The next morning brought another beautiful day to Mermaid Beach, as the sunlight peeked through the wooden blinds in Lily's room and a soft, steady knocking on her door woke the former mermaid from her slumber, which was the best she had for a while since she had none of the distractions of sharing a room with six older sisters.

'Lily, are you awake, love?' Melinda's voice called out softly, 'it's time to get up, today's your tour around town with Ben.'

Lily slowly raised her head up from the pillow, wiping sleep from her eyes and looked at the object which was called a 'clock' on her bedside table and the green digits told her that it was now nine o'clock.

She then smiled to herself as she stretched her arms out, making a big show of it and was eagerly anticipating the exciting and fun day that was ahead of her, exploring the Gold Coast with Ben, learning more about the human world beyond his experiences and hopefully finding the perfect moment to kiss him, which was most important now that she had only three days left.

Melinda knocked again and Lily, not wanting to be rude by keeping her waiting, quickly looked at Senna, who was still dozing on the pillow and muttering in her sleep, like she usually did,

'..dear Maximus, of course I can compose the symphony of the decade for you! I shall call it, 'Two Crustaceans, One Love!'

Lily had no idea what the crab was talking about and as much as she hated to wake her as she was usually grumpy in the mornings, especially after everything she had gone through to help her, it was probably best that she stayed hidden, so that she wouldn't be seen or suffer any more mishaps.

'Maximus, kiss me, my darling,' Senna muttered only to be gently shaken awake by Lily which made her stir and moan groggily as she was annoyed that her wonderful dream had to be rudely interrupted and the crab blinked twice as she remembered where and why they were here.

'What the.. what is it, Lily?' Senna said, groggily, 'what is so important that you had to wake me up from my dream, especially at the moment when Maximus and I were about to kiss..'

Lily then climbed out of bed, not bothering to make it, which would have irked Rose greatly if she had been here, and ran to the door, looked over her shoulder and mouthed 'hide' to the crab, which she ignored, as she kept talking,

'Now before you go on that tour with the boy, I hope that you had listened to what I told you last night before you went to sleep. You've only got three days left and we can't be beating around the bush.

If you are to win that boy, there is no time for any errors and distractions. Sharla's deal is a matter of life and death and you have chosen to play her game and you have to do everything in your power to win it, otherwise you'll end up in her garden as a miserable, ugly little polyp and you don't want that, don't you?'

Lily shook her head and drew a finger across her lips to get Senna to be quiet, already fed up with the crab's lecture but she was feeling confident about today and didn't see any problems she might have.

She knew that Ben liked her a lot and that she was going to spend precious time with him alone, so it was silly to be worried about nothing and she couldn't wait to see the wonderful world she had wanted to see for so long.

Lily mouthed 'hide' again to Senna, who finally took the hint and wiggled under the covers just as Lily opened the door and smiled warmly at Melinda, who was carrying a new change of clothes and the housekeeper smiled back to hide her slight annoyance at being kept waiting, but she really didn't mind at all.

'Good morning, love, did you have a good sleep?,' Melinda said, as she entered the room and Lily nodded to her as she placed the pile on the still unmade bed and walked over to the window and opened up the blinds to reveal another cloudless blue sky and a brilliantly shining sun and the waves lapping lazily on the beach.

'Looks like a beautiful day for your tour, where you will see and do so many things and if you're lucky, you might also get to go to Pacific Fair to get some lovely clothes of your own!'

Lily smiled and nodded as she picked up a camisole with pink and blue vintage roses on it and a pair of dark skinny jeans along with some simple black flats to wear, which would be good for walking around in.

From what Anna had said yesterday, Lily was very keen to do what human women and girls loved so much, having heard the girls talk about it yesterday and she could also get the charm bracelet that she had seen on Mia's wrist and had admired.

'Yes, you'll love Pacific Fair; it really is a beautiful mall and has many shops to browse. Ben will take you this morning after breakfast. He's taken Ruby for her walk on the beach and was hoping you would join him, but I told him that you were still sleeping and also see his dad off before he goes to the airport.

In the meantime, why don't you have a shower and get yourself dressed while I'll finish making your bed and get breakfast ready. But if you need any help, just, uh..' Melinda said, trying to find the right words, 'just signal to me, alright?'

Not wanting to wait any longer, Lily nodded and went into the bathroom where she faced her first hurdle of the day, the shower, which was vastly different to the bath she had yesterday and she had no idea what it was, let alone how to use it and just stood in it, not sure what to do or how it worked.

