As I went back to my room I discovered that I had received another letter. This time though it wasn’t from a bank, but from my cousin Leon, my (not so) kind aunt’s son. Leon was a great guy, we didn’t have that much in common, but in the few weeks we lived together Leon tried to get me out of the house as much as possible in order to protect me from his mother. Aunt Abigail hated me there was absolutely no doubt about that, she hated me and everyone in the family knew it. Why? I wasn’t too sure about it, I mean, I did know that something happened and that it was somewhat my fault but I never could remember what happened. Repressed memories? I hoped not, what I was living right now was already enough for quite a few therapy sessions, anything more and I would add poverty to the results of my curse. Hahaha… Sigh.

I opened the letter from Leon and started reading.

“Brook,

I know that this isn’t the most convenient way to communicate, but since I didn’t know if you had access to a computer I just decided to communicate like this. Mom has sent the things that couldn’t come with you at school to the house of the Falconers. As you can expect, she hoped that they would just throw your things away, you know clichés about opulent people being evil and all (ironic coming from her I know). Anyway, just to be sure I called ahead to the Falconers to be sure that mom wouldn’t be dooming your possessions and I got quite a good impressions of the girls who answered. Apparently, they are your half-sisters, I don’t know if you are going to live like Cinderella once vacations start, but know that I will do anything to help you if it’s the case. I can’t do much since I have just started college, but I will still try my best. Oh and this weekend I will be near your new town, I don’t know if I could come to visit you, but if I can, I definitely will.

Take care Kiddo. ”

You know that classic scene where somebody tells you they have good news and bad news for you? Well, Leon thought he was sending good news and only good news but somewhat one of his good news managed to transform into terrible news, absolutely terrible news actually.

His kind news had taken a liking to blood during their journey and now they were going to literally murder me by lack of sleep! There’s absolutely no way I can hide the fact that I’ m going to an all-girl’s school from him! What I am going to tell him! “The school is a super-secret facility were they make us assume a completely new identity, my attire is because no-one would expect the (Extremely) super manly me to ever dress as a girl. It’s camouflage, urban camouflage, hiding in plain sight kind of stuff, part of my hardcode training” Yeah, right… If I said something along the lines of that my cousin might send me an asylum. Thinking about it, I might end up there anyway in a few weeks… Speeding up things a little might not be so bad… Maybe I could tell story along the lines of “It’s a new pedagogic technique, they make boys dress as girls, in order to make them more understanding of girls. I have been chosen to be part of the experiment due to my completely manly ways. I am hating every part of it, but you know I have to do it for science”. More convincing, but still… Perhaps, I could just say it is an initiation of some kind…

As I was thinking about reasons to explain why I was dressed up as girl my roommate, Beatricia entered the room.

“Sup’ Brook, you reading another one of your letters? You should maybe enter the new millennium.” Said Beatricia joking.

I would have told her that as someone with XY chromosomes in an all-girl’s school I was already way deeper in the millennium than her, but you know...

“Brook, honestly though, you don’t have a computer despite being a member of one of the most influential families of the last few years?” Beatricia asked.

“Just joined the family, I haven’t had the chance to really obtain one. For the longest time, I also never thought I could ever afford one so …”

Beatricia looked a little bit ashamed. “Sorry, I just said some very inappropriate stuff. It was meant to be a little bit of banter. Forget it. ”

I laughed.

“You were kidding?”

“Partially, I did have a computer, a bullet went through it two years ago though.”

Beatricia eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their orbits and starting turning around earth.

“A bullet! How did that happen?” asked Beatricia.

“Step-dad caught me staring at some earrings.”

For once, I was telling the truth. They were some studs with a skull design, nothing feminine, if it had been anything feminine I couldn’t even imagine what would have happened… Arron, my step-dad, was for some reason obsessed with protecting me from anything feminine. Apparently it was orders from mom. I didn’t really understand those orders because as far as I remember (which isn’t that far actually, only until I was seven or eight years old) I have never been feminine. I would play sports, bother girls and do stupid stuff hanging out with the guys. I actually ended up with a few scars in my back due to one of those incidents, I don’t remember it that well, but mom assured me that I was lucky she saved me from getting anything that would have damaged me permanently. Did I do something dangerous? I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter now does it?

Anyway while I was reminiscing, Beatricia didn’t seem to recover from her shock. I felt like going to go to sleep to see if she was still going to be shocked and outraged in a few hours, but she suddenly started moving again.

“Your step-father shot your computer because you wanted earrings?”

I nodded.

“And your mother didn’t say anything?”

Actually my mom said something along the lines of “Double tap, that machine is the devil’s work, its corrupting Brook’s mind.” I was pissed for a while, but hey, what could I do? Sacrifice a computer mouse and hope that some random spirit would revive my laptop? Mom was really serious about me acting as manly as possible if she said the computer was evil I couldn’t do much about it.

