Chapter 3: Ch-ch-ch-changes

Rikki was roused from very unsettled dreams by the sound of knocking. The house they had moved into was tiny and poorly insulated so sound carried and it sounded to Rikki as if the knocks were coming on her bedroom door. She muttered something, tried to go back to sleep, and then she heard her father's voice and that of a stranger. There was a bit of back and forth, then she heard the front door shut and then there really was knocking at her door.

'Rikki?'

He didn't sound happy, and Rikki wanted to just burrow back into bed and sleep for a week.

'Rikki, that was the police,' he said, his voice coming through all too clearly through the cheap plywood door.

Rikki sat bolt upright. The police? Why would the police… And then the events of the preceding day and night came back to her. The boat trip. The island. The cave. Shit. She had successfully snuck back inside and thought her father would be none the wiser, but she hadn't counted on a visit from the cops. What the hell did they want?

She shot out of bed and went to open the door. Though it remained unlocked, her father respected her enough to leave it closed. She could tell he wasn't going to be that patient for too much longer, though.

'Sorry, Dad, what do you mean it was the police?' she asked, coming out of her room, wrapped in a ratty dressing gown that she had grabbed from the foot of her bed.

Her father looked at her critically, as if examining her for injury, and Rikki knew then that they had told him what had happened last night, or at least, what had happened after the girls were picked up.

'Rikki,' he said, sitting down and taking his head in his hands momentarily. 'I know you're a firebrand and I know you're independent, but for God's sake, can't you see we can't afford this kind of thing?'

Rikki didn't say anything, but she felt the beginnings of guilt and anxiety roiling her stomach.

'What did they say?' she asked flatly.

'They said that you stole a boy's boat,' her father answered, looking up at her. 'They said you took the boat out, to open water, without a license or a rego, with two passengers. They said you got stuck out there and had to be recovered by the coast guard.'

Rikki pressed her lips together but she didn't look away from her father's face.

'So you're not going to deny it?' he asked, sounding exhausted. 'Well, at least you're no liar. That's good.'

Rikki wanted to retort that she didn't appreciate what he was implying with that, but she held her tongue.

'The police were here to say that the boy's father doesn't want the police looking into the matter further, so charges won't be laid. They also said he has kindly agreed to cover the cost of the coast guard.'

Rikki scoffed then.

'Dad, I didn't steal that boat,' she finally spoke up in her own defense. 'He gave it to me! I even have a witness!'

Her father just gently shook his head.

'You know that's not how this works,' he said simply. 'You can't just take a boat worth thousands and expect everything to work out. Even if he did give it to you, darling, you know that this kind of thing will always come back to bite you.'

Rikki bit the inside of her cheek. He was right, of course. There were proper ways of transferring ownership. Even if she had fixed it and it was hers, fair and square, she hadn't done things the right way. And now Zane Bennett's rich father was going to be on her case. She was under no illusions that he was just being generous for the sake of it. She'd have to pay one way or another.

'I'm sorry, Dad,' she said, simply. She couldn't say anything else. Her father nodded, gave her a quick hug, and told her to get ready for school.

She had never wanted to go to school less. She wasn't feeling altogether well. A nervous energy was building up inside of her and she felt agitated, though she couldn't pinpoint what was causing the agitation. A quick shower made her feel slightly better, but by the time she got to school, fifteen minutes late, she was already feeling that nervous energy taking hold.

She had avoided Emma and Cleo at every opportunity throughout the day, but it was coming up to the lunch break, which she knew they all had simultaneously, and she was starting to think that short of hiding in a classroom, seeing them was going to be unavoidable. She didn't want to think about Cleo and how frightened she had been yesterday, or Emma and her worries about all the rules that had been broken. She definitely didn't want to think about her part in all of that. Worst of all, she was starting to think she would go crazy. She felt like there were ants running under her skin and she didn't know how to relieve the pressure that came with that sensation.

After yelling at a younger student who had accidentally brushed up against her in the corridor, she knew that she couldn't stand it a moment longer and was debating going to the nurse, when someone grabbed her wrist.

'Get off!' she nearly shrieked, and whipped around to see that it was Emma who had grabbed her, with a wide-eyed Cleo lurking behind her.

'We need to talk,' Emma said.

'Not now,' Rikki growled back, and shook Emma's hand off, before turning and trying to walk away. Emma wasn't going to let that happen, clearly, and Rikki had to endure the sight of Emma's face shifting into view. The odd thing, Rikki thought, for a moment, was that Emma didn't seem angry or vengeful. She looked… scared.

