'Oh, no, no, no, this is too good to be true!' Sharla cackled when Teale and Neale showed her the image of Lily looking longingly at the shoreline in her lair later that day, 'not only is she in love, she's in love with a HUMAN boy!

Oh, won't Mummy be thrilled? Her little girl is in love with the thing she hates the most! Yes, I can just see it now,' said Sharla, as she looked at her garden where terrible moans and screeching could be heard from it.

'Queen Daisy's headstrong, lovesick girl will make a lovely little addition to my garden, just like all those before her,' she said, laughing evilly as the garden of polyps moaned and screeched, for this was only the beginning of her long-awaited revenge...

Over the next few days, Lily had managed to keep her growing love for Ben under wraps from her family and they didn't suspect a thing but when she was alone in her grotto, she just couldn't get him out of her mind and her head was in the clouds as she was constantly daydreaming about him and mooning around the palace and singing to herself when she was in the grotto.

And when she looked at her statue while it was playing the lovely melody of her song, she imagined that it was her and Ben dancing together and that made her long for him more.

Eventually, Lily's change in behaviour did not go unnoticed by her sisters, as it was clear to them that their little sister was dazed and distracted and try as she might, Lily couldn't keep her love for Ben hidden any longer and had let her guard down one night when she was dreaming about meeting Ben on the beach and was muttering in her sleep,

Ben was sitting on the beach and staring at the ocean, thinking about the girl who had saved him from drowning and he heard her beautiful voice in his head. He had searched high and low for her but had been unsuccessful.

He was beginning to think that it had been an illusion, when suddenly; Lily emerged from the water, singing the beautiful melody which made Ben's ears perk up and he walked over to the ocean as Lily swam closer to him.

When they met each other halfway, Lily smiled at him, taking his hands into hers and Ben stared into her beautiful blue eyes, the ones that had looked down at him when he had regained consciousness.

'Ben, do you remember me?' Lily said, 'I'm the girl who rescued you from drowning and sang to you!'

Ben just stared at Lily, thinking that it was too good to be true until he saw the truth and sincerity in her eyes and seeing the girl clearly in the flesh, he then realised who his mysterious angel really was.

'It's you!' he said, happily, as he gathered her up in her arms, only to see her pink tail flicking in the air and he then stared in amazement as he saw that the girl he had searched for all over the Gold Coast was a mermaid from her pink seashell bra to her tail.

'You're a..mermaid,' he whispered in awe, 'and you came back to me! I thought I was going mad and yet you're here with me. Thank you for saving me, my angel but I don't even know your name even though you know mine.'

'It's Lily,' Lily replied, 'and I don't care if we're from two different worlds, I love you with all my heart and I want to be part of your wonderful world, Ben. I know we can make it work somehow.'

'We will, Lily, you're the one for me and I never want to be apart from you again. I love you so much, my angel.' Ben said, as he and Lily held each other close and leaned forward for their first kiss, neither one of them wanting to let go.

'Lily,' Ben said, as his lips met hers in a deep and passionate kiss as he repeated her name over and over again, 'Lily, Lily, Lily..'

Ben's voice then turned into the gentle and motherly tones of her eldest sister Rose as she was calling to her and the beach faded back into the bedroom, as Lily slowly opened her eyes to see that it was morning and her sisters surrounding her bed and watching her as she sighed dreamily and stretched out her arms and tail, making a huge show of it as she sleepily rubbed her eyes.

She then grinned at her sisters, not even being repulsed by Violet's kelp mask on her face and her hair being in curlers, which was what she wore every morning and they looked at her curiously, wondering what was going through their little sister's mind.

'Lily, dear, it's time to get up,' Rose said gently, 'and don't forget to make your bed.'

Lily rose out of her bed, not really paying attention to her eldest sister as she forgot to make said bed, which Rose had to do and she wasn't at all pleased about it and swam past her sisters, stroking their cheeks as she swam to the washroom that they all shared.

'Good morning, Rosie, Mari, Daffy, Ferny, Bella and Vi,' Lily said to each of them, using the nicknames she had called them when she was little which made Fern scowl at her and she got some of Violet's mask on her fingers.

