*Amy Holm*

(A/N: Are you guys ready? This is the really chaotic one, as you could probably tell from the title. :-) Hope you enjoy! BTW this is while Bella is being hypnotized.)

I groaned as the bright sunlight shone down onto my sensitive eyes. I shielded my face with my hand as I blinked a few times and slowly pushed myself up out of my covers of my silky bed.

Only I didn't push out of my covers. I felt sand underneath my hands as I tried to push myself up and I immediately bolted upright as I looked around in horror. I was on some sort of beach, and my hair as a mess up sand, snarls, and seawater.

"Finally!" I heard a male voice from behind me say. "She has awaken!" The mystery boy behind me let out fits of laughter as if me being stranded on some beach somewhere was funny. I turned around to look at him angrily, which was a very pathetic attempt for me. I'm not very good at looking menacing.

He was actually pretty cute, but definitely not my type. Really. I swear. His dark hair was sort of ragged and curly, and a little messy. His bright green eyes surrounded a suntanned face peeking out from underneath his chocolate bangs as his head bobbed up and down from laughter.

"Who are you and where the hell am I?" I tried to ask demandingly, but came out shaky and worried. I never have sworn before so I surprised myself.

"Calm down girl," he said as he rolled his eyes. I was furious but sort of scared at the same time. "Hi. I'm Alex." He held out his hand, and I stared at it until it dropped. He laughed a bit more. "You don't seem like the friendly type, blondey."

"I said, where am I?" He just laughed some more as I tried to get my fingers through my snarly hair.

"Look around pretty girl. Where does it look like we are? Disney Land?" he said as he was engulfed in laughter. I was very irritated and embarrassed but looked around anyways.

I was lying on a beach somewhere with a lot of jungle plants surrounding me. A few miles away, there was more land. It finally clicked.

"Mako Island?" I asked him.

"That what you call this place?" he asked as he looked around and shrugged while sifting the sand beneath him. I watched the little granules slip through his fingers. "They could've come up with a better name, if you ask me."

"Well, no one DID ask you." I mumbled. He started laughing again and I blushed.

"You're cute," he said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes, trying to look not at all scared or worried (I failed) and stood up. He followed.

"Where you going?" he asked cheerfully.

"Away from you," I said as I ducked under a leafy bush. Honestly I wasn't sure where I was going. I just felt like I should go this way. Although as I hiked through the lush layers of forest and exotic plants, I felt an extreme sense of déjà vu.

"Well, I'll come with!" he said as he jumped over a stump.

"That's not away from me you ding dong, that's getting closer!" I said aggravated as I started to walk faster. He walked faster too.

"You're being followed," he said in a singsong voice. I clenched my fists. He was being so annoying.

Even after 15 years of having mermaid powers, I forgot I had them at the moment. A small puddle started to heat up and Alex stepped in it.

"Ow!" he said in pain as the water seared his leg. "What the hell?" I couldn't help but giggle. He looked up at me annoyed. Finally. A taste of his own medicine.

If Jean was here, she wouldn't have hesitated to punch that annoying brat right in the face. He'd be unconscious by now. I'd love to do that, but it's not very lady-like, which wouldn't bother Jean…

My breath caught in my throat. Jean. It was then I remembered exactly what happened the night before.

"OH MY GOD!" I screamed, my eyes probably popping out of my skull.

"Finally you see my point of view!" said Alex, obviously referring to his burnt foot. I totally ignored him and started running towards the strange pool I had followed Jean to the night before.

"Wait up!" yelped Alex. I controlled myself this time from burning him and just ran faster. Who knew if Jean was in trouble…

When I reached the slippery hole I had found the night before that led into the beautiful cave, I jumped in without hesitation. Once I had reached the bottom, I ran in yelling "Jean! Jean!" I had expected to see her there, still in the daze from last night's full moon. But of course, nobody was in there. Why had I thought she would still be here?

"Woah!" I heard Alex fall into the cave and I panicked. I didn't think that he was supposed to be in here! This was a place for the mermaids, not him! Not even me! I was looking for my sister though, so that was different.

"Don't come in!" I yelled to him, but of course he didn't listen. I panicked as I expected him to come in and be like "WTF?", but of course, he surprised me. Again.

