Twelve nights, they said. Only twelve nights for me to stand in for my sister. I only really had to worry about the nights they said. I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much in my shot wound and I don’t want to upset the police officer outside my hospital room. Only twelve nights, HA!

Have you ever seen the video with a young boy on the sideline imitating his sister and the other cheerleaders practicing? That was me. I absolutely idolized my big sister Viola. She is two years older than I am. I tried to do everything she did. No, I didn’t make the cheerleading team but I practiced with her. When she started taking ballet classes I did as well. My sister used me as a dress-up doll. I learnt how to imitate her voice, the way she moved, the way she dressed, the way the applied make-up. I wasn’t completely crazy so the only time I did it in public was at Halloween. My parents worried that I only had girly interests since my sister was a girly girl. It went so far that that they made my sister take karate. That was the beginning of our ways diverging, slightly. My sister dropped out after a few classes. I loved it and over the years I became good, very good, at it. Also, I didn’t follow my sister in taking pointe classes.

Unfortunately, my sister was the most popular girl in school and I wasn’t. I mean, I wasn’t a girl and I wasn’t popular. My sister kept her distance from me in school. I had a less than pleasant time when I got to high school. I didn’t compare well with my sister in things that mattered. I soon grew profoundly tired of always being referred to as “Viola’s hopeless little brother”. And then everything was turned upside down. My sister got this scholarship to a fancy private boarding school in a small New England town, Duke Academy for Young Ladies, for her senior year This was really a great chance for her. She’s good in school, even very good but unfortunately we are not rich and the school district we live in is really bad. That meant that she had very little chance of getting a good education even with her brains. I envied her. I’m supposed to be a genius according to some test we took and I was stuck in our crummy school.

Of course my sister had to screw things up. Well, to be honest it wasn’t really her fault she needed that operation but it meant that she’d not be able to be in her school the first two weeks. The information she’d received had been very clear that she was not allowed to arrive late for whatever reason. I tried to convince them that a medical emergency was another matter but my parents didn’t want to risk it. So that’s where I came in. Viola and I are physically rather similar. She is tiny and I … well, I’m small for my age. Similar features and I had long hair since Viola did. To be honest, I wasn’t that keen on helping my sister. A rift had developed over the summer. I had FINALLY found a girlfriend. A girl I liked very much. And then Viola swooped in and seduced her. I could have lived with that, probably. But Viola then proceeded to dump Eve in a very cruel way. Not intentionally cruel. Just in a absentminded casual way, as if Eve wasn’t worth anything. THAT was what finally made me realize what kind of person my sister was. And then they wanted me to save her!

Reluctantly I had to admit that I probably could pull it off. I could imitate her for two weeks. As they said, the nights would be the tricky part since two girls shared each room at Duke. I also had to concede that me losing two weeks at my school wouldn’t even be noticed. Only twelve nights and then I’d go back for the weekend and my sister was going to take her rightful place.

So, on the day before the first day of Fall term there I was, installed in my room in the fancy boarding school. The girl I was going to share my room with was called Olivia. She was friendly, nice, bright and absolutely the most sexy girl I’d ever met. And I was supposed to be a girl! That meant I couldn’t do anything. Except hiding that I was a boy of course.

The school surprised me. Oh, it was as posh as I had expected and as strict but not in a whip-wielding way. To begin with I realized how crummy my usual school was. The level of education was much higher. The average student here was “very good” so my sister would barely have been a median student. Sure, I was supposed to be a genius but I was also two years younger than the person I was supposed to be so I was way behind the rest of my class. Then it was all the extra-curricular activities. Since my sister was to replace me in two weeks I mostly did whatever she’d do. I tried out for the cheerleading squad. I knew that I was good after training with Viola so much but the competition was fierce. The only reason I made it was because they needed a tiny girl for the top of the pyramid. The coach was amazing. Just like all the other teaching staff at the school. Which was why I was so surprised at being placed in the advanced ballet group. I hadn’t realized how good my usual ballet teacher was. However, Miss Watson, the Duke Academy ballet teacher, was exasperated that I had no pointe experience at all despite how good I was. That was another thing about Duke. She scheduled extra pointe classes for me. Just like that.

The school was not the stereotypical girls’ boarding school though. The principal made an extra call for girls that wanted to get involved in less traditional girl activities. When she called for karate students I raised my hand. She was delighted. She was even more delighted when she asked me what color belt I had and I answered “Brown”. Since we were only two girls in Duke at that level Olivia and I were sent to the boys’ school on the other side of town for those classes. Just like the few boys who took ballet were driven over to Duke.

