the café as Lewis followed us out the entrance.

I took a quick look at the café again as I saw the huge "Rikki's" sign again. How come there would be a huge sign with the name Rikki's up on the café? Why did they change the name to that? What happened with the Juice net?

So many questions ran through my mind. Rikki wasn't even that wealthy. How would she get someone to do that for her? Unless it was named after someone eles who was also named Rikki but I highly doubt it.

Me, Lewis and cleo stopped in the middle of the sidewalk so cleo could call Rikki to meet up with us. When Cleo turned around to look at us, something caught my eye.

On her neck there was no locket but instead a small blue shiny crystal. The locket was gone. The locket me, Cleo, and Rikki have worn ever since we became mermaids together. I mean, it wasn't that big of deal or anything but I guess it was just strange since I've never seen her wear any other necklace besides the locket we had.

"Hey Rikki! Ok you can not believe who's here!" I heard Cleo started saying as she paused on the phone.

Look! Just come over here! You'll be so surprised! I heard Cleo squeal.

"Ok then! See you then." Cleo finally said as she hung up the phone.

"Ok, Rikki said to meet up by the beach to where Bella and Will are." Cleo started saying.

"Bella and who?" I started asking.

"Hey! You haven't met Bella nor Will yet have you? There one of our friends that we made right after you left to travel the world." Cleo quickly explained to me.

I slowly nodded my head as she I was still pretty confused. So much has changed and ive only seen Cleo for like about 5 minutes seen we met up at the café.

I knew Ash went to collage already since he was a year older than me so he didn't live around the area anymore. He lived about an hour away from the gold coast and said he would visit me sometime after I got back from my trip around the world. I couldn't wait to see everyone else as well.

Me, Cleo and Lewis were walking to the beach as she was asking me questions about my trip around the world.

"So, did you meet any cute guys while traveling?" She asked as it grabbed my attention.

I remember going to Germany with my family while we stayed in this cheap hotel next to these set of apartments. Across the street there was a guy around the same age as me who was named Jake. He knew a little English since he was learning it at school so I got to talk to him a little.

We stayed in Germany for about a month so me and him got to hang out and walk around the city together. He taught me German as I thought him some English which was great cause then I got to speak with him. Most of the time when I traveled the world, I couldn't talk to anyone because I couldn't speak their language so it was great to finally have a friend to talk to.

It was probably the last night before I left Germany that he was walking me to my hotel as we were coming back from having dinner with his friends that he did something unexpected When we arrived at my hotel he gave me a small quick kiss on the lips. No more than 2 seconds long and told me it was great to meet me and that he wished he could get to know me better. I saw him walk away from the hotel as that was the last I saw of him.

It was romantic but at the same time kinda bad since I had a boyfriend but he didn't have to know right? I mean, it was only a small kiss. Not much to it.

"So, did you meet any cute guys while traveling?" As the question was just asked by Cleo.

"Yes." I quickly responded but knew it was stupid for me to say. The least thing that I wanted to happen was that I told Cleo that I kissed Jake and then her end up telling Ash I kissed another guy. I do not want to loose a relationship with him.

"Oh really? Who was it? Was it a French boy?" Cleo asked again.

"Oh it was nothing." I quickly replied but what I said again was stupid because I knew she would get suspicious.

"Come on! Tell me! Who was it?" Cleo asked almost instantaneously.

"Ya, who was he and was he cute?" Lewis asked with his sarcastic playful voice but Cleo lightly hit him in the stomach with the back of her hand.

Lewis just chucked as Cleo rolled her eyes at him and pushed him off the side of the beach. Once again Cleo looked at me expecting an answer.

"Well, it was this guy I meet in Germany-" but immediately Cleo cut me off.

"Oewwww! Who was it! Just tell me!" Cleo said jumping up and down as we arrived on the beach.

"Ya! I want to know NOW!" Lewis quickly said after Cleo talked but this time Cleo ignored him.

I giggled from the way they acted but my smile faded away once Cleo and Lewis looked at me again.

"His name is Jake. We just hanged out sometimes. We were just friends." I said as I quickly ended my sentence.

"Sounds like to me that you guys did a little more than that." Lewis added on but I gave him the "oh no you didn't" look.

"Oh shut up Lewis. We just hanged out and talked sometimes. That's it. Gesh. You guys are so weird." I quickly added as Cleo smiled at me.

"Ya Cleo. Why are you so weird?" Lewis asked sarcastically but we all just laughed.

