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Author's Note: There's another time jump in this chapter. We get to find out her father's problem and for those of you who have asked, yes Josie does go and get her mother's bike. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and Lilith for helping me when the first draft of this chapter was crap. Blue Beetle and most of the characters within belong to DC Comics.

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Chapter Nine:

After my encounter with Posse, things in my life kind of slowed down.

I’m sorry if my narrative takes a little jump again, but the days that followed the event were kind of boring and nothing really exciting happened. Ok, stuff happened, but it wasn’t anything like foiling bank robberies or getting attacked by notorious neighborhood gangs. I suppose you want me to tell you about it. Ok, so after getting the book and coming back home, my mother was a little peeved. I told you she would be. She grounded me for a few days, confining me to the house. Like she wasn’t doing that already.

Milagro was gracious about the book until later that night... she overheard the three way conversation I was having with Paco and Brenda about Posse. She wasn’t too happy and threatened to tell Mom, so I had to let her sit in on the conversation, too. I think it made her happy that she was finally a part of the group.

The day after the Posse incident, my test results came back. I know you probably think this is pretty exciting but it’s not. They already told me what I already knew: I wasn’t a Meta. There were some discrepancies, though and it was enough to convince the government there was something different about me. So they approved my gender change and went ahead with all the paperwork needed to do so. They put it on the fast track. But they said there was no problem with me applying to school, so later that day that’s exactly what Mom and I did.

We had to meet with the principal, Mrs. Harris, and the School Board president, Mr. Duncan, in private. Both of them agreed that there was no reason that I couldn’t start the placement tests but I wasn’t allowed to officially start school until the paperwork was in. So I set up an appointment for the tests. No one likes to take tests so I was kind of wary of that. After the meeting, Mom took me to the Shops. The bad news, we spent three hours school shopping, the good news I was finally able to get my bike back. We brought the truck so I was able to put it in the back. Mario was a little surprised to see my mother, so she gave him the fake story we cooked up. He said he thought I looked familiar. Mario talked my mother’s ear off a bit about his family.

The day after that…very boring. Enough said.

The next day, my paperwork arrived. I did say they put it on the fast track right. Well now I was officially Josephina Isabella Reyes, please call me Josie. Milagro was so happy that she cried in my arms for ten minutes. When that was over, my mother took us out to celebrate. Half way through our meal, my father arrived. Yeah, remember him, Mr. Avoidance.

He looked at me and I knew there was something he wanted to say but I beat him to the punch. I was so angry with him by that point, I could have ripped his head off. I almost did with my verbal lashing: “You here to sit and stare at me some more” I said angrily but not loud enough for the other patrons to hear. My mother opened her mouth to scold me but I cut her off. “Don’t you have anything to say to your daughter, your own flesh and blood. It’s still me in her, even if you can’t see it. I’m still the same person, I’m just not what you want me to be.”

My father said nothing, I didn’t expect him too. But then his face got red, it did that when he got angry. I winced. Even though I was mad at him he was still my father and I still respected him. But when he spoke his voice was calm: “I am sorry. My behavior has been foolish and I know I can’t make it up to you so at least let me explain.”

“I’m waiting.”

He sighed. Then in a softer voice said, “You have to understand. I lost my son, I know he’s still sitting in front of me in this beautiful daughter I have now, but he was still my son. I love you and I always will but it’s very hard for me to look at you and see this beautiful flower where my handsome boy should be. I’m not ashamed of you, I’m ashamed of me.”

I opened my mouth for another go but he cut me off. “You have every right to be angry, I’ve been an ass. But I was scared. I’ve always known how to relate to you before, you and I had so much in common. At first when I saw you and you answered my question, I thought things were going to be fine. But then you went shopping with your mother and started to act so much like a girl, I thought I lost my Jaime.”

My father started crying. It was a big deal. My father never cried. He was this big stoic pillar in my family, he didn’t even cry when his father died. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry. My mother reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. She was crying too. Which of course made me start to cry. I think he was being an idiot, but I couldn’t blame him. But he was wrong if he thought I was Ok with this whole girl thing. There was nothing Ok about being a boy one day and turning into a girl the next.

