H2O: Just Add A Merman

Annoyance

After a while, Zane went back to shore on his zodiac. I turned to Emma and gave her a look. "I could be wrong, but I think Zane saw our tails."

"We don't know that for sure, but we still have to be careful."

I sighed heavily. "The others won't like this."

"We can't do anything about it now," Emma said. "Let's just go." I nodded as we both dove into the ocean and sped off towards the mainland.

Once we got back, we went down to Emma's house. Inside, Mrs. Gilbert was beginning to make dinner. "Emma!" Mrs. Gilbert called. "I heard about Mrs. Chatham. The hospital said she would be just fine."

I let out a breath of relief. "Thank god."

"That's great news Mom!" Emma.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. 5:00pm. Crap, I'm supposed to meet Lauren at the JuiceNet in fifteen minutes. "Sorry Emma, but I've gotta run. I'm supposed to meet Lauren at the JuiceNet."

Emma shrugged. "Oh go ahead. I'll see you tomorrow."

I waved to her and Mrs. Gilbert as I walked out of the front door. As I was heading to the JuiceNet, I started thinking about school. School started a couple of weeks ago and so far it's been pretty good. I at least have one class with everyone in the gang, so that makes the school year better. The only downside though is that I have to sit next to Carrie during biology. Let me tell you, that is the one of the most annoying things ever. All she does is try to seduce me into dumping Lauren and going out with her. Can she get a hint? I guess not. I finally reached the JuiceNet and went inside. I sat down at the usual booth and waited for Lauren to come in. "Wilfred!" I called to the counter.

"What's up Will?" he replied.

"I'll have the usual."

"Coming right up!"

As I waited for my smoothie, a girl walked through the entrance. At first, I thought that it was Lauren, but no, it was the complete opposite. It was Carrie.

I turned my head the other way so she wouldn't see me, but it was no use. She came running over to me. "Hey Will!" she squeaked.

"Hey..." I replied unenthusiastically.

"Mind if I sit?" she asked gesturing to the seat across from me.

"I'd rather you not," I said rubbing my temples.

She paid no attention to what I said and plopped herself into the seat. "So I wondering if you wanted to go out sometime?" she asked attempting to put on a flirtatious smile.

"Carrie, for the last time, I have a girlfriend."

"C'mon Will," she whispered. "I know you want me," she leaned closer to me.

"Quite the contrary," I said nervously while backing away.

"Just kiss me," she smirked. I put my hand under the table and flicked my wrist. This cause a small gust of wind to push Carrie away from me and into the other table. Just then, Lauren walked in.

"Hey look, it's my girlfriend Lauren!" I said directing the statement towards Carrie. I walked over to Lauren and kissed her. She just smiled in return.

"How... how did you do that?" Carrie asked.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Push me away from you. Your hands were nowhere near me."

"That wasn't me," I held my hands up in defense. "It was just the wind from Wilfred's window."

"Maybe..." Carrie trailed off. She started to walk out of the cafe. "But I will get you to see reason one day," she says as her eyes glared at Lauren like daggers. Lauren just smirked. Carrie then left the cafe in a huff.

"Did you really have to use your powers?" Lauren whispered into my ear. She sounded like a mother disciplining her child.

"Hey it was either that or have her kiss me," I shrugged. "Would have wanted that to happen instead?"

"I guess not," she said.

"Why don't we sit down?" I asked gesturing to the booth.

"Thought you'd never ask," Lauren replied.

After we sat down, Wilfred brought our drinks over. He already knew what Lauren wanted because she orders the same thing as me. We then started to talk about when we first met. "You know, I'm really glad that I pulled you out of the water with me. If I didn't, you probably would've swum away and wouldn't remember me," I said.

"So you're the reason I woke up with a throbbing headache!" Lauren accused while playfully punching me in the arm.

"My bad," I laughed. I then realized that Lauren didn't know about the Zane situation. "Lauren, I've got something to tell you."

"Okay, shoot," she replied. I then started to explain the events that happened earlier in the day. Throughout my explanation, her jaw kept dropping. "I can't believe that Zane would do that to Miss Chatham!" she said angrily.

"That's not the worst part," I sighed. "Zane somehow managed to blow something up on the Lorelei, which caused it to start sinking. Emma and I couldn't see Zane leaving the boat, so we had to go under."

"Oh my god!" Lauren said as she placed a hand over her mouth.

"When we got to the Lorelei, we had to bust the door down with our tails. Right before Zane passed out; I think he saw our tails.

"How do you know for sure?" Lauren asked. "Maybe he didn't."

"We swam back to Mako and placed Zane in the sand. When he woke up, he claimed that he saw something. He sounded pretty dead set on finding out what it was."

"This is bad," Lauren breathed.

"Tell me about it," I sighed. "We're gonna have to be really careful now. We don't want Zane blabbing to the whole world about what we are."

"Yeah. Did you tell the others yet?"

"Not yet, but tomorrow I'll tell them." I said. "Hey, let's try not to worry about this too much. Do you want to come back over my house for a little bit?"

"I'd like that," Lauren smiled.

I nodded and paid for the smoothies. We waved to Wilfred and left the JuiceNet. As we approached my house, we saw Kyle coming into the dock with his new speedboat that he got for his seventeenth birthday a few weeks back. "Hey guys!" Kyle called over to us.

"Hey Kyle!" We both replied at the same time. Kyle got out of his boat and walked over to us.

"Guess what?" he asked.

"What?" I replied.

"Dad is having a barbecue next weekend! He wants you to bring your friends over for it. I already asked my boys if they wanted to come too. It's gonna be a full house!"

"Who's Kaylie bringing over?" I asked.

"Carrie," Kyle answered. Both Lauren and I let out an annoyed sigh. "What's wrong with Carrie?" Kyle asked.

"She won't leave me alone," I said. "She wants me to dump Lauren for her."

"Oof," Kyle scrunched his face. "It looks like you're in a pickle."

"It's so annoying!" Lauren said.

"I'll bet it is," Kyle said. "But hey, it could be worse. Carrie could've been here right now."

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" We heard Kaylie scream from inside the house. "I brought Carrie over!"

"You had to say that didn't you?" I said as I glared at Kyle.

"Oops, sorry," he gave an apologetic smile.

I glanced at Lauren. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She just smirked. I winked at her and we both dove into the ocean and sped off towards the one thing that always puts us at peace.

Mako Island.