Jenny and Emma swam through the streets of Mertropolis to get to Emma's house. As the girls did so, Jenny looked around Mertropolis. She saw buildings made of coral, marble and even crystal, and they appeared look a lot like how buildings back home on the surface would look like. Plenty of buildings had neon lights glimmering luring in merpeople that were going out and about in the city, and Jenny and Emma proceeded to pass said merpeople on their way to Emma's house, with Jenny's ears catching part of the conversations the merpeople she and Emma passed were having.
"This city continues to amaze me. It reminds me so much of the big cities you can find back home on the surface." Jenny whispered to Emma as they swam through Mertropolis. As Jenny conversed with Emma, she continued to observe the new environment she lived in.
Emma smiled and nodded in response to Jenny's remark. "That's understandable. I bet the cities in your surface world are divided into different economical classes much like here in Mertropolis?" She whispered back to Jenny.
"They are. You have the upper class, which you and your family would belong in, you have the middle class, which I would belong in, and you have the lower class. The upper class are obviously the richest people of society and live good lives in good houses with good income and plenty of other luxuries. The middle class are obviously in the middle. They aren't too rich, but not too poor either. They live in the middle of the economical ladder and live in relatively good houses with a relatively good income. The lower class are the economically deprived people of society and have it the worst, and they live in economically deprived houses with a less than satisfactory income." Jenny explained as the girls began to enter the richer neighborhoods of Mertropolis.
The richer neighborhoods of Mertropolis were paved with silver stones, had silver street lamps lining the roads, and had fancy plants in the gardens and parks. The houses were luxury mansions, apartments, penthouses et cetera.
Emma nodded at Jenny's explanation. "I see. Yeah, then the economical classes down here are pretty much the same as they are on the surface." She replied to Jenny as they began to enter Emma's neighborhood, which was reminiscent of the rich, affluent neighborhood of Bel-Air, California, USA. A dark skinned merman guard with short black hair, brown eyes and a bushy black beard who wore a black denim cap along with a pair of silver rimmed glasses and a short sleeved black denim shirt and had an ash gray fishtail smiled and waved at Jenny and Emma as they passed by him. Jenny and Emma smiled and waved back.
"Boy, the people in your neighborhood sure are friendly, Emma." Jenny remarked to Emma with a smile.
"They certainly are, Jenny. Me and my family have been living here for years, and despite the wealth of the people who live here, they all lack the personality of a snob, much like I do." Emma replied to her as they continued to swim towards her house. As they did so, they passed a few of Emma's neighbors, including an elderly Caucasian mermaid who appeared to be in the middle of gardening. She had graying hair that was styled in a bobcut along with blue eyes, and she wore a light brown gardening hat, a short sleeved pink shirt and had a soft red fishtail. She smiled and waved at the girls as they passed her, and the girls waved back.
"Hello, Emma, dear. Are you and your new friend out for a swim?" The elderly mermaid asked Emma.
"Yes, we are, Mrs. Hardwick. My parents are gonna be taking us out to lunch, so we were on our way home." Emma replied.
"Oh, how fun! Well, I won't keep you busy any longer then. I'll get right back to my garden." Mrs. Hardwick smiled as Jenny and Emma continued to make their way towards Emma's house, which they eventually did. Emma's house was a square shaped white mansion that had a balcony with a few lounging chairs on it. The garden was filled with fancy yellow sand and had a silver statue of Emma's father holding Emma as a baby up in the air. The front door of the mansion was black in color and appeared to be made of sleek coral.
Emma pushed open the front door and she and Jenny swam inside, entering the hallway and closed the door. The hallway had a black marble floor and white marble walls with a black and white marble staircase that went up to the second floor of the house. The hallway had a few sleek black dressers, and there were also a few pictures of Emma and her family on the wall. There was a silver lamp standing in between two of the dressers, and it was used to light up the hallway at night.
"I still can't believe that I'm living in a house this fancy now." Jenny chuckled sheepishly. It was gonna take some time for her to get used to living in a house this fancy.
Emma giggled a little bit. "That's understandable, Jenny. We won't judge you for it." She smiled as the girls proceeded to enter the living room, where Emma's family was waiting for them. The living room had similar black marble floors and white marble walls to the hallway, and it had sleek white dressers and shelves, and there were also a few paintings on the walls, a large television set with surround sound, a large red colored and square shaped couch for the family to sit on when watching tv or just casually lounging in the living room. There were a few lamps on the walls that were used to light up the room at night, and there were also a few red colored chairs scattered across the room that acted as an alternative to the couch. There was also a large white and square shaped coffee table standing in between the couch and the television set, and a few magazines were laid down on it, along with a few different colored candles that were merely there for decoration. The remote for the television set was also laid down on the coffee table.