My mother broke the crying fest. “I think the two of you need to spend some quality father daughter time together.”

We both nodded. We finished our celebratory meal and went our separate ways. It was decided that my father and I would go some place fancy and have dinner. I know we just ate out for lunch but dinner was different. It was my mother’s idea. My father took Milagro home---much to her annoyance---and my mother took me to a fancy shop to get a pretty dress. I know... gag me. When we got there, the woman fawned all over me. We spent two freaking hours in there. We bought this cute blue shift dress---cute is my mother’s description, not mine. Then some underwear and shoes. Who knew you needed all new things for a dress, especially one I was going to wear only once. Yeah, I don’t plan on making a habit of it. My mother wanted to take me to a salon too but I drew the line there. It was bad enough that she dragged me to get my hair re-cut; I wasn’t going to let someone do more to me. We did get my ears pierced in the jewelry shop next door, though.

When I got home, my mother decided the rest of the day belonged to me and my father. We spent another hour getting ready and I have to admit the dress did look kind of nice on me. The shoes were a pain though; heels and me did not make good friends. My father looked kind of dapper in his button down shirt and black dress pants. You have to understand that I rarely see him out of his work clothes and rarely clean, especially clean-shaven. When we went to the car–my mother’s, not his---he took my arm in his and walked me to it. He was trying to suck up and it worked like a charm. Ok, so I might be a little girl inside.

We went to a movie first. Just to prove to him that I was still the same person on the inside, it was an alien invasion one. Khaji groaned and commented through the whole thing, complaining about this and that. I tried to ignore her but it’s really hard when you’ve got your very own alien invader in your head. After the movie, we went to the restaurant. It was one of the fancier places in town, something that my father could never afford.

“How are we paying for this?”

“You let me worry about that.”

I sighed as the waiter led us to our table. It was set for two, in a secluded dining area. On the wall before we passed through the velvet curtain, there was a plaque: Queen Private. I sighed, now I knew. I wonder how he was able to convince Olivia to give up her area for the night. I pretended I didn’t notice though and let him be the big man. Being the big man, he pulled my chair out for me and I sat rather clumsily. He smiled and laughed.

“Now I know my son’s in there,” He laughed a lot. “Has your mother not shown you the finer points of being a lady?”

I flushed in embarrassment. “She’s been too busy taking me shopping and making me her Barbie doll.”

He laughed some more. “That sounds like her.”

We both had a good laugh. We spent the meal talking about the past few days, the ones where he was being a jerk and avoiding me. He admitted that he thought we were too different and that he thought we’d have nothing to talk about. I wanted to tell him everything and I mean everything. But I held back. I tried to sugar coat some topics too. I don’t think he wanted to hear about the girly things. We laughed and had a good time but there was still one thing bothering me and I asked about it.

“Why were you and Mom arguing so much then?”

He sighed. “It was about your school. I felt that there was no reason for you to continue going to Ravenwood Academy but your mother had different ideas.”

I groaned. I hated RA; it was nothing like it should have been. Even the teachers snubbed their noses at me there. “It was horrible, Papa.”

Yeah, I called him Papa, so sue me. He smiled at it though. “They treated me like trash, even the teachers. Why do you think we put those fish into that bastard’s car?”

“I thought you were acting out.”

“It was retribution.”

I quickly filled him on all the stuff those rich bastards used to do to me and he got a little red faced again. I saw him clench his fists and if smoke could come out of his ears, it would have. He started mumbling and cursing, all in Spanish. He does that when he gets mad. I started laughing because he was little a Latino caricature when he did it. I waited until he calmed down a bit before we talked again.

“That’s why Mama and I decided on Star City High because I don’t want to be in that environment anymore. It sucks that I’m throwing my scholarship away like that, but I don’t give a damn. I may not be able to get the same education but I won’t be so miserable all the time.”