"Why not?" he asked as he came in. He didn't look shocked at all from the beauty and magic of the cave. It was so amazing I was sure that this place has something to do with mermaids. Maybe even the place that they… no… it couldn't be…

"Have you been here before?" I asked him puzzled. He laughed. It was so annoying.

"You're a funny chick," he said to me as he sat down and chewed on a piece of grass he must have picked up somewhere.

"Well have you?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You really don't remember?" He laughed again. "Man, you really were out cold!"

"What are you talking about?"

He chuckled a bit, antagonizing me very second, before explaining. "I found you in here last night talking to someone, but you were really dizzy, so I brought you to the beach, where you passed out. Oh and by the way, you talk in your sleep."

I ignored his sleep talking jibe and further questioned him. "Why would I pass out?" I asked. All I remembered was Jean being all weird in here. Actually, now that I think of it, I remember a sharp pain on my head. I poked around on my birds nest hair until I felt a throbbing pain. I prodded the small bump and felt a small bruise start to form. Weird… I thought.

He shrugged. "Beats me." He got up and walked to the pool, then jumped in.

"Yeeow, this is cold!" he exclaimed with a shudder. But he was smiling the entire time. "Come on, wanna go for a swim?"

"With anyone but you," I said as I blushed again. I wasn't very good around boys, especially cute ones. "Now get out of there!"

"Fine. Now can you help me get out?" he asked. I rolled my eyes but, being the nice person I am who would probably risk her life just to help a grandma cross the street, stretched my hand out to help him out. I should've known better.

He thrust his arm backwards, firmly gripping my hand, as I flipped into the pool. I sunk a good 3 feet before scrambling to get to the surface.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I screamed as I gasped for breath and a few tears trickled down my face. Second swear word. Wow. And in only one day. I turned to Alex in annoyance and hatred. This guy was trouble and I knew it. He made my annoyed and mean side come out of me, which I hardly ever see. No, scratch that, not even the biggest fight I've ever had with Jean brought this out. I NEVER see this side of me. "What was that for?" I was on the verge of crying.

He just laughed some more. "Come on, you can't say this isn't fun!" he said as he splashed some water at me. I splashed some back. "Well too bad. Cuz I am." I tried to get out of the pool by using the steps but he splashed some more water and I fell backwards into the pool again. By now I was seriously irritated.

I heated up the water around him as he looked around him in confusion. I took the opportunity to get out of the water. The only good thing that came from the water was the fact that it swept my hair back, tidying it up a bit.

Once I was on land, I tried to dry myself off discretely, without the Alex guy noticing. Then I noticed a small black hair binder on my wrist and used that to do my hair up into my favorite hairstyle: a simple ponytail.

Eventually that brat got out of the water too. "You're already dry?" he asked me.

"Yep," I said, exaggerating the "p" as I tried to climb back up out of the cave. It wasn't working.

He sighed and scaled the steep crevice. I was amazed, but didn't wonder how he did it for long. Before I knew it, he was pulling me up too.

As we walked back towards the beach (I had decided there was no getting rid of him) he started asking me the questions.

"So, I never really found out your name," he said as he plucked a long piece of grass from the jungle floor and whistled with it. I've never been able to do that.

"Amy," I said without looking at him.

He laughed some more. "Amy. Sounds like a nice, innocent name. Now that's not you at all, is it Amy?"

"You don't know me," I said as I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arms around my waist, wishing I was anywhere but this stupid island, with anyone than this annoying Alex…

"Whatever you say Ames." He ducked underneath some palm fronds. "So what were you doing at that pool thing last night?"

I stopped for a brief second before continuing to walk towards the beach. "Why does it matter?" He chuckled. His over-happiness was starting to bug me. I am usually a very timid, shy person, but around this guy… I felt like beating him. And I'm never a violent person. So this was definitely a strange situation.

"Okay then crabby pants, I guess it doesn't matter." We made it to the beach and I started walking faster. He was jogging to keep up. "Where are you going?"

"Why do you care?" I growled.

"I was just wondering if you wanted a ride back to the mainland." I froze and turned around. "What?" I asked him in disbelief.

"You heard me. My boat's a bit that way, if you wanted a ride back."

"Then why did you keep me on this stupid island for so long then?" I exploded at him, a few more tears sprouting. He just laughed, not at all intimidated by me.

"Cuz it was fun," He started walking towards the boat as I muttered stuff I would say to him if I wasn't depending on him to take me home.