She considered signalling to Melinda for help but soon found a knob which turned it on but as she did so, she set the water pressure far too high and the water was freezing cold which made her shiver and she signalled frantically to Melinda to help her.

'Oh, dear,' Melinda said, when she saw the girl in distress, while she was making Lily's bed.

The housekeeper calmly went into the bathroom, thankfully not noticing Senna dart out from the sheets and scurrying to hide under the pile of clothes on the floor and Melinda then showed Lily how to use the shower properly, while calming the distressed girl, who was still shaken from her experience.

'Are you alright, now, love?' Melinda said, gently as Lily nodded at her.

'It is tricky, especially when you are used to the bath but once you get the hang of it, it is quite simple. Mind you, cold showers are good in a hot, muggy climate like this one but if you do want a hot one, do make sure you don't make it too hot, I don't want you to burn yourself.

Anyway, I'll leave you to it and breakfast will be ready in five minutes.' Melinda then said, as she finished making the bed and went downstairs while Lily finished her shower and got dressed, which was much more easier for her now that she had done it twice, placed Senna in the pocket of her jeans, put on the flats, brushed her hair with the fork and went downstairs to the kitchen.

In spite of her mishap with the shower, Lily was still in good spirits as she walked into the kitchen where she found Ben, who was wearing a navy blue Ralph Lauren polo shirt and light brown shorts and Phil, wearing his best suit, already sitting at the table.

Ben was eating a piece of French toast, using his hands instead of a knife and fork and Phil was gulping down a cup of coffee and reading the paper, while looking at his watch rather impatiently, waiting for his taxi to take him to the airport as his flight to Auckland was leaving in an hour.

'Where is that bloody cab?' Phil muttered to himself, checking his watch again, 'I called for it twenty minutes ago and if it's not here soon, I'll miss my flight and I won't be able to travel with Des and the team! Bloody cabs, always taking their sweet little time to get here when you need them the most!'

'That's typical of you, Dad, you can't even wait one measly minute for anything, can you?' Ben said, rolling his eyes at his father, since he had zero patience for waiting for cabs amongst other things. Phil just sighed heavily and kept reading the paper, but really glancing at his watch and clicking his tongue impatiently.

Melinda was in the kitchen, making pancakes and bringing bowls of fresh fruit and yoghurt over to the table while Ruby was lying on her bed in the sitting area, chewing on a pig's ear, when she saw Lily walk over to the table and ran eagerly towards her and nuzzled her legs.

'Good morning, Lily, how are you today?' Ben said, cheerily, while chuckling at Ruby, who was still nuzzling against Lily's legs, as she smiled at him and patted Ruby gently, which made the dog wag her tail and pant happily and Ben chuckled, as he knew that Ruby had wanted Lily to come with her on her walk.

'I know, girl, I know you wanted Lily to come with us on your walk, but she was still in bed! She's not an early riser like us..' Ben said, as Lily gave him a look, as she had been well known in Aquaria for not being a morning person.

'Not that's there's anything wrong with that, but I'm sure that she'll come with us next time, Ruby,' Ben said, leaning over and patting her head, 'maybe tomorrow morning, how does that sound? Does that sound good?'

Ruby barked happily and wagged her tail, while Ben pulled out a chair for Lily to sit on

'Ah, good morning, Lily, so glad you could join us for breakfast, although I'll soon be leaving for the airport, time and Gold Coast cabs permitting,' Phil said, which made both Ben and Lily snicker to each other, although hers was silent.

'Yes, very funny,' said Phil, bemused as he was already antsy about the cab running late and making it to the airport on time, as he looked at his watch for the umpteenth time this morning before he looked at Lily, who was staring at him.

'Anyway, do sit down and help yourself, there's plenty to eat,' he said to her, as Lily sat down next to Ben, who was wolfing down his third waffle and a pile of scrambled eggs which Lily smiled at , amazed by his apparent bottomless stomach.

'Manners, Benjamin, you are not an animal,' Phil said.

'Sorry, Dad,' said Ben, with his mouth full of food and his father rolled his eyes at his son's appalling table manners.

'Oh, Ben, you and your huge appetite!' Melinda sighed fondly.

Since Ben was thirteen, she had constantly needed to buy groceries all the time, as the boy was eating them out of house and home. Cody often bragged that he was the biggest eater out of their group but Ben outshone him by a long shot.

'What would you like to eat, love?' Melinda asked Lily, kindly and put her hand on her shoulder, which made her turn and face her, 'there's French toast, waffles, pancakes, fresh fruit, croissants, bacon, scrambled eggs..'

