Chapter Text
RIKKI
Rikki was crouching in the shadows of one of the large boats at the harbour. Though feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable, kneeling there on the hard ground, the good view that she would have on Zane from here made up for it. It couldn’t be much longer until he’d come to take his own small boat out to sea (small, and probably still more expensive than anything Rikki and her dad would ever be able to afford) – in fact, Zane didn’t seem to do anything much than aimlessly cruise around with his boat, apart from bullying around random people that weren’t doing anything but trying to get through the day, literally just for the hell of it.
Rikki had moved to Gold Coast barely a month ago, and it hadn’t taken her half of that to find that Zane Bennett was by far the least likeable guy in town. Which was exactly why she was here at the harbour today. It was time, she had decided, that someone made life unpleasant for him for a change. Her hand closely clutched around his spark plug, she waited, ready to watch the spectacle of Zane realising that his boat was lacking it.
EMMA
Emma glided through the water as if it were air, and the bubbles escaping from her mouth tickled on her cheeks like a faint summer breeze. Performing every movement with utmost precision, her breathing technique perfectly even, the water, more than ever, felt like a second home. It had felt like this to her since childhood, but never had she been going this strong. When she surfaced at the end of the pool, Cleo held out the stopwatch towards her, and a streak of deep satisfaction shot through her body.
“Awesome, that’s 0.2 under my personal best!”
“Emma, you were really motoring there”, Cleo said, noticeably in awe.
“I’ll do better than that tomorrow. Give me two weeks and I’ll be ready for regionals!”
And about that, Emma was serious. This season, she would break all of her records. This season, she would make her family proud, maybe prouder than they had ever been – and that was saying something.
“So cool!”, Cleo said admiringly as Emma threw herself back into the water.
Ever since the beginning of their friendship, Cleo had been a loyal supporter of the swimming team, of Emma in particular, naturally speaking. Nonetheless, to Emma’s disappointment, she had never been able to convince Cleo to join: Her incapability of overcoming her fear of water was a pity, Emma thought, especially considering the fact that they lived at the Gold Coast, likely one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Still, after years of hopeless attempts, it had occurred to her that she could, quite literally speaking, lead the horse to the water, but, as much as she tended to try, she could not make it drink.
Emma took a few last, flawless swimming strokes before hoisting herself out of the pool, planning to run right off home to tell her family about her latest best time.
RIKKI
With Rikki’s usual luck, she should have known that something had to go wrong.
So far, everything had been going according to plan: Zane had arrived, tried to start his engine, realised the spark plug was missing and started to aggressively throw all kinds of swears around, obviously trying to get the attention of every fisher present.
But now, for some strange reason, an ugly grin had settled on his face. Rikki had no idea what or who he was looking at – but it struck her that he seemed to have found someone to vent his spleen on, and that was not what she had intended. She had definitely planned ruining Zane’s day, but not anyone else’s.
“Cleo!”, Zane shouted in the tedious voice he usually put on when he was about to piss someone off really bad. “Hey, Cleo!”
Now Rikki caught sight of the girl that Zane seemed to be talking to – braided brown hair, a black sweater with painfully ugly flower patches, and a slightly confused expression on her face – and realised that she had seen her before. Yes, like Zane, she went to the same school as Rikki did. She was pretty sure they even had a few classes together. Not that she had ever as much as said a word to Rikki – but no one really had. After all, she was just some uninteresting new girl very much the opposite of rich; there wasn’t a lot she had to offer.
Hesitantly, the girl approached.
“Yes … that Cleo.”, said Zane smugly, “I’m in some trouble here. Can you help?”
“Ugh, I don’t think so”, she said, and Rikki could tell by her tone that she wasn’t a big fan of Zane, either. Which definitely earned her a plus point in sympathy.
“Come on.” Zane got up. “Please? My zodiac won’t go, and all I need you to do is just pass me the tools.”
Don’t do it, Rikki thought, desperately hoping that this Cleo girl wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for Zane’s very obvious trick – why on earth wouldn’t he be able to get the tools himself? Well – it turned out that she was.
Resignedly, Cleo walked around Zane. “I’m not good with boats.”
“You’ll be fine.”, Zane assured her, the nasty grin still on his face.
Rikki watched as Cleo set foot on the boat, and Zane started to loosen the rope that tied it to the pier.
“Took me a while to realise someone stole my spark plug.”
“So … does it work without one?”, Cleo asked, unsuspectingly looking through Zane’s tools.
Rikki knew exactly what would happen next – and a second later, she knew what she would do about it.
Zane used one foot to push the boat along with Cleo off the pier.
“Nah”, he sneered, “No spark plug, no spark. I was getting sick of that thing anyway!”
In this moment, Nate, Zane’s loyal mate, emerged on the pier to enjoy the show.
“Why me?”, Cleo shouted back at them. “I didn’t steal your spark plug!”
“Because you’re here, Cleo! My dad’ll buy me another boat anyway. I’ll tell you what: If you get it going, you can keep it.”
And once again, Rikki was reminded of how disgusting Zane really was.
“This isn’t funny!” There was a clear streak of panic in Cleo’s voice now.
“Are you kidding? Works for me, right, Nate?”
