Mermaids and Mysteries | H2O

Chapter X

*Cleo's POV*
The day started and never really seemed to finish. I'd woken up and came straight to the café to meet the others. The plan was to moon-proof the café but still make it look like we were expecting a lot of people. Bella had suggested that we practice looking disappointed when only Nala and Tammy show up to the party, but we voted against it.

Lewis had suggested taking a visit to Dr Denman's boat to find out what she knows but I thought it would be too dangerous and that we should all stay away from her at all costs. The only person we could trust to talk to Denman was Will, he knew what to look out for but she didn't know to look out for him.

Will wouldn't be attending the party, he'd be busy supervising Sophie at Dr Denman's research assistant interview. Bella seemed pretty bombed out about this but we all knew it was for the best. Besides, we'd be too busy singing and trying to keep Nala and Tammy entertained the whole night.

Rikki and Emma seemed to spend most the day creating solutions to every "what if" scenario that seemed to come out of my mouth. The café looked really cool with every window sealed shut and all the tacky decorations.

We'd agreed that if anyone asked it was Emma's birthday as Rikki did mention they were throwing the party to celebrate a birthday. Zane even had a cake in the back room just incase the lie needed a little more persuasion.

It was getting close to "party time" when things started to get out of hand; a group of boys in their early teens had just walked in. Rikki headed straight for them with looks that could kill.
"We're closed, sorry. Get out," Rikki grunted.
"We're here for the party," one of the boys shouted.
"What party? There's no party," Emma said.
"Yeah right," they said, pushing past Emma and Rikki, towards the drinks.

Rikki and Emma strutted over to Bella and I, we couldn't have these boys ruining our full plan. While we were busy complaining, we didn't seem to notice about 20 more people walk into the café. How had the word spread?

"I told Nala to invite a friend and she must of told Tammy to invite a friend too," Rikki said, beating herself up.
"Well, what are we going to do?" Bella asked.
"We can't just kick them all out, can we?" I suggested.
"Definitely not, we'll risk Nala and Tammy ditching this," Emma explained.
"I say, we let there be a party and just make sure to befriend Nala and Tammy, keeping them close the whole night," Emma said.
"Well, I guess-"
"Great, why don't you call the band," Rikki pointed to Bella, "and start playing as soon as they get here."
"Okay, but-"
"Cleo, stop worrying, it'll be fine," Emma tried to comfort me.

I stayed with Emma as she walked around greeting people she seemed to know. I was asked to keep my eyes on the door for Nala or Tammy but it was pretty hard with the amount of people walking in and out, I wasn't exactly tall so it was hard to see.

Bella was also watching the door because she was slightly higher than all of us on the stage. She said she'd signal us by "accidentally" unplugging the microphone, when she sees Tammy or Nala walk in.

After finding several high school friends in the crowd, a petite girl walked through the door wearing a beautiful pale pink strapless dress, her light brown hair curled perfectly. Aside her was a fairly tall young man wearing a colorful button-down shirt and shorts.

I recognized Nala and the guy she had walked in with, Ezra, he worked at the café. I nudged Emma on the shoulder and looked for Rikki so she could greet her, considering Emma and I were both complete strangers to Nala.

Why hadn't she come with Tammy?

*Rikki's POV*
I grabbed two colas and headed for Nala, who had just walked in with one of my co-workers, Ezra. I didn't think they knew each other, after the water spilling incident, but they seemed pretty comfortable walking arm-in-arm.