It rained consistently for 48 hours, and all three girls were going out of their minds from being cooped up. To justify their inactivity to their parents, each girl suddenly had a great deal of "studying" and "homework" to do, even long after they'd finished.

Emma, being Emma, read two chapters ahead in every class. When she wasn't reading, she did sit-ups and pushups, wishing she could hit the school gym.

Cleo tackled advanced biology with a vengeance. Introductory biology had given her fits the previous year, and she had no desire to repeat that anxiety. She was determined to memorize the four main stages of cellular mitosis if it was the last thing she did. Prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase. She created a mnemonic: professional metaphysicians analyze telephones.

Every time a tiny voice in the back of her head screamed When will you ever use this information?!, she stubbornly told it to shut up. School was something you just had to do. But the resentment of being forced to learn what she felt was completely useless knowledge festered nonetheless. It joined forces with the feeling of being cooped up, and festered some more.

Even Rikki studied.

But first, she wanted to try something, now that it was daylight and she was home alone.

She perched at her bedroom window, which looked out onto the canal behind the house, and tested her new lightning power. She could only do this during a storm, or people would ask questions. And she could only do it during daylight, because she wanted to see what she was aiming at, to make sure no one was near her target.

Right now, the canal was deserted. No one was on the water or on the banks. In fact, Rikki couldn't see anyone out at all. This was understandable, as the rain was still coming down heavily.

Concentrating, she stretched out her hand and called forth lightning from the clouds. She ordered it to strike dead center in the middle of the canal.

Electricity spat down. Rikki could actually feel it! A tiny tingle ran down her body, perfectly mirroring the bright flash outside.

With an enormous crack, the lightning struck the house directly across the canal. The house appeared unharmed, but Rikki watched as all its lights died.

She gave a tiny squeal and put a fist to her mouth, horrified. Then, in a loud whisper, said, "Sorry!" to the neighbors.

She wanted to try again, badly...but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She might truly hurt someone, and she'd never be able to live with herself if she did. Reluctantly, she accepted that until she found somewhere safe to practice, she could not use her lightning power.

She grumped, and scowled at the world.

So she gave up on the lightning and did one of her new favorite things: analyzed her stock situation using the tools and methods Harrison had taught her. She still marveled at the joy and wonder of playing with real money. Her money. She dreamed of the day she could do something wonderful with it.

After several hours of investigation and pondering, she sold nothing.

Half on instinct, half on analysis, she bought one hundred shares of FishForward, a new seafood distributor which had gone public just that week. The owner of the company was no stranger to the business. He had formed FishForward after jumping ship from the existing distributor, which was floundering under someone else's mismanagement. With the owner's reputation and connections in the industry, FishForward looked poised to take advantage of the old distributor's misfortunes and take over the market in New South Wales and Queensland. At least, that's what all the scuttlebutt said. Rikki took a chance, deciding she'd find out whether that was true.

She bought nothing else. Maybe one day she'd be bold and daring, but for now, she was hypercautious.

Once Rikki finished her stock moves, she could only stare at the rain so much. The textbook and the rain both made her eyes glaze over, so she figured she might as well sort-of learn something while sinking into a stupor. It was just a few weeks into the school year, and she was acutely aware that her grades already sucked eggs. God, she hated school.

There was, conspicuously, no chat on the merchat.

 

Saturday morning, Don Sertori's little fleet was back at sea. By then, the storm had faded to a simple, pleasant rain. Rain increased fish yield, and the lost time from the storm had eaten into Don's revenue. He was eager to get on the water.

Just before boarding the El Sea, he ran into Neil Gilbert at the front of the marina, standing alone under an umbrella.

"Don!" Neil shouted with glee.

"Hey, Neil, what brings you down into my world?" Don asked with a smile and a handshake.

Neil stepped close so he and Don could share the umbrella while they chatted. "I got a bozo of a client who wants to build a restaurant right on the marina front."

Don looked around. "Where's he gonna put it?"

"Nowhere. I've told him five times it won't happen, for a dozen reasons. Including city zoning, among many other things. He won't listen! He insists that if I just meet him in person at the marina, and listen to his pitch one more time, I'll suddenly see the light and share his dream." Neil shook his head in exasperation.