Yeah, I said Mama too. I sound just like Milagro now.

He reached across the table and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

We talked some more while we ate. When we were done and he pretended to pay the check, I rolled my eyes at that; we left. It was getting time for him to go to work and for me to go home. But he got a better idea. As soon as he asked me, I knew my mother would never approve, especially with the new dress. but I didn’t care.

“Mama is going to be so mad,” I said as we went in the opposite direction from home, heading into the city, toward Queen Tower.

“You let me worry about your mother, this was supposed to be my night to spend with my daughter and I want to take her to work with me.”

So we went to the garage. I used one of my jump-suits but it was kind of baggy on me. He said he’d have to see about getting me the female equivalent for next time. That made me happy. Instead of making me mop the floors like usual, he took me into the workroom with him and let me work on some of the things he was working on. He stayed by my side the whole time, practically holding my hand as he showed me how to use the welder and other things. It was kind of cool; especially seeing as he never let me do any of this stuff when I was Jaime. Does this mean I’m Daddy’s little girl now. God, that was horrible to think but a part of me kind of liked it.

After working a bit, he took me around and showed me all the cars. I was able to scan them with my blue vision and tell him some of the things that were wrong. He was impressed as all hell that I was able to tell all that by looking at them. Hey, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He jotted down all my suggestions on a clipboard as we wove through the small auto show arranged in front of us. After that, we went home and before going inside, he kissed me on the cheek. It was kind of awkward for both of us but it was kind of sweet, too.

“Thanks for proving this old idiot wrong, Princessa.”

I gave him a hug and cried a little. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I felt so much like a girl there, that it was scary. It was kind of funny, here we both were wary of my new found girlhood and already both of us had a better relationship as father and daughter than we ever did as father and son. What are the odds? We stayed on the porch hugging for a while until my mother opened the door. She looked kind of pissed and definitely wanted to bust our chops but when she saw us hugging, she cried. Then she glowered at us. She told me to go to bed and gave my father the evil eye. He was definitely going to get a lashing. We shared a knowing smile and then I went upstairs.

The next day ...yeah, I know this is annoying---I went for my school tests. I’m not going to bore you again but I was able to pass them all. I was now officially a freshman at Star City High West; it’s one of three or four branches of the one in the city proper. Confusing, huh, you bet your ass it is.

So that’s it, you’re now up to speed.

I took the tests this morning and now that they were over, I had time to hang with my friends.

Now I was in a bit of a crisis. The three of us---Paco, Brenda and I ---were walking down the street, peering into all the shop windows. When Brenda showed up this morning to retrieve me for shopping, she was kind of excited. I wasn’t going to officially start school until tomorrow---which is Monday--- and seeing as today was now Sunday, she was giddy with excitement. Brenda---even though she wouldn’t admit it---only had two friends, me and Paco. There were a lot of superficial people at her school who wanted to be friends with her because of all her money but she brushed them off. I think she liked hanging out with us; she was one of the guys after all. But I think she liked it even more now that I was one of the girls. She wouldn’t admit it of course but I could see it in the way she talked to me now. We were good friends before but never as close as we were now.

“You want to go to the salon today?” she asked, her arm looped in mine.

Paco groaned. “Please say no.”

Brenda ignored him. “Josie needs to look her best for her first day tomorrow.”

Not the salon. Why does everyone want to drag me to the salon.

I groaned too. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

She laughed and squeezed my hand. “Sweetie, there’s more to a girl than just hair.” She held up my hand to show up. “Look at your nails, they’re a mess and I bet you’ve never had your legs waxed before.”

Paco and I both cringed at that. I pulled my hand gently from her’s. “I don’t think I need to get those things done.”

Brenda frowned. “Can you at least come with me then?”

