It started like any other day, winter had its grip on the northern half of the world and the school semester would end in less than three weeks. Paul stood by the window in the room he shared with his younger brother James, looking out at the rare bright sunlight of midwinter.

He was thinking about what he had found on the computer the two boys shared after James had gone to bed the night before. It seems James had found a place that offered to help people in the LGBTQI community that needed support. James had apparently come out to several people in a chat there as being transgendered or transsexual, saying he had been feeling like he was in the wrong body for almost ten years.

Paul stood there for several minutes, shaking his head. Until last night, he had had no idea of his little brother's desire to be female. What made it truly strange was that Paul had been going through the same feelings for about the same length of time.

Paul shrugged, figuring if they could help James, maybe they could help him as well. He created an account for the site James had been chatting on, set up a password, then entered the same chat James had the night before and watched for a while as people talked.

Finally, he decided that he needed to say something, so he typed, "Hello, everyone, I'm new here, I'm Paul."

He received several hellos in return, then got down to business. "I don't know whether any of you were on last evening when my brother James was chatting here, he identified himself as Jamie02. I'm his older brother, and to be blunt, I'm like James/Jamie."

Well, perhaps Paul's luck was in, as two of the people in the chat sent him personal messages, both offering to help in any way they could. One, LaShaun, said that she had come out two years before and had been lucky to have a family that supported her. The other, Vicky, had not been so lucky; she said that she was 22, had come out to her family when she was 17 and had been disowned immediately by most of her family. She had supported herself for the last five years by waitressing and taking online GED courses, then online college courses.

Paul opened up to the two girls while keeping an eye on the main chat now and then. He told them that he had not known about James/Jamie until the night before when he found that James had been chatting on this site, in this specific chat. He said he was worried about what would happen if his father ever found out, as his father was a rude, obnoxious, bullying bigot, and that was being nice to the man.

Vicky replied that Paul's father sounded a lot like her own, Vicky's mother had been just as nasty in her case, and when her parents informed their brothers and sisters about Vicky, they reacted in much the same manner, except for one aunt and uncle living outside the city. When Vicky realized that there were people who would respect her, she fired off a text to the aunt in question, whose answer was a simple "Yes." Two days later, Vicky had packed up everything she wanted, then drove over to the aunt's house and was welcomed with open arms.

Vicky continued, telling Paul that yes, she had had to work for the last five years, yes, she had been working on continuing her education, but she had not had to pay rent, just help with food, so she had been able to save money. She still lived with them, driving to and from work.

LaShaun was still living at home, her brother had pretty much ignored her since she came out, but her parents and sister supported her. She had sent in applications to several colleges that had LGBTQI support in place, and would pick one of them over the summer.

Paul chatted with the two women, adding them to his friends on the site, then logged out, saying he needed some fresh air. Paul decided to play it safe and hid the history for that site, then headed for the Skate Park about half a mile away from the house.

**********

It took Paul about fifteen minutes to walk to the Skate Park. It wasn't something he wanted to do, he'd never really had any interest in skateboards, but he liked to watch the kids that did do it as they used the various pieces to do tricks and stunts.

From the looks of it, Heather, known as Heathen to many of the locals, kept the skate area clear year round, a few kids were using it.

It seemed James also liked to watch them, as Paul spotted him to one side of the Skate Park, talking with a girl. Paul recognized the girl, Sherry, as a cheerleader at school and also as one of the few girls in school to have publicly come out as lesbian.

Paul walked up beside them, quietly sat down a couple of feet away from Sherry and watched the skateboarders for a few minutes.

James and Sherry noticed him arrive, but kept chatting for a moment, then Sherry looked over at Paul, "Keeping an eye on James?"

"I'm only seventeen months older than James, Sherry, we do like a lot of the same things, ya know?" Paul growled.

"Hey, calm down, James has been talking to me for a bit about something rather personal, having you here isn't going to help."

Paul shook his head and whispered, "Don't be too sure of that, Sherry, especially if James told you he's transgendered or transsexual."

Sherry's jaw dropped, she sat there in shock for a moment before she whispered back, "How do you know about that?"

Still talking quietly, Paul replied, "James didn't clear the computer's history when he went to bed last night, I saw the site he was on."

Sherry nodded, thought for a moment, then answered, "I'm on that site myself to help support people, I have been for three years."

"That's cool," Paul laughed, still keeping his voice down, "but what if James wasn't the only one?"

Shelly looked at him, confused for a moment, then it was like a light came on in her head. She smiled, quietly asking, "You?"

Paul nodded, "It started for me just before I turned 6, I think; I've dreamed of being a girl so often since then, it hurts to still be male."

James had listened to the conversation between Paul and Sherry, now he heard Paul saying that he was like James. James giggled, then spoke, "It takes a lot of guts to say that to someone else, doesn't it, Paul? It's been about ten years for me, too, and yes, it hurts."

Sherry looked at the two boys, one on either side of her, and suggested, "Why don't we go get something from the snack shop and find somewhere to be able to talk more privately about this? Would that be okay with both of you?"

Once both had replied in the affirmative, the three got up and walked over to the snack shop where each of them placed an order.

**********

After getting their purchases, they wandered over to a picnic table under a large maple tree; the boys sat on one side, Sherry on the other.

Sherry spent the next half hour asking both boys lots of rather personal questions, which they answered honestly, if a bit nervously. She took a few minutes to look closely at both of them, Paul was 5'7", maybe 135 pounds, James 5'5" and about 120 pounds.

Sherry smiled, "With a little work, both of you could be quite good looking as girls, I think. I might know a couple of girls who would help."

Both boys nodded, then Paul sighed, saying, "I think I started puberty about four months ago, how will that affect things?"

