The Picture is Celia (Not my photo)

The trip back to the main land was fairly quiet. Victor spent most of the time in his room; Tori and I basically sat in our room on our phones the entire way back. Tori and I did not speak a word of the night's events; it was all jut starting to sink in. We didn't hear much from Tori's parents so it was a very boring ride back. We had come up on the shore about 15 hours after having set sail from the island. Which, believe me, was a relief to get off that freaky island. We already have enough half-fish girls in the world.

"Girls! Land-Ho!" We heard Tori's mother call from the deck of the ship. Lazily, Tori and I got up off our butts and up over to the stair case that leads to the ships deck. We walked up into the burning sunlight; and set our sights on the land ahead.

The boat docked only ten minutes after Tori's mom called us to the main deck. We helped tie the boat up, get the supplies back into their car, etcetera, etcetera. Then just when Tori and I thought we were done; "Hey girls? Can you help me wash the boat?" Victor and Tori's dad calls to us.

Victor opens his mouth to speak, but Tori slaps her hand over his mouth, "Sorry Dad! Rochelle, Victor, and I have something to take care of!" Tori yells back as she begins to quickly climb off of the boat, dragging Victor and I along with her. We all begin to walk towards the harbor park.

Victor and Tori's Dad gives us a small smile and waves our way, "Alright then, but hurry back!"

Tori drags Victor and I by our arms towards the playground on the harbor. We try to break free of Tori's strong grip, but to no avail; I even had trouble trying to get free. She brings us through the gates of the playground and drags us towards the swings. Tori stops dragging me about half way to the swings, but keeps on dragging Victor. She gets to the swings and practically throws her brother onto the nearest swing.

"Hey! What's the big idea sis!" Victor says, brushing off his clothes. He fixes the collar of his white button up and brushes off his dark wash jeans.

Tori's gaze turns into a glare towards her brother, Victor shrinks back a little under her stare, "The big idea is that you were about to volunteer us for washing the boat!"

Victor arcs his brow in confusion, "Yeah, you think I was gonna to it by my self?"

Tori sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. He turns away from Victor and walks over to me. She places a hand on my shoulder and leans in, "You deal with him." She says in a frustrated tone. Tori continues on to the other side of the park.

I look back towards Tori for a moment longer, than turn back to Victor; who looks as confused as ever. I sigh, beginning to walk back towards Tori's brother. "Why me..." I walk over towards Victor and sit on the swing next to him, "Tori seems to be a little flustered about last night still. Just give her some time."

Victor looks down into his lap and sighs, "Oh yeah, I forgot about last night." He says, "This whole mermaid thing is going to take a lot of getting used to."

I reach over and place a hand on Victor's shoulder. He pick his head up and looks to me, "It's gonna be like the time you found out I was a Saiyan; you got used to it pretty quickly."

Victor laughs a little under his breath, "Yeah, it's kinda cool having an alien friend."

"And it will be just as cool having a mermaid sister." I say. I get up from the swings and begin to walk back over towards Tori. I stop and turn back towards Victor, "You coming or what?"

Victor snaps out of his little trance and nods. He gets up and we both walk over towards Tori. She sits on top of a blue tub that hangs 7 feet off the ground and connects two parts of the playground. She has her knees tucked in towards her chest and rests her head on her knees. Victor and I walk until we get just under the tube. I use my energy to ascend into the air until I am eye level with Tori.

"Hey Tori!" I say with a cheerful tone.

"Hey Chelle." she replies in monotone.

I place a hand on Tori's shoulder, "What wrong, you look down."

Tori's head snaps up towards me and her face looks angry, "You know exactly what wrong! I'm part fish now! I can't ever go to another pool party! I can't ever go in the ocean in public again!" Tori's eyes than land on Victor, still standing under the tube; then her eyes begin to water, "I can never go scuba diving with my family again..."