It was at those classes, both of them, that I came into contact with Orry, a junior. His real name is Orsino but he hates that. My first impression was that I had finally met a boy bimbo. Very much into his own appearance. Smallish with fine features and shoulder length wavy blond hair. Blue eyes. Vacuous blue eyes complementing the Winnie-the-Pooh effect of "a bear of very little brain". That was confirmed by the other boys in class. Orry was the school dunce. Since he was shorter than most of the girls and I was somewhat shorter, even en pointe, I usually had him as a partner in pas-de-deux classes. There I started to change my opinion of him. First of all he was a very good dancer. Possibly the only thing he was good at. Second I found that I could trust him implicitly which is essential when partnering. There was chemistry between us when we danced. Then I started get glimpses of a brain that I had not expected to find behind those vacuous, but pretty, blue eyes. That made me furious. Here he was in a school that, just like Duke, gave its students every chance of getting a fabulous education and he was just throwing it away. I was so mad that I told him that I’d refuse to partner him next time if he didn’t get a B on his next test. And that was the end of a beautiful partnership, I thought. That was on a Friday. I next met him at karate class on Tuesday. He abashedly came over to me with another boy, Andrew. Andrew was not one of his friends. If anything their relationship was rather chilly. Orry showed me a test with a B marked on in. A B- but still a B. I must have looked skeptical since Orry made a sign to Andrew who muttered.

“That’s true. Our teacher couldn’t believe it either but the dunce really got that grade”

And then Andrew walked away. I then proceeded to trounce Orry, again. He was definitely not at my level at karate. I kept up the threat and Orry kept getting Bs and some A-. Then one day he came shining like a sun and showed me a paper with a big fat A+. He was so excited that he’d even forgotten his hairnet so I put up his hair in a chignon. He was a very cute little bunhead. I asked Miss Watson if we could make my extra pointe class into an extra pas-de-deux class (en pointe for me, which still made me shorter than Orry). Orry “forgot” his hairnet the next class as well. That was the last time he was a bunhead because Miss Watson came down like a ton of bricks on him. Orry later admitted that he had he had forgotten it on purpose since he liked it when I worked with his hair. We kept having extra classes together the next weeks since he showed us more tests with As. Then it became a B+ and then a C. I was furious. How could he slide back like that. No extra class with Orry that week. Miss Watson backed me up. She later told me that that tore her up because she loved working with her “magic” couple. That was the last time Orry didn’t get an A on a test. I admit I was a hypocrite. My own tests came back with Cs and Ds. Thankfully never an F even if it was a close shave at times. I did not tell Orry that.

You might wonder how I had time to do all this in only two weeks. I didn’t. My sister had had some complications and was stuck in hospital. I kept her updated about school and assignments so she was keeping up. Me, I was struggling in classes but by hard work I made it somehow. I really owed it to Olivia. She taught me how to organize my life. Otherwise, I’d never have been able to juggle schoolwork, ballet, karate and cheerleading. Out of all those tings I think I loved cheerleading most. I loved being thrown up to the top of the pyramid. I loved the choreography. I loved the companionship. I also have to admit that I loved to be in the limelight at games. We cheered often since we cheered both for our own teams as well as for the boys’ teams.

One good thing about being at a boarding school was that many girls changed in their own rooms instead of the locker rooms. That helped me keep my secret. My big problem was my room-mate Olivia. She became my best friend. For me the fact that I lusted for her complicated things a” little”. That is the first week. One night I was naked when changing in the bathroom as usual when the supposedly locked door was opened by Olivia. Apart from the sexiest underwear possible Olivia was only dressed in an seductive smile. I got an instant erection. Olivia’s face went from very inviting to – disappointment. Deep fundamental disappointment.

“Drat, here I share a room with the cutest little tiny girl I ever seen. A girl I’ve lusted for ever since I first saw you and then you are a BOY! Why do you have to be a boy? I don’t LIKE boys!”

Fortunately Olivia has a great sense of humor. When I told her everything she decided to help in every way she could, until she’d get the real thing. Things became so much simpler after that. Changing at the boys’ school for karate, studying, cheerleading (Olivia was also a cheerleader).

You could say that life was good. I thrived at Duke academically even if I had to work my butt off. I enjoyed cheerleading. We got especially good at throwing me around. Dancing with Orry gave me a good tingling feeling. But most of all I was one of the popular girls. I was liked, respected and appreciated! You have no idea how great that felt after years of being scorned as my sister¨s “hopeless little brother”. There were only two things that worried me. Sooner or later my sister would leave hospital and my BFF had a wicked sense of humor that I had to be careful with.

