Chapter 3 - The reunion.

Zane's house.

No-one had been particually happy since they found out about Denman, but Cleo was still excited for the return of her, extremly missed boyfriend,"Lewis comes back today," She beamed to an annoyed Rikki, and a laughing Bella.

"As does Emma," added Rikki.

"Oh yeah," chuckled Cleo, she was so excited to be reunited with Lewis she hadn't given a second thought about Emma coming back, which was strange since that's all she had spoke about since she had found out. It was lucky that Emma and Lewis were coming off the same plane, since she had just finished the last part of her world trip, America.

"I can't wait to meet Emma," smiled Bella. At first she'd thought it would be a bad thing, but after she's thought about it more, maybe it was good. All the new old stories would be replace with new ones that involved Bella.
"Don't you think the moon pool will be a bit over crowded with four mermaids?" Cleo wondered.
"Well, we've had Zane and Will in there along with us, so it should be fine," laughed Bella.

"I suppose," Cleo laughed back.

"We have to go and pick up Lewis and Emma soon, Zane is going to drive us," Rikki informed the others. They all nodded to ensure Rikki they had heard what she had said.

"Am I?" joked Zane. He had agreed to do this because strangly he missed Lewis, he hated to admit but he did. Before Lewis had left, Zane and him had just started to become friends and then his placement in America had stopped it.
"What time do they get off the plane?" asked a curious Zane.
"3:30"
"Rikki! It's 3 now!"
"Really? Well it only takes an hour to get there so let's go!" One by one they all got into the car, It had just enough seats to fit the four in with another two seats for Lewis and Emma. Will had wanted to come, but there wasn't enough seats so they had to say no, which was fine with Zane. As well as Zane finally getting along with Lewis, he had started to hate Will even more by the second. The way he constantly looked down on Zane as if he was nothing, he'd even once said to Bella that Zane didn't deserve Rikki, which even Rikki herself would have disaggreed with if she had heard it.

On the motorway.

"I can't wait to see Lewis," Cleo said excitedly.

"As you have said, 21 times, and counting," Rikki replied angrily.

"Leave her alone Rikki, how would you feel if Zane went away," Bella asked.

"Relieved." She answered sarcasticly. Zane quickly turned round to give her a glare, before giving his full attention to the road, flicking his hair as he did so. "I'm joking," laughed Rikki quickly.

"I know," Zane answered, he wanted to lean in to kiss Rikki but he had to focus on the road. Rikki pressed the button for the radio and on came a song by her favourite band. She smiled as she listened to the music.

"Urghh. I hate this song," complained Zane. Rikki had a small laugh to her self as she listened to the words fly around her.

"Well I love it," said a stubborn Rikki. Zane shook his head as he tried to think of a diffrent song in his head. Rikki just stared at Zane she looked straight into his Zane's beautiful eyes, and she felt like she'd fallen for him all over again.

"Were only 5 minutes away," smiled Zane.

"Yayy!" shouted Cleo, " I can't wait to see Lewis."

"22." Pulling up at the airport, an even bigger smile spread itself across her face. In her mind all she could think about was Lewis. Rikki and Bella couldn't wait to see Emma, whereas Cleo and Zane were dying to see Lewis. They placed themselves in front of the automatic doors and waited for them to slide open. Looking at the big t.v like technology, they knew where they were going to meet Emma and Lewis off the plane. Once they found the depature area, there they saw, Lewis and The Gilbert family.

"Emma!" Rikki said running towards her.

"And you are?" Emma asked sarcastically, they both laughed and Emma hugged her in return. Cleo didn't say anything, she just stared at Lewis and he smiled back. He placed his luggage on the floor and walk towards Cleo pulling her close to him, and kissing her heavily. The pair still hadn't said a thing, the whole time they'd been with each other.

"I missed you," Lewis confessed.

"I missed you more," Once again they kissed. Lewis brought himself out and placed his fingers inbetween Cleos.

"Long time, no see." Laughed Zane to Lewis.

"Good to see you again," Lewis smiled at Zane.

"Oh, Emma, this is Bella," Rikki said introducing Bella.

"Hi, I'm Emma," said the blonde girl to Bella.

"Hiya," Bella smiled at Emma, she was finally meeting Emma, joing in on the laughs, joining on the stories. She knew the first week would all be about past stories, and what Emma got up to around the world, but Bella was finally happy with that.

"Do you wanna come back with us?" Asked Rikki.

"I'd love to." After Emma had asked her family, she followed the others out of the airport, watching some of the planes fly away and land as she did so.

"So, what's happening with you and Ash," Cleo asked curiously.

