When I returned home, the second day of summer stretched out as infinite as the ocean skyline. It would be a while before Max would be able to give me more information, and Lena was out with her friends. I doubted she would take me to a party again so quickly after what had happened on the Sirena. With Mom and Dad at work and everyone else out of the house, that left me to my own devices.

I decided to start with a snack, a sandwich with tomatoes and avocado and goat cheese. Then I headed back to my room to continue my plans to start a summer romance. As I passed the full-length mirror by my dresser, I couldn't help but stop and tilt my head to examine my own changed appearance. 

I'd never been truly ugly. But I never knew the way Lena did, instinctually, how to dress up my features or pick nice clothes. I'd been a gangly collection of lanky limbs, with frizzy dark hair I'd always swept back into a ponytail that I'd half-heartedly combed out after my shower. Then high school hit like a hurricane, when all my friends it seemed like were dating and having crushes and I was just. . . left behind.

After two years of that was when my Cinderella moment happened. A lanky build became willowy, statuesque even, with me towering over Lena. My features settled, and with them came the desire to make a change, to become glamorous, someone worthy of falling in love with. 

Lena started with the haircut, to make it easier to learn how to work with my thick, curly dark hair. She taught me all the products to use, products that I faithfully recreated the last few days and this morning. I was still getting used to the weight of my hair being gone, now gliding gracefully over my shoulders. 

Then came the boutiques the day before. I had a bunch of money stashed from birthdays and Christmas, and Mom had been willing to donate a little extra when she heard what Lena and I were up to.

She didn't know about the plans for summer romance, necessarily, but she was more than happy to see me taking pride in my appearance for once as she put it. 

"Get the clothes you've always wanted," Lena told me when we went down the row. "The things you always were too shy to wear, too afraid of. That's what's going to make you look good, feel confident."

I glanced up and down at my outfit—an orange shimmery tank top and a pink skort with a butterfly design that hugged my hips. I wasn't used to showing so much skin. It wasn't an inappropriate look by any means, and still passed the dress code requirements, as Mom had requested. 

The bright colors made my dark brown eyes look more intense, my tan skin glowed. The butterfly clips in my hair and the bright, plastic-y jewelry like a Polly Pocket hadn't exactly been Lena's picks. But they were mine, and I could see now why Max and Mrs. Andersen were so taken aback by the changes.

For once, I felt almost as beautiful as Lena. 

I glanced out the window—the day was just beginning, and it was perfect for a beach day. And the beach was also a perfect place to meet cute guys.

Still, I felt some hesitation, remembering the monster in the water the night before. What if I saw it again? 

I'd made it go away on my own, hadn't I? With the pink light, the part I hadn't told Max about?

There were other mysteries, I realized. Ones that Max couldn't help me with—ones only I could investigate.

Starting with the part where I was breathing underwater. 

I stepped onto the waterfront near my house. It was a private beach meant for the neighborhood to use, and despite how perfect the day was, hardly anyone was there. Which ultimately worked well for me, given what I was about to do. 

I left my beach bag and towel partially obscured under the sea-grass, so no one would go rooting around for my keys or sunblock. Not that anyone would, anyway. But it was always better to be safe than sorry. 

I stood on the shoreline, let the water kiss my toes as I wiggled them into the sand. I was wearing a new swimsuit, my first bikini since ever, I was pretty sure. The top was brown with a natural sweetheart neckline and straps that criss-crossed in the back, the bottom was a baby yellow skort with little brown polka dots, and both had frills and ivory lace details on them. Another extravagance that Lena insisted on—and this was the point where Mom had agreed to helping.

Buying a couple of nice swimsuits were only practical, given how we lived on the waterfront and were often at the beach. 

And the beach was a great place to fall in love—both Lena and I agreed on that. 

I closed my eyes, felt the warmth of the sun on my skin, the sea-breeze in my hair as I heard the gulls caw overhead. I took a few steps back, and then—

I took the plunge. A running start, a few steps into the shallow and then I dived into water. 

I'd always felt a connection to the ocean, perhaps in the way that every beachside girl does, or every weird girl in the back of her class. It was the way it sparkled, the way it flowed, the way that time seemed to slow down when you dipped beneath the surface. But I felt especially so, even if I knew that made no sense. After all, I wasn't the kind of girl who was special or exceptional. I knew that. But being in the water again, this time by choice and not surprise attack of the monster of the deep reminded me of that feeling. 

I propelled myself deeper and deeper, farther out into the water. I resisted the instinct I'd developed to return to the surface, and instead took my second breath underwater. 

With the relief of air in my lungs, I couldn't help but laugh, a sound still garbled by the water. Giddy, I swooped out further into the deep blue, turning and rotating with the total freedom afforded to me. I didn't have to come up for air, not if I didn't want to! I could explore so much more of the ocean!

Colorful fish I'd never seen before swam in front of me. In the distance I could see a pod of dolphins bobbing up and down, closer to the surface of the water.

A part of me wondered if I should be more careful—after all, I didn't want to get the bends. Just because I could breathe underwater didn't mean I could withstand the pressure. I continued down. I didn't feel the pressure change at all. In fact, I started to feel something new pulsing within me, not my heart, but that same light that had come from it with a rhythm of its own. I dropped down past the drop-off, and that's when it happened—the pink light returned. 

It started with the warmth of sunlit shallows in my heart, then it spread outward, like translucent magenta ribbons. They embraced me, wrapping around me and shaping my legs together. Then they vanished, leaving me with an iridescent pink mermaid's tail.

I gasped—then I turned around and around, somersaulting in the water just to catch a glimpse of it. I had a large tail fin like a koi fish's, with pink and orange translucent mesh that shimmered as it caught the dappled pattern of filtered sunlight. The scales were primarily pink, but shifted to colors of orange and white and turquoise as it moved.

"Well, I've never seen a human girl do that before!"

I froze. Then I looked around, just in time to see a girl emerge from a patch of sea-grass.

No, not a girl—a mermaid.