Olivia is a boy magnet. Which thinking about her sexuality is rather ironic. Orry was infatuated with her. He was not the only one. Andrew was another, among a multitude. Orry wanted to date Olivia but was afraid to ask so he wanted me to help him. I told Olivia. Olivia told him he wasn’t her type. She also told him what her type is. Cute girls. Of course she’d reconsider if he could convince her he was a cute girl … As I said Olivia had a wicked sense of humor. The problem was that Andrew was there as well at the time. Those boys must have been thinking with something else than their brains since both of them said yes. Andrew was faster.

“Andrew, on Friday there is a school dance. I want you to come as the cutest little girl possible.”

The stupid git agreed immediately.

“Orry, since Andrew was first, I want you to come to the next dance but I expect to see an even cuter girl. You know you have it in you. Just look at you. Small, dainty, fine features, hair to die for. Or you could ask Viola here for a date.”

I was really pissed off when Orry went for option A. Not that I wanted to date him but that he preferred to be a girl for Olivia instead of asking me …

Oh, I wasn’t completely left out. Andrew came begging to me to help him become a pretty, or more exactly, cute girl. He didn’t know but he’d come to THE expert in school for that specialty.

I pride myself in having done an excellent job. Andrew was sooo cute and in that little blue dress… His face looked so deceptively innocent. I almost started to fancy him myself even if I was the artist. Pygmalion syndrome? I also emphatically state that that was all I did. I was in no way involved in anything else. ABSOLUTELY NOT. My intentions were pure whatever Andrew accused me of afterwards.

You see Olivia never actually said that SHE’D be Andrew’s date. When Andrew got to the dance, Bob, their half-back, was there waiting for him. Later in the evening I saw them on the terrace. Kissing. Tenderly.

The week after Andrew was missing from karate class. I asked Orry why.

“Andrew is in detention. He was wearing a too short skirt – again.”

Orry didn’t girly up for the next dance even if Andrew did. Andrew didn’t need any help that time. Bob and Andrew was THE couple in school. Despite that Orry declared

“Olivia will only do the same thing again and I have no intention of becoming Carl’s girlyfriend so I’ll go for option B instead. Viola, would you like go to the dance with me”

How could a girl turn down such a romantic invitation? When I told Oliva her reaction was

“Drat! Now I have to return the fee Carl paid me!”

Sure, Oliva is my BFF but I’m not sure I’d really trust her.

I became sort of Orry’s partner after that, not only in ballet. We spent a lot of time together, not only practicing ballet and karate. After a little prodding from me Orry started taking the karate more seriously. To be honest, Orry was not the nicest of persons to begin with. He had a firm belief that the world existed for him. I don’t know how it happened but the more time we spent together the nicer he became. That became obvious when he discovered my own weak grades. He wasn’t angry at me. He didn’t taunt me. He just quietly started helping me to study. Sure, he was a junior and I, supposedly, a senior so he couldn’t really coach me but he managed to help me anyway. Once I ran across Carl and he said something that confused me.

“I’m happy Orry chose you over me. I still find him very attractive but you are just the girlfriend he needed.”

That troubled me in many ways. Why would Orry need me? And I hadn’t realized that I had become Orry’s girlfriend. I had just slipped into it. That was “problematic”.

That meant I had to meet the parents as well. Mr and Mrs Duke are all old money. Mr Duke is the chairman of the board for “my” school. An ancestor founded it. Despite everything we got along very well. They and Orry’s siblings are all very nice people. That bothered me. Even if I prayed for my sister’s non-recovery every night sooner or later the moment would come. I had to make sure that the switch-over would be manageable. That meant I had to keep Orry at arm’s length. Not that the minor thing that I also was a boy also made that imperative.

Apart from that I realized that many people whom I liked and respected would be very disappointed and hurt if everything got out. The longer I kept going the worse it’d be. Soon things started to get so complicated that I even stopped praying for Viola’s non-recovery. I had to get out of this.

I did but I’m not sure it was an improvement.

In early December there was a board meeting at Duke Academy for Young Ladies. A bunch of moneybags assembled in the board room with a lovely view over the lake just below the administration building.

I never learned how things happened but suddenly there was a stand-off between four heavily armed kidnappers holding the board members, the principal and the chairman’s son hostage. Yup, Orry was among the hostages. The kidnappers kept the only entrance to the top floor covered so the police couldn’t attack while one guarded the handcuffed hostages. The kidnappers had left the windows open since they believed that it was impossible to get to the window that high up since there was only a narrow strip of land between the building and the lake.

