H2O: Just Add Survival: Winds of Change

Okay guys, I can't believe it but it's been an entire year since I posted H2O: Just Add Survival! :) I'll admit, I wasn't sure if it would take off or just be a forgotten story. I was so amazed to see my reviews grow along with the viewing area. I mean, H2O: JAS 2 has 128 reviews! Isn't that so cool?

Anyway, this is a present to my reviewers for being so supportive of me and for being patient when I was busy. It's an honor to be able to write stories that are loved by so many people. So, I'll stop babbling so you all can enjoy the prequel to the H2O: JAS series, H2O: Just Add Survival: Winds of Change.

Part 1: An Unwelcome Homecoming

Gold Coast, Australia

May 20, 5:00 pm

It was a cool evening on the Gold Coast in Australia. For our three favorite mermaids, (Bella, Cleo, and Rikki) it meant it was time for a sleepover. They had a good reason, too, since they had just saved the world from a comet the previous week and had graduated that day from Gold Coast High School. Right now, the three girls had just surfaced in Lewis's old fishing hole that had become there secret spot for getting dry.

"I'm so excited for tonight!" Cleo said as she dragged herself onto shore.

"I know!" Bella agreed. "I already got The Proposal for us to watch!"

"The Proposal?" Rikki put in. "Gross. What about Paranormal Activity?"

"Heck no!" Cleo cried. "You know that Bella and I get nightmares from those horror movies you insist on watching at our sleepovers!"

Rikki sighed. This is when I wish Em was here. At least she tolerated watching horror movies with me. "Fine, we can watch whatever romantic comedy crap you guys want. But, next time we watch one horror movie."

"Fine," Cleo and Bella agreed. The three girls quickly got dried off by Rikki and headed for Cleo's house.

"Hi, girls," Sam, Cleo's stepmother, greeted as they walked inside.

"Hi, Sam," all three girls replied.

"We'll be up in my room, okay?" Cleo said as they climbed up the stairs.

"Okay, dinner will be ready in an hour," Sam replied.

Right as the girls were almost in Cleo's room, the doorbell rang. "Now who could that be?" Sam wondered as she went to answer it.

"I'll get it!" Cleo yelled as she ran down the stairs. Rikki and Bella followed her and Cleo opened the door. What they saw made Rikki's mouth drop open and Cleo faint in surprise.

"Emma?" Rikki whispered.

~*O*~

"…And that's how Elliot got kicked out of Paraguay," Emma concluded. Everyone laughed except for Bella, who had been staring in envy at Emma the whole evening. She hadn't even known about this girl until two hours ago! Now, Rikki and Cleo were paying all of their attention to Emma and had practically forgotten that Bella was there. In fact, the only words Rikki had spoken to her were to "shut up, Em's talking."

After dinner, the four girls went up to Cleo's room. When they arrived, Cleo and Rikki spread out their sleeping bags right next to Emma, leaving Bella alone in the corner of the room. Emma was talking about visiting the Pope or some other random crap thing. Bella had had enough. "Hey!" she screamed. The other girls shut up and gave her "what the heck" looks.

"What?" Emma asked, annoyed.

"Okay, first of all, my name's Bella. Second of all, can't you all just stop talking and acknowledge me for a second? Please? I know that Emma was apparently your best friend and you missed her, but if you missed her so much, wouldn't you have told me about her once?" Emma instantly glared at Rikki and Cleo.

"You didn't even mention me?" she asked quietly.

"Well, you were busy, and you never called or texted after the first few weeks," Cleo tried to explain. "We thought you had forgotten about us."

"Forgotten about you?" Emma cried. "I thought about you two every day! And, I couldn't call you because either the minutes were too expensive or there was no service where I was at. I tried to write letters, but I guess they never made it." She then noticed the matching crystal necklaces around Bella, Rikki, and Cleo's necks. "You're not wearing your lockets?" she whispered.

Cleo's face went red while Bella smirked. "Don't you like our friendship necklaces, Em? I made them myself."

"You promised that you wouldn't take them off," Emma continued. "Remember that I made you the day I left?"

