H2O: A Mermaid Tail

18

    I wake up in the morning to my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I pick it up and blearily look at the text from Cleo.

    Birthday surprise for Ricky, meet at the moon pool at 8, bring Luke!

    I look at my clock. 7:45. I have 15 minutes to get dressed, grab Luke, and get to Mako! I jump out of bed and rush to my closet.

"Uh, friends birthday?" I say. I found out recently that the closet has clothes marked for occasions as well as labeling them cute or athletic. The spotlight falls to a shelf that I hadn't been at before. I ran over and pulled on the sunset orange dress and strappy sandals the color of my tail. I was about to run out when I stopped in my tracks. I turned and said to my closet,

"Friends birthday for a male." A shelf turns completely around and a spotlight shines on it. I grab the clothes, a blue shirt the exact color of HIS tail, and some black cargo shorts. I run out with the clothes and barge into my brothers room. Instead of the awesome closet, he opted for a room with a full wall window.

    I ran to his bed and threw myself onto him in full sister mode.

"Oof. Lethia, what do you want?" He grumbled in his manly morning voice, hair gone wild with red curls. I get up and start jumping on his bed, just barely missing stepping on him with every jump.

"For you to get up. It's Rikki's birthday, and you're going to get in her good graces. Come on! We're gonna be late!!!!" He gets out begrudgingly as I give him the clothes and turn around.

"If you're not dressed in the next two minutes I'm bringing you there in nothing but boxers." I say. He's ready in time (thank goodness). Finally awake, we run down the stairs two at a time and dive into the pool. We swim out together, as fast as possible. We race to Mako and make it (hehe Mako, make it. Yeah, I should just stop. But I won't.) with a minute to spare. We hold onto each other, panting with exhaustion, our morning adrenaline wasting away.

    I look up to see Cleo staring at my brothers tail with wide eyes, and Bella grinning at me. Oh yeah, I never got to tell Cleo about him because I was taken by the tentacle. Forgot about that.

"Um, Cleo, sorry, I meant to tell you the night of the sleepover but it all went a bit crazy. We're twins, so we were both in my moms stomach when she transformed. He has a power. Show her, Luke." He winks at Cleo.

"Hi." Then he raises his hand like a Jedi, pointing it at the water. It immediately begins to shine with a bright white light. "Comes in handy when I need to distract someone. And it looks wicked." Cleo gasps and grins at Luke.

"This is perfect! Come on, we're making Rikki's present." She turns and points her hand at the pool. A bubble of water rises up and slowly turns into the shape of a mermaid, clutching her head and smiling. "For the girl who hates everything." Cleo whispers. "Luke, make it shine, then Bella, you make it solid." They nod. Luke aims his hand and the water form glows softly. Bella raises hers and it turns solid and falls, no longer water. I catch it before it can hit the rock.

"Sorry you couldn't help make it, but it's still from all of us." Bella says to me. Cleo reaches out to the statue.

"Wait, it's not quite finished yet. There's something else I forgot to tell you at the sleepover." I cupped it in my hands and focused my powers on it. Slowly but surely, the face changed from an unrecognizable form to Rikki's exact features.

    I look up and hand it to Cleo, smiling. Bella hugs me and tries to twirl around, but we just fall into the moon pool. We come up sputtering
and laughing wildly.

"I'm so glad you found your power! What is it, exactly?" I went to a darker corner and gave a sinister smile as they exchanged glances.

"I'm not telling. You'll have to guess. 20 bucks to the first one who gets it. The offer ends in 24 hours." They all groaned and I cackled evilly, then ducked underwater and swam to Rikki's. We went in together. Cleo knocked on Rikki's office door.

"Come in!" Rikki shouts. We all come pouring in. "What's this? Is it a birthday present?" Rikki asks, gesturing to the box in Cleo's hands.

"Think of it as a late Christmas present." I joke. She laughs and reaches into the box, pulling out the statue.

"Cool. Really, this is awesome!" She smiles and puts it on her desk. We all leave, except got me. I put on a worried expression.

"Rikki, will you meet me at the moon pool at 2? I have something I need to show you and the girls."

"What is it?" She asks, falling for my lie. Or not, but at least she's making an effort. I give her a half smile.

"I can't say here. Just make sure you're there." She nods and I leave. I open the door only to find Sophie there cleaning cups and staring at me. She sets down the cup and walks over to me.

"What's going on? Everyone else just ignored me or gave me some lie." I smiled and gestured for her to put her ear to my mouth.

"It's Rikki's birthday, and she really doesn't want anyone to know." I whisper. She smiles and tilts her head. "Don't tell her I told you." I say sternly.

"Cross my heart." She replies, and goes back to the dishes. Cleo waits for me by the door, and I head over. I was about to follow her out the door when Will walked in.

"Lethia! I've been looking all over for you." He says happily.

"Congratulations, you found me." I reply, a cold indifference apparent in my voice. He looks a bit taken aback but stays there.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you. And the actual you, not...you know." I raise an eyebrow and Cleo reaches in, dragging me away. I had to force myself not to look back, or I just might cry.

    "Come on, let's go for a swim." Cleo says. I nod, and we walk down the road until we get to a secluded area, where we dove in. We swam for about an hour, then headed back to the cafe. Cleo checks her phone, and groans.

    "I've got to go set up for the party at Mako, go and make sure Rikki gets there."

    "On it." I walk into the cafe to see Sophie carrying the till over to Rikki, when a worker dumps a pitcher of water on it. She freaks out, apologizing. Rikki just tells her to set it on the table, so Sophie grabs the files that Rikki was holding and goes into the office. I walk over to Rikki and watch as she dries off the money with her powers.

    "Cool. Are those charred?" I ask, gesturing to some smoldering bills in the till. Rikki picks up the two 50s I was pointing at. Indeed they were charred, but they were also fake. We share a look and I run over to Sophie.

    "Where'd the 50s come from? They're counterfeit." She looks at the money I held in my hands.

    "Down at the wharf, a guy wanted something delivered. Will said it was a houseboat." I nod and go back to Rikki, and we walk down to the wharf together, on a mission to find the cash.