Synopsis:When Robert's lying, habitual stealing, and attitude about women gets to be too much for his mother, she comes up with a Plan to help her delinquent son turn around. .

I was hoping to sneak into the house and gather my thoughts, but of course, no such luck. Mom cornered me the second I walked in the door.
“Becky! You look gorgeous! I take it your mall trip went well?”

“Yeah, fine Mom.” I wasn’t really in the mood to talk about what I was feeling. I started to head up to my room, and then stopped.

“Mom?”

“Yes, Sweetheart?”

“I need your…advice on something.”

“Alright, let me make us some tea and we can talk.”

Mom made some tea and I told her about my day at the mall. When I finished, Mom smiled. “Becky, are you sure you want to go on this date?”

“Well yeah! I mean no. I mean…I don’t know Mom. I mean Luke seemed fine and I don’t want him to be mad at both of my identities.”

“But is that worth putting yourself in danger?”

“Danger?”

“Sweetie, you couldn’t even say no to him when he asked for a date, what happens when he asks to get into your panties?”

“Who’s getting into her panties? Wow sis, not even one week as a girl and you’re already anxious to prove yourself a woman.” Josh walked into the room with his typical timing.

“Buzz off Josh! It’s none of your business, you stupid idiot!”

“Rebecca, that’s no way to talk to your brother. Josh, we’re still a family and that means you need to support your sister’s problems. Luke Organa asked her out and she isn’t sure what she wants to do.”

“Luke Organa! Bro-I mean sis! You hate his guts! Why would you even think about this? You remember that Call of Duty incident last summer! There’s no way you should go on a date with this guy! Even if he doesn’t beat the crap out of you it’s a bad idea!”

I was touched. Even if he wouldn’t stop tormenting and teasing me, underneath Josh still cared about my safety.

Mom interrupted, “What Call of Duty incident? I don’t remember hearing about this?”

“That’s cause I never told you.”

Knowing that Mom wanted to hear this story, I sighed, settled on the couch, and told the tale: Last summer I was invited over to my friend Alex’s house. I got there and found Luke, Alex, and another friend named Chris already there. We were going to play with Airsoft guns in Alex’s neighborhood, so we split up the guns and split up into teams. We were having fun, ducking for cover, surprise attacks and the rest.
We had decided that the winning team was the team that could capture the other and bring them to Alex’s house. I was charging around a house when I was surprised from the behind by Luke and Alex. I put up a fight, but it was my first Airsoft game and those things sting! So I put my hands in the air and dropped the gun. Alex collected the gun and he and Luke started to move me towards the house. I was walking along dutifully when Luke all of a sudden started shooting at me! He was about five feet away and it hurt! I dropped to the ground and started rolling in pain, all while he continued to shoot me.

“Luke! I surrendered, quit it!”

“Luke I surrendered quit it!” Luke mocked me, raising his voice a few octaves. “Luke, I’m whining like a little girl, show me pity. Luke I’m just a little girl, protect me.”

I was on the verge of tears when Chris came bursting in, forcing Luke to cease his torment of me and defend himself. While that battle was raging, I snuck back to the house to try to regain my composure. The rest of the guys soon joined me at the house.

Luke seemed to of forgotten all about his little torture of me. Settling down we decided to play a little Call of Duty on Alex’s Xbox. We were playing again, when Luke achieved a 5 kill streak, all 5 on me.

“Gosh, Robert. You play Call of Duty like a girl!”

OK, I admit it: I was mad, really mad. Letting out a roar I jumped at him! I grabbed him a headlock and proceeded to choke him. Most people back off, but not Luke. He managed to cough out, “Gosh Robert, what would your boyfriend think about you giving me a hug like this?”

With that, he managed to wrap both his hands around me and pulled me off his back. I wasn’t going to let it go and threw myself at him again. Luke grabbed me and pinned me on my stomach. “Don’t worry boys, we’re just enjoying a non-gay encounter with each other. Even if Robert would love it the other way.”

The other boys nervously laughed. Luke, egged on by their laughter, twisted one of my arms behind my back and started to apply pressure. I tried to struggle but he was a football player and he wrestled in middle school so I had no chance. He whispered in my ear, “Are you enjoying being dominated by a real man Robert? This hold I have you in will break your arm. If you want it to stop just yell that you’re my little sissy bitch.”