But she was too happy to notice the looks her sisters were giving her or hear their whispers and mutterings about her strange behaviour.

'What is with her lately?' Violet said, 'she hasn't called us those names in years and she was muttering in her sleep last night, which gave me the most terrible bags under my eyes, since I couldn't sleep myself!'

'And is that why the seaweed monster has emerged this morning?' Daffodil said, teasingly.

'We've been over this, Daffodil, it's a kelp mask and it's part of my morning beauty routine!' hissed Violet, 'speaking of which, I need to use the washroom so I can go and meet Michael later today.'

'Michael?' Marigold said, as she was well aware of Violet's many boyfriends and her habit of breaking up with them when she got bored of them or met someone better,

'I thought your merbeau was Carl. Did you just add him to the dumped boyfriend pile?'

'Yes, I broke up with him because he was a jerk,' Violet said, 'and I don't want to talk about him AGAIN! He was nothing more than a womaniser and played with my heart like a shark plays with a wounded guppy! Michael is much nicer than that jerk.'

'Violet, you break up with a boy every week,' said Marigold, 'to you, they're just accessories which you dump when you don't want them anymore. Love them and then leave them when they're not your type is your motto!'

Violet just huffed and swam towards the washroom where Lily still was, oblivious to her sisters' argument as she was messing with her hair, daydreaming about Ben for the umpteenth time and was humming the song again, which Violet heard and she was losing patience with her little sister.

'Lily!' Violet shouted to her, 'cut that stupid singing out and hurry up in there! You're not the only one who needs to use the washroom, you know! Six other mermaids are waiting for it, especially me since I'm going out and I need a shower!'

'And the seaweed monster bellows for its natural habitat!' Daffodil said, thinking that she had make a joke, 'come on, it's funny,' and laughed out loud only to realise that she was the only one and that the others were looking at her stonily, so she stopped.

Lily then swam out of the washroom as Violet quickly entered it, without so much as a thank you and she was still humming while she picked a sea flower from the curtains near her bed, just as Daisy was coming in the room to greet her daughters.

'Good morning girls,' she said, just as Lily bumped into her and place the flower into Daisy's hair, which made her chuckle and smile at her youngest daughter.

'Good morning, Mum,' Lily said and then swam down the corridor, humming and twirling gracefully as she went, while Daisy chuckled to herself, amused by Lily's antics while her other daughters raised their eyebrows and quickly joined their mother at the door.

'Well, looks like someone is in a very good mood today,' Daisy said, 'something must have tickled Lily's thoughts and made her happy and that truly warms my heart.'

'That's putting it mildly,' Fern muttered.

'Oooh, she's got it bad,' Marigold said.

'What do you mean by that?' Daisy said, confused.

'Isn't it obvious, Mother?' Bluebell asked, as she pulled out a book from the shelf near her bed and put on her reading glasses, flicking through until she found the right page,

'Lily is having expressive and pleasurable feelings from an emotional attraction towards another person,' she said, as she tended to give detailed answers to simple questions, since she was very intelligent and spent her free time reading.

'In English, Poindexter,' said Fern, while Bluebell frowned at her as she took off her glasses and putting them on her head and closed her book, putting it back on the shelf.

'Lily is in love,' Bluebell said.

'Then you should've said that instead of that smarty-pants mumbo-jumbo!' Fern said.

'Well, excuse me for being the smartest mermaid in all of Aquaria!' Bluebell said, sticking her tongue out at Fern in a childish manner, while Daisy pulled the flower out of her hair and said to herself,

'Lily is in love?'

Later that day, Senna was watching Lily as usual and she was trying to come up with ways to prevent the queen from finding out about her little secret, as she paced around in circles, talking to herself.

'Alright, so far, so good,' she said, calmly, 'the queen doesn't seem to know anything and I certainly haven't aroused any of her suspicions about Lily's love for the human boy and I won't as long as I keep quiet and Lily keeps behaving herself.

