True Self Syndrome (TSS) By Teek © June 2023

Chapter 7: School

After Mom went in and woke Luke up in the morning, he lay in bed working on waking up. Once he started to process the world around him, he heard Toni talking with Mom. He couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. There was some discussion about animals that made no sense. Mom wanted to know if Toni . . . Mandy wanted a pony or piggies. Was Mom going to buy animals for . . . Mandy? Where would they keep them?

Curiosity eventually overtook Luke. He got up and headed out to see what they were talking about. Finding them in the bathroom, Mom was braiding . . . Mandy’s hair into pigtails.

“Oh, piggies,” Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head back and forth. “Now, I get it. What’s a pony?”

Mom chuckled, “A pony is a ponytail, and piggies are pigtails. It is standard girl language. You’ll get used to it. Why don’t you go get dressed before breakfast.”

“Great,” Luke grumbled as he turned to go back to his room. “First, I have to get used to a sister, and now, I have to learn a whole new language.”

Mom and Mandy giggled.

As Luke got dressed, he thought it strange that Mandy was already dressed. Mom usually told Luke to get up and then went in to get Toni . . . Mandy up and going. Toni . . . Mandy was hard to wake up in the morning.

Sitting down to eat breakfast, Luke found a bowl of cereal with the milk jug next to the bowl. Toni’s . . . Mandy’s spot had nothing. Luke was halfway through his cereal when Mom and Mandy entered the kitchen.

“James,” Emma said. “Mandy and I are going to head out. Can you make sure Luke gets out to the bus on time? I’m not sure how long it will take to get Mandy settled into her new school and classroom.”

Luke looked at the clock, “But the bus doesn’t come for an hour. Why are you leaving now?”

“Mandy’s new school starts in about fifteen minutes. It starts earlier than yours. It’s far away in a different time zone.”

James smiled at Luke, “I think us guys can handle things here.”

“Wait. How is Toni,” Luke looked at the girl standing next to Mom. “Mandy, getting to school?”

“Watch this, Luke,” Mandy said with glee. She went over to her picture on the wall and pressed it.

Luke’s eyes widened as the picture wall transformed into a spinning yellow disk with swirls of pink and blue.

“Can I go too?” Luke asked as he stared at the spinning disk. “I want to see . . . Mandy’s school. Please? I’ll be good, and there is plenty of time before I have to be at school. Please?”

Emma looked at Luke and then at James, “He’s going to be bugging us every day until we say yes.”

Luke quickly darted to his room and returned with his shoes on, “Do I need a coat?”

“No, we’re never going outside,” Mom said.

Luke gave Mom a strange look.

“Come on,” Mom held her hand for Luke before looking at Mandy. “Go ahead, open the portal again.”

Smiling, Mandy pressed her picture again and stepped through the portal. Then Mom started for the portal.

“We just step through?”

“Yeah, Sweetie,” Mom smiled down at Luke. “Ready?”

Luke nodded his head and tightened his grip on Mom. When they reached the other side, Luke’s eyes widened as he looked around the school entryway. Noticing several kids and parents passing them, Luke turned around and saw the portal they went through disappear. Several portals were opening and closing shortly after someone came through the portal. Turning back around, he tried to find Mandy. She was over towards an entrance to a hallway. She was using her hand to tell Mom and Luke to come over to her.

“Mandy, we need to check in at the office to learn where your classroom is,” Mom said when she finally reached Mandy, who was slightly bouncing up and down.

“Hootie can help,” Mandy responded before turning around and facing the owl statue. “Hootie, where’s my classroom?”

Luke’s eyes almost popped out of his head as the statue spread its wings and hooted.

“Mandy Gibson,” Hootie said. “Nice of you to join us today. You are in Teacher Susan’s room. Let’s see, following the rainbow worked for you, so a rainbow it is.”

Luke saw a cloud rise from the floor before the statue. It hovered about six inches off the ground. A rainbow came out of the cloud as it floated around the corner and down the hallway. The colorful rainbow fell to the floor, marking the path to follow.”

“Thank you, Hootie,” Mrs. Gibson said before taking Luke’s hand and walking away. She stopped, however, when she saw Mandy wasn’t moving.

“Hootie,” Mandy asked. “Make me little, pleeeeeeeeeease.”

“Sorry, Mandy,” Hootie replied. “Only teachers can do that. I help them, but they need to do the magic.”

