Alarm clocks are like one of those double sword edge things. They’re loud and annoying so you have to turn them off to go back to sleep, but mom and dad are going to know that you woke up if you do that. Then they’ll come in to force you to get up themselves. There’s no way to actually get any more sleep. You’re doomed the moment you wake up.

I fought against my bed to get my eyes open, squinting up at my white ceiling and the surrounding soft blue walls. I reached over to the little table by my bedside with my last bit of strength and shut off the alarm.

Even after all of that, I was still half asleep. Knowing that my bed was the only thing standing between me and another day at school didn’t make me want to get up any sooner either. My eyes drifted shut while I wiggled deeper into the covers… and then they shot open again.

I wiggled and squirmed a little more. These definitely weren’t my pajamas.

Everything snapped back into focus and threw me into wide awake panic.

Somehow school sounded like an even worse thing than it already was. I was in some weird gender-flipped world where girls played football and boys danced ballet. School was hard enough already! How would I survive this nightmare?

Could I pretend to be sick? Maybe. Yeah, that could work. I’d have to make sure I talked to mom if I wanted to pull it off. Dad already showed that he’s way too perceptive.

“Mommmmm.’ I groaned, pulling the covers up to cover half of my face. I waited a few moments and didn’t hear anything.

“Mommmmm!” I tried a bit louder.

“Yes pumpkin?” she yelled back.

Ok good, I got her attention and so far, there was no sign of dad. He must be making breakfast or something and can’t even hear me. Perfect! I’ve just got to keep going. “I don’t feel good! I think I need to stay home today!”

“What!?”

“I don’t feel good!!! I’m sick!!”

“Sorry what!? I can’t hear you!”

“I said- dang it.” Where the heck was she? Listening to sports on full volume first thing in the morning?? I hopped out of bed and opened my door.

She was standing right outside and lifted a hand to my forehead. “You feel ok to me, and it looks like you got out of bed ok. Doesn’t sound like you have a sore throat either with all that yelling.”

“What? How!?”

“You know I used to be a kid too right? Besides, nobody feeling that sick could have the energy for all that shouting.” Mom giggled and leaned down to kiss my head.

“Sorry pumpkin, maybe I’ll let you off some other time but not today. Go get dressed, ok?”

Holding back the pout I felt trying to force itself onto my lips I nodded and stepped back, letting her close the door in my face. All the comfort from last night was gone. I felt like I had lost my life and was being thrown into a new one all over again. How was I supposed to deal with school when I could barely stop myself from screaming in frustration?

“I’ll talk your dad into making waffles today! I’m sure it won’t be a problem!”

‘Yeah maybe not for you, not like you’re going to be the one making them’. I thought to myself. But whatever, I couldn’t be mad at her. At least she was trying to make my morning a little better, even if she had no idea why I needed some cheering up. It’s not like I could just tell them I was a boy who lived like their version of a girl, but that’s how all boys are from where I was from? Ugh I was going to give myself a headache and I hadn’t even had my first class yet.

I looked down at my baby blue night dress thing and decided to keep it on until I picked out some clothes. The idea of standing around in nothing but my underwear felt like it would be even more embarrassing, especially since I doubt that there was a pair of briefs in my room that I had missed last night.

Now what am I supposed to wear? Normally I would check the temperature to see if I need something warm. That should be a good way to start and might make me feel a bit more normal. I moved my curtains out of the way and pressed my hands against the glass. Way colder than yesterday. No way was I going to be wearing shorts or a T-shirt. And I definitely wasn't going to wear another dress if I could help it. There goes most of my options. I pressed my face closer to the glass, trying to get a good look at the sky to see if it was going to rain. It looked ok for now, so I’d probably be alright with anything warm enough.

That’s when I noticed our neighbor across the street also had a second story window open and some guy was getting ready for school in a rush. When he saw me, he stopped and just started staring which kind of gave me the creeps. To be fair, I guess I was just staring right back at him. I tried offering a wave and that seemed to break him free of whatever frozen time loop he was stuck in. Instead of giving me a wave back though he gave me a thumbs up and then spoke to the side without looking away. I assume to his brother since another boy ran up to the window and started staring at me as well. I couldn’t quite figure out who they were from his distance. I didn’t remember our neighbors across the street having any boys...

