By Sunday evening, after Cindy's call with Matt, she was feeling more comfortable. And she decided she was ready to come out officially to Dad and Jason.

Sammy helped Cindy with her hair a bit, and they chose a nice outfit.

Cindy looked into the wall mirror in Sammy's room.

"You look so cute Cindy," Sammy said.

And Cindy felt like she really did. Her hair was a little bit longer than when school had ended, and using things like a straightener had made it look much more feminine. She wore the denim skirt from her first date, and going simple, just chose a pink t-shirt.

"You ready?" Sammy asked.

"Yeah," Cindy smiled with sparkling eyes.

The two sisters walked upstairs together. Sammy went on ahead, and asked everyone to sit down in the family room.

Sammy came back a bit later, and motioned that Cindy could come up now.

Slowly, Cindy made that final walk up the stairs.

Just put one foot in front of the other...

Cindy walked down the hallway, and into the family room, in full view of Mom, Dad, and Jason. Jason gawked at her, and she looked down sheepishly. She had gotten close to looking this feminine before in front of them, but never quite so far.

No one said anything as Cindy and Sammy sat down on on the short leg of the couch.

"So," Dad said. "You've decided you want to be a girl."

Cindy nodded silently.

"I... realized this about a month ago," Cindy said.

"That's why you didn't want to cut your hair," Dad guessed.

"No," Cindy said.

"Why didn't you want to cut your hair then?"

"I...." Cindy sighed. "It's complicated."

She glanced over at Mom, who smiled reassuringly.

Sammy got up from the couch, and quickly went back downstairs. Cindy knew what she was grabbing.

"So you aren't going to get your chest operation?" Jason asked.

"I... I don't want to anymore," Cindy said. She looked up at Mom and Dad for confirmation. They didn't say anything.

Sammy came upstairs not too long after. The silence felt very painful though, despite being brief.

Sammy unfolded Cindy's tail, and held it out for them to see.

"A... mermaid costume?" Jason asked.

Cindy felt stung. She'd always known Jason would think it was super weird that Danny was into mermaids.

"I bought it online," Cindy said, trying to stay calm. Her secret of so many years was finally out. It felt extremely uncomfortable.

"So... you wear this?" Mom asked.

"I swim in it," Cindy explained. "With my friends. That's why I met them. They have swimmable mermaid tails too."

"So... you wear a mermaid costume," Dad said, "a bit... odd. But I don't really understand why you're telling us this."

Cindy closed her eyes for a moment, preparing for many more minutes of difficult conversation.

"For one," she said, "I feel really embarrassed about this. I've always been interested in mermaids, and because I was so scared of how all of you would react, I kept it a secret."

"Is this safe?" Mom asked.

"Yes," Cindy said. "As long as you know how to use it. You also should swim with other people when you use one. That's one of the reason why I sought out people to do it with."

"If it's safe," Dad said, "I don't see a problem with it. I... I honestly think it's a little odd. But I don't want you to be afraid of having fun the way you want to."

Mom nodded in agreement.

A good chunk of weight came off of Cindy. She could do this. She could talk about all of this.

"But the more important reason why I'm talking about this," she said, "is because of what this led to. When I got my tail, I felt extremely self conscious about it. I didn't want to use it around you guys. I was afraid obviously to use it at the public pool."

"You probably weren't feeling good about going there with your breasts either, were you?" Mom asked.

Cindy nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I discovered the mermaiding group on Facebook, but it seemed like there were only girls there. And so I felt kind of creepy going there as a guy. I also didn't want them to laugh at my chest."

She took a deep breath.

"So I pretended to be a girl."

"And they believed you?" Jason asked, slightly shocked.

"Yeah," Cindy said. "They did. I told them my name was Cindy, and they were just happy to have another friend who liked mermaiding. When I went inside though, I was really sad to see that there were guys there. I felt like I'd made a big mistake."

"But you continued to go as a girl," Dad said.

"Yeah," Cindy answered with a sheepish look. "I... I just felt so comfortable there. I didn't have to be afraid that I liked mermaids, or that I had breasts. Everything was going alright, so I decided to just keep going like that. That's why I didn't cut my hair and stuff."

"But then you had everything happen at the mall," Mom said.

"That was a hard day," Cindy said. "I... I didn't intentionally try to flirt with Matt. I feel like at the time I really did decide to go on the date with him because I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"But later things got weird for me. When I'd been at Lucy's house, I'd always thought my enjoyment there was only because I had friends, and ones I could be comfortable around. But when I tried that swimsuit on... I realized that there was another reason I liked going to Lucy's house."

"You... you liked it cause you got to be a girl?" Mom asked.

Cindy tried to force a smile, with questionable success. "Yeah, that's right. Between all of this - my changing body, my enjoyment of acting like a girl, and just... just... a feeling of myself being feminine, that's what made me realize."

She took a deep breath.

"It's what made me realize that I'm really a girl."

Cindy kept her eyes firmly on the ground. But that plan was interrupted, when she felt Mom's arms, then Dad's, then Sammy's, and after a few moments, Jason's, all wrap around her, in a group hug.

Cindy just erupted into tears, feeling overpowered in this special, beautiful moment.

"We loved you as our son," Dad said. "And we'll love you just as much as our daughter."

They retreated from the hug, and Cindy looked into their eyes, sobbing uncontrollably.

"What do you want us to call you?" Mom asked.

"Cindy," she said. She sniffled.

"Ah," Dad smiled, "I like it."

"Yeah," Mom said. "Cindy is a wonderful name, and I think it will fit you well."

"This is going to be really hard to get used to...," Jason said.

"I know," Cindy said. "I... don't care if it takes a while to get used to it. I'm just happy that you accept me. That you care about who I want to be."

"We do," Mom said. "As long as this is really what you want."

Cindy smiled. "It is Mom. It is."

Dad smiled softly and firmly at her. "You look very beautiful Cindy. I've... I've suspected that you were feeling something like this for a while. I'm glad that you've finally come out to us."

"I'll be honest... um, Cindy," Jason said. "I don't really understand this. But gosh. This seems like this has been hard to do."

"Oh it is," Cindy said. "But I hope you can accept me Jason."

"....I do," Jason said. "I don't understand exactly. But you seem like you've been much happier since you started acting like a girl. All except... well, yesterday."

Cindy groaned, thinking back on how bad it had been. "Matt found out that I was trans. He told me he didn't want to date anymore. He wasn't super mean about it. But it kind of threw all of me into disarray and gave me massive dysphoria."

"But we had a long talk last night," Sammy said.

"And since then I've been doing much better," Cindy said. "I also talked to Matt on the phone, and we reduced most of the tension between us."

"So what now?" Jason asked. "You're... you're gonna be a girl for the rest of your life then?"

A warm feeling passed through Cindy. "Yeah. Yeah I will."

"We're going to have to figure out what to do about school in the Fall," Mom said. "I'm afraid of you getting bullied."

Cindy frowned. "I haven't thought as far ahead as school really."

"We could always try to get her moved to Aspen Ridge," Dad suggested.

Cindy's face lit up. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh please could I go to Aspen Ridge? All my new friends are from there. And... I guess Matt is too. I'd have to figure things out with him."

Dad chuckled. "We'll have to see."

"I suppose this means we'll need to get you some new clothes," Mom smiled.

"Yeah," Cindy said. "I'm excited. Now that all of you know... I can wear and act as girly as I want!"

They all laughed a little.

Cindy breathed deep, and looked at the happy faces of her family members. They loved her. They accepted her. And more than that, they still wanted to be near her.

She almost wanted the moment to last forever. But it only made her more excited for what the future had in store.