The girls and I were walking on the beach watching the land people running around or playing in the water. However, I noticed we were the only ones wearing shoes. No one else was. "Why do we have to wear shoes?" I asked

"Otherwise we'd see out feet," Sirena answered. I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I just went with it. We continued walking until a boy threw a ball at Ondina, who clearly wasn't amused. "It's okay," Sirena says, "this is what land people like to do for fun."

"It's so hot out here," Mimmi says, "why aren't they in the water?"

"Yeah, why aren't they?" I add, "I could use a swim right now."

"On land, it's not always about the sea," Sirena says, and we all look over to see some surfers talking with some girls lying on towels.

"It's about social interaction." I say, and Sirena nods.

We continued walking around in the sand, until Mimmi nudged me. "There's that boy that found you on Mako," She says.

I look in the direction she was facing and saw Erik with another dark-haired boy talking with Cam. "Oh, yeah, there he is," I say, "I don't recognize the other guy with him though. Never seen him before."

"I think they're watching you two," Sirena adds, glancing at Ondina and myself.

"Is staring another thing land people like to do for fun?" she asks, folding her arms.

"Lighten up," I say, "we're trying to fit in."

"In case you've forgotten, we're not here to fit in." With that, she turned and stormed off, the rest of us following her. 

"Manoa's right, you do need to lighten up," Mimmi says, "and we haven't forgotten. Besides, we don't know how long we're going to be here anyway, so we should enjoy it and fit in while we're here."

Sirena and I slowed down a bit so Mimmi and Ondina could have their conversation about fitting in while we talked about another subject.

"You sure you've never seen that other boy before?" she asked.

"Positive," I respond, "You sure he was watching Ondina? You think maybe he likes her?"

"I think so. We should be careful with him though, just in case there's something up with him."

After a while, the four of us walked in silence back to Rita's relaxed in the Grotto until we heard the doorbell ring. 

"That must be David," Sirena says as she leaves to answer the door. When she returned, she was carrying a box of prawns and set it on the table. "Erik's here," she says, "with that other boy. Says his name is Jasper. They want to see you two." 

"He does?" I ask, sounding a bit more excited than I probably should have been.

"Why didn't you tell them we weren't here?" Ondina adds, ignoring my comment, which I'm glad she did.

"But you are here," Sirena answers.

"They don't need to know that"

"I can't lie to them."

"Why not? It's not like they matter."

"I don't think lying to Erik and Jasper is a good idea," Mimmi adds in, "Erik did find Manoa on Mako, maybe he saw something else."

"And we don't know anything about Jasper," I add, "he might know something too."

"There can't have been anything to see," Ondina objects.

"We don't want to make them suspicious," Mimmi counters, just find out what they want."

Ondina sighs in defeat as we both exit the Grotto and open the door to see the boys waiting for us.

"Hi," they say at the same time, and Ondina and I respond.

"We haven't met yet, I'm Jasper, one of Erik's friends." Jasper says, holding out his hand.

Ondina folds her arms, but I take Jasper's hand, and we shake for a bit. "I'm Manoa, she's Ondina." I say.

"David told us you're Sirena's cousins," Erik says.

"We're related." Ondina says, "What do you want?"

"We were hoping we could talk?" 

"About what?"

"Mako."

"What about Mako?" I ask,

"It was pretty weird the way I found you," Erik says

"Was it?"

"There was that flash of light?"

"I didn't see anything."

At this point, Ondina and Jasper had walked off, so it was just the two of us standing there.

"Are you always like this?" he asks

"Like what?" I respond. He was starting to seem a bit suspicious.

"Okay...if you want to play it that way, but I'm going to find out what's going on." he says, walking away.

"Hey, wait!" I say, going after him, "There is nothing going on."

"Doesn't it feel good to stretch your legs?" 

"What? Is something wrong with them?" I ask at the sudden question.

"No, you've got great legs."

"They do the job?"

"Yes. Very practical things, legs. Something we have in common."

I laughed a little at this "I think everyone has that in common." I pause a bit before asking "What were you doing on Mako?"

"Sightseeing. Same as you, right? Guess that's something else we have in common."

"That's not a lot," I say

"You like to be clever, don't you?"

"I don't know, do I?" I answer half joking, half sarcastic.

