Chapter 6

"So...Lewis will just be heading off to school now? Will anyone be home?" Rikki asked Cleo.

"No. His parents usually leave at least half an hour before Lewis does."

"Okay, well since we have doubles, we won't be missed – do you think we could go to his house, you know where the spare key is ay?" Rikki asked

"Rikki, wouldn't that be robbery?" Rikki shrugged at Emma's comment. "Not really..."

"Regardless of that," Cleo began, "He's probably taken it with him. Remember the day after he got it her brought it to school to show us,"

"Blast! Did not think of that. Well, I guess we are going to school..."

OoOoO

The five girls peered around from a clump of trees at the school field. They saw Rikki and Emma get up as the bell went and going to class as Lewis and Cleo still sat talking about the book.

"How on earth are we going to get it?" Rikki whispered forcefully.

"We're not?" Bella said.

"Not yet. But we can't give up," Emma said, "We'll have to follow them from a distance,"

"This is so damn creepy!" Rikki said, "I just saw myself!"

"So did we Rikki," Cleo said.

"We'll find a way of getting it, we have to, this is just too strange being here," Emma said

OoOoO

The girls got Bella and Anna again to buy lunch, the shop owners would recognise Emma, Rikki and Cleo and wonder why they were not in school. They then waited near to the school gates, this wasn't too bad, they chatted for the few hours and then went for a brief swim before returning in time to hear the bell go signalling the end of school.

"If I remember correctly," Cleo said, "We went to the cafe after school,"

"That isn't too hard to work out; we always used to go to the cafe after school!" Rikki said.

Bella shrugged, it was true, even the year she was there, they did.

"Could you possibly go in and spy?" Emma asked Anna and Bella, of course they agreed buying five smoothies, bringing three out to them before settling at a table a few away from the group.

OoOoO

"You know what?" Emma said to Rikki and Cleo while waiting for the others, "Ash should not be working here yet! Wilfred was still manager at this stage we had an emergency staff meeting about now, but it looks like Ash is holding it!"

"Chill Em," Rikki said, "This is like an alternate universe, Ash working shouldn't alter too much, you weren't friends at this stage,"

OoOoO

"They're leaving," Bella said to Anna. After a brief chat with the others they went on to casually follow them around for the rest of the day, well they followed Lewis at least, the mermaids were gathering ingredients from the sea. Later that afternoon they met up with the others again. "What are we going to do? This is useless, he has the book with him the whole time," Anna said.

"We can't give up," Cleo said.

"I have a plan..." Rikki started. Emma raised her eyebrows but listened regardless.

OoOoO

That night when the group went into the Juicenet Cafe, Bella waited about five minutes so that when she arrived the potion would be prepared except the the mermaids would not have used their powers on it yet. The group had not locked the door behind them making it so much easier for Anna and Bella to get in. The others waited under the wharf waiting for Bella and Anna to get them.

Anna and Bella silently crept through the dark cafe to the cooler room where the potion was being made. The lights were on in there. Bella took a deep breath and motioned for Anna to stay there. She nodded her acknowledgement.

Bella flung open the fridge door making an entrance. "What's going on here?"

The teenaged Rikki, Cleo, Emma and Lewis turned around and gasped.

"Who are you?" Emma asked "And what are you doing in the cafe?"

Avoiding the question Bella asked, "What are you doing? Aw, that smells!"

"Ahh, nothing, nothing..." Lewis said moving to try to block Bella's view of the fungus/algae potion placing his precious book on a shelf beside him. Anna peered through the doorway, unseen by the others. It was not a part of the plan, but she saw the opportunity and took it. Gently she took control of some water droplets increasing its mass so that it turned into a thin tentacle. She made it grab the spine of the book, lifting it slowly as Bella distracted the others. Bella noticed but made no hints of what was going on.

"...you wouldn't believe us if we told you," Lewis said

"Try me," Bella said. "Hmm, maybe you are trying to make a magical potion of some sort with all this algae and fungi," Their jaws dropped, how could she know? "...And if you, what if this all goes wrong? What if it becomes uncontrollable and takes over the cafe, spreading its poisonous odour and pores everywhere? What would happen then? Isn't making this potion inside the cooler room with all the food a little risky?" Bella asked pointedly.

"Wha-how? I mean, how do you know what we are doing? Who are you?" Lewis narrowed his eyes.

"I have my methods and in answer to the latter; you do not need to know that right now." Bella smirked, "But that's beside the point. What if it does?"

Emma pondered this then turned to Lewis, "Yeah,"

Rikki and Cleo also turned to look at him. Thank goodness that they hadn't noticed the book hovering near to the floor held by a water tentacle, it was almost in Anna's hands.

"Could it get out of control Lewis?"

"Maybe?" he replied shyly.

"We are moving it." Emma said finally. "I do not need this cafe in a wreck."

"But it might be delicate...Fine." he submitted when he saw Emma's glare. "Let's move it outside."

As soon as the book resided in Anna's hands, she put the water back where she had it from and ran stealthily out of the cafe to wait for Bella out of sight. Bella, once she saw that the book and Anna had exited the building, she spoke to the teens. "Well, I won't tell about this whole episode, so I will see you...next year..." she said mysteriously walking out, grabbing a plastic bag from behind the counter in the process.

"That chick is strange." Rikki said, "Do you think she knew what we were?" Bella almost laughed aloud.

"Hopefully not...but she was pretty mysterious." Emma replied.

"Well, let's move this thing," Cleo said.

"Oh no! Where is the book?" Lewis shouted. At this Bella sprinted out handed the bag to Anna and dived into the water. Anna slipped the bag around the book so that no water could come in. She would also place a protective air bubble around it as they swam as a precaution.

"Got it?" Rikki whispered.

"Yip," Bella replied. "I hope we didn't alter time too much..."

The five of them swam to the far side of Mako and dried off on an unfamiliar beach. By now it was pitch black. Rikki sent a bolt of lightning down to light up the area. It showed her a large piece of driftwood; she set the end of this alight and used it as a torch.

She then created a campfire further up the beach; by the light coming off the fire, they could examine the book on Mermaid Mythology.

"Okay, let's have a look."

A/N: I hope you are enjoying this, please please please REVIEW! It really does inspire me to write faster...

Enjoy this especially long chapter!