Chapter Twelve

Becca's POV

Oh shit, I hear a voice in my head and jump in startlement.

Is that you Lolly? You're really loving this new power, huh?

Bex! Stay out of my thoughts!

You sent them to me! Kinda… What's going on, anyway? What are you swearing about? Seriously, don't swear at me in my head. That's low.

I wasn't swearing at you! I… I'll explain later.

What's going on? I glance at the clock. It's five minutes into the lesson. Aren't you in your lesson?

No. I have something to deal with.

You're not skiving again, are you?

Go away, already!

After that, I hear no more from Lolly, as much as I try. I guess she's working on keeping her thoughts out of my head. I'm dying to find out what's up with her though. It sounded urgent… I snap out of my thoughts as I suddenly feel something on my hand. Damn! It's water! Luckily, I spot a towel next to me and dry the water off just in time. Whew. That was close. Ugh, Lolly is going to get me into so much trouble one of these days. Seriously though, if she tarnishes my perfect school record, I will kill her. Figuratively, of course.

"Omigod Lolly! What happened with you today?!" I practically scream down the phone. I'm so mad at her right now. She got me so distracted in class!

"Okay this is gonna sound really weird but you know how I used to live like on the other side of the world I mean country whatever well this friend from there is now going to our school and I am totally freaking out!" she says on a rush of air.

"Okay…" I reply slowly. "So… what the hell are you talking about?" I honestly hardly understood a word of that.

"Look, just come to my place. And get Mel and Emily to come over too. Pronto."

Lolly hangs up and I sigh, text Mel and Emily asking them to meet us at Lolly's house, grab a jacket, and leave.

When Lolly's explained what's happened today with her and this new guy Connor who, as it would happen, already knows her from when they both lived back on the other side of Australia, I smile. "Interesting… So… When do we get to meet this boyfriend of yours?"

Lolly groans and chucks a pillow at me. "I already told you, he isn't my boyfriend!"

"Why are you so nervous then?" Emily asks, a devious smile appearing on her face too.

"I'm not! I'm just… surprised!" Lolly protests, but her traitorous cheeks blush scarlet.

"Well when you two start dating, are you planning on telling him our secret?" Mel asks.

Lolly groans once again. "I'm not planning on telling him, and, just to clarify, he is not my freaking boyfriend!"

"Sure he isn't…" I say.

"Kill me now," Lolly mutters.

"Whoa. He is cute!" I exclaim in a whisper to Lolly as she points out Connor. He's at the other end of the corridor from Mel, Lolly, Emily and me, talking with Dan. When Connor leaves, Dan runs over to us.

"Hey," he says.

"Okay, bye!" Lolly squeals sarcastically. I roll my eyes.

"Nice to see you too," he says. "Did you see Connor?"

"Yep. Coming Em? We've got music."

"Okay." Emily waves at the rest of us as Lolly drags her away.

"I've gotta get going too. Bye," Mel says, then walks away.

"Wanna walk to science with me?" I ask Dan - we're in the same class.

"Well, considering we're both gonna get there eventually, and we're both going to walk in the same direction anyway, okay."

I smile. "Right then. So what exactly is the deal with Connor?"

Dan shrugs. "He used to be really good friends with me and Lolly, but then we moved away. I guess it's kind of strange that he just showed up here, not even knowing that this is where we live now."

"It must be. I'm pretty sure he wasn't expecting to see any familiar faces around here."

"Life is complicated."

"You can say that again…"

Lolly's POV

"Hey Lolly," a male voice says beside me, and I turn to see Connor. "Mind if I sit?"

"Yes, I do mind." Nothing against Connor, but I try to sit alone in as many lessons as I can. I hate having to sit next to random kids who do nothing but talk, and could easily find out my secret. Luckily, music doesn't really involve water.

Connor rolls his eyes and sits down anyway. I narrow my eyes at him. "I said I do mind."

"Oh, you know, I just thought, 'Typical Lolly. She won't mind if I sit next to her, really.'"

"Well I obviously do," I point out.

"True."

"But you're not planning on moving any time soon?"

"Guess not."

"God, you're annoying."

"Give me a break. It's only my second day here and I've already got tons of homework. And I don't have many friends yet, but I'd rather sit next to someone I know. Meaning you."

"Really? By the looks of it, you're already wildly popular. Among the girls at least."

Connor smirks. "That's just your code way of saying I'm attractive, right?"

"Ugh, why does everyone think I like you like that? We're just friends!"

"Everyone?"

I blush. "Just my teasing friends."

"So you told your friends about me? You must really like me."

"Oh my God…" I didn't even tell my friends about him, but then I can't exactly tell him that I'm a mermaid with the power to read my other mermaid friends minds, can I? "I didn't tell them… They saw me with you and asked about it," I lie.

"Well either way, I'm pretty sure you think I'm good looking anyway. All the girls do."

"Modest much? Oh, and don't forget the gay guys."

Connor rolls his eyes, and I smile.

"Yes! I got you to smile!"

Damn. When we were, like, ten years old, Connor and I had this game to see if he could get me to smile, because I apparently never did. If he won, I would always give him a blue lolly, because the name matched mine, and the colour matched my eyes, so the lolly represented me losing the 'grumpy' part of myself, or something like that. Funnily enough, I have one of those lollies with me today. Or I did, until I ate it. They taste good…

A/N: Of course, the ending just had to be about Lolly's love of food. (Y) Liking Connor? Hating him? Liking the mind reading thing? Hating it? Liking the... mention of gay people...? Hating it?

Random quote of the day: SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY, GET OVER IT.

I saw that on an advert on the side of a bus... Review if you support gay people...? Yeah, I'm just using that as an excuse. But, as Nike would say:

Just do it.

PS. I wrote this whole chapter in like half an hour with no editing or help or whatever, so it's probably kinda rubbish (except from the whole me-being-an-awesome-writer thing. Because I'm just that modest).

-Kat xxx