But I daresay it won't be easy keeping something as big as this a secret for long, since the queen has a knack for reading merpeople and sea creatures like a book and getting them to spill the pearls…'

Flower petals then fell onto her head, as Lily was picking them off in front of her while she was yet again daydreaming about the handsome human boy that had stolen her heart and saying, as she plucked each petal,

'He loves me…he loves me not… he loves me…he loves me not…he loves me..' she then gasped happily as she held the last petal to her heart, taking it as a very good sign that she and Ben were meant to be.

'I knew it! He does love me! This is definitely a sign that we are meant for each other! Oh, I have to see him again! I'll go up to the surface tonight and Sandy knows where he lives, so I'll swim up there…'

'Princess Lily Ariel Clamarius of Aquaria, will you PLEASE stop talking such silly bollocks!' Senna scolded, as she swam up in from of Lily, who scowled at hearing her full name, which was used very rarely, except at royal balls and formal events.

'Senna St. Clair, will you please stop using such disgraceful language that a crab of your status is not supposed to know!' Lily said, sounding like her mother and it made Senna blush embarrassingly and it was a welcome diversion for the mermaid as she started swimming up to the surface.

'I'll swim up to his house, then Aurora will splash around to get his attention, he'll come out and I'll tell him that I'm the one who rescued him and then we'll-'

'Go back home!' Senna said, swimming in front of Lily, one step ahead of her, 'Lily, would you please get your head out of the clouds and back into the water where it belongs?

Listen to me, child, DOWN HERE is your real home! You don't want to be part of the human world; it is a complete mess up there as they face many dangers and problems that they can't solve easily and are at constant odds with each other!

Whereas life under the sea is so much better than anything they have up there! Allow me to explain this to you through song,' Senna said, patting the rock that Lily had sat on, ushering her to sit next to her and the mermaid did so as the crab began to sing about their life under the sea.

'The seaweed is always greener, in somebody's lake,' Senna sang in a beautiful operatic voice, as Lily looked up at the surface longingly as Senna continued singing,

'You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake. Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor.

You're a princess of the kingdom, your mother's favourite daughter and the coral of her eye.'

'Unless she finds out about your love for a human boy,' Senna muttered discreetly but Lily didn't listen, as the crab kept singing,

'And you want to throw it all away for a dismal human world? Why would you do that?

There are such wonderful things around you!

What more do you want? What does the human world have that the sea doesn't?'

A school of yellow fish soon joined in, swimming around Lily as Senna continued singing, clearly enjoying every word of it,

'Under the sea, under the sea! Darling child, it's better down where it's wetter,

Take it from meee!

Up on the shore, they work all day, out in the sun, they slave away

They face many problems that they can't always solve every day

While we're free to float without a care under the seeeeaaaa!' as Senna stressed out the last syllables as Lily watched her swim up to a bright blue lobster playing a set of clams in time with the music and he said to Senna,

'Right on, SSC, keep that voice going, girl!' which made the crab blush and she continued singing, with many more sea creatures joining in, playing music and dancing around Lily.

'Down here, all the fish are happy, as of through the waves they roll,' Senna sang, as a cute baby dolphin swam past, chirping happily while a fish was floating by in a bubble with a miserable expression on his face which made Senna frown,

'The fish on the land aren't happy, no sireee! They're sad because they're in the bowl.

But the fish in the bowl is lucky, they're in for a worser fate!

One day when the boss gets hungry,' Senna then reached out and popped the bubble with her claw and then finished her line,

'Guess who's going to be on tonight's dinner plate? Oh, no!'

A small group of seahorses appeared and tickled Lily's face, which made her giggle and put a pink sea lily in her hair, her namesake flower as Senna kept pointing out all the wonderful things that made their life under the sea much better than the human world,

'Under the sea, under the sea! Nobody beats us, fries us and serves us up with tartar sauce or Thousand Island dressing! And that is truly a blessing!

We're what the land folks love to cook, but under the sea, we're off the hook!

And not in their tum!

We've got no troubles, life is the bubbles under the sea! Under the sea, since life is sweet here, we're in luck here and we've got the beat here naturally!'

