The Irish Sea Caves | H2O

Chapter II: The Awakening

I walked into Rikki's cafe, a horrible noise filled my ears. Some guy was on stage, trying to sing a love song but he was a hopeless cause. He couldn't hit any of the notes and his piano skills were lacking. I was surprised there were still so many customers in here.

I leaned on a post and watched as he played every note on the keyboard incorrectly and then thanked the one guy in the crowd who was cheering for him, probably one of his pathetic friends. I couldn't help but laugh, this was terrible, this place must be cheap.

He said something off-putting to the drummer and he threw his drumsticks to the floor and walked offstage. The lead singer shouted after him as he walked past me and out of the cafe. He tried to play it cool and excused the band while they took a break.

I looked around, there were plenty of people here that I could try to make friends with. I spotted the girl with blonde, curly hair standing in a black dress next to the guy who told me about this place, probably her boyfriend.

She said something to him and then confronted the singer of the band, they seemed to be having a not-so-friendly conversation. That's when I spotted the other girl, brunette with beautiful tanned skin. She was standing alone so I took the chance to get to know her better.

I walked up to her, "Great place, isn't it?" I stated.
"Yeah," she nodded.
"I saw you on the beach this morning," I tried to be friendly.
"Oh, right."
"I'm Bella," I held out my hand.
"Cleo," she smiled, awkwardly.

The girl with blonde hair and her boyfriend returned from the stage and stood beside Cleo and I, neither of them looked too impressed with the band.

"This one goes out to all the ladies in the house," the singer said, using some original hand movements and started playing a few chords, obviously he had no idea what he was doing.
"Change that, we're sunk if he does play," the blonde girl in front of me said.
"He's not that bad," her boyfriend said, trying to comfort her about the horrible singer.
"Ladies," the singer began.
"If you ignore the fact that he's tone deaf and has a complete lack of rhythm," I joked.

He was singing something about "The Nate Train" so I figured his name was Nate. He seemed to be desperately looking for any girlfriend and he was advertising himself through the band and his badly-written music.

"Take a deep breath and get onto the Nate Train, choo-choo," he pretended to pull a leaver in the air, "This train is express to you-ooh," Nate sang.

(A/N I know that's not exactly what Nate sings but I couldn't hear him correctly over Rikki and Bella's conversation, but if anyone somehow figured out the correct lyrics, could you message me? I love Nate's songs, they're hilarious.)

The girl in front of me turned around, "You sound like you know a bit about singing."
"Well, yeah-"
"Great."
"So get onboard the train, it's shaped like a bullet. Shake that tail like there ain't nothing to it," he kept singing, despite the booing.

I began to question this guy's mental stability with his song lyrics and dancing. The blonde girl headed to the stage and took away the microphone, holding it behind her back. He whined and grabbed for it but it was out of his reach.

"Nate," she started. "Meet your new singer."
"There is no was I'm sharing my mic with anyone-"

She pointed to me and I stepped forward, I'd sang in front of crowds before but never at a professional cafe. I had to admit I was really nervous but I knew better than to let my nerves get the best of anything. Nate stared at me, he was really quite ugly up close.

"-but her," Nate smiled, trying desperately to flirt.
"Great, now all we need is a drummer," she said.

I figure the girl was the manager at the cafe and possibly shared the place with her boyfriend. She seemed fierce, strong and controlling. She had beautiful blue eyes and looked like she could pull any outfit off, she was so lucky.

"Lewis, you used to be good. Really good," Cleo said, pushing a blonde guy in a button up shirt towards the stage.
"Um- Yeah, when I was like ten," Lewis mumbled.
"Great, you and Nate will get along just fine then," the manager said.
"Him? He's hopeless," Nate said.

I laughed and gave Lewis a look, we both knew Nate was a lot worse than either of us could ever be so we agreed to play. We got up on stage and decided on a few songs, I'd never actually been in a band before, it was exciting. I did however, have a little bit of experience in songwriting, it was a little hobby of mine.

I took a few minutes to greet the manager with blonde, curly hair. She told me her name was Rikki, hence the cafe's name. She told me her boyfriend, Zane, named it for her. It sounded really sweet.

"Thanks for coming everyone. Um- I would like to dedicate tonight's gig to the girl that I hear's the inspiration for this place, Rikki." Everyone cheered, I looked over at Nate and he started the song.

I'd written this while I was 15 when I was really confused about the whole mermaid thing so I thought it was perfect. I called it Who Am I, it was easy for the band to pick up and everything went well, I was thrilled.

Rikki and Cleo, my new friends, seemed pretty happy with the band as well. Even Rikki's boyfriend, Zane was caught jamming along. We sang a few popular songs until we came to my next original song, Now or Never.

During the song, I watched a glass spill without any warning or any cause, it just slid across the counter and onto the floor. I remembered the tentacle in my bathroom and thought that it might of chased me here and found it hard to sing through everything. I caught Cleo and Rikki arguing over the glass and they ran outside.

I finished the song and asked to take a break, I wanted to check if they were okay. I was still trying to figure out if they were like me, mermaids, and becoming close to them might help.

"Everything alright out here?" I asked.
"Shouldn't you be singing?" Rikki retorted.
"I thought I should check that you're okay."
"Why wouldn't we be okay," Rikki said.
"Can you please leave us alone for a few minutes?" Cleo asked, politely.

I didn't really appreciate being turned down so rapidly, I was just trying to be friendly. They were acting defensive, like they were trying to protect a secret, a fishy secret. I needed to get to the bottom of these two.

"No, there- there's something I need to ask you." I didn't really think that through, you can't just go around asking people if they're mermaids.
"Well, whatever it is, it can wait," Cleo said.
"There's something going on here- something magical," I blurted out before thinking.

Cleo's face turned to shock and Rikki's to disgust. Maybe not the greatest start to a friendship but I was getting close to figuring out if they were special and that's all I really wanted.

"That's ridiculous, there's no such thing as-" Rikki snapped but was interrupted by a huge tentacle that had come down all around her and taken her into the canal. I felt horrible that that could've been my fault. Oh no, what if she wasn't a mermaid? What if she drowned.

Cleo put her hand over her mouth and ran towards the jetty. I followed, if anyone could save her, it was me. Rikki screamed for help, but then I saw what I needed to see. It felt like a massive kick in the stomach.

Her long, golden tail, flapping around in the water.

I was shocked, there were other mermaids. I didn't know what to do, I've always been really terrible in social situations. Cleo took one last look and dived into the water, she was one too, I knew it.

I had no other option, I dived in after them both. I knew if they could keep their secret, they could keep mine too. Besides, mermaids have to stick together.