“I am not staying home! I can take care of myself. Anyhow I will be with friends!”

I hated when mom wanted me to stay home and help her. I was 11 and she expected me to stay home all the time. I was too young to be a maid and my job was to have friends all the time. I was an only child and mom had no dad. He left her when I was 6 and did not visit her or visit me. Being a single mom made her stressful and cranky. When I was home, all I heard from her is how wild and bad I was… how inconsiderate…. How rude… and a lot more. I bet you would agree with me that if you had to listen to this, you would go and find where your friends are.

It is a shame that mom and I cannot speak with each other. I remember once when she used to hug me while I sat on her lap. I remember I used to help her do dishes and dusting. She would read me a story at night and make sure I was tucked in. But then friends became more important and so did fashion and how I acted. Maybe I became a teenager early!

I was no longer a baby. One of moms insults at me was that I should be like Sarah that was the same age as me. There was a difference between Sarah and me… I was a boy. I listened to my mom begging me to stay as I went to the park.

I meet two of my friends. They were sitting on a bench and not doing much. That is what we did every chance we could. We talked about fashion, as it was very important for us. We also talked about sports and music. Adam and Josh were my best friends. One thing as friends is we made sure that we kept each other cool. If you wore something old-fashioned or childlike, we let each other know. If you liked an uncool movie or music, we would tease. People would think it’s wrong that we teased, but it was just for fun and to help each other in not turning into geeks
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Josh had cigarettes with him today so he shared them with us. We didn’t care when adults gave us bad looks that we were smoking. We felt cool. We didn’t care about the warnings that were on them. We were 11 and thought we would never die. We sat on the bench and had just puffed away as we seen busy people go by us as they were caught up in the stress of life. I knew that they probably considered us to be bad boys and wild, but to be honest… smoking was not the worst thing we ever done. A few times we sniffed glue which made us very high. I knew that someday, we would take drugs if we knew how we could get our hands on them.

An old woman came up to us and told us we should be ashamed of ourselves. I called her a hag and told her to sod off. This made Adam and Josh laugh. It was not like I was rude or arrogant, but we minded our business, so should she not mind hers? That was my life philosophy. I did not bother people if they did not bother me. Most people that saw us didn’t care, as they were in a rush somewhere. But some just had to interfere.

A few girls came over and I thought it was funny that Adam and Josh were so shy. They were from our class. I wondered how life was to be a girl. Hair so long that you had to spend an hour everyday brushing it and skirts that boys could look at. The colours they wore were so light… so pastel… so feminine. I was happy that I was not a girl.

Annie sat down with me and we got talking. Josh told me that she was always flirting with me. If this was true, I would not even notice it. She was a girl, and I considered her as a classmate, not a good friend, as for how can I be friends with girls. They had different interests.

“You are so rude!” She said, “I am sitting next to you and being nice. You won't even answer my questions. You are so arrogant and rude and selfish. You do not care about others except yourself. I don’t know why I bother. You won't be cute forever.”

I hated when people called me cute. They said I had an angelic face. I got teased that my eyelashes were so long. When I was smaller I had long hair, so people always thought I was a girl. Now, I could not change my face, but I made sure that my hair was short. I tried being nice to her by asking if she wanted one of Josh’s cigarettes. Annie and her friends stomped off leaving us behind. Adam told me that I hurt her… I could not understand why.

Now we were getting bored. We used a few hours showing people how tough and cool we were. The question is what we should do now. Josh suggested that we go to the mall. This made me laugh and I called him a sissy and saying that we had no money and only girl’s window shopped. So for a half an hour, we just slumped down and thought what was cool to do and what was not cool to do.

At last Adam suggested that we go to a witched house. “There is a witch that lives on the posh side of town. I never saw her, but I heard she is a hag. She has a posh sign outside her house saying that it is a school, but I do not know anyone that goes there!”

Adam suggested that we egg the house. But I had a better plan. I told them we should visit her house, but we needed to get supplies at my house. So we cycled to my house and found some spray paint. It was embarrassing that mom showed her face asking did we want lunch and were we staying home. I was annoyed and told mom that we were going out and to leave me alone. We got on our bikes armed with spray paint and started cycling to the witch’s house.

As we were cycling, Josh told me that I was mean to my mom. He said he could never speak to his mom like I just have done with my mom. I smiled and told him that he did not have to live with her and mind his own business.

We arrived at the house, and I noticed the sign said “Dollie Finishing Academy”. That was such a weird name for a school! We hid outside the hedge surrounding the house. It was a posh old-fashioned house and it looked so tidy. The garden was full of nice flowers and the lawn was cut perfectly. We hid there for some time to see if there were signs of any life inside the house. It looked empty

I took the spray paint can and gave one to the two boys. They suddenly chickened out and did not want to do it. So I snuck up to the front door and painted the word “Witch” on the door. It was a work of art, despite the fact that the “h” at the end looked like a “b”. I was giggling, not seeing anything wrong in teaching that hag a lesson. On my way out of the garden, I pulled all her roses out of the ground and threw them around. I finished by sticking my middle finger up at the house.

Then I saw a curtain move. The witch was home! I started to panic and looked again. The curtain was not moving but was that an old woman I saw behind it? I ran so fast knowing I was getting away from murder.