It was the look in her eye. It was different from any other look she’s ever given me. She finally had the girl friend she’s always wanted and I saw that in her look. She didn’t want me to just hang out with her; she wanted me to do girl things with her, too. I’m not sure how I thought about that but I knew how I thought about her. She was one of the best friends I ever had and there was no way I could make her upset. I turned to Paco and he knew it too. Even though he looked a little pale, he gave me a curt nod. I smiled; I’d have to make it up to him somehow.

“Where’s the salon?” I asked.

Brenda squealed and wrapped me in a hug. The things I do for my friends. My mother isn’t going to be too happy that I decided to go with Brenda but there are some things that girl friends need to do together. My mother will understand, she had friends like Brenda when she was my age, too.

Paco toed the ground. He looked sad for a second but then looked across the street, his line of sight straying to the comic book shop. I couldn’t tell what caught his eye at first until she stopped in front of the store to tie her bootlace. It was a girl, about our age, with short spiky hair and a wild fashion sense. Paco blushed. Brenda looked over and rolled her eyes.

She leaned close and whispered into my ear. “That’s Lucinda Rodriguez; Paco’s had a little thing for her since she moved here a few weeks ago.”

I looked at the girl and smiled. I came up with a plan. “Hey Paco, you think they’ll have any back issues of Warrior Angel?”

He was our favorite comic book hero.

“I’m way ahead of you bro, I mean, Jo.”

Brenda and I laughed as Paco puffed himself up and he walked across the street. He stopped in front of Lucinda and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around her face lit up and the two of them walked into the shop together.

“Very smooth” said Brenda.

“Hey, I have a lot of talents.”

Brenda took my hand. “C’mon, we can have them paint your nails blue,”

I groaned as she dragged me down the street toward the salon.

________________________________________

Rachel’s---the little salon that we walked into---was nothing like Vivian’s. For one thing, it was much smaller and for another, there were a lot less people waiting. Brenda insisted on paying for everything and told the overly made up woman behind the counter to give me the works. I grimaced when I saw her because she looked like a clown. Hopefully she wasn’t the one doing the “works”. But she led me over to a chair where a girl a few years older than me was waiting. She was a strawberry blonde, really pretty. If I was still a guy I probably would have looked right at her chest, her boobs were massive. I looked down at mine, suddenly feeling less ashamed. She smiled as I sat down and put a smock on me.

“My name is Amber; I’m going to take good care of you, sweetie. So why don’ t you just close your eyes and relax.”

I did as she asked, feeling her grab my left hand and begin to work. I’m not a big fan of nail polish smell but this particular brand was kind of soothing. I yawned, realizing that I got little sleep last night. I like to sleep on my stomach and now that’s almost impossible to do without a little discomfort. So sitting in the chair, Amber painting my nails, I kind of drifted off.

When I opened my eyes again, I blinked. I looked around a bit, confused as to where I was. Amber smiled at me. She pointed to my nails and when I looked, I saw they were nicely filed, rounded like a girl’s and painted a bright blue. I wiggled my fingers, wondering how long I’d actually been asleep.

“About twenty minutes” said Khaji “she manicured your nails while you dozed.”

“It’s been a long time since anyone actually feel asleep on me,” said Amber with a laugh as she took the smock off me.

‘I’ve never had my nails done before” I explained as I climbed out of the chair.

She looked a little shocked by that. She opened her mouth to ask a question but Brenda came over to clarify. “She was kind of tomboy before. She’s just coming out of her shell.”

Amber nodded. “That explains why her hair’s so short.”

I groaned. Why is it that everyone was against my hair? I liked it short; in fact, I think I’m going to keep it like this for the foreseeable future. Anyone who doesn’t like it can go screw themselves. I wanted to tell the blonde bimbo that but instead I smiled and thanked her. Ok, I’m a coward but I didn’t want to cause problems either.

Brenda took my hand and led me back over to the counter where the clown lady was still standing. “We’re ready for our waxing now.”