Frowning, Mandy complained, “That’s not fair. They shouldn’t restrict your magic.”

Hootie flapped his wings and hooted, “Thank You, little one. Have a good day, Mandy.”

“Bye, Hootie. I like you even if you can’t turn me little.”

Hootie smiled and then went back into the original pose.

“Come on, Mandy,” Mom said. “Let’s see where Teacher Susan’s room is.”

The three of them followed the rainbow. A lot of kids were heading down the hallway, going into different rooms. The little ones all had a mom or dad with them, but many of the older kids did not.

They were interrupted on their walk by a little girl in a pink and purple wheelchair, “Beep, Beep.”

“Melissa, speed limit inside, and you passed your classroom,” a woman behind them called out.

The little girl slowed her wheelchair and spun around, “But Mommy, there’s a rainbow. I have ta find out where the rainbow goes. There might be a pot of gold at the end!”

Melissa spun around again and continued to follow the rainbow.

As Melissa’s Mom passed Mrs. Gibson, Luke, and Mandy, she turned to them and said, “There is never a pot of gold at the end. You would think after going here for two years, she would learn that these things are just to get a kid from one place to another.”

With that, the lady smiled at the three and walked quickly down the hall to catch up with her daughter.

“A pot of gold would be cool,” Mandy commented.

They watched the girl in the wheelchair turn into a room and then quickly come back out, “No pot of gold. Just a cloud.”

As Melissa rolled back up the hall towards the group, she slowed down, “This your rainbow? One of you new to the school?”

“Today’s my first day,” Mandy responded.

“You’ll love it here,” Melissa smiled. “I don’t need magical paths to get me from place to place anymore, but sometimes I ask for one because I like them so much. My paths are usually little kittens, but sometimes I ask for unicorns.”

Mandy’s smile grew, “I love unicorns.”

“Come on, Melissa,” her mom said. “Let’s get you to class so I can get to work.”

“Bye,” Melissa waved at Mandy before speeding down the hall.

“Speed Limit inside Melissa,” her mom commented. “Slow down.”

When Mandy entered her new classroom, she went up to the cloud on the ground and hopped onto it. Then she turned to look at Mom and Luke before looking around the room. The classroom appeared a lot like her previous Special Education classroom. There were a few desks and tables, a reading area, a play area, and a spot for coats and backpacks. Two other kids were already in the room, along with Teacher Susan and another lady.

“Mandy,” Teacher Susan said as she approached the group. “So nice to see you at school today. I was wondering whose rainbow that was.”

“Can I go little? Pleeeeeeeeeease,” Mandy pleaded.

Teacher Susan looked over at the clock and then back at Mandy, “For a little bit, but when school starts, you have to go back to being twelve.” Twirling her finger around and then pointing it at Mandy, “Go Little.”

Mandy instantly turned into a six-year-old little girl. She wore the same outfit and hairstyle, just shrunken for her new age.

Luke’s eyes widened as he watched this transformation and the shrinking of one of the desks in the room, “Magic. Real . . . magic.”

Mom squeezed Luke’s hand, “I told you. Luke, meet your little sister, Amanda Rose Gibson.”

Mandy looked at her hands and then around the room. She smiled at Teacher Susan, “Tank You.”

Mandy then turned and went over to the shelves with toys on them.

“Wow,” Luke commented as he watched Mandy. “Real magic. She’s so little.”

“Why don’t you go over and explore the room with your sister,” Teacher Susan smiled at Luke.

Luke slowly headed over to Mandy.

“Here is Mandy’s backpack. It doesn’t have many school supplies in it. I still have to get her supplies from her previous school. The original plan was to have her continue there until the end of the week, but . . . well, I didn’t want to send her to school there as Mandy. Since there was no way she was going to pretend to be Toni, I figured starting here today made more sense.”

Teacher Susan looked at Emma and then over to Mandy and Luke, “That’s all okay. She will be fine today. Magic can supply anything she needs that she doesn’t have.”

Emma looked at her kids exploring the shelf of toys, “She’s usually so shy. I’ve never seen her go off exploring an unknown setting so quickly without me right there with . . . her. Is that due to the magic?”

