Jenny and her new friend had spent the last half-hour or so just playing around in the pool. She was a fairly good swimmer for an eight-year-old, and could even hold her breath long enough to get about halfway down to the bottom of the pool, but Michelle was truly incredible. She darted around in the water like a hummingbird moves through the air, so fast that her shorter moves were barely perceptible. And, of course, the fact that she could breathe water meant she didn't even have to come up for air.
But the most amazing thing was that she was clearly having a blast. Jenny didn't know whether it was just that she was in her element, or whether it had more to with having a friend to share it with, but this was a side of Michelle she'd never seen before. She had swam circles around Jenny, clearly pleased with herself almost to the point of smugness, but Jenny didn't mind; for once, the normally dour and antisocial girl seemed to actually be happy.
Now Jenny was catching her breath, hanging on the edge of the pool. Michelle surfaced next to her, laughing gleefully. Jenhy grinned at her, then frowned slightly. "How come you're not coughing up water?" she asked. "I thought you were breathing it?"
Michelle laughed. "I was," she said. "Sort of. Look here." She lifted up the hair behind her ear, and Jenny saw that, nestled behind it, there was a set of flaps of skin, covering slits in the back of her head. "What are they?" she asked.
Michelle grinned. Now that she had someone to tell about herself, she seemed more than happy to talk about her body. "They're gills," she said. "You know, like fish have. When I breathe water, it doesn't go down into my lungs, it goes out through these. That way, I can stay down as long as I want, but I don't have to hack water out of my lungs when I want to come up."
Jenny gaped. "That is so cool!" she said. "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen! Can you do that in any water?"
"Kinda," the young mermaid replied. "I can breathe in just about any water, but not all of it is good. I can't breathe in pools because of the chlorine, but I can do lakes just fine, unless they've got a lotta silt in them. That's kinda like breathing really dusty air; it chokes things up. I've never been to the ocean, but Mom and Dad said I should be able to breathe salt water, if I make sure to drink plenty of fresh."
"Oh, wow," Jenny said. "Do you go the lake a lot? It must be nice to have all that room."
"Sometimes," Michelle said. "We either have to wait until it's not swimming season or find an out-of-the-way lake that nobody goes to. Do you wanna come with sometime?"
Jenny grinned ear-to-ear. "I'd love to!" she said.
Michelle smiled. "I'll call you next time we're going," she said. "Do you wanna get out of the pool for a bit?"
Jenny did, and she climbed out of the pool on the access ladder. She was about to reach down and help Michelle out when she realized that the mermaid-girl had already clambered out onto the concrete by her wheelchair. She watched as Michelle gently dried her tail, toweled off the rest of her body, and lifted herself into the chair. She couldn't walk, but since her tail was still a functioning limb, Michelle wasn't as helpless as Jenny had thought. Nevertheless, Jenny got the door for her after drying herself off, and Michelle smiled appreciatively.
They spent the rest of Jenny's visit watching cartoons on the couch. Mrs. Madison watched from the kitchen, surprised and pleased; she hadn't seen her daughter this happy in a long time.
After they got off the bus, Becky headed over to Andrew's house with him. They did this often, or rather they used to do this often, so she didn't particularily feel the need to let her parents know. But she was a little nervous about going over to a friend's house for the first time since her metamorphosis. Andrew's parents were nice people, but her situation was an awfully weird one. How would they react if she claimed to be a sex-changed Ben Connely?
They entered the house and stopped by the kitchen for soft drinks (without which it could not truly be called a gaming session.) Andrew's parents were there, enjoying their afternoon coffee as usual. "Oh, hello!" Mrs. Duncan said, noticing her. "I don't believe we've met."
"I'm Becky," Becky smiled, extending a hand. "I go to school with Andrew." With the whole school knowing about her, word would doubtless get around that she used to be Benny, but for now she'd rather not deal with it. And maybe, if their first impression of Becky was based only on what they thought of Becky, they'd have an easier time accepting her when they did find out. Man, this secret-identity stuff was complicated.
Becky thought she caught a brief knowing smile on Mr. Duncan's face as he shook her hand, but if he knew the truth, he said nothing. She and Andrew grabbed their beverages and went down to his basement lair, where they played games, read comics, talked, and played games for most of the afternoon.
The pie was in the oven a little longer than half an hour, but came out none the worse for it.