The woman nodded and led us into the back of the shop, through one of those beaded curtain thingies. There were two weird bed-like chairs and two brunettes waiting. I read their name-tags, Bethany and Britney. They looked similar, so I wondered if they were twins. They smiled at us and then ordered us to strip down to our underwear. I flushed in embarrassment but I did as I was told. I lay down afterwards on one bed thing; Brenda took the other. I bet you want me to describe a waxing to you but I’m not going to because it’s absolutely barbaric. I wonder if it’s something they invented for medieval tortures. Suffice to say I’m never getting it done again.

After we paid, I grumbled as we walked out of the shop. Brenda looped her arm in mine again, laughing as she did so. “Wasn’t that fun?”

“You’re perverse you know that.”

She laughed. "Hey, at least I didn’t fall asleep at the nail station.”

“I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s hard to do with these built in pillows” I hefted my breasts as I did so, giving the pair of guys walking by a nice show.

This time Brenda turned scarlet. She smacked my hands; the two guys smiled and snickered. They watched us until they turned around the corner and disappeared. God, it’s like they’ve never seen a girl touch her boobs before. I rolled my eyes and looked at Brenda; she looked like she wanted to smack me. Instead, she squeezed my arm and pulled me across the street, toward the comic shop. We didn’t go inside; we peered through the glass front window trying to see if Paco was still inside. But there were only three people inside: two pimply faced nerds and the bored skater guy behind the counter.

“He and Lucinda must have hit it off better than I thought,” said Brenda smiling like it was her idea to force Paco on her.

I smiled too. Maybe he’d stop looking at me now. “So, what do we do now? Do you want to wait for them or do you want to go somewhere else.”

Brenda’s stomach answered for her as it grumbled. “I’m starving.”

We both knew where to go. There was this little diner around the corner, called Frankie’s. It was this little fifties hole-in-the-wall that had this cool retro vibe to it. Frankie was a good guy; he was a third cousin of Paco’s or something. So whenever we went there we got to eat free which was kind of cool. We walked arm and arm down the street and turned the corner. My skin started to tingle as soon as Frankie’s came into sight. There was a sinister looking black car parked outside and nothing else. Usually something like that wouldn’t look out of place; except it was an Audi and you didn’t see cars like that in our neighborhood.

Brenda squeezed my arm. I grabbed her hand tightly and pulled her along, trying to get closer to get a better look. We both went as far as a clump of bushes and ducked down behind them. The diner was clearly closed but there were two guys inside. They were dressed in charcoal colored suits; one of them was leaning over the counter, his hand wrapped tightly in Frankie’s apron. Frankie was an old guy, probably in his sixties. He had a bad heart; he’d already been to the hospital a couple of times for it. Seeing the two of them roughing him up made my skin crawl.

Brenda gasped, pulling her hand out of mine. “What the heck are you doing?”

I looked down and saw the armor slowly creeping up my body. “It’s a reflex action.”

“Someone’s going to see.”

She grabbed my arm and slowly pulled me away from the bushes, dragging me over to the alley between the diner and the building next door. The armor was half way covering my body by the time we got there. My heart was pounding in my chest and my entire body had that ants-crawling-under-my-skin sensation again. Brenda let go of me and stared awestruck as the armor finished covering my body. I took a deep breath and flexed my fingers. She continued to stare, her mouth open. I gently closed it with a finger.

Then I turned to the diner. I took a few steps and looked through the nearest window. The goons were leaving; Frankie was on the floor gasping. I clenched my fists. “Go inside and take care of him, call 911 if you have to.”

Brenda nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to teach those bastards some manners.”

I turned and walked around the side of the building. The two jackasses were already at their car and getting inside. I couldn’t let them get away. I ran forward and grabbed the bumper just as they started up the car. I heard the engine roar to life and the tires squeal but the car was going nowhere. The two of them cursed and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening. The guy in the passenger seat saw me in the rear view mirror and when he did, there was this look of awe on his face. It didn’t take him long to react. He rolled down the window, pulled out a pistol and fired. The bullet hit me right in the forehead but it ricocheted off, bouncing somewhere toward the alley. I snapped my head there just to make sure Brenda was gone. She was in the diner now, helping Frankie to his feet.