That’s right, they didn’t have any sons! They had two daughters! Allison and Melissa, twins who were a couple years older than me…. Twins who were probably having a blast watching me stand by my window in nothing but a slightly see through night dress.

I flushed red all the way down to the tips of my toes and threw my curtains closed as fast as I could, accidentally popping one of the rings off of the pole they hung from in the process. It’d be bad enough getting caught half naked by anyone but dressed like I was and knowing what they must’ve been thinking about while crowding around the window made it so much more embarrassing. Were girls always like that? Or was this another weird thing I'd have to worry about while I was in this world.

After taking a minute to calm down, I looked back over to my closet, took a deep breath and pulled it open. I still had a mission and if I didn't do it myself-

"Eric! Breakfast is almost ready! Get down here!"

-that would happen.

"I'll be down in a minute dad! Just trying to figure out what to wear!" I shouted downstairs. Geez, when had I ever needed to say that before? Why was there so much stuff in my closet! I never have this many clothes in my original closet.

I finally managed to find some jeans that should work. And if I could find a sweater that wasn't pink, fuzzy, or covered in cats and unicorns-

"Eric!"

I groaned internally. When did everyone in this house go deaf!?

"I'll be down in a second!!" I screamed as loud as I could and pulled some jeans off of their hanger and pulled them on, finally I could take off the dress/shirt thing.

Like the pants I found before, they felt a little bit tight around my waist and butt which reminded me of that shopping trip that dad wanted to take me on. Maybe I could grab some stuff from the boys- uh girls section. Some normal shorts and things if they had any.

Thinking of dad made me remember something else too. I pushed the long rack of long sleeves shirts, sweaters and dresses out of the way. He said he has been putting things that he wanted me to wear towards the front, which means…..

"Jackpot." I said with a grin before pulling out a very normal looking red sweatshirt. Adding to all that and a pair of socks and I was done. I thought I finally looked like a guy besides the fact that the little socks that barely came to my ankle. Why were they so small? Maybe they were the wrong size?

Dad still hadn't yelled at me again, so I must've made good time. Then I finally looked back at the alarm clock I had ignored since I first got up. I only had like 10 minutes left to eat and catch the bus!

I ran out of my room and down the stairs, slowing down when I got hit by the soothing smell of fresh waffles.

"Daaaad why didn't you tell me it was so late?" I complained before grabbing a waffle off the plate on the kitchen table, dipping it in some syrup and taking a bite.

"You're the one who only gives yourself thirty minutes in the morning to get up. I figured if you had enough time to start picking through your clothes that I didn't want to bother you." Dad rebutted from the kitchen sink where he was cleaning out the waffle iron.

Thirty minutes? What kind of psycho only gives themselves half an hour in the morning to get up! It usually takes me half that just to get out of bed. I'd have to change that alarm as soon as I got back from school.

"Well I've only got a couple minutes to catch the bus! Bye dad!"

"Bye sweetie! Have a good- wait a minute! Come here young man."

I turned around and ran over to my dad, bouncing on my heels. "What? I gotta go!"

"Not with your hair looking like that you're not! Did you even touch it this morning? You look like you got into a fight with your bed and lost."

He grabbed my head for a moment, then let go and pushed me towards the sink.

"Put down that waffle and clean off your fingers. I need to go grab a hairbrush."

"But I'm going to be late!" Geez, it couldn't be that bad. Didn’t he brush my hair last night? I put down the rest of my waffle, into my stomach, with a single large bite before rinsing off my fingers. Dad returned a few seconds later with a brush that was wrapped around like a spiky cylinder. It looked like a weapon! And it felt like one too!

"Ahf! Ah erfs!

"Don’t talk with your mouth full Eric! It wouldn't hurt if you took better care of your hair. We've only got a minute and I need to get all of these knots out." He yanked it through my hair again and all I could really compare it to was Sally grabbing my hair at church. I didn’t have any other experience with having my hair tanked on before. This felt like someone was trying to hang from my head instead of just pulling on it though.

After a few more screeches from me, and almost choking to death on my waffle, dad finally stopped.

"There, much better. Now hurry along or you'll be late." He said as he gave me a hug that turned into a push to get me off my chair.

"Bye dad! Bye mom!"

"What? Mommy doesn't get a goodbye kiss anymore?" Mom asked with a grin from the sofa where she was watching the morning news.

I diverted course a bit to give her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Love you mommy."

And with that I blasted out the front door like a rocket, dashing to the bus stop at the end of the block.