“Sort of,” Teacher Susan explained. “By letting her be her true self and developmental age, it is easier for her not to be scared of the unknown. The younger a kid is, the less they worry about others judging them negatively. Over the years, Mandy has learned to be extremely cautious around others, for a big boy playing with little kid things is usually judged negatively. There are often more severe responses when a big boy plays with little girl things. With her regressed to her developmental age and proper gender, many of those worries of judgment are lifted.”

Just then, Mandy approached the two adults, “Toy button? Toy button?”

“Slow down, Mandy,” Teacher Susan got down to Mandy’s height. “Use your words and tell me what you want.”

Bouncing up and down, with a little hand flapping, “Where’s the toy button? Ellie at lunch yesterday say toy button. Where toy button?”

“The toy button is on the table next to my desk. You can go press it and get one toy.”

Luke came up and grabbed Mom’s hand as Mandy went over to the table next to the teacher’s desk. On one side of the table was a big purple button. Mandy looked at the button before looking over at Teacher Susan.

“Just press it,” Teacher Susan said.

“What does the button do,” Luke asked?

“Watch,” responded Teacher Susan.

Mandy closed her eyes and pressed the button with both hands. On the table next to the button appeared a toy castle. Grabbing the castle, Mandy returned to the adults, “Look, Mommy! Hootie got me a Little People Castle to play with.”

“That’s a toy of Cauldron Academy,” Teacher Susan explained. “Why don’t you go play with it in the toy area and see if you can find our classroom? Hootie might have even put a Little People figure in there of you.”

Mandy’s eyes and smile widened as she headed for the toy area.

“Did the owl statue really make the toy magically appear,” Luke asked?

“That is what all the kids say,” Teacher Susan said to Luke as she smiled and winked at him. “School magic like the toy button is done by Hootie the Owl. He reaches deep inside the kids to pick just the right toy for them to play with. If a kid thinks of a particular toy as they press the button, sometimes Hootie even gives them that toy. I bet your sister will want the castle a lot over the next few days. Why don’t you go see some of the cool things inside the toy castle? There really should be a Little Person in there that looks like your sister.”

Luke looked at Mandy and then his Mom before heading to the toy area of the classroom.

“How much does Hootie actually do?” Emma asked.

“Not much,” Teacher Susan admitted. “He guards the student’s crystals and links the magical things in the school to the student that activated the magical item. Beyond that, he has very little magic. But don’t tell the kids that. Since the school's founding, the kids have always thought Hootie had more power than he actually does. Even the children of the teachers believe that. There was a push to break this belief about a hundred years ago, but the kids wouldn’t believe the teachers when the truth was revealed.”

Emma looked over at her two kids and chuckled.

“Teacha, Teacha, she went little. Can I go little too?” A boy asked, coming up to Teacher Susan.

“Mica,” Teacher Susan responded. “Our new student over there is Mandy. Yeah, you can go little and play with her. Remember to share, and Little Time is over when instruction starts.”

“Yeah, Yeah. Have to go back to big boy for lessons. It’s no fun that way, but I know,” Mica rolled his eyes.

Teacher Susan twirled her finger and said, “Go Little.”

A moment later, Mica was transformed from a twelve-year-old to a kid of maybe four or five. He was now smaller than six-year-old Mandy.

After Mica had hurried off to the play area, Teacher Susan turned back to Emma, “He is why we had to put in that policy this year for our classroom. One day, he decided that he should only be learning four-year-old stuff if he was the size of a four-year-old. He wouldn’t let me teach him anything beyond letters, numbers to 10, colors, and shapes. Yet, he can read chapter books.”

“I had considered the positives of the magic on the kids,” Emma voiced as she looked over at the play area. “I didn’t think about how it might have negatives beyond True Self Syndrome.”

“Every kid is different, but when regressed to their true social and emotional level, they can be just as stubborn as any other kid that age. Mica has the youngest regressed age of the eleven- and twelve-year-olds in this room, but he’s not the only one who tries to manipulate things more when regressed. The longer they are here, the less they will change between the two ages. But, as I am sure Dr. Parker explained, True Self Syndrome causes them to behave more like their younger self than the mask they had developed for their older self.”

“Is it worth letting them go little if it causes these problems and side effects?”

Teacher Susan looked around the room before turning back to Mrs. Gibson, “Have you ever had to take on the responsibilities of your supervisor at work for a short period and afterward been thankful you could just go back to doing your job? Or, had to be both the mom and the dad while your husband was on a business trip?”

“Yeah,” Emma replied with a questioning look.