About 15 minutes later, we were on his boat going towards the mainland. I was sitting on the opposite side of the boat as he steered. As we neared land, he asked me where I'd like to be dropped off.

I thought about that one as a twirled a lock of blonde ponytailed hair around my pointer finger. I didn't really want this creep knowing where I live, so I probably should have him drop me off somewhere close to my home. Hmm… My thoughts turned to yesterday, which felt like forever ago, when I had met Lainey, Bella, Nicole, and Blake as Lilly's.

"Lilly's please," I told him. "Do you know where that is?" He rolled his eyes.

"Who doesn't?" He pulled up next to a small dock that was about 20 feet away from Lilly's. I quickly hopped out and left with a quick "Thanks".

I was about to walk into Lilly's as I saw Bella leaving. That gave me a memory of the night before… I had seen Bella in the pool too. I turned my target away from Lilly's to Bella, who was walking away from the smoothie shop with two smoothies stamped with the signature strawberry and giant purple "L" from Lilly's on the foam cups and a white fringe bag draped over her arm.

"Bella!" I yelled as I jogged over to her. She turned around as her eyes bulged.

"Amy…" she said, but I interrupted her.

"Are you okay?" I looked her over and she set down her bag and smoothies at a nearby bench as she creased her brow. "Woah woah, hold on here… Am I okay? What about you?" Her expression was pretty bewildered, so I assumed that she was talking about me being stranded at Mako Island.

"I'm fine," I said to her as I started to fill her in on the happenings as we continued to walk towards her house to drop off a smoothie.

Another 15 minutes later, we were at Nicole's house, ringing the doorbell. Bella had also filled me in on the whole hypnotism and smoothie thing and after I got all the giggles out as I kept saying "smoothie" to her repeatedly, we decided to go over here, where Lainey and Blake were also.

After waiting another minute, the door opened slowly. A pretty exhausted looking Nicole stepped out. Or at least, she was exhausted looking. As soon as she saw me she raised her eyebrows and straightened her back. "How…"

"We'll fill you in inside," said Bella as we were about to go in. But Nicole blocked her. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you," she said warningly.

"Why not?" I asked her, confused.

She sighed but opened the door fully, giving us an entrance into the air conditioned home. "Fine. Be my guest. Just be quiet."

We walked up to Nicole's room and even from downstairs I could hear muffled bickering, probably from Blake and Lainey, since they were the only ones here, or at least that's what Bella had told me. I wondered what was going on.

We went to the hallway outside of her room (which I only knew because Bella told me. I had never been here before) and could hear exactly what they were saying.

"My god, Blake!" we could hear a girl, probably Lainey, say in an annoyed tone. "I can handle myself, okay?"

"But Lainey…" started the boy in the room (Blake).

"Blake. Seriously." They weren't yelling or anything but the quiet seriousness made it almost worse. "I'm a big girl. I can do what I want without your supervision, okay? And right now I want to go for a swim with the girls."

"It's not safe Lainey!"

"We went swimming a bunch of times before you even found out about our secret. You knowing doesn't suddenly make it more dangerous."

"But what about Jean?" asked Blake, making me much more alert. "What if she decides to go for a swim too and she sees you?"

I walked into the room despite Bella and Nicole's frantic "no" signals they were sending me. "Do you know where Jean is?" I asked Blake. His worried face quickly turned to shock as soon as he saw me enter the room, as had Lainey's annoyed face. I blushed from all of the attention and then repeated the question.

"No…" said Lainey as she probably tried to figure out what I was doing there.

"Oh." I sighed and sat down on one of Nicole's chairs. I started to twirl a lock of hair around my finger in worry, for the second time this hour. "Yeah I don't know where she is either. I'm getting worried. I don't really know where she would have even gone last night. Maybe I should go home to see if she's there…"

"Woah, hold on!" said Lainey, a bit more than confused. "What are you doing here? Weren't you unconscious in the cave last night?"

I let out a small sigh as I re-explained the whole scenario. When I finished, we decided to go to my house to see if Jean had somehow managed to get home.

When we were about to leave, Blake's cell phone rang. He quickly checked his caller ID and groaned. He answered, "Hello?" and winced at the voice that answered. "My parents", he mouthed to us. Nicole raised her eyebrows and let out a low whistle. Lainey nudged her, obviously sensitive about her boyfriend.

