Jenna was completely absorbed by swimming with her tail. She didn't worry about being a girl, or school, or anything else.

She was a mermaid, and it felt amazing.

When she'd first transformed, for some reason, becoming a mermaid had felt even more distressing than becoming a girl. She'd become some half human freak.

But no...  in reality, it was nothing like that. Her whole life, she had loved the ocean. She loved swimming. Only now had she realized how much she'd subconsciously wanted to explore it without bounds.

She swam around with Tommy, and his serious attitude from before now turned to glee. He loved this just as much as she did. For years, she'd felt a bit embarrassed when people had remarked how weirdly obsessed she was with the ocean, but now she felt like she had someone who understood. Someone who was just like her.

They swam further and further out into the ocean. They swam quickly with their tails up towards the surface, and then burst out of the water, diving back in. They continued this dolphin jump a couple of times, and then Jenna flipped over, laughing uncontrollably.

Tommy drifted down to the ocean floor, and extended his tail out to rest. She sat beside him, taking deep breaths.

"I'm sorry I ever doubted this," Jenna said to Tommy. "I... I can't believe I was going to try to keep myself from exploring this. It... it's just..."

"The coolest thing ever?"

Jenna grinned. "Yeah."

"Well I'm glad you like it," he said. "You've taken to it very naturally. You look beautiful when you swim."

Jenna felt her face go red, and she fidgeted with some strands of her billowing hair. "Thanks. Really... thank you for getting me to do this... I... I feel so alive. I'm... I'm kind of dreading going back out of the water."

Tommy laughed. "I've dreamed about getting to stay down here. One week when my parents were away on a trip, I snuck out and tried to see how long I could stay under. It was a couple of days. Going to the bathroom underwater is terrible. Well, no more terrible than when you go camping."

"You'd really want to live underwater?" Jenna asked.

Tommy smiled, and drew a line in the sand, which kicked up a cloud of dust. "Maybe someday, if tech people figure out some stuff to make it more comfortable. But right now, I'm... I'm content that now I finally have someone to share this with."

He smiled at her, and she felt herself melt. His eyes were a deep crystal blue, like the ocean itself.

She felt a feeling stir in her. She didn't know exactly how mermaid anatomy worked, but she knew that it was completely functional. Especially at the moment. Right now, her anatomy wanted her to kiss him.

Jenna pushed back against the thought. Although she was only now becoming friends with Tommy, she had known him for a while, though not always by name. She had decided that her type in boys was kind of what he looked like.

But this was happening a bit fast, and...

Oh, she thought, What the hell.

She moved in, and he'd clearly been waiting for the opportunity. Her first time kissing a guy was actually really good. So good, that neither of them wanted to stop.

They basically had a make out session that lasted a few minutes. Jenna was feeling crazy, and had to restrain herself. Removing her inhibitions about being a mermaid was making her a bit hasty.

But even after they kissed, she couldn't let go of him. She cuddled up to him, resting her head against his chest. Tommy ran his fingers through her hair, and lightly massaged one of her shoulders.

"You...," she started to ask, and then cut herself off.

"What?" Tommy asked.

She looked up at him, feeling kind of like a little puppy looking up at its owner.

"You don't feel... weird, or anything, kissing me... do you?"

"You mean because you used to be a boy?" he asked. "No, not at all."

She smiled. She felt a warmth in her.

"Are you going to try to reverse it?" he asked.

Jenna sensed some... disappointment in the tone of his voice.

"I... I don't know. They can't undo permanent changes like mine, at least right now. It could be years, if at all, before they figure it out."

"So you're going to continue to live as a girl?"

She knew what he was wondering. He didn't want to lose his mermaid friend, and a girl he obviously really liked. Jenna felt like she'd still really like him if she went back to being Seth. But...

"For now I am," she said. "This has been really hard for me though. I'm in a different body, or, well, my body has changed to become really different. I'm having to wear different clothes, go by a different name... I just feel... out of place. I feel like I'm lying to everyone about who I am."

"Everyone at school knows what happened," Tommy said.

"Yeah," Jenna replied. "That's been hard to deal with too. But it's not that I'm hiding it... I feel like I'm wearing a costume. Like I'm an impostor."

"Well, if you're wearing a costume," he said, "I think you're playing your part very well. You're a really cute girl and an even cuter mermaid."

For a brief moment, her body and mind felt a thrill at that, so she did her best to -

"But if you don't like these things," Tommy said, "I could always call you Seth. You could cut your hair, and wear masculine clothes... unless your parents aren't letting you. Have they been acting that way?"

