I don't own any rights to anything but this story. Someone very dear to my heart asked if I could include something for her in it and decided to write it and see how many people could or would enjoy something like this.

Chapter 7

"I said that I'm a mermaid" said Kimberly more slowly

Before anyone could mutter a single word Tommy wanted to stop what happened before from happening again. He told everyone "It's true. She showed me herself the other night."

Almost immediately after Tommy had said that the group started laughing.

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"Really?" Kimberly said as the group starting laughing. She wasn't amused at all and found nothing funny about the situation. "Is my being a mermaid really that funny?" At her words all of her friends minus Tommy just laughed harder. Tommy just stood there watching everyone laugh with a feeling of his heart dropping to his feet. His doing that drove her away in anger for a few days he couldn't imagine what this could do to her. To have and hide this gift must be really hard for her. And as weird as he thought it was to have to deal with it now, he didn't want this for her. He wanted everyone to accept it and to understand right from the start.

"Aww come on Kimmy" said Rocky. "We don't mean nothing by it" he said as he continued to laugh. "Here fishy, fishy, fishy." he joked as he pretended to be holding up a fishing pole. Kimberly and Tommy were becoming more and more annoyed as they watched everyone just laugh harder.

"Well I am going home now." Kimberly announced as she stood up and started walking away from everyone. Her friends were still laughing too hard to respond or to stop her.

"Wait up Kim" Tommy said as he walked over to her. "How about I drive you home?"

"No it's okay. Honestly I think they need adult supervision more than me right now" she said as she pointed at their friends. "You go and mind the children. I will see you later."

As soon as she was out of sight Tommy glared at his friends and said "really? She is your friend and you can't even take a few moments out of your busy day to hear her out?"

"Tommy we weren't trying to be mean" said Adam. "It's just you know kind of hard to believe, you know?" finished Jason

"I do know. I had the same reaction and felt like a jerk for not having heard her out in the first place" admitted Tommy

"Tommy it is kind of out there." Billy started

"NO!" said Tommy "she is your friend and she came to us. Look at it this way she has always supported all of you no matter how strange of an idea with no questions asked. Now she comes to you with this and all you can do is laugh."

"Perhaps she is confused and this is her way of saying she needs help" suggested Katherine.

"Well lets just say that is true Kat. If it was just look at how well her coming to all of you for help turned out" and with that Tommy walked away while adding "I'm going to bed now. Don't forget to put the fire out before the rest of you all go to sleep."

Everyone sat there for a while longer feeling ashamed of themselves. Finally Jason spoke up and said "Look I may not believe that Kimberly is a mermaid but I do believe she is trying to tell us something and if she is in trouble than no matter what she says we need to be there for her and not laugh anymore at her."

"Agreed" everyone said

"Now Adam help me put the fire out and everyone lets go to sleep for the night." Jason said. Once the fire was out everyone got into their tents and went to sleep hoping to see their friend the next day.

-The next day-

It was about noon when the gang woke and started getting ready for the day. As they exited out of their tents they were surprised to see Kimberly sitting on a nearby rock waiting for them to wake up. She had her hair down again and she was wearing her all purple bikini with white shorts. She didn't have her shoes on but her sandals were nearby.

"Hey sis" Jason greeted "We didn't expect you so early."

"Yea I know" Kim replied "I just thought that after you get ready and eat perhaps we all could go swimming."

Jason heard this and thought I knew she wasn't a mermaid. She would not have suggested to go swimming if she was. "That sounds good" he agreed

About an hour and a half later everyone was ready to get into the water. Tommy leaned over to Kim and whispered "Are you sure about this Kim? There isn't a lot but some people around."

"All will be okay Tommy" Kimberly said "Everyone ready to go?"

"I am" Aisha said

"We will beat you in" Rocky called after he, Adam, Jason, and Billy started running towards the water.

"Are you sure about this?" Kat asked Kim. "You don't have to prove anything to us."

"I just want to go swimming Kat" Kim assured her. "Are you ready to go"

"Absolutely" she said

"Tommy? How about you?" Kim asked

"I will be right behind you Kim" he said as they all started walking toward the water.

Once they got to the waters edge Katherine continued in until she joined the others. Kimberly and Tommy stopped as they reached the waters edge. "Are you sure about this Kim?" Tommy asked again

"Oh I'm sure" she said. "Tommy what are you so afraid of?"

"You turning into a mermaid. The gang is bound to be surprised about it and that surprise may be enough noise to attract the attention of the people down the beach."

"Tommy don't worry about it. We didn't get to the finer points of being a mermaid and what that entails. I can control it… So long as I don't lose control of my emotions or get taken by surprise I can chose not to turn. It will be okay" Kim assured him.

"Are you sure Kim? Once they see you as a person in the water it will be even harder for them to believe you are actually a mermaid."

"Oh I don't know" she said "I'm sure once they see it they will believe it. Besides once the time is right I have to get Rocky back for the fishy, fishy, fishy comment he made and I promise I will be a mermaid when I do that."

Kim held out her hand for Tommy and said "Wanna join me in the water? We could go in together."

Tommy took Kim's hand and said "I would like nothing more than to join you. Lets go." And then they entered the water together