"Well, bye Blake!" said Lainey as I heard Blake say to his parents, "I was doing something important, I swear! Hold on a minute…" He put his hand over the receiver and hissed to Lainey, "Don't go anywhere!"

"Bye-bye!" said Lainey gleefully as we bolted out the door and she waved to Blake.

They were giggling once they reached the bottom. I was nervous though, like always.

"Is Blake going to be mad?" I asked, not wanting to start any fights or anything.

"Extremely," giggled Lainey.

"But aren't you two dating?" I asked, not understanding why this humored her.

Her face got more serious as she stopped laughing. "Blake has been a bit… overprotective lately."

"And it's driving all of us insane!" added Nicole.

"Honestly…" she said hesitantly. "I'm thinking about breaking up with him."

"Just because he's overprotective?" I asked in shocked. She thought about that.

"You're right," she said. "That's a silly reason. We'll work out our issues, don't worry." But she didn't look too sure of herself. Nicole just shrugged.

I noticed Bella was looking nervous as we were walking. Before I could ask, Nicole did.

"Bella, what's wrong?" asked Nicole.

"I'm worried about that guy from Mako Island." She was concentrating hard on the ground as we continued walking. "I mean, now we know he's not a merman, since he touched water multiple times with Amy, but what if he had caught a glimpse of me or Jean?"

"I don't think so," I said. "He didn't seem like he had."

"Well, you never know," said Lainey.

"I guess," I sighed. Alex really was odd. Who knows what he had seen and done?

"Is that all on your mind?" asked a concerned Lainey. That perked Bella up as she narrowed her eyes and turned to Nicole. I knew what was coming so I backed up. Lainey copied my actions.

"Oh yeah I forgot," started Bella as she stepped towards Nici. "I went to Lilly's this morning, and the strangest thing happened. You wouldn't know about what I'm talking about, would you Nicole?"

"Oh, right, about that… heh…" Nicole bolted away from us and ran towards my house.

"Hey!" shouted Bella as she ran after her. I giggled.

Then I heard Lainey's cell phone ring. She picked it up and quickly answered. "Hellooo?" she responded to the person on the other end as she let out a giggle. Then her face became serious. "Mom, why… wait, what? But why?" I wasn't sure what was going on, but Lainey's face looked distressed.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her. She put up her pointer finger- the universal signal for "hold on"- and continued speaking to her mom. "Mom I don't understand! Why would I be in trouble?" Okay, so it seemed I wasn't the only one not sure of what was going on. As Lainey started to walk away as she continued to talk to her mom, I ran ahead to tell Bella and Nicole what was going on.

But as I walked up to them, I saw that Lainey wasn't the only one frustrated. Nicole was also on her phone, obviously talking to her mom as well.

"Mom why would I need to come home? I'm doing something really… what's THAT supposed to mean?" Nicole was flushed and Bella was a good distance away from her. I bet Nicole was actually a little bit glad her mom had called. That call was the only thing between her and Bella's wrath.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Bella. It was a weird situation. Everything was fine and then suddenly Lainey and Nicole had gotten some pretty upsetting phone calls, and I wasn't sure why.

"I have no idea," she whispered back. "Nicole's mom called and started yelling at Nicole to come home."

"Weird," I said. "Lainey's mom just called her too."

"Hmmm." Bella looked over to see Lainey click the "off" button in annoyance and toss her phone into her bag. She ran up to us as Nicole also hung up and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry guys, I have to go," said Lainey when she caught up to us.

"Why?" asked Bella.

"I'm not sure," said Lainey with a frown. "My mom said something about me being in big trouble for the "stunt" I had played…" She looked to us for answers. Unfortunately, I had none.

"My mom said basically the same thing," said Nicole. "I'm supposed to go home straight away."

"I don't know what's going on," said Lainey worriedly, pointing out the obvious.

"Do you think it has something to do with…" started Nicole.

"It couldn't possibly be!" said Bella. I looked back and forth between them, not sure what they were talking about.

"They couldn't know," exclaimed Lainey. "How would they?"

"Maybe if Alex had saw…" said Bella worriedly. That's when I caught on.

"You mean, you think your moms know you're mermaids?" I asked.

"SHHHH!" They all shushed me and I backed up.