Zane’s and Nate’s ugly laughter still going, Rikki emerged from her hiding spot, quickly ran along the pier and jumped. For a moment, she was afraid she might land in the water and make an awful fool out of herself – but she didn’t. With a loud thud, her feet met the ground of Zane’s zodiac and after a moment of balancing, she stood steady and safe. Cleo, though, didn’t seem to feel too safe, considering the sudden scream she let out.
Wow, Rikki thought. That was intense.
“Is this supposed to be some sort of rescue?”, Cleo said, evidently appalled. “Because there’s a fatal flaw here: I don’t mean to state the obvious, but we’re floating out to sea. Both of us.”
Rikki just smirked and held up the spark plug.
“You took that.”
Rather pleased with herself, she grinned and nodded. “Zane Bennett’s a pig”, she said, feeling that she probably should give Cleo some explanation, “anything I can do to get under his skin can’t be a bad thing, can it?”
“Cool. Thanks, Rikki.”
Rikki stared and looked her up and down once. “You know my name.” This sounded more suspicious than she had intended – Cleo did look rather caught off-guard.
“Yeah! Well, I’ve seen you around school since you arrived. Oh – I mean, I’ve meant to say hello and everything …”, she added quickly when Rikki didn’t answer.
Instead, she now finally started the engine of the zodiac. “Hold on!”, she shouted, and a second later they were driving, with Rikki in complete control of the boat.
Cleo seemed to be amazed, and it struck Rikki that maybe this was her chance to make her first friend. Now, with Cleo being trapped on this boat with her, she would show her that she wasn’t so boring after all. Ready to show off, she put on a dedicated expression – and then she yanked the steering wheel around, making a sharp turn, accelerated and splashed Zane with water from head to toe. It worked. Cleo was clearly impressed.
“Yeah!”, she laughed, as they rushed out to sea, leaving behind Nate and a drenched Zane.
Now this had turned out to be even better than her initial plan, Rikki thought.
They had cruised about the harbour for ten minutes, when Cleo seemed to catch sight of someone she knew. “Hey Emma! Want a ride?”
When Rikki looked over at where Cleo was glancing, she made out a distant, blonde figure standing at the railing of the closest shore, eyeing them like a disapproving mother. It was only when the person called, “Are you licensed?”, that Rikki realised that it was in fact not a middle-aged woman but a girl her age.
“Are you my mother?”, Rikki shouted back – she just couldn’t help herself.
A few minutes later, the girl sat on the boat with the two of them, because, to Rikki’s bewilderment, Cleo had managed to convince her to come along for the ride.
‘This is Emma’, she said, ‘my best friend. You’ll love her!’
Emma, who sat in front of Cleo, looked over her shoulder to glance at Rikki, as she started the boat again.
‘Rikki.’
‘Nice to meet you’, Emma said politely, although her turned up nose said differently.
“Wanna go out to sea?”
As Rikki had expected, Emma didn’t. “Isn’t it dangerous in a boat of this size?”
But it seemed to Rikki that this girl didn’t have much fun in life and desperately needed some.
“Chill out”, she replied casually and picked up speed.
It was evident that Emma didn’t trust Rikki’s driving skills. Which was fair, she thought – at least in that regard that Rikki did in fact not have a license – but in her opinion, she was doing pretty well with this thing. For a while, Emma continued to sit in her uncomfortable-looking posture, straight and tense, and stared out to sea without even deigning to look at Rikki again. She obviously regretted joining them, but then she finally seemed to adjust to the fact that escaping soon was out of the question, and she wriggled around on her seat until she sat at least half face-to-face with her and Cleo.
Now, for the first time, Rikki had the chance to get a closer look at her features. Emma’s hair was pulled together in a tight braid – as tight as could be, considering they were out on the windy ocean, that is. When she let her gaze wander over Emma’s sulky face, it struck Rikki that she might as well have been the cover of a magazine promoting the latest summer fashion: Her skin looked just like silk, her nose could have been the reference for any cosmetic surgeon, and her eyes, she thought, matched the colour of the cloudless sky with such accuracy that it was almost ridiculous – Emma was unarguably pretty.
Now this was a very poor premise for making friends, because Rikki had had a certain dislike for high-flown, handsome blonde girls like Emma ever since she’d learnt three things about them:
First, high-flown, handsome blonde girls like Emma usually had a kind of mesmerising effect on Rikki that made it hard for her to tear her eyes away from their lips in time before they started to appear in her dreams, taking her on wild adventures to secret hideaways where there were no old-fashioned fathers to stop them from doing whatever they wanted to do.
Second, in reality, high-flown, handsome blonde girls like Emma were always more likely to chase after the next best boy than even bestowing a single glance on Rikki.
And third, high-flown, handsome blonde girls like Emma never – never – had any real problems in life, and their cause of death would most likely be them drowning in their own luxury.
Suddenly, the embodiment of Rikki’s crushing life lessons opened her mouth to make conversation again. ‘So, how did you even get hold of this zodiac? Is it yours?’
‘I wish.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Emma’s voice had taken on a sharp undertone.
‘I stole it.’, Rikki said plainly.
Rikki watched Emma let that sink in and widen her eyes in shock. ‘You stole it?’
‘It’s okay, Em’, Cleo said soothingly, ‘it’s just Zane’s.’
Emma’s eyes grew even wider. ‘You stole this from Zane? Have you gone mad?’
‘Wait, you know Zane?’
‘Who doesn’t? We’re at the same school, after all.', she replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Rikki furrowed her brows. ‘You go there, too? How come we haven’t met before?’
