Edited

Chapter Five

Becca's POV

I arrive at Lolly's house with a birthday card taped to a gift in my left hand, and Mel at my right side. The two of us walk through the open back gate into the garden, where the party's being held. As soon as Lolly spots us, she rushes over to us.

"Happy birthday, Lols!" Mel squeals, grinning, and hands over her present and card. I pass Lolly my own, after wishing her a happy birthday too. Then Dan walks over to us.

"Hey Mel, Becca," he greets, smiling. I'm not sure if I was supposed to get him a present too…

He turns to his sister, not seeming to mind that Mel and I got him nothing. "Having a good birthday?" he asks.

"The best!" Lolly replies in an ecstatic shriek.

"Gee, you're hurting my ears!" Dan laughs. "So, are you hyper, or just high?" he asks, and I'm pretty sure he's only half joking.

Lolly seems to consider it for a moment and then replies, "A bit of both, I think."

I raise an eyebrow. "You'd better be kidding."

"Ease up, Bex. We're sixteen. Live a little!"

Mel and Dan laugh, then Dan speaks up. "Yeah, Becca - don't be so sensible," Dan jokes. I look at him and can't hold back my laughter. His caramel coloured fringe is covering nearly half of his face and as my vision extends towards him, he comically flicks it out of the way, revealing his chocolate brown eyes, round and pleading.

I stare into Dan's smiling eyes and he stares back into my own pale blue ones, but then Luke arrives and the moment is ruined. Oh well. There's a whole night ahead of us. A whole night with an enormous full moon looming over our heads, containing the widest range of possibilities imaginable. Kind of scary, when you think of it like that…

I stare into the bonfire and rub my cold hands together in the hope that the friction will warm me up. Although considering the bonfire hasn't been able to do that, this probably won't either. I turn to the left to see Lolly shamelessly flirting with Kyle Smith, one of Dan's friends, then to my right to see Mel and Luke sitting together on one of the log benches laid around the fire, matching the one I'm sitting on. I stare back into the orange flames, dancing before my eyes. I always loved bonfires…

"Hey," a voice suddenly says, and I whirl around to face Dan.

"Oh, hey," I reply.

"You okay? You looked lonely."

"Not lonely. Just thinking," I reply, shrugging. Actually, I was kind of lonely, but that doesn't matter right now. All I care about for the moment is the fact that Dan's sitting next to me. I know he's Lolly's brother, so he's kind of off limits (and by this, I don't mean the whole no dating your best friend's brother thing. I mean, she would tease me for life for so much as viewing him as a person), but Lolly's the one flirting with someone she hardly knows, after all. Turning my attentions back to Lolly, I see that she's now stopped flirting anyway, and is headed towards Dan and me. She flops down onto the log, separating me from her twin, and puts an arm around me.

"Heyya, Bex!"

"Drunk, much?" I ask. Lolly simply shrugs.

"What was that about with Kyle?" Dan teases.

Lolly sticks out her tongue. "Well, he's a boy, kinda cute…"

"So am I, but you don't flirt with me." Dan smirks.

"Dan, ew," Lolly replies, feigning annoyance, and then continues about Kyle, "But he seems a little arrogant if you ask me."

"Oh, well you're a perfect match then!" Dan jokes.

"Well Dan, perhaps you would be a perfect match for him." How she manages to maintain a straight face and serious tone while saying that, I will never know. Dan elbows her, laughing, and Mel and Luke soon join us all. The five of us chat for a while, and everything seems to be going fine. Until, that is, something like this happens:

"Melly, can you get me some Coke?" Lolly asks, slinging an arm around Mel's neck. Mel rolls her eyes.

"Watch out," I whisper. "She'll probably fall asleep on you."

Mel laughs slightly, and looks up at the sky. "Oh, G-" she begins, but cuts herself off when her line of sight reaches the sky.

So to put it simply, she then goes all hypnotised on us.

Um?

But that's when I realise. I look towards Lolly, who's also staring back in my direction with concern in her eyes. I subtly nod towards a tree a few metres away, and creep towards it while the guys are busy with Mel. Lolly seems to have understood my glance, and follows.

