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Bella, Rikki, Will, and Zane stayed late that night cleaning up the cafe after the party. Lewis and Cleo had been driven home by Don and Sam. Bella and Rikki ended up collecting the streamers and sweeping up the floor while Will and Zane took care of the heavy lifting. They moved the tables back to their usual positions one by one. Neither of them were particularly thrilled to be working together, but they weren't about to suggest that one of the girls do the harder, heavier work.
"So..." Will halfheartedly made an attempt at conversation as he and Zane carried the table back to the other side of the cafe. "Great party tonight."
"I know." Was all Zane bothered to say.
"Cleo and Lewis seemed to have I good time." Will said unenthusiastically. He was determined to try one more time to talk to Zane.
"I know." Zane rolled his eyes impatiently.
Will began to get more than a little exasperated. "I'm trying here, ok?" Will said under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Zane raised is eyebrows.
Will set his end of the table down, forcing Zane to stop walking. "I'm trying to talk to you." Will crossed his arms. "You can't hold a grudge against me forever."
"Get out." Zane dropped his end of the table and turned to walk away.
"No." Will said firmly.
Zane stopped in his tracks and turned back to face him. "Excuse me?"
"I said no." Will said with conviction. "I'm not going anywhere. You won, Zane."
Zane stepped up nose to nose with will. "I won what?" He said softly.
"You won." Will raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "You won Rikki, you won the support of all of our friends. I'm not trying to compete with you anymore. I just want to be a part of the group again."
"I just want to be a part of the group again." Zane mocked Will's tone. "Grow up, Will." Zane marched through the cafe and into his office without looking back.
Will slumped down into a chair. Bella walked over to him and sat beside him without saying anything. After a few seconds she reached over and took Will's hand in hers. Will was desperately glad to have at least one person on his side.
Rikki followed Zane into the office. "What are you doing?" She stood in front of his desk with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I don't want him in here from now on." Zane said bitterly.
"Why?" Rikki shrugged. "Zane, you have got to get over all of this jealousy. Will was out of his head for a bit. He's over it now. I'm with you." Rikki leaned over, forcing Zane to make eye contact. "You have got to stop treating Will so badly."
"Like you treat him any better." Zane raised on eyebrow.
"What?" Rikki's voice rose. "I don't insult him like you do."
"Yeah but you don't feel much better around him than I do, admit it." Zane stood.
The pair stood, locked eye to eye, in silence for a few seconds. The fight faded out of Zane's face and he walked around the desk to face Rikki.
"I'm sorry." He said softly.
Rikki pulled Zane close to her and took his face in her hands. "Give Will a chance." She said quietly but firmly.
Zane gave a small nod. "Yeah, I'll try."
They ended up leaving the rest of the cleaning until the next day. The day had been plenty full already.
The next few days passed without major incident. Zane and Will ignored each other, which was a vast improvement from fighting constantly. Lewis made his best efforts to stay away from the moon pool, but he did his research late into the night every night after Cleo went to sleep. Bella and the band continue practicing. They felt that they were about as ready as they were going to get.
It was Thursday, the day before the battle of the bands audition and also the day before the full moon. Zane found himself completely preoccupied. He couldn't stop looking up at the sky, anticipating the full moon that would rise tomorrow.
The band had just wrapped their last rehearsal before their audition. Zane walked over to Bella, who was making a few final notes to her sheet music.
"Hey, Bella." Zane got her attention.
Bella looked up, confused. "Yes?"
Zane found himself embarrassed to talk to her about this. "Um, aren't you nervous? About tomorrow?"
"Oh yes." Bella exhaled with a laugh. "I'm totally freaking out. I think we're ready though."
"Great." Zane said, relief dripping from his voice. "Where is everyone meeting?"
"Um, at the theatre, right?" Bella said distractedly as she looked to Nate. "At the theatre at noon?"
"Yup." Nate nodded as he packed his keyboard away.
"Wait..." Zane said confusedly. "Nate will be there?" All of a sudden he realized what Bella was talking about. Of course she was more worried about the band's audition than she was about the moon. She'd been a mermaid since she was 9. Zane took Bella by the arm and pulled her away from the group. "I wasn't talking about the audition, I was asking if you were worried about the" Zane lowered his voice. "Full Moon."
"The full moon?" Bella really hadn't thought much about it. "Not really."
"Oh, ok." Zane shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sorry to bother you." He turned to walk away.
"Zane, wait." Bella caught him by the arm. She didn't want to insult him. "Don't worry about it, really. The moon shouldn't affect you as much this time as it did last time."
Zane turned to face Bella. "It won't?" He asked quietly.
"No." Bella answered. "You'll be perfectly safe with Lewis." She gave Zane a reassuring smile. "No worries."
"No worries." Zane nodded thanks at Bella before walking back into his office.
The next day came all to soon. Lewis and Will had been hard at work at Lewis's house since early in the morning examining the piece of stone from the moon pool that contained the blue gem. Cleo was at work all day and Lewis had seized the opportunity to get in some research. Will was all too eager to help him. The pair were having a hard time coming up with a way to get the blue gem out of the stone. They needed the mermaids' powers to crack the stone open.
"You think we can convince Rikki or Bella to come over here?" Will asked.
"Maybe." Lewis said vaguely. "I don't think they'll be too excited to come down here. Especially about this." He nodded toward the rock.
"Bella will help." Will said confidently. "Call her up."
"You call her." Lewis was in the middle of typing up page after page of notes. "She's your girlfriend."
Will reached for his phone and dialed the familiar number. She answered after several rings. "Hey, Bella?" Will could hear all kinds of commotion coming from her end of the line.
"Oh hey Will." Bella sounded busy. "What's up?"
