“Geeze, this show is kind of lame, there’s no action, no guns, no giant robots, it’s just people talking,” Mike said. From his position in the reclining chair.

“Quiet fool!” Grace yelled. Mike just rolled his eyes. This anime was ranked number 2 on some list of greatest anime Grace found online, right under Cowboy Bebop which everyone liked, but this show was a bit different. There wasn’t really much action, there was this mad scientist guy who talked funny, and some weird stuff going on with time travel, and a microwave that melted bananas. Marley wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. They had just started watching episode two and a new character was being introduced, a girl that Marley found very appealing. She was wearing traditional Japanese robes, she was shy and Marley found her very cute.

“What’s her name? “ Marley asked.

“Ruka, now shush,” Grace answered.

“She’s hot,” Marley said. He wasn’t sure why he said it, he never said stuff like that, in fact he rarely even thought things like that about girls. The others just ignored him and he focused on the show. Ruka and the main character Okabe are talking about a supposed magic sword, and he gets Ruka to perform a pretend exorcism.

The self proclaimed mad scientist Okabe’s thoughts are heard, “Urushibara Ruka, delicate as an orchard, fair as a cherry blossom, the personification of feminine grace, and a dude. Tall as a willow, slender as a reed, a dude. Radiant in shrine vestments, dude. Sun dips low in a rosy sky, saccades buzz, Ruka is a dude.”

Everyone in the room cracked up, “Oh wow he’s, a crossdresser. Marley, I didn’t know you were into dudes,” Mike laughed. Marley turned red with embarrassment.

“Well that’s one cute dude,” Shane said.

“Not you too,” Mike yelled. “I can tell this show is going to be gay, let’s watch something else,” he said.

“Shut up or leave,” Grace commanded and Mike made no argument. Marley was having a hard time wrapping his mind around this, first his crazy day as a girl, and now this, a guy who acts and looks just like a girl just happens to be in this show, not only that but Marley was sure Ruka was his favorite character.

Marley kept his thoughts to himself the rest of the evening and the group agreed to meet up at Graces next Monday to watch more episodes. Marley was the last to leave and Grace stopped him at her doorstep. “Hey, umm, I thought Ruka was really cute too,” she said. Marley looked into her face and smiled. He had been friends with Grace now for a couple of years and they got along really well together, in fact though Shane and Mike were good friends Grace was his best friend. Do you take best friends to the Spring Dance, Marley thought. He was just about to ask her when his Mom’s horn interrupted him.

“Gotta go, see you tomorrow,” Marley said as he dashed out to his Mom’s car with bike in tow.

* * * *

“Come on Marley, hurry up,” his sister yelled from downstairs. Marley pulled the straps up over his shoulders and adjusted the fit of his bib shorts. He attempted a muscled pose in the mirror but his diminutive body wasn’t too impressive. Marley glanced over at the chair in the corner where his pink “Ride Like a Girl” jersey was hanging, the swag from the race. It was too small for his sister, and she didn’t like it anyway, so Marley had tossed it on the chair not really wanting to get rid of it. He quickly yanked it off the chair and pulled it on. Marley took a moment to check himself out, he didn’t exactly look like a girl in it, but he didn’t exactly look like a boy either. Marley began to pull his hair around when he heard some stomping and quickly yanked the pink jersey off, and slipped into his usual black model.

“Geeze, what’s the holdup?” his sister asked ready to ride down to her cleated shoes.

“Chill out, I’m coming,” Marley replied and grabbed his shoes from the shelf. 10 minutes later Marley, his sister, and Mom were heading out of town on Old Route 34, an almost completely abandoned stretch of pavement with gentle rolling hills. The April air was just a bit crisp and they had all put on arm and knee warmers before they left. Old 34 was the training route of choice for the Mays it was short ride from their house, and it’s mild rolling hills and lack of traffic made it perfect for hard efforts.

“OK guys, Marley asked what made my training harder, well I do intervals,” Lisa said.

“We know what intervals are,” Ann replied.

“You only think you know what intervals are,” Lisa laughed. “OK here’s our first set. It’s a pyramid. We’re going to do one minute hard, then we’ve got one minute rest. Then two minutes hard, two minutes rest, then three minutes hard three minutes rest, we’ll do four, then three, two and one again. You guys can try to hang in my draft but if you don’t then you’ve got to time yourself. Don’t worry if we get spread out, just follow the time. Everyone got it?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah,” they both said.

“OK reset your computers and lets, go!,” Lisa said and immediately started pumping out a furious pace. Marley reset and reacted catching his Mom’s draft and getting in the drops. Ann was behind him. The minute passed very quickly and soon the three riders were soft pedaling. Before he knew it the rest minute was up and they were out of the saddle again building up speed then settling into a painful 2 minutes. It was the 3 minutes that saw Marley losing contact with his Mom.

“Thanks for bringing this up,” Ann said between breaths.

“Bring what up,” Marley asked.

“That you wanted Mom to take us out and kill us,” Ann replied. Marley chuckled and put his head down, his Mom was moving away pretty fast. When the 3 minutes was up he started spinning, he was way out ahead of his sister who had more or less gave up. The 4 minute interval started and he got back on it, his legs were hurting, he was losing more ground on his mom, but a quick check back showed he was way out ahead of Ann. In the 4 minute cool down he spun fast and was able to catch Lisa. “What happened to Ann?” his mom asked.

