I feel the change the second I’m underwater. It’s a burst of warmth that cascades from my heart down to my toes. For just an instant, the feeling is exactly what I want, my body back in the form it’s supposed to be in.

But then the Elders’ faces swim in my mind, screaming, DO NOT GET WET IN FRONT OF HUMANS.

My fin is out and proud for the whole world to see. Thank the Blue it’s just me and Sean here right now, but I literally have no idea how I’m going to brush this off.

Sean’s eyes are wide, practically bulging out of his skull.

“Sean, let me explain.”

“You’re a mermaid. A merman. A merperson.”

There we go. “Mer or merfolk also works,” I say, then cringe. I should not be swimming into this. I should be acting like he’s not seeing what he’s for sure seeing. I should be making him think this is some kind of massive hallucination.

Sean’s look of wide-eyed shock suddenly turns to fear. He grabs on to the side of the pool and hoists himself up so he’s sitting on the cement ledge. “You’re not like those sirens that eat people, right? We both know I’d be lying if I said I’m not meaty. I am and I know I’d taste good and—Fuck! If you are going to eat me, I am not doing a good job of trying to convince you otherwise.” He smacks his forehead before getting to his feet and backing up to the bleachers.

“For flick’s sake, I am not going to eat you!” I shout. Sean’s reaction is pretty insulting considering if anybody should be afraid of someone’s murderous actions, it’s me. Humans have killed way more sea life than the other way around. For all I know, he’ll want to cage me up and put me on display. “And sirens aren’t even real. Merfolk made that myth up so humans wouldn’t be so eager to find us if they thought we’d hurt them before they could hurt us.”

“How am I supposed to know that? I thought merpeople weren’t real either, but here we are.” He can’t get his eyes off my fin. It’s gently swishing back and forth, keeping my torso above water, an instinctual motion that I didn’t even know I was doing until his stare points it out.

Sean walks back to the edge of the pool, like he’s pulled forward by the hypnotic swish of my tail. “Where was your fin before?” he asks.