On the morning of a clear, sunny day, Cleo, Rikki, and Bella were gathered around a table in Rikki's Café, which had just received a lot of money from selling those tools that was large enough to last for a final month of celebration. They slumped in their chairs as a cool sea breeze washed over them, trying to blow away the warm, muggy air. As they waited for the their drinks to arrive, Cleo's phone beeped.

"It's a text from Emma!" she exclaimed, reading aloud: " 'Cleo, I am just texting to say that we are now in flight to come back to the Gold Coast! I can't wait to see you and Rikki again, and to meet this Bella you so often tell me about! -Emma' "

"That's great!" Rikki agreed.

Just then, the bead curtains rustled. They turned around. A new girl was walking through the doorway. She looked up from the book she was reading. Her eyes were rather unusual; their color flickered from blue to green, and had a shimmery aura about them.

"May I sit with you?" she asked in a sweet, but honest tone. "I'm new around here."

"Sure!" said Bella, shrugging in a friendly manner.

"Why not?" Rikki said in her usual casual way.

"Of course!" Cleo confirmed, moving over for this new girl to pull up a chair.

The waitress came over and served them their drinks. Seeing as there was a newcomer, the waitress asked the girl if she wanted something to drink, so she placed an order for a strawberry smoothie.

"So what's your name?" Bella asked her.

"Oh, you can call me Aqua. Everyone does," she replied vaguely.

"Who's everyone?" Bella raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't really matter," she said quickly.

"Um, well I'm Bella..." Bella told her.

"I'm Rikki," Rikki added.

"And I'm Cleo," Cleo grinned. "Pleased to meet you."

"And you," Aqua finished, flashing a smile. "So has this café always been here?" she asked.

"Well yes, but before it was Rikki's, it was called the JuiceNet Café," Cleo answered.

How long since the switch?" she inquired inquisitively.

"Oh, about a year or so ago," Rikki replied.

"Just recently thought, it almost went out of business, because..." Bella's voice trailed off, as if she'd said too much.

"What happened?" Aqua questioned her curiously.

"Well, um... Zane is the one who bought it from JuiceNet when they failed, but then Rikki's started going downhill too. Only recently it received a lot of money from a... a donation," Rikki told her. "Enough to keep it going f... for a while."

It seemed to Aqua that they were trying to hide it from her. She already knew their secret, but she was wise enough to know not to just walk up to them and say so. If she were in their place, she'd have thought that everyone knew and would get really worried. So she let it be, and was already planning on how she might be able to get them to show her, like by "accident" for instance. Then, the fun and good times would begin. But in the meanwhile, she'd play dumb.

"From where?" Aqua prompted.

"Uh, uh... you'd have to ask Zane that," Rikki replied quickly.

"Oh, that reminds me! I have a donation for his café. Do you know where I could find him?" she inquired.

"Yup," Rikki replied, giving her the directions her directions of which to find Zane Bennett. As soon as Rikki finished writing it down, Aqua got up to find Zane, then paused.

"Hey guys," she said turning around with a second thought. "Meet me at the beach in a half an hour would you?"

"Sure, why not?" said Bella, though Rikki eyed her suspiciously. A brief shadow of worry passed over Cleo's face, but it quickly cleared away.

"Ok great! See ya later!" Aqua waved cheerfully and went off in search of Zane.