Soon enough we were in the center of the beach as I saw 3 people standing up talking to each other. Lewis and Cleo were walking up to them so I just followed along. As I got closer to them I saw Rikki but didn't recognize the other 2 people who were standing with her. One of them was a tall muscular guy who had very short blonde hair and next to him was a girl wearing a short dress who had long wavy blonde hair as well. Not as wavy as Rikki's hair but just somewhat wavy.

As I got closer to the group of people I saw Rikki turn around to see us. At first her face expression was a little confused but as she relized it was me a huge smile appeared on my face.

"Surprise!" Cleo said as Rikki ran up to me and said hi as we gave each other quick hugs. Not as long as the hug me and Cleo had. Me and Rikki have always had our differences but we still liked each other and we were still good friends.

The two people that were standing there looked confused and felt a little akward standing there not knowing who I was until something caught my eye. The girl with the dress and long wavy blonde hair had the exact blue necklace as to what Cleo was wearing right now.

I was confused not knowing why they were both wearing the same necklace until I saw what Rikki was wearing. She was wearing the same shiny blue crystal as Cleo and the girl was wearing.

At that moment so many things ran through my mind. Why were they all wearing the same necklaces? Why were the crystals so important? What happened to the lockets?

Immediately I felt out of the group when I was the only one wearing the locket.

"This is Will and Emma." Rikk immediately said as she turned around to look at the two people she was talking to. I gave a warm but fake smile to them as they smiled back. The girl Bella eventually said something.

"And you are-? " She quickly asked and told them I was Emma.

"We all smiled at each other awkwardly until Cleo started talking again.

"Emma just traveled around the world with her parents. We were friends with each other right before you guys moved here. We've been friends with each other for about 2-3 years." Cleo quickly explained to them.

"Oh, that's cool." Bella said but didn't say anything else. Its like she never heard about me before. Did Cleo or Rikki ever mention about me? Were they only friends with Bella and Will for a short amount of time. I was a little confused but it wouldn't make any sense that they were only friends for a short amount of time because they were all wearing the same necklaces.

It was awkward for about 10 seconds until Bella spoke up.

"So, where did you travel around the world." She asked a little weirdly sense it was the first time we met.

"Oh, I went all over the place. I went to Italy, France, England, America…" I quickly paused. I didn't really wanna sound like I was bragging so I just ended up saying: "and a few others but that's it. I quickly added as I ended my sentence.

Bella smiled at me and said: "That's really cool. Lewis went to America for early collage. You know who Lewis is right?" She quickly asked while pointing to him but I quickly nodded my head.

Ya, ive known Rikki for the past 2-3 years and ive known Cleo, Lewis and Zane ever since we were little kids. I proudly said.

Everyone was smiling until I said Zane. It went dead silent after I said that. Everyone gave me that weird look like I wasn't supposed to mention his name or something. Maybe Bella and Will didn't know who Zane was so that's why they gave me the weird look. I was about to explain who Zane was but I decided not to because I didn't want to make things weirder. They should know who he is by now since he was Rikki's boyfriend but they never mentioned about me so who knows.

"Well, I got to go." Lewis started saying.

"I'll come with you" Cleo said immediately after Lewis talked and they both took off.

"It was nice meeting you Emma." Bella said as she smiled at me.

As soon as I smiled back Bella and Will both took off leaving me alone with Rikki. After everyone took off in different directions I tuned to face Rikki as she turned to face me back.

I wanted to ask Rikki so many questions at the moment. Who were those people? Why were they all wearing the same necklace? What happened to the lockets? Did they know our secret? But i didn't ask any of those questions. I just kept my mouth shut.

"Well, that was kinda awkward. I said as I started talking to Rikki.

"Oh don't worry about it. Bella and Will are kinda shy but they're really nice once you get to know them. They're really good friends of ours." She started off saying.

Before I said anything Rikki added something quickly to her sentence.

"Oh and by the way, me and Zane broke up so… ya…" She said kinda just stopping her sentence there.

"Oh." I said kinda looking confused.

Maybe that's why everyone went so quite after I mentioned about Zane. I wondered what happened or why they broke up so I was about to ask but instead I said:

"Oh, I'm sorry. I hope everything's going well for you now." I said which sounded really corny.

"Oh, everything's going great. I'm so glad I broke up with him. He's such a jerk. She said finally ending her sentence.

"And you just realized that?" I said giving her a small smile hoping she wouldn't get offended from what I said but instead she smiled back.

She laughed as we both started walking down the beach and started talking about life.

Tell me what you think! I will upload a new chapter once I get 1o reviews. 5 reviews and chapter and I will post up a new one. By the way, Emma doesn't know that Bella's a mermaid so that's a sneak peak for the next chapter.