Chapter 136

It was ready to be sent. Everyone was equally excited and apprehensive about sending the draft to be peer reviewed, and thus starting to progress towards publishing, and the biggest secret they had ever kept becoming a bit less secret.

Katya, Alan, Linda and Lewis had painstakingly put it together. They looked over all the details included with excruiating detail to make sure there was nothing that could be linked back to the participants on Mako. The key parts included the evidence, recognising mermaids as sentient beings, physical abilities and form (not including powers), and the DNA sequencing. They did not mention the 'how to be a mermaid' and did not emphasise the role water has in changing between tail and legged forms.

The evidence samples would be presented alongside the paper for the researchers peer reviewing it. Katya and Linda would be the ones presenting it and doing all the publicity when the inevitable attention started from the public and scientific community alike. This way there would be less chance of anyone linking it back to Alan and Lewis' families.

"Ready team?" Linda asked. They were gathered at Linda's house. There was a round of nods. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife – a bundle of nervous and excited energy. "Alrighty," she continued, "Let's do this!". And with that, Dr Denman pressed send on the email submission.

Lewis let out a heavy breath.

"No going back," he said, leaning back against the couch.

"Linda and I have our meeting to share the evidence on Wednesday. It gives the panel a few days to read through the article first before seeing what we present," Katya commented. "Our research won't be known to the public until it is officially published. While not all articles receive large amounts of attention, when already know that this topic will draw a lot of interest. Enjoy the time over the next few weeks before the media storm," she grinned.

"We'll try," Emma smiled tightly.

"I just wanted to thank you all," Katya began. "I know that this is difficult for you all – but I really really appreciate you giving this a chance. And me a chance,"

"Thank you Katya," Rikki replied, giving her a quick pat on the arm. "I wasn't for this at the start, and things could still go wrong, but thank you for giving us this opportunity in such a collaborative way. I think we all appreciate that," she finished looking around at her friends for confirmation. They all nodded their agreement.

OoOoO

That evening the older children were hanging out together in the great climbing tree a short walk down the path from the village on Mako. Jenny was trying to see how high she could go.

"Hey Jake, I want to make us a safety mat, just in case we fall," Jenny said, ever thinking ahead. She moved water around the base of the large tree they were in. "Auntie Emma always tells us to be careful when climbing. Can you make this water jelly elastic?"

Jake grinned. "Yep," he answered, and within seconds the ground around the tree was gelatine and he twisted his hand again and the gelatine became elasticised.

"Nice job," Jenny said with a proud smile. She stood on the branch she had been sitting on and began to climb higher. Jake, Charlie and Daniel followed suit. Andy and Leila were quite happy to watch, resting on their branches.

Once the kids were happy with their new tree climbing heights, they started to make their way down.

"I'm going to try out your jelly mat," Charlie called out with a grin.

"No, don't do…" Jenny started.

But Charlie jumped out from the lower tree branch before Jenny could finish her sentence.

"…that"

Charlie landed on the elastic-like jelly and with a graceless yelp she bounced up, nearly missing hitting her head on the same branch she had jumped off. She bounced and few more times then scrambled off the mat.

"That was awesome!" Charlie exclaimed. "I want to do that again!" As she moved to climb back up, Jenny and Jake had removed the mat.

"Awww," Charlie groaned. "Why not?"

"Let's set one up that we can all jump on that isn't underneath a tree," Jenny rolled her eyes. "I'd rather not bump my head,"

"Alright," Charlie replied.

The group moved back to the clearing by the village where they had created a trampoline weeks earlier.

"If we make a jumping platform and then a safety mat around the trampoline, I think it'll be safe and we won't get in trouble," Jenny reasoned.

They got to it. Jenny formed the jumping box and Jake solidified it, and then Jenny made another ground coverage mat which Jake made into jelly. Jelly this time as if one bounced off the tramp onto another bouncy mat, it might be problematic. It was squishy jelly to absorb the fall.

They all took turns jumping off the tall box onto the trampoline, and then just continued bouncing. They played the game 'crack the egg' that Rikki had taught them all once the trampoline was common knowledge in the village. The game involves sitting on the trampoline holding ones legs to their chest and the bouncer trying to 'crack the egg' by making the person let go of their legs. Charlie was the first bouncer of course. Leila was the last standing 'egg' even though Charlie had tried the hardest to crack her twin. On Eric's turn, Jenny was the last egg standing.

