Silver River by Purple Dragon Jensen is a 12 y.o. kid that goes on a trip with the school. During this trip, and with the support of his friends and family, he'll discover things about himself that he didn't know, and grow up to become a more complete person. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged.

Chapter 10

I woke up early again, and got ready to join our school group. I hadn't been able to get to my cabin to get a change of clothes, so I was afraid I would have to dress with the same shorts and T-shirt.

"You can borrow some of mine if you want", offered Emily. "You already know that, don't you?"

As I agreed, she showed me some of her clothes that might be suitable for the excursion. I finally chose a cute coral pink T-shirt with a lovely big red heart printed on the front that I liked, and some denim shorts with pretty flowers embroidered over the pockets. Emily's mother helped me with my hair, combing it until she was satisfied. Lisa and Emily loved it, and so did I.

The faces of some of my schoolmates when they saw me were priceless. Erika, Ash and Sarah hugged me cheerfully and told me that I was lovely, and Kevin told me I was cute. Joey's face was inscrutable, but I had the feeling that he liked it too.

For some reason Erika told me to stand by her side or one of their friends at any time, and to avoid being alone. All of them seemed especially overprotective. Miss Cooper smiled at me and nodded slightly. Surpringly I also got a smile and a wink from Mr. Scott. On the other side, all I got from Mr. Murdock was a grimace with some akward scorn and disdain in his eyes.

Mr. Murdock was our science teacher. A very intelligent person but with some weird misogynistic attitude sometimes. It probably had to do with the fact that he was divorced and he didn't have very good luck with women. That wasn't very surprising, though, having that nasty attitude towards them.

The excursion went OK, I didn't really found anything extremelly interesting, but it was nice. The girls never left me alone, not a single minute, and I found Erika and Joey whispering mysteriously at each other quite often. Miss Cooper also seemed to keep an eye on me all the time. I got some wierd looks from some of my schoolmates constantly, but most of them just behaved as usual. It was not that I was really too close to any of them, anyway.

Before lunch, Joey told me that he wanted to meet me in the afternoon. He seemed concerned about something, so I just nodded in agreement. We would probably be back to Crystal Lake by middle afternoon, so we would have some spare time.

Just after lunch, I saw Ash and Sarah discussing fiercely with some of the other girls. That was quite unusual for them, in fact. Everything seemed very wierd that day, and I didn't know exactly why. Of course it could be because of the fact that I was wearing female clothes, but it was not the first time that my sister had let me borrow some of her clothes, or that I'd had some hand-me-downs from her. Probably not so obviously feminine, that's true. But feminine nevertheless.

I met Joey shortly after our arrival. Emily and Lisa came along with me, and Joey was already there with Raoul. Erika, Ashley and Sarah joined us slightly afterwards. They started to explain some things about bullying and how we had to learn to defend us, but they were having it difficult to keep a coherent storyline.

"Wait, wait!", finally interrupted Emily. "We're not understanding anything!"
"OK, lets go back to the beginning", restarted Joey, going more slowly. "You know what bullying is, right?"
"Yeah, of course", answered Lisa. "It's when your mates keep insulting you all the time. Or hitting you, too"
"Right", continued Joey. "Well, do any of you know what to do in that case?"
"Hmmm... not really", went on Lisa, Joey's eyes fixed on her. "I suppose to ignore them until they get bored?"
"Wrong!", corrected Joey. "That does never work. You have to face them, and make them know that you're not an easy target"
"What if they don't like it and it gets worse?", inquired Emily. "You could even get hurt!"
"Yeah, you can get hurt. And there might even be a fight, and you might lose it, but you have to keep facing up to them, until they know that they shall not mess with you", continued Joey. "They might hurt you a bit in the moment, but it will spare you a lot of hurt in the future. If the bullying sets in, then it would be very hard to remove. Just don't let it ever set in on the first time. Not even allow bullying through insults, they are as much an attack as physical ones"
"That's too easy to say, but what if they want to hit us or something?", whined Lisa
"That's exactly why we're here. We're gonna teach you how to defend yourself just in case", finally said Joey.
"Try not to get alone with someone if you think you're gonna be bullied, though", added Sarah. "There is always strength in numbers. And don't hesitate if you have to ask someone for help, a teacher or a grownup"
"Just try not to rely on Mr. Scott or Mr. Murdock for help. Mr. Scott does not respect anyone that can't defend themselves, but he won't punish you if you defend yourself. Mr. Murdock is quite likely to support the bullies, so try to avoid him. I'm not sure what Mrs. Morgan might do, just try to go to Miss Cooper if you need help at any time", continued Sarah, staring at me. "Understand?"

I just nodded, a bit overwhelmed. I wasn't exactly sure whether I needed all this.
"You're scaring her", interrupted Ash. "Don't worry honey, we won't leave you alone. We want you to learn it, just in case"

I looked at Erika, my sister.

"Sis... am I a girl now?", I finally asked.
"You're whatever you want to be, Jen. You can be a girl if you want. Or a boy. Or just be yourself. Whatever you choose to be is going to be OK"

I just hugged her.

Raoul and Joey explained to us lots of easy tricks about how to defend ourselves in case of a fight, how to foresee a punch, where to target and how to hit, how to escape, and so on. Too much to remember, to be honest. But as but as he explained it in a practical way, at least it was enjoyable. He told me not to worry, as he would keep explaining me things at other times. I must confess that I was getting a bit scared about all this, and it took my sister a bit of hugging and cuddling to calm me.

What an afternoon. Emily, Lisa and I kept commenting it later, and how I should try to learn about it just in case. I think that, most than anything, those lessons just served to scare me a bit.

We spent the night together again at Emily's cabin, Emily, Lisa and I. It was going to be our last night in Cristal Lake together, because we had to continue our trip up the river the next day, right after lunch. Thus, we had to to make the most of this, our last sleepover. In the last week of our trip we were going to be some days at Castle Rock, where Emily and Keith lived, though, and they would be back there by then. I was definitely going to miss them a lot, even if it was for just a few days.