Moonring 2, 2.0

Chapter 4: Secrets revealed

Nixie's POV

'So is anyone going to explain anything or...' Dr Blakely asked. We were sitting in the cosy part of the grotto the members of the schoolboard, Mrs Blakely and Evie at one end. Me, Lyla and Sirena and Zac at the other. 'Is there really anything more to explain, you saw us' Zac answered. 'Really nice Zac' Lyla answered sarcastically. 'But seriously, mind your own bussiness' she added to the members of the schoolboard. Sirena rolled her eyes and said softly 'then i'll do the explanation'. 'Look, first of all you need to know that no matter how unbelieveable it sounds mermaids are real, we do exist. 'We got that' Dr Blakely said tonelessly. 'But how did that...happen, with you girls... and Ms Santos?' Mrs Blakely asked. Sirena shrugged and answered 'we were born like this, so is Rita'. She looked at Evie and said 'she didn't lie when she answered your question for the schoolmagazine-interview, only her family didn't have a yacht (they didn't need one after all), but she did live in all those places and her education was conducted overseas. Evie said nothing but only stared at her feet but Mr Blakely said 'you mean...'. 'Yep, Rita went to mermaid school, just like us, just like she is giving us now' I said, my eyes rolling. Not having to go to mermaidschool was the only benefit of being stuck on land but thanks to Rita we didn't even have that one benefit anymore. 'So she has been giving you lessons as well?' Mrs Blakely asked, looking a little bit pale. Talking about things like that was obviously way out of her comfortzone. 'Unfortenately, the only good thing about being stuck on land was that we didn't have to' I said whilst rolling with my eyes again. 'Nixie' Sirena said, nudging me in the stomach. 'Yes, she does, she has helped us a lot an we owe her a lot' Sirena answered looking warmly at Mrs Blakely now. 'And how exactly did you girls and principal Santos meet? She had us fooled so i'm guessing it isn't exactly easy to spot other of your...kind... especially principal Santos... I mean who would have thought?' Mr Blakely now blurted out. Apparently, the ice had now broken and they had decided the wanted more than a basic explanation... 'It's a long story to say the least' I answered. 'We have got time' Dr Blakely fired back. The members of the schoolboard nodded in agreement. Sirena sighed and said 'i'm guessing Zac should start, everything started with him'. They now all focused on Zac. 'Thanks Sirena' Zac whispered. He sighed too and then began to speak: 'it all began when Cam and I went camping out on Mako in the last weekend of the summer holidays. I came across this cave I had never spotted on Mako before, curious I went inside, I saw some flash of light and the next morning I was lying on the beach part of Island and shortly after that I discovered that I had powers and...  and a tail'. That's my part of the story, now back to you Sirena' Zac added to break the long silence that had been following after he had told his side of the story. Sirena looked at her feet and started to speak in a sad voice. 'It was a fullmoon that night and our Pod -who lived in the caves under Mako- holding the usual fullmoon ceremony. Me, Nixie and Lyla where chosen to protect the moonpool -wich is a special pool in a cave right in the heart of the Island- from unwanted visitors, like Zac. But suddenly Zac came out of nowhere and what we all feared, happened. Being in the moonpool during the fullmoon gave him powers. The other mermaids, in particularly the mermaidcouncil - the leaders of our pod- weren't to pleased with that. It's forbidden for landpeople to know about us or give them powers, especially boys. Mermaids fear merman more then anything.  We were supossed to protect it, supposed to keep things like that from happening. They were angry and we got banished. But we wouldn't let us get defeated like that, certainly not because their was literally nothing we could have done. After all Zac had come out of nowhere and fell straight into the pool, there was no time for us to keep it from happening. So we made a plan: get on land, find Zac and take his powers away. Once it was safe, the pod would come home, the banishment would be lifted and all would be well again. So we did that and one day whe were following Zac to school, we even followed one of his classes. That's when Rita noticed us. We weren't registered of course and she just thought we were looking for trouble. That's why she panicked when we had to come down to her office and she saw the moonring - a mermaid ring- my sister gave me before she left with the pod. She thought one was in hands of a landgirl, a landgirl that was looking for trouble... so she claimed I had stolen it and took it from me before sending us out abruptly. But again, I wasn't going to let that happen so we followed her to her home. And when we came in, she was nowhere to be seen. We searched to whole house. The last room we had to look was her study and we where about to give up when Lyla saw a book about mermaids standing in one of the bookcases. She took a look and suddenly this grotto was revealed. Surprised we walked in, straight to the sea-entrance when right at that point Rita came swimming in. The tail was a pretty big give away about what she was. I threatened to expose her if she didn't give me my moonring back and if she didn't help us (wich looking back, I'm not proud of). So the next day we went back to the grotto but she wouldn't yield. We were about to give up again when she - i guess- took a pitty on us and decided to help us. We have lived with her and she has helped us ever since. The members of the schoolboard, Mrs Blakely and Evie all had been hanging at Sirena's lips -as a matter of speaking of course- and where now once more astonished. Right at that moment Rita walked in the lounge part of the  grotto (all dry and healed) with Veridia right behind her. Veridia helped her sit down (allright not so healed then). Now the schoolboard's focus was on Rita. And boy, I can imagine she would have a lot to explain...