"No," Jenna said, "other than being pissed that I used gene juice, they've been very kind and understanding. They told me when I first changed that I could try to keep living as Seth. But they suggested I try going by Jenna and dressing as a girl for a week and see if I like it."

Jenna sat up, taking her head off of Tommy's chest, now that they were having a more in-depth conversation.

"But...," Tommy asked with a raised eyebrow, "hasn't it been two weeks now?"

Jenna's blood chilled.

Yeah, it had been.

"Well," she said, "everyone's kind of expecting me to be a girl now... so I'm just going along with it."

Tommy pursed his lips. "You shouldn't go along with what other people expect just cause'. I did that for years before I decided I wanted to become a merman, and didn't care about what other people thought."

"Won't my hair just grow back when I become a mermaid if I cut it though?" Jenna asked.

"No, to my knowledge that was part of your change into a girl."

Jenna shrugged. "Whatever I guess. I kind of like the feeling of swimming with it. It kind of enhances the feeling of being a mermaid."

Tommy chuckled.

"What?" Jenna asked.

"You can admit that you like being a girl if you want to," he said.

Jenna's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. Her thoughts tried to form words but her lips wouldn't work, and when she managed to get her lips to work she couldn't organize her thoughts.

"Like I've said Jenna," I think you're a beautiful girl, and I think it's so cool that you're a mermaid. And from hearing you gush about marine biology in class, it seems like we have a lot in common."

The neurons in Jenna's brain just didn't seem to be firing right. She was so in shock that she wasn't even sure what emotion she was feeling.

"No no no no!" she gritted her teeth. "This was supposed to happen years down the road! I knew eventually I'd just get used to it, but... augh! I wasn't supposed to give in this quickly!"

Tommy pulled her into a hug.

Jenna could feel that she was crying, but her tears obviously didn't show underwater.

"I'm... a boy...," she sobbed, "and my name is Seth..."

"Is that what you want?"

She kept her eyes shut. "It's who I am. I'm a guy."

"No," he repeated, "I asked you if you wanted it to be that way."

He positioned her so that he was holding her by the shoulders, so when she let her eyelids open, she was staring right into his inviting smile.

"It's okay Jenna," he said, "it's hard letting your emotions change so suddenly. But you can choose to let go of that desire in you to suppress who you really are."

She looked at him with a quivering lip, and puppy-dog eyes.

"What I really want...," she said.

"Yes," Tommy said. "You can choose to let go of that restraint. You can choose to let yourself enjoy this."

Jenna drew her focus into her thoughts. She began unpacking them. She'd spent eighteen years of her life as a boy named Seth. But when she first had transformed, she'd been completely destroyed. But was that because she felt it wasn't who she was, or was it because she was just shocked by the sudden change?

Then she had been living as Jenna for the past few weeks. Now that she thought more about it, she had been the one who suggested the name Jenna. She also could've stopped Mom and Lily at any point.

She had been curious. She'd been exploring the feminine side of her. She'd been exploring the side of her that liked boys.

As she slowly and freely explored her thoughts, she came across new curious thoughts. How would it feel to wear a dress more often. Or tights?

She was silent, and saw Tommy, patient as he was, resting with his back against their rock, letting Jenna sort through her mind.

Then, like her mind so often did, it began thinking about the future. About being married with a family. Being a wife and mother didn't feel nearly as scary as it had before.

You want to be a girl. Let yourself be free.

Jenna slowly brought herself back into the underwater world around her. She looked at her tail, with its lavender scales and her billowing tail.

Tommy's right. My tail does look beautiful.

She looked back into Tommy's eyes, and felt her lips forming a smile.

"I'm a girl," she said a bit shakily at first. But she repeated it, feeling more confident. "I'm a girl. And I want to stay that way."

The floodgates opened. Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed with euphoria. And tears.

A few stray thoughts tried to push it all back, but she cast them aside. She embraced all the whispers of feminine feelings in her and felt completely gleeful in her body.

She was a mermaid. And a girl. And that was okay. No, not just okay. She loved it.

Only escalating her emotion, she and Tommy began making out again, and this time, they went on for a while.

She had changed so much today. And while it was intimidating, she determined that she was going to march straight home and tell them that she wanted to be Jenna permanently.

Strangely, Jenna felt giddy, imagining Lily's excitement when she'd tell her that she had a boyfriend.

And tossing aside the restraints she'd placed on herself once again, she let herself be excited about acting girly with her sister.

She had a lot she wanted to learn.