Orphan Petal

May 2023 - Part 2

This is the story of an 11-year-old who loses his parents and is now an orphan. He is bitter and mad at the world. His new life will change him in ways he never knew possible. Can he find himself and be happy?

This is a spin-off to the story "The Teenage Years of Alexander Horten"

Logan:
Shirley moved in. I know he does not like to be called Shirley, but it is a pretty name. I wish I had a pretty name. I do not think Shirley likes it here. I could see his face scrunch and look pale when he saw my… I mean our bedroom. I think it will be fun having a brother. Maybe he thinks the bedroom is too girly. I was afraid that he would think that I was a sissy. My mother doesn’t like when I say I am a sissy, but everyone else says it. She says I am feminine. She also reminded me that everyone else has accepted me and so will Shirley. My first impression of Shirley is that he is very cute. I know he is not feminine, but he looks like a tomboy. He is too pretty to be a boy. I did my best to make Shirley as welcome as possible. I tried talking with him several times. Every time I tried, he told me to leave him alone. I suppose it will take time

Shirley:
Logan is a pain. Not only is he a sissy that likes girl things, he talks as much as a girl. I just wanted to be alone. I feel so bad. This is not because my parents are dead. I can accept that and I know they are looking down at me from heaven. I will make them proud of me. My problem is that I feel guilty. I remember that my Dad could not concentrate on the traffic because he tried to take my side when mom told me I had to tidy my room. If I just agreed to clean my bedroom, there would be no crash. This means that it was my fault that my parents died. This is a feeling I cannot get rid of. It is something that consumes my thoughts and is like a dark cloud over me.

Foster Mom:
Tonight when I was tucking the two boys in, I tried to give them some motivation and something to think about. I told them that Shirley had been through a lot. He was in an accident that had changed his life. He lost his parents and now was forced to live with us. He did not know us and besides going through grief, he now has a new family. I looked at Shirley and told him that we wanted him to be happy. We wanted him to feel wanted and secure. We would help him in any way we could. I told him that we could never replace his mother and father, but we would hope he would feel as if we were a family. This also meant that he had to make an effort. He had to give us a chance. I told him that this also meant accepting and respecting Logan. He is different from other boys. He is feminine and girly. This is not a bad thing. Logan has a good heart. I left the two boys and was quite proud of myself. I felt that getting things out in the open meant there were no barriers.

Shirley:
Foster mom thought that she would make everything better by opening her heart. First, she reminds me once again I am an orphan. She knows that they can never replace my parents and yet she wants me to consider everyone here as my new family. This includes accepting that Logan is a sissy. She even admitted that he is different and thinks it's up to the world to accept him. This made me think that she was weak. I mean a mother should not allow her son to have a girl's bedroom and pretend he was a girl. Does she know that sissies are weird and have no friends? There must be some mental problems with Logan and now I was expected to share a room with him. I cried myself to sleep. I miss my parents and the normal life that I once had. Logan could hear me crying and came over to my bed and put his hand on my shoulder. I pushed him off of me and told him never to touch me again. I did not want a weird sissy boy touching me.

Doctor Mary:
Shirley's Foster mom rang me and told me that things are going well considering the circumstances. Shirley is very quiet and tends to stay in the bedroom a lot. He avoids Logan and she thinks that he may dislike her son because he is very girly. I tried to explain that Shirley came from a very conservative family and having a feminine son could be very new for him. Shirley would most likely look past how Logan dressed and acted and accept him for the person he is. I advised that Shirley started at his new school as quickly as possible. Routine, structure and new experiences will give him something to do and have some normality in his life. Shirley's stepmom was unsure. Her thoughts were that she would take Shirley to the mall to get bonded. In the end, she told me that I was the professional and he would start school in Logan's class.

Teacher:
I have a friend who was Shirley's teacher at his old school. She told me that she was happy he was starting at a new school. While he had friends at the old school, he could be an aggressive boy and at times a bully. This was with children who were different to him. They could have the wrong religion or be the wrong colour. He would also lash out at others if they criticized him or teased him. All in all, Shirley does not sound like the model student as described in his papers. His first school day here did not go well and I could understand what his old teacher was saying. One of the other children asked him if he was a sissy like Logan. This was because they noticed he was wearing a necklace. Shirley shouted it was his mother's necklace and Shirley started beating up the boy that asked the question. I think that Shirley started back at school too early. He needs more time to grieve and get over the death. Still, the boy has started and we can only hope he will settle down and make friends.

