Cleo, Emma, and Rikki are no ordinary girls. They have a secret that has bonded them together on land and underwater. When they are exposed to water on their skin, they transform into mermaids in seconds. Not only did they gain mermaid tails but they also grew a stronger appreciation for their friendship when they gained their tails on Mako Island.

Each of the girls exemplifies the quality of being a good friend. Cleo is an indecisive and stubborn friend who always figures out her way around. Emma is a smart and logical friend who always has a plan first. And Rikki is the funny, lovable, and not-so-serious friend who is sometimes a little too snarky towards boys. Together, the girls have a unique friendship on land and below water that keeps them together throughout the show.

The girls also tell their secret to their close friend, Lewis who is fascinated by marine biology and has a crush on Cleo. At first, they are hesitant about telling him about their tails but once he sees them, he believes them and starts to study their behavior. He does not seem to share as close of a bond as the three girls do in the show; however, he does cause some tension and curiosity between the girl group's journey on land and in the water.

A Few Qualities of a good friend:

-Kindness

-They have your best interest in mind

-They have your back

-You celebrate your friendship together

-Trying to be reliable

-Sharing and keeping each other's secrets

Season1 Ep 1: Metamorphosis

Cleo and Emma are established as childhood best friends at the beginning of season one. Viewers can tell that they have a strong bond from the first episode. Rikki is mentioned as a new friend of theirs but not as close in family relations. It seems from the episode description that Rikki is the new girl in high school while Emma has always been Cleo's childhood best friend.

They are kind to you (even if you just met them)

In the first episode of the show, there is a scene where Emma is standing by a pool timing Emma's laps. This scene may seem like a small act of kindness, however, it shows the strong bond between Cleo and Emma. Cleo seems to not like the water as much as Emma does in the first episode of the show but viewers can tell that she loves to hype up her friends and enjoy spending time with them on land.

Although, the new girl, Rikki, doesn't seem to enjoy spending time with Cleo and Emma until she warms up to them. When Cleo has her first interaction with Rikki on a speedboat, she tells her that she has seen her face around school. At first, Rikki acts hostile toward Cleo's greeting about how she meant to say 'Hello' in school to her but after a second of figuring out how to turn on the speedboat monitor, she is seen laughing with her new friend, Cleo.

S1 Ep 4: Party Girls

They have your best interest in mind

A few episodes later, the girls think they know how to keep their tails a secret but struggle to hide their secrets from their friends and family members. Cleo is working at the local marine park and is determined to keep her job even though she will transform into a mermaid if she gets a drop of water on her skin. One day while she is sorting out fish for the dolphins, she decides to call her best friend on a whim because she's bored. Emma tries to warn Cleo about exposing their mermaid's secret but Cleo doesn't listen to her.

"Your new job.The dolphin tank at the marine park." - Emma

"Yes, of course the tank is full of water, Emma. They are aquatic mammals....Yes I do remember what water does to me, but I'm not going to let that ruin my life...Look, Emma I really want to make this work." - Cleo

After Cleo hangs up on Emma and goes back to work sorting out fish for the dolphins, Emma is seen underwater with the girl's mutual friend, Lewis who is Cleo's crush. She mentions to him that Cleo can be so stubborn sometimes when it comes to protecting herself and the other girls from exposure. Here, Emma seems to know Cleo's limits better than herself even though she did say that she isn't going to let water and a tail ruin her life a few minutes ago.

Back at the marine park, Cleo tries to protect herself from the water splashes that the dolphin show causes by putting on a hair net, gloves, and an apron. There's no dialogue in it but viewers can tell that she is confident in herself and her job. She acts like the mermaid's secret is no big deal at her job, even though the marine park is full of puddles, pools, and water splashes. But when she goes out to hand a co-worker the bucket of fish for the dolphin show, a mysterious lady sees Cleo and follows her to the back kitchen where she sees her gets her skin wet from the water in the fish bucket. As Cleo tries to dry off quickly thinking she'll transform into a mermaid in the kitchen. The older lady sneaks up on her and watches her interactions. This is just the beginning of Emma's warning to Cleo about working near water.

"Timed well, didn't you say"- Mysterious lady.

"Uh, yeah thanks. Almost got salt water in my eye. It would've stung." - Cleo (wipes her eye off in a rush)

"It does sting, does it?"- Mysterious lady.

"Uh, no, not really." - Cleo

"But not when you're actually underwater. Why is that I wonder?" - Mysterious lady

"Uh, I don't know." -Cleo

"Lots of things are a mystery. Still, you've got time to learn. Staying dry-that's the big one." - Mysterious lady

When Cleo meets up with Emma and Rikki at their hangout spot, the Juicenet, she tells them about the mysterious lady who saw her almost get herself wet. And just like before when Emma and Cleo were talking to each other on the phone, Emma rolls her eyes and tells Cleo that she knew that she would get herself wet at work and almost expose their secret. Cleo attempts to back her argument up though by saying that it was 'only one drop of water and that she took precautions'. She even tries to tell Emma and Rikki that she can do the marine park job and keep her tail a secret, which Emma knows is all too well just Cleo being stubborn again and not taking 'precautions' to keep the girls' secret safe.

S1 Ep 14: Surprise!

They have your back

It's Cleo's last day as a 15 year old and she knows what that means, an embarrassing birthday party celebration hosted by her dad. It's a tradition that she can't avoid this year and she wakes up pretending that the celebration is just another day. As she enters the kitchen and pours herself a bowl of cereal, she rolls her eyes and pretends to ignore her dad and sister's comments about her birthday. However, Cleo knows deep down in her heart that someone else has got to remember her birthday, her friends.