Rikki and Cleo suddenly remembered the summer day that Em had left at the airport.

Flashback

Summer 2009

"I'll miss you so much!" Cleo cried as she hugged Emma tightly. Rikki was standing awkwardly to the side, not sure what to say or do. Usually, she had been the one that was leaving people behind, not the one watching someone she loved like a sister heading off to who knows where.

"I'll miss you too, Cleo," Em choked. She turned to Rikki, arms open in a hug. Rikki's frozen emotions burst and she ran into Emma's arms, openly sobbing. Cleo stared at her friend, not able to speak for once. Instead, she went and hugged both of her friends, crying bitterly. Em finally was the one to let go. "It'll only be for a year, okay?" she sniffled while wiping her eyes on her sleeve, an un-Emma thing.

"But a year's too long!" Rikki sobbed. "Who's going to make sure we do our homework and keep our rooms organized now?"

"And keep the JuiceNet Café in such perfect order?" Cleo put in.

"I'll try to call you guys often," Emma promised. "And I'll send postcards and stuff. We'll keep in touch."

"It won't be the same," Rikki argued.

"Well, you'll survive," Em replied with a smile. "We've been through worse. At least Charlotte won't be around to bother you during senior year."

"Yeah, but it's crappy that Ash won't be around, either," Cleo said. "He'll be in Kentucky at that horse program."

"At least he's somewhere that he's happy," Emma answered with a sad grin. "He feels better now knowing that I'll be traveling and not stuck at home missing him."

"Yeah, that's us," Rikki managed to joke.

"You'll be fine," Em said. "Now, I want you guys to promise me something."

"What?" Cleo asked eagerly.

"Open your lockets," Emma ordered. Both girls complied and Em quietly slipped a photo on the lid opposite the picture of Louise, Julia, and Gracie. It was a picture of the three of them on Cleo's bed, legs crossed in the air and smiling.

"Em, it's beautiful!" Rikki said.

"I have one in my locket, too," Emma replied. "That way, you can always remember me and our friendship. I want you to promise me that you'll never take them off. I won't take mine off, either. That way, we can remember who we are and why we're special."

"We promise," both girls responded.

"We have something for you, too," Cleo said while pulling a turquoise gift bag from behind her back. "It took us weeks to make it."

Emma opened the bag and covered her mouth in shock. It was a scrapbook. Well, not just any scrapbook. It was a scrapbook about their friendship, including a few secret pictures with them as mermaids hidden under brightly pieces of paper. "It's perfect, guys," she said as she hugged them both.

"Emma, we have to go," Mrs. Gilbert interrupted gently. "Our flight's about to take off."

"Okay, Mum," Em said. She picked up her suitcase and began rolling it away, leaving Rikki and Cleo standing together, watching their friend leave.

"We'll miss you!" Cleo yelled.

"Remember your promise!" Emma yelled back.

"We will!" Rikki replied. The two girls stood together, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, until Emma disappeared from sight.

End of Flashback

"You did forget, didn't you?" Emma cried angrily. "You forgot about our friendship and about your promise to me!"

"We didn't mean to forget…" Cleo tried to say, but Rikki cut her off.

"What about your promise to call us often, huh, Em? What about that?"

"I told you, I didn't have much service…"

Bella couldn't believe how well this was going. Not only did she get Emma ticked at Rikki and Cleo, but now Rikki was getting into the fight as well. Maybe she didn't have to worry about her friendship with Rikki and Cleo being ruined. Maybe Emma would just realize that she didn't have a chance being friends with the other girls and just leave forever.

Just then, her plan fell apart. "You guys!" Cleo screamed. Rikki and Em stared at her. "Can you please stop fighting? I mean, Emma just got back and it's like old times again!"

The two blond girls looked at each other and started to laugh to Bella's anger. "I'm sorry that me and Cleo forgot to keep wearing our lockets," Rikki apologized.

"And I'm sorry that I couldn't call more often," Emma agreed.

