Short Story: Neglected at Sea

This was written by my friend. Jadefireeyes

One day, a girl was desperate to swim in the ocean. She hadn't been there for weeks, and she felt she couldn't go another day without feeling the slap of the water on her skin. So she asked all her friends who lived nearby if they wanted to accompany her. To her great disappointment, they all said no. 

So that evening, close to the time when the lifeguards went home, she went with her father. They planned to go only for a short time; an hour or two at most. 

Her father brought along a chair, and she brought nothing but her flip-flops and towel. She went immediately to the waterline, relishing how the cold water tickled her toes. The sun cast a dim light and the waves were foamy and rough; just the way she liked it.

After tiptoeing further in, she plunged right into a large wave, not much bigger than herself. Her loose hair became instantly straight as she came up for air. For the next half hour or so, everything was peaceful: the daughter swam in and out of the waves, always making sure the strong current never pulled her far from her father's chair, and the father himself paced slowly along the shore or sat in the chair, daydreaming.
Suddenly, the girl felt a small pain in her left ear. However, her ear reached up to feel her earring hole, which had been occupied not a second earlier with a small silver loop. She checked her other one, but it was fine. 
She frantically swashed her hands back and forth through the water, hoping against all odds that she could find it. As suspected, the swift current drew it away quickly and quietly, and the girl was forced to go to land. She fondled her other earring, as she walked up carefully to her father. "Can you hold this for me?"
"Where is the other one?" the father was quick to reply as soon as he saw the item in question. 
"I lost it, in the water," she answered truthfully. She knew she could've hidden it, but she felt telling him was the better option.
"YOU WHAT?" he demanded loudly. He was clearly furious, and instantly started ranting to her about how she could just lose earrings again and again at the beach. Also how she didn't strip herself of all valuables before heading into the water. 
She departed to the sea as soon as he was done, but fluent to her father's nature she knew there would be a very stern lecture afterwards about this. In the meantime, she tried not to cry and dove in, expecting to be welcomed and comforted by her beloved ocean. Instead, she felt like lead, drifting to the bottom every time, her legs wiggling in protest as she pushed upwards. the seaweed that was so rare that lightly scratched her legs earlier now seemed to wrap around her in lengthening tendrils. 
Without even realizing it, the bound strips of seaweed were causing her to drift farther away from the shore. When she did realize it, it was when her feet could no longer touch the bottom. Instead of hiding her face from the shore so her father couldn't see her tears, she anxiuosly scanned the horizon 360` clockwise until she did see it. 
Her father was too obsessed about the accident that he didn't even notice until the lifeguards left the beach. He examined the water, but couldn't see any signs of his daughter. A panic seized his chest and he jogged along the shoreline.
The girl however, had grown tired and fell unconscious beneath the waves. She was swiftly brought back to reality with a sharp pat on the back and found that she had grown a tail and surrounded by a coven of other mermaids.