"Sounds like a huge waste of time. Why bother meeting him?"

"He's literally paying me to come down here and tell him he's a fruitcake. And I gotta tell ya Don, I have no shame. I'll take a madman's money. I mean, if I don't, someone else sure will!"

"Ha! I have mad respect for a man who refuses to give up his dream. But there's tenacity, and then there's insanity."

"Right? It gets even better. He wants the food to be a mixture of Greek and Italian! Alongside the waterfront, he insists it will make his customers feel like they're in the Mediterranean."

Don laughed and shook his head. "Well, except for the money part, I don't envy you."

"Hey, you know, it's been a while since you and I got together. We used to see each other several times a month, at least, after our college days."

"Yeah, but then children came along. We need to fix that."

"You mean get rid of our children?"

They laughed. "Every now and then, it's tempting, I know," Don said. "No, we need to get together."

"Dinner at our house, soon. Bring the family. I don't know Lisa's glassware convention schedule, so I'll let her text you the invite."

"Sounds like a plan. Just don't scare my eldest with a glass of water. She spooks easily!"

Neil's smile stopped cold. He gave Don a very, very odd look. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Don said, waving his comment away.

Neil was suddenly very serious. He grabbed Don's arm. "No...it...Don, Emma's been acting strange these past few months. You know she quit the swim team, right?"

"Yeah, I heard. Really surprising."

"She won't tell us why. And she has this strange affectation about water. She...doesn't seem to like touching it anymore."

The two men stared at each other. Don suddenly felt cold, and not because of the rain.

"Neil," Don said quietly. "You just described Cleo to a tee."

"Really?"

Don nodded. "It's very strange. And you know how hard it is to talk to teenagers. I've been trying to find a way to get her to open up to me, but Cleo's a tough nut to crack. She wears long gloves to do the dishes, and to take care of her fish. She won't take cold drinks anymore."

"Emma's the same!"

They stared at each other again.

"And this started several months ago, right?" Don asked.

"As best I can tell. We only noticed it slowly. But...now I think about it...it was about the time she quit the swim team! That was five, six months ago."

"Lisa knows all this?"

"We've discussed it. We're...getting concerned."

"So Emma and Cleo are both afraid of water completely?!"

"Well, I don't know about afraid," Neil said thoughtfully. "I'll tell you something else weird: Lisa swears up and down that a few weeks ago, she walked in on Emma teaching herself diver hand signals."

"What's strange about that?"

"Emma's never been scuba diving in her life, and has never mentioned any wish to do so. I'm sure she'd enjoy it, but she's never been, unless she's keeping it a secret. Lisa asked her about it, and Emma was evasive, saying something about a school project. But when Lisa mentioned this supposed project to Emma's teacher, he had no idea what she was talking about."

"Bizarre!"

"Yeah! So if Emma's afraid of water, why would she be learning diver hand signals?!"

"What in the world is going on with our girls?!"

Neil shrugged. "No idea!"

"No, let's think about this logically. This started five or six months ago. Can you think of anything unusual that happened about that time?"

Neil shook his head.

"I can't either," Don said. "Okay. How about a change of some kind? Did something come into or out of our lives about six months ago? Either of us?"

Neil shook his head slowly, obviously trying to think of anything.

"Okay," Don said. "Did something come into or out of our girls' lives about six months ago?"

Neil stopped shaking his head and tilted it to one side, an odd look on his face. "Yeah," he said slowly. "That was when they befriended Rikki."

The two men shared a look of dawning comprehension.

"She's struck me as nothing but a really nice girl," Don said. "Bit sarcastic sometimes, but no real problems."

"Same here. She's eaten at our table, slept under our roof..."

"But we know nothing about her! Have you met her family?"

"I haven't even been told about her family. You?"

"Nothing. But she became Emma and Cleo's new best friend about the time all this water nonsense started."

"And have you noticed the three of them wear matching lockets?"

Don thought a moment. "I hadn't, but now you mention it, yeah. Do I dare say it?"

"Say what?"