It seemed odd to Rikki that Emma should be her classmate, considering the fact that she had seen her for the first time today. Emma, however, was apparently still digesting the fact that she was currently sitting in a stolen boat, so Cleo answered for her.
‘Emma’s had a lot of class exemptions lately, because of her training. She’s an amazing swimmer, you know. You should see her, she’s preparing for regionals at the moment!’
That raised the tiniest tinge of a smile from Emma, although it didn’t last very long. ‘I’m worried about all the lessons I’m missing, though.’
‘Are you crazy?’, Rikki blurted out before she could stop herself, ‘Missing classes is the best thing in the world.’
‘Yeah’, Emma snorted disapprovingly, ‘with that attitude, I’m sure you’re heading for a great future.’
‘You’re a fucking snob.’, Rikki stated dryly.
‘Excuse me?’
‘I said you –‘
‘Yes, I heard what you said.’
‘Then why do you ask?’
She stared at Rikki, visibly shocked by her bluntness. ‘Are you always this rude to people?’
‘Just those who deserve it.’
‘Guys, please, let’s not fight right now!’, Cleo chimed in. And then, before any of them could say another word, the engine started to roar, and the boat came to a halt.
Rikki tried to get it going again, but it was no good. And of course, Emma had something to contribute to the situation.
“Are we chilled out yet?”
God damn it, Rikki thought. “So … we’re floating”, she said, “It’s not like we’re sinking.”
“Not yet.”, Emma retorted and turned her eyes away from her arrogantly.
This girl was really starting to piss Rikki off, but right now didn’t seem the best moment to lose her temper. “I think we’re out of fuel …”, she sighed, “feel like paddling to that island?” She nodded towards a deserted-looking piece of land in eyesight.
Emma let out another haughty snort. “Mako Island? Forget it.”
“No one goes there”, Cleo agreed, looking nervous at the very thought, “it’s surrounded by sharks. And reefs. And mangroves.”
The argument sounded pretty childish to Rikki, though. “Well, it’s all we’ve got.” She picked up a paddle and handed it to Emma; she rolled her eyes, then surrendered and took it.
They started to paddle towards the island in silence. By the time they reached the shore, Rikki had long come to the conclusion that she did not like this girl. And that, according to Emma’s behaviour, was mutual.
“How are we ever gonna get back home?”, Cleo whinged as they pulled the boat up the shore.
“Good question, Cleo”, snapped Emma, “Ask your friend.” She scowled at Rikki.
This was unbelievable. “Don’t put this on me.”
“Oh, it was someone else’s fault. Someone else took this thing miles off shore. You two are lucky I’ve got this”, Emma declared and pulled out her phone.
Cleo started to beam immediately. “Emma’s always really prepared.”
“Oh, I’m so happy for her.”
Emma gave her a spiteful look. What the hell did Cleo see in that snobby grinch? If that was her idea of a fun person, she might as well have befriended some narrow-minded math teacher.
“I’m not getting any signal, we should try and get to higher ground.”
Great, Rikki thought. So from now on, ever so clever Emma was in charge.
EMMA
The afternoon sun had slowly begun to sink as they strode through a jungle of ferny thicket and overgrown trees, following what appeared to be closest to a path alongside a dark green, rather stagnant river. Faint rays of light fell through the crowns and veiled the woods in a mysterious atmosphere. Emma had never been to Mako Island before, but all the stories of its beauty did not seem exaggerated now, and she would certainly have been captured by its magic, had she not been so worried about the situation they were stuck in. Her regular glances on her phone told her that not only did she still not have any signal, but also she was uncomfortably aware that there wasn’t much time left before sunset. If they were hoping for any chance of getting home before this forest turned into depths of darkness, they had to hurry.
“Do you have any idea where you’re going?”, Rikki’s voice sounded behind her.
“Just up”, Emma replied, thinking that this should be obvious to Rikki, “I’m still not getting signal.” If only she could use her phone, just to inform her family that she was alright … They must be worried sick by now, considering that Emma hat promised them to head home directly after training. When hours ago Cleo had asked her if she wanted ‘a ride’, she had not anticipated it would take this long, let alone that she would strand on a deserted island with a useless boat, a panicking Cleo and a weird girl named Rikki who, with her tousled hair and sharp tongue, gave the impression of some uncivilised jungle dweller herself.
“Maybe we won’t get a signal”, Cleo whined, “What then? What if we can’t call anyone? What if nobody finds us?”
Rikki, naturally, had the most inept answer. “We’ll have to draw straws and decide which one of us the others will eat.”
“That’s not funny”, Emma snapped immediately.
“I’m relieving the tension!”, she defended herself, but to Emma’s relief, Cleo seemed to be on her side:
“You’re making it worse!”
She was positive that Rikki was rolling her eyes right now, although she had turned her eyes back to the thicket before her. “Come on!”, she shouted urgently and kept marching forwards.
Emma could not quite make out what it was about Rikki that irritated her so much. Usually, she was not the kind of person to treat someone with such hostility without even properly knowing them – but now that she had started, she couldn’t seem to bring herself to stop.
‘This could be fun though, couldn’t it?’, Rikki called. ‘Come on, don’t you two have any sense of adventure?’
Emma thought it best not to answer, or she would lose her temper.
