With school out, each day was much like the last. Blessed teenage summer fun. Only Cleo's job prevented her from lazing each day away, but she still managed to do a lot of that.

"Do you guys want to go see Night of the Living Moon Rocks this weekend?" Emma asked as she, Cleo, Rikki, and Lewis sat at a table on the Juicenet patio.

"Is that the one where the demonic moon rocks invade Earth and possess people?" Lewis asked.

"I'm fairly confident no other movie fits that description," Emma said.

"I saw the trailer," Rikki said. "It looks proper stupid. I'm in."

"Rocks can't be living," Lewis said. "They're rocks."

"Ugh!" Rikki exclaimed. "Science nerd ruins movie! Details at ten!"

"No, I'll go!" Lewis said defiantly.

"And you'll go quietly, without ruining it, right?" Emma asked.

"I make no promises," Lewis said.

Cleo looked distant, as if she hadn't heard a word.

"What about it, Cleo?" Emma asked.

"Hmm?" Cleo asked, coming back to the present.

"Movie?" Emma asked. "This weekend?"

Cleo shrugged. "Nah. I'm gonna go see my mom this weekend. See how she's doing."

The others nodded in appreciation, but didn't ask further. They knew this was still a very touchy subject for her.

The next day, half an hour before heading to the cinema, Cleo called Emma. "So, I'm not going to see my mom. Can I still join you for the movie?"

"Of course you can, Cleo! What kind of question is that?"

 

Miriam posted fliers inviting anyone and everyone to her birthday party, because of course she did. Stacks of fliers were left at various strategic points throughout Juicenet. The entire world was invited to a massive beach bonfire and cookout with a live band.

"Sheesh!" Rikki said, scowling at the flier while standing in Juicenet's doorway. "You'd think she cured cancer and forged world peace." She slapped the flier back onto the stack.

"Miriam's gonna Miriam," Emma said.

"As long as she Miriams away from me," Rikki said. The group of four friends strode to the bar to order juices.

"Actually, her party sounds pretty fun," Lewis said.

"Are you serious?" Rikki asked.

Lewis shrugged. "No one said we actually had to speak to Miriam. Or even be near her. There's gonna be so many people there, who cares? I'm up for a free burger and a live band."

Rikki and Emma gave each other hey-that's-true looks, conceding it was a good idea.

"What about it, Cleo?" Rikki asked. "Ready to get your party on?"

Cleo, half absorbed in the menu, half absorbed in her own thoughts, was startled back to reality. "Hmm?"

Rikki grabbed a flier off the stack on the counter and held it in front of Cleo's face. "Party? Beach? Fun?"

Cleo quickly scanned the flier, then shook her head. "No. I'm going to see my mom."

The others nodded.

But the next evening, as they gathered at Emma's house to go to the party, Cleo showed up. "I changed my mind," she said. "Let's party!"

 

A few days later, as they strolled along the greenway by the beach, Emma said, "My dad saw an ad in the paper this morning. A new roller skating rink is opening Saturday, not too far from here. They're having an opening day special, half off."

"Ohhhhhh, roller skating!" Rikki said with an adorable grin, sounding like a little girl who just rediscovered her favorite doll. "I remember going roller skating when I was little! It was so fun!"

"I've never been on roller skates," Lewis said.

"Well, then you have to go!" Emma said mischievously. "We'd love to see your first five minutes on wheels."

"What, you think I can't do it?" Lewis asked, and scoffed. "I'm not scared. I'll conquer it easily!"

Emma and Rikki gave each other excited looks. Rikki looked at Lewis and exclaimed, "You're on!"

"Cleo, roller skating?" Emma asked.

Cleo, as usual, wasn't listening. "Hmm?"

Emma sighed, trying to be patient. "Roller skating Saturday. You up for it? Half price!"

Cleo shook her head. "Nah. I'm gonna go see my mom."

Her friends traded concerned looks.

They reached Juicenet. Cleo stepped through the beaded curtain first. As the others followed, Rikki held Emma's arm to draw her slightly to one side and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry. I got this."

Emma nodded in appreciation.

They snagged an outdoor table. Emma had also been roller skating as a little girl, so she and Rikki talked about childhood birthday parties, and parents pushing them on skates as they giggled.

Cleo would have joined in. She'd gone to the same roller skating birthday parties Emma had. But those memories included the one person on Earth she wanted to see, yet didn't want to see.