Don leaned forward. "Cult." He almost whispered it, as if he was afraid of going too far down a conspiracy rabbit hole, no matter how much sense it made. "I mean, friendship lockets for someone you've only known a few months?" He shrugged. "Multiple people exhibiting the same strange behavior, at the same time? And being secretive about it?"

Neil looked grim. "I'm not sure about a cult, but I admit, it's giving me chills. It's high time we learned more about this friend our daughters have adopted."

"I'm right there with you!"

"Hang on, I just remembered something. Emma said Rikki dated Zane for a while."

"Yeah, I think I heard the girls say something about that once."

"Oh, I just remembered more! Rikki was Zane's date the day Harrison had us over to talk about his Mako project! I'd forgotten! She really got riled up that day. Pissed Harrison off no end."

"Okay, so Harrison might know something about this girl."

"It's definitely worth asking."

"It sounds like we all need to compare notes!"

"I agree." Neil glanced into the distance. "My client's here. When will you be back tonight?"

"Whenever you need. This is important."

"Why don't we meet at Frenchie's, like we used to. Just you, me, Lisa, and I'll see if Harrison can join us. I...I don't want to meet at the house. I don't want Emma to suspect we're talking about this."

"Seven o'clock?"

"Sounds good. Lisa and I will be there, at least."

"All right." They shook hands. "See you tonight, and maybe we can get to the bottom of this."

Neil clapped Don on the arm and nodded, then turned to greet his crazy client.

Don headed for his boat, wondering what kind of strangeness the world was throwing at him now.

 

The skies began to clear early Saturday afternoon.

Cleo was glued to the weather reports and to her window. At one point, she had even tried using her power to make the clouds get a move on. It didn't seem to have any effect, so she put her chin in her hands and stuck her tongue out at the clouds, instead. This, also, had no effect.

Lewis, of course, would have been fascinated by her attempt, which is precisely why she would never tell him about it. He would pester her incessantly to run tests for a week, charting her power's strength by distance, by volume, by time, by rubber ducks, by ladybugs, by whether she had sneezed in the past five minutes, by who knows? Lewis could be exhausting.

She texted him, telling him she'd love to see him that evening, but her afternoon would be spent in the ocean.

She'd come a long way from the girl who couldn't swim because she was afraid of water.

Finally, the sun broke through, and the few remaining clouds were white and fluffy. She hit those buttons on the merchat so hard.

IT'S TIME!!! Usual beach? I say yes!

And she was out the door. She waited an entire minute before checking the merchat, and was disappointed to see no response. She had expected immediate enthusiasm from her fellow merfolk.

Five minutes later, still no response.

She reached their usual beach (chosen precisely because it was difficult to get to, so, often it was deserted). No Emma. No Rikki. No response.

She sat and waited, watching the ocean, itching inside.

"Hey," Emma said from off to one side.

Cleo turned to find Emma approaching, already taking off her shoes. But she looked kind of glum.

"You didn't respond to my text!" Cleo said, slightly annoyed.

This, in turn, annoyed Emma. "Was I supposed to?"

"It would have been nice."

Emma scowled, sort of at Cleo, sort of at the world around her. Emotionally, she looked kind of lost.

Cleo's heart softened. "Rough couple of days?"

She barely detected Emma's shrug. Her friend still wouldn't look at her.

This irritated Cleo again. She was trying to be nice, trying to help her friend, and Emma was blowing her off.

She tried again. "Emma, look...I'm really sorry you're having such a hard time. I just want you to know I wish I could do something."

"Well you can't!" Emma snapped. Then she looked around the beach again, looking at anything but Cleo.

If it had been anyone else, Cleo would have stopped there. But Emma had been her best friend since before her memory even began. "Do you wish we'd never become mermaids?"

"What do you think?" Emma snapped at her again. "That stupid island! That stupid boat trip! It's like my life diverged from what it should have been that day, put me on a different track that I didn't ask for! Hey, Emma! Want a ride? I should have kept walking!"

Emma's words reminded Cleo of the lyrics to one of her favorite songs. She asked, "You mean somewhere, in an alternate universe, there's another you, and another now?"

"Exactly!" Emma snarled at her. "And I wish I was her! Do you get it?!"

