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I took a shower and did my morning hygiene. My family has always been early risers, so waking up to the night never bothers me. I quite enjoy the night. The darkness feels like a shield of some kind.

“James, breakfast!” My mom yells up to me. Even though our family is early risers. I was still the last one to get up. Of course, all I could do is stumble down the stairs because despite being used to getting up in the dark hours of the morning. I am still groggy and could sleep more.

“James, we’re going to get you a haircut soon,” Mom announces as I play with my hair. I do like my hair longer. Nothing past the ears of course, but I dislike those silly pseudo-military style haircuts I’ve gotten since I was old enough to have hair. Weirdly enough my hair is growing faster lately. I don’t know why to be honest. Maybe I am getting another growth spurt. I do need one. I’m lacking in all areas in terms of a guy’s body shape considering I stand at the height of five foot even with a child’s frame.

“Mom, can I go to Garrett’s house after school?” I ask as I sit down right in front of my little sister, Debbie. Who was inhaling everything on her plate? I swear that girl acts more like a boy than me. I mentally shiver at that thought.

Mom thought about it for a second and reluctantly said, “Sure, only if you buy groceries sometime in between.”

I give a small smile as I chirp, “thanks, mom!”

My sister stares at me for a few seconds, “You know James, you have a really cute smile. I’m betting you would look hot as a girl. Ever considered cross-dressing?” She snorts giving a mischievous grin. I shiver a little at that thought. Me crossdressing? Never.

I quickly thought of something witty, “You would be jealous of me cross-dressing.” Or at least tried to. I knew I failed to some extent, so I quickly shove my food down, grab my bag, and went to school.

School isn’t too bad if you tried not to stand out as my friends and I did. We all agreed that school was a waste of time, and the only reason why we go to it is that we were told to. My friends consisted of three people, not counting me of course. The bigger guy is Dan. He loves sports just as much as he loves anime and manga. Quite an incredible guy really. The willowy build guy is Garret. He’s your man if you need a good storyteller. He always is our dungeon master in Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) nights. Last, but not least, our hidden beauty, Sasha. She hides her beauty very well. Even from us guys, though, I know better. I don’t know why she hides her body so much though. Everything about her is sexy and cute in some way. Maybe it’s because this school is mostly white and she’s the minority as black.

“You look different today.” The sexy black girl tells me thoughtfully as she sits in front of me at lunch. We get into lunch before the rest of my friends.

“I do? In what way?” I reply curiously. It’s not every day when someone tells you that you look different.

“I don’t know. In a good way, maybe?” she said then mumbles something inaudible.

“Haha, puberty must be setting in for me. Sooner or later I’m going to be the hottest stud muffin around, and I’ll get all the chicks.” I exaggerated in a silly kind of villainy voice. Sasha rolls her eyes and giggles.

“Your eyes changed, or I think so. Maybe I’m just hallucinating.” The rest of the team walks in and began their line waiting.

“If my eyes are changing. I hope I get lilac eyes. That color would be cool to have. What color would you want your eyes to be, Sasha?” We continued the conversation from that to animals and then to anime. Jeez, I sure do love talking to Sasha, we have a hella lot in common. When the rest sit down we continue the conversation to our DnD night tonight and present our characters. We have a thing where we don’t introduce our characters until the night of DnD. Makes things more exciting.

“We will start with you first, Jamie,” Garrett tells me signaling I should introduce my lovely character.

“Well,” I start as I slid my character sheet towards the middle of us. “I made an elf bard with the only idea of playing disruption.” Disruption meaning that instead of attacking normally, I disrupt the enemy to support my teammates. “What makes him different from other elves is that he’s a trap.” Everyone starts giggling. To explain, a trap is a term from anime culture where a boy is so feminine that they pass for girls. Of course, they’re still guys.

“A trap? That’s a new one.” Questions Dan as he takes a bite of his ‘hamburger’. If you can even call it that.

“Yessurooo, Danny boy. My character is the best boy in all the land! He has a thing for cross-dressing and making guys go kill themselves. Oh yes, this character is lawfully evil and believes that all men should die. Leaving only women and traps. It’ll be the dawn of the new age!” I explain with an evil grin while trying to hold my chuckling. My three friends were laughing. Sasha looked like she was about to die. Was it that funny? I don’t think so. There must be more to this laughter, so I pressed. “What’s so funny?”

“You!” Garrett stifling a chuckle.

“I know that it wasn’t that funny.”

“Yes, it was!” Sasha finally calming down from her giggle fit.

“How?” I ask curiously.

“Are you going to cosplay like that last time we set up a campaign?” Dan asks with a nice broad grin. Man, I can see why the girls like him. That grin is just infectious. He adds “Like when you dressed as a pirate.”

“What he means to say is, are you cross-dressing,” Garrett said briefly after Dan.