When Lewis stepped away to use the rest room, Rikki saw her chance. "Hey guys, all this partying has me kinda wiped out. I feel like I need some meditation, so I'm gonna head to the moon pool." Then, as if it had just occurred to her, she said, "Come with me, Cleo! I want some company in my down time."

"Isn't the whole point of meditation to be alone?" Cleo asked.

"I don't actually meditate, I was being facetious," Rikki said with a wink. "But I do need some peace and quiet, but also a friend. Come on! You can enjoy some peace and quiet, too! You know how relaxing the moon pool is."

Cleo was so absorbed in her problems, she didn't notice that Rikki wasn't inviting Emma, who was watching Cleo closely, silently begging her to say yes.

Cleo gave a small smile. "All right, I'll come to the moon pool to keep you company."

She didn't notice Rikki and Emma share a look of immense relief.

"Let's go now," Rikki said. "I really need to float in that peaceful water!" She stood, not really giving Cleo much chance to object. To Emma she said, "Your house tonight? Popcorn and a movie?"

Emma took a sip of her juice, smiled, and nodded. "That sounds like a plan." Silently, she mouthed, Good luck.

 

Neither Cleo nor Rikki turned it into a race. They took their time, swimming with a few dolphins along the way, and enjoying the reef. Rikki even stuck her tongue out at a shark (but from a prudent distance), making Cleo laugh.

They reached the pool. They crossed to the far side, folded their arms, and leaned on the rock.

"We see those dolphins all the time," Rikki said. "We're all getting to know each other. We should give them names."

Cleo smiled. "That would be nice." But she offered nothing more.

They stayed that way, in companionable silence, for about a minute. Rikki wondered how she could bring up the subject, but Cleo took the problem out of her hands.

"Do you think my mom would never have left if I had never become a mermaid?" she asked suddenly.

Rikki was mildly stunned. That question had absolutely not been on her bingo card.

She rolled with it pretty well. "No," she said simply. "No, I doubt being a mermaid had anything to do with it. How could it?"

Cleo shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it led me to spend too much time away, or something."

It clicked. Rikki got it.

"Cleo," she said softly. "Children don't make parents leave. Parents do that to themselves."

Cleo gave the tiniest shrug. She couldn't look at Rikki, who finally saw the real Cleo who had been walking around inside the facade the past ten days.

"You're trying to establish that you had some kind of power over the situation," Rikki said quietly. "Trying to find that one thing that, had you done differently, would have made her stay." She stroked Cleo's back. "But there's nothing you did or didn't do, nothing you could have done. You don't have that power, and it's absolutely not about you."

"I wasn't good enough to make her want to stay!" Cleo said angrily and rolled out of the pool. She lay there, silently weeping.

Rikki looked at her with sadness, and with complete understanding. She rolled out, also, and dried them both, giving them their legs.

"You could have been the purest saint ever born," Rikki said, sitting up. "She still wouldn't have stayed. She's the one with a problem!"

Cleo sat up also and petulantly asked, "How would you know?"

Rikki gripped her shoulder. "Because I felt exactly the same when I was five, only there was no one around to tell me it wasn't my fault! I had to spend the next ten years figuring that out myself!"

They looked at each other. Rikki's eyes were filled with tears which couldn't quite fall, her face quivering with emotion.

Cleo could only stare, a million emotions crashing around inside. In that moment, she finally saw the real Rikki, who had been walking around inside a facade of sarcasm and cynicism since long before the day they met.

Cleo lifted her hand to her shoulder and gently laid it on Rikki's. "Tell me about it," Cleo said softly.

Rikki shrugged. "Not much to tell. I didn't get a pretty speech and an I love you, but I have to go." Her face started to dissolve as the dam cracked. "I just woke up one morning and Dad said, Mom's gone, kiddo, sorry. Here's your pancakes. And that was that." The dam broke, became a floodgate as a decade of pain came pouring out. "And just like that, everything changed, and I never knew why!" Rikki broke down into sobs.

Cleo held her, wept alongside her, for a long time. Cleo didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. She just held her friend, held her for as long as she needed.

The sobs eventually faded, as they always do, and Rikki sat back, wiping away her tears with her shirt.

"I'm so sorry, Rikki," Cleo said. "None of us knew."

Cynical Rikki tried to reappear. She shook her head. "It's fine."

"No it's not, and don't you dare say it is. None of this is fine." Cleo hesitated, then haltingly said, "Is this why it took so long to let us meet your dad, and go to your house?"

Rikki sniffled. "No. Yes. I don't know. It's complicated."

