Michael's Point of View                      

Apparently I discovered what Alex meant by 'murdering' Maddy and Blue: Having a food fight.

Maddy and Blue had found a cardboard box from somewhere and had made a fort out of it, throwing food at Alex while she threw food back at them.
Blue, who was now covered in chocolate and cherry pie, was very competitive. Maddy had been smeared with shaving cream and whipped cream (especially in her hair), and had gotten a large cooking bowl as her shield, and a metal cooking pot on her head as a helmet.

The opposer, Alex, was obviously not going to get out this food fight clean. Her hair had been smothered with tomato sauce, and she was now throwing yoghurt at Blue and Maddy's faces. 

I couldn't help but laugh and laugh as the fight became a bit more desperate for a winner: Alex pulled out cans of soda and shook them, throwing them at the two and grinning as they exploded in their faces. As a result, Blue kept throwing more food, and Maddy disappeared somewhere only to return with a super-soaker in her hands, laughing like a maniac.

Then one of her shots hit me.

That did the trick as I fell over, losing my balance and glancing back to see that my legs were quickly conjoining into a tail and my feet into fins.

Great. 

I shot a look at Maddy, or specifically, her super-soaker. A few seconds later, the water blew out from it and onto her face, the super-soaker fell from her hands to the floor, now broken. In surprise I stopped looking at it and pushed myself up onto sitting on the coffee table, starting to think if I really made the water explode from the super-soaker and fly into her face. 

"Holy cheestix!" Blue exclaimed, "Maddy, what the heck happened to your super-soaker? It's a total wreck!"

"I don't know! It was just perfectly fine- wait a minute. Alex hold up! Pause!" Maddy then narrowly dodged a piece of shaving cream thrown by Alex. 

Alex let out a giggle then examined the super-soaker, "Alright, well, what happened?" Maddy and Blue shrugged their shoulders and Alex looked over at me, "Michael--"

I (nervously) interrupted her, "Pfft! What? No! I didn't-- No, I didn't do anything." I returned my gaze to my tail as the girls traded looks upon each other.

Maddy narrowed her eyes. "I don't know if that thing was temporary or not, but I know for sure you did that Seaweed Brain."

"I did not!"

"Did so." Maddy retorted, then vanishing off somewhere.

Uh oh...

Alex's face then turned from confusion to trying not to laugh as...

SPLAT.

I turned to face Maddy, who had shoved shaving cream in my face. 

"That was so oddly satisfying," Maddy grinned, laughing.

I wiped the cream from my eyes and my face and laughed but stopped as we all heard someone on the other side of the front door.

"Hello? What's going on in there?"

"Who is it?" Alex called back, then quickly giving hand signals to Blue and Maddy, pointing at me and then the bathroom that was next to her parents room. The next thing I knew, the both of them were darting out and I was laying in that huge tub. They left the door very slightly ajar, so I found myself listening to the conversation.

"My name's Alyson Kennett, I heard something going on in here."

"Ally?" Alex's voice then sounded surprised. "Come in, come in! So sorry about the noise, my friends and I got ourselves into a food fight."

"Alex! Oh my god you look...amusing!" Ally exclaimed, giggling. She sounded about twenty-something or so.

"Thank you very much m'lady," Alex teased, "Maddy, Blue, I'd like you to meet my cousin Ally, she's managed to finish her degree in media and news this year from University. Ally, these are my friends from school, Maddy and Blue. They're sticking around for the summer."

"It's very nice to meet you two, I've been hearing about you so much from Al."

"You too. So...you're now a journalist?" Blue asked.

"Yeah. I occasionally go Hollywood and write articles from there too. It's interesting to see and hear what comes from there these days, but I don't believe a single word of that stuff." I gulped. Ally was a part of the paparazzi?

"So apart from celebrities, what do you write?" Maddy asked, sounding very curious and interested.

"Well, I mainly write on how blind our society is to such things that people dismiss, like poverty. I hope to get enough articles to start up a magazine on that sort of stuff. If only people would pay attention to things like that, not stupid stuff like Justin Bieber's new album or rumours. As much as I love doing the Hollywood articles, it's hard to extract the pure 100% truth. The moment I was in the business I vowed to myself never to write a single lie in any of my stories."

I sat there shocked on what Ally said. Not a single lie in any of her stories? I then felt like my heart could jump for joy and I wanted to cheer for what she was doing, but I had to refrain myself or I would get caught. (But if anything, that smile on my face would never get off for a long time.)

"Ally? We barely just met and my respect for you has gone through the roof already." Maddy blurted. 

"Oh thank you," Ally responded, "You know, I'm gonna have to be going soon, but I was looking for a good article to write on, so is it okay if I write about the food fight you three were having?"

"Sure!" Alex snickered, then going on to answer questions Ally popped up for the interview.

"What got you into this thing anyway?"

"My friends were shipping me with MJ. And we like mer-folk and their myths, so Maddy and Blue put two and two together and well...you can see what happened."

"Oh wow." Ally laughed, "Do they do this often, ship you I mean?"

"Behind my back, yeah. This is the first time we've had a food fight when I've found them out doing it. All the others were pillow fights back in our dorm at school."

"I'll say. What school do you go to?"

"Sir Michael Jackson--sorry, Joseph High, yeah, Sir Michael Joseph High. Pardon that mistake."

"Pardoned," Ally giggled, "You planning to do an all out food fight on the beach for the locals one night?"

"Now when you say that, I'm considering it. It would be fun, but we'd have to clean it up too."

"Kay, that's all I needed. Thanks Al, you're cool."

"You too Ally. Say, what got you vowing not to write a single lie in your articles?"

"You should know by now who got it the worst from the media. I got it off him." I felt my cheeks go warm. My respect for Alyson Kennett had also gone through the roof, and I had only heard her by voice.

"Bye Ally! Take care!"

"See you guys!" And with that, I heard the front door close.

It was only after a few seconds before I heard their footsteps come closer to the bathroom and Maddy burst in. "Sorry we had to put you in here, we had to hide you somewhere."

I smiled, "That's alright. Hey Alex, you've got a really awesome cousin."

"Aw come on, it's nothing."

"I gotta owe it to her, there aren't many reporters like her these days."

"Tell that to her, then." Alex smirked, but then got a serious face, "But enough of that, we need to get serious here. Michael, we can't send you back out there in the water at this point. First, you need to recover your health, and second, it's not a good idea to do that with Squawkin on the loose for you. Who knows what he might do to you?"

The four of us shuddered at the thought of it. 

"We need to--Maddy, whatcha thinkin' now?" Blue asked.

Maddy then smirked, "I can find out what he's got in that lab of his. I can look him up and infiltrate his place and see what I can do."

"What do you mean?"

"Get rid of any evidence that he may still have lying around, take a couple photos of the equipment, and ask him what his plans are with-- Oh yes!"

"What is it?"

"Great Scott I have it! I can pretend to be a reporter and am writing an article about that parrot! I could take whatever evidence he still has lying around that lab of his, take photos and notes on the inventions he plans on using for the mer-tests, and an interview on what he's really planning to do! Then after that we can have a bit of fun and ask if we can borrow his place for a mass slumber party, and while he's gone, we smash the inventions to bits!"

"Maddy you genius!" I exclaimed, "But do you know where he lives?"

"As soon as we clean up I can start making some research on him. But for now, let's just get some dinner. Who's up for pizza?"