“You are the second person today to mention that I should cross-dress. The answer is no. I’m not interested in wearing women’s clothes. Also, why is everyone asking me that!” I exclaimed with a mocking frustration.

Sasha blurts out, “Because you would look really cute.” I feel my face heating up as I stare down at the lunch table.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” I tell the group softly. I can’t help it. A beauty like Sasha tells me that I’m cute. Regardless of what she meant behind it. A compliment is a compliment. Man, oh man, I can’t wait until I get home. I’m going to brag about this to my sister.

I stand inside the bathroom as I wash my face. It looks a little different than before. More feminine. Maybe I’m just seeing things. My eyes do look different. A bit more purple and bigger. Maybe I’m seeing that too.

Cue a deep voice saying, “Hey brat.” I know exactly who this guy is.

“Hi Mike,” I said cautiously as I turn around to find a jock towering over me. “What a pleasure in meeting you today?” I said sarcastically with a warm, or at least tried to be warm, smile.

“You know what I want.” Well, this isn’t unexpected. Last month he asked for money too.

“Well, can’t your family give you money? Or is your mother still using her money for pot.” I almost feel sorry for the kid, almost. His mother is a known crack whore, so naturally, he’s poor. It doesn’t give him a reason to be hurtful though.

His eyes narrow and frown. Mike walks right up to me grabbing me by the throat, slamming me against the wall. “Give me what I want, or else I’ll beat you to a pulp!” He growled

I grin smugly then shrug, “You won’t do that. If you do, then I’ll make sure to put you in jail.” I feel a strong pain hit me in the gut knocking my breath out. Sending me to a coughing fit.

“Shut up brat or I’ll start aiming for the face. Now, give me your money.” Mike screams as he aims his fist high and threatening.

“Fuck you!” I cough. He pulls his fist back, and all I could do is close my eyes, yell “STOP!” and hold up my arms to block. Nothing happens. I open my eyes to find a tensed Mike. He looks like he wants to move, but couldn’t for some reason.

“What did you do?” His voice sounding strained.

I took the advantage to say, “What? You too fearful of me? Now if you don’t mind. LEAVE ME ALONE!” The ‘leave me alone’ part seemed louder than before. Mike drops me and went on his merry way. This is really weird. He normally just beats the shit out of me until someone helps me or I give him what he wants. Oh well, this is better than the alternative. I look in the mirror one last time and my eyes were dimly glowing a violet purple, or maybe that’s just me seeing things. I wash my hands and walk out.

I walk back to my table right when the bell rings. “Son of a bitch,” I mutter as I turn straight around and walk to my next class. Sasha runs up next to me matching my pace.

“Why do you have a bruise on your throat?” She asks with a concerned tone.

I only gave out one name, “Mike.” Her face becomes grim as she remembers how that jock used to bully me.

“You need to stand up for yourself, Jamie. You’re not always going to be saved.”

“You know why I choose not to get violent. This time was different though. I said ‘Stop’ he stopped and when I told him to leave me alone. He did just that. It was the weirdest thing. Maybe he’s afraid of me. Or something else.”

Sasha mutters “Siren” I barely caught it so I ask, “What did you say?” as we stop.

She stares at me thoughtfully for a moment to say, “Nothing, never mind. I’ll tell you later.” As she trots off to class. I shake my head and continue the rest of the school day.

As normal, school is dreadfully boring. History and science weren't too bad. I quite enjoyed both even though I suck at science. I felt a little light headed for most of the day. Nothing too bad, just felt like I was floating. I took the bus to my house and grab my bike. I then cycle to Garrett’s house. It’s the most comfortable place to play. His mom and dad are cool. They always provide delicious snacks.

I knock on the door. The door opens and I’m greeted with a warm smile saying, “Hi Jamie. Ready for your little game?”

My face turns to a broad grin “Hi Mrs. Freitag. Yup, I’m all ready for the game. I’m a bit light headed. If you don’t mind. May I nap on your couch?” I always try to be polite towards the Freitags. They’re the nicest people I know.

“No,” my heart froze for a second as she continues. “You won’t be sleeping on the couch. You’ll be sleeping in a bed.” My grin went from ear to ear hearing that.

“You know, Jamie. When you grow up you’ll be so handsome. That smile of yours is simply beautiful.” I feel my face heating up and look down to hide it.

“Mrs. Freitag. Is it ok to give you a hug?” I said as I fidget.

“Of course, Jamie!” I hug her. I quite like hugging Mrs. Freitag. She’s just the nicest. I never get hugs from my mom let alone my sister. I almost forget how it feels.

“Thank you,” I said in her arms then let go and head off to bed. Is it fortunate or unfortunate that as soon as I’m in the house my body felt heavy and my head ached? I could barely walk as I held the wall for support.

“THUMP!” said the floor as I fade into darkness.