Maybe it was the wildness, she thought. This absolute freedom that Rikki seemed to be sure of living in, doing literally whatever she wanted. The kind of freedom so incredibly bold that Emma would never have it, not as long as she was the picture-book-sister and the picture-book-daughter – part of a picture-book-family. Maybe, once in a blue moon, she did feel the urge to be like this – to steal other people’s boats, to cruise about on the ocean without obligations, and to speak before thinking, with no inhibitions whatsoever. Yet, to be this kind of girl came inseparably with disappointing people – and disappointing, after all, was not something Emma liked to do.
After a while, the thicket cleared, and they emerged on top of a small cliff, the stream of water pattering below them. Carefully, they climbed across the rocks until they reached a slight abyss.
“Mind your step”, called Emma, who was still a few steps ahead. Without much hesitation, she jumped, and so did Rikki.
“I can’t do this!”, Cleo moaned, “It’s too slippery! There’s gotta be another way …”
And before Emma could tell her that there clearly wasn’t, Cleo fell. Startled by her sudden scream, Emma cried, “Cleo! Cleo!” Only hearing Cleo’s moans from somewhere below them, they both approached the spot where she had just disappeared from sight as quickly as was possible on the uneven and indeed rather slippery ground. But Cleo was simply gone.
‘Look’, said Emma suddenly, ‘there’s a kind of hole or something. She must have fallen down there!’
When they reached the hole, Emma was stunned to find that it was huge – almost like a narrow passage and easy enough for a person to fit through. The two of them kneeled down, and Emma peered into the darkness worriedly. “Cleo! Cleo!”
No answer came.
‘Is she always this damn incompetent?’, Rikki sighed, and when Emma turned to look at her, she couldn’t believe just how little empathy there could be in such innocent ocean eyes. Ignoring her, she just continued to stare down the passageway and hope for any sign of life from Cleo.
“I’m okay! I’m fine!”, she finally shouted, and Emma was filled with relief.
“Can you climb up?”
“No …”
“Are you sure? Come on, just try!” Time was about to run out.
“I can’t”, Cleo called back, “there’s no way, it’s too steep.”
“I’ve gotta go down and get her.” Maybe now Rikki would appreciate her sense of adventure, Emma thought bitterly.
Rikki stared at her with wide eyes. “Are you crazy? It doesn’t make sense if you –”
But Emma did not wait to listen to whatever she had to say – there was no other way. Gathering her courage, she took a jump. It was deeper than she had imagined, and she couldn’t help screaming, too, until she landed safely on sandy ground, just next to Cleo. Bewildered, she looked around herself: They were in some kind of cave – what she had deemed a stone cliff seemed to just be the walls of a dark, damp hollow. “Are you okay?”
Cleo nodded. “My leg hurts a little.”
“It’s probably just sprained”, said Emma, blindly hoping she was right, but before she could get a proper look at it, there was a loud “Whoa!” and a dashing, warm body crashed against Emma’s. It was, of course, Rikki, and slowly but surely, Emma’s patience with her was wearing thin. “What are you doing here?”, she snarled at her.
“Well, you came down.”
“You were meant to stay up the top and throw down a rope or something!”
“What am I?”, Rikki snapped back, “A mind reader? And what rope?”
“Shouldn’t we concentrate on getting out of here?”, Cleo asked cautiously, and, realising that she didn’t have anything to retort to Rikki at the moment, Emma agreed that they should.
“Yup.”, she said briskly and got to her feet.
RIKKI
It felt like hours. Emma had about a dozen of unpromising ideas of what they needed to do to get up again, none of which seemed to work. It was no good – as Cleo had said, it was too steep, and none of them got further up than a couple of metres before sliding down the slope again. It had long turned dark outside, which made it even harder for them to find their way – the only beams of light still falling down the rocky slide and into the cave seemed to come from the moon. It had to be rather high up already.
“There’s no way out”, Rikki finally sighed, as they moved away from the spot where they had landed.
“Let’s try here.”
At the other side of the cave, there was another passageway, sloping slightly upwards, but it didn’t look as if it would get them to the surface. Whatever – they had to try. For about twenty seconds they walked through complete darkness, fumbling their way along the walls, then – and Rikki couldn’t believe her eyes – they emerged in a second, wider cave guarding the most breath-taking little lake that Rikki had ever seen in her life. The water in it seemed perfectly calm, and there was a curious, silvery blue shimmer dancing on it. Looking up, Rikki noticed that here, too, the source of light was undoubtedly the starlit night sky – it gleamed brightly through a narrow opening in the ceiling. This place – and she couldn’t think of a better word for it – looked like magic. “Wow … this is like a cone of volcano”, she realised just then.
Cleo and Emma seemed equally mesmerised. It didn’t take long, though, for the other two to destroy the moment – Cleo with her stupidity, and Emma with her incredible aloofness.
“It’s, umm … not going to erupt, is it?”
Emma gave her a pitying glance. “It’s been dormant for twenty thousand years, I think we’re safe.”, she stated soberly.
For God’s sake, Rikki thought to herself. Emma really wasn’t anything much but an insufferable know-it-all. A good-looking one, granted, but still highly insufferable.
Emma kneeled down at the shore of the pool and examined it, like this was some kind of business she had to get over with. “Look. Tidal rings. The level of the pool rises and falls”, she declared and, for some reason that wasn’t quite clear to Rikki, took off her shoes.
“So?”
“So it’s connected to the ocean. There might be a way out.” And then, looking like she was a hundred percent cocksure about herself, she plunged into the shimmering water.
