My differences with the girls started coming to the head when Emma noticed me come back from school on a rainy day. Things had gotten a bit out of hand for them as they tried to cover up the reason they couldn't go out into the rainstorm. I knew I would have to come clean to Cleo and Emma soon.

It was another full moon night when Rikki was affected.

The Gilberts had gone camping leaving the house to Emma.

Lewis arrived ready to full moon proof the house.

He looked at me in curiosity, "You again."

"She knows." Rikki spoke from the living room.

"Is there something you haven't told me?" He glanced from Cleo to the rest of the girls.

They didn't answer, instead Emma pushed him out as soon as we finished proofing the house.

"You are not staying Lewis. I promised my parents, no boys."

Lewis left but as he did the reflection of the moon bounced off reflective surfaces. I glanced around the corner to see Rikki staring at the reflection in her glass of water.

"Rikki?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok?"

Rikki stood, "I'd like some ice cream."

When she couldn't find any, the room seemed to get hotter. Rikki seemed to get more antsy.

"I can't stand this heat."

Rikki's body started overheating.

"I think you are affected, Rikki." Emma looked worriedly at the other blonde.

An explosion of juice, soda and other liquids in the kitchen followed.

"I'm sorry I don't know what's wrong with me." Rikki wiped some sweat from her forehead.

Cleo was quick to set a fan in front of Rikki, "We'll get you cooled down and then everything will be alright."

Things escalated from there.

"I should take Rikki to Mako."

Cleo shook her head, "You'll be affected too."

Emma's eyes narrowed, "It doesn't affect you does it?" She came closer, "Just like you can get wet. You are different from us. What are you?"

I shook my head, "Rikki comes first."

We all jumped as we heard the front door slam as Rikki made a run for it

I chased after her.

"You'll tell us when you come back." Emma's no-nonsense face was on.

I looked back at them and nodded, "Now close your eyes I'm opening the door."

Lewis ran past me, as I ran towards the pier after Rikki.

I followed the bubbles left after Rikki's speed swim to Mako island.

When I reached Mako, the island was on fire. The edges of the beach alight with red and golden flames.

"Rikki," I whispered as I started my trek through the brush. It was as I was making my way through the flaming jungle that I noticed I only felt warm from the blaze, no sweat was on my brow. It was as if extreme temperatures couldn't affect me.

I kept walking til I found Rikki sitting at the center of a ring of flames. Her knees pulled up to her chest. Tear-tracks down her soot-covered cheeks.

I came to sit beside her. Her eyes stared at the ground, her face full of grief.

"There's something wrong. I can feel it here." She pointed to her heart, "and here." She rubbed her arms. "I can't take this...this..." A sob wrenched through her parched throat, "It's too much. It's too hard. No one understands."

I stayed silent only scooting closer offering my embrace to Rikki.

"I'll burn you."

"I'm tougher than that, elements don't seem to harm me."

Rikki leaned into my embrace, "Do you think this will ever get easier?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think we are meant to be alone?"

All my life my mother had taught me how to be alone, how to take care of myself and not rely on anyone else. It was lonely.

"We'll never be alone if we've got each other."

Even through Rikki's haze her stony face split into a wistful grin.

"That was so cheesy."

"I know." I giggled. I stood and offered my hand, "Let's go to the moon pool."

Her blue eyes looked still so far away but she refocused them and grabbed my hand.

By the time we reached the moon pool she was in the moon haze again. Her body heating the pool's water around us, getting to jacuzzi temps and higher.

"You are not alone Rikki you've got me."

Two heads popped up from the pool's water and two voices joined, "You've got us."

The bubbles faded and Rikki blinked.

"Did I say cheesy? That's so..."

I let out a relieved laugh, "She's back."

When we got back to Emma's, the Gilberts had arrived back early. They grounded Emma for the 'party' and Emma covered for me saying I'd been taking care of Rikki who wasn't feeling so good. She took all the blame, with a look of 'you owe me' on her face.

After her week of grounding the four of us met at the moon pool and I told them the story my Babya told me.

"So you are a natural born mer?" Emma spoke up, her lips pursed and her eyebrows lowered as she pondered over the new information.

"Something like that."

"I thought..." Emma metered out.

"You thought it was because of me but Ms Chatham disproved that. She met my Babya after being turned alongside her friends."

"So where does this leave us?" Cleo looked around.

Emma spoke up, "We keep each other's secrets like always. It'll help that Darcy can do more than us, especially when it comes to full moon nights."

Emma and I didn't bond until Harrison, Zane's father, had a meeting with her parents and a couple of others. He wanted to turn Mako into a tourist spot.

Emma's resourcefulness and my stubborn determination worked hand in hand as we got a signed petition of over a hundred locals. We notified the conservationist about the endangered species that surrounded Mako. The community took up arms against Harrison's ideas of development.

Mako became a private reserve.

Ms Chatham showed up occasionally, giving sage wisdom to the girls.

When Rikki found an identical locket to the one that Emma had found in the moon pool (and that Cleo wore), Ms Chatham told the story of Louise, Gracie and Julia. She told of a time where her friends kept the same secret and the trials that threatened to expose and separate them.

Later with Lewis's help Rikki was able to buy the locket. When Rikki offered the locket back to Ms Chatham, the older woman told Rikki to keep it. She took her own locket off and gave it to Emma, each locket now sat on the neck of the mer with the ability that matched the gems.

Ms Chatham patted my knee, "I have something for you too."

When the girls left, I helped the older woman back to her home at the retirement home.

"Come come."

I walked through her door seeing several items that the girls and I had helped salvage from her shipwrecked boat.

Ms Chatham's bracelets jingled as she took a large chest from her closet. I rushed forward helping her to place it on her coffee table. Kneeling beside her I watched as she took out many items, including a couple water damaged photos of her and her friends as mers. From the bottom of the chest she pulled out a small box that she handed over to me.

"This belongs to you."

I glanced up into her ice blue eyes before peering upon the wood box carved with shells and shifting seas. My fingertips followed the patterns to the latch before lifting it, nestled in a worn algae covered cushion was a silver ring. Too open clams with pearls nestled in their mouths framed a moonstone at its center.

"It's beautiful."

"I have met many mer since those early days but none stood out to me like Katya. She had helped a pod to survive a near discovery and they gifted her this." A smile upon her lips, "Well she had to fulfill a couple more challenges before they gave it to her. The rings are one of a kind, made especially for each mer that finishes training at their Academy. Some whispers say the Academy is in the lost city of Atlantis. There are many strange and wonderful things in this world. I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of them."

I took the ring from the box. I marveled at how it seemed to hold a full moon reflected along its surface when shifted a certain direction.

"They store moonlight. The rings magnify natural born mer abilities. It's said they can even make themselves invisible while wearing them. This one was made especially for your grandmother when she graduated from their Academy."

I slipped the ring upon my right index finger.

"Shouldn't I earn it like she did?"

The old woman shook her head, "Katya and I wrote for a long time. She told me of her granddaughter. She asked me to bestow the ring to you when we met."

"She knew..."

An old sad smile, "She always had a knowing air about her. So very perceptive."