That was enough for that day, so I said goodbye to my friends and went home. I was hoping I could play Xbox until I was sleepy. Mom was, of course, waiting for me at the door and asked what I needed the spray paint for. I didn’t even bother to answer her. I just walked into my room. She stood in my doorway and asked did I spray some wall….. Silence…. Did I spray someone's property? I told her to leave me alone. Then she started yelling at me asking me what sort of boy I was? Did I want to be arrested and sent to some juvenile detention place? I was totally tired of her now and said I would go to Dollie Academy if it meant I would get peace from her.

There was silence from her and me. My heart suddenly started beating a lot. Did I say too much? I just mentioned the silly school. Mom could figure out that it was there I vandalised. She sat on my bed and buried her head in her hands, “I am so worried about you,” She started, “I miss my old son. The son that gave me hugs and helped me bake. I miss the son that I used to watch Disney films with and tuck him in. You are getting to wild! You are only 11 years old! I am so worried where this will end. You will soon get yourself in trouble and I am so worried that you will grow up as some convict. I do not see you have a bright future.”

Mom slumped in my bed and started crying. I looked at her and a tear came to my eye. I really did love my mom. I know I said mean things to her. I know I was mean to some people and got into trouble. I put my hand around her and gave her a hug. This didn’t last long as I knew I was too old to give her hugs. She did not understand that I was nearly a teenager and I could not act like some goody-goody whimp. I told her I was going to bed.

Mom whimpered that sometimes she wished she had a girl, as she understood girls better.
There was school next day, and it was a bore. After school, Adam and Josh said that we should cycle by the house we vandalized. This made me smile when they said: “we”. It was me that did all the hard work.

Just as we turned to cycle down the street of the witch, it started raining. I never saw it rain so much and so soon. We were soon cycling through puddles. I was getting drenched as I still had on summer clothes. I could hardly see in front of me. We cycled quicker and I tried to look at the academy as we approached but the rain was so dense. Then I heard a large bang and seen lightning very close by. This nearly made me wet my pants! The bike wobbled and I tried to brake so it would stop. I couldn’t control the bike, as it turned into the academy. I fell off the bike and felt my body hitting the ground hard and rolling around. I laid there and could not move. I saw the Adam and Josh cycle away as quick as they could.

There was so much pain and now I was in enemy territory. My eyes closed and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes, a middle-aged woman was kneeling over me. The weather was now like a hot summer day, except I was a wet rat. The lady was kind and said that it looks like I was lucky, and at least I didn’t wreck her rose bed. I looked at it and was confused. That was the rose bed that I destroyed yesterday. She looked at me and asked what the problem was. I wanted to ask how the roses grew so fast, but I shrugged my shoulders and said I am ok.

She helped me to my feet and we walked towards her house, or school or whatever it was. I noticed my spray-paint on the door, but the “h” at the end looked like a “h” and the “I” was dotted with a flower. I gasped as I seen it. What happened? The witch heard me gasp and admitted that she needed to clean it.

I sat on a sofa in her room and she got mad at me, saying that I was totally wet and would destroy her furniture. I acted like it was no big deal and this upset her more, as she said I should at least apologise. I asked why which made her turn red.

She told me that my mom would be picking me up. Until then I needed to get changed. I told her that I was OK, but this was not good enough. Then she gave a speech that when I was in her house, I was to listen and do what she said, or there would be consequences. I don’t know if I was suddenly afraid of her, or what. I didn’t speak back. I decided to defy her by stripping to my underwear and throwing the wet clothes at her. This made her smile and said she wanted my undies too.

I threw them at her and called her a perv. She smiled and said she would be back with dry clothes. On the way out she asked was I a boy or girl, because my body was very feminine… especially my face. I whispered and cursed.

She came by and started putting undies on me. Why was I letting her dress me? I looked down and could see that they were girl panties. Then looked at the t-shirt and shorts she had. They were also girls! The t-shirt had a butterfly on it and the shorts were yellow cotton ones that looked like they were painted on me. I was not wearing any girl clothes. I was no sissy! She told me it was either that or going naked. She really didn’t care.

I tried to forget that I had girl class and asked her where all the students were as she called this an academy. She smiled and said she only worked with one pupil and she would get a pupil soon. She said that her job was to make students act proper and be good for society. There were several houses like hers.

Weird!

She told me I looked pretty.

She was weird!

Mom came and was somewhat shocked when she saw me. I tried to make an excuse as to why I looked like a girl but nothing would come out of my mouth. The witch told my mother that she wanted to speak with her. They went into the office. I did not hear what they were talking about, except I heard my mom crying at one stage. When she came out, she had red eyes.

We were going home. As we were going, the witch said that she hoped I will come the next day. Mom promised she would get the clothes back

On the way home, I asked mom what the witch said. Mom said her name was Miss Shanti, and she was not a witch. In fact, Mom said she had a lot to think about.

The next day, I did not tell Josh and Adam what happened at the house. I said I did not want to talk about it. On the way home, I cycled by the Academy. I slowed down and was about to turn and visit it, but then said hell no and cycled home.

Mom was in the sitting room with my suitcase and told me I would be going to a new school. I would be living there. It was my last chance.