“No nothing…”

Mom got way better in the last few months of her life, I mean she was still a bit zealous about me acting like a paragon of virility, but way less than before. We actually had quite a bit of fun drinking tea and talking about lots of stuff as she slowly slipped from my grasp. I kinda miss her

I started crying again… Beatricia noticed.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about your mom, Mackie told me she passed away not too long ago… ” On those words she quitted the room.

I laid on my bed and cried myself to sleep…

“I can’t see it… ”

“You can’t really, I mean it’s hard to see but I can very certainly see it, I mean look at the facial structure. That facial structure is totally manly.”

“Stop lying, Colette you can’t see anything, Brook totally looks like a girl.”

At those words I opened my eyes. I had been discovered! What to do now. Jump out the window, do a cool flip, go through the gates while doing another cool flip, stop a car, go to the nearest airport and go live a new life in a new continent? Yep, totally a realistic idea, should execute right now. As I thought that somebody starting talking.

“Brook woke up and she seems to be panicking Alexandrine. You scared her! ”

I opened my eyes and over me where three girls, two tall blonde twins with blue eyes that looked extremely similar to Mackenzie and a girl with caramel skin and a braided ponytail. They were all wearing the uniform of the school and so I had an idea of who they were.

“Sorry, for the rude introduction Brook, we are as you can imagine your new bosse… sisters, Allison told us of your situation so we are going to help you survive this school. Don’t worry it’s our last year here, so we know all the tricks in order to get away with almost anything here. By the way, I am Chanel the eldest among the known Falconer siblings and half-siblings. These are the twins Colette and Alexandrine, second and third eldest they are noisy so avoid talking about your secret with them. When Mommy Rosie, the twins and Mackenzie biological mother that is, is not here I rule, so if you have any problem with any of us of the siblings come see me I would deal with them.” said the darker girl.

“So bossy!” said the twins quite loudly.

“Noisy, just like I told you.” Said Chanel smiling.

As soon as she finished talking, the twins and her disappeared from my room the same way they had appeared in my life…

I could see why Allison didn’t want to deal with any of the elder sisters… They were tiring… Why couldn’t they be like Mackenzie (the tactless) or Allison (bringer of terrible ideas)… If John isn’t normal I might think that I joined a family of weirdos. Lovable weirdos until now, but still weirdos, not that I was normal myself, seeing how I was starting to be fine with wearing girl clothes… Hahaha… I might really need therapy after all…

At lunch I met up with Mackenzie, Adele, Beatricia and Maud who had seemed to join our little group. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but Mackenzie seemed to think it was a good idea. Something about keeping close watch on her. She said that, but minutes afterwards she was discussing boy bands with her. Girls, man, I really don’t understand them…

While Mackie was being annoying Beatricia was apologizing to me for making me sad yesterday. I forgave her, but she still felt quite guilty. I didn’t really have any idea on how to deal with her, so I just started cracking jokes with her. It took a while, but I managed to make her laugh and she calm down.

I wanted to talk with Mackenzie about Leon coming to visit, but I didn’t really have time until we were changing for the cheer tryouts.

“Mackenzie, I was wondering something can we have visitors?”

“On weekends, from 2pm to 6pm, why?” She asked curious.

“My cousin Leon wants to visit me.”

“And?”

“And do you remember my wardrobe?”

“It’s a little non-existent, why? Do you want to look good for your cousin, do you come from deeper into the country that we thought?” Mackenzie said giggling.

Mackie really pisses me of sometimes…

“Seriously, Mackie if Cousin Leon sees me dressed up as a girl, I really don’t know what’s going to happen…”

“Don’t worry Brook we will simply go shopping and he would not find us here! You might want to communicate with him thought and tell him something along the lines of “the school has just become coed so that’s why staff still acts like it’s an All-girls school. That might also explain why he would mostly see girls. We have a perfect explanation so don’t worry and have fun! Ok?” Said Mackie.

Well, I did have fun yesterday… might try to have fun today too. I say that, but I still wasn’t sure of how I would keep my falsies to enter the atmosphere… Oh well, I am wearing an undershirt and the cheerleading uniform has absolutely no cleavage nothing should fly off unlike yesterday.

Anyway, for some reason I ended up finding out that I was among the lightest person to try out for the cheerleading team. As you can imagine that ended up meaning that I ended up in a position way higher that I would have wanted. I really wanted to thank Allison for the gaff because otherwise my (not so little) friend Richard might have been spotted while we practiced.

Just like the day before I ended up having fun today too. I was accepted into the team, but once again I ended up refusing citing reasons…

The day afterward, I didn’t even have to try myself to volleyball because I was judged to be too small. Mackie said something along the lines of “no surprises there” and we ended up going to see Sabrina who had already done a copy of the key.

We went back to the dorms, we discussed with the other girls about our shopping trip the next day and I ended up going back to my bed quite early. At 2 am I woke up and executed my plan from earlier that week perfectly. For some reason, the door ended up being open this time. I took my shower, went back to my bed and trying to think of how to survive what would surely be an eventful day I fell asleep.