Cleo stared at her a moment, her lip quivering. "Why are you taking it out on me?" she asked quietly. Because of the wind, she wasn't sure Emma even heard her. She gave no sign that she had.

But Rikki, coming up behind her, had heard. "Because it's easier to take it out on someone else than to do something about it," she said accusingly.

Cleo looked over her shoulder. Rikki stood on a dune, a little above her, glaring at Emma.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Emma asked, more forcefully than Cleo could ever remember.

"Did I stutter?" Rikki asked. "It's been five months. Get over yourself!"

"Fuck you, Rikki!" The pain and wrath on Emma's face was astonishing.

Cleo froze, and tried to shrink into the sand. She had never, ever heard Emma utter even the slightest curse word. What is happening?! she thought.

Rikki just nodded, looking around the beach with a yeah-that-figures look. She knew she should have walked away right then. But she wasn't about to let Emma have the last word, and the resentment which had been building for five months could wait no more. "Yeah, that's the best answer you've got," Rikki said. "Because you know I'm right!"

"Rikki, she's still grieving," Cleo said.

"No, she's picking at a wound because she doesn't want it to heal!" Rikki said. "And you enable her, because you offer sympathy every time she does it!"

Cleo's mouth dropped open.

Emma had her arms folded by now. "Rikki, I think you should leave." Her voice was boulders grinding over ice.

Rikki spread her arms wide. "Public beach. I'm here to swim. Deal with it."

"Please stop," Cleo said, her voice pleading.

"Don't waste your breath, Cleo," Emma said. "This is who she is."

"Both of you!" Cleo said.

Emma looked at Cleo with scorn and shook her head. "I'm not the one mocking my pain for losing one of the most precious things I ever had!"

"No, but you snapped at me, too, and I was trying to help!" Cleo said, but Emma never heard her because Rikki talked over Cleo with her own response.

"If it's so precious, do something about it instead just whinging all the time!" Rikki shouted. "Is that not blazingly obvious?!"

Emma lost it. Waving her hands in an I'm-done motion, she turned around, picked up her shoes, and stalked off.

Cleo, close to tears, watched her walk away. She looked at Rikki, who was watching Emma with scorn.

Then Rikki looked at Cleo, saw the despair on her face, and heaped scorn onto her, too. "Stop feeling sorry for her, Cleo! I swear. You're such a wet noodle!"

Cleo screamed.

Then she took a deep, deep breath and screamed again, for a full five seconds.

It was louder than she'd ever screamed. It was full of rage and pain, and seemed to echo off the ocean itself. Her body shook with the power of it all. It was a scream so full of anguish that Emma actually stopped and turned around, stunned.

Cleo's scream finally died away. Its ghost drifted off on the wind, over the sand and the sea.

The three girls were still. They could have been a painting.

Emma, standing and staring at Cleo, her shoes dangling from two fingers.

Rikki, standing above Cleo on a small dune, her face working with pent-up emotions, but finally silent.

Cleo, sitting on the sand, looking at the ground and breathing hard.

For what seemed like forever, no one moved. Nothing in the entire world existed but the sound of the surf softly roaring onto land, uncaring of their argument.

Cleo finally stood. She was shaking.

"Don't you get it?" she asked, struggling to make her soft, shaky voice heard despite the wind. "There's no one but us. There's no one to help us but ourselves. There's no one who understands anything we're going through except each other." She looked at Emma, then at Rikki. "As long as we keep a secret, as long as we stay in hiding, you two are my only true support. Emma: Rikki and I are your only true support. Rikki: Emma and I are your only true support. Maybe one day that will change, but for now, that's the way it is. You've got no one else. We've got no one else. I've got no one else! We're a tiny, three-person community with no help whatsoever from the outside world. Except Lewis, and, you know, he's...Lewis."

The tiniest smile flashed for a fraction of a second across Cleo's face at that. This resulted in even tinier, almost miniscule smiles from the other girls, for the one thing they could all agree on was that Lewis was, indeed, Lewis.