Another shot fired, harmlessly bouncing off me. “Let go of the car, bitch!”

“Not going to happen. No one messes with those who can’t defend themselves when I’m around.”

The guy laughed. “You’re defending Frankie. You’ve got the wrong guy, little girl. He’s the crook here, not us. He owes us a lot of money and we’re only here to collect.”

I believed that about as much as I believed the two of them were honest citizens. “There are other ways to retrieve your money, more legal ones.”

The car shut off, the tires stopped squealing and spinning. The driver side door opened. The driver got out but he didn’t have a pistol. He had a sawed off baseball bat. He caught came around the side of the car and caught me off guard. He slammed it into my left arm, causing me to let go of the bumper. I stumbled back. The bat didn’t hurt but the blow caught me off guard. He swung again, hitting me in the side of the head. I went down, falling to one knee. Damn, I didn’t think it was possible to get hurt while wearing the suit. Though I still felt nothing, the blow was strong enough to make me kind of dizzy.
He came down with the bat again, landing a third blow, this time on my shoulder. I stumbled, completely overpowered by him now. He was laughing, apparently enjoying myself. I need to get on my feet and back into this game. He came at me for another swing but this time I was ready. I snapped up and grabbed the bat, gripping it tight enough that my fingers imbedded in the wood. He was stunned to see me standing. I pulled the bat from his hand, snapping it in two with my iron grip. This was all the advantage I needed. My attacker stumbled backwards, scared out of his mind. He turned to run but I grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around so he’d face me. He was a good foot and a half taller and probably much stronger if I wasn’t wearing the suit.

“So let me get this straight, you and your buddy like to pick on innocent old men and whale on girls with baseball bats. Your mothers must be very proud.”

He didn’t say anything, instead he spit in my face. I groaned, why did everyone have to spit in my face. I let my disgust get the best of me and I head butted him. It wasn’t very hard but it was enough. His head snapped back and he slumped unconscious in my hands. I groaned, apparently it was harder than I thought. I let him drop to the ground. His partner got out of the car quickly. He pointed his gun at me then changed his mind and dropped it. He tried to run but I was faster. I moved like lightning again, pinning him to the side of the car before he even got a chance to take a few steps. He gasped from the power of my assault.

I grabbed him too. “Why Frankie, what the hell did he do to you?”

“He skimped on his payments.”

“What payments?”

“To the boss. We take a small incentive from the local shops, to keep them safe from the gangs around here.”

“So you’re not only criminals but you’re also extortionists.” I squeezed his shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain as bone cracked. “Who’s your boss?”

He shook his head. “You maybe a bad ass but I’m scared of her a lot more than you.”

I decided to change tactics. “Tell me who she is and I’ll protect you.”

Hey, they do that with criminals all the time on cop shows. But it didn’t seem to work because he kept shaking his head.

“You don’t understand; I’m already a dead man. She’s got eyes and ears everywhere. We’re both targets now. Me for running into you and you for trying to stop me.”

I squeezed his arm even harder, he screamed out. “Who has that much power?”

He opened his mouth to speak but he never got a chance to say anything. There was a slight whooshing sound and then his body slumped. I didn’t even know what happened until the blood started seeping out of the wound in his head. I panicked and dropped his lifeless body. My scanner snapped in and I quickly searched the surrounding buildings, looking for the shooter. But whoever it was, they were long gone now. I gasped, looking down at the dead guy at my feet. Holy crap, who the hell would kill just to keep one of their own men from speaking their name. It was absolutely crazy.

“I can’t find the sniper. I was stupid; I should have scanned the area before hand.”

“Don’t blame yourself; we both stumbled into this fight without knowing the score.”

