Erika stood stunned. Her breath still held; she wasn’t prepared for this. For all three and a half or so feet of her size, Dani seemed to tower above her.

“I, uh……… I, uh……..” Erika stammered.

“Come with me.” Dani demanded breathlessly as she turned and all but stomped to the bathroom.

Once inside, Erika closed the door, making sure that no one else was awakened by their retreat.

“Why were you sneaking back in?” Dani whispered harshly. “What were you doing out of the cabin in the first place?”

“I was just taking a walk.” Erika lied.

“Before the alarm goes off and with a back-pack?” Dani pointed to the pack slung over Erika’s shoulder.

Just then, the alarm clock went off, playing popular rock music. Groans and not so nice words followed the sound of the alarm.

“Can we talk about this on the trail, Dani?” Erika begged, trying to buy time “Not in the middle of the bathroom while everyone is getting ready for our morning exercise?”

Dani just stared hard at her.

“Please?” Erika begged. “On the trail, I’ll tell you….. Ineed to talk to you anyway.”

“Tell me what?” Dani put her hands on her hips.

“Are you done in there?” A voice asked from the other side
of the door.

“Please.” Erika pleaded.

“Fine.” Dani stomped over to the door and opened it.

“Wow. Look who the early risers are.” Katie looked like a zombie as she headed towards the toilet.

Erika dodged out of the bathroom and quickly tossed her backpack up onto her bunk and covered it with a blanket before heading outside to wait for the others to get ready for their morning exercise routine.

“How am I going to do this?” She muttered to herself. “How am I going to tell them so that they won’t either hate me, orgo running off to Mrs. Hobbs.” Dani, I’ve been lying to you and the girls, I’m actually a boy “who’d buy that?” Dani, remember how each of us has a secret? Well mine is that I’m really a boy. Erika shook her head and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She remembered that she was supposed to have bangs in her eyes and fingered them back into place.

“Aren’t you up early today.” Samantha joined her.

“It’s a long story.” Erika mumbled. “I’m going to tell them today.”

Samantha grew solemn. She walked over and hugged Erika. “No wonder you’re up so early……Did you get any sleep?” She inquired.

“I never fell asleep.” Erika squeezed her momentarily. Then started to feel her heart start to break just a bit more. She pulled away from Samantha and looked away.

“Do you want me to help?” Samantha asked.

There was a long pause……. “I don’t know, yet.” Erika shrugged. “I’m going to talk to Dani first and explain it to her. Depending upon her reaction, I may need your help.” That is if you’re not too busy pondering your date with Josh. This last part Erika kept to herself.

“This will be an exciting day.” Samantha grinned as the others joined them from the cabin.

Dani looked strangely at Erika as she came out of the cabin and they began their walk around the lake.

Erika hung back from the main group, walking a bit slower. The sky was overcast and looked like it might threaten to rain today. Perfect weather for what I have to do today. She
thought glumly.

Once they had gotten a quarter of the way around the lake Dani fell back to walk beside Erika.

“Okay, Spill it.” She looked up at the pretty dark haired girl.

“It’s kind of complicated.” Erika warned.

“Everything is complicated.” Dani sighed. “So why were you out of the cabin with a back pack this morning?”

A silence fell between them as Erika tried to gather the courage to tell her blonde friend of the situation, she found herself in. Her heart beat a bit faster, and her palms began to sweat as she took a deep breath. “Remember yesterday when we were talking about everyone
having their secrets?”

Dani nodded. “yeah.”

“Well, I have a really big secret, and one of the other girls in the cabin feels that I need to tell the rest of you.” Erika began. “Rachel doesn’t like snakes, right? Katie’s afraid of heights,
and Samantha’s sister committed suicide.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Dani inquired.

Erika looked from the trail to her blonde friend. “This is really hard for me to tell you, and I need you to promise not to blow up or something.” Erika’s face was losing color. “I also need to have you hear me out… Okay?”

“Sure.” Dani looked concern. “I’m sure it can’t be all that bad, Erika.”

Erika didn’t respond for a long moment. “Samantha and I have been lying to all of you about something….” She paused and took a deep breath. “Our first day here at camp, do you remember me telling you that I was called names, teased, and looked down upon?”

“Yeah.” Dani nodded. “Something about being accident pone.”

Erika looked at her short friend for a long moment, wondering just how to explain this.

“Right. Sorry.” Dani made a motion as if locking her lips with a key and tossing it away.

