The Sisterhood of Mermaids

Kim Sertori was angry. It seemed like she was always angry when her sister was around. Like many siblings, their relationship was contentious, however, it had grown so more so after Cleo had reached her teens and for a few years now they had barely been able to tolerate each other. They used to be so close when they were little. While no siblings realize it at time, they probably crave a more familial bond but don't know how to express that. Kim was expressing that by being nosy. Cleo always iced her out of everything and it just made Kim more intent on butting in to Cleo's life, subconsciously or not.

Cleo had been even cooler than usual to Kim over the last few months. She was barely ever at home and if she was at home, she was locked in her room or hogging the bathroom. Cleo had always been friends with Emma and Lewis but there was this new girl, Rikki, and Cleo spent all her time with them. Cleo and her friends seemed to all of a sudden be closer than Kim and Cleo had ever been, it seemed to Kim as though Cleo suddenly had a second family, who she was much closer to, and it stung. Kim and Cleo hadn't been that close for a while but at least she used to be allowed to tag along, now she was completely ignored and Kim had started acting out in response, cruelly at times.

As the summer wore on, Kim's curiosity was starting to get the better of her and she was watching Cleo more closely. She tried to spy on Cleo during sleepovers but was never allowed close enough. She thought the group seemed to be spending way more time at beach than they used to but Cleo was always suspiciously dry when she came home. In fact, she hadn't seen Cleo look in any way wet for quite some time though she didn't really process that as a conscious thought. Kim tried to follow Cleo occasionally but always lost site of her and her friends. She did notice that the name Mako came up a lot. She wondered if her sister's friend group was sneaking off to the island. No one went to Mako, it was supposed to be a mosquito infested jungle and rumor was that it was cursed or haunted. Kim was approaching her teen years herself, and was starting to think and hear about the things teenagers got up to. Her friend's mother always said that "teenagers are up to no good" and Kim was inclined to agree even if she was starting to wish that she could occasionally get up to no good. It seemed dangerous to go to Mako, even more so to go there regularly. Were they going out there to drink? Where they doing sex stuff? Kim recoiled at the thought of her sister kissing anyone, though she could see how someone could think that Lewis was kind of appealing under that dorky hat.

Kim tended to let her imagination run away with her and was beginning to almost obsess over what Cleo might be doing. Especially as she wasn't being allowed to participate in whatever it was. She decided that she had to step up her surveillance game. Since she thought it was risky being spotted by Cleo or Emma, who knew Kim well, she decided to see if she could discern what Lewis was up to. Lewis was fairly oblivious to Kim and it was easy to tail him. Unfortunately, most of the time when she followed Lewis, he was just going fishing, but she did see him take his boat out often with no fishing gear and she noticed that he seemed to be heading in the general direction of Mako every time, although she couldn't see him for very long before his tiny boat disappeared in the distance and waves.

Kim felt that her observations of Lewis supported the "Mako as a party destination" theory and she committed to catching Cleo and ratting her out to her parents for whatever teenage shenanigans she was getting up to out there. Kim was feeling vindictive. If she wasn't allowed to join in, then she would ruin it for everyone. 11 is a difficult age.

-X-

Kim formulated a plan, she would find a way out to Mako and expose them, or at least learn what they were doing. She only needed a ride out to the island. She figured that, like it or not, Lewis would have to let her come back in his boat. She found a friend with a family that owned a boat and convinced them to drop her off at the island for a school project before the rest of her group got there so that she could get a jump on the project. This seemed a little odd to her friend's brother, but he was heading out there anyway and Kim offered some of her chore money from Cleo to pay for gas.