Teacher Susan smiled, “It was stressful. Wasn’t it? You felt like you couldn’t keep it up for long without negative consequences.”

Emma nodded, “Especially when James is gone on a business trip for a week. I’m always so grateful when he’s back.”

“These kids must deal with that stress level every day when people force them to ‘act their age’ instead of their social/emotional level. The longer they are pushed to put on that mask, the more stress damages the body. We eliminate that stress by teaching the kids to be themselves, both little and big. This allows us to teach them more. Mandy’s Autistic, so the stress in her would lead to Autistic Burnout. With Autistic kids, that often causes regression of skills far younger than their emotional level and they will suffer from a variety of health problems during a burnout. If we can teach her to live so she never faces burnout, her life will be much better.”

Emma looked at Mandy, Luke, and Mica, playing somewhat together in the play area. Turning to Teacher Susan, “I know you’re right. It’s hard to readjust my perceptions and dreams for my baby.”

“Mandy can progress her skills more and have a future with a wider array of possibilities if we teach her how to avoid burnout. You have to see her for who she is instead of the mask she learned to display to fit in with other twelve-year-olds.”

“I know. I reread all the paperwork last night and did some internet searches on True Self Syndrome. It will be a great positive for her. It is just us adults that have the hardest time adjusting.”

“Yup, that about sums it up. True Self Syndrome isn’t a problem for the child. They walk away with better self-esteem and understanding of themselves. They learn the importance of being oneself instead of what some societal norm may want. For them, it is the best course. Adults are the ones that have a hard time adjusting to their reality.”

While the adults talked briefly, several more children entered the room. Mrs. Gibson eventually called Luke over, said goodbye to Mandy, and left the room. As Luke and his mom walked down the hall, Luke was excitedly chatting about the magic they had seen.

About halfway down the hallway, Luke suddenly stopped his non-stop verbal explosion, “Mom, is that really Toni?”

Mrs. Gibson knelt in front of Luke, “Yes. A birth defect caused your dad and me to believe we had a boy. We named our baby Toni and raised a boy. Cauldron Academy showed us the error in our ways. In reality, we have had a girl for twelve years, who we had been trying to convince they were really a boy.”

Luke gave his mom a weird look.

“Look at it this way Luke. You’re a boy, right?”

“Definitely!” Luke responded, adamantly nodding his head up and down.

“What if Dad and I always treated you like a girl? What if we always dressed you in dresses and girl clothes? Constantly had your hair in braids, pigtails, or other girl fashions. What if we wouldn’t let you play with toys designed for boys?”

“Yuck!” Luke cringed. “That would be terrible.”

“Well,” Mom squeezed Luke’s hands. “We have been doing that to Mandy for twelve years by dressing and treating her as a boy. It is time we stop torturing her and started treating her like a girl.”

“Okay,” Luke processed all of this. “But is she six or twelve?”

Mom smiled and stood back up, and the two of them continued down the hall, “On the inside, she is six, but on the outside, she is twelve. When I describe you Luke, am I describing who you are on the outside or the inside: athletic, creative, super math student, and a sweet loving brother.”

The two of them were silent as they reached the school's entryway.

“You are describing me on the inside,” Luke admitted.

“So, I guess that means we better pay close attention to who Mandy is on the inside. It is much more important than what we see on the outside. The inside is her true self,” Mom said as she approached the wall of green stones and portals of kids coming to school. “Press that green stone, Luke.”

Luke looked at Mom before going up and pressing the green stone they were standing in front of.

“Hoot, Hoot,” Hootie loudly announced. “An unknown child is trying to open a portal. Please come to me for identification.”

Mrs. Gibson and Luke went up to Hootie.

“Hootie,” Emma said. “This is my youngest son, Luke. He is brother to Mandy Gibson.”

“Hoot, Hoot,” Hootie said with a flap of his wings. “This information has been added to Mandy’s data crystal. Thank you. The portal will now work for you, Luke.”

“Thanks, Hootie,” Luke said with a big smile.

Emma and Luke returned to the wall of green stones. When Luke pressed one of the green stones, a portal appeared before him.

“So,” Luke commented as he took Mom’s hand. “Six-year-old Mandy is Toni’s true self. Okay, that makes sense.”

“You’ve got it, Luke,” Mom said as they approached the portal. “Cauldron Academy made us all face reality by giving Mandy True Self Syndrome.”