“I was called ‘the plague’ by everyone at school.” Erika explained. “I was picked on mercilessly. I was tripped, called names, laughed at and humiliated in some pretty awful ways.” Erika looked to make sure that Dani wasn’t going to try and say anything. “I didn’t meet Samantha’s sister Summer on line, exactly… we all went to the same school together. Summer, Samantha, myself……. and Victoria.”

Dani looked puzzled but remained quiet, keeping her promise so far.

“Summer, Samantha’s sister was somewhat of an outcast as well. I don’t know why, she was very pretty, but she didn’t allow people into her life. Her circle of friends was very small. She took pity on me in a way and befriended me. Even though she was an upperclassman, she would sit with me at lunch and after school…… We became really good friends.” It still pained her to think of her lost friend, and that sadness was creeping into her voice. “After she killed herself, I had no one to turn to, no one to talk to, no one to share my grief with….. To make it worse, with Summer gone, the harassment and practical jokes at school increased…… I was ‘the plague’. Anything I touched was tarnished. People would shy away from me in the halls, make rude gestures or comments, when they thought I couldn’t see them or hear them. I was to be avoided at all costs…… quarantined by my own classmates because I was different.” Erika could see that Dani wasn’t believing anything she was telling her, but kept her silence.

“I didn’t want to come to Camp Kumoni, Dani.” Erika looked out over the lake to avoid her look. It’s waters reflecting the grey of the overcast sky. “I didn’t want to be treated as badly here as I was while at school.” Tears started welling in her eyes. “That’s when Samantha contacted me and met with me…. She told me a way that I could come to camp and not be stuffed in garbage cans, tripped into the bushes, or pantsed at the lake….. She told me that I could make friends…… Friends that would like me for who I am. Friends who would not humiliate me because I was‘the plague’…….. I didn’t want to believe her at first…. But anything could be better than what I had been going through, what I had felt.” Erika dared a look at Dani who seemed to be confused but listening intently. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Thump, thump…….. Thump, thump….. Thump, thump. Her hands became clammy with cold sweat. “Dani. My name isn’t Erika Martinez……. It’s Eric Martin…… I’m a boy.”
There it was, out in the open and now in Dani’s possession to use as she deemed.

Dani stopped walking and looked up at the dark-haired beauty standing before her. Her mouth dropped open. She closed, it but then if slowly opened up.

Thump, thump……. Thump…….. thump, thump. Erika’s heart skipped a beat yet again as she waited for a reaction from Dani. Something other than the ‘gaping fish’ look that Dani was sporting.

Dani began to recover and smiled. “This is a joke, right? A prank to get little Dani.”

“What?” Erika looked unsure of the reaction. “No, Dani this is not a joke.”

“Prove it.” Dani stated. “Prove to me that you’re a guy.”

“What? You really want me to just whip out my…… my dick for you, to prove that I’m really a guy?” Erika was shocked.

“Yeah.” Dani answered.

Erika looked around……. No one was nearby. Most of the cabin were way ahead of them on the trail, they were probably on the other side of the lake by now. She looked back at Dani who watched her with a smug look on her face. Erika sighed and reached into her shorts and
began to free herself.

“What are you doing?” Dani inquired. Unease crept into her voice.

“Adjusting to show you my dick.” Erika looked up at Dani through a veil of bangs. “It’s kind of hard to get to when I’m wearing this gaffe.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you.” This time it was Dani’s color that drained from her face.”

Erika stopped what she was doing and slowly pulled her hand from her shorts. “Of course, I’m serious, Dani. I’ve been serious this whole time.”

Dani’s was in total shock. She just stared at Erika, trying to wrap her brain around the issue just presented to her. Erika was a boy.

“Why?” Dani finally blurted.

“Why, what?” Erika asked for clarification.

“Why would you want to be a girl?”

Erika just looked at her short friend. “I thought I just told you.”

“It’s not for getting your jollies watching us change or shower is it?”

“What!? No!” Erika shook her head. “I didn’t try sneaking peeks or anything, I promise.” Erika looked Dani in the eye and made sure she had her gazed locked. “I swear to you, Dani, that I didn’t try peeking or ogling anyone in the cabin.”

After a moment Dani broke her gaze. She looked back on all of the times that the girls of the cabin were changing or showering. Each time they changed, she thought it was a bit strange that Erika would always face the wall, but she had just assumed that Erika was shy. Now she understood a bit more.

“Do the others know?” She looked up at Erika.

“Samantha has helped me from the beginning.” Erika confessed. “Victoria found out Saturday while we were in town.”

“That explains why she has been bitchy and arguing with you and Samantha.”

