Selene Chapter 1
“Ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seatbelts; we are about to land at Fiumicino Airport Rome. It is 15:00 hour’s local time and the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius. We hope you had a pleasant flight and wish you all a nice day”

Finally, after a 2 hour flight with a prize-fighter airline I can finally go and stretch my legs a little. Seeing the looks on my classmates’ faces and hearing some mild cheering I’m apparently not the only one. As I’m anticipating seeing Rome for the first time and preparing to get my hand luggage I get distracted by a loud snore right next to me. It seems that Kelly, my best friend, has managed to tough the flight out by sleeping, wish I could have done that, but I just can’t sleep sitting up. I can tell you that made my family vacation to Japan last year fun. NOT! Anyway people are finally starting to leave the plane, better wake Kelly up so we can get out of here.

When we step out of the plane it feels like getting punched in the face, dang it’s hot here. The extra layers of clothes I’m forced to wear are definitely not helping. This could get more uncomfortable than I originally anticipated, maybe mom was right… no no, bury that thought, it’s going to take more than a little heat to divert me from my original plans.

“Hey stop spacing out and walk on, mister Johnson is waiting for us.”

Kelly snaps me out of my thoughts and we quickly join the rest of our classmates.
“Ah, so are we all here now?” Mr Johnson asks while he counts his students. “Yes, it appears so. Welcome to Rome children after we pass through customs we gather again at the luggage retrieval site, band eleven. After that we’re going to the place we’re sleeping and unpack before heading out to dinner. Got all that? Good, I’ll see you at band eleven.”

As we’re heading to customs I scan the officers there and pick a line with an older officer working said line. I do NOT want a repeat of what happened last year and in my experienced older customs officers are more likely to have dealt with a situation like mine before and let me pass without hassle. Stupid trainee last year wouldn’t believe my claims to masculinity and this despite the facial recognition software saying it was me in the passport picture AND giving him my doctor’s note explaining my condition. No, he was utterly convinced he finally caught something and no amount of reasoning was going to convince him wrong. We had to wait for an hour before a female officer finally had the time to “confirm” I was travelling with someone else’s passport. Needless to say, she proved him wrong and after I finally got a chance to tell her why we were in this situation in the first place she tore into the stupid jerk for being such an unprofessional douche bag. One good thing came out of it though, our tickets got upgraded to first class as an apology and that definitely helped to alleviate some of the discomfort a ten hour flight brings when you’re unable to sleep.

After 20 minutes of standing in line it was finally my turn and I handed the officer my passport, he scanned it and his eyes bulged when I got to my gender. Fortunately I was right in that the older officers know how to deal with this. The computer confirmed it was me in the photo and he couldn’t confirm the passport being a fake, so he just let me through without making a huge fuss. When I arrive at the luggage retrieval site I’m the second to last of our class there and my suitcase has already arrived. I grab it of the conveyor belt and notice something strange, the suitcase looks newer than I remember. I quickly check my name and everything checks out, I write it off as a heat induced hallucination and join my fellow classmates. As we head to our bus Mr. Johnson tells us that we’re using a charter to go to our sleeping arrangements but we would be dependent on public transportation for everything afterwards so he hands each of us a public transport card as we enter the bus.

During the trip Mr Johnson told us what our sleeping arrangements actually were. Apparently we’re going to spend the week in a couple of six person caravans, he next mentions the group composition and I find myself grouped up with Kelly, Jordy, Rick, Tim and Ian. I have to say I’m not too pleased having to share a caravan with Jordy, but the other guys are OK and of course getting to share a bedroom with Kelly is essential. Only he and the teachers know of my condition and in order to keep it that way, there is no way I can bunk up with someone else. Especially Jordy, he’s been getting really annoying about my girly appearance lately and I can’t figure out why. Sure a lot of guys like to taunt me with my girly voice, long brown hair and girly figure and face but he doesn’t do the usual bullying stuff, like calling me gay and a trannie he’s different somehow and I can’t seem to pin down what exactly he thinks of me. I can tell you though that he creeps me out, big time, and I do not look forward to having to share a caravan, hopefully the other guys will keep me safe.

After enjoying the scenery for a bit we finally arrive at our resort and I have to say these caravans look nice. Mr Johnson is calling the groups over and when it’s finally my turn I grab my suitcase and head to our caravan with Kelly. For some reason however this upsets the owner of the resort and he holds me back before shouting something in Italian to me. Fortunately Mr. Johnson intervenes and after a bit of arguing he says to me: “Look Alex we’re going to have to explain your situation to him, in the meantime you can park your suitcase in Kim and Yuki’s caravan (they were surplus and got their own caravan, lucky) after that grab your doctor’s note and passport and meet up with me at the reception.”

I grab my suitcase and head to the girls’ caravan and I’m greeted with a sharp shriek.

“Alex, wtf are you doing here, this is a girls only caravan!” Kim says.

Yuki adds: “Yeah I know you look the part but you yourself are usually insisting you’re not so GET OUT!”

“Sorry girls, no can do. The owner doesn’t seem to believe I’m a guy so he prevented me from going with the guys, quite rudely actually. I was then told by Mr. Johnson to park my suitcase here until we got this sorted out. I’m sure we can convince him and I won’t actually stay here but I’m not leaving my suitcase outside in the meantime.”

Kim: “Ah ok so that was the commotion, I guess it makes sense seeing how prudish they are here. I mean have you looked at what we need to cover if we want to visit the churches?”

Yuki: “Yeah I mean guys need to wear long trousers and girls need to wear skirts or shorts below the knee and no bare shoulders whatsoever. What’s up with that? Don’t they know how hot it is here?”

“I’m guessing they’re used to it, but at least you don’t have to cover up your legs completely us guys are going to suffer a minor heatstroke if this temperature keeps up. Jeans aren’t exactly cooling.”

Yuki: “Well if you want to, you can wear one of my long skirts, they should fit you and you can totally get away with it.”

“Haha, very funny. I think I’ll pass on your offer, me going out in a skirt will also not help convincing that guy I’m male. Speaking of which I need to go and speak to Mr. Johnson. I’ll see you later to get my stuff.”

Kim: “Ok, but you better convince him because if you don’t we’re totally going to give you a makeover. I meant it when I said this is a girls only caravan, and girls do NOT dress like you do.”

This triggers a giggle fit from Yuki and she and Kim start discussing various outfits that they can get me in while I grab my medical papers and passport and head out. While walking towards the reception I get filled with a sense of dread. This guy is way too similar to that one customs officer. Medical reasons didn’t work on him and I get the feeling they won’t work on this guy either. On top of that Kim and Yuki have a history of trying to get me into skirts. Granted that was before they found out I was actually a boy but I’m not certain how serious they are this time. With a gulp I head into the reception office, Mr. Johnson is already there and he has a dark look on his face.