Waterworks (H2O Just Add Water) 🌊

70. Into the Light

At school, I didn't see any sign of Rikki. I assumed she skipped school to linger at the cavern and enhance her forcefield power. The teachers thought Rikki was doing an assignment. Cleo and Bella asked me if I had seen her and knew where she had gone. I didn't tell them what was happening to keep Rikki's trust in me strong. Knowing their concern for her made me feel more guilty for not saying anything to the other girls. 

"Hey," Patrick approached me at the lockers, "Is everything okay?"

"The girls are freaking out over Rikki. And it's making me feel guilty for withholding the truth from them," I sighed sadly.

"Everything will turn out right."

"I hope so."

Will approached us, "They know what happened in the cavern."

"How?" I turned to him in shock.

"I had to tell the others. They were worried about you and Rikki. They know you never said anything due to her trust in you."

"Let's hope it doesn't blow up in our faces," Patrick stated, "From what I get here, you two are still trying to process it all before telling the other girls."

"It's true," I nodded, "I'm worried Rikki might suspect that I told them before she was ready."

"She won't, Zoey," Will assured me, "She knows you would never turn on a promise. I'll tell the others to give you two time until you're both ready to tell them everything."

"Thanks, Will."

🌊

Once school was done, I headed for the moon pool. I found Rikki relaxing in the water.

"Everyone's worried about you," I stated after surfacing.

"I know. I don't know how to tell them about our new powers," Rikki expressed, "They might see us differently."

"They won't, Rikki. No matter what, we'll still be their best friends. This new enhancement may have something to do with why the water tentacle keeps emerging at every full moon."

"You're probably right, Zo."

Both of us swam along the reef. On seeing the dugong pod feeding on seagrass, I stopped to watch them. The calf, who had been growing fast, swam over and hugged me. Rikki came over and smiled at the sight. Whenever she saw the dugongs, they always seemed to make her smile. 

Suddenly, there was a low buzzing noise. It sounded like a motorboat. Worrying for the dugongs since they were slow swimmers and could get hurt by it, I held a hand outward, and extra seagrass sprouted on the ocean floor. It was far from the motorboat, and the pod was at a safe distance.

Rikki and I noticed the boat and surfaced once it was far from us. I had to guess that the person in the boat wearing a park ranger uniform was Ryan. Cleo for sure didn't tell him about the island unless Ryan learned about it from Kim, who was always suspecting that all of us were hiding something. 

Once Rikki and I got on dry land, we stealthy followed Ryan into the jungle. We found him by a creek examining the rocks with a magnetometer. 

🌊

We returned to the mainland to inform the others of Ryan's presence on the island.

"That Ryan guy, he's poking around Mako looking at rocks," Rikki told everyone, "I told you he was bad news."

"How do you know what he looks like?" Cleo asked, not believing our story.