Danny eased his way nervously through the sliding door onto the deck. Wearing his bikini for the first time in front of someone else, he suddenly felt very, very small.

He walked slowly down to where everyone else was and set down his duffel bag next to a pool chair.

"Cute suit!" Lucy complimented.

Danny turned to where she was, sitting on the edge of the pool and kicking her legs in the water. He blushed.

"Thanks. I... I got it from Fin Fun."

"Cool," Lucy said, "they've got some cool swimsuits."

"Yeah," Danny said, "I thought about getting a tankini, but I think this one goes with my tail better."

"Ooh," Lucy said, "let's see your tail."

Starting to feel a bit more relaxed, Danny pulled out his tail, and held it up for them to see.

"Awesome," Liam said, "I like the reddish-pink color."

"Yeah," Brianna said, "I think it goes well with the blue, like you said."

Danny grabbed his monofin, and sat at the edge of the pool. Lucy got up, and grabbed her own tail, a purple one, as Danny started putting his on.

His nervousness started fading. It was happening. He'd gotten through it. And now... now he was finally going to see it all come to fruition.

A grin started to appear on his face, and once he had it fully on and snug around his legs, he let out a little giggle.

"Aww," Lucy smiled, "you make such a cute mermaid Cindy!"

Danny held onto his smile with giddy excitement.

"You want me to take a picture?" Lucy said, "to commemorate your first time being a mermaid?"

"That'd be sweet," he said.

Lucy got out her phone. Danny hugged his tail against his chest, and when Lucy told him to smile, he gave the biggest smile he'd ever made.

"You look so adorable!" Lucy said as she held the phone for him to see the picture.

Danny's excitement was briefly subdued. In the picture, once again, he didn't see Danny, but this nonexistent girl, Cindy. His mind felt twisted up. That was him though. It was so strange. He was wearing a bikini, wearing a mermaid tail...

And he was happy. He did look just like a cute teenage girl.

"Cindy?"

Danny blinked for a moment. "Thanks Lucy," he smiled.

"I'll send it to you."

"Oh, Lucy," he said.

"Yeah?"

"Can you promise not to post it on the Facebook page?"

"Oh right," she said, "you don't like having your face online and stuff. I gotcha."

"Thanks."

Danny turned his attention back to his tail.

"You know all the safety stuff right?" Lucy asked, "like the emergency release?"

"Yup," Danny said. He looked out at the rippling inviting water. "Well... here goes nothing!"

He pushed himself off the edge of the pool, and felt the cool liquid envelop him. For a moment, his brain freaked out because he couldn't kick his legs, but after a split-second, he regained control, and kicked his fin.

In a moment, he resurfaced. He hadn't gone swimming in about a year, so it was a little jarring. But that feeling soon passed, as he practiced treading water with his tail.

"Wow....," he said. This was really happening. He wasn't dreaming. This was real life.

He dove under the water, and began swimming the length of the pool. It was incredible. He'd imagined so many times how it would feel to swim with a tail, and now he finally was experiencing it. He'd been afraid that it wouldn't live up to his expectations, but it gave him all he'd wanted and more.

In past years, when he'd gone swimming, he'd practiced his dolphin kick over and over, in some futile hope that someday he'd have a tail.

While his practice was a bit rusty, he knew just how to do it. Soon, he was able to swim with a surprising amount of speed. He just let himself become lost in the feeling of it, the fantasy of being a mermaid. He imagined that the tail was real, and was able to flexibly bend more than his could in real life.

No amount of water going up his nose could smother his fiery spirit as he swam. He dove under the water, and launched himself upward.

In a moment of ecstasy he giggled. "I'm a mermaid!" he proclaimed.

The other pretend-merfolk in the pool with him laughed, but it wasn't mocking, it was laughing along with him in just having fun acting silly, and not having to worry about being embarrassed.

Eventually, he tired himself out, and swam over into the shallows where the others were talking.

"You swim really well for your first time," one of the girls said. He tried to remember her name. Heather, he was pretty sure.

"Yeah," he laughed, wiping water out of his eyes, "I've been practicing the dolphin kick for a while, waiting for when I could finally have a tail."

"Is it everything you hoped for?" Lucy asked.

"More than everything," Danny beamed. "All my dreams of being a mermaid, finally fulfilled."

"Yeah," Izzy laughed, "you seemed like you were really getting into it."

Danny shrunk back a bit against the wall. "Sorry if I was getting a bit crazy."

"No no," Lucy waved her hands and smiled, "it was the most pure wholesome thing I've ever seen."

Danny giggled. "I guess... I guess there's just a little girl inside me who wants to get out."

Lucy and the others laughed. "Hey, be that little girl. Be an adorable mermaid princess."

"The last time I saw someone get so enthusiastic about wearing a tail," Heather smirked, "was when Liam swam with us for the first time."

Liam laughed. "I'm a merboy at heart," he said.

"Honestly," Danny said, "I'm kind of blown away to see guys doing mermaiding. Not that... not that guys can't do it or anything."

"Hey, it's all good," Liam said. "You have to be a weird sort of guy to want to wear a tail."

"Speak for yourself," Will jokingly hit him in the arm.

"I wear my weirdness as a badge of honor," Liam said.

"I think that's really cool that you're guys and you're into merpeople," Danny said. "If... if I was a guy... I don't think I'd have the courage to swim in a tail."

Did he really just say that?

"It's a bit tough at first," Liam said, "but you girls are really nice to guys like us. Just don't tell anyone about my little secret Cindy." He smirked.

"I promise," Danny said wholeheartedly.

One of the others asked Lucy about something, and the conversation changed. But Danny was just holding to the side of the pool, thinking about all that had happened.

He'd gotten just what he'd wanted. He'd gotten to swim in his tail. But he also got something that he hadn't even really been thinking about.

He'd gotten friends.