"What's our plan?" Arai asked, looking excited.

"It's simple," I said. "We'll just trade our tails for legs and blend right in. We sneak in, get the Unobtanium stone, and get out."

"Cool! Like a legendary quest for a magical item! We could be heroes on an epic journey! Just like in the video games!" Arai exclaimed, sounding more like he was ten instead of sixteen.

"Uh, how will we know we found the right stone?" Corvus asked, glancing at the stones on the sand below.

"Well, it's green, and it glows." I looked around us, but no green stones were present, glowing or otherwise.

"Ohhh..."

I shook my head to refocus. "Okay, we're going to have to move fast. We need a small group to go after them since the adults won't believe us. Are there any volunteers?"

Seven hands went up, including Arai, Corvus, Isla, and Beryl.

"What were your names again?" I asked the three guys whose faces I vaguely recognized.

"Tom."

"I'm Tom."

"I'm Tom, too."

What. The. Hell.

How did their teachers ever cope? Why couldn't people be more original when it came to naming their kids? Did they share the same baby name book and pick the name the first couple had underlined? I was going to have to leave at least two of them behind; otherwise, I'd spend half my time clarifying who I was speaking to.

"Uh, yeah... I'm going to get two of you guys to cover for us while we are gone. My parents will have my scales if they know I left the moon."

"I'll stay."

"Me, too."

"I just remembered I get space sick."

"Okay..." Neither of the previous two re-volunteered, so I turned to the others. "Corvus, Arai, we need some weapons in case we get into a fight. No tridents though, or they'll know we're from Sealantis. Isla, are you able to fly the Leviathan?" I thought she once mentioned that her mother was a backup pilot for the spaceship.

Arai piped up, "I can fly that old ship. I've spent probably a thousand hours in simulations over the last three years."

"I'll let him fly it," Isla said demurely. "I've never done more than just look at the controls."

"Great! Then we're set!" I proclaimed.

"What do I get to do?" Beryl piped up eagerly.

Oh, bubbles. I forgot about her. There was no way she was leaving this moon or I would be dead.

"I have a really important job for you."

She held her breath in her excitement.

I continued, "I'm counting on you to make sure that no one misses me specifically. If Aunt Millie comes back early, I need you to distract her. Do you understand?"

"Aww, do I have to?" she whined.

I closed my eyes and tried to invoke patience. "I'll tell you what, once I get back, I'll show you where my werewolf books are hidden. Just don't tell anyone."

She hesitated, torn between the excitement of an adventure or finally seeing what was in the books Aunt Millie and our parents had asked me to hide. "Fine. But, next time, I get to come with you."

If the Unobtanium stone got stolen twice, then someone else could deal with it. "Deal."

Corvus was already swimming away, with Arai behind him. My eyes lingered on Corvus. The former football jock was the only guy who had ever caught my eye. I wasn't about to let him know that though, because he already had a girlfriend, who just so happened to be Isla.

Trying to flirt with a guy who already had a girlfriend seemed so wrong that I wouldn't even think about attempting it, and they had been together for years. Besides, Isla wasn't the cliché sleazy girlfriend found in far too many books – she was actually super nice and friendly. I had never heard her say a bad word about anyone. Ever.

His blue tail eventually disappeared from my sight.

I turned to Isla. "What can we do while waiting for them to return?"

"We should check the old storage area for clothing that is better at blending in. I highly doubt anyone in that city is going to be wearing anything like what we had in South Carolina."

"Good point. We should grab towels while we are there."

"Get extras of those. Arai will need two legs to manage the Leviathan's foot controls. We can always put unused dry towels back on the shelves."

"Let's go!" I sped off in search of the towels we needed to dry off our scales so our tails would turn into legs.

We located the old storage pod in the kelp forest. No one had been here for weeks. There was no need to when the entire moon's surface was water and a few floating rafts.

We swam underneath and came up into the air chamber. I took a cautious sniff, but the faint algae smell and glowing blue lichen reassured me that the air was safe. I pulled myself out of the water and, like an overfed snake, awkwardly serpentined away from the puddle behind me, holding the human half of my body upright.

Isla followed me, just as inelegant. Our long tails were meant for swimming, not land trips. We were a far cry from a beached seal, but graceful was not a word that applied to our movements.

We slithered down the hallway and went into the room with a plaque proclaiming 'Clothing'.

Isla grabbed a waterproof bag as I skimmed the numerous closets. The sheer number of human clothes available here for anyone to borrow made me jealous. Why couldn't they have one for mermaid bikinis as well?

If there was a type of clothing needed to blend into any place on Earth, I was sure it was here. I found everything from Hawaiian tourist clothes to an arctic snowsuit.

"The leather is over here," Isla said, digging through a small section.

I quickly joined her. "What do you think is in style on Brasslantis?"

"Probably anything that looks like authentic leather and has bronze-colored metal. I'm hoping they won't notice that our shark and fish leather are slightly different than their cowhide leather."

That hadn't occurred to me. Although, I had no plans to enter a fashion contest while we were there. Not attracting any attention was the best possible route.

I opened my mouth to reply, but a tingle along my skin revealed that my scales had finally dried on their own power. A shimmer of heat rolled from my head to the tip of my tail, although by the time it reached the end, I had toes and not a tailfin.

I waved my arms around to catch my balance. "Woah. I can definitely tell I haven't stood on two legs for almost a year."

"That might be problematic."

I took a few steps, testing my legs. "I don't think it will slow us down. It was just the change of balance during my shift. I'm already walking normally."

She eyed up my slightly stilted stride – or possibly my scruffy shorts and floral tank top – but didn't say anything as we picked out a leather outfit for ourselves and the guys.

I grabbed the towels off the shelves and packed eight of them into waterproof bags. Placing the bags under a machine, I hooked up a hose and pressed the power button. It hummed and sucked the air out of the bag before sealing it. The less air there was inside, the easier it would be to swim with.

Isla began doing the same with our leather clothing. "If I can ask, what did you do to your sandals?"

I glanced down at the ragged flip-flops. The edges had the strangest scuff marks on them.

"I swatted a few spiders," I admitted sheepishly.

"A few?" she asked skeptically.

"I was diligent. And some balls of lint in our old home looked like spiders. I used to go through a pair every three months, even if they didn't touch my feet."

She laughed and grabbed the now-pancaked bag of clothing. "Let's get back to the guys."