The rest of the week was basically me fretting over how many people I could have infected with this disease of mine. Then, it led to a second completely relentless train of thought about whether I had done this to them, or if everyone was becoming this. I still didn't want to be around anyone in the vicinity. Sickened by the possibility of me creating a nation-wide plague of fish-people, I guiltily floated to Ty's house to vent.

"It doesn't mean you're doing this to them, it could just mean everyone's getting dark gifts." Ty mused, stirring a cup of lemonade. "I mean, really. You haven't even been around them for long, since you became this."

I was uncomfortably sitting on one of his leather couches, the material sticking to my damp legs. "I know, but I could be turning my sister into a God forsaken mutant! Doesn't that seem a little coincidental, considering I've been visiting her almost every day for the past week?" I complained, leaning back on the couch.

"Well, maybe it's not such a bad thing." He mused, sipping his citrusy beverage. "We wouldn't need liquigen if we all had gills, we'd be able to explore deeper areas, we'd be more durable against predatory fish...the pros are endless."

I sighed, knowing there was no use getting sympathy out of Ty. He would always find the good things in a situation, making going to him for a hug of compassion impossible. He seemed so fine with the idea of having an ocean of fish people, it seemed as if he wanted to be like a fish.

"Well then, Ty, what if you turn into a mutant? What happens then?" I asked, half closing my eyes. He sat up in his chair, sitting his cup on the table. He seemed quite serious about the question.

"Hmm...It'd be pretty cool." He mumbled, looking off into the distance. "Hey...what if everyone became this...and THEN...we made, like, a whole army of fish people, just swimming around the ocean! Now come on, you have to admit that'd be cool."

"Ty, you're not getting it! This isn't good!" I barked, throwing my hands up into the air. "Gosh, if you won't sympathize with me, then there's no point being here. Besides, I'm only infecting you further." I got up off of the couch, and started walking towards the moon pool. Ty was acting as if my problematic life was a joke, like a TV show he could watch. I wouldn't sit around and be insulted.

"Hey, hey! Wait up!" he called, jumping up from the couch.

"You don't even care, do you?" I yelled over my shoulder. He ran up, and somehow slipped in front of me, keeping me from reaching the moon pool.

"Ack-! I'm sorry, okay?" he yelled, pushing me away from the hole. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood..."

"Well, you're not doing a very good job." I snipped, sticking my nose into the air. "Jokes are the last thing I can handle in a situation like this."

"Fine, fine. Please, just...stay here. I barely get to see you anymore." He whined, leading me back into the living room. I sat down on the sticky couch again, as he sat on his.

"I wonder if there's even a cure." I wondered, thinking to myself. "To this 'fish thing' I mean."

"I don't think so..." he mumbled, taking his now empty cup to the sink. How did he even get lemons down here for his lemonade anyways? "Maybe we'll find one later."

Shaking my head, I felt suddenly exhausted of the topic. My strength felt as diluted as the salt was in the ocean. "I got to go...I don't feel so well." I mumbled, hearing the suctioning sound as my legs detached from the sticky leather of the couch.

"But you just got here..." he said, absently. "Well, okay. Just...come back soon."

"Sure." I said, walking once again to the edge of the moon pool. He followed me in, and grabbed my hand before I could jump in.

"Be safe." He said. He always said it to me before I left from one of my visits. I had become used to hearing it. Smiling at his worried mother-hen mentality, I leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. He started to glow at my touch, but smiled afterwards. Waving one last time, I plunged into the welcoming blue of the ocean, and swam off.

I thought I'd visit Lily before I left, but she was busy talking to Mom and Dad. There was no way for me to tell her I was there, so I decided to leave m visit for another day, and swam off yet again.

As I'd come to know the ocean in a different way than before, I came to think of it like a street, or a neighbourhood. It felt like I was a plane, gliding over my city of coral and fish, watching them busily going about their business. I knew almost every inch of the ocean floor around my homestead, as I had seen it so many times. I knew all the holes, and all the cracks that dotted the rock, as well as most of the fish that lived there. Angel fish glided through the coral, as clown fish and rock fish skittered along the bottom. Crabs walked sideways in between the towering edifices of the rocks, their claws searching for any little fish to catch.

Looking up from my discovery channel moment, I saw a shape in the distance. It looked like a piece of white seaweed floating before my vision, but I knew there was no white seaweed. Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the glittering object before me. Turns out, it wasn't seaweed.

It was a person. A boy, his hair black and waving in the current, dressed in a tattered T-Shirt and shorts. What surprised me most was that he wasn't wearing a helmet, or a dive skin. Had he drowned? Swimming closer, I saw he was fiddling with a net, and that flaring gills ruffled at his neck. His chest moved up and down as he breathed in the seawater, unfazed by the lack of oxygen. He was a person swimming in water, unprotected from the elements. Someone who could breathe the water in like a fish could.

Someone like me.