Bella was furious. Dang it! I thought that maybe I could get Emma to leave us alone! "So that's it, then," Bella said in a choked voice. "Your friend that I've never even heard of before just comes waltzing back in again and now you just forget about me. I'm so happy to know that I was just a replacement!" Angrily, she ran down the stairs and to the front door. "Don't worry, I can show myself out!" She slammed the door and sprinted for the canal, diving in once she reached it.

Emma, Rikki, and Cleo just sort of stared at each other for a few minutes. "So, was Bella just a replacement for me?" Em asked quietly.

"Of course not," Cleo replied. "She is much more than that to us."

"There is no replacement for you, Em," Rikki said with a laugh. "Besides, Bella's not even half as organized as you were. Her room is a hazard zone like mine."

"Well, that's good to know," Emma said. "But, you still want to be friends with her, right?"

"Why, is that a problem?" Cleo implored.

"No, of course not. I'd actually like to get to know Bella better." Emma looked at the pictures on Cleo's desk and sighed to herself when she saw that there was none of her, only pictures of Cleo's family or Bella, Rikki, and Cleo or Cleo and Lewis. "Besides, I see that Bella's really hurting right now and I would be, too, if some stranger came in and acted like she was best friends with you guys and pushed me aside. We need to go look for her. Maybe I can talk some sense into her."

"No offense, Em, but she doesn't seem really happy to talk to you," Rikki put in.

"I still want to talk to her, anyway," Emma said firmly. "Maybe if I tell her that I want to be friends with her, maybe she'll be okay."

"Okay, then…" Cleo said a little nervously. "I'll get some flashlights. It's a good thing that Kim's at a sleepover and my dad and Sam are hard sleepers."

"I'll pack some snacks!" Rikki yelled as she made a beeline to the kitchen. Emma grabbed her turquoise zip-up sweatshirt along with Rikki's red one and Cleo's favorite purple one. She also found Bella's green sweatshirt and decided to bring it along since it was a chilly night. Quickly, she made her way down the stairs to find Cleo with three flashlights and Rikki with water bottles and Ziploc bags of trail mix.

"Here are your sweatshirts," Em said as she handed each girl one. Cleo handed out the flashlights and Rikki distributed the snacks.

"You know, I think it will be faster if we split up," Rikki mused. "I have a spare key to the café, so I can check there. Bella might've gone there to sing or something."

"I can go to Will's shed," Cleo replied. "She could've gone there to talk to Will about how mean we are." Seeing that Emma had a blank look on her face, she quickly explained, "Her boyfriend."

"Oh," Emma answered. "Where should I look?"

Rikki and Cleo looked at one another for a moment and realized where. "Mako Island," they replied at the same time.

It suddenly dawned on Em why Bella was so upset and why she would even think about going to Mako. "She's a mermaid, isn't she?"

"Yes," Cleo responded quietly. "But she doesn't know that you're one."

"No wonder she was so angry," Emma said. "You're her mermaid friends as well as her best friends."

"Oh my gosh, you're right, Em!" Rikki cried. "If we are just your friend, then she has no mermaid friends to confide in. She must've been devastated!"

"Well, let's stop talking and go find her!" Cleo yelled. The three girls ran outside into the moonless night and quickly split up; Emma diving into the canal and swimming towards Mako, Rikki running towards town and the café, and Cleo sprinting into the forest to Will's shed. They planned on meeting up at Rikki's Café in two hours. As they swam and ran through the dark night, all they could think about was finding Bella and hoping that it wasn't too late…

End of the first part! Okay, so yeah, this is basically like a normal Emma returns, Bella gets ticked at her, and they have a big fight that ends with one of them running off. But, it will get better, I promise! I just wanted to introduce Emma returning. Besides, you all know that Em and Bella are really close friends in H2O: JAS, so they have to have some sort of a good friendship coming soon, right? I think so!

Oh, and next chapter will resolve the whole Bella/Emma conflict and we will be introduced to Natalie and her family! :) I'm excited because I've never actually shown her dad and brother except in a few flashbacks. Also, our favorite mermaids will start planning their California trip! But, we all know how that turns out, right? But the girls don't know that…