Nathan Poole is ready to become Sarah's Warden, but a long lost family heirloom changes his life and future.     Trial and Heiress Chapter 2 By Amethyst

Thanks as usual to Eof for a great universe to play in and to Eof, Maggie F and Donjo for their input.

“Mom. Wake up Mom.” I shook her lightly as I tried to wake her thinking that perhaps I should have thought of an easier way to break the news to her. Is there an easy way to reveal to your mother that her son is now her daughter and wearing a trinket she’s likely wanted to get her hands on her whole life? Well I guess in this case the trinket got itself on my hand. She had passed out with her body half in and half out of the garden. “C’mon Mom,” I said as I tried again to wake her. Her eyes started to flutter as she began to regain consciousness.

“Nathan is that you?” she murmured. “I had the strangest dream. There was a Pixie and you had Titania’s Glove, only you were a girl…” She trailed off as her eyes shot open and she stared at me. “I hope I’m still dreaming.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, and gave her a weak smile. “Hypothetically, if you weren’t dreaming, how much trouble would I be in?”

She sat up and looked at me intently, taking in the Glove on my right hand, “Well Nathan, hypothetically speaking, if I weren’t dreaming I’d think you were in enough trouble already.”

“I would have to agree with you, hypothetically of course. So if this weren’t a dream, and I’m not saying it isn’t, what would we be doing right now?”

She frowned at me, “We would be dropping the hypothetical nonsense because we both know its bullshit. Then I would be marching all three of you into the kitchen to find out what exactly happened and what can be done about it.” She subjected Jason and I to a withering glare as she got to her feet. “Now move it.” Her eyes darted to Dandelion, who was trying to slip away, and she broke out the dreaded ‘disappointed mother’ tone. “All three of you,” she added icily. That tone could freeze molten lead.

We all sat at the kitchen table and I related how we had run into Dandelion and found the Glove. At the point where the Glove literally oozed onto my hand Jason took over, since I was unconscious for most of the story after that. She didn’t interrupt, though at a few points I think she wanted to, but let us tell the whole story before she said anything. Finally once we were finished she took a slow sip of her tea, the calming stuff of course, and asked me the big question. “How complete is the transformation Nathan?”

“Pretty complete?” I answered sheepishly and took a swallow of my own tea, did I ever need it right now. “I haven’t exactly taken an inventory, other than the obvious stuff but I certainly know what’s NOT there.”

My mother frowned at that, “We’ll have to take you to the Coven’s council so that they can examine you and the Glove. Maybe one of us can work out a way to get it off and reverse the transformation.” I almost smiled at that, until she added, “But don’t get your hopes up.” She looked at me sadly, “Why didn’t you come tell me when you met Dandelion or when you found the Glove?”

A sigh escaped my lips. I had indeed thought of that several times but I had ignored my instincts. “I thought of that,” I admitted, “But I wanted to be the one to find it. When you first told me about the Glove it was like you were sad that you missed out on the chance to have it. I wanted to be the one to bring it to you and see the look on your face when you saw it in person for the first time.” I looked down at my breasts and then to the Glove morosely, “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” I shrugged, “And then when I was in the cave with it, it was right there and it seemed stupid to leave without it.”

“Nathan, the Glove is a magical artifact. You know as well as anyone how dangerous magic can be,” she scolded.

“You said it was passed down from mother to daughter or granddaughter. The last thing I thought was that it was going to turn me into this!” I snapped, now close to the verge of tears. Stupid girl hormones. I sniffled as I finished, “I thought it would ignore me since I was a guy.”

Mom gave me a sympathetic look and shook her head, “Obviously that isn’t the case. We need to re-think how the Glove works. It would seem that is tied to the Poole bloodline in general, not necessarily just the females. It must be physical contact with one of our line that causes the bonding and whether the wearer starts as female or not the Glove will change them to fit the template.”

“Oh I’m sure glad we know that now and not when some unsuspecting guy ends up with boobs,” I muttered wryly, rolling my eyes.

“Don’t be crude, they’re breasts Nathan not any number of derogatory terms you boys have for them, and you’d better get used to that.” She retorted before turning to lock her gaze on Dandelion, “That does beg the question though, why did you take Nathan to the Glove, didn’t you know you were looking for a female?”

“I just knew I was looking for the Poole,” the Pixie squeaked nervously. “I forgot who I was supposed to be looking for and then she told me her name was Poole, and she knew about the Glove so I thought she was the one.” She at least had the decency to look embarrassed by it.