I completely missed the shocked look on mom’s face as she rubbed her cheek. Dad said it was pretty funny. It wasn't on purpose, but I consider it payback against my double for making everyone think I'm some sort of muddy pig back in my world.

I got to the stop just as the bus rounded a corner and started down our street. I was panting like a dog, but I'd made it.

The other kids kept their distance from me, including Allison and Melissa. That didn’t mean I was safe though. The twins kept giving me plenty of looks and whispering to the only other girl at the stop. There was one other boy, I think his name was Adam. He was a bookworm like me, so I never got to know him well and it seemed like that was still the case. We both held back and let the girls jostle and push their way onto the bus before trying to get on ourselves.

Our bus driver, my bus driver I mean, used to be this older guy that didn’t really talk much. He kinda looked sick all the time and on my first day at middle school I was scared he was going to die at the wheel or something. This person was pretty much the opposite. She was an overweight woman with a nice complexion and a cane. She gave both the girls and us some bright smiles as we boarded. “Morning. Good morning. Morning you two.” she said, nodding at us when we passed.

Now I came to yet another problem. Where was I supposed to sit? I didn’t really have many friends at school. Being two years ahead and not very social made that pretty much impossible to fix. Finding a seat felt like an even larger challenge than normal with everyone gender flipped around like this. How was I supposed to interact with a bunch of guys who thought like girls, or girls that treated guys like girls? God this was so confusing.

“Don’t stand there all day sweetheart.” The bus driver admonished me. “I can’t start driving until you sit down.”

“Oh, uh, sorry!” I walked down the aisle slowly looking at everyone’s faces. It felt like everyone was staring back at me. I was holding everything up. They were all watching me. I could feel my heart beginning to race. Oh no no no! What am I supposed to do!?

“Eric!”

A girl called from behind while waving at me frantically to grab my attention. I quickly changed course and jumped into the seat next to them, breaking my line of sight with the rest of the bus. A second later I felt a jolt as the bus started to roll forward. Phew.

The girl laughed a little. “Geez, you walked right by me. I thought you were gonna walk to the back of the bus and jump out the back door.”

I took off my backpack and dropped it between my feet on the floor. “I really might’ve. I wasn’t sure where to go.” And now I was even more nervous.

I mean I guess I’m better off sitting next to a friendly stranger than an unfriendly one, but she didn’t look like the type of person that would normally give me the time of day. Her skin was pale, and her long black hair was highlighted with greens and blues, twisted up into a long braid. She was wearing an expensive looking white puffy jacket, boots, a long skirt and those long sock things. Leggings or tights or something. Her backpack rested in her lap, covered in tons of colorful pins and stickers, most of them had little green men or stars, planets, and other space related things.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Wellllll sorryyyyy I’m not noticeable enough for you. Maybe I can add that to the list of reasons dad should let me use some makeup. He STILL says I’m not old enough for anything other than lipgloss. Can you believe that? I’m already 12 years old! I’m not asking for bicep implants or anything. And Jerry Fisher is already using a beard shadow volumizer. He looks soooo stupid! He doesn’t even have facial hair! Plus he looks like he just dunks his face in it. Super unflattering.”

There wasn’t much I could do but sit there in stunned silence. The avalanche of words that just got dumped on me from a stranger that I couldn’t believe was giving me any attention at all was bad but the whiplash back to my current reality that this girly looking person was actually a boy was even more unnerving.

“Sorry Eric, I know you’re not super into cosmetics and stuff yet.” She, no he, smiled and shrugged. ”But speaking of, I like your hair clip. It looks really cu- uh cool on you.”

A quick pat down of my head helped me find what she was talking about. I felt a little plastic bumpy thing. Some of my hair fell back into my face when I pulled out the clip and I could finally see what looked like a little white flower with some sort of clip that I guess must be what holds it in place.

“Dad must’ve done that this morning. I forgot to brush my hair and he wouldn’t let me leave the house until he fixed it or whatever.”

“Right, you forgot to.” He chuckled a bit before holding out his hand for the hair clip. “It really does look nice on you though. Want me to put it back in?”

When he saw me hesitate he added “Oh come on, you can trust me, I’d never do wrong by my BFF.”

Trust you? I don’t even know you! But I guess she- he knew me, or the other version of me.

“Uh… ok, sure.”