Lily found it hard to decide as she stared at the various foods on the table, unsure about what to have, as it all looked delicious and she gave the housekeeper a look that said 'I really can't decide, it all looks so good.'

'That's alright,' Melinda said, taking Lily's plate and filled it with food, 'eat as much as you want, like Ben does,' which Ben grinned sheepishly at.

Lily nodded gratefully and she started eating a waffle covered in a sticky gold liquid called 'syrup', which made it taste even better and she enjoyed it as she listened to Ben talking about their trip into town.

'I was thinking that we'll leave after breakfast since traffic will be atrocious if we go in the afternoon, especially at this time of year,' Ben explained, 'and we'll avoid the beach, as it will get really crowded and stick to the inland and walk around town, grab some lunch and go shopping at Pacific Fair.

I know there's lots to see and do but we don't have to do it all today, we've got plenty of time and I think that just driving and walking around town and doing some shopping sounds like a good plan, don't you?'

Lily nodded enthusiastically and since she had three days left, it would give her more time to see everything and to build up to the moment when she would kiss Ben, so that she could stay in his world forever.

She was eager to get going, as she finished the rest of her breakfast and a loud horn soon blared outside, which indicated that Phil's cab was finally here to his relief, as he still had time before to catch his flight.

'About bloody time!' he said, getting up from the table with Melinda following him so that she could help gather his bags that were still in the foyer, and put them in the cab.

'Have a good time in town, Ben and look after your little friend, as I would hate for her to get lost. I'll text you as soon as I land and I'll see you in a couple of days.' Phil said, giving Ben a hug and hurriedly walked to the foyer.

'See ya, Dad and have fun in Auckland,' Ben said, with a sense of casualness in his voice, as he was used to his father being away and travelling with the Broncos, 'wish the Broncos good luck for me!'

'Will do,' Phil called out, as the cab's horn was repeatedly being honked as the driver had the same amount of patience as Phil did and was getting fed up with his dithering.

'And Ben?' Phil then said.

'Yeah?' Ben replied.

'Behave yourself!' Phil said.

'Not if I can help it!' Ben said, rather cheekily as Phil rolled his eyes and hurriedly ran outside towards the waiting cab which quickly drove off and Melinda came back inside and started cleaning up the breakfast things.

'Are you ready?' Ben asked Lily, with an excited smile on his face as he grabbed his wallet and car keys. She nodded excitedly, not wanting to wait anymore and reached out and took his hand, dragging him towards the door.

Ben just chuckled and let her drag him along, with Ruby running after them, wanting to come along but Melinda quickly grabbed her by the collar.

'See you later, Melinda!' Ben called out, as the front door closed behind them and the sound of Ben's car could be heard reversing out of the garage and Ruby whined and whimpered as she struggled to break free from Melinda's grasp.

'Oh, no, Ruby, you have to stay home,' Melinda said, as the dog whimpered and she quickly threw her another pig's ear to chew on, while sighing happily to herself as she looked out of the kitchen window.

'Oh, just look at them,' she cooed in a motherly way, as she saw Lily enter the car, the Lexus convertible that Ben had gotten for his birthday, and struggling to get her seatbelt on before Ben helped her with it, 'they're so adorable. It's incredible to see that someone finds so much joy in the little things that we take for granted.'

Melinda hummed a happy tune as she busily put the dishes, drinks and condiments away as she heard the car wheels and Ben's blaring music from the stereo fade into the distance.

As Ben drove towards town in relatively light traffic for this time of day, Lily was leaning her head out of the window as best she could due to wearing the seatbelt she had struggled to put on, feeling the breeze through her hair and taking in every sight that passed her by, such as cars driving past and the tall buildings which dominated the Gold Coast's skyline.

It was like riding in her mother's shell chariot, which she often did back home, only the car had wheels to keep it off the ground, was self-powered instead of being pulled by dolphins and seahorses and had many controls that Ben was using with his hands and feet to drive instead of flicking reins like her mother did in the chariot.

It also had licence plates on the front and back, which were similar to the ones Lily used to have in the grotto, with jumbled letters and numbers and the slogan, Queensland- Sunshine State on them and were what humans had on their cars to identify them.

While Lily was still taking in the sights around her, the car passed by the canals and waterways that presumably led into the ocean and Senna wriggled her way out of Lily's pocket, peeked over and scanned the waters to look out for Aurora.

Sure enough, the little pink fish came out splashing alongside the car, eager to see if Ben had kissed Lily yet, as she was anxious to know since she hadn't seen her best friend since yesterday morning.