“Hey! Who you calling a girl!? I’m a guy remember, or at least I was.” I grumbled, taking another sip of my tea.

“Ummm Nate,” Jason offered, “Sorry to break this to you man, but even as a guy you weren’t exactly a strapping example of manhood. You were skinny, kinda short, and with your hair and that heavy hooded jacket you were wearing, I could see how she could have gotten confused.” He kindly didn’t mention how confused seemed to be a permanent state for the Pixie.

Mom turned her stony gaze to Jason, “That brings us to you young man. Why didn’t you come find me when the Glove started to transform him?”

Jason frowned, “He was obviously in pain, and would have been defenseless if something found him there. I wasn’t going to leave my best friend like that.” He crossed his arms defiantly.

Mom sighed, “You’re right Jason, you did right by staying with him, but why not send Dani?” She looked down at the Pixie who was now poking her finger in Jason’s teacup and staring raptly at the ripples made in the cooling liquid. She quickly retracted her question, “Nevermind.” She sighed, “I guess we can’t change what happened so we’ll have to see what we can do to fix this.”

Mom was making some phone calls to arrange an emergency meeting of the Coven’s council and Jason had headed home after promising not to say anything to anyone about my situation. Dani on the other hand seemed to have nothing better to do then to hang around with me in the living room and watch television, after she finally believed me that people weren’t really trapped inside it that is. So while we were sitting watching something not even mildly entertaining to me, but which seemed to be the newest shiny object to catch Dani’s attention, I was able to relax a bit.

My mind though was still firmly centered on my current predicament, so much so that I hardly noticed when Rick walked in. In my defense though, Rick and I were so used to one another’s comings and goings that we often only half paid attention to one another, unless directly involved in a conversation. He hardly noticed me either except to say, “Hey Nate, how’s it hanging?” as he passed by.

I even started to answer before cold hard reality once again hit me, “Hey Rick its…” I stopped short, grumbling and cursing. That was the worst possible thing he could have said because while normally it would have ended at grumbling and cursing, this time it quickly escalated into sobbing.

Either my reaction got his attention or he caught the difference in my new, more feminine voice because he swung around and stared at me. “Whoa! You’re not Nate.” He looked at me intently as if trying to place a familiar face, “Sorry I thought you were my brother… Are you okay? Honest, Nate’s not that bad that you should be crying about it.” He started babbling as he was unsure how to handle the situation, “I really am sorry. I don’t know how I could have mistaken you for Nate, you don’t look like a guy at all.” This of course set me off crying even worse and since Rick was oblivious to the Pixie trying to comfort me and knowing he was way out of his element he did the first sensible thing to pop into his head. “MOM!!!”

I had been trying so hard to hold it together while we were out in the woods and when we were explaining things to mom, but now it all seemed to pour out of me in a torrent of emotions. Anger, despair, confusion and most of all the discomfort with my body, it all came out at once. All I could think now was how much I hated this. I hated my new body, I hated the hormones and the emotions they were obviously causing, I hated the Glove.

The next thing I knew I was wrapped up in Mom’s arms and she was cooing to me softly, “It’s okay baby, it’s okay, we’re going to try to fix this.” Mom and I had always been as close as a mother and son can, but it had been a long time since she had held me in her arms and let my cry out my frustrations. It had been a long time since I had needed it. I had considered myself a man and beyond that kind of thing. That was no longer the case and now I let out all my anguish, held securely in my mother’s arms. It was a while before I ran out of tears.

I woke up sometime later with Mom still holding me. I hadn’t even realized I had fallen asleep and I figured the stress from the transformation and then the crying must have worn me out. She must have felt me stirring because she spoke, “Feeling better sweetie? A good cry can really help sometimes.”

“I guess so,” I replied. I did feel somewhat better now that I had let it all out. It was like a weight that I hadn’t known was there was somewhat less now. The sleep may have helped a bit too. Or it could just be that I was emotionally drained at the moment. Regardless I hugged my mother tight, “Thanks Mom, I needed that.”

“I’m not surprised. As much as I wished we could get the Glove back, I would have never wished his on you to get it.” She looked away. Her eyes were red and puffy and I could only assume that she too had been crying.

“It’s not your fault Mom. You couldn’t have known this was going to happen, it wasn’t even Dani’s fault, she couldn’t have known either.” I sighed, shaking my head sadly, “It was my own damn fault, I should have come and told you, and the last thing I should have done was touch the damned thing.” I looked around, “Speaking of Dani, where is she?”