"You know you can tell us anything. We won't judge you. Whatever it is!"

"I know. But too often I judge myself, even now." Rikki gripped Cleo's arm, as if for support. "I'll tell you about my mom someday, but not today. It's just...when I'm ready, you know?"

Cleo nodded and stroked her hair. "Yeah. Whenever you're ready."

"Cleo, I actually asked you to come out here because I wanted to ask why you keep changing your mind about going to see your mom."

Cleo gave a half shrug. "I'm scared," she said quietly.

"Scared of her?"

Cleo looked away for a moment, then swallowed hard. She seemed to find some resolve deep inside, as she bravely whispered, "Scared of what I'll say to her."

Rikki gazed at her for a long moment, then said, "Say it now."

Cleo just looked at her.

"We're alone here," Rikki said. "This is our space, where we can say anything. What's the scary thing you're afraid you'd say to your mom?"

Cleo shook her head in consternation. "Why did you leave?"

"No. That's not it."

Cleo looked at Rikki, half in bafflement, half in fear.

"What is it?" Rikki whispered intensely. "What awful thing are you afraid you'd say?"

Cleo grew agitated. With Rikki, or just in general, she couldn't say. "I wanna know why she left me!"

"And?" Rikki gripped her arms. "What else, Cleo? There's more."

The anger finally burned through. "And why wasn't I good enough?"

"What else?" Rikki practically shouted. "Keep going!"

"Why aren't Kim and I good enough?!" Cleo shouted. "Why don't we matter?!"

"More!" Rikki shouted. "Tell her more!"

"What kind of mother couldn't work things out for the sake of her daughters?!" Cleo practically screeched.

"What else?" Rikki shouted emphatically. "What else would you tell her?!"

"I HATE YOU!" Cleo screamed, and broke down sobbing.

This time, it was Rikki's turn to hold Cleo. They wept some more. Time lost all meaning. Cleo's heart-wrenching wails echoed around the cavern. The water of the moon pool gently lapped against the stone in sympathy.

Rikki rocked Cleo gently and rubbed her hand up and down her back, letting the wailing sobs of pain gush forth for as long as she needed.

Minutes passed. Cleo eventually ended up half leaning on Rikki's stomach, half lying in her lap, as her crying finally faded to sniffles. Rikki stroked her hair.

"It's okay," Rikki said quietly, soothingly. "I heard someone say once that life is a series of seasons, and once a season is over, there's no going back into it. It's always time forward, whether we like it or not. And every new season is scary because it's a stranger.

"So...you've entered a new season, Cleo. Like everyone does, all the time. And you have so many more seasons to experience, just like I do! And so many of our seasons will be beautiful. We kick ass and we're amazing, so our seasons couldn't be anything other than beautiful! I know it!"

Seasons. The word reminded Cleo of one of the oldies her mom liked, ancient music from before Cleo was born. Cleo had never learned the names of the singers her mom listened to, but she recognized some of the songs, as she'd heard them often enough, ever since she was a toddler. One oldie was a ballad by a woman with a strange, reedy voice. Cleo didn't know the title or the singer, but the words floated to her out of the past. She whispered them to herself now, half singing, as Rikki continued stroking her hair.

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Mm-mmm...

Cleo slowly sat up and held Rikki's hand.

"You don't really hate her," Rikki said. "But sometimes hurt can feel like hate when it's too much to bear. That's something else I had to learn on my own."

"I'm so glad you're here to help me. And I'm so sorry no one was there to help you."

Rikki gave a sad smile. "Thanks. I'm just glad that after everything, I've finally found my place. Finally found a second family I can believe in. You have no idea how much you guys have saved my life."

Cleo smiled at her. "Likewise. Ever since the day you jumped into that boat with a spark plug and a smirk, you've been saving us, too."

Rikki smiled at her with pure joy.

"Don't ever leave us, Rikki. Don't ever leave me."

Rikki held Cleo's locket with one hand and her own locket with the other. She leaned forward and gently clicked the lockets together.

They laughed. A soft laughter, releasing all their tension.

They stood and hugged for a long time. Then they prepared to dive into the pool to swim back to their lives. To new seasons which weren't so scary any more, for either of them.

"So, visit your mom or come roller skating?" Rikki asked.

"Roller skating, definitely!" Cleo said with a grin. "It's not my fault my mom left, and she knows where to find me if she wants to talk."

Rikki grinned back at her.

Together, they dove into the water.