I was horrified, he wanted me to do what? Still my arm felt like it was about to snap in half so I mumbled the words he wanted to hear.

“What was that Robbie?”

I yelled, “I’M YOUR SISSY BITCH!”

“Wow Robbie! I never knew you felt that way. We better satisfy your sissy urges.” He pulled my pants down and started to stick his fingers into my butt. “Does this feel good?” He leaned forward and whispered, “If you know what’s good for you you’ll go along with this.”

He continued to force his fingers in so I yelled out, “YES IT FEELS SO GOOD!”

He was laughing but the other two boys came to their senses, “Luke that’s enough, let him go.”

Laughing, Luke let me go. Just then Alex’s mom yelled up that my mom was there to pick me up. I ran to the car in relief and went home. That night I cried in the shower as I tried to wash away all thoughts of that night.

“The only person I told about that night was Josh.” I said to Mom finishing my story.

Mom and Josh both wrapped my in a hug. Telling that story was so draining and I was crying.
“Sweetheart, knowing that, why on earth would you even spend anytime with Luke today?”

“He seemed so nice, I thought maybe he’d matured. I thought maybe Rebecca could be the popular kid that Robert never was and dating Luke would have cemented that.”

“Rebecca, you leave it to me. I’ll call Luke and tell him that I’m not sure that I want you dating anyone yet.”

I sniffed. “Thanks, Mom.”

I was grateful that for once Josh didn’t say anything as I went upstairs to try to calm down.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early. Robert may have slept in, but Rebecca sure as hell didn’t. First up was to check my body for hair. It was a tedious process and really annoying, but no girl wants to go around with body hair. Next up, I decided to repaint my nails. I chose a bright pink color and went to work. I hate to admit it, but I kind of like the fact that there was color on my nails. It gave them a pop and flair.
Honestly, that was something I wouldn’t mind adopting once I went back to guy mode. Not only that, but painting my nails was a quiet and relaxing job. Next up was makeup, then picking out clothes for the day. I figured I’d stay at home all day, so I just threw on a bright yellow sundress with a blue flower pattern along the bottom. I like it because it was very comfortable and free. I tied my hair up in a ponytail, then glanced at the mirror. I had to admit that I liked what I saw, the dress came down to just above my knee and revealed a little bit of my boob, but not too much. Happy with my appearance I bounced downstairs.

“Hey sexy, I thought you weren’t going on that date. Changed your mind or did you just pick up another guy?”

Realizing that Josh wasn’t trying to be mean, I just stuck my tongue out at him and proceeded to grab breakfast. I spent most of Saturday just doing chores. Mopping the kitchen, vacuuming the house, cleaning my room, you know simple stuff like that. My old chores used to be work like mowing the lawn, trimming, weeding, and other outdoor work. I even used to get paid to do it, but Mom says that those jobs are now Josh’s and that I need to start training to be more of a lady. Anyway, it was a pretty relaxing day, the only high point came about when I got a phone call from Dad.

“Hey Dad.”

“Hey Bob. Are you OK? You’re sounding different.”

Shoot. I’d been subtly raising my voice and it sounded feminine even on the phone. “No I’m OK, Dad. When are you coming back?”

“I’ll be back soon. This implementation is taking longer than I thought, but I’ll be back in a month, at the most.”

“That’s great Dad.” Yeah, I have a month to figure out how to tell my Dad about the new me.

“So how’s the new school year going? Did you join any teams or clubs yet?”

“Um…kind of.”

“That’s good son. Anyway I gotta go. Talk to you later.”

“Bye Dad.”

“Love you son. Bye.”

I hung up the phone and let out a sigh. I was not looking forward to that talk with Dad.
Sunday morning, I woke up at 8 o’clock and headed downstairs.

“Morning Mom! Mmmm! Is that waffles I smell?”

“Good morning Rebecca! Good grief girl! Go put some clothes on!”

I giggled, which to be honest came out much more girly than I intended. “Why mother, I’m embracing my feminine charms.” I had gone to bed last night wearing nothing but a bra and panties and the look on my mom’s face when I walked down with those on was priceless. Hey, they were actually quite comfortable! Ignoring my mom’s protests, I grabbed a waffle and started eating.

“Eat up Becky, we do have church today. And I’d sooner bury your dead body in the backyard then let you go to church in your underwear!”

