"I don't know, she seemed nice enough." Aryl paced in her bedroom. Lexia was lying on Aryl's bed, looking through a magazine and clearly ignoring Aryl's every word, just like she did every time her best friend went off onto one of her rampages. "I mean, she seemed too nice! I should have seen this coming! If I had seen this coming…" Aryl continued to babble on as the phone rang. She didn't even notice when Lexia grabbed it and answered.

"Hello?" Lexia answered the phone, with a sigh to Aryl's unchanging behavior.

"Hey, it's me again." Kiri said, "Aryl awake?"

"I wouldn't describe it in exactly that way." Lexia said into the phone, before holding it closer to Aryl so that Kiri could hear what was going on.

"I mean, did you have any idea we couldn't trust her? I sure didn't!"

"Oh, come on, another soap opera rant?" Kiri asked, once Lexia put the phone back to her ear.

"Mmm." Lexia answered.

Kiri sighed, "Well, can you get her to stop?"

"Gave up on that ten minutes ago."

"Try again."

"I've thrown pillows at her." Lexia said, "You know nothing stops Aryl when she goes into 'soap opera mode'."

"Sadly." Kiri said.

"So, what're you calling about?" Lexia asked Kiri, "I told Aryl about the idol princess, y'know, before soap opera time and after her morning coffee."

"It's a wonder she ever gets to class."

"She's perfectly made her schedule around her classes. Lucky bitch. Anyway, that reminds me. Hold on while I throw another pillow at A." Lexia grabbed a pillow from the bed, and with her expert aim (gained from much practice) chucked the pillow at Aryl's head.

Unlike the last couple of times, Aryl turned to look at Lexia this time, "That hurt."

"Good." Lexia said, "Kiri's on the phone, and we've got a class in a half hour."

"Oh." Aryl said, sitting down on the bed next to Lexia, put her on speaker.

Lexia did so, "Alright, Kiri, she's listening now."

"Finally." Kiri sighed, "How many pillows did you throw at her?"

"I don't know." Lexia said, "So, we're both here now, what's up?"

"Okay, so I went by the Pearl Piari and talked to the idol. Her name's Luchia, and I was right, she's younger than all of us."

"Like, how much younger?" Aryl asked.

"She's young." Kiri said, "Either late middle school or early high school."

"That is young…" Lexia said, "We're already well into college, and you've graduated."

"Exactly."

"Young, and inexperienced." Aryl said.

"Hey, we were like her once."

"She sings things into oblivion." Lexia said, "We don't have idol powers, Kir. We were never like her."

"Okay, okay." Kiri said, "But, we were her age."

After a pause, Aryl said, "Fine, I'll give you that."

"Exactly." Kiri said, "So, anyway, that wasn't my point. She doesn't have her pearl, like I said, so I can only guess that she's going to be looking for it. But, with one idol in town, more are bound to come."

"What if there's more already here?" Aryl suggested, lying back onto the bed, "I mean, Luchia might not be the first."

"What do you expect me to do? Ride through the entire town with the windows down and keep an expert eye out for pearl necklaces and anything else I sense?"

XXXX

"How did I get roped into this?" Kiri asked no one in particular as she drove past a beach, the windows on her car down. "Hey, that's Luchia." She muttered. No one was with the girl though, and there was still an obvious lack of pearl in the girl's necklace. "I wonder if I should follow her… No. I'm no stalker, that's for sure, even if I am talking to myself."

XXXX

"Wonder if Kiri found anything." Aryl muttered, throwing her laptop down on her bed as she walked back into her bedroom. Lexia wasn't far behind.

"I can call her." Lexia said, sinking into the purple plush chair.

"You know, I told you that you could take that chair if you like it so much." Aryl informed Lexia.

"If I took it, I'd have nowhere to sit in here, now would I?" Lexia asked.

"Yeah, sure." Aryl said.

"Look, do you want me to call Kiri or not?" Lexia asked.

"Don't worry about it." Aryl said, "I think we've bothered her enough for one day, and I'm sure she's enjoying her afternoon."

"Her afternoon driving all around in her car with the windows open?" Lexia asked.

"Yeah." Aryl said, "She can play music, and she really doesn't have to take any specific route. I'm sure she's having fun."

XXXX

"I'm lost." Kiri concluded as she looked over her map. "Who knew a mermaid could get lost?" she asked herself, as she pulled into a random gas station and parked. She pulled out her phone and glanced through the address book, "Let's see, who here is good with directions?" She chose a number and dialed.

"Hello?"

"Hey Shel. I need directions, I'm really lost."

"Okay, where are you?"

"No idea."

"You're not helping me, Kiri."

XXXX

"Pleeeeease, Lexia?" Aryl pleaded with her friend. Lexia ignored her friend's pleading and started up the stove in the kitchen, "Come on, it's just one night! You admit, you're interested!"

"I'm interested, Aryl, but I'm not interested enough to drive 2 hours down to Kiri's house, take advantage of her hospitality, and miss classes just to see this girl with my own eyes!" Lexia said.

"We only have one class tomorrow, and then Saturday and Sunday are free. Plus, we don't have to stay with Kiri, we can stay at that hotel that the idol girl lives at."

"Like we have the money for that." Lexia said, "Aryl, maybe this hasn't gone through your head yet, but we're college students. We barely can afford the rent on this apartment and food."

"Hey! Wait! Your brother would lend us money in an instant!" Lexia said. Lexia turned to face her friend again.

"And then we'd have to pay him back."

"Which we could." Aryl said, "Just not yet. Come on, please?"

"Fine, I'll ask Adam." Lexia said, "But if he says 'no', that's the end of it, you hear?"

"Deal." Aryl grinned.

XXXX

"Okay, thanks a lot, Adam." Lexia said into the phone, "I'll talk to you soon." She hung up the phone.

"Well?" Aryl asked her.

"He said he'd lend us the money." Lexia sighed.

"Yes!" Aryl said, standing up and doing a victory dance, "I win again!" Her victory dance was quickly interrupted, however, when she tripped over the chair she'd been sitting in and found herself sprawled in an uncomfortable position across it. "Ouch."

Lexia couldn't help but laugh at the girl's antics.

XXXX

"Finally!" Kiri said, walking into her apartment, "Maybe I can STAY home this time." The phone rang, and Kiri picked it up, "Hello?"

"Hey Kiri." It was Aryl.

"I'm not leaving my apartment." Kiri said.

"Don't worry, you won't have to." Aryl said, "We're coming to you."

"What?" Kiri asked.

"Me and Lexia have decided to take the weekend off to come down there. We're going to stay in that hotel that idol-girl is at." Aryl said, "We'll be down tomorrow morning."

"And another impulsive decision by Aryl." Kiri said.

"Hey!" Aryl shouted, "That's not fair!"

"It's fair." Kiri said, "Talk to you later." She hung up, "Hmm." She muttered, looking at the clock, "Elik's late tonight. What on earth is going on?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And there you have it. I made it longer this time. I have a bunch of ideas for this story, so if it wasn't 1 AM, I would start the next chapter now. Unfortunately, it IS 1 AM, so I'm not going to start the next chapter yet. I would post this now, but on my laptop the Internet stops working at midnight.

Oh, right. This will… sort of follow the layout of the Mermaid Melody anime. Sort of. And I'm not going to take random episodes and write them word for word. Partly because I don't KNOW them word for word. And also partly because that would be boring.

Things will change quite a bit towards the middle. Or, I guess the end of the beginning… I'm confusing myself.

More on this next time, it's too late for me to try and explain it.