Lewis McCartney and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Week

Chapter Three

He was about to step into the water again, start on his testing right away, that is until his watch started to beep at him. He looked down at his wrist to see that it was almost time for dinner at his house. He debated just skipping out of it and telling his brother he'd gotten food with his friends but that would mean he would effectively be skipping dinner. The idea of starting his experiments on an empty stomach wasn't one that he enjoyed. So he sighed and stood up. He took a long look at the water before grabbing his backpack and starting the walk home.

He was to avoid any encounters with water on his walk, especially now that he knew water would definitely lead to a tail. Luckily, he got home without incident and then walked into the kitchen to see his brothers already around the table eating. Leo looked up at him and gestured to the food on the counter.

"I didn't know if you would be home so I didn't make you a plate. Just help yourself."

Lewis nodded at him and started to fill up a plate. Once he was finished, he tried to nonchalantly move past the table and up to his bedroom, hoping that Leo wouldn't acknowledge it and just let him go. Unfortunately, Lewis wasn't that lucky.

"Where do you think you're going?" Leo asked, pointing at the empty seat at the table. "Come sit."

"Look, I've got a really big project I need to work on for school. Don't you think I could just eat in my room tonight?" Lewis put on his best pleading voice in the hope that he could wear his older brother down.

"Sorry, Lew, but if I let you do that then I'll have to let the twins eat in their room too. And they'll make a mess and ruin the carpet."

"HEY!" The two younger boys cried out in unison, annoyed by the accusation that they were messy. It didn't matter how true it may have been.

"Do I need to remind you two of the last time I let you eat in your room? Because I don't think you want to hear that lecture again. Sorry, there's no arguing this, we're all eating at the table." Leo then returned to his food, making it very clear that the conversation was over.

Lewis let out a pained huff but sat down next to his brothers. He could hardly concentrate on the dinner conversation, instead focusing on trying to eat as quickly as physically possible. He wanted to return to the sanctuary of his bedroom, lock the door, and spend the rest of his evening exploring his newfound mer-reality. He finished his dinner in record time, much to the annoyance of Leo, and excused himself from the table.

"Great dinner, thanks, Leo. Now I've got to get to work on that assignment."

"I'm shocked you could taste it with how fast you were eating. You're not even going to talk to us at all? No 'Hey, how were your days?'" Leo questioned, looking at Lewis with the signature 'disappointed brother' face he often directed at the twins when they were trying to be sneaky.

"Nope. Ask again in 24 hours and I might be able to help." Lewis didn't wait for a response, turning and walking up the stairs to his bedroom.

He shut the door and double-checked the lock 4 times before feeling secure enough to get to work. He gathered up everything he may need to do tests. Within minutes his desk was piled up with spray bottles of various liquids, cups filled with water, towels to dry up any spills, timers, and of course his notebook and computer to record everything. He had to compare the results of all the tests he had performed on the girls to the ones he would perform on himself. He set a towel on the floor in the middle of the room and sat down on it. He took the first spray bottle that was filled with water and sprayed his legs. He counted the seconds, and once he reached 10 the transformation took place.

First things first, he needed to more closely examine the tail. At first glance, it was already different than the striking bright orange tails the girls had. His was a much softer subdued green-blue. Along with this, it appeared the shape was slightly different as well. The bottom was largely the same, but the edges were much smoother. He also had two smaller fins on each side of the tail and flipping over onto his stomach he could see that there was one on the back of his tail as well. All-in-all, his tail was a bit frillier than the girls' tails. He supposed that made scientific sense, there were plenty of fish species where the male's had flashier tails than the females. Still, he could already hear Rikki's voice mocking him in his head. He put down all the notes about his tail into the notebook, along with a rough sketch of the shape before moving on.