By now, it was becoming quite a party and lots of sea creatures wanted a piece of the fun as they joined in and played various 'instruments', which made Senna smile, as she too was enjoying herself for the first time in days and she continued singing, pouring her heart and soul into it,

'Even the sturgeon and the ray, they get the urge to start to play. We've got the spirit; you got to hear it, under the sea.

The newt play the flute, the carp play the harp, the plaice play the bass and they sound sharp.

The bass play the bass, the chub play the tub, the fluke is the duke of soul. The ray, he can play, the ling's on the strings, the trout's rocking out, the blackfish, she sings,'

'Under the seeeeeaaaaaaaaa!' the blackfish sang out, which made the sea creatures screw up their faces, for while she had an operatic voice like Senna's, it possessed none of the beautiful and dramatic tones that the crab had.

'Ahem, as you were,' Senna said, noticing that the band had stopped and the blackfish grinned sheepishly, as the sea creatures resumed playing and Senna finished her line,

'The smelt and the sprat, they know where it's at. And oh, that blowfish, blow!'

While the band kept playing, Aurora made her way through the crowd, looking for her best friend, for she had a special surprise for her in her grotto. Swimming through the band, who took no notice of the little pink fish, Aurora smiled when she saw Lily sitting on the rock, swam over to her and whispered into her ear,

'Lily, come with me, I have something really special to show you that I know that you are going to like!'

Lily smiled and eager to get away from Senna for the rest of the day, swam off with Aurora which the band didn't notice, as they were too busy playing and having the time of their lives and Senna, who also wasn't aware that Lily had disappeared again, continued singing

'Yeah, under the sea, under the sea. Where the sardine begin to beguine, it's music to me!

And what does the human world have? A lot of sand, whereas here in the sea, we've got a charming crustacean band!

Each little clam here knows how to jam here, under the sea. Each little slug here is cutting a rug here, under the sea.

Each little snail here knows how to wail here. That's why it's hotter under the water. Yes, we're in luck here, down in the muck here!

Under the seeeeeaaaaaaaaa!'

The band stopped playing and Senna took a few minutes to catch her breath before turning to the rock that Lily had been sitting on and said,

'What do you think, Lily? Isn't life under the sea much better than the human world?' only for her and the sea creatures to realise that Lily wasn't there.

'Lily?' Senna said, as the sea creatures swam off and the crab put a claw to her head, as she groaned at being too caught up in the performance to not notice that Lily had snuck away from her again.

'Oh no, not again! Someone ought to nail that girl's fins to the floor. Honestly, she has the attention span of a shrimp!' she moaned.

But before she had time to go after the mermaid, Nadine was swimming towards her in an urgent matter and Senna gulped nervously as she knew that it wasn't going to be good.

'Senna!' Nadine said, panting heavily before composing herself, 'there you are, I've been looking everywhere for you! I have an urgent message from the sea queen!'

'The sea queen?' Senna said, trying her best not to show her nervousness but she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach, 'what does she want?'

Surely it can't be about Lily? She thought to herself, No, just keep calm and carry on, old girl, I'm sure it's nothing.

'She wants to see you at once. It's something to do with Lily, I believe.' Nadine said and then sped off towards the palace, leaving Senna shaking nervously in her shell as her worst fears were realised, far worse that the ruined concert.

Somehow, word had gotten to Queen Daisy in spite of her best efforts to not arouse suspicion and Senna was about to bear the brunt of Daisy's anger yet again and would pressure the poor crab to tell her everything.

'She knows!' Senna gasped, 'I'm crab cakes for sure now!' and cautiously swam towards the palace.

Uh oh, Senna, you're gonna get it for sure! And there's another little Easter egg from TLM, as Lily's middle name is that of her counterpart! (Thought that would a nice thing, as well as the Ariel and Eric statue) and Senna's version of 'Under the Sea'.

And Lily's sisters..oh, they're quite the loveable bunch, aren't they? Despite their arguments, they do care for each other!

Read and review, as things start to get serious! :)