'Now,' Emma said. Then, after a pause, 'Please.'

Rikki's foot was beating a tattoo against the tiles of the corridor, but she nodded briefly and allowed Emma, who looked slightly relieved, to lead the way towards an empty classroom nearby.

Emma locked the door, which Rikki thought was a bit much, and then turned to her and to Cleo.

'Did it happen to you?' Emma said, eyes searching Rikki, while Cleo put her chin in her hands and looked away.

'Did what happen?' Rikki asked, now utterly bewildered. 'Did the cops come to my house to tell my dad that Zane Bennett has decided not to put me in jail? Yes.'

Emma raised her eyebrows a bit, then exchanged a look with Cleo.

'So… it didn't happen,' Emma said.

'What didn't happen?' Rikki said, getting frustrated again, and digging her fingers into her hair. She was starting to pull it now.

'I'm going mad,' she muttered, before sitting on her hands and looking expectantly at Emma. 'What happened to you?'

Emma said nothing but exchanged another look with Cleo, who shrugged. This was starting to be infuriating.

'Did you have a… a bath this morning?' Emma asked, in what she clearly thought was a delicate way, but sounded completely bonkers to Rikki.

'Do I smell or something?' she bit back. 'Yeah, I had a shower, so what?'

'A shower,' Cleo finally spoke up. 'Not a bath.'

Rikki rolled her eyes. What the hell was this? Were they going to torment her with stupid questions in retaliation for yesterday?

'Look,' she started. 'I get that I fucked up somewhat yesterday, but if you don't mind, I feel like I'm going to explode, so I kind of have to–'

'Oh,' Emma said softly. 'Oh, no.'

'What?' Rikki demanded. 'Are you going to be cryptic or can you just come out with whatever you clearly want to tell me!'

Emma glanced around herself, as if casting her mind to other places, and then nodded once.

'Come on,' she said, standing up and leading the way back to the classroom door.

'Where are we going?' Rikki asked, not liking this little proposed field trip at all.

'Indoor pool,' Emma said briefly, glancing at Cleo, whose eyes widened even more. As if that was possible.

'I don't think that's a good idea,' Cleo said, but Emma shook her head.

'I have a key,' she said. 'And nobody will be using it now. We can go there.'

Rikki was getting heartily sick of all of these secretive exchanges and furtive glances, but short of running away she was clearly not going to get away from these two right now, so she went along. The pool turned out to be quite close by, and looked a bit disused. Unsurprising, given that the weather here was pretty much perfect, warm and sunny 95% of the time. Who would want to swim indoors, given the option?

Emma was going through the motion of locking the door here, again, and Rikki was about to ask what all the secrecy was about, before Emma turned to her and said, in a tone that would brook no opposition, 'Get undressed and jump in.'

Rikki knew she must look ridiculous, her mouth opening and closing.

'I… excuse me?'

'You heard me, get undressed, get in,' Emma continued, that slightly on-edge tone she had had so far today starting to evaporate and her usual authority creeping in.

'Am I being hazed?'

Emma just rolled her eyes.

'You'll feel better, trust me,' she said.

Rikki shrugged, and then took off her jeans and t-shirt. Luckily, she wasn't wearing her oldest bra today. Under ordinary circumstances, she wouldn't have just followed orders, especially such strange orders, so directly, but that awful feeling was only getting worse and what did she have to lose, really?

With one last glance, Rikki looked over at Emma and Cleo, who were both watching her expectantly, and she jumped into the pool. She felt two things immediately and simultaneously - the nervous energy was gone and her legs had snapped together, as if there were strong magnets lining the inside of her thighs and calves. Rikki looked up first, at Emma and Cleo, both of whom had matching looks of horror on their faces, before she looked down at herself. And nearly passed out from the shock.

Her legs were gone, completely gone, and in their stead there was a single long limb, far longer than her legs, covered in shimmering gold scales and ending in a webbed fin.

'What the fuuuuuuuuuu….' she almost whispered, looking up at Emma and Cleo, who were still watching her with the same expression on their faces.

She couldn't bring herself to say anything or do anything. She was holding tightly to the edge of the pool, not trusting the tail - holy shit, she had a tail! - to keep her afloat.

'How do I make it go away?' she managed to whisper, looking up hopefully at Emma, who seemed to have all the answers so far.