Sherry thought for a moment, then said that she wasn't sure, but she knew a doctor that could be asked about it if the boys agreed.

Both said they would be glad to get whatever help they could, then Paul turned to James, "James, like I said earlier, I saw the site you were on last night, I even saw some of the chat from the room you were in there; I joined the site this morning, and talked to some people."

"You joined it? Cool! I just hope dad doesn't find out, we'd both be in deep trouble if he did."

"Yeah, I know. James, you need to be more careful, like erasing your history for sites like that, so he doesn't find out."

"So who did you end up talking to on the site, Paul?"

"Two girls, LaShaun and Vicky. Vicky's been through rough times, disowned by all but one aunt and uncle, LaShaun has lots of support."

James nodded, "I've talked with both of them now and then, they're both decent folks."

**********

The next two weeks passed fairly quietly, both boys had exams to take, so a lot of studying was done.

There were only three days left before school would end for the semester, both boys had passed their exams, getting decent grades. They were relaxing in their shared room when the front door slammed open, then less than a minute later, the door to their bedroom.

It was quite obvious that their father had been drinking; even from several feet away, Paul could smell the alcohol. Their father glared at both of the boys for a few minutes, shifting back and forth between them, before he half-slurred, "So which one of you is the tranny faggot?"

Paul looked up in shock, "What are you talking about?" James curled up on the bed behind Paul, a few tears sliding down his cheeks.

The man who had sired them both stood there for a moment, gathering himself. "We had to shutdown early at work today, some kind of testing for something or other that was expected to take a few hours. I got home just after 2 PM, wandered in here and checked the history on the computer. I saw the site name, lost it for a bit, then figured I needed a few drinks to deal with this shit. So who's the tranny faggot?"

"If I said I was?" Paul asked.

"Then I'd have to beat it out of you, boy! I won't have any tranny or faggot abominations like that under my roof!"

"Then I guess I will no longer be living here," Paul stated, glaring at his father, "as I'm the tranny faggot."

James couldn't let Paul take a beating from their drunken, furious father. "He's lying, I'm the tranny faggot!" he squeaked out.

The big man shrugged. "It makes no difference to me if I beat one or both of you. Get off your ass, Paul, and take it like a man!"

Paul stood up as their father stepped forward, not watching where he was going, and the throw rug slid across the floor as he stepped on it. He staggered as Paul ducked out of the way; their father fell forward, hitting the outside wall with a loud "THUNK!", then slumped to the floor.

Paul quickly knelt next to their father, checking for a pulse; when he found it, and noticed it was still strong and steady, he breathed a sigh of relief, then spotted the goose egg that was beginning to show just in front of his father's left ear. "He's out cold, we're okay for now."

Paul stood there thinking for a couple of minutes, then spoke, "The problem is, we can't be sure he won't try to hit us again if we stay here. If he does, we don't stand a chance of beating him, even though he is half drunk, he's a heck of a lot bigger than we are."

James looked down at their father slumped against the wall. "Mom won't be any help, she just does whatever he wants her to do. We both know that he uses his size to keep her in line, and as you said, we wouldn't be able to stop him. So what do we do now?"

Paul stared at the wall for a moment, then giggled, "I'm going to call Sherry, maybe she can help us." Having said that, he opened a cheap cell phone, pulled up Sherry's number that he had gotten from her that day at the Skate Park, then called and waited as it rang three times.

"Hello, this is Sherry McAllister, hiya, Paul, what's up?"

Paul spent the next few minutes explaining what had happened, then listened as she responded. "Thanks, Sherry, see you in a bit."

"Sherry said that we should each pack a suitcase, plus odds and ends that we can stuff in our backpacks. We'll meet her at the Skate Park."

Both boys got busy, stuffing as much clothing as they could into a suitcase, making sure to have socks and underwear as well, then tossed a few extra pieces of clothing into their backpacks, along with toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant and a few odds and ends.

"That must have been a pretty solid hit, he's still out cold, but his pulse is good. I'm going to call 911 before we leave," Paul announced. He hit 911 on the phone, then let the operator know his father needed help after hitting his head on the wall before he ended the call.

Paul and James left the house as quietly as they could, passing by their mother, drunk herself and snoring on the sofa already.

**********

It took the two boys almost thirty minutes to lug the suitcases to the seats by the Skate Park. Sherry was waiting there, two older people behind her, whom she introduced as her parents; the boys acknowledged the greetings, then asked what was happening.

Sherry grinned and said that she had an older friend who lived on the other side of town who had two spare bedrooms and would take them. "Paul, James, she's like me, so she understands a bit, just be honest with her and she'll respect you a lot more, okay?"

Both boys looked worried, then Paul said that being lesbian wasn't the same as their own issue.

After a quick whispered word with her parents, Sherry drew the two boys aside. "Look, my friend Tanisha is friends with a few people who are trans, as far as I know, she has no problem with it. My parents will drive you over there whenever you're ready."

"You're sure that this woman will help us?" Paul asked. "Remember, Sherry, our lives are at stake, not yours."

"Yes, I'm sure, but you're going to have to trust me on this."

"All right, let's hope this works out," Paul muttered. "Let's get moving, it's 9:30 and our father might already be conscious."

When the adults realized that the boys were ready, Mr. McAllister grabbed both suitcases and started walking toward an SUV in the parking lot next to the Skate Park. He opened the back, placed the suitcases in the vehicle, then closed it as they all climbed into the SUV.

Mr. McAllister started the vehicle and they were on their way to this woman Tanisha's house.

Note: Thanks to Edeyn for her story Sk8r Grrls, I used Heather and the Skate Park from that story in this one. The major difference is that this story is in current time, and thus would be about nine or ten years after the Sk8r Grrls era.