When the three girls meet up at their usual spot, the Juicenet, Emma instantly recognizes Cleo's awkward behavior and tries to cheer her up by asking to celebrate with Rikki tagging along. Cleo doesn't seem to want a birthday celebration this year though, that's thrown by her embarrassing dad and also because of her underwater secret. And since Rikki is the new girl in town, she doesn't know about Cleo's parties. So Emma uses her resources and calls Cleo's dad to see what is going on with Cleo this year, not wanting a party.

A few scenes later, Cleo's napping in her bedroom again and trying to ignore the embarrassing birthday celebration her parents are planning. Her friend has got her back though. Emma and Rikki call her to wish her a happy 16th birthday and ask her what gifts she got. Although, Cleo's still in a passive-aggressive mood so she acts like fits are no big deal to her this year. She ends the group call by saying 'Thanks for the thought. Now, Go away please' as if she doesn't care about what her friends think. Her mom even makes her birthday pancakes in bed and her mood doesn't improve. But her mom knows something she doesn't.

Later in the day, when Emma and Rikki arrive at Cleo's house to celebrate her party, they realize that Cleo's dad has embarrassed her for the 16th time since she was born. Viewers can watch young kids run around her backyard wearing costumes, hitting each other with pool noodles, and playing in bouncy houses. Additionally, her dad dresses up as a cowboy and plays with the ball pit along with the kids. It's quite an embarrassing scene to watch during a 16th birthday episode and does not go along with Cleo's personality. You'll have to watch the rest of the episode to see how Cleo reacts to everyone at her party just knowing that Emma and Rikki have her back.

Season 2 ep 1: Stormy Weather

They try to be as reliable as they can

A few months later after the girl's underwater and land adventures, they struggle to hide their secret from their friends and family, it's another full moon. In the H2O universe, if a merperson looks straight into a full moon, they are controlled by the moon's powers and will not remember anything in the morning. Sometimes, if their powers are super strong they can summon a siren or underwater spirit which is not a good idea for land people exposure.

Emma, Cleo, and Rikki believe that they have to avoid the full moon plan down since they have encountered this merperson problem in the previous months. Although, there's always something that goes wrong when the girl's come up with a plan. And their trusty friend, Lewis, thinks he is smarter than them, even though he isn't a merman. Based on his actions and behavior in season one, viewers can see that he's madly in love with Cleo and is dating her. He has also been studying the girls' transformations in the water and on land to see what causes their tails to appear.

When he meets up with the girls at the Juicenet, he listens to them rant about their ridiculous plans to avoid the moon's reflection and rolls his eyes at them. After all their banter, he finally interjects and shows them an astronomy program on his laptop that he downloaded that can track the moon's power over the merpeople.

"I'll probably just sleep in my sleeping bag." - Cleo

"Yeah Lewis, thanks but we don't need help." - Rikki

"Really? Look at this. The moon rises at precisely 8:37 PM and sets at 7:59 AM. I've got it all worked out. See? They don't call me Mr. Capable, for nothing. - Lewis

"No one calls you that." - Emma

Later on, at Lewis' house, the girls meet back up thinking that they have enough time to do something fun before the moon rises. As they wait for the moon to rise, Lewis is back on his computer using the fancy software on his laptop to track the moon's powers. He is too focused on his laptop to notice that the moon is already coming up and heads straight towards the entrance of the front door where the girls are standing. This causes a turn of events and also a very mysterious episode ending. Viewers will just have to rewatch the show to find out what happened to Lewis and the girl's powers at Mako Island after the full moon spell.

S2 ep 18: The heat is on

They want to celebrate your friendship

In the middle of season 2, Cleo attempts to organize a party celebrating the girls' mermaid transformation anniversary but things do not go to plan as usual. We know from previous episodes that none of the girls are good at planning and organizing get-togethers and neither is their friend, Lewis.

The episode starts with Cleo calling her best friend, Emma and then adding Rikki to the chat. Cleo seems to have things under control on the call but her friends know her all too well and realize what is about to happen. A series of unfortunate events always happen to the mergirls.

"So, our anniversary?" -Cleo

"Yeah, a year ago tomorrow we became mermaids." -Emma

"Feels longer." -Rikki

"Come on, It's the best year of our lives and you know it."-Cleo

"It's definitely been the most weird." -Rikki

"So, I was thinking that I should celebrate. Just the three of us." -Cleo

"I love it." -Emma

"Great." - Rikki

"I'll organize it, leave it to me."-Cleo

"You aren't going to make us wear party hats are you?" -Rikki

"Like I said, leave it to me?" -Cleo

In the next scene with all three of the girls, Emma and Rikki are seen fighting at the Juicenet about a possible exposure to their secret that happened in public. Emma works at the Juicenet as a waitress and one of their fellow friends, Zane is also known as a frequent customer who spilled a drink on her and tried to help her. Causing her to hide in the cafe's freezer room because the drink had water in it and allowed her to transform into a mermaid. When Emma transforms back into a human with legs, she acts like she is fine and it was no big deal. But then Rikki finds out about the spill that caused Emma to transform and all hell breaks loose between the two best friends.

Honorable mention: Sharing secrets with them

Cleo, Emma, and Rikki face the good, the bad, and the ugly moments of their friendship in the show. Despite their underwater secret, the one thing that has held their bond together is the fact that they share a secret; they are all mermaids from Mako Island. Viewers can watch the girls portray dozens of examples of being good friends in this show and see how they stumble and fall back together as teenagers and young women.

Fun Facts:

-H20 Just add Water was filmed at sea world parks and various locations in the Gold Coast, AU

-The Moon Pool was not outside, it was constructed in a studio lot indoors

-The mermaid's tails had over 1,000 hand-painted scales on them created by designers

Questions:

-What are other qualities that you think make a good friend?

-What's one thing you enjoy doing with your friends?

-How do you know that your friend has your back?