"You don't think…?" I ask when we reach the tree, leaving my sentence incomplete to see if she's thinking the same thing. Apparently she is, because she nods, and finishes my sentence with, "The full moon."

"Whatever you do, do not, under any circumstances, look at the moon," Lolly warns, her eyes glued to the ground. Uh, figuratively…

I nod in agreement, even though Lolly can't see me, and try do the same, but it seems impossible. It's as if some sort of invisible force is trying to lift my gaze towards the astronomical world, now that Mel's all… moon… hypnotised… moonstruck? And it very well could be. Using all my willpower, I keep my head down. But it's hard to resist. The invisible strings keep tugging at my head, messing with me like a puppet. My neck begins to ache, and I suddenly find myself looking up. For a split second, moonlight engulfs me, before my whole world fades…

"Where are we…?" I groan. I try to sit up, but an explosion of pain fills my head, and I lay back down again. My head hits a soft pillow and my eyelids begin to droop again, but then I think back to last night. The last thing I remember is seeing the moon, and then… nothing. I sit back up again, a hand clutched to my head, trying to ignore the pain. I take in my surroundings. I'm tucked into a sleeping bag on Lolly's bedroom floor, with Mel beside me wrapped in her own blanket, and Lolly asleep on her bed.

"Guys?" I ask and the other two awake. Judging by their movements when they sit up, they feel just as bad as I do.

"What happened last night…?" Lolly asks groggily.

"I think that's what you need to explain to us," a grim voice says, and the door swings open to reveal Dan and Luke.

"Um… did you see anything… weird, last night?" Mel asks tentatively.

"If by weird, you mean that you all have tails, then yes," Luke replies, and Dan nods.

Mel, Lolly and I swap uneasy glances.

Uh oh…

"... And that is why we couldn't possibly have even dreamt about thinking of considering telling you that we're mermaids," Lolly finishes explaining our story to the two boys, who, fortunately for us, seem to be taking it surprisingly well.

"So… what exactly happened last night?" Mel asks.

Luke frowns. "Well, to put it simply, you three went all possessed when you saw the full moon - well, we think it was the full moon - and then you wandered off. It was weird; you were staring up at the sky, but still managing to avoid the things in your way and stuff. Dan and I followed you until we reached the beach. We got there, and saw you standing on the jetty, and we were about to run over to you but then you dived into the water… and I think you know what we saw. We had no idea what to do, so, well, we came back and partied some more…" Both boys grin sheepishly at this confession, and Dan takes over the story from there.

"No one actually noticed that the birthday girl and her two best friends were missing, so we just acted natural, and Luke left with everyone else at the end of the party. I went upstairs to sleep - you're lucky Mum was already asleep," he adds, looking pointedly at Lolly. "When I woke up this morning, you guys were all in here so I called Luke, he came over, and then all this happened."

"Right," I say.

"Oh!" Lolly suddenly exclaims. We all turn to her. "I forgot. Well basically, we think that our parents are also hiding a secret. We're not entirely sure what it is, but we know that it's related to Becca's locket, and possibly even our secret."

"Alright… Can I see the locket?" Dan asks.

I nod and unclasp it from around my neck. It's only just as Dan takes it from me that I remember about what the locket did to Mel and Lolly. I'm about to warn him, but for some reason, he doesn't seem to be affected by it. Huh. I guess it only does that for mermaids. Well, except for me, for some reason.

Dan fiddles with the locket, frowning at it, with Luke beside him leaning over to get a better view of it. Lolly, Mel and I begin to talk again, about what happened last night. Things go on this way for a few minutes, until a small clicking sound fills the room, coming from where the guys are sitting. Mel, Lolly and I turn to them.

"Oh my God…" Luke says, his voice barely a whisper.

"What?" I ask, curiously.

"You might want to take a look at this…" Dan tells us, seeming slightly unnerved.

The anticipation in the air becomes too much, and I reach over and grab the locket from his hands. From there, I gasp, and the other two girls soon mimic my actions. For there, placed inside the locket, is a picture. But it's not just any old picture…

It's a picture of my mum, Mel's mum, and Lolly and Dan's mum…

With tails.