"You can't just say that stuff in public!" said Nicole, exasperated. I winced and mouthed, "Sorry".

Lainey looked towards the road to her house and sighed. "Well, the only way to find out what's up is to go home." She looked back at us. "Right?"

"Right," sighed Nicole. She started jogging towards her house with a "See you guys later". Lainey started walking home too. Now it was only Bella and me.

After walking for a few more minutes towards my house, I turned to Bella in worry. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She sighed. "No," she admitted. "I keep wondering about the Alex guy. What if he had seen us as mermaids? Wouldn't it be our duty to go find him and put him on the spot either way? He can't let people know about what's at Mako Island."

"I guess…" I was starting to worry too. What exactly had he seen as he brought me out of the cave? That reminded me of something I had wanted to ask the girls since I had first seen the place…

"Was that the place you girls turned into mermaids?" I blurted out. I immediately slapped my hand over my mouth. "I didn't mean to…"

"Yes." I blinked.

"Wait what?" I asked.

"Yes!" said Bella as she rolled her eyes. "That's where we transformed, yes."

I was confused. "Why did you just… tell me then? Don't you know that now I could go and become a mermaid if I wanted to?"

"But you don't." I blinked again. She was spot on. Maybe mind reading was another one of her powers besides heat? I wasn't sure.

"How did you know that?" She shrugged.

"I just know." She started walking away, leaving me confused. And a little annoyed. The whole "mysterious mermaid" thing was a bit annoying.

"Where are you going?" I called out to her.

"To find Alex!" she shouted back.

"But…" I saw her running towards the water.

"Bye!" she shouted before plunging into the deep. I sighed and sat down on a bench. Now I was alone. I felt cold suddenly as I got up and walked to my house, afraid of what I might find.

As I creaked open the door, I blinked I surprise. Because there was Jean, sleeping soundly in the perfectly orderly house on the perfectly orderly couch. Her small breaths took up the empty sound of the place, since our parents were away for the night for some business thing.

"Jean!" I whispered to her, praying that she was alright. "Jean!"

"Wha…?" she mumbled as she slowly pushed up off of the couch, the cushions trembling beneath her. "Where… where am I?" She looked up. "Amy?" She cleared her throat.

"Oh my gosh, you're alright!" I squeezed her into a big hug as a few tears fell down my face. I am a very emotional person.

"Woah, woah," she sat up, utterly confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"

I sighed. "Well, you kinda saw the moon last night…" She immediately groaned and stuffed her face back into her pillow. After a few more seconds of waiting for her flushed face to die down, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and swept her bangs back. "What… what happened… Did I…" She took a deep breath.

"What?" I asked her, a little scared. Jean is usually the strong one, with me being the one who's always crying and being frightened.

"Did I hurt you?" She looked up with a few tears in her eyes. This took me by surprise.

"Oh, Jean…" I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a hug. She took a few deep breaths.

"Well did I?" She asked again.

I sighed. "Yeah…"

She pulled away. "What did I do?"

"It's really not a big deal…"

"What did I do?"

I sighed again. There has been a lot of sighing going on today, I realized, with Alex and the confusing actions of Lainey and Nicole's parents and now with my own sister. "I think… I think you knocked me out unconscious."

"Oh my god, are you serious?" She started checking my head and my arms and any other place I might have had a bruise or some other indication of pain. I pulled away as she gave me a guilty look.

"I should have been much more careful… after all these years… and now I've actually hurt someone…" She buried her face in her hands. I took a deep breath. All of my feelings today have been overwhelming, to my extreme anger in Alex to my extreme pity for Jean.

"It might not have been you though…" I slapped my hand over my mouth as I realized the effects of what I had just said.

She sniffled once more before looking up in confusion. "Wait… what? Well who else could it be?"

"Oh crap…" I muttered as my gaze was directed towards the floor I was currently rubbing my feet against.

Jean's tears were gone. "Amy… what exactly happened last night?" I was silent for a minute. "Amy, you need to tell me!"

"It's not much, okay? You don't need to get so worked up…" She raised her eyebrow as she obviously saw past my attempt to avoid the question. But, since I'm the kind of person who doesn't take pressure very well, I cracked.

"Okay okay, so here's the story." She sat quietly as I explained. "You saw the moon last night and started swimming towards Mako Island."