“Yes.” Erika sighed. “She knew me as Eric Martin from school and wigged out. I don’t exactly blame her either. I just wish she could give me a chance to prove that I’m one of you.”

“Are you?” Dani raised. “Are you one of us? You said you weren’t attracted to boys. Were you telling the truth?”

“I’m not attracted to them. I’m attracted to Samantha.” Erika insisted.

Another pause punctuated their talk. The morning birds were squawking and calling to one another through the trees. Two squirrels seemed to be playing tag as they bounded after one another up and down trunks and across the path.

“So I’m the first one you’ve talked to this about?” Dani raised an eyebrow at Erika.

“Yes.”

“Why me? Why not Rachel. She seems to be our leader.”

“I don’t know….. maybe because, she can be very intimidating…… maybe because you caught me sneaking back in.” the two girls began walking down the path again.

“Why were you sneaking back in? where did you go? What were you doing?” Dani barraged her with questions.

Erika took a deep breath. “I ran away last night.”

“You ran away?.....Why?”

“When Victoria found out that I am… was Eric, she gave Samantha and I an ultimatum. We had to tell you all by tomorrow or else she would rat us out.” Erika paused, tears streamed down her face unheeded. “I got scared….. I love you girls so much and I couldn’t stand it if I hurt you in any way. I just felt that I should go and leave you all alone.” Erika’s voice quavered as she spoke.

“What brought you back?” Dani was moved by Erika’s conviction.

“As I was walking down the road. I realized a few things….. The first is that I run away from problems too much.” She smiled at Dani through tear blurred eyes. “the second, is that I like being a girl…. I like being Erika.”

“What is so different about being Eric, versus Erika?” Dani looked Erika up and down.

“Well…… other than terrified of being found out, I’m actually more comfortable as Erika.” She explained. “As Eric, ‘the plague’, I had to constantly watch my back. I never knew when someone would be sneaking up on me to put a sign on my back, trip me or yank on my back pack causing me to fall. As Erika I only have had to worry about someone peeking at me while showering, or my dick showing if I don’t sit right in a skirt.” Erika dried her eyes and looked out into the lake for a moment looking for her friend, the little black duckling. “Eric only had one friend, and she killed herself….. Erika has a whole cabin full of them… at least I hope she will still have a whole cabin full of them.” She looked to her side at Dani.

“Since we are on this honesty thing.” Dani looked up at Erika. “I have to tell you; I am a bit weirded out by you being a guy. I have only known you as Erika, and I like Erika……. I just have a hard time believing that you are a guy.” She shook her head and smiled weakly, “Ireally hate you, you know.”

“What?” Erika was confused.

“I hate you.” Dani continued. “Here you are this beautiful, blue eyed girl with gorgeous hair, and you’re not even a real girl…… I’m just a mal formed reject of a girl with stubby legs and a mis-shapened head. But you, you’re soooo perfect with that cute body of yours, and that creamy, flawless complexion. Then it turns out that you’re a guy and looking better than me… I have every right to hate you.”

“There you are.” Samantha came jogging down the path, her blonde ponytail bounced from side to side behind her catching the light as it filtered through the trees.

God, she is beautiful.

“Everything alright?” She asked looking from one to the other.

Erika looked at Dani. “Is everything alright?” she asked the petite blonde.

Dani smiled up at Erika. She took her hand in hers and gave a squeeze. “Yeah.” She said, then looked to Samantha. “Erika and I were just having a heart to heart.” She told Samantha. “I’m still tripp’n about it a bit, but I think I can handle this.”

Samantha fell to her knees and engulfed Dani in giant hug. “Thank you, Dani.” She whispered in her ear. “Thank you so much.”

Samantha disentangled herself from Dani and was replaced by Erika. “Thank you for giving me a chance.” She told her. “Let’s just hope the others will too.”

“Speaking of the others…” Samantha interrupted. “They sent me back to find you. Rachel is upset that you two fell so far behind, and Victoria is stewing in her self-righteousness.”

“One down, several more to go.” Erika sighed. “I just hope they go as well as this did with you.” She smiled at Dani.

“Shall we talk to Katie next?” Dani smiled.

“We?” it was Erika’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

“We’re in this together, now.” Dani stated. “Besides, if we can get Katie to see you and accept you as a girl, then it will be tougher for Rachel to throw a wrench in your staying a part of our cabin.”

“How do you think Katie will react?” Samantha inquired.

“I guess we are about to find out.” The girls re-entered the camp and approached the rest of the cabin doing sit-ups and crunches.