Like most days, Cam was awake for several hours before his alarm went off. In the time before that, he lied awake staring at the ceiling. To just say one thing that went through his mind would be impossible, Cam was in turmoil. He rolled over and threw off his ocean blue comforter, a recent acquisition that he found ironic in the extreme. He reached for his phone and thumbed through the contacts, searching for his best mate Zach. Hitting the dial button when he came across his friend's name he allowed the phone to ring several times before he cut off the call. "Probably out with the pod." He muttered, getting to his feet and pulling on his life guard uniform with a weary sigh. "Again."

Ever since the pod had returned to Mako Island Zach and the other mermaids had been spending less and less time with legs, a fact that left Cam feeling very abandoned. In fact, the only one who seemed to be interested in hanging out with Cam anymore was, to the blond haired man's surprise, Erik. Ever since his split with Ondina Erik had grown depressed. He was so put out that he was actually showing up to his shifts at the shop on time, a fact that seemed rather backward to Cam. Grabbing a towel that hung on his bed post, Cam exited his room without a look back. His phone was lying on his bedside, exactly where he had left it after his failed call to Zach. Stepping off of his front porch Cam frowned when he saw Rita, Zach's kind-of-sort-of mermaid mentor, striding towards his house. He waited until she was directly in front of him to actually acknowledge her presence. "Oh, Principal Santos." He said, feigning surprise. "What are you doing in my neck of the woods?"

"Cam," She said, favoring him with a small smile. "May I have a moment?"

Checking his watch, Cam saw that he had at least an hour before he would be expected at his work. "Actually," he said apologetically, "I have to be at work very soon. "

Looking very disappointed, Rita nodded slowly. "I see." She said, "Would you mind stopping by my house later today? I need to discuss something with you."

"Yeah, sure." Cam said noncommittally, striding down the street in the opposite direction of his principal. He had absolutely zero intentions of visiting his principal as he knew what the conversation would be about. At different times, each of his fishy friends had come up to him to speak about how he was handling their sudden absence. Each time, he had laughed them off and told them that he had barely noticed their absence. They had all accepted his story, with the exception of one. Ondina, for reasons he couldn't begin to fathom, seemed to see through the façade he had put up as a barrier between his anger and sorrow at being left behind and his happy go-lucky nature. He shuddered as he recalled that particular conversation.

He had been fishing a secret spot by Mako known only to him. On that particular day, he was not having much luck. He attributed his bad luck to the sudden influx of a hungry merpeople population that seemed to have decimated the fish. "You won't catch anything." A voice behind him told him matter-of-factly, almost startling him out of his boat. Once he turned around he saw Ondina leaning on the side of his boat, her eyes amused at his reaction. "There isn't a fish for miles."

"Yeah I wonder whose fault that is?" Cam said sarcastically, "Besides I see a fish right in front of me."

He reached for his net and was completely unsurprised when it went flying out of his boat to sink below the sea several feet away. He scowled at Ondina and blew out an angry breath. "Was that really called for?" He demanded.

"So how have you been?" Ondina asked, completely unfazed by her effective destruction of the net. "Since Zach stopped hanging out with you I mean."

"I told you, I am fine." Cam said, with a falsely bright smile. "Totally fine."

"Mm." Ondina's stare seemed to bore into Cam's very existence. "I don't believe you. You've been hanging out with Erik a lot haven't you?"

Cam slowly reeled in his line, unsurprised to see that his bait was completely intact and untouched in the least. "Yeah what about it?" He asked eventually, turning to look Ondina in the eye. "He's not a bad guy."

"Cam, he tried to destroy the Moon Pool." She reminded him, her voice veiled with anger. "He tried to destroy Zach."

"No one knew what activating the chamber would really do." Cam argued, his voice rising. He caught himself, and sighed. "Listen, I don't want to argue. What's done is done. Zach is happy as a clam swimming around with the pod all the time. No harm done."

"Well what about you?" She asked, surprising him for the second time.

"What about me?" Cam asked warily.

"Are you alright?" She asked, but then elaborated. "We have all been so busy with the pod we haven't had much time to hang out with you."

"Well, you never really liked me to begin with." Cam said, slightly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken.

Ondina pursed her lips and rested her head on her arms, regarding him thoughtfully. "I never really disliked you." She said, "I wouldn't say I was overly fond of you, but I respected that you managed to make a place for yourself in a world that you had no place in."

"Yeah, well." He smiled coldly at her and began to pull up the anchor. "Look where that got me."

He shuddered as the memory ended and looked over the beach, admiring the white sand and the crystal blue water. He jogged over to the life guard station and tapped the leg of the person he was relieving. "You're good to go mate." He said, not bothering to check who it was.

"Think I'll stay a bit actually." Erik said, moving over to make room in the large seat.

Shocked, Cam looked up to see Erik garbed in the same attire he was in. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, climbing into the stand. "You can't be a lifeguard!"

"Oh, I don't know about all that." Erik said, unconcerned. "After a few years you get pretty good at hiding the fact that you have a tail."

"I wouldn't know." Cam said, immediately regretting the wistfulness in his voice and hoping that Erik wouldn't notice. "Anyways, why are you here? I thought you were working in the shop today?"

"Not till later." Erik waved a hand dismissively. "Heard from any of the others lately?"

"Rita tried talking to me earlier about something but I gave her the slip." Cam said, breathing an inward sigh of relief that his previous tone had apparently not been noted. "So what about you? Anything new in the illustrious life of Erik the Fishman?"

The bronze haired man laughed quietly and shook his head. "Nope. Not unless you count the fact that Ondina still won't speak to me and the others are acting like I tried to kill them."

Cam shrugged. "Well, you sort of did. Kind of."

Erik's face tightened in rage. "You know I had no idea that would happen!" He said. The tower began to vibrate, the sand around the legs bouncing and shaking. "You of all people know that!"

"Yeah, yeah I know." Cam said soothingly, now accustomed to the random actions that merpeople's emotions wrought of the environment. "Calm down. Otherwise we're going to have to explain why the tower broke again."

Erik took a deep breath and released it in a whoosh. "I've been thinking." He said suddenly.

"Always a dangerous past time with you." Cam advised.

"We each have something that the other wants." Erik continued on as if he hadn't heard Cam say a word.

"Oh yeah?" Cam asked, raising an eyebrow. He gazed out on the beach, not giving any indication as to the excitement that was building inside of him. His mind raced with different ways the current conversation could go, but he always circled back to one in particular and every fiber of his being prayed that he was right. "What's that?"

"For some reason Ondina and the others seem to still trust you a lot." Erik said, letting the fact that he was no longer trusted by any of the pod hang unsaid in the air. "I really miss her. And I know that you miss hanging out with them."

"Well, I don't know." Cam said easily, "I usually just get stuck covering for them while they go have all those crazy adventures."

"What if you could go on those adventures with them?" Erik asked slyly.

"Well I would need a tail for that." Cam observed, his pulse sending his blood racing through his veins. "And we know how getting one of those has gone for me."

Erik smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "What if I told you that I know how you could get what you want?"

"Well then," Cam said, his lips turning upward into a very small grin. "I guess I should ask what you want in return."

"I want you to get me into the pod." Erik answered immediately. "Zach was accepted. It's possible for mermen and mermaids to get along. I want that as well."

Cam chewed his lip for a moment and nodded, though he had already decided that he would do anything for a tail long ago. "Deal."