After Jake's turn, they were all tired out from all the jumping and climbing they had been doing that afternoon. They lay back on the trampoline resting. Danny and Eric jumped off the trampoline into the goo as they wanted to head back to the village to play with their remote control cars. They wrestled against the gooey jelly.

"Jake!" Eric called out, "Let us out,"

Jake did so and Jenny moved away the water before it touched the boys skin.

There were a few minutes of silence.

"I want to get some presents for our mums and dads," Andy commented suddenly.

"Presents?" Jenny asked her sister.

"Everyone seems sad," Andy replied. Jenny thought.

"I don't think they're sad, Andy," Jenny replied. "They're anxious- nervous. Remember what Mum told us about the big research Dad was doing with Katya, Alan and Linda? It means people might know about mermaids soon so I think they're worried,"

"Yeah," Andy agreed. "We could get them something to make them feel better,"

"What do you have in mind?" Leila asked.

"Could we make them their favourite animals? Jake could help us make them,"

"Okay," Jenny replied. "Let's do it."

They got to work but Jenny and Andy quickly found that the intricacies for molding some animals was really hard. So they settled on making one animal for each household.

They made a dog for the Bennetts, a dolphin for the Benjamins, a horse for the Doves, a cat for the Charles', and a sea turtle for the McCartneys.

"They look great guys," Charlie complimented.

They decided that they would present the gifts to their parents at dinner – which wasn't too far away. They found some large leaves to wrap the gifts in and tied them shut with flax. They had just finished and were admiring the gifts when they felt the familiar dinner call come into their minds.

'Dinner time everyone' Bella called out.

'Eric, Danny,' Jenny contacted, 'We made presents for our families to give at dinner – come grab your family ones,'

OoOoO

The group of kids made their way to the dining hall clutching their presents. Leila held her family's one, Jake, Andy, Eric and Danny theirs respectively.

"What have you got there?" Cleo asked with a smile as Jenny and Andy sat down by her.

"It's a surprise," Jenny replied. "We'll tell you after dinner,"

"Ooh," Cleo replied warmly, "I can't wait,"

Most people had finished eating so Cleo decided to give the kids an opportunity to share what they had brought. She had noticed that each household represented had a little leaf bundle.

"Hi everyone," Cleo called out. "It seems the kids have a surprise for us, right Jenny?"

"Yes," Jenny smiled. "It was Andy's idea – Andy do you want to say something?"

"We made presents for you today," Andy said. "With you all so sad – I mean 'anxious-nervous'" she quoted Jenny from earlier, "we wanted to do something to make you happy,"

Cleo's heart melted with love – and sadness that their anxiousness was so noticeable to the kids.

"There's one for each family," Jenny added in.

Each mother received the gift presented by their respective children involved. It was fair to say that their eyes all pricked with tears. Even Rikki was deeply moved.

Cleo opened hers quickly when Andy handed the bundle over.

"Oh, it is beautiful girls!" Cleo breathed and admired the delicate 3D sea turtle. "Thank you so much. I am definitely feeling happy"

A brilliant smile spread across Andy's face. Cleo would remember that smile forever.

OoOoO

A few days later, Katya and Linda sat at a round table with other researchers, presenting their evidence of mermaids. The researchers were thoroughly convinced and Katya and Linda had to field a huge range of questions – and they ran out of time to address them all. The scientific community was excited to publish such ground-breaking research. They had never before had such profoundly undeniable evidence for (previously-thought-to-be) mythological creatures existing. Katya and Linda were told that the article would be published in the next volume of the Journal of Animal Science and Zoology at the end of the next month.

On their drive to Rikki's café to meet up with the mers again, Katya and Linda agreed that this was a much faster time frame than expected – it usually took a bit longer to get published.

Katya and Linda updated the mers on the meeting and the publishing date.

One more month of semi-normalcy – and then everything would be changing.

"Time to get ready for the media storm!" Katya laughed nervously.

A/N: Hello everyone! I am back in NZ! I had a wonderful trip to North America. My favourite part was the Olympic National Park in Washington - we went to the Hoh Rainforest and I got to see elk and woodpeckers and squirrels. So cool for me :) I also loved Disneyland - the Star Wars section was epic. I loved every city I visited, those are just a few highlights :D

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! I love writing the antics of the kids. Let me know your thoughts- I love hearing what you think about the chapters.

Thanks so much to Eleanoodle, YaleAceBella12, Icy-Petals and Guest for leaving reviews. I really appreciate you!

See you all next time!