"Lewis and I were wondering if you had time to stop by the boat shed today?" Will raised his voice, trying to be heard over the commotion on the other end of the line.
"Aw, Will, I'm sorry but there is no way I can make it over there today." Bella sounded genuinely regretful, though slightly put off. "We're getting everything set up for the audition."
"Oh that's right." Will had been so wrapped up in Lewis's research he had totally forgotten. "Break legs, you guys will be great! What time does it start?"
"Three." Bella said nervously. "But we have to be there at noon."
"Well you guys will be amazing, I know it. Are auditions open? Can I come watch?" Will took a few notes as he spoke.
"Um, I'm not sure." A crash came from Bella's end of the phone. "Nate! Be careful with those!" She shouted. "Listen Will, I have to go. I'll call you later."
The phone went dead in Will's hand. He clicked it shut absently. "She's headed to her audition." He told Lewis.
"Hmmm." Lewis pondered. "I have no idea how to get into this rock without using the mermaids' powers." He fretted.
"And you're sure Cleo won't help?" Will asked.
"Positive." Lewis had asked her just once, and had had to immediately listen to an hour long lecture about how he had promised not to mess with Mako rocks anymore. "And Rikki won't help because Cleo won't help."
"Shoot." The boys stared at the rock in silence for several seconds, deep in thought.
"Hey Lewis." Zane said as he walked through the front door without knocking, a huge box in his hands.
"Hey Zane." Lewis didn't look away from the rock. All of a sudden Lewis's eyes widened. "Zane!" Lewis shot out of his seat and raced over to where Zane stood. He grabbed the box out of his hands and tossed it onto the couch. "You!" He shouted as he pulled Zane in for a quick bear hug before running back to the table.
Will and Zane both stared at Lewis, bewildered expressions on their faces.
"Um, what's up?" Zane asked.
"You're a merman." Lewis said with a triumphant laugh.
Zane flushed slightly. "Keep it down, will you?" For the first time, Zane realized that Will was standing in the room. "I didn't know you were here." He said stiffly.
"I was just leaving." Will lied. He quickly collected his things and headed for the door. "I'll talk to you later, Lewis." He called behind him.
Zane avoided eye contact with Will. He was making an effort to be nicer, which is why he hadn't made a dig at him before he left. He waited for the door to shut behind Will before turning back to Lewis. "What was with the hero's welcome?"
"You're a merman!" Lewis shouted, even more gleefully than before.
"Christ, Lewis, quit saying that." Zane hissed, looking around. "Is anyone else here?"
"Nah, gone for the weekend." Lewis shoved the rock over to Zane and looked at him expectantly. "Heat this up."
"What?" Zane's face was screwed up in confusion.
"Use your powers on it." Lewis said impatiently. He spoke a million words a minute. "There is a blue gem in that piece of stone that I found at the moon pool. We've found these stones before, they're the ones the girls wear around their necks. But the only way to get them out of the rock is to use mer-powers on it. Rikki and Cleo won't help and Bella's headed to her audition. So that leaves you." Lewis finished as he gasped in oxygen.
Zane was still trying to catch up with Lewis's racing train of thought, but he nodded. "So you want me to..." He held his hand hesitantly out over the rock.
"Yesyesyesyesyes." Lewis was beyond excited. This blue stone looked different from the ones the girls wore. He was anxious to see what it could do.
"Um..." Zane took a deep breath and began to close his fist. He was still a little embarrassed to use his powers in front of anyone other than Rikki. The rock slowly began to heat up, steaming slightly.
"Good job, keep going." Lewis said encouragingly.
"Ok." Zane concentrated as he tightened his fist. The rock steamed heavily, shaking just a bit.
"Yes! Go hotter." Lewis pushed.
Zane shut his eyes and focused all of his energy onto the stone in front of him. All of a sudden, the rock shattered with a loud cracking sound. Both Lewis and Zane immediately ducked under the table, covering their heads with their hands. They stayed there, frozen until the bits of broken rock had stopped falling.
"Whoa." Lewis whispered as he eyes flickered over to Zane. "How did you do that? Even when Rikki used her powers on the rock we still had to use a chisel to break it."
Zane swallowed nervously as he looked at his hands. "Let's just check it out." He said as he crawled out from under the table.
The rock had been broken into several large pieces and thousands of tiny shards. In the middle of the table lay the blue crystal. Lewis and Zane stood around it, examining it. The blue gem appeared to be a perfect circle. It was larger than the stones the girls wore, and it was completely smooth.
"Cool." Lewis reached for the stone and picked it up he turned it over in his hands, looking at it closely. He turned to face Zane and held it out to him. "It's yours." He said.
"What?" Zane took the blue gem from Lewis. "What do you mean?"
"It's yours." Lewis repeated simply. "It appeared in the moon pool after you became a merman. It's got to be meant for you. I just wonder what it does." Lewis had a slight gleam in his eyes.
"Thank you, everyone!" Bella shouted into the microphone with a huge smile across her face. The audition had gone perfectly. The judges had all seemed to enjoy the band's music, Nate had remembered the new key changes, and everyone felt content with their work. Now came the waiting. They had thirty minutes to clear the stage and then it was just an hour until the list of approved competitors was posted.
Will helped the band pack their equipment into Nate's car. He was so proud of Bella, she had done such a great job. He told her so repeatedly, and Bella enjoyed hearing it. Now they stood outside, relaxing in the sun, arms wrapped around each other.
"Hey guys!" Nate hissed out the door. "List is up!"
Bella and Will dashed inside, following Nate and the other band members into the waiting area. Crowds of people were pushed up to the wall, looking at one sheet of white paper. They waited anxiously until they could get close enough to read it. The band was silent as they searched for their name.
"We got in." Bella whispered.
The group exploded in celebration before heading back home. They only had an hour before the moon would begin to rise.