Victor climbed up the metal playground and on to the plastic tube that tori sits on. He sits sidesaddle, so that his legs are facing me, and hugs Tori from behind. He rests his chin on Tori's shoulder, "Come on Victoria, I'm sure Mom and Dad will understand. If we just tell them-"

"We can't just tell them!" Tori exclaims, unwrapping Victor's arms from around her waist. She slides off the tube and lands on the ground with a thud. "You know that Mom and Dad will never believe something like this! They think anything having to do with the supernatural is completely ludicrous!" Tori huffs and turns around, beginning to storm off in the direction of Main Street.

Victor jumps from the tube and runs towards his sister, I follow in hot pursuit. Victor runs and comes up behind Tori, grabbing her by the shoulder and spinning her around, "If it's you that were talking about here, I'm sure Mom and Dad will learn to accept the truth." He says

Tori looks down towards the ground, "And if they don't?" Tori responds, despair lining her words as she speaks.

"Then I'll make them." Victor says, embracing his sister in a tight hug. Victor rests his head on his sister's shoulder, "Don't worry Victoria, we'll figure this out," Victor picks his head up and looks over to me, "All of us." I smile and walk over towards the siblings.

I place a hand of Tori's shoulder; "There's no use worrying about something that hasn't happened." I tell her. Tori unwraps her arms from around her brother and wipes the tears threatening to flow over from her eyes. She looks to me and weakly smiles, "That's better."

"Now that we have that taken care of," Victor says, wrapping his arm around Tori's shoulders, and mine "Let's get down to business." Victor begins to walk farther down Main Street, "We need to find Celia I'm almost positive that she is the third girl."

Tori looks to her brother with a suspicious look, "How are you 'almost positive'?"

"Well dear sister," Victor begins, "One of my many strong points-"

"You have strong points?" I interrupt jokingly. Victor grows an annoyed look and Tori snickers a little at my comment.

"Yes, I do." Victor retorts, "As I was saying-one of my many strong points is reading people." Victor stops and sits down on one of the benches that over look the main intersection of Main Street. Tori and I sit on either side of him, "When I last saw Celia on the docks, she was holding the red stone on her ring and looking out into the ocean. From what I could tell, she was looking for an answer to something having to do with that stone."

We look out in the crowd of people, looking for a girl with short blond hair and a ring with a big, red crystal.

Hundreds of people walk by in the fifteen minutes that we sit on the benches. Some I recognize from school, say a few quick words to, and then move on to finding this Celia girl. The same for Victor and Tori, they see people that they know and begin to converse with them. As another pair of people comes up to Victor and Tori, I get up off of the bench and begin to walk around. I head up Main st. going towards the little shop that I had gone to before setting sail.

Coming up to the little store known as Ocean wave, I recognize the cashier at the front. Her name is May, and she goes to my school. Like Victor and Tori, she is also a twin. I rarely see her brother though, seeing as he goes to a different school. May and I have known each other for years, we met in grade school. Sad thing is, we seemed to have lost touch over the years. I occasionally we will wave to each other in the hallway, but there are days were she doesn't see me or I don't see her. Even so, when we get to see each other, we pick up right were we left off.

I walk into the shop and immediately May recognizes me, "Rochelle?" She asks, her soft voice becoming quite loud for her.

"Hey May!" I exclaim going around the back of the counter and giving May a hug. My arms fly around her slim frame, but she stands almost a whole head over me.

As May and I separate, I look into those grey eyes that I have not seen in so long, "How've you been Rochelle! I imagine your still into martial arts."

I laugh a little, "Of course! What else would I be doing with my life?" I respond. I look around the shop, seeing a few new things, "Looks like the place got restocked."

May returns to her position behind the register, "Yeah, we got in a few more sea-glass bracelets and such. The normal stuff." She leans on her elbows, brushing back her beach-wavy brown hair still decorated with those amazing natural blond highlights.

"Always fun." I say, "Hey, you must get a lot of locals running through this place."

May taps her chin, "I suppose," She says, "Why, you looking for someone?"

I smile a little, "In fact I am," I walk up to the counter and rest my elbows on it, "I'm looking for a girl about 16 years old, blond hair, always wears a ring with a large red crystal, and I think the name is Celia."