'Has he kissed her yet?' Aurora said, hopefully.

'Not yet, Aurora,' Senna responded, which made the little fish sigh disappointedly and fall back in the water with a sulky look on her face and her fins crossed in dismay.

'Did you hear something?' Ben asked Lily, as he had been confused about the strange voices he thought he had heard around them, in particular, one that spoke with an English accent and seemed to be in the car somewhere.

Lily turned towards Ben, shook her head no as Senna quickly hid under her seat and leaned out again, while he chuckled at seeing her look so eager to get out of the car and start exploring as they soon approached the centre of town.

After all, surely seeing a coastal city couldn't be that exciting, unless one was a first time visitor, right?

Ben soon found out that he was very wrong, for no sooner had he parked the car and gotten out, he was being dragged for the second time that day by Lily, who had the enthusiasm of the many tourists that visited the Gold Coast every year as she grabbed his hand and led him down the streets, which were already bustling with activity even though it was still mid-morning.

People were waiting for buses to take them to the theme parks and around the city, walking around in all directions, heading towards the beach, getting money out of ATM machines, eating and drinking in the cafes and restaurants, browsing shops selling many items such as souvenirs, clothes, food, jewellery, beauty products or just sitting on benches chatting and using their phones.

To anyone who saw them, they just assumed that Lily was a first-time tourist and was excited to be seeing all the sights and attractions of their beautiful city and they smiled at her, amused by her actions even if they thought it a little strange that she would find something like a bench exciting.

Everything that Lily had seen so far had been new and exciting for her and it was just as wonderful as she had dreamt it would be, having waited her whole life for it as she twirled happily, taking in the sights and sounds, while letting Ben catch his breath as he caught up with her as she had finally stopped tearing around town.

For Ben, it was amazing for him to see how someone could find so much joy in the average little things most people took for granted.

Like the ATM machine Lily soon saw and what Ben used to get what he called 'money' and explained to her that humans used 'cash' and 'bank and credit cards,' to pay for things like clothes, shoes and food.

Lily looked on in fascination as Ben put a rectangular-shaped piece of plastic which was his bank card in a narrow slot on the machine, punched in a few numbers on the key pad and strange-looking pieces of paper in different colours soon came out from the bottom which Ben collected and put in his wallet.

Ben then took Lily's hand and showed her more of the city while secretly enjoying the way her eyes sparkled as she gazed at each new thing she saw and people who recognised Ben because of his father and his near-drowning, smiling and waving at him.

Ben waved back and Lily copied him, which made Ben chuckle and the people didn't seem to mind as they smiled and waved back at Lily, thinking that she was his new girlfriend.

'Aw, they look so cute together,' a young girl said to her friend.

'They sure do,' her friend said back, 'looks like Ben has forgotten about that made-up girl he said saved his life and this girl he's with looks so beautiful and has such cool clothes. But where has she come from? I haven't seen her around town.'

'I don't know,' the girl said, 'but she sure looks happy to be in the Gold Coast and to be with Ben!'

Lily blushed slightly at hearing the girls' comments before smiling at them as they walked away.

Although she and Ben were now best friends and spending time alone together, it felt like they were actually boyfriend and girlfriend and it seemed that Ben was feeling the same way too, as she leaned against him and he smiled and squeezed her hand, which made her feel tingly inside.

Before she knew it, the morning had passed quickly and it was now lunchtime, as Ben said to her,

'How about we drive to Maccas for lunch and then go to Pacific Fair to do some shopping?'

Seeing her nod, Ben guided her back through town where his car was parked and drove down the highway past the canals again, where Sandy was flying nearby and Aurora was still swimming and poked her head out of the water when she saw the seagull hovering above her mid-air.

'Hey, Aurora, has there been any kissing yet?' Sandy said, oblivious to the scowl that Aurora had on her face as she knew very well what the answer would be.

'No, not yet,' Aurora said, disappointedly.

'Well, they better get a move on, they can't put it off any longer!' Sandy said, before flying away again and Aurora swam back to the ocean, both of them hopeful that Ben and Lily would soon kiss before the four days were up.

Cradling Senna on her lap, who had been sleeping in the car the entire time and not wanting to disturb her, Lily leaned back against her seat and reflected on what she had seen so far in the Gold Coast.

From the way she was going, nothing seemed impossible and there was still plenty to see and do in the beautiful city, as Lily smiled to herself and let the breeze brush against her face.

She knew that she could beat Sharla at her risky game. She was going to kiss Ben before the fourth day and she was going to do everything in her power to make it happen.