"Well, I talked to him every day while I was away and he told me once he move's out, he's moving back to the Gold Coast." Emma beamed as she thought about being with Ash again, the whole time she's been away, apart from Rikki and Cleo, he had been the only thing on her mind. Meeting Ash again was just a matter of was cut short of her thoughts by Bella,"That's good, Cleo told me about you and Ash," Bella smiled at Emma but she just nodded. She didn't know what to think of Bella. 'Was she my replacement?' thought Emma. She felt quite threatened by Bella, like she had taken over Emma while she wasn't there. She'd been away for so long, would she still be such close friends with Cleo and even Rikki. 'Of course I will' thought Emma 'They came to pick me up from the airport.' Just thinking this to her self convinced her that she would but what if Bella knew the secret? What if she didn't realise how important it was for them to keep it? but Cleo and Rikki wouldn't be that stupid, Bella probably doesn't even know, then she couldn't really replace Emma.
Half way down the motorway Rikki started to feel sick, really sick. Her face went a whole lot paler than usual and she looked incrediably tired. "Rikki? You don't look too good," Said Lewis.
"What!" shouted Zane,
"N-no, really, I'm f.." Her sentence didn't finish because Rikki went to sleep all of a suddden.
"Zane! Pull over!" shouted Cleo. Zane did as she said and pulled over. He took Rikki into the back of his car where there were no seats and gently placed her down. Lewis took out his first aid kit and Zane eyes widened.

"Really?" Zane questioned," Why do you have a first aid kit?"

"For when I need it,"

"When would you ever need a first aid kit," Lewis didn't saay anything, he gestured towards Rikki. "Point taken." He grabbed Rikki's head and checked for breath. For a split second when Lewis touched Rikki's head, Zane felt incrediably jealous before he remembered who it was. Lewis used his first aid kit to bring Rikki back around and it didn't take long. Just as quickly as she had gone out, she came back round and instantly turned to the left-hand side and threw-up just an inch from Lewis. Everyone but Lewis laughed, his face was priceless.

"Nothing harmful, just extreme car sickness I suppose," Lewis informed and everyone nodded in everyone was strapped back in to their car seats, Zane set off driving they were back at the Gold Coast, they decided to go back to Cleo's for abit after dropping Emma's bag's off at her house. Emma was suprised at how little Cleo's house had changed in comparision to how much she and eveyone else had even though she knew Cleo's house wasn't alive, but if it was that wouldn't have been the strangest thing that had happened to them. After getting settled on the couch, just as Bella had excpected they talked about waht Emma had got up to.

"Italy was amazing," she bragged before Cleo's dad walked into the room, "Emma. Good to see you," he smiled.

"You too," Emma replied.

"Cleo. I'm going out for abit and Kims visiting your mum." Cleo nodded to tell her father that she had heard what he said.

"Anybody want drinks?" asked Cleo. They all nodded, the journey had been exhausting and everyone was thirsty. Cleo grabbed a few cups and placed them on the counter so she could fill them up one by one and hand them to everyone. Just when she finished the last one she slipped on a loose carpet making her lose balance, spilling the final drink over the four girls, as they all turned to mermaids, a single thought popped into Emma's head, 'Bella.'
"This isn't what it looks like Bella, well I mean..." but her sentence was cut short as she saw that instead of two legs attached to Bella there was a single, much more, beautiful orange tail. "You aswell?" asked Emma. They all nodded.
"I'm sorry Emma, we forgot to mention, didn't wee?" laughed Rikki.
"So when were you at the moon pool?" she asked, very confused.
"I wasn't." Then Bella expplained about the equally beautiful pool that she'd found in Ireland when she was nine, and that's when she had become a mermaid.

"9?" Emma asked in amazement, "wow! So what power do you have?" all of a sudden, Emma was excited, a new mermaid. She hadn't even given a second thought about her first theory of being replaced. Bella stuck her hand towards her glass that Cleo had given her and the water changed into a jelly-like substance. Emma's face wasn't the only one struck with amazment still just couldn't get over Bella's power, it was probably the most incrediable one apart from Cleo's, that was something he could never get his head around. Bella was so gald that Emma liked her now, at first she thought Emma was always judging her but even in the past hour, she had realised that Cleo and Rikki's description of Emma's personalitly was increadibly accuraute."I have an idea," smiled Emma. "Let's go swimming,"

Rikki was about to nod before she remembered something, "Oh yeah, Emma? Just one more thing,"

"What?"

"Denman's back." Emma's heart sunk as she remembered the first time she met Denman. They all sat with sad looks on their faces, knowing that couldn't go swimming. Lewis felt incrediably sorry for the girls so he stood up and talked, "I'm gonna go and see what she wants, and I'll try and get her to leave," Cleos face lit up as she saw how thoughtful her boyfriend was when Zane saw this he realised how much he wanted to see this facial expression on Rikki's face. "And i'll help," Zane added. This did make Rikki happy, finally a break through on how important being a mermaid was to her. "Be careful." The boys kissed their girlfriends goodbye and set off to find Denman, very oblivous to what was about to happen.