“I’m not going to like this”, Cleo said.
Unsure of what to think about this herself, Rikki stared at the spot where Emma had disappeared. They waited. And waited. There was no sign of Emma.
“Emma? Emma!”, Cleo shouted, visibly anxious, but Rikki stopped her.
“Relax!”, she said pointedly. “Just … give her a minute.” But when Emma’s dive seemed to last an eternity, Rikki was struck by the terrible awareness that this was her fault. If Emma didn’t come up, if any of them would never get back home again, she was the one to blame.
Fortunately, Emma did come up just now. “I was right”, she blurted out as soon as she had caught her breath, “It’s about a twenty-second-swim to the reef outside, straight through, plenty of room. We can all fit.”
Well, finally some hope of getting away from her soon, Rikki thought and started taking off her shoes.
Cleo, however, didn’t seem too pleased with the idea. “Through there? No way.”
“Come on, Cleo”, Rikki said, having a really hard time trying not to roll her eyes, “there’s no other way out. You can do it.” You have to do it, was what she would rather say.
“I can’t do it.”, Cleo insisted, “And besides, I can’t swim.”
‘You can’t swim? What are you, a baby?’ Rikki hadn’t intended it to sound that mean, but it was too late.
‘Rikki!’
‘Sorry.’ And when Rikki caught Emma’s eye, she was suddenly caught off-guard by the look in it: a look of pure, unfiltered loathing. Rikki felt her cheeks go red in shame, and, fearing Emma’s eyes might pierce her to death if she kept looking back, she tore her gaze away and quickly got into the water.
As fast as it had become an evil mask, Emma’s face turned normal again. “Everything will be fine”, she assured Cleo and gave her a comforting look.
“How can you be sure?”
“Listen to her, Cleo”, Rikki emphasised quickly, hoping that Emma might maybe hate her a little bit less if she agreed with her for once. “What alternative do we have? Stay stuck down here forever?”
Emma had nothing to add to that, so Rikki supposed her choice of words had been approved.
Cleo was clearly struggling. Then, Rikki held out her hand encouragingly – and Cleo finally took it. She plopped into the water, pulling Rikki down with her, but then she surfaced again and, to Rikki’s relief, didn’t seem to be having a panic attack just yet. Rikki was ready to leave this place, as mysterious and pretty as it was, but before Emma could lead them to the open sea, something else happened. Something strange … very strange. The pool they were standing in, flashed up blindingly, and the water around them started bubbling as if it was a whirlpool someone had just turned on. But there wasn’t anyone else in here, and this was not a whirlpool, Rikki knew that much. Eyes wide open, she stared to the ceiling and looked directly at the bright, silvery full moon that almost – but it couldn’t – seemed to have established some sort of connection with the H2O molecules in the pool. Whatever this was – it was not normal.
“Wow.”, Cleo managed to say.
“Spooky”, murmured Emma. “Okay, now concentrate. Take a deep breath.” Rikki noticed how she was explicitly talking to Cleo, then Emma turned her head towards her, nodded and dived down again.
Rikki and Cleo followed. Emma swam through the water as if it was the most natural thing to her, like she had never done anything else in her life. Her strokes were clean and strong, exactly like Rikki’s swimming teacher had preached her to make them when she had learnt it years ago. Rikki had always been a good swimmer, but watching Emma lead the way as if the ocean was her home, she felt painfully mediocre.
“That was more than twenty seconds!”, Cleo gasped as soon as they hit the surface. Considering that she could speak again already, she couldn’t have been too close to drowning, Rikki thought and once again had to fight back rolling her eyes.
“Oh relax, we made it, didn’t we?”
“I’m proud of you, Cleo, I knew you could do it.”
Startling all three of them, a shrill siren sounded, followed by blinding lights and a man’s voice amplified by a megaphone: “This is the water police – please make your way to the boarding ladder at the rear of the vessel.”
“Come on.”
And with that, the adventure was over; Rikki left behind the strangest place she had ever been to in her life.
EMMA
The next day, when Emma took her usual Saturday morning swim at exactly eight o’clock, everything felt so normal that she had almost forgotten about the events from the night before, or at least they didn’t seem important enough to think about. Hence, Emma was more than startled when, about ten seconds after plunging into the waves, an odd tickle, which she could not quite decide felt hot or cold, travelled up her body, and a moment later, her feet had turned into a heavy, scaly tail fin.
Now she had been surprised by the world many times before. But this, Emma thought, was by far the most peculiar thing that had ever happened to her.
RIKKI
Rikki dreamt that Cleo was stuck on a tree she had climbed up without having thought about how she’d get down again. Desperately, she screamed for Rikki’s help, but she – out of poor laziness – didn’t feel like helping her. She laughed at her and called her a good-for-nothing, when Cleo turned into a scowling Emma who threw the same words back at her.
It was a restless night; Rikki turned over again and again, but she couldn’t seem to find sleep for longer than a few hours. When she woke up at eight – far too early for a Saturday, she thought, especially since she’d come home long after midnight – she eventually got up and made her way down to the harbour. She was just wondering whether Cleo would actually consider her a friend after yesterday’s adventure or if she would, now that it was all over, go back to not giving a damn about the new girl in town, when it happened.
