Chapter Eight

Mel's POV

"Mel, I'm going out shopping with Rikki and Emma!" Mum shouts up the stairs to me. "We're going back to Rikki's house after! Bye!"

"Bye, Mum!" I shout back, then continue to finish off my art homework. Suddenly, the front door shuts really loudly, distracting me. I drop my pencil, and when I go to pick it up it's snapped in half.

"Damnit," I mutter under my breath. Sighing, I stand up and walk across the landing to Mum and Dad's room, in the hope of finding a new pencil in there.

I dig about in the little plastic pot where Mum keeps her pens and pencils and things, but all her pencils are blunt and she doesn't have a sharpener in there. I pull my hands back in frustration, and – whoops – knock the pot off of the table. I bend down to pick up the pot and it's contents, and as I do so I feel a cold, thin chain. My heart soars at the thought of what it could be – the last locket! I eagerly snatch it up off of the floor, and I cheer out loud as I see that my suspicions were right, although I quickly cover up my mouth with my hand when I realise just how loud that was. Thank goodness that Mum isn't home… Oh, God, I need to tell Becca and Lolly that I found the locket! Where did Mum say she was going with Emma and Rikki after they'd been shopping? Rikki's house…? Right, I'll go to Lolly's place and we can finally confront our parents when they get there!

I hammer my fist against the door.

"Lolly, are you there?!" I shout through the letterbox. Suddenly, the door swings open to reveal Lolly.

"What?!" she asks, slightly annoyed. Well, I suppose I was knocking quite loudly…

"Sorry, I just really need to show you something." A satisfied smile appears on my face and I open my hand to show Lolly the locket.

"Yes!" Lolly exclaims. "So… does this mean we can tell our parents that we're mermaids now…?"

"That's why I came over here."

Lolly gives me a questioning look, and I explain that Mum, Rikki and Emma are coming back here when they've finished shopping. She nods, then picks up the landline as it starts to ring.

"Hello?" she asks. There's a pause, then she says, "Oh, hey Mum." After that, I tune out. I notice Lolly's locket on the kitchen table and reach my hand out to pick it up. Then I remember it's scorching heat and quickly pull my hands back. I was going to compare the lockets, but I guess I can't. Instead I put my own locket down next to it. Suddenly, both lockets start to move around on the table. What the hell…? Then Lolly's mobile starts ringing, and she chucks it to me.

"Answer it," she mouths at me. "It's Becca."

I answer the call and put the phone to my ear. "Hey Becca. It's Mel."

"Oh, uh, hi Mel. Is Lolly there?"

"Yeah, she's on the phone to Rikki though, so she asked me to answer your call."

"Okay. Well anyway, the weirdest thing just happened with my locket. I was-"

"Wait," I break in. "Did it just randomly start to move around?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Because the same thing just happened with mine and Lolly's lockets."

"Wait, you found your locket?"

"Oh, yeah, and we're going to tell our parents our secret when they get back to Lolly's house too. I would have called, but I was in a rush. I was going to when I got here, but you obviously beat me to it."

"Okay, I'll be right over."

"Alright, see you then. Remember to bring your locket."

"I will." With that, Becca cuts off the call, just as Lolly's saying goodbye to her mum.

"Becca said she'll be right over," I say, handing Lolly her phone back. Just as I do that, the doorbell rings.

"Uh… well that was… impossibly fast…" I say.

Lolly laughs. "Nah, it's probably just Dan." Grinning, she goes to answer the door and a few seconds later her brother steps inside the house.

"Hey Dan," I greet him, and he gives a small wave. He goes into the kitchen, and I continue to talk to Lolly.

"Do you think Becca's nearly here yet?" Lolly asks impatiently.

"She probably only just left so not really. Well then again, being at her own house is pretty much the same thing as nearly being here and at my house, considering we all live so close, but you know what I mean…"

Suddenly, Dan walks back into the room with a glass of water and pours it all over Lolly's head.

"That's what you get for not telling me your secret," he grins. Taken by surprise, not having time to sit down, Lolly falls to the floor with a tail. I laugh. Lolly simply glares at me then smiles. She splashes water at me, and I fall down with a tail too. A minute later, Becca walks in to see Lolly and I on the floor as mermaids in fits of giggles.

"Uh… what did I miss?" she asks, and we laugh even more.

"So… what should we tell them?" Becca asks in a whisper.

"I have no idea," I say.

"We could show them the lockets, and the pictures inside them?" Lolly suggests.

"Okay, sure," I agree.

"Good idea," Becca says.

Mum, Rikki and Emma have just come in through the front door, and Lolly, Becca and I are discussing quietly what to tell them while we make them some tea.

"Right, let's go in," I say.

"Yeah – time to put Plan L into action."

Turning to Lolly, Becca asks, "Plan L?"

"Well, yeah, it sounded better than Plan A or whatever…"

Ignoring Lolly's weird idea, I walk into the living room where our mums are chatting. The other two follow suit, and we give them their tea.

I look at Lolly and Becca for encouragement. Lolly nods, but it's so quick that you'd never be able to see her do it unless you were waiting for it – which I just was.

"Uh… we need to talk to you about… something…" I say uncertainly.

"About what?" Emma asks.

"Um… Well, we…"

"Oh my God, Mel, you're rubbish at this!" Becca exclaims. "This."

Becca takes her locket off from the around her neck, and opens it to show the picture inside to her mum.

"Oh," Emma says quietly.

"What?" Mum and Rikki ask curiously, walking over to Emma to see what the picture inside her locket is, although they can probably already tell by seeing how pale Emma's skin has suddenly turned.

"But also this," Lolly puts in, and our mums look up at her. She picks up a glass of water… and tips it all over me.

"Hey!" I exclaim.

"Well that's what you get for being so rubbish at this," Lolly smirks.

"That's not fair! Dan tipped water on us earlier! You should have done that to Becca!" But I'm laughing as I transform into a mermaid.

Laughing as well, Lolly replies, "No, he tipped water over me. I'm the one who gets credit for splashing you – such fun!"

Mum, Rikki and Emma's eyes all widen, and Emma pales even more.

"So… you've been mermaids… for how long?" Emma wonders aloud.

"Since just after we moved here," Becca answers. "We got stranded in that moon pool at Mako."

"So did we," Cleo says. "I'm finding this slightly hard to process…"

"Really, Cleo? We were mermaids for years! It probably wasn't just a coincidence that our daughters became mermaids too! Especially after we were reunited with each other."

"Oh! But we didn't want them to have such a burden as this!" Emma wails. "That's why we gave up our powers!"

"You gave up your powers?" Becca asks.

"Yes. A few years after I returned from travelling the world, Rikki and I, along with another mermaid called Bella, moved away, while Cleo stayed here. The four of us lost touch, but we all became pregnant at the same time and came back into contact again. We still had our powers, but we gave them up when we realised we were all pregnant, because we didn't want our children to have their lives ruined by being mermaids. But I guess it happened anyway…" Emma sighs.

Suddenly, a thought occurs to me. "Wait… I don't suppose Bella's last name happens to be-"

"Benjamin?" Lolly finishes for me.

"Yes… how did you know?" Rikki asks curiously.

I turn to the others. "Emily."