That got a very big grin out of her- him as she- he! yanked my head around and fiddled with my hair. Handing over the hair clip to her felt a bit like giving away the key to my boyhood but, at least one of us was happy. I didn’t want to completely ruin my double’s life and upset everyone he knew. Plus… I’d never had a best friend before and I kind of wanted to enjoy that, even if they were a girl- dang it no he’s a boy. It was going to be really hard to remember that. He looked so girly!

Suddenly I felt something click in my head and I completely zoned out as this person finished with my hair and started trying to talk to me again. I was way too wrapped up in my sudden insight to really hear anything though. If I was going to make it through today and who knows how many more days in this world then I had to stop thinking with, like, my normal logic or whatever. These weren’t girly looking boys, they were just boys looking like boys. This kid wasn’t acting like a girl, he was acting like a boy. The girls weren’t being rough like boys, they were just acting like immature girls. Everyone else was acting totally normal. I was the one acting and looking weird, trying to dress up like a girl and thinking like one. I was just making myself look like a.. a tomgirl or something. Dresses are for boys, it’s the girls that would be weird if they tried to wear them.

Dresses are for boys.

I just had to practice remembering that.

“Ow!” I was brought out of my thoughts by a sharp jab to my arm by a manicured looking nail.

“Earth to Eric? Hello? Geez, if my weekend was that boring you could just tell me.”

“No sorry, I was just thinking about some stuff. I wasn’t trying to ignore you.”

“You were thinking? Wow something crazy must’ve happened. You’ve gotta tell me what you were up to over the weekend!” He laughed.

I cracked a smile and laughed too. “What’s THAT supposed to mean! My weekend was boring. I didn’t do anything.”

An older looking girl poked her head up over the seat behind us. “Oh that’s not what I heard. It sounds like you were pretty busy to me. Hey Eric, Hey Brandon.”

“Oh Madison! Hi! Where’d you hear that?”

“The Ferguson twins said you were uh flashing them this morning and stuff.” Both her and Brandon slid their eyes over to me with bated breath.

“What!? No!” I yelled, hoping that the heat on my cheeks wasn’t visible.

“But they said-”

“Whatever they said was a lie, obviously. Allison and Melissa are just being jerks.” Brandon jumped in. “Right Eric?”

I nodded my head a little and Brandon continued. “He doesn’t even LIKE girls yet, so if they saw anything it’s because they were spying on him like a couple of creeps. You should be bothering them, not him. I didn’t think you were that kind of girl.

Now it was Madison's turn to blush. “I didn’t mean it like that Brandon, I just-”

“Just what?” He demanded, crossing his arms and glaring at her.

‘Uh… nothing.” she responded before slinking back into the seat behind us. She whispered loudly to someone else. “He didn’t do nothing; the Ferguson’s are full of it.”

I collapsed back against the sticky fake leather bus seat. “Thanks Brandon. How’d you do that?”

“Well girls aren’t too hard to deal with when you know what to do. You just need a little confidence.” he said in a conspiratorial tone. “Now, what happened?”

“What? Nothing happened. I just…. Sort of opened up my curtains when I got up and they were looking.”

“Oh my gosh, did you change in front of them?”

“No!” I yelled back with a whisper. “I closed my curtains when I noticed them!”

Brandon cracked a smile and started to titter. I gave him my best glare, trying to channel my inner dad, but he just laughed even harder.

“What are you laughing at!”

“I’m just imagining the looks on their faces! They were probably waiting for you to barge into their house and tear their heads off after you closed your curtains!”

Ok now I was just confused. Why would they think that? Was the other me really that violent???

“Don’t worry Eric, if I hear anybody else talking about it then I’ll tell them that those girls were spying on you or something. That’s a lot more believable than a sallygirl like you doing something stupid like that.”

Sallygirl… oh! No wonder my double was a mess when I saw him a few hours after our swap. He must’ve been acting like the girls here, rough and stuff. That would explain a lot like the way my parents were acting, and Melissa and Allison gossiping about me. I guess I lucked out a bit. People wouldn’t think it was weird to see me acting like a girl or not knowing a lot of boy stuff. Is that why the other me didn’t want to come back? How was I going to convince him to-

"ERIC!"

"What!?" I almost fell off of my seat and threw an angry look to Brendon.

"You keep ignoring me." He said with a pout on his lips. My glare really needed some improvement. 0-2 so far.