Near the JuiceNet Café, there was a lawn sprinkler that someone apparently hadn’t adjusted properly, and before she could get away far enough to save herself, she was splashed with water. Whatever – this was Queensland after all, never really cold, especially not in February, so a little bit of water wouldn’t kill her.
At least that was what Rikki said to herself, until all of a sudden, she felt an unknown sort of tickling inside of her – everywhere, from head to toe. It was different to anything she had ever experienced, and she had no idea how to describe it – except that somehow, incredibly, it was hot and cold at once. As soon as she had sensed it, the feeling faded, and something even more absurd revealed itself to her: Looking down at herself, Rikki realised that she was a different person. That is, she wasn’t really sure if she was still a person at all. All of her clothes were gone – simply vanished – instead, she was wearing something like a golden brown, scaly bikini top, just that it felt weirdly comfortable though much harder than normal bathing clothing. From her hip down, where her legs should have been, there was a massive, long fishtail, making it impossible for her to stand on her feet any longer – since there weren’t any feet. She staggered for a brief moment, then crashed to the ground.
Rikki Chadwick had transformed into a mermaid, and there was only one thing she could think:
What the actual fuck.
‘So it happened to both of you, too?’ Cleo had summoned them both to her house, and all three of them were walking up and down her living room, excitedly discussing what the hell was going on.
‘Yeah …’, Rikki said, ‘it started with this strange … tickle. And it was … hot and …’
‘… cold at the same time.’, Emma finished the sentence.
‘Exactly.’
Cleo furrowed her brows. ‘It wasn’t like a tickle to me.’
‘It wasn’t? What did you feel then?’
‘I don’t know’, Cleo struggled, ‘it’s hard to explain. But somehow … I saw stars. Like, you know, before my eyes, like you do when you’re about to pass out, just that I didn’t …’
Rikki thought hard. ‘No, it definitely was a tickle to me.’
‘Me, too.’, Emma said.
‘It did start in my head, though …’, Rikki remembered now, ‘as if it originated there and then travelled down the rest of my body …’
‘It was the other way round for me’, Emma pondered, ‘I felt it first in my feet, and then it came up and up and up …’
‘That’s interesting’, said Cleo and stopped dead where she stood for a moment, ‘we’re all different. Although you two seem more alike.’
Emma frowned, and Rikki shrugged. There was just no explanation. For any of this.
‘But the tails … did we get the same ones?’, Rikki asked.
“It was orange and covered with scales.”, Cleo said immediately and started speeding around the room again.
“The minute I hit water, I –”
“I was water for a second!”, Rikki emphasised, though realising how stupid she sounded. But it was the truth.
“I was a fish.”, Cleo said plainly.
“What’s going on?”
“That’s what I wanna know.” Rikki peered into the hallway nervously. What if someone was listening? They had to be sounding like they’d gone mad. “Is there anyone else here?”
“No, dad’s at work, and my sister and mum are shopping.”
Relieved that they were alone, Rikki sat down on the armrest of an armchair Emma had occupied, although she didn’t feel too comfortable sitting this close to her, considering that they hadn’t exactly started out on best terms.
“Okay”, Emma said urgently, “What happened to us?”
Rikki couldn’t help but smile as she relived the whole thing once again – it was just too amazing. “About ten seconds after we touch water, we … we grow these …”
“And it vanishes when we’re dry!”, Cleo added. “And that’s the same with you two, right?”
Emma nodded.
“The tails are like …”, Cleo started.
“… exactly like …”
Someone had to say it. “We look like mermaids.”, Rikki grinned.
Emma’s rant came like a shot. “I’ve told you before, you’re not funny. Mermaids don’t exist. That’s just too weird.”
Rikki felt the strong urge to slap Emma straight in her arrogant face, but before she could do something stupid, the doorbell rang. They all turned their heads like scalded cats.
“Oh no”, Cleo moaned, “It’s Lewis. I forgot he’s helping me with biology today.”
Rikki knew roughly who Lewis was – from what she had observed at school, he was a friend of Cleo’s that was unhealthily obsessed with anything related to science, in short: He seemed to her an extremely boring person, maybe even more so than Emma. She heard him enter before Cleo had even reached the door … did he always do that?
“Cleo? Cle… -oh.” Lewis seemed rather caught off-guard when he saw the two of them sitting in Cleo’s living room. “Oh.”, he said again. Visibly confused, he crossed the room, glancing at his watch. “Uh … did I get the time wrong?”
“No … we said nine.”, Cleo said.
“Oh.”
“But … sorry, Lewis, something has come up.”
“Like what?”
“Just something important.” Cleo darted an insecure look at Rikki and Emma, and for a moment it seemed as if she was seriously considering telling him that she had turned into a mermaid just half an hour ago.
Rikki gave her a warning glance and shook her head.
Thankfully, Cleo picked up on it. “But … not so important that you need to know about it. Sorry, Lewis, I have to cancel.”
The expression on Lewis’s face was beyond puzzled, but it didn’t seem as if he had much to say about it. “Oh”, he said, once again.
There were two options, Rikki thought: Either Lewis was extremely bad at asking questions, or he was sensitive enough to realise that right now, questions weren’t welcome.
“Umm – maybe some other time?” Lewis had already turned back to the door when Cleo spoke again.
“Lewis? You’re smart.”
No, no, no. She was not going to do this.
“Do you know anything about mermaids?”
She had done it. This was unbelievable – Cleo really didn’t seem the most intelligent, and it drove Rikki mad.