The real problem was that the kidnappers were panicking. When the police tried to gain time they immediately shot a hostage in the leg and threatened to shoot Orry in an hour. That got out. I was shocked. First of all I was shocked by the threat but perhaps even more by how I felt. I realized that I had feelings for Orry, very deep feelings, perhaps even love even if I definitely wasn’t gay. That shock must be the explanation for me getting such an absolutely crazy idea. I rounded up the cheerleading team. On the narrow strip of land we rapidly built up a pyramid and I was tossed to the top and then the two girls at the top just below me tossed me up to the window. Of course the pyramid crumbled after that with a big splash but they had got me into the board room where I finally got some use for my brown belt in karate. Don’t ask me for details because I can’t remember. I only remember waking up in this room and being told that all the hostages were fine.

So here I am. I don’t know what is going to happen. My secret has been revealed. I did something completely stupid that could have cost lives. I have deceived lots of people including the boy I’m in love with. Yes, I finally admit to myself that I’m hopelessly in love with Orry. The boy that must hate me for tricking him. The boy I’ll never see again. Not a good day.

Suddenly my room is invaded by a horde consisting of my parents, my sister, Mr and Mrs Duke with son, the Principal and Olivia.

Mr Duke: “Dear Sebastian” (How strange to hear my own name again) “I don’t know how to thank you. First though, I have spoken with the police and they are not happy. They will not press any charges for your reckless behavior but don’t expect any medal. Personally I think their attitude a bit mean but I and my fellow board members are profoundly grateful to you. So is my son Orsino.” (I could see Orry wince at hearing his real name)

Orry: “Sebastian, how strange to call you that and not Viola. I’m grateful for saving my life and for everything you done for me in school. But I’m also confused. I thought you were a girl. A cute, pretty and perky girl that I fell in love with. I’m sorry but I’m relieved that I’ll not see you again. Goodbye!”

At that he leans over intending to give me a kiss on my forehead but somehow his head moves a bit downward and our lips meet. Earlier when kissing I have always held back knowing that he’s a boy and I’m a boy. This time there are no barriers. Only fireworks all the way for a long, looong time. Then Orry breaks off and flees out of the room. Mr Duke has a smile on his face looking at his departing son.

“That was interesting! We’ll come to that later. First some practical arrangements. I expect Viola to be in class on Monday. We wouldn’t want her to spoil her perfect attendance record, would we?”

At that he looks at my sister. Yup, I knew it. My time at Duke was over. It was a great time and could have ended much worse. Then my stomach knots at the thought of going back to my old school.

Principal: “However, we think it’s advisable that Viola and Olivia don’t share a room.”

At that Viola and Olivia, holding hands, look extremely disappointed.

Mr Duke: “Sebastian, since you have integrated so well into school, and that other matter that we don’t speak about any longer, the Board considered that it would be a pity if you couldn’t finish high school and graduate from Duke. Unfortunately your academic results are not really up to the standard expected of Duke students though.”

Damn it. I did as well as I could but given my crummy old school and the fact that I’m two damned years younger … Yes, I desperately wanted to stay at Duke and now I’d be kicked out.

Mr Duke: “However, that could be managed by moving you down a couple of years to a more age-appropriate class”

Hey, does that mean what I think? Instead of one more semester at Duke I’d have FIVE more semesters? Five more semesters with all those wonderful teachers, the girls, the cheerleading, karate and ballet. And then something even more wonderful struck me. THREE more semesters with ORRY!!!

Mr Duke: “I can’t be certain what you think about but judging from that smile you are thinking about my son. That is another thing for which I’m very grateful. You have rectified one of my life’s great mistakes. I had let him become a lazy good-for-nothing with a strong sense of entitlement. I can never repay you for that. I think you are a very good influence on him. I admire the way you covered for your sister, even if it had some unexpected consequences. I feel safer when I know that you are with him. I like you, perhaps even love you in a fatherly way. I’d be very sorry indeed if you stopped turning up at our doorstep with him on holidays. Besides, I’m eager to see you dance together. According to Miss Watson there is magic when you two dance. On top of that, you just saved me the cost of a birthday present for Orsino.”

Me, overwhelmed and confused: “Why?”

Mr Duke: “His birthday is the first day of next semester.”

Then the Dukes and OliviaandViola (that’s how I already think of them) leave and only my parents are left.

Mother: “I wonder how Viola will take being known in school as your sister?”