"Mom... I'm not wearing this."

Jenna held up a one piece swimsuit with a long skirt on the bottom. It was colored a dappled pattern of different shade of blue.

Mom sighed. "Sorry honey, but since you're going to grow a tail now when you go in the water..."

She hesitated seeing Jenna's extreme discomfort.

"Because you're going to be turning into a mermaid whenever you swim," Mom went on, "you can't wear a normal swimsuit, because it'll tear whenever you change. Besides, you can't wear one of your old pairs with your chest fully nude."

Jenna turned the swimsuit over, examing the bottom of it. Apparently, these swimsuits for mers were so designed that they would open up in response to water for the tail to go through, and then would naturally close and reseal when dry.

"Fine," Jenna said.

"Put it on!" Lily grinned, "I wanna see!"

Jenna rolled her eyes, and went into the bathroom to change. This, unfortunately, required her to see her body nude again. She was past the point of crying and shaking when she saw it, but seeing her anatomy didn't put her in a good mood.

But wearing the swimsuit didn't make her feel much better. It made her curves very apparent. Plus, Jenna had insisted on wearing jeans. She didn't like seeing herself in a skirt.

"Woah ho ho," Lily said, "I can't wait to look like that."

Jenna inwardly imagined herself drop kicking her sister. "Thank you, Lily," she said with deep sarcasm.

"You're hating it now, but when Tommy sees you..."

Jenna let out a long, slow groan.

****

Jenna felt the water lick around her ankles. It was a feeling she'd always enjoyed. The ocean had always been such a calm place for her. She went there to have fun, to relax, destress, or just think.

But today, that tempting lure to come into the water felt like a finger beckoning her to come into a witch's gingerbread house.

The water was warm. A pleasant, refreshing temperature compared to the heat in the air.

"Jenna!"

She turned around, and saw Tommy walking across the stretch of sand to join her at the water.

"So you didn't chicken out eh?" he smiled as he drew nearer.

"The ocean's no place for chickens," she replied.

"But I have seen some pretty shy sea critter that shrink up when you touch them. Are you going to shrink up?

Wow. He was very direct.

"I..."

"Look," he said, seeing Jenna's bag among some rocks, and putting his own near hers, "if you don't want to do it, sit over there, and watch a movie. But if you are going to become a mermaid, I don't want to hear you complaining or whimpering about it. This is something I like doing for fun and I don't want you making everything gloomy."

Jenna was speechless. For a few moments anyway.

"I thought you wanted this to be a date and stuff?"

"I don't usually take people I'm dating with me into my own world," Tommy said. "if you're getting in the water, I want you to either cheerful or not say anything. Got it?"

Jenna only nodded. Wow... he was really no nonsense. But it actually kind of made her feel better. He was compelling her to choose, rather than sitting on the fence. His attitude kind of turned her on.

Tommy took off his shirt and put it in his backpack.

Dang, she thought. He's got some well toned muscles. Not quite a six-pack, but close.

Dang it. Now she was really aroused. For just one moment, Jenna was glad she no longer had a penis.

She'd thought more about the side of her that was attracted to boys lately, and she'd noticed that her body now was starting to crave this new exciting territory. It had been weird finding herself eyeing guys in her classes. Including Wyatt and Skylar.

The smile faded from her face. She felt a wetness in the bottom of her suit, and it slowly opened up, revealing her girl-parts.

"Augh," she grunted as she felt the wind chill against her exposed privates.

"What?" Tommy asked as he closed his backpack and stoodup.

"Nothing," Jenna shyly looked down. She instinctively crossed her legs, then remembered, once again, that she didn't have a penis she was trying to hide.

Tommy began walking into the water, and then began to swim once it was deep enough.

Jenna shook her head till she regained some sense, and then followed him into the water.

They rose and fell with the waves as they swam further out. Until...

Jenna's body tightened up as she began to feel it. It was like all of her was becoming wrinkly, not just her finger-tips. She was distracted for a moment, and then realized that Tommy had dived beneath the surface. She took a deep breath, and with no small amount of fear, dove under after him.

Normally if she'd gone underwater without pinching her nose, she would've felt an unpleasant rush of water up her nostrils. This time though, it didn't feel bad at all. She hesitantly sucked it in.

Oxygen. It was coming into her. She opened her mouth, and sure enough, she could breath in and out.

She could see more clearly than she'd ever been able to see underwater. It was a striking feeling, like when she'd had her bad vision corrected as a kid.

She no longer felt a boyant pull up to the surface, but rather, balance.

Unfortunately, then came the real changes. Her legs became harder and harder to kick like normal, and so she switched to a dolphin kick. Her flesh crawled as she could feel the skin between her legs stiching together.

But strangely, unlike last time... it didn't hurt. It was a very strange feeling, but other than a fuzzy, pins and needles feeling, she wasn't in pain.

Her lower body began to feel more and more flexible, and started to bend in places it shouldn't.

Finally, she felt her flowery tailfin form, the membrane very sensitive to the currents around her.

Jenna grimaced as the pins and needles disappated, and she was able to feel every scale on the tail as the water flowed around it. She distracted herself by looking at Tommy's tail - it was a green, almost a camo texture with the variying colors of the scales. His fin, annoyingly, looked very basic and traditional for a merperson.

He spun around, and looked over Jenna. She awkwardly stopped, but she was surprised at how well she was able to control her movement.

"Wow," Tommy said. "You certainly got a very girly looking tail."

Jenna looked away in shame.

"No," he said, a subtle smile on his face. "Nothing to be ashamed of. You look cute."

Jenna smiled.

"But your swimming is kinda sloppy."

Jenna's smiled turned into an angry look. She'd been swimming her whole life, and she did it all the time!

"Hey," he said, "don't get you tail in a twist. You just need some practice is all. First thing I notice, let your tail move freely. You're kinda restricting it right now."

Jenna looked down at his tail, and then tried to follow his movement.

"No," he said, "swim the way that feels right, don't copy me. My tail and fins are different than yours. Feel at the currents, and just kind of move in a way that feels natural."

Jenna let out a big exhale, and did as he instructed.

The calmness that Seth had felt many times as he'd gone into the ocean suddenly felt magnified. Jenna the mermaid could feel so much more. It was cheesy to say, but it felt like the soul of the ocean was inside of her. She swung her tail smoothly back and forth, feeling every molecule of water with her fin.

She looked up at him. His smile was no longer subtle.

"What?" she asked.

"I knew you'd like it."

"I.... I mean I don't... hate it..."

"You don't have to hide your feelings Jenna," he said. "I used to. I used to be afraid of being the guy that wanted a tail. But I love it. It's who I am. I'm a creature of the sea. And I think you are too."

Jenna felt her jaw dropping as she looked into Tommy's eyes. Jenna didn't know any bulls**t about the nature of the universe and stuff, but there was some kind of cosmic connection going on between -

Tommy interrupted her deep philosophical thoughts by reaching his fins forward and tickling her fin with it.

She spontaneously let out a giggle, as she found out how ticklish her fin was.

"Stop!" she laughed. "Cut it out!"

Tommy wore a smug look. "You were looking awfully serious there. Can't have that."

And before Jenna could get back at him for his tickling, he swam off out of her reach, with a big grin on his face.

Bubbles rushed from Jenna's mouth as she giggled. Her heart swelled with ecstasy.

She was a mermaid, and she'd never thought that would make her feel so incredibly happy.