“No …”, Lewis replied, now even more confused, “not really.”
“Okay. Sorry. Bye.”
As soon as Lewis had crossed the threshold, Rikki jumped to her feet and was surprised to see that Emma did the exact same thing.
“What?”, Cleo said innocently when she turned back and found the two of them standing right behind her, staring at her angrily.
“Do you know anything about mermaids, are you crazy?”, Rikki snapped.
“Cleo, this is really serious.”, Emma joined in, “If anyone found out about this, we could be in big trouble.
“Well maybe –”
“Look”, Emma continued, and in this moment Rikki was struck by the sudden realisation that for the first time ever, Emma was on the same side about something as she was. At least there was progress. “Something very strange has happened to us. We don’t know how and …” Emma stopped and cast a sudden sideways glance at Rikki – with a streak of panic, she realised that she had been staring at her while thinking, so she hastily dropped her gaze, “… certainly don’t know why.”
“There is a way for us to find out more”, Rikki alluded and dared another look at Emma, out of pure curiosity if she would still be with her on this.
“How?”, Cleo asked.
“Get back in the water?”
Cleo eyed Rikki as if she had suggested jumping from a rooftop. “No way. Not me.” An unhappy expression on her face, she dropped into the armchair, and Rikki and Emma followed, sitting down at each side of her.
Rikki wouldn’t be stopped by Cleo’s ridiculous fear of water. “I’m going.”, she stated, “I just … don’t think I should go alone. Any volunteers …?”
Maybe she fooled herself that the question was aimed at both of the other two, but deep down she knew very well that Cleo was out of it. For some reason, she was specifically asking Emma.
Emma looked back at her, seemingly struggling: She clearly didn’t like the idea of going with Rikki alone, but the fact that she hadn’t snapped back at her yet gave Rikki the answer she’d been looking for: Yes. Emma was with her on this. Emma certainly wanted to get back into the water.
“I’m not so sure about this”, Emma said as they stood on the slippery rocks down at the beach. She had her arms folded and observed the waves pensively.
“It’s alright. I am.” Which was a lie. Well, at least partly – Rikki was sure about wanting to find out more about this water thing … just not about doing it with Emma. How would things go if something happened to one of them? Could they trust each other enough? Would they fight again? Eventually, would they, now that Cleo wasn’t here to play the mediator, kill each other off?
But when Emma turned back to her and said, “That gives me no confidence whatsoever.”, she noticed there was a hint of a smile dancing around her lips.
How bad could it possibly be?
‘Nervous, are we?’, Rikki sneered – already pushing her luck too far again, she realised, because Emma promptly scowled.
‘I just said I am.’, she said pointedly.
Couldn’t this girl take a fucking joke?
‘Okay’, Emma sighed when they had taken off their shoes and approached the water, ‘we should probably hold on to each other, or we’ll fall again.’
Rikki reached out her hand, and Emma took it – her skin felt just as soft as it looked, Rikki discovered grimly, although she flinched at the sudden, odd sensation of cold. Together, they walked down the shore until the first wave touched their feet.
“About ten seconds, right?”
“Yup.”, Emma nodded, half nervous, half determined.
“One, two, three, four, five …”
Holding hands, it turned out, was no good. It was impossible to keep one’s balance, standing on the tip of a fish tail. Screaming, both of them staggered briefly before hitting the ground – at least this time the falling felt a little softer than on the hard grassy soil from before, Rikki thought. There they were lying now – clothes vanished and dressed up in the weird bikini tops, their tails lapped by the calm waves.
If Rikki had considered Emma pretty before, it was nothing compared to the picture revealing itself to her now: Emma’s hair was no longer tied up, but smoothly fell down her shoulders, and the mermaid look fit her as if she had been born for it. She could equally have been the character of a nicely illustrated picture book on fabulous creatures. It wasn’t really the body, though, that made her flourish like that: For the first time ever, Rikki spotted a smile on Emma’s face – a genuine, honest smile. It had nothing to do with Rikki, that much she knew – but it didn’t matter to her where it came from, as long as it was there. At any rate, there seemed to be something about the ocean that turned Emma into an entirely different person. A person no longer pretty – a person simply beautiful. Fighting back blushing, Rikki looked away.
She didn’t think she had ever had such a magical swim. She discovered that suddenly, it wasn’t hard for her anymore to hold her breath at all – holding it was the new breathing. She was also positively surprised to find that, as much as she might have felt the difference between them yesterday, she was now on the same level as Emma. She beamed, taking it all in in awe, and so did Rikki. That they got along with each other so well was certainly due to the fact that none of them could speak at the moment, but Rikki could have sworn there was something about the water that cast a spell of peace upon both of them. They glided through the sea, so effortlessly, so freely … Rikki completely lost sense of time.
After they had got out of the water and crawled back up the beach, carefully hiding behind the rocks, it took the sun only ten minutes to dry them up, and they both turned back to normal. When they approached the small pile of clothes consisting of their tops they had left by the rocks, there was a muffled ringing tone coming from beneath it.
‘My phone!’, said Emma, quickly grabbing it and glancing at the display, ‘It’s Cleo! Maybe she found out something. Cleo? … Yeah, we just got out of the water. You have to believe me, it’s amazing …’ Emma was silent for a moment, listening to whatever Cleo was telling her. ‘Cleo, you need to talk more slowly! Cleo … Cleo, I’m not understanding a word. Let’s just meet up, alright? Where are you? … Okay then, we’re meeting at mine right now.” She hung up, and, without saying another word to Rikki, she strode off.