Shirley:
I hate school. They all think that because I now live with Logan, I must also be a sissy. One boy even noticed I was wearing a necklace. Wearing a necklace does not mean I am some sissy boy. I wear it to keep Mom close to me. I am not like Logan. He is just a sissy boy that needs to act more normal and stop being such a freak. I am sure that the boy or any other person at the school will not call me a sissy again. Otherwise, everyone at the school was too nice. They have heard about my parents and I suppose they wanted to be nice to me. The problem was that I thought this was annoying. Besides the fact that it kept reminding me about my parents, I wondered why they were so nice. Did they just feel sorry for me or did they want to be friends? I missed my friends at my old school. How would I ever make friends here?

Foster Mom:
I heard about Shirley's fight at school. I was not too worried. It was his first day and there had been many changes in his life. Boys will be boys and we must all have patience with Shirley. When I asked him how school went, he just shrugged his shoulders. Then he said in a low voice that he had to do his homework. I did not hear anything more from him all night except when I heard him telling Logan to leave him alone. I am so proud of Logan. He is so nice to Shirley and tries his best to make Shirley welcome. The problem is that Shirley has put a wall around himself. He does not say anything. It will take time. I know this. It will be important that he will learn to trust us and learn how to open his heart to us. I believe that when a person is in a crisis, it often helps to talk with others. Shirley cannot keep things bottled up and not speak to others about how he feels. The best I can do is to show that I am there for him when he is ready and would like to talk.

Logan:
It's been a few days since we started back at school. No more trouble has happened. I think it's because everyone is afraid of him. He does not speak with me either. He just grunts and tells me to leave him alone. Still, he is my brother and I am trying my best. I know he is very fond of the necklace he wears. I know it is from his mother. I asked him if I could see it. This made him mad and he told me that no one is allowed to touch it. He did not want a sissy boy touching it. His words hurt. Shirley does not like that I am girly. Every time I call him Shirley, he gets mad and tells me to call him “Shir”. He has been living with us for a bit now and I am trying my best. I just don’t know if I like him. So far he has just been mean. Mom told me to have patience as Shirley has been through a lot. I hope she is right.

Shirley:
Logan wanted to talk with me today. Since we will be living together, he wanted me to know about him. Since he was a small boy, he liked girl things. He liked girl clothes and toys. At first, his mother did not take him seriously. She thought it was a phase. She did allow Logan to dress as a princess for Halloween. I asked him if he wanted to be a girl. Logan did not want to be a girl. He just liked the pretty clothes and the toys. Logan could not see a problem if a boy wanted to wear a dress. His mother can also see this and she bought him girl clothes so he could be a girl when he wanted to be. His bedroom was also changed to a girl's bedroom. Logan must have seen the confused look on my face. He giggled and said that must make him a sissy, but we cannot all be the same. Then he got serious and said that since I was not a sissy, we should make my side of the room boyish. I told him that I would appreciate this. What else could I say?

Teacher:
It's now been a week since Shirley started at the school. He is doing well in classes and seems to be an intelligent child. He still does not participate in class but his homework is perfect. I am more worried about his social side at school. The other students try to talk with him and involve him in his activities and games. Shirley has no contact with the others and does not even want others that he lives with Logan. He still gets in fights with other children. This happens daily. Today a girl asked him why he is so short. This sounds like an innocent question. Shirley did not think this. He pushed the girl as hard as he could. I am afraid if this continues, then everyone will be afraid of him. Maybe this is what he wants. His parent's death cannot be used as an excuse, He was the same in his old school.

Foster Mom:
I spoke with the teacher again. She told me about Shirley's fights with the other children. She thinks he is a bully. I told her that this was rubbish. He just needs to adjust to the new life he has. I did not talk to him about this. I helped Shirley and Logan with his side of the bedroom. He still has to live in the pink room, but at least there are posters he has that he likes and some of the toys he had from his old room. Maybe this will help

Logan:
I do not know why I did it but I asked Shirley if he wanted to dress up. He could try on one of my dresses. Shirley snapped back at me and told me he is not a sissy and does not want me to corrupt him. I thought he would hit me. The only thing he said was to stop trying to be his friend. He hated me. These words hurt more than punches. I do not see what his big problem was. He would look more like a girl than I do if he was in a dress. I mean he is not cute, he is pretty. I heard mom say once Shirley looks more like a tomboy than a boy. Maybe that is why his parents called him Shirley. He looked like a baby girl when he was born. I do not know why he hates me. I just suggested a game and it's okay If he didn’t want to do it. Shirley may hate me. To tell the truth, he is also a very hard person to like.