"If you dont wanna talk to me or something just say so."

Uh oh. "No Brendon, I just got a lot to think about, that's all "

"Like what?"

"Personal stuff."

"And you don't think you can tell me? You, me, and Christian promised to talk to each other about everything. Are you mad at me? You could've told me if you didn't want the hair clip back in."

"Wait, wait, it's not that big of a deal, really!"

"So there is something going on! What is it?"

God this guy was tricky! I had to tell him something quick before he led me to start spilling everything. But what was I supposed to say?

'Sorry Brandon, I don't actually know you, I'm from a different universe. Haha, I know, crazy right?'

Crazy, that's what they'd call me before the doctor filled me up with giggle juice at the hospital!

I took a deep breath. All I had to do was give him a half truth. It worked on dad. Something just enough to satisfy him that I was dealing with something big and secrety.

"Ok. You know how I’m sort of….girly?”

He nodded with a faint smile improving the upset look on his face. “Yeah, I kinda noticed that.”

“Right, well…. Dad mentioned yesterday that I was acting a little more mature. I guess I've just been thinking about growing up, trying to be a bit more manly and stuff.”

"This is you trying to be more manly?" Brian asked unconvinced, looking over my jeans and plain oversized hoodie.

"Uh well I don't have a lot of stuff……. A lot of the stuff I have looks like it's for bo- girls. And the other things are definitely for kids? It’s stuff that dad has been trying to get me to wear for forever. I can't wear that stuff to school, you know? I'd look like a dork."

Slowly, Brandon began to nod his head. "Yeah, I know you fight with your dad a lot over clothes and stuff. I remember him saying something like 'you should wear something at least once before throwing it away!'."

"Exactly! Yeah!" I encouraged him.

"Hmm… you know, I do have some stuff that might fit you that I don't really wear anymore."

Now it was my turn to give Brandon another look over.

"Umm… that's alright. Dad said we needed to get some more clothes anyway since I'm probably going to go through a growth spurt soon."

I swear I saw a cartoony glimmer flash in Brandon's eyes as he asked. "You're going shopping? When?"

"I- I don't know? He didn't say, just sometime soon…. I'm afraid to ask, but why?"

"Because I want to come along! Duh! If you really want to get the best view of what it's like to be a guy, you need an expert. And no offense to your dad but old people don't really have a clue what's cool any more. Going with him does give us a better chance of getting some cute stuff though. Like my mom is always telling me 'You are not stepping out of this house dressed like that young man!'. But with your dad I'm sure we'll be able to get you at least some nice stuff. Nothing too bad though, don’t worry, I mean you’re only 10! No offense, you just act super mature that I forget sometimes. We should invite Christian too! Strength in numbers and all, right?”

Oh my god. Did this boy even breathe?

"Right, well I'll let you know. It just feels like a lot is happening at once… I'm kind of scared."

"Yeah, it feels like you go from being a little kid to an adult super quick." Brandon said a bit wistfully as he reached out and put an arm around me, pulling me in for a hug.

"But if you think of it as an adventure then you can balance out the being scared by being really excited. Plus, if things do go bad you're not all alone, ya know?"

I nodded my head and returned his hug. "Ditto, for you…. And Christian too." Even if I had no clue who that was.

We continued to talk the rest of the way to school after breaking up the hug.

Alright, he did most of the talking, but I liked it better that way. I didn't want to risk him realizing that I had no clue who he was. Asking him about the pins on his bag got him into a big talk about astronomy and aliens, or 'extra terrestrials' as he insisted they should be called. Aliens is too silly and makes people think of little green men. I thought it was kind of a weird objection when he had more than a few green, blobby creatures on his bag, but whatever.

I was sure I could still hear some whispers about me as we got off the bus and I hoped Brandon was right about nobody buying the rumors. But I had a feeling that our bus dropping us off at school was like throwing a lit match into a pile of kindling. This might be a rough start to my new school life here.

If I knew how true that was back at that moment, I might have turned around and just ran back home.

Fun Fact! Martin I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Martin Tudor, and as "Bloody Martin" by his Protestant opponents, was King of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until his death in 1558. He is best known for his vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of his father, Harriot VIII. His attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during his five-year reign, Martin had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Martian persecutions.

Luckily I had this chapter alreay written! My keyboard is having some problem so it might be a bit before I get the next one out! Sorry in advance!