Meet at Emma’s … Now what should Rikki do with that? Was she … supposed to come? Nervously, she watched Emma march up towards the promenade, considering that maybe now was the time for her to go home. But after a few seconds, Emma turned around bewilderedly and shouted:
‘Are you coming or what? Let’s go, I don’t have all day.’
So Rikki hastened after her.
Emma’s place wasn’t far from the beach and looked more like a holiday home to Rikki than a house where people actually lived. Well, rich people do, she thought but tried not to be too bitter about it – the relaxing effect of their ocean trip hadn’t completely faded yet, and she was willing to hold on to it for as long as she could.
“So we climb out of the water and everything’s back to normal when we’re dry!”, Emma said excitedly. “Like nothing ever happened!”
“But it did!” Processing the fact that they now were mermaids seemed impossible. They walked up a neat path lined by high, beautiful palm trees that seemed to be leading directly to Emma’s front door. “Ah, it’s gotta be the best experience of my life”, Rikki said dreamily, “I mean – are there even words for that?”
“I don’t think so.”
They had reached a wide, brown door when suddenly someone heavily pissed Rikki off by disrupting their conversation. “Wait!”
Oh, Rikki thought. It was Cleo. How could she possibly have forgotten already that she was coming, too?
“You’ll never believe what just happened!”
All of this just had to be a dream. Mesmerised, Rikki watched Cleo do the craziest thing she’d ever seen in her life. One hand stretched out before her, she was somehow conjuring a tower of water, rising from a glass and becoming higher and higher. It couldn’t be possible. After everything that had happened to Rikki in these last 24 hours, after everything that had changed, she still couldn’t believe her eyes: Cleo was doing magic.
They were sitting in Emma’s room. Cleo had shoved them up the stairs so fast that she hadn’t had the chance to get a closer look at the rest of the house, let alone Emma’s family (all she heard was a little boy who must be her brother call ‘Emma? Hi Em, is that you?’, visibly making Emma uncomfortable with the fact that she couldn’t greet him properly) – but from the very moment that she stepped into Emma’s room, it was clear to her that it was cleaner than her own room had ever been in her whole life. It was nice and bright, with a large queen-size bed, and Rikki spotted several paintings she couldn’t make much sense of, though recognising they were rather pretty, neatly piled boxes with unidentifiable contents and stacks of CDs. Rikki wondered what kind of music someone like Emma would be into, but now didn’t seem the time to ask. Indeed, there were much more interesting things to brood over at the moment.
“And it grows even more …”, Cleo said, still staring at the water tower under her control and obviously not stunned any less.
“Where’s the extra water coming from?”
“I don’t know.” Cleo took her gaze away from the strange water figure still growing higher in the air – and when she dropped her hand, the thing suddenly started to fall sideways, aiming for Rikki and Emma. Instinctively, Rikki flinched, but against her expectation that the water would hit her, nothing happened. When she looked again, she was flabbergasted: The liquid had turned into ice. A second later, she realised that Emma’s hand was raised up in the air. Rikki stared.
“Did I do that?”, Emma said shakily.
“It wasn’t me …”
“Okay”, Rikki said, shaking her head in disbelief, “this is over the top, I’m getting tingles now.”
“All I did was …”
Emma let her hand shoot forwards one more time – and immediately, the water in a vase holding a pretty white flower (Rikki knew too little about flowers to say what kind it was) – froze to ice. When Rikki glanced at Emma, there was a sparkle in her eye: the unmistakable excitement about what she was capable of.
Thrilled now, Rikki raised her hand and aimed it at the frozen water tower that was still stuck in mid-air. Nothing happened. She tried all kinds of hand shapes, but the water just wouldn’t do anything. “Not fair – why don’t I get to do the cool stuff?”
“I don’t think cool is the word”, Cleo said, “it’s scary. But you should have seen the look on Zane’s face.”
According to Cleo’s story, she had discovered her power by accidentally splashing Zane with an enormous amount of water. Rikki grinned and tried to hide how much it nagged at her that she seemed to be the only one of them without an extra power.
“This isn’t funny”, Emma snapped, once again. Then she looked at them, obviously preparing herself for a speech of reasonability. “We’ve gotta keep this a secret. From everyone. We could end up dissected or … in a circus or something.”
“So this secret”, Cleo said, “it’s … just between the three of us?”
“Our secret.”, Emma emphasised. “Our responsibility. Whatever happens, we’re in this together.”
Cleo nodded dramatically.
Rikki half expected Emma to hit the roof if she made a joke about this, but she just couldn’t help herself. “Doesn’t mean we’re married, does it?”
And to her immense surprise, Emma smiled at her. “Now that was actually funny.”
It took Rikki a moment to really understand what had just happened. This smile was different to any other she had seen on her face so far. This smile wasn’t devoted to Emma’s satisfaction of knowing everything or her pride in being able to do magic … not even to the beautiful ocean that had made her a new person for a short time.
No, it was the first ever smile of Emma’s that was meant for her. And just when Rikki realised this, she felt something awful happen inside of her. Suddenly, she saw in Emma’s eyes something else than before. Something more than just disapproval, something more than hate, something more even than that ever so smug self-satisfaction.
Rikki saw the sky.