“Church! Mom why?” I hadn’t gone to church since the punishment started. Mom and Josh went and I had stayed home.

“Sweetie your walk with God is still important and now that your so adjusted it’s time for you to come back to church. Don’t worry about it, I’ve been telling people about my niece from Kansas so they all know about you.”

I sighed, typical of Mom to spring something like this on me at the last minute. I wolfed down my waffle then ran upstairs to get changed. Yes, Mom and I had that talk about ladylike eating every morning. I don’t care if it’s not unladylike, that’s one habit that I’ll never change!
I looked at my closet, trying to decide what would be appropriate for church. As Robert I would have gone to church in jeans and a polo shirt. I was tempted to go with jeans again, but there’s one thing I’ve learned from playing other characters, don’t use behaviors that are can be easily brought back to your real identity.

I learned that the hard way when I was playing as a Goth kid. There was this rich girl at another school that was into Goths and she was pretty careless with her stuff. I was lucky to get out of that mess without getting arrested.

Anyway, I picked out a long denim skirt and paired it with loose fitting white blouse. It had a crotchet trim around the neckline, was tight in the top, with a loose bottom and sleeves. It was comfortable and stylish. Grabbing a pair of black flats, I got into the car and we headed for church.

Our church is not that big, there are only about 400 people total. Bigger than some churches, but small enough so that everyone pretty much knew everybody else. As I walked into the building I could hear people hush and then start whispering about me. Ignoring most of the talk, I headed for our usual row then stopped. If I thought school was tough, this was worse. Everyone was busy talking and while I knew people, I had to pretend like I didn’t. Mom saw my dilemma and called me over.
“Rebecca, there’s someone I want you to meet. This is Kaleb Lane. He was one of Robert’s friends. He’s about your age, and I’m sure he’d be more than happy to show you around.”

I smiled. Kaleb and I had been friends since kindergarten. We’d grown apart over the years, but he was still a good guy. “It’s nice to meet you Kaleb.”

He shook my hand but it was kind of limp, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

Kaleb was always a little scared of girls, he has six sisters, but a pretty girl has always rattled him. He’s never sure what to say and he was always afraid that too much body contact would send the wrong idea.

“So, what do you do? Do you have a job?” It felt weird asking questions I already knew the answer to, but I wanted to establish a connection. Out of all the kids at church, Kaleb was one of the few I got along with. The others were either snobs or just too much like Luke.

“Um…yeah. I work at the library.”

“A library, that’s cool! I’ll have to stop by sometime! So who are your favorite authors?”

He warmed up at this. Once Kaleb got going he became hard to stop and I figured if I kept the conversation in his comfort zone it would help eliminate the awkwardness of the situation. He started with C.S Lewis, moved to Douglas Adams, then started talking about Neil Gaiman.

“Neil Gaiman?” I interrupted him, “I haven’t read much of his work, but I liked his story ‘Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?’”

He smiled big. “You read comics?”

“Yeah, whatever I can get my hands on.”

“Have you been to the comic shop here yet?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Robert and I used to go all the time.”

He sounded sad, so I tried to cheer him up. “Have you seen the Thor movie yet?”

He shook his head, “Not yet. It’s at the dollar theatre, but I like to go with someone when I see a movie.”

I grinned, “Perfect! I haven’t seen it yet either! Why don’t we go see it together? Give me a call and we can decide on a day.”

He stammered a bit, but then just mumbled out, “Sure, that sounds good.”

“Great! It’s a date then.” Damn, damn, damn! Stupid Rebecca, why’d I say that? Hopefully he doesn’t read to much into it or he might call the whole thing off.

“OK, I’ll see you later Rebecca!”

“See you Kaleb.”

Josh walked up behind me as I headed into church. “It’s a date? God you really are a flirt aren’t you Rebecca?”

I smacked him but inside I knew he was right. The last thing I wanted was to date a guy and now I’d accidentally said yes to two of them. Oh well, what’s the worst that could happen?

Thank you all for reading! This chapter was very hard to write for two reasons. It's much darker than what I usually write and it's not an area of story that I like venturing into often. It was also hard to write because the flashback scene was autobiographical. Obviously the names of been changed to fit the story but attempting to chronicle that account was a very draining emotional experience. Still I knew from the beginning of this story that this was the direction the story would go. Thanks again for putting up with all of this! As always comments, criticism, and kudos are appreciated!
Bethany