May scratches her head in thought, "Hmm, that all sounds familiar." She says, "I think I know who your looking for. Very routine person, she walks by the storefront at about one o'clock every day. If you wait you should see her."

"Okay, awesome!" I say, reaching over the counter to give May a hug, "I wish I could say but I'm in the middle of something important. I'll come by soon."

I release May and begin to head for the door, "You better!" May says going back to her job. I check my watch, 12:15, the timing could not have been more perfect.

I wave once again and then come out onto the sidewalk. I look around, trying to see through the crowd of people that pass by me as they go about their daily routines. I spot the bench with Tori and Victor and begin the jog towards them, "Guys! I got a lead!" I exclaim, running towards them.

Tori and Victor pick up their heads both wearing scarily similar surprised faces, "No way!" They exclaim at the same time.

"Yes way!" I say back. Finally I come up right in front of the bench. "I just spoke to an old friend of mine. She said that there is a girl matching or exact description that walks towards the harbor everyday around one."

"Did she give you the name of this girl?" Victor asks.

"Yup, said the name was also Celia." I confirm, nodding with a victorious smile.

"Well what are we doing sitting here!" Tori exclaims, grabbing a hold of both Victor's wrists and mine again, "Let's go!"

She dragged us towards the park once again, dodging the flood of people that walk in the opposite direction that we are going. Once we actually got to the park, we were sitting around for a while before anyone of interest was to walk by. We saw one girl, long blond hair with a ring but the stone was not the right color. Then we saw another girl, big red ring but wrong color hair.

I honestly wonder if Victor was right. I see no girl with the exact qualities that we are looking for and it is already one-thirty. But the next thing I wonder is if this girl is really who we think, how are we to confront her. It's not necessarily common courtesy to walk up to someone and accuse them of being a mermaid. We can't push her into the bay to find out either. We can't expose our own powers without first knowing if this girl is really a mermaid. There are just to many unknowns that could make everything go horribly wrong for one or both parties. There has to be some obvious enough sign that will make us know...but what could that possibly be?

"I'm not sure this girl is showing." Tori says out of the blue as she lays down on the steps to the play ground.

"Have a little faith Victoria, I'm sure she'll come." Victor says, trying to convince his sister to hang in there a little longer.

"But what are we gonna do if she does show?" I ask to no one in particular. I rest my elbows on my knees, my chin on my hands, "We can't just go up to her and ask if she's a mermaid."

Victor arch's his brow, "Don't you mermaid's have some kind of radar that lets you detect other mermaids?"

Tori gives her brother this exasperated look, "We're half fish, not half robot."

Then I spot someone in the crowd of people, her blonde hair shown so bright that it was hard to miss. It was cut short, shoulder length maybe a bit longer. She was slim, not very muscular at all. Her dress was very feminine, a white t-shirt and a red skater skirt with brown gladiator-like sandals. She walked up to the railing that separates the edge of the harbor from the bay below. The wind coming in off the ocean blew her hair into her face a little, so I could not see it. But then she went to brush it away, and I saw the large red ring that adorned the ring finger.

"Guys, Blondie at 10 o'clock." I say, nodding towards the girl that stood at the railing.

Victor stands up to look over the crowd of people, Tori stays seating looking through the crowd, "That's her." Victor confirms, "That's definitely her."

"Alright, now what?" Tori asks, standing up and stretching, "Like Chelle said, we can't just go up there and push her in."

I slide down the tube I was sitting on and go onto the stair that Tori and Victor are standing on. I look towards her, trying to focus my vision as much as possible. Then I notice something that looks like a birthmark on her right arm. But as I look closer, that birth mark seems to be in the shape of a fire. She's wearing nothing but red and white, not to mention the fire mark on her arm aw well as the big red ring, "She's definitely one of us." I state.

"How do you know?" Victor asks me.

"Well I don't know if you two can see it, but she has a birthmark on her right arm. It's fairly large and in the shape of a flame." I explain, looking back towards my friends.

"So she's the fire mermaid?" Tori asks, surprise lining her words.

