Lydia spent the next morning dreaming about the day before. Her boyfriend had gone home when the rain stopped. Her parents had come home and the evening passed as if nothing extraordinary had happened to her. She had taken off the suit and hung it up to dry in the bathroom for the night.
This morning she found herself staring at the slinky sport suit thinking. She had felt so sexy in it. Lydia felt a moment of sadness that she would never feel that again. Absentmindedly she stood with her legs pressed as close together as she could. She had a tail and she could swim so fast. But how would she have lived? She would not have been able to go to the prom next week. She would not have been able to swim any more. There would have been doctors and scientists and maybe priests all trying to fix her. Her mother would have cried and her father would probably kill her boyfriend. But she might be willing to deal with all of this if only to be a mermaid once more.
Lydia stepped into the shower. She was afraid to get wet. As much as she wanted to be a fish she did not want it right now. She had a competition later. What would the other girls say if she came to the pool in a wheelchair? There was only one way to get over this fear of the water. Better to know now in private than later in public. It was only temporary, she repeated to herself.
The water fell over her body and quickly warmed. Lydia waited. Her whole body was soaked and nothing happened. There was no swelling in her boobs. There was not tightening in her leg muscles. Her legs did not change. There was not feeling of magic about her entire body. There was nothing but a wet teen-aged girl wasting water. Calmly Lydia started washing.
Dry and changed Lydia ran to her room to get her phone which was ringing. It was her boyfriend.
"Lydia? How are you this morning? Is everything normal?"
"Yeah," Lydia said. "Everything is back to normal. I just took a shower and nothing happened. How about you?"
"I haven't noticed anything weird. And I have not found any mention of the genie anywhere. I spent almost the entire night looking up crap on Google. There was nothing."
"I guess that was all there was. It's over," Lydia was almost shocked to find that tears were welling up.
"I guess. I didn't even take pictures of you before you changed back." He laughed to let her know he was kidding but they both knew there was a little truth in the jibe. It was short and gone now.
"Will I see you at the competition today?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll be there."
"See you there," she said and hung up.
Lydia made to get ready for the meet later. The last thing she did before leaving for the pool was pack her team-suit. The tight spandex of the red and white striped suit folded and slid about in her hands. She was shocked to feel her heart beating faster as she remembered the night before. She could not help but wonder what her body would look like if she were striped. Her curves would be amazing.
As the feeling passed she put the suit in her bag and made her way to the car. That was in the past. It was only temporary.