'Just get out of the water,' Emma replied. 'Worked for us.'

'Worked for…' Rikki repeated. 'This happened to you?'

'Yep,' Cleo said, looking as fearful as Rikki felt. 'I got into the bath in the morning and…'

'I was out for my morning swim,' Emma added.

Rikki just gaped at them both. Then, she moved to get the hell out of the water. If for no other reason than the chlorine was making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

'Help me out,' she demanded, holding out a hand. Emma seized hold of one arm and Cleo took the other. Together, they pulled her out of the water. As soon as she was no longer submerged, the tail disappeared, her legs reappearing and the scales vanishing. Her undies were in tatters, the waistband still in place but the rest in several pieces.

'Shit,' she muttered, drawing her legs towards her as Emma came over with a towel and her clothes. 'Thanks for the warning.'

'You wouldn't have believed me if I told you,' Emma countered, and Rikki couldn't deny that that was true.

'Besides, we didn't know if it had happened to you, too,' Cleo explained in her gentle way.

Rikki quickly shucked off the torn undies under the towel, then slipped on her jeans and t-shirt. Her hair and the rest of her was still soaked, but she'd just have to manage English Literature as she was. At the moment, she didn't think that she'd be capable of getting there.

'It was the island,' she said, and it wasn't a question. The other two girls nodded.

'The cave,' Emma confirmed. 'It had to be. When I was in the water, it was like…'

'It was like we could have stayed there forever,' Rikki finished her thought. She had felt it, too, then. When Rikki had seen the moon come overhead, it was as though someone had wiped her mind, and it wasn't until she heard Emma yell that she seemed to snap out of it.

'If we'd stayed in that water any longer…' Emma didn't need to finish the thought. Maybe they wouldn't have come out of it at all.

Cleo sniffled.

'There's got to be a way to fix this,' she murmured, and Emma, who clearly enjoyed her role as caretaker as far as Rikki could see, put a soothing hand on her back and rubbed.

'It could be worse,' Rikki piped up, trying to put her usual positive spin on things. 'I mean, can you imagine if we changed every time we touched any water? That would be awful.'

Cleo just shook her head and a few tears dropped down, and Emma shot her an annoyed look as if to say, Look what you did. Rikki didn't feel that was necessarily warranted - she was trying to cheer her up in her own way, after all - but she sighed and said nothing more for a moment.

'We'll figure this out,' Emma said firmly. 'We have to.'

'I mean…' Rikki was really on a roll now, letting her mind relieve some of the fear she was feeling. 'It's really just an inconvenience, right? So we can't go swimming at the beach or the pool. It only happens if we're submerged. It's not a big deal.'

Emma's glare was beyond icy, and Rikki wondered idly that if looks could kill, she would have a very serious wound right now, at the very least.

'First of all,' Emma began in a clipped tone, 'If you had forgotten, I'm a champion swimmer and I kind of need to be submerged to do that.'

Rikki gave her a sheepish smile, but Emma plowed on.

'Secondly, if it was just a case of avoiding a swim, that would be great. But it clearly isn't that simple, because in case you've already forgotten, you were going crazy with the need to…' here, she took a deep shuddering breath before continuing, 'Transform. So I'm guessing that at the very least, it's like a dose of medicine that we need to take to feel normal. I'm already feeling something like what you described and I went out for a swim this morning.'

Rikki was staring at Emma as the reality of what she said was sinking in. She was right, of course. This wasn't just a case of avoiding pool parties. Cleo interrupted her thoughts by giving a little suppressed sob.

'We'll figure it out,' Emma repeated herself. 'We have to.'

Rikki nodded.

'There's a beach that I know, not far from school, where nobody really goes because it's quite rocky,' Emma was saying, and Rikki realised she was speaking to her. 'We can go there after school, if you want.'

Rikki didn't think this was an out-and-out olive branch, but she recognised it for what it was, something like a peace offering. A détente at the very least.

'Thanks,' she said, nodding her agreement. They both looked to Cleo, who shook her head fiercely.

'No thanks,' she said. 'I'll stick to my bathtub.'

Emma looked as though she wanted to protest, but said nothing and just nodded.

They must have been quite the sight, coming out of the pool, Rikki still mostly soaked through, Cleo with her red eyes and nose, and Emma with her steely, determined glare. A pall of fear hung over all three. But at least, Rikki thought, I'm not alone for a change.