"That's the place Mom told me about…" said Jean. I nodded before continuing.

"So anyways, I found this guy that was going towards Mako Island anyways so he dropped me off there. When I got there I looked around until I fell into this hole in the ground, which led to the cave where I found you. Except…" I paused.

"Except…" She beckoned me to continue.

"Except Bella was there too."

"Wait… isn't she one of those girls? Bella Edwards?"

"Uh, yeah…"

"She knows about me?" She shrieked.

"No!" I swore, feeling guilty that I had to lie to her. "She was just as moonstruck as you were…" Yeah, that was true, but she still knew. But I can't lie to my sister, I told myself. She needs to know… I got ready to tell her that she actually did tell them until she interrupted me.

"Well that's a relief. Because if I she EVER finds out about our family, we just might have to move again!"

"Wait…" Panic started to grow inside my chest as I thought of what I had done. "Is that why we moved from Key Largo in the first place?"

She sighed. "Yes. Someone in my school found out, someone who wasn't my friend and I couldn't trust, and after bribing them not to tell, we moved away." She looked me in the eye. "Now you know why this is the utmost importance to keep this secret, well, a secret. And you CAN'T let those girls know about me! Honestly, even though I wouldn't like it, I'd be fine with it, but Mom and Dad would send us away to who knows where! I mean, at least this time we got to stay near the ocean, but what if we have to move to Russia or something the next time?"

"Okay… I… I promise…" I looked away to hide my guilt. On the outside I probably looked like I was sorting through it all, but on the inside I was an ocean of worry. I came that close to telling her I had told those girls…

"I've got to go." I blurted out abruptly as I stood up and started walking towards the door. I must have looked a little too anxious because Jean grabbed my shoulder and I turned to see her raised eyebrows questioning my actions. "Amy?" She asked.

"What?" I said nonchalantly. She didn't buy it.

"You didn't tell them… did you?" She stepped closer. "Because if you did, I won't be mad."

"I…" I paused. Jean stared me down, waiting for my response. "I never told." I said to her feeling more guilty than ever. "I swear."

"Swear and promise?" I felt a little pang in my heart. When we swear and promise, that's more to us than just a pinky swear. It's like… it's like a big of a deal as marriage, only with secrets. It was something we sisters are FORBIDDEN to lie about. So that's why I felt so incredibly horrible as I repeated her words to me. "Swear and promise." She smiled and walked away, leaving me to feel even more guilty as I walked out the door.

I actually wasn't sure where I was going. Maybe to see how things were going with Blake's parents, maybe to see what was going on with Lainey and Nicole, maybe to go see what Bella was doing… I had no idea. I was probably just going to keep walking until something came up. And something did come up. Or should I say, someone came up.

"AMY!" shouted a familiar voice from behind me. I turned to see Nicole running towards me.

"Nicole! What's going on?"

She looked behind her quickly before answering. "I snuck out of my house."

"What? Why?"

"Because my parents are onto me! The school gave them a letter for a confirmation that I really am allergic to chlorine."

"Wait… but you're not…"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not dummy! But me and Lainey had to fake it! Bella was lucky enough that everyone thinks she's still hydrophobic!"

"I still don't get why you snuck out…"

She sighed and rolled her eyes while I tried not to feel offended. "They're questioning me about it and asking why I'm faking it. When I tell them I'm not faking it, they want me to prove it. And we can't fake a rash without Bella's heat power! That's why I came to see you. Didn't Bella go with you to your house?"

"Actually, no. She left to go find that Alex guy."

Nicole groaned. "Great. She could be anywhere by now…" She started running away.

"Are you going to go find her?" I called out.

"Yes!" she responded. "And go get Lainey and tell her to meet me at Mako!"

"Umm… okay!" I said awkwardly as I walked towards her house.

As I stepped onto her small deck and knocked on her door, I could hear faint sounds of bickering from inside. Her parents must have found out about the chlorine too, I thought as the fighting died down and someone came to answer the door.

