"Alright well I think that should be good enough for today." Rita said, surveying the scene before her. Various plants were set in front of each of the young merpeople, save for Marcus. He was lounging on the stairs, watching interestedly. The lesson for today had been a rather boring one in his opinion, but he had still paid rapt attention as Rita explained the importance of being able to manipulate the various plants found around the sea for their own purposes. She had set the young students to attempting to make the plants grow at a much accelerated rate, with varying degrees of success. Evie had shown that she had a much better grasp on this particular brand of magic than the others as her plant had nearly covered the floor for ten feet all around her. Zach had proven to be the most ineffective, he had actually managed to kill his plant. "You may leave your plants where they are. I'll collect them after you leave."

"You don't want a hand?" Marcus asked, pushing off the stairs with a groan. He stretched mightily and his back gave a series of satisfying popping sounds. "I've got nothing to do."

"Yes you do." Evie told him, shooting him a glare. "You promised that you would come to dinner tonight."

"Oh, Marcus, are you coming too?" Mimi asked curiously. "That's nice. I can introduce you to Chris."

Marcus yelled internally as he shot Evie another scowl. "Yeah," He told Mimi with false brightness. "Sounds good. I'd love to meet him."

"So who's all going tonight anyways?" Ondina asked. "I didn't know Mimi and Chris were going."

"Well, Mimi, Chris, Zach, myself, Cam, Carly, David, Serena, you, and Marcus." Evie answered, rattling off the names.

"Plus your parents?" Marcus asked, though at this point he had all but figured out Evie's little plan. If he had her figured correctly, her parents would be oddly absent from their little meeting under some pretense or another. This was as much about them being able to be their real selves as it was a couples' dinner. "Full table."

"No, they won't be there." Evie said dismissively. "They are going out to dinner by themselves. We have the house to ourselves so I hope that someone knows how to cook."

"David can cook," Serena offered. "Sort of. He's not the best but he tries."

"I'm out." Zach laughed and Mimi echoed his statement. "I burn everything I touch."

"That sounds like a personal problem." Marcus observed. "If that's the case, then I feel bad for Evie."

His words had the desired effect and both of them turned beet red. "I don't know what you are talking about." Evie stated, turning away from Marcus.

But he wasn't content to let her off the hook just like that. He chuckled darkly and crossed his arms, his eyes darting between Zach and Evie. "So when I saw you leaving Zach's house early this morning, you were just visiting right?"

Rita's eyebrows disappeared into her bangs and she sent Evie a very disapproving look. "Evie, what is he talking about?" She asked.

Marcus knew that such a move was far, far below the belt. But as Evie quickly tried to explain herself to Rita he found that he had no qualms about such a tactic. As far as he was concerned she had deserved it when she tried to set up him and Ondina.

"We will discuss this later." Rita promised. "For now, all of you may go. I will see you tomorrow."

They began to file out, but Marcus lingered behind. "Mind if I stay a moment?" He asked Rita, loudly enough for the others to hear. "I need to talk to you about something we discussed earlier."

"Of course." Rita said graciously. "Please, sit."

The others left the grotto hesitantly, all of them shooting Marcus suspicious looks. Evie in particular stared him down, bringing up the rear of the merpeople leaving. Marcus waited for the door to close before walking over to the staircase and looking up just in case they had some unwanted eavesdroppers. He hopped down the steps and glanced to Rita. "Are we alone?"

She hesitated just long enough for Marcus to be suspicious before saying, "Yes of course. They left after all."

Marcus stared at the older mermaid for a long hard moment, his eyes narrowing as he recognized the lie. "We aren't alone." He stated. "Are we?"

"What makes you say that?" Rita asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"Just a feeling I guess." Marcus told her, casting his eyes around the grotto. He sat down on the stone couch and rested his head on a hand. "So? Who is it? Someone on the mermaid council? An old flame?"

"More like an old student." A voice that Marcus had never heard before said. A blonde mermaid appeared on the couch next to him, a Moon Ring glowing on her hand. Marcus shot to his feet and backed up warily, thoroughly shocked by the unexpected presence.

"Marcus," Rita said delicately, "This is Lyla. Like she said she's a former student of mine. She's an old friend of Zach and the others as well."

"Which poses an interesting question of why were you invisible for that meeting?" Marcus wondered. "I mean, if I had some old friends like that then I would want to see them as soon as possible. Unless I left on bad terms of course."

"I just didn't see a good time to say hello." Lyla shrugged indifferently. "It doesn't really matter what you think about my choice of remaining hidden anyways."

Marcus found that this blonde girl thoroughly intrigued him. "Oh really?" He asked. "And why is that? Too good for the opinion of a land boy?"

"Well, if you were a land boy, then sure." Lyla said casually. "But you're hiding something too, aren't you?"

Marcus felt his heart sink deep into his chest. "What are you talking about?" He asked. The question was as cliché as it came, but he needed to know just how much she knew and how she figured it out.

"You're a merman." Lyla said as though the answer was clear. "It's so obvious, I can tell just by the way you were watching the others. Rita told me that you were down here just to help out, but you were learning just as much as them weren't you?"

Marcus took a mental step back and looked at Lyla from a completely observant perspective. She seemed to do the same to him, though she was smiling whereas he was frowning. She's smart this one, He thought, And dangerous. She figured me out in just an hour.

"Why don't we all sit down?" Rita said, ever the mediator. "Lyla, this is Marcus. And you are right, he is a merman."

"I thought so." Lyla said with so much confidence in her voice that it bordered on arrogance. "But he seems different too. Do the others know?"

"No, they don't." Marcus said, working hard to keep his face and voice neutral. "And if you wouldn't mind I would like to keep it that way."

"Keeping secrets from Zach doesn't always turn out well." Lyla advised him. "And if I know Ondina and Serena, it's the same with them. But I won't tell them. That's your secret."

"Thank you." Marcus said, inwardly relieved. "So what are you doing here?"

"I came back to visit for a while." Lyla said. "Mako is my home, but I've been away for a long time. Thought I would come back to see how everyone's been."

"Couldn't bring yourself to say hello, could you?" Marcus asked. "Let me guess, you weren't sure how they would react to seeing you so you decided to stay hidden."

"Like you have any room to talk." Lyla scoffed. "You are the same way. You don't know how they will react to knowing you have powers so you are keeping it hidden."

Marcus felt a reckless smile beginning to emerge on his face. It had been a long time since someone could read him so clearly, like an open book. He didn't know this Lyla girl, not really, but if nothing else she was interesting. "Well," He said at length. "They're having that dinner. Why don't you come along as my guest?"

"I wasn't invited." Lyla said cautiously.

"And I was tricked into going," Marcus said with a devious smile. "This way we both get to surprise them."

Rita looked back and forth between the two of them with an odd expression on her face. Lyla smiled at the teacher and nodded to Marcus. "I bet he causes you some problems, doesn't he?"

"You two are very similar." Rita said gravely, "And I'm not entirely sure that is a good thing."

As always, thank you all so much for your reviews. Good or bad, I appreciate them all. I rewrote this chapter several times and this and this is the version I am the most happy with. I realize that is somewhat rough, but I'm happy. Belated Happy Halloween and I look forward to your thoughts. -Hallowed