"I knew you'd like me." he says, before continuing to walk off.

I stopped and blushed a little. Did not see that one coming. I shook the comment aside and continued after him. We talked a little bit until we came to a dock. "I just want to make something clear, Do I like you? Maybe a little, but not as much as you think."

"I get that."

"You do?"

"Yes, we're just two people out on a walk together."

"But we're not together,"

"Right, we're just two people walking in the same direction at the same time."

As much as I was enjoying this, my main question was still not answered.

"What were you doing on Mako?" I ask again.

"Same as you were. Sightseeing, wasn't it?"

"We were just looking around."

"Come on, Manoa. I know you're special."

"You hardly know me at all."

"I really, do, Manoa."

There is no way I am going to get anything from him. I should go find Ondina and head back to Rita's.

"I should go," I say, "thanks for the walk." I start to leave before I stop and turn back to him. "Maybe we could-" I was interrupted when I got splashed and fell off of the dock and fell on a net, my tail completely exposed.

"Manoa!" I heard him call after me. All I could do was watch as he approached the edge and see me with my tail.

"Hey, what's going on?" I heard a voice say.

"Nothing, everything's fine. It's all good." Erik says, turning away from me. 

I took the chance to pull myself into the water, and I torpedoed to Mako.

'He saw,' I thought, 'he saw. Oh my Neptune Ondina will never let me hear the end of this. What will I do?' When I surfaced at the Moon Pool, I saw that she was already there. "Ondina?" I ask.

"What are you doing here? Where's Erik?" she responds, keeping her back to me.

"About that..." I heard someone surface and I turned to see Zac and Evie. 

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Go away." Ondina says.

"What's wrong?" Zac asks.

"Now's not a good time, Zac." I say

"Do you want me to go get Sirena or Mimmi?" Evie offers

"No, I don't want to see anyone." Ondina says. 

   "Please tell us what's wrong," Evie pleads.

"Whatever happened with you two, it can't be that bad." Zac adds.

"He saw me," We said at the same time, after Ondina turned to face Zac and Evie.

"Who saw you?" he asks.

"Jasper," Ondina says, holding back tears, "he saw my tail." She quickly left the Moon Pool and I moved to where she was

"And Erik. He saw mine." I add. "If only I had been more careful."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Zac says, "we'll figure it out."

"Could you get Mimmi? Tell her to find Ondina?" 

"Of course," Evie says, and she and Zac leave the Moon Pool.

I don't know how long I had been there before I heard someone come in and I turn to see Mimmi and Ondina.

"You okay?" Mimmi asks.

"What's the first thing they tell us at Mermaid School?" Ondina says, ignoring the question.

"Don't show yourself to land people." Mimmi and I answer.

"Being a mermaid is our greatest secret, and now I broke the most important rule of all."

"It was an accident." Mimmi says

"And you're not the only one." I say. "Erik saw my tail."

"It won't cut with the Mermaid Council."  Ondina says, "Jasper and Erik saw us. I'm sorry I dragged you two into this."

"You're my best friend," Mimmi says, "I would have come anyway."

"I would have come, too." I add.

"I have to tell the pod." Ondina says, "It's over."

"The Ondina we know wouldn't give up." Mimmi says.

"What other option is there?"

"We talk to them," I offer, "Ask them to keep quiet."

"They're land boys," Ondina counters, "this might be the most exciting things that have ever happened to them. They won't keep quiet."

"If we don't give them a chance, we'll never know. Come on, let's find them."

We leave the Moon Pool and head to the cafe, where we find the boys.

"Ondina/Manoa," they say.

Ondina leaves with Jasper following, and I look at Erik. "Can we talk? Back at the dock?" I ask.

"Of course," he says, and we walk back to the dock we were at earlier. "You okay?"

"Please," I say, "just listen. What happened was an accident. You were never supposed to see me like that. Yeah, mermaids are real, but I need you to keep this a secret. My kind will be in danger if you say anything. Please keep quiet."

"Can I say something?" he asks, and I pause. "I will never tell anyone about you. How could I sell out the cutest mermaid I have ever seen?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm the only mermaid you've ever seen."

"You might be surprised by what I've seen. There's....something I've been wanting to tell you."

"I'm really sorry, but no." I say, walking to the far edge of the dock.

"What?" he asks, following me.

"Mermaids and land boys can't be together."

"Manoa, I'm not-"

"I'm sorry," I cut him off before diving into the water. When I surfaced, I gave him a sad look. "Goodbye, Erik."

"Manoa, wait!"

"What?"

He didn't say anything, and just looked around before diving into the water. I was confused at first, until I heard a splash behind me. When I turned around, I saw a blue tail splash by. When it disappeared, I turned behind me, and Erik surfaced. He was a merman.

"I told you we had things in common."

"Yes, you did," I respond.

"So, What's with the aqua? I thought mermaid tails were orange?"

"It's always been that color. Apparently I'm the first aqua-tail in centuries," I respond, "We should go, before we're both seen. See you at the cafe." I dived under and swam to the Grotto and found the girls waiting for me.

"Manoa, you just missed it. Jasper's a merman." Sirena says as soon as I enter the Grotto.

"So is Erik." I respond.

"You sure?" Mimmi asks.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure. Tail really gives it away." 

"No one has seen a merman in years, now we have three?" Rita comments.

"This can't bee good," Mimmi says.

"He said he'd keep our secret," Ondina and I say.

"And you believed them?"

"Yes."

"Didn't you always say than mermen were our enemies?" Sirena asks.

"Jasper could have blabbed about my tail, but he didn't. Instead, he showed me his. I would say that's a fair demonstration of trust." Ondina tells her.

"Erik could have told, too, and like she said, he showed me his tail." I add.

"So you're not going back to the pod?" Mimmi asks.

"A good friend reminded me that we came here on a mission. I'm not going to let her down by not finishing it." Ondina says, and the two hug.

"Come on, let's go to the cafe. Maybe Zac and Evie are there. They'll want to know." Sirena says.

"Yeah, let's go." Ondina says, and we leave the Grotto.

When we got to the cafe, we found Zac and Evie and told them what we found out.

"You mean, like me, with a..."

"Exactly like you." Sirena says

"Wow."

Cam must have heard something, because he came over to us. "What up, dudes?"

"Nothing," Zac quickly answers.

"Really? looks like something serious is going on here. Come on, spill."

"We were just talking about whether watermelon juice or pineapple juice is better."

"Really?"

"I prefer pineapple juice. How about you?"

"You're hilarious." Cam says sarcastically, before leaving.

"So what are Erik and Jasper doing here?" Evie asks

"Ondina's talking to Jasper," Mimmi says.

"And I'm meeting with Erik later today." I add.

"But aren't mermaids and mermen supposed to be enemies?" Zac asks.

"Then these will be interesting encounters," Mimmi answers.

Sirena got up to go sing and I saw Erik enter the cafe out of the corner of my eye. I got up and followed him to the area where the outside tables were.

"What brought you to the area?" I ask him.

"I move around the country, checking out the coast," he answers, "I saw signs of mermaid activity. You guys weren't exactly subtle. Moon Ring gave it away."

"And Jasper?"

"Same as me, but we haven't been in the same area for a  long time."

"Did you have a pod?"

"Mermen don't have pods. We're brought up on land."

"On land?"

"In a foster family. Sometimes I really miss them."

"Well, that must be something we have in common," I say semi-jokingly.

"What do you mean?"

"I've spent my whole life with the Mako Pod, but they took me in after finding me as a hatchling. I don't know who my family is or why they left me here. I've asked Veridia multiple times, but all she told me was that it has something to do with me being an aqua-tail. I get that it's rare, but I want to know why."

"Keeping our secret is hard. It's why Jasper and I never stay in one place too long."

"Then why didn't you tell us who you were?"

"We didn't want to scare you off. Things haven't always gone well for mermen and mermaids. How are we doing, by the way?"

"I haven't decided yet," I say, laughing, "What's your interest in Mako?"

"What's yours?"

"Do you always go around questions, or did you take a class on it?"

Erik laughed a little, "I knew you had a sense of humor."

"Well?"

"I get the feeling that Mako's important."

"It is to mermaids."

"No, there's something more. Mako's....special. Maybe we could join forces? Find out why? You, me, Jasper, Ondina if she says yes?"

"I'll have to think about that."