“She said she was going to talk with her Queen. I would imagine she’s going to let her know we have the Glove. She said she would come back later to see you. She was worried you know.”

I nodded. As infuriating as she could be, the Pixie’s heart seemed to always be in the right place. “And what about Rick? What’d you tell him?”

“I told him we would talk about it later. We’ll have a family meeting once he and William get back from tuning up the plane. You and I have a meeting to attend so I told them they would be in charge of dinner tonight, so expect pizza. You know them, like father like son, and they both hate cooking.”

“Ugh, yeah pizza is fine with me,” I responded. There’s a reason my dad and Rick both hate cooking, they’re terrible at it. “I guess you managed to get that emergency meeting of the Coven then?”

She nodded, “Yes, we’re meeting in half an hour, so we’d better get going. I convinced them that in your current emotional state you probably wouldn’t react well to a Summons and a formal Coven meeting. So we’re having an informal meeting, but you need to promise to keep everything that happens there secret. In other words, this meeting never happens, got it?”

I swallowed nervously but nodded my agreement, “Yes Mom.”

Half an hour later found us in the sitting room at Roseberry Manor for an informal meeting. The house was massive. I’d never been in it before and I thought it was a shame I couldn’t have the chance for a bit of exploration. After the maid ushered us into the room she was quickly dismissed by Helen Roseberry who gave us a warm greeting, obviously trying to make me more at ease. “Please have a seat Nathan. I’m sure you know most of us here. Please remember nothing said here is to leave this room.”

I nodded as I tried to get comfortable in one of the chairs, “Yes Ma’am.” She seemed to be the one in charge here, and not just because it was her home. She had an air of command about her that none of the others had, not even my mom. And it seemed that my mom was indeed one of them. The other three were Sarah’s grandmother, Agnes Taylor; our school principal, Janet Lawson; and Claire Dennis who my mother often had over for coffee.

They had me repeat the story of how I had found the Glove and what had happened since in as great a detail as I could. Then Mrs. Roseberry cleared her throat, “We all know why we’re here. So let’s all get to work.” With that said they all took turns examining both me and the Glove.

During Mrs. Lawson’s turn she shook her head as she carefully looked over the Glove for anything the others may have missed, “I thought I told you to stay out of trouble Nathan.”

I shook my head, trying to give her a cocky grin and probably not succeeding very well. “No Mrs. Lawson, you told me to keep a low profile.”

She arched an eyebrow at me, “This is a low profile? What do you do when you actually want attention?” I said nothing to that and she shook her head, “I can’t see any way to get this off. We’ll have to try getting it off with magic. I’m certain we won’t be able to reverse the transformation unless we manage to remove the Glove first, it seems to be tied in to how the Glove bonds to the host.”

After that they all tried various spells on their own, in pairs and even as a group. The only result after several hours seemed to be all of us getting very frustrated. Grasping at straws, Mrs. Dennis muttered, “Maybe Nathan just has to want it off?”

I glared at her, retorting sarcastically, “Oh why didn’t I think of that? Let’s see, I’ve tried pulling, prying, begging, pleading, crying, and wishing for it to go away! The only thing I haven’t tried is cutting my damned arm off! Obviously I don’t want it off bad enough!” I was shouting now and I could feel the tears coming once again. Mrs. Dennis blanched at my words and for a while the only sound in the room was my sobbing.

Mom held me again as I cried and eventually Mrs. Roseberry broke the silence. “We’ll keep looking into it but I fear we won’t get much better results. This is a powerful artifact and it seems like it’s bound to Nathan until his death if the Poole family history is accurate. We need to prepare for the probable eventuality that this situation is permanent.” Then they began coming up with a plan.

The plan was fairly simple. ‘Nathan’ had been getting into so much trouble that his exasperated parents sent him off to military school today to straighten him out; the fight with Eric had been the last straw. This would leave things open in case I could somehow change back. Later this week ‘Natalie’ will come to town. Natalie’s story is that she’s a cousin of Nathan’s and happens to be my mom’s favorite niece who recently lost her parents in a tragic house fire.

This story would explain Natalie’s lack of belongings or clothes and any moodiness on my part. And since Natalie and my mom are so close my parents thought Natalie needed family and were working on legally adopting her to make it all work out, that way I would only have to remember to call my parents Aunt Nora and Uncle William for a little while before I could call them mom and dad again. To make this all more believable Rick would fly me and mom to Vancouver early in the morning so we could all attend the fictional funeral and we’d spend a few days there before coming back later in the week so that a despondent Natalie can be seen getting off the plane.