"And a community can't tear itself apart," Cleo continued. "If we hurl our pain at each other, what good does that do? The only way we can get pain out of our little community is if we direct it outward somehow! When we throw it inward, at ourselves, the only thing it does is ricochet around the inside of our little community, and it never stops, because it's trapped! It becomes an eternal internal echo! Bouncing around, creating still more pain every time it hits one of us! If we just keep lashing out at each other, all we do is hand our pain off to one of the other two, like a hot potato, and we keep sending the hot potatoes around and around, making it worse every time. We can't be our own punching bags!"

Cleo shook her head, as if begging them to understand. "A house divided never stands. We either have each other's backs..." Cleo looked Emma in the eye, then looked Rikki in the eye. "...or we don't make it through this at all. You're my friends, and I need you. So if I make mistakes, just tell me. Help me with them, instead of shouting at me. Rikki: if Emma or I make mistakes, or if you have a problem with us, just say so without shouting, without ripping our heads off." Cleo quickly looked at Emma. "And the same goes for you! And for me. I'll try to do better in the future. But please...I've been cooped up for two days, and the sun is finally shining..."

Despite Cleo's best efforts, the tears finally came.

"...and the only thing I want to do is swim in the ocean with my two best friends."

She stood there, looking at both of them, her eyes pleading with them through her tears.

Waves broke ashore, slid up the beach, slid back into the ocean. Broke ashore, slid up the beach, slid back into the ocean.

It seemed to take forever, but finally, someone moved. But neither Emma nor Rikki made the first move – they moved at the same time. Subdued, and looking a little abashed, Emma walked back to Cleo. Rikki made her way down the dune.

The three girls came together.

"I'm sorry," Emma and Rikki both tried to say at the same time. They smiled at each other, and each let out a tiny, embarrassed laugh.

"I'm sorry," Emma said. "You're right. Yes, I'm in pain. And yes, maybe it's because I pick at it instead of doing something about it. And yes, Cleo, you were trying to help me and I used you as a punching bag." Tears sparked her eyes. "And I never want to do that again."

"I'm sorry, too," Rikki said. "Emma...I have no idea what it's like to lose a lifelong dream." She gave a mild snort of self-scorn. "Because I've never had one. I've never had any aspirations to do anything other than just play my life away. You have a passion, and that was taken from you. And instead of finding a passion of my own, it's easier to mock yours. I have no plans for my life, no direction, no aim. I just want to play, until adulthood catches up to me and throws me to the ground. And Cleo, I'm sorry. You're the sweetest person I know. I guess...I was also using you as punching bag. An easy target, which makes me a coward. God, I'm sorry."

Cleo nodded. "And I'm sorry, too." She looked at Emma. "If I truly have enabled you not to move on. If I haven't done enough to help you grieve the right way." She looked at Rikki. "If I didn't do enough to make you feel welcome when you moved here. If I was so comfortable with my little cliquish life that I ever made you feel like an outsider, like you weren't good enough to join the rest of us. I'm sorry."

"I'm also sorry for not reaching out to the new girl when you first arrived," Emma said to Rikki.

Rikki was stunned. She had no idea that either Cleo or Emma was cognizant of how she'd still felt like an outsider, even if just a tiny bit.

Rikki looked back and forth between them. "Thank you," she said quietly. She was truly and deeply moved for one of the few times in her life.

They suddenly hugged, without even thinking. All three of them, Emma and Rikki with their heads over Cleo's shoulders. They stayed that way for a long, long time.

They finally pulled apart. All three had wet eyes.

Rikki smiled at Cleo and gave her a nudge. "Where'd you learn to make speeches like that?"

Cleo gave an embarrassed smile. "My therapist."

Emma and Rikki blinked at her, puzzled and mildly surprised.

Cleo gave a little shrug. "I've been seeing a counselor about my mom for about a month, now."

The others nodded in understanding.

Cleo continued sheepishly. "I just repeated all the things I've heard her say. What, you think I could come up with all that high-falutin' stuff on my own?" She smiled. "I guess it worked!"

They laughed. "Yeah," Emma said. "It sure did!"

"So," Rikki said. "Are we gonna stand here burning daylight, or are we gonna swim?"

"It's about time someone asked!" Cleo said with a grin.

"Actually, before we swim, I have a request," Emma said. "It'll take a couple of hours, but...I think it's something we really need to do."