"I ironic if you ask me." Victor jokes, beginning to walk over towards the girl, "Well, might as well get this over with."

The group of us walk towards the girl we think is Celia. People pass in front of us as we walk, blocking our sight of the girl. But then something catches my eye, a boy on a skateboard. He's tall, six foot at least. He's going in the direction of the girl, and I can't help but notice this smirk on his face. He skates closer to the girl, his hand extended. Then, in one swift movement, the guy grabbed the ring right off the girl's finger and pushes her into the harbor.

"Shit!" I exclaim, watching as the guy skates off into the crowd, "Tori, go after him!"

"Got it!" Tori runs off through the crowd, chasing after the skate-boarding thief.

Victor and I run up to the railing and look down towards the girl that now bobs up and down in the water. Victor and I look around us, nobody seeming to be paying any attention to what has happened. The girl looked up to us, her eyes full of fear.

I look to Victor, "I got her, you make sure no one it watching."

Victor nodded. I sat up on the railing and swung my legs around. "Am I good?"

Victor looked around, "Yup, drop when ready." I look down to the girl below, her head shaking for me to not come into the water. I turn to lower myself down the railing, bringing me closer to the water. I look out to the girl again, my hand barely hanging onto the concrete footpath.

I then drop down; the girl also goes underwater. I can't really see anything; the water makes my normal vision all foggy. But I could make out a large pocket of small bubbles that was only a few feet in front of me. Just as I see the red blob in my vision, I begin to transform as well. Everything bubbles around me, but then they dissipate within a few seconds. With my vision now fully adjusted to the water, I can see clearly again. And what I saw in front of me was surprising and exciting.

"The fire mermaid Celia..." I say, "Pleased to meet you."

Celia looks to me with the most astonished expression. Her blonde hair has grown wavy and down to her waist. Thin cloths wrapped around many times over cover her chest, just as it does with me. Her tail is a blazing red with a silvery fin. Two silver rings wrap around the end of her tail, right above the fin. Her eyes are now bright amber. The fire tattoo on her arm now as been filled in with color. And a bright red clip now held back her side bangs in place.

Celia was to stunned to speak, this must have been the first time she has seen another mermaid, "I'm sorry for what happened, I should have seen that guy coming sooner."

Celia finally snapped out of her surprise, "O-oh, no do not apologize. I should have been paying attention."

I smile finally getting a response out of the girl, "Well Tori should have gotten you ring back. She's good at stuff like that."

Celia smile back at me, "Thank you. I'm grateful for your kindness."

I look back towards the surface, now seeing Victor peering over the edge, "My friend looks as though he is starting to worry, we should get back to land."

Celia nods in my direction, "Agreed, follow me." Celia swam off and I followed in hot pursuit.

We swam towards a hidden beach that was only about a half a mile away from the harbor. We snaked our way onto the beach and there we dried off our tails; both of us using our fire powers to dry our tails. We both returned to human form in no time at all. Once we were both ready, we started off towards the harbor to meet up with my friends.

"It's amazing!" Celia exclaimed, "Another mermaid! I haven't seen any in such a long time!"

"Really?" I question, "You know others?"

Celia looked to me with a questioning expression, "Of course I know others, don't you?"

I looked turned from Celia to the path ahead, "Well, other than you, I know four. And that's it."

"That's it?" Celia questions, much surprise in her voice, "I'm surprised."

"Well I've only been a mermaid for a few weeks you know," I say laughing, "How long ago did the moon spring transform you?" I ask Celia.

Celia looks to me with another, more confusing expression, "I've always been like this." Celia said. I stopped walking for a second and looked at Celia with a surprised expression, then she continued, "I was born a mermaid."

I felt this overwhelming feeling of confusion wash over me, "That can't be. You have elemental powers."

Celia sent me a wink and turned to walk towards the harbor again, "Well, I guess I'm an exception."

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Rochelle: Well that was something I was not expecting

SR: Well I have  a feeling that it's not all what it seems to be

Rochelle:How do you mean?

SR: *winks* Now where would the fun be if I told you??

Rochelle: *sighs* Vote, comment, and fan