I was about to argue, but the sound of sirens cut that off. I took one final look at the unconscious man at my feet and then took off for the alley. When I was safely there, I deactivated the armor. I summoned up some identical clothes and then after taking a reassuring breath, I ran into the diner. Brenda had Frankie sitting at one of the tables, drinking a glass of water. Luckily for me, the old man had his back to the windows so he never saw what went on outside. But Brenda did and I could tell from the look on her face that she saw the man die in my arms. She opened her mouth but I shook my head, now wasn’t the time to discuss it.

Instead, I walked over to the table and sat down with them, Frankie never noticed I wasn’t there before. He smiled at me blankly and continued to sip his water.

____________________________________

“Josie, is that you?”

Milagro came running out of the living room as soon as I closed the front door.

“What’s the rush?”

I made the news. It was kind of cool. Milagro grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the living room. My mother wasn’t there---she had a weird shift---but Mrs. Cruz was. Do you remember how I told you that everyone thought I was my own cousin, well there were a few people in the loop about who I really was? Mrs. Cruz was one of them. She was a nice old lady and she talked to no one but us. Even if she talked to more people, there was no way she’d blab who I was. It was embarrassing and very private. When she saw me dragged into the room by Milagro, she got up from the couch. Her work was done. She gave me a hug and walked to the door, telling me she left something for me to eat in the fridge.

“What is it?” I asked as Milagro forced me onto the couch.

I looked at the TV and saw. There was another video of the Blue Beetle, this time it was of her in action. I groaned. According to the anchor, the video was taken from the camera across the street. The news story was cut together with video from inside the diner and out in the street. First, it showed the goons roughing Frankie up then it showed them trying to make their hasty retreat. It didn’t show me arrive---thank God for that---but it did show me in action. It was kind of surreal seeing me kick ass all over the evening news.

The scene cut back to the anchor and his pretty co-anchor. “Glad she’s on our side.”

They both laughed at the corny joke.

The story was big news. Not only did it make local but it hit some of the national circuits, there was even a small blurb on CNN, which was really cool. Most of them ran with the Blue Beetle name---which was a given---and CNN was calling me “San Francisco’s New Darling.” Every time Milagro flipped the channel to different news stations, me beating the crap out of those guys showed up again and again. Luckily, the video was edited so they didn’t show that guy dying in my arms.

“Who were they?” she finally asked, once she couldn’t find the story anymore.

I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell her anything. I decided after the mall there was no way I wanted to get any of my family involved in this. “Just some guys trying to hustle some money out of Frankie.”

I’m not sure if she bought it or not. “You kicked their asses.”

I nodded. I did indeed. I smiled at her, left her in the living room, and headed upstairs. I started for my room but changed my mind and went into the bathroom. I locked the door behind me and wandered over to the sink. I stared for a long time at the girl in the mirror. She used to be a stranger but now it felt like the old me was the stranger. I turned my head left and right, trying to see if there was anything left of Jaime in her. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t see myself. There were parts of the old me but most of them were gone. I think I’m being too hard on myself. I sighed, turned on the water and splashed some in my face.

“Those two were too highly organized to be common thugs.”

I sighed. “What did you find out?”

Did I tell you that Khaji can do this cool Wi-Fi thing? I guess it slipped my mind. After changing back to myself and going into the diner, Brenda and I stayed with Frankie until the cops came. Brenda answered all the questions, telling them what she saw. When they asked me, I told them I’d just gotten there. We stayed with Frankie for a few minutes more but left as soon as we saw another car pull up and a familiar female officer get out. There was no way Montoya would believe it was coincidence that we were at two Blue Beetle sightings and were not connected. We kept our heads down and disappeared into the gathering crowds.

Where does the Wi-Fi come in? I was getting to that. After making sure Brenda got into her car, I walked home. I remembered that I left my mother’s bike near the disused lot a few days ago. Hey, there’s been a lot on my mind. As I walked toward the alley, Khaji brought up how she scanned the goons faces and their license plate. She said she had access to an internal network and could hack into any computer system in the world as long as they were networked. So it wasn’t really Wi-Fi but it was pretty close. As for my mother’s bike, some jackass had stripped it of its wheels and tossed it into the lot. I groaned when I saw it. I had to carry it home and hid it in my work place. I’ll have to figure out a way to tell my Mom about it later.

“Your two friends weren’t in the system” I sighed. “The car was borrowed from a dealership. There was a police report filed. Apparently, two gentlemen fitting the descriptions of the two at the diner asked to take it for a test drive and never returned it. It’s now in the police impound lot but the police weren’t able to lift anything from it, save for the fingerprints of the two men, one of whom is in intensive care at the hospital.”

I groaned. In other words, we had nothing. That kind of pissed me off. Someone was out there, shaking down my neighbors and threatening their livelihoods all in the name of protection. It kind of made me sick. It also made me worried. I wonder how long it would be before they came knocking on our door, demanding gang protection money. Not that Posse would ever dare go near my house or family again. Whoever was behind it all was extremely scary and really well connected. I had a thought but it was too crazy to even imagine. There was no way it was her…

“You have a theory?”

I shook my head. “More like a shiver up my spine.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “There’s this urban legend in these parts, about a mysterious female crime leader who calls herself La Dama. It’s kind of ridiculous, something to keep other criminals in line. But the story goes that she controls most of the crime that happens in the whole city, especially in this area of it.”

“And you believe this is the person that those two worked for?”

I shrugged. “Its crazy but it’s the only thing I could come up with.”

I left the bathroom and went to my room. My mother and I talked a lot about redecorating. She thought that seeing as I was now of the female persuasion, that a more feminine room might be in order. We discussed it a lot and came to the decision that it could be remodeled as long as it wasn’t anything too girly. We didn’t have a lot of money to do any serious remodeling but there was enough to put a gender neutral shade of paint on my walls and maybe get some new bed coverings. We spent some time yesterday looking through a couple of J C Penney’s catalogs and looking at color swatches. So I’m going to paint my walls in a very pale purple and my bed stuff was going to match. I know purple is kind of a girly color but my mother also told me it was kind of regal too.

Thankfully, my room was still my own when I walked inside. However there were a few subtle changes, things I groaned about. My desk was gone now, replaced by a vanity. It was white and looked kind of old but I suppose I couldn’t fault my mother for it. She must have done it when I was out with Brenda and Paco. There were a few other things too: my blue lampshade was replaced with a light purple one and some of my star charts were off the walls. That kind of annoyed me. I made it very clear that I wasn’t going to start hanging posters of Orlando Bloom and Justin Bieber---that guy was too creepy even for me.

I walked over to my bed and noticed something else. Sitting between my pillows, looking very out of place, was a stuffed bear. It was white and had these blue plastic eyes that looked kind of real. I reached over and grabbed me. He looked brand new. I lifted him up and found a card underneath it, addressed to me. When I opened the envelope, the card was girly: For my Sister. I read the little message that Milagro left inside and sighed. I have to admit the bear was a nice touch. I squeezed it to my chest and rolled over, lying on my back.

“Are you beginning to embrace the changes?”

I sighed. I didn’t know how to answer that. I sat up and still holding the bear, I gave it some serious thought. Was I embracing the changes? I’d already done some crazy and very girly things. About a week ago, I was a normal everyday teenage guy and now I was a girl. It was kind of scary to think about, even more so at how quickly I seemed to adjust to it. I mean, I was a little apprehensive at first, but now it was nothing. I never gave it much thought until now. I spent the first few days fighting the changes and then when they happened, I still tried to deny it. Now that there was no going back, maybe I did embrace things.

I slid off the bed and wandered over to take a look at myself in the vanity mirror. There was definitely a girl standing there, a very pretty teenage girl with boobs that were bigger than she wanted and hair that everyone hated. But she was me. She was dressed in a cute blouse, a fat belt and skinny leg jeans. But she was me. Her face was newly made up, her nails were sparkling blue but she was still me. I’m this girl, this girl I didn’t want to be but here I am. I wanted to frown but instead I kind of smiled.

“You know what; I think I have embraced her.”