“I think she gave up,” Marley said.

“Yeah this is too much too fast, oh 3 minutes hard, go!” Lisa yelled.

“Not again!” Marley yelled back.as he ducked into her draft.

About 25 minutes later Ann caught up to Marley and her mom with a dejected look on her face. “Well I guess I suck,” she said.

“No, honey, not at all, the point of these isn’t to ride together,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, well Marley kept up,” Ann said.

“That’s because I didn’t quit,” Marley said.

“I didn’t quit, I just didn’t want to kill myself,” Ann shot back.

“Allright, new interval, if you’re breathing hard you can’t argue so lets do some jump drills. Here’s how it will work. We’ll ride in a pace line, the leader jumps off the front and stand and pedal all out for 10 seconds, then sit back down and rotate to the back of the line. Once you get in the line check for cars behind then yell for the next person to go.” Lisa explained.

An hour later Marley and Ann both slunk off their bikes and melted onto the ground after a session of tough intervals. Marley took his helmet off and dumped sweat out onto the driveway. “Next time I tell you I want to train harder just punch me in the gut,” he said.

“Oh don’t worry, I will,” Ann said.

“Well you know what they say, no pain, no gain,” Lisa said.

* * * *

The next day in school Marley couldn’t stop thinking about something, it kept creeping into his thoughts at random times throughout the day and try as he might he couldn’t banish the idea. He saw his sister in the hallway after school and asked, “You got scholar bowl today?”

“Well duh, I’ve got practice every Thursday,” she answered.

“So you getting a ride like usual?” Marley asked.

“Yes I’m getting a ride like usual, does Mom have you taking notes on me or something?” she asked.

“No, just thinking about what I’m going to do when I get home,” Marley said.

“OK, whatever,” Ann said as she walked off. Thursday was a late class for their Mom, she wouldn’t be home until 6, and Ann’s scholar bowl practice means she won’t be home until about 5:30. Marley walked out and boarded the bus.

“It’s really a pretty fun game, I mean it’s weird because you don’t play against everyone but you’ve got to work together as a team,” Shane said. Marley nodded but his mind was clearly elsewhere, for the last ten minutes Shane had been explaining the rules of a board game on the bus ride home.

“Errhm, well anyway, do you want to come play it?” Shane asked.

“Come play what?” Marley asked.

“Forbidden Island, you doofus, what we’ve been talking about,” Shane replied.

“Oh, ummm, oh man I can’t I’ve got some chores to do,” Marley lied.

“Oh, what you got to do?” Shane asked.

“Umm, clean, laundry, stuff you know,” Marley said.

“Well OK, maybe some other time,” Shane said.

“Yeah, for sure man, real soon, sounds fun,” Marley said as Shane got up and waddled off the bus for his stop. A short time later Marley was doing the same, he came into the house dropped his bag, “Mom, Ann,” he yelled though he knew no one was home. “Man maybe I should just call Shane and go play that game,” Marley said out loud. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and then put it on the table.

Just as he had been thinking for the entire day he went up the stairs and into his sister’s room. He went to her dresser and started checking drawers. Compared to his underwear drawer his sister’s was a cacophony of color, there were so many different patterns, colors, and designs. “Oh wow Ann,” he laughed as he selected a pink pair with a hello kitty pattern. He sat them on the bed and then found the bra drawer and pulled out a frilly pink one that matched. One last chance to back out, he thought to himself. For some reason he couldn’t explain he’d been thinking all day about wearing his sisters under things. “This is like the most perverted thing I’ve ever done,” Marley said out loud. That’s when he noticed just how quiet the house was. He sat the bra down and went to his sister’s nightstand, there was a radio alarm clock and he turned it on. Some random top 40 dance toon was on the radio. Marley hated that kind of music, or at least he normally did but the catchy beat seemed appropriate.

“4:15,” Marley said, “OK whatever,” he took kicked off his shoes, and yanked off his jeans then pulled his shirt over his head. He looked at himself in the mirror, hairless, and what he was sure was a very small and unmanly, manhood. He slid the pink panties up, a visible shiver ran though his body as they slid up his legs. They were snug around his genitals but seemed to hug his rear just right. He took a few moments to check himself out in the mirror. Putting the bra on wasn’t so easy, he couldn’t get it hooked and eventually he just hooked it then slid it over his head and worked his arms through the straps. It was a just a bit big and Marley had nothing to fill out the cups.

He pulled out some Kleenex from his sister’s desk and stuffed them in. “Hmmm,” Marley said checking out his tissue enhanced chest in the mirror. He picked the hair brush up from the desk and began brushing his hair. Sitting right in front of him was a plastic hair band with a little bow attached. Marley put it into his longish blond hair and pulled it back. A girl stared back at him in the mirror and a cute one at that. The bopping music caught his attention and he began to bop around, freely dancing in what he imagined was the most girlish way possible. He jumped and turned in mid air and landed on his toes then threw hand up and opened his eyes. His sister was standing in the doorway.

“Hello Marley,” she said.