"Hello?" asked someone I've never seen before. She was tan and was wearing high-waisted white shorts over a light pink, short sleeved sheer dress shirt covering a plain white camisole. Chunky tribal necklaces hung over her neck and matched her beaded bracelets. She was half talking to me in an annoyed tone and half looking at her French fingertips embellished with tiny pink crystals. Her feet were barefoot and looked like she had been painting her toenails, since only one foot had pink polish on it. "What do you want?" she asked as she flipped her wavy, highlighted hair over her shoulder and slightly chewed on her pinky nail. I noticed she was wearing light pink lipstick, not as bold as Bella's everyday lipstick, but still noticeable that it was lipstick. Her eyes were covered in shiny white powder as well, matching her flawless complexion. I had one word- W.O.W.

She let out a sigh. "What did you come here for, to waste my time? I have better things to do than stand at the door and wait for some obnoxious stranger to tell me why they're stalking-"

"DESTINY!" I heard Lainey's voice yell out from inside. "Leave Amy ALONE!"

Destiny rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving just Lainey and me on her doorstep. After mumbling something, Lainey shut the door and crossed her arms, blowing her side bangs out of her face.

"I can NOT believe her. The most annoying sister ever…" She went on back to mumbling.

"Really, Lainey, it's fine. But Nicole told me to come over here to say…" I peeked at the door. "Well you obviously don't need me to tell you. Looks like you've found out for yourself," I said, bringing up the bickering from inside.

Lainey sighed and sat down on a small bench on her deck that looked like it was woven out of wood pieces. I sat next to her as she rubbed her temples to sooth her obvious headache.

"My parents found out about me faking the chlorine thing. Some letter in the mail from school…" She sighed and grabbed a small knit pillow from on top of the bench and hugged it. "I don't know what to do. There's fighting and… and Destiny is being such a brat… and my secret… and then Blake to top it all off…" She groaned and stuffed her face into the pillow.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" I said quietly. "I wish…" I trailed off, not wanting to sound like the person she barely knows trying to comfort her.

She took a deep breath and lifted her head. "Well," she started. "I bet Nicole's in the same situation as me, right?"

"Oh! Yeah!" I exclaimed, remembering Nicole's request. "Nicole snuck out of her house to go find Bella and told me to tell you to meet them at Mako Island."

She sighed. "I'm afraid I can't. My parents would kill me if I snuck out right now."

"Well you can't prove to them you are allergic to chlorine without Bella, right?"

She thought about that. "Right," she admitted. She then peered through a window that I assumed led into the kitchen, giving there were pots hanging from shelves visible from the window, and then quietly stepped down the porch. I followed her to the small park in between all of the circles of houses where I had seen Nicole running towards Mako.

"Okay," started Lainey. "I know I'm going to be in big trouble when I get back, so you better go and claim you had left before I did if anyone asks so that you don't get in as much trouble as me." She started running towards the small dock at the end of the park and yelled out, "Bye!" as she dived into the surf. I wondered what was with them and non-discreet exits.

(Well that's the end of this chapter! I'm so terribly sorry it took forever to get this up! I was just so busy… Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, even though it's not my best. There was going to be more going on but I just decided to span it out over more than one chapter, since this chapter was already pretty long. I realized it's also a bit choppy in places, but just bear with me! LOL. Also, check out my profile for the pictures of what characters in my story look like. Chapter 23 will be up soon (I PROMISE) and one more thing: Don't forget to review!)

Here is a sketch (sort of) of what the neighborhood they live in looks like.

Key: | = shoreline, |::: = small dock, |:::::: = big dock for larger boats, |: = Blake's private little dock, ~ = ocean, O = Mako Island (obviously bigger and more far away), X = building, + = park outline, XXXXXX = apartment complex thingie, RH = random house, ...= pretend this is a space! P.S. Some of these characters you don't know about yet, and there are other houses farther out past what I've shown, but they aren't important.

~ |:::... ... ... ... ... X (LILLY'S)... ... ... ... ...X (KRISSY) ... ... ... ... ...X (ALISON) ... ... ... ... ...X (NICOLE)

~ | ... ... ... ... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... X (BELLA)

~ |:::... ... ... ... +... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... +... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... X (LAINEY)

~ | ... ... ... ... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...X (BLAKE)

O |:

~ | ... ... ... ... ... ...X (JEAN & AMY) ... ... ... X (MIKAYLA) ... ... ... ...X (HANNA) ... ... ... ... ...X (SCHOOL)

~ |:::::: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...X (BAIT SHOP) ... ... ... X (RH) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... XXXXXX

~ |::::::

~ | ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...(SHOPPING MALL)