Wrinkling her nose, Rikki could only offer another shrug at Ron's mention of having been able to lock the door himself. Granted, she'd already known that, it hadn't occurred to her to ask, because she'd been so focused on trying to be impressive. "Reflex, I guess," she lied, having the wherewithall to at least look sheepish about it.
Rikki shifted her weight uncomfortably again, looking down and knitting her brow, stalling. Ron was no Hermione and she knew that but at the same time, he wasn't stupid either, and she knew that, too. "Just...complicated," she said quietly, looking back up at him. It was a long story that would make a lot less sense without mentioning the mermaid thing and Rikki wasn't as good at lying as Cleo, Bella, and Emma had been. Rikki decided to compromise. "It's a long story. It's not even really that interesting," she added. The second part was a lie. At least, Rikki thought so. Being turned into a mermaid by the powers of the moon was pretty interesting, if you asked her.
She'd have preferred to just have out with it, but it didn't really seem like an option anymore. "I don't like getting wet?" Rikki said, only it came out more like a question than she'd have liked. It wasn't entirely a lie. "Besides, evaporating rain would be cheating and it'd give the other team just as much of an advantage as it would ours," she pointed out as a distraction; an attempt to derail the discussion.
Although, to Ron's credit, he managed to get her to smile and roll her eyes a little at his comment, relaxing slightly. "Sorry," she replied. "I wouldn't have, though. It really wouldn't have even touched you. It would've been too quick, you probably wouldn't have even felt the radiating heat, honestly," she promised. "I can show you, if you want. If you get your hand wet or something, I'll evaporate it off you. It stings for a second but it doesn't actually hurt and that's when it's actually touching you. The bubble wouldn't have been a problem."
At that, Rikki sat down at the edge of the pool, careful to pull her knees up to her chest and hug them so that she wouldn't accidentally touch the wet spot of the deck where someone had clearly climbed out of the pool and dripped on the floor. "You probably can unlock it and if it pops, you can still open it," she said in reference to the door. "Just don't touch the metal parts, is all. I mean, if you want to go. I think I'm going to stay." And have a swim went unspoken because now she'd wait until he was gone. She was going to have to learn to pull herself back out of the pool eventually, after all. Galen couldn't always bail her out and follow her around just to help her keep a secret.