Emma's father was wearing a light blue dress shirt while Emma's mother wore a short sleeved white shirt underneath a dark blue jacket. Elliot wore a black t-shirt. The three of them watched as Jenny and Emma entered.
"Ah, you girls made it back here! Good! How about you girls go put on a shirt and then we head out for lunch?" Emma's mother asked the girls with a smile.
"Of course, mom." Emma smiled back and turned to Jenny. "Follow me, I got some clothes you can borrow from me." She told the emerald green tailed mermaid as she took her hand and took her up to her room before the girls went inside.
Emma's room had soft blue marble walls and a soft blue marble floor and a large glass jellyfish lamp hanging from the ceiling. Her bed was made from soft blue shells filled with fine sand, and her desk was made from sleek black and white coral, and a working computer was resting on top of it. Her shelf was filled with all sorts of glass figurines that each formed a different fish, and a sleek black closet was in the corner of the room, and it could be assumed that this is where Emma kept all her clothing.
Emma swam over to her closet and opened it, pulling out a light blue tank top and put it on, then tossed Jenny a short sleeved blue denim shirt, which the emerald green tailed mermaid proceeded to put on.
"It's amazing how you merpeople even have clothing down here." Jenny told Emma with a smile.
Emma giggled a little bit at that. "Well, yeah. We can't just swim around wearing just a shell bra if you're a mermaid or bare chested if you're a merman all day. That's why we have clothing down here, much like you humans do on the surface, I presume?" She asked Jenny with a smile of her own.
Jenny nodded at that. "Pretty much. I would explain about the clothing humans wear, but then we'd be here all day, and we don't want to keep your family waiting to head out to lunch." She pointed out.
"Fair enough. Let's get going." Emma nodded back as she closed her closet again and the girls swam downstairs. "Alright, we're ready to go." She told her family.
"Very well. Let's get going then." Emma's mother smiled as the Gilberts and Jenny proceeded to leave the house and swam towards the downtown area of Mertropolis. As they swam through the downtown area of Mertropolis, Jenny continued to look around. The downtown area of Mertropolis had a number of modern skyscrapers you would see on the surface, with said skyscrapers, or seascrapers as merpeople like to call them being made of all sorts of marble, coral, crystal and the like.
"Wow, those seascrapers look beautiful! You don't see those much where I'm from!" Jenny said as she looked up at the seascrapers in awe.
Emma's father chuckled, sending her a grin. "Yeah, I'm sure these seascrapers are quite the sight for someone out of town like yourself." He replied before pointing at a seascraper that had several white coral curves in its design along with blue crystal windows. "That seascraper is where my company is located. If you'd like, Emma could bring you in sometime during work hours and I could give you a tour of the place." He offered Jenny.
"I'd love that, Mr. Gilbert. Thank you." Jenny smiled, already taking a liking to Emma's father.
"Maybe we could show Jenny around on Monday? There's no school that day, which would be quite convenient to show Jenny around the place." Emma suggested as the family continued swimming through the downtown area.
"That would be a good idea, yeah. You girls can come in around lunchtime, when I don't have a lot of work to do." Emma's father replied.
"Done deal." Jenny smiled. Before long, the family arrived at the restaurant where they were going to have lunch. The restaurant was situated at the corner of a four way street that was paved with gray sand and stones, and the restaurant itself had brown wooden floors along with brown wooden tables and brown wooden benches lined with soft light blue pillows. The family sat down at a table and began looking through the menu. Shortly afterward, a waitress swam up to the family to take their orders, and after swimming back to the kitchen to get their orders prepared, the family started discussing about how now that Jenny was living in Mertropolis, she was going to have to go to school together with Emma, Cleo and Rikki. Emma's parents were going to call the principal of Emma's school and arrange that Jenny was gonna go to the school starting next Tuesday. Needless to say, Jenny was excited about going to a merpeople school. She wondered if merpeople's schools were the same as humans' schools on the surface. Guess she was going to find out when she went there next Tuesday. Not too long after that, the family's orders arrived, and they began eating. Jenny found that the food tasted great, and she enjoyed what she got. After the family finished eating, they went down to more places around the city.