With a story decided on the meeting came to a close with the promises that records for Natalie Poole and her fictional family would be created and the adoption process set in motion. Mom and I left Roseberry Manor and headed home where I was to be kept out of sight until we could fly to Vancouver. The meeting had gone late and it was well after dark as we drove home and I slouched back in my seat so that I couldn’t be seen by anyone. Not only could that complicate the plan but I also was a bit ashamed for people to see me as a girl. It was bad enough that the Coven’s council, Jason, and Rick had seen me like this.

We arrived home and mom had to half drag me inside. This was not a family meeting I was looking forward to. We went straight to the kitchen where she sat me down at the table while she went to the living room to gather Dad and Rick. I was still wearing the ill-fitting clothes I had been wearing since my transformation, but I didn’t have anything else that would fit any better, so changing clothes wasn’t extremely high on my current list of priorities.

I could barely hear Mom in the living room trying to prepare Dad and Rick for the inevitable as I helped myself to a slice of cold pizza from the box on the table. I could hear my mom better as the three approached the kitchen, “….now this is going to be very difficult on him and we’re going to have to do our best to support him while he adjusts.”

Rick was silent so maybe he had put two and two together to make four, my father though replied with, “Transformed how? Surely it can’t be that bad Nora, no matter what Nathan will always be our …” I heard his sharp intake of breath as he caught sight of me at the table. I looked up and saw him staring wide-eyed as he cursed, his voice barely above a whisper, “Son of a bitch.”

“Ummmm, hi Dad,” I gave a nervous little wave. “A funny thing happened while I was out training.” My brother and parents sat down at the table and an awkward silence fell over the room as none of us were quite sure what to say. I continued to nibble at my pizza, more to keep my mouth occupied so I didn’t say anything stupid than out of hunger.

“So that’s really you Nate?” Rick asked, breaking the silence. “Look I’m sorry about earlier, I honestly had no idea. At first you were sitting there in your normal clothes and I was only half paying attention so I didn’t think anything was different. Then you were crying and I knew you looked familiar but I couldn’t remember where I’d seen the face. I wasn’t really thinking about what I was saying, I was trying to make you feel better but I only made things worse. So I uh guess this means you’re my sister now?”

“Cousin actually,” my mother offered, “at least until we can formalize an adoption.”

I gave Rick a weak smile, “I know you didn’t mean it Rick. Besides I figure we’re even.”

Rick looked a bit confused at that, “Even how?”

“Because when I tell Gwen you made your sister cry she’s gonna kick your ass.” I replied with all seriousness.

“You wouldn’t.” He paled when the look on my face told him I most certainly would, “Oh crap you would. He’s definitely Nate.” The last was muttered under his breath.

“She’s your cousin Natalie, and we all need to remember that until the adoption is set up. Even after that she will be your sister. Nathan is off at military school,” my mother said sternly. “So from now we’ll need to refer to Natalie as female. We need to get into the habit now so we don’t screw up later.” She gave us all a look that made us sure there would be no argument on that.

“There’s one problem with your plan,” my father spoke up, always the analytical one. “She may have a girl’s body, but how are we going to convince anyone that she grew up as a girl?” He gestured at me where I was leaning back in my chair with my legs splayed apart scarfing down another slice of pizza. My mother sighed.

“What?” I asked, my mouth still full.

“I’ll have a few days to work with her while we’re in Vancouver, we’ll get her some clothes and necessities while we’re there too .Maybe I can…” Mom was interrupted by an insistent knocking at the door. “Natalie, you stay where you are, Rick go see who it is.”

Rick got up and left the kitchen to answer the door while the rest of us sat in silence. Soon I heard a very familiar voice and it didn’t sound happy. We could all hear Sarah quite clearly from the kitchen. “Where is he Rick! First Jason told me something about him being hurt and recovering here at home and that he wasn’t to be disturbed, then my grandmother says he’s been shipped off to military school! I want to know what’s happening and I mean now!”

Rick’s response wasn’t as audible and obviously wasn’t satisfactory to her because somehow she had managed to slip by him and into the kitchen. Her eyes slid over my mom and dad and then settled on me still sitting as I had been earlier and with a piece of pizza half in my mouth. She stared for a long moment, confused, taking in my clothes, posture and who knows what else. I swallowed both my pizza and the lump in my throat nervously when she finally spoke, “Nate?”

I knew I should have remained quiet but this was the girl I was in love with. She knew me better than anyone and I knew I wouldn’t be able to fool her long, even if I had wanted to. So I spoke using a geek reference I knew Sarah would get, “Hi I’m Natalie Poole, sorry about this.”

Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped as she continued to stare at me. “Nate… you’re a girl.”

“Yeah I kinda noticed that,” I muttered. I looked around at my parents and Rick who were all trying very hard to look away. “Umm, let’s go somewhere more private.”

More private turned out to be the back porch swing. We sat down together and I told her the whole story, except the part about the Coven’s council meeting. I glossed over that part since I had been sworn to secrecy and only told her the Coven’s plan. I started to sniffle and get a bit teary at the end and Sarah pulled me into a hug. “Sorry about all this emotional crap,” I sighed, “It’s been a rough day.”

She nodded, “I can only imagine how hard this is on you, but maybe you can grow to like being a girl, it’s not that bad.”

I shook my head sadly, “Not for you maybe, you’ve been one your whole life. I liked being a guy and I don’t know anything about being a girl and I’ve never had any interest to either.”

“I can help you learn about girl stuff, but what’s so great about being a guy?” she asked.

“Guys are bigger and stronger for one thing.” I replied.

She giggled at that, “You’re the same size as you were before and because of your size you always focussed your warden training on speed and agility rather than strength, and you’ll probably find that you’re faster and more agile now. So that’s not going to fly. Give me another reason it’s better being a guy.”

I shrugged, “I could write my name in the snow without using a finger. And there’s guy stuff, like fixing cars, camping, fishing, and sports.”

She made a disgusted face at me, “That first one is just gross and not worth responding to. As for those others you can still do them. Girls are just as capable as guys; most of us just don’t have the interest. There’s nothing wrong with girls who do like those things, I like camping and fishing just as much as you and Jason do. Try again; give me one thing you had as a guy, not including body parts, which you can’t have as a girl.”

I bit my lip, holding back tears as I looked her right in the eyes as I answered, “You.”

She sat there stunned for a moment, “Oh Nate. I’m… I never… You’re still you; it’s only your body that’s changed. I can’t say what will or won’t happen between us. I still care deeply for you and if nothing else I will always be your best friend. This is going to take some getting used to for both of us. We might not even be attracted to each other anymore with all of this. We’ll need time to sort it out. But I will always be there for you.”

I sighed, “So I’m being friend-zoned?” Tears were starting to form again. Why the hell do girls cry so easy? Stupid hormones.

She shook her head and took my hand, “No, I’m just asking that we take the time to both adjust to this and see how we feel then. We’ll stay good friends for now and if we both decide later that we can be more again, then there is nobody I’d rather switch teams for.” How is it that a simple sentence can make a person both depressed and elated at the same time? She looked me over again and stood up, and I assumed she was preparing to head home.

I attempted a smile, “Thanks Sarah, I think. I guess I won’t be seeing you until I get back from Vancouver then.”

“I’ll be back in a bit,” she said, squeezing my hand, “I think I can help you with your clothing problem, you need something to wear that fits properly. You’re still taller than me but I think between some of your clothes and some of mine we can put together an outfit that will work. Dressed like you are you’re only going to draw attention to yourself.”

“Okay, I guess.” I squeezed her hand back and then let her go while I sat in the swing thinking.

Not long after Sarah left I heard a tiny familiar voice coming from beside me. “I’m sorry, I was so eager to help. I wanted to help you find the Glove, I didn’t know much about it, all I could remember was that I had to take the Poole to the Glove.” There was sadness in Dani’s tone “I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I was hoping we could be friends but I never spent much time with humans before and sometimes I get distracted and forget things.”

I had already forgiven Dandelion seeing as it really was my own fault, and I suddenly felt bad that such a normally bubbly person was beating herself up over my stupidity. I turned to the Pixie and tried to smile for her, “Dani, it was my fault not yours. You know I could really use some friends right now and you seem like you could be a good one.”

“Really?” the Pixie asked, uncertain.

“Really,” I responded. “Sarah should be back in a bit, she’s also from a Witch family, so maybe she could be your friend too.”

I felt just a little bit better when she squealed, “Thank you!” and flew over to excitedly hug my arm.

I was being roused by a gentle shaking. I opened my eyes to see Sarah standing beside me with a medium sized suitcase in one hand. I must have dozed off while waiting for her. I started to move when I felt a very small weight shifting in my lap; apparently Dani had dozed off as well. I attempted to scoop the Pixie up in my hands without waking her as I spoke softly to Sarah, “Sorry for dozing off, it’s been kind of a long day.”

