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There was nothing to match being out in the ocean, all three of them swimming together, their tails beating them forward. Rikki liked hanging out with the other two at Emma's house, or Cleo's. Sitting chatting in the JuiceNet was pretty good. Yet the way they connected in the water was strongest of all.
Sometimes exploring in the ocean and finding mysteries was less carefree than the swimming. This latest discovery had started off well enough. They were far out from shore. The water was calm, gleaming at the surface in the morning light, shading away from the sunlight as the mermaids dove. They could circle down deep, and there were rather pretty fish to watch. However, Cleo started staring at some of the fish, yet shook her head when Emma wanted her to explain.
So, whatever was going on stayed a mystery Cleo was keeping to herself. Not for all that long, only until they were back up on land, dry, and had piled together into Cleo's room to talk. Rikki was the one who checked that Kim wasn't hanging about in the hall eavesdropping, so she missed some of Cleo's explanation. Something about what particular sort of fish Cleo had noticed out there.
After not very long listening to what she did get, Rikki put forward, "They're not fluffy." She remembered making several of these points about fish before, right after Cleo's pet fish whatever-his-name-was died. Then, as now, it was to no avail. The only conclusion Rikki could come to on this topic was that Cleo was simply soppy about fish.
"They're still babies," Cleo said stubbornly.
Rikki muttered under her breath, "These ones look all the same as the grownups, anyway." Being small didn't make them cute. They were, well, fish-shaped and sort of speckled. Actually, for all she knew maybe they changed shape or turned completely different colours before they grew up.
As far as Rikki was concerned, fish were sometimes dinner and frequently decoration. She wasn't very interested in the details of them, but would try to humour Cleo. Besides, Emma would probably glare at her if she didn't.
*
Rikki let Cleo and Emma convince her the fish mattered. Rikki was convinced, anyway, that the fish mattered to her friends, which led to the same end. As there were baby fish of that rare species to protect, the most obvious plan seemed to be to warn people off the area somehow. Except, of course, they couldn't reveal they had been out in that deep water themselves.
Cleo called Lewis over to help with the brainstorming. They dismissed one or two ideas right away. There being some unhealthy something or other to the area they'd found the fish in might keep people away. They would still have needed to come up with a scenario for why even one of the three of them had been there. Besides which, no one wanted to pretend anyone was ill, not after the rather recent spiralling over-reaction that had them meeting masked staff in charge of disease control.
Eventually, the four of them decided to let their ideas so far simmer. (That was Rikki's wording, and she was pleased with herself for not adding a line about how fish for dinner simmer too.) The three girls went to do some window-shopping and Lewis to do something decidedly else.
Nothing new came to mind during the shipping trip, but when they met up after Emma was excited. Various unrelated ideas had come together in her mind, she explained: the triangles on that dress they'd seen in the shop, Cleo's sister being suspicious that time ago and going on about lurking evil... "All we have to do," Cleo said triumphantly, "is make people think the place is haunted."
Inevitably, Lewis got all fired up by Cleo's idea. In the JuiceNet, he set about researching, looking up ghosts and hauntings and legends of dangerous waters. "There's sirens," he said, looking up from the computer, touching one arm of his glasses and seeming a little shy under his fringe. After some fierce whispering, he agreed with Rikki and Emma that was too dangerous.
Cleo suggested she maybe could be a siren for just a little while, for the sake of the fish, if they timed it right. They could use the full moon's influence for good, she chirped at one point. Rikki sighed, and Emma helped steer Cleo on to a less awful plan.
The next idea that Cleo got enthused at was a ghost ship. "I could sew costumes," she said. "Trailing seaweed!" She seemed very sure she could make that. Hadn't she made stingers for her Man-Of-War costume?
Emma was able to work Cleo back to the more practical ideas. Cold spots in the water would be easy, even mysterious ice; Emma could make those with her powers.
Rikki offered, "I can do whirlpools." At a distance would be better, as she didn't think warm circles of water would be especially scary in themselves. But if she set the water bubbling and steaming she could make it seem to be treacherous.
Sitting there, Rikki soaked in the familiarity of being with her friends. The taste of wheatgrass and mixed fruit. Lewis tapping away at a computer, Cleo enthusing, Emma suggesting compromises and sometimes peacemaking. Although Rikki might not want to say it aloud, they plan well together.
As the plan came together, Rikki was less frustrated than usual at Emma's relentless devotion to organised details. Not to mention Emma's obsession with timing, usually overly-precise but useful now. That proved very helpful indeed when they worked out how to time the plan. They had to work it around boat schedules (to have any people near enough to get scared in the first place) not to mention their own various obligations.
*
After having executed their plans perfectly, they were triumphant, swimming fast loops around each other in victory once the last of the boats were out of sight. The mood lasted until they found that a few of the fish, bothered perhaps by the activity, had gone some distance and got separated from the rest. Emma arrowed alongside a small group of them, and reported back that they were rejoining the school in the main habitat. One very small fish remained out of place.
"He might be lonely," Cleo said, half out of the water and curled to look down at the stray baby fish. Cleo was distressed and also, Rikki was fairly sure, a little bit excited.
Behind Cleo, Emma was mouthing something and waving one hand, but Rikki wasn't sure what Emma was trying to convey and anyway she could guess Cleo's intention. "Go on and take him home, then," Rikki encouraged.
Rikki couldn't see Emma's immediate reaction, a play of light through water obscuring her expression. Once Emma had put her head and shoulders out of the water her tone was positive enough. "We know you'll take good care of him."
And he was, after all, a salt water fish. Those were the ones Cleo collected, Rikki remembered that much from her rejected attempt to give Cleo a replacement for her pet.
*
Emma leaned back on Cleo's bed, nodding as she watched the aquarium. "He looks right at home," she told Cleo warmly.
With some difficulty, Rikki spotted the newest fish through the glass. He was swimming slowly forward, mouth working, then spat out a small piece of something. Two more flips of his fins, and he'd swallowed the speck again. Three more, and he'd spat it back out... and then tried again to eat it. "Huh," Rikki admitted. "Maybe he is kind of cute."
Cleo waved her hand at her glass, pulling up a small sphere of water and popping it into her mouth. Rikki was reminded of the new fish. People and their pets could be very similar. But Cleo of course didn't spit anything out. Instead, she smiled, and said, satisfied, "We saved them. All three of us did that. Well, and Lewis."
"Mostly us," Rikki put in, but she was smiling too.