Mermaid tail

"Well I am here to get away from diving for a while, and the tail should just **** me to do laps," Alyssa announced.

"Perfect. Enjoy!" The guy passed Alyssa the mermaid tail, which she took with her over to the deck chair. She then realized that in order to put on the tail, she needed to remove the ankle cuffs, something she couldn't do without putting something else on in their place.

Alyssa was a bit stumped, and pondered how to solve her slight predicament.

"Need some help?"

Alyssa looked to her left, where a redheaded woman already wearing a red mermaid tail and black bikini top was sat.

"You need something else on in order to remove the ankle cuffs, yeah?"

Alyssa nodded. "Yeah, but I don't really want to have to go back to the service desk.

"No problem. I got you." The woman reached underneath her chair and produced what appeared to be swim paddles. Alyssa knew their purpose. They attached to a swimmer's hands and gave them extra traction in the water. Although these ones seemed to be entire gloves.

"These should sort you out." The woman passed Alyssa the gloves, which she took tentatively. "I'm Vanessa by the way."

"Alyssa."

"Nice. How long you been here?"

"Oh I just arrived."

"That explains it," Vanessa replied. "You do look a bit overwhelmed."

"Well this place is fantastic. It's a lot to take in, but fantastic nonetheless."

"I've been here a week myself," Vanessa explained. "And I've only barely scratched the surface of what I can do here."

Alyssa had been putting the first paddle-glove on while they talked. Her hand slotted into a rigid plastic mitt at the end, that kept her fingers apart and her palm flat. It was impossible to move them in any way. She then buckled the glove on and applied the padlock.

"Do I have to apply both?" Alyssa asked, indicating the other mitt.

"Well yeah, I think so. One mitt on its own isn't much of a restriction. I'm pretty sure that they only count as one item when they are together. Here, let me help you."

Vanessa slid off her chair and crawled over to Alyssa. She clearly couldn't move her legs while they were in the tail.

"Don't worry, we can always remove them before you get in the water."

Vanessa looked down at her left hand, which was now being fitted into the glove by Vanessa. "I actually think that I could leave them on until after I've swum. I mean, they are swim paddles, after all."

"You must be a skilled swimmer, if you think you can swim with arm and leg restraints."

"Well I am a professional diver."

Vanessa looked at Alyssa's face, and the a flash of recognition lit up her own. "Oh! You're that Olympic athlete! The diver!"

Alyssa waved off Vanessa infatuation with her gloved hand. "Yeah. That's me. But you can just treat me like any other random person."

Vanesssa finished up applying the mitts, and then tapped her legs. "You'll now need to get those cuffs removed at the keyholder. I'll help you get the tail on when you get back."

Alyssa tried to grip the arms of the chair to pull herself up, but realised that was futile with the paddles. Instead she slid down to the bottom half of the lounger and stood up there.

"Be right back," Alyssa smiled.