She smiled at me, “It’s okay, I’m not surprised.” She looked into my cupped hands at the sleeping Pixie, “So is that Dandelion?”

I nodded, “Yeah, this is her, she’s had a long day too I think.” I wondered briefly how her meeting with her Queen had gone before looking again at the suitcase. “Do we really need that many clothes?”

Sarah shrugged, “I wasn’t sure what would fit you so I grabbed a little of everything to be safe.”

We headed inside and up to my room where I deposited Dandelion carefully on my pillow. “I hope you didn’t bring anything too girly.”

Sarah set the suitcase down on my bed, “Like I said I brought a little of everything. I think right now we need to be more concerned about fit than fashion. Though, we don’t want you to stand out like a sore thumb either.” She opened the case and after some searching tossed me something that looked like a really short tank top. “You look about the same size as me and I don’t wear sports bras often so you can have this, it’ll work until you can get something better. I’m not giving you any of my panties though so we’ll have to try and find something else for that.”

I stared at the object in my hands as if expecting it to catch fire, “You don’t really expect me to…” I started to say.

She gave me one of her don’t mess with me looks. “Yes I do, you’re at least a B cup, probably a C you’ll need some support. Now hurry up and get it on.” She made no effort to leave the room so I assumed she was going to stay in here while I did it. With a blush I shed my clothes, leaving me only in my briefs. The briefs were a bit tight around my hips and loose in front but they would work until I managed to get something better. I stared at the bra for a moment unsure what to do. She rolled her eyes and showed me which part went in the front, “Now just put it on like one of your tank tops and make sure your breasts are properly inside so they’re supported.”

“Okay okay,” I grumbled. If anyone told me a few days ago that my girlfriend would be showing me how to put on a bra and that I’d actually need one, I would have decked them. I was really glad there wasn’t a mirror in my room and even gladder that Sarah hadn’t had anything for me to use as panties. I was not ready to deal with what was probably down there yet and I knew it. The bra and having to actually touch my breasts to get them situated properly inside it was bad enough. I shuddered at the thought. The words ‘my’ and ‘breasts’ just did not belong in the same sentence, let alone my thoughts.

Once we were finished squeezing my new additions into the torture device called a sports bra it was time to find something to wear over top. Sarah’s jeans fit better than my own, though they were a bit tight and short in the leg. It was lucky they did fit okay because the only other option was skirts and I was not wearing one of those. I made it quite clear to Sarah that it was not an option.

Tops proved to be more troublesome due to me being five inches taller than Sarah. Most of the t shirts she had and many of the sweaters as well left my midriff bared. Sarah said that a lot of girls wear midriff-baring shirts and I remembered seeing them but I also remembered how guys reacted to them. I did not want to give any guys any ideas about me and I shuddered once again at the thought of being the girl in some guy’s night time fantasies.

With that in mind I started going through my own shirts but sadly most of them were too tight in the chest and not only would that be uncomfortable but that too could give guys the wrong idea. Finally I stumbled across a baggy grey hoodie that I got for Christmas last year and didn’t wear much because it was too loose. After trying it on and finding it a comfortable fit I decreed that it was the one. The long sleeves had the added bonus of hiding the Glove as well.

Finally Sarah pulled out a pair of socks and sneakers and had me try them on. The sneakers were a little tight but that was far better than any of my shoes which were now far too big. With me now dressed in clothes that were fitting somewhat decently the two of us re-packed Sarah’s girly suitcase of doom and went downstairs to join my parents and Rick. Mom seemed pleased that I was no longer wearing Nathan’s hand-me-downs and Rick and Dad seemed a bit uncomfortable at me wearing mostly girl’s clothes. They should be glad it’s not them wearing them.

“That looks much better,” my mom said, giving Sarah and I a smile. “That’ll work nicely until we can get Natalie some new clothes, thanks Sarah.”

“No problem Mrs. Poole, I should get going though, mom is waiting outside for me. I’ll see you when you get back.” She gave me a big hug and reluctantly headed outside. I walked with her to the door and watched her get into the car before heading back into the kitchen.

Rick was just standing and stifling a yawn when I returned, “I had better go get some sleep if I’m going to be flying you both the Vancouver in the morning. Good night.” He ruffled my hair as he passed me, “You should get some sleep too Nat.” That little action and the fact that he had shortened my new name to something resembling Nate, told me that I still had my brother no matter what else may change.

“Good night Rick,” I called after him. Then I said my own good night